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Museums right around the corner ROAD TRIPS 10-11
MAY 15 — MAY 28, 2015 • VOL. 9 — NO. 10
Up, over the crowds
PHIL MOSIER
Left, Brett Hill, center, and his son Daniel, 4, enjoy the Chastain Park Arts Festival on May 9. Above, the sixth annual event showcased more than 180 artists, and offered gourmet food trucks, live music and a children’s area. See additional photos on page 5.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE 8-9
Streetcar line to Buckhead back on table BY COLLIN KELLEY A streetcar line from Buckhead to Fort McPherson appears to be back in play with the release of a new study that proposes expanding the Atlanta streetcar’s 2.7-mile loop around downtown to 50 miles of lines around metro Atlanta. Called the “Crosstown Peachtree Line,” the Buckhead streetcar would travel between the MARTA stations at Lenox Square and Fort McPherson along Peachtree, West Peachtree, Peters and Lee streets. Stops on the line would include the Fox Theatre, Woodruff Arts Center and Piedmont Hospital. The updated Atlanta Streetcar System Plan was unveiled during two community talks on April 23 and 27. Officials did not release a timetable or cost for the 13-mile line, which would tie into the Atlanta BeltLine. But based simply on the cost of building the streetcar’s downtown loop, the Buckhead line alone could end up costing nearly half a billion dollars. SEE STREETCAR, PAGE 4
Pace Academy’s theater director retiring after 44 years BY JOE EARLE
joeearle@reporternewspapers.net
George Mengert walked through Pace Academy’s band room toward the hall to the school’s theater. He smiled as if thinking of some private joke, then gestured toward the door of a men’s bathroom. “Dressing room,” he said. Then he gestured toward the door of another room nearby. “Makeup room,” he said. But once inside Pace’s 600-seat Fine Arts Center, Mengert turned reflective as he looked about at the lights and stage. “It encloses so many memories,” he said quietly. “The ghosts of all those productions. All those voices. All those sets.” And there have been many. Mengert, who’s 72, is retiring after 44 years heading Pace’s theater program. The school estimates he’s put on more than 128 shows since he started
teaching at the school. More than 75 of those shows, he figures, were staged in this room, the theater the school built in 1991. “A lot of my life,” he said. “A lot of hours.” His theater groups have staged plays as different as “Inherit the Wind” and “Into the Woods,” “Arsenic and Old Lace” and Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia,” “The Sound of Music” and “Chicago.” He refuses to pick a favorite. “He’s done a lot,” said Caitlin Jones, a former student who’s now Pace’s director of communications. “He’s done everything.” Mengert’s former students plan to honor him May 23 with a special review at the school’s Fine Arts Center called SEE PACE, PAGE 19
JOE EARLE
George Mengert, Pace’s theater director, has put on more than 128 shows over the years.
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