It’s been 36 years since Stephen King published his famous hotel horror story, “The Shining.” After global acclaim and a successful movie adaptation lauded for Stanley Kubrick’s precise direction and Jack Nicholson’s maniacal performance, it seemed as though the story of the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel had settled in with the classics.
On Friday night, the University Programs Council put on an improv comedy show in Newcomb Ballroom featuring UVa’s own groups, the Whethermen and Amuse Bouche, as well as the Upright Citizens Brigade, a nationally renowned ensemble whose notable alumni include Amy Poehler and Horatio Sanz, among others.
The old photograph hanging in the Fralin Museum wouldn’t seem special on its own. It’s just a 1930s group shot: a bunch of people on a ship deck, gathered around a lifebuoy that reads “SS Europa.” They are actually the African-American cast of a 1932 film, “Black and White,” en route to Moscow for filming.
