Spruill center names new director

• Julia Fenton has been named exhibitions director at Spruill Center for the Arts Gallery in Dunwoody following the sudden death of former Exhibitions Director Ben Apfelbaum last September.

An artist and curator who has returned to Atlanta after 10 years in Oregon, Fenton worked previously as gallery director at Nexus Contemporary Art Center (now the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center), City of Atlanta Gallery at Chastain, and City Gallery East. Fenton’s next exhibition at Spruill will be Some Bodies, opening in April, dealing with the human form.

• Actor’s Express has replaced its previously scheduled production of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women with the David Lindsay-Abaire Kimberly Akimbo, an offbeat comedy about a young woman with accelerated aging disease, running March 23-April 29. Director Jasson Minadakis says that Kimberly Akimbo will feature the same actresses that had already been cast in Three Tall Women: Tess Malis Kincaid, Mary Lynn Owen and Rachel Roberts. Following a season of dark shows, Kimberly Akimbo should lighten the mood at Actor’s Express considerably.

• Neighborhood Playhouse has changed its name to Theatre Decatur. “The theater’s board of directors and management have been working behind the scenes for many months to bring a new professionalism to the theater and improve the quality of our offerings to the public,” said Rory Carlton, president of the theater’s board of directors. “The name change symbolizes that new spirit, as well as our intent to upgrade our productions, our facilities and our community involvement.”

The inaugural production is Dracula: The Musical, playing through Feb. 26. The 2006 season includes A Perfect Ganesh by Terrence McNally, and two comedies by playwright-in-residence Patrick Cuccaro: An Imperfect Order and the holiday show, The Third Howl.