But Teresa Robinson wanted to help. In 2019 the Norfolk woman had bought a 1912 Craftsman in such bad shape that she had to gut it to the studs. As Parker started on the termite damage and dry rot, she asked how he made repairs and started buying tools. As a first-time homeowner, she said, she needed to know how to take care of her property.

“Normally people say, ‘Can you do this for me?’ They never say, ‘Show me how to do it,’ ” said Parker, of Virginia Beach. “It got to the point that if I were in Home Depot, I was bumping into Teresa at Home Depot.”

The two, now friends, will compete as one of three teams in the fourth season of HGTV’s “Battle on the Beach,” which premieres at 9 p.m. Monday. The show rotates locations and was filmed in Oak Island, North Carolina, this year.

Each team gets a $100,000 budget to turn a dilapidated waterfront property into an enviable gem. The homes are similar four-bedroom, two-bathroom structures, and each team is paired with an HGTV celebrity designer/builder: Taniya Nayak of “Build it Forward”; Ty Pennington of “Rock the Block”; or Alison Victoria of “Windy City Rehab.”  

Robinson and Parker were paired with Victoria; they will go nail head to nail head with couples from Richmond and Dallas. The team that adds the most value to their home wins $50,000 and the celebrity partner gets to brag. Each of the seven episodes contains challenges, including a relay race on a historic battleship, that can net a team $3,000. Bryan and Sarah Baeumler from HGTV’s “Renovation Island” are the judges.

Robinson loves building and dreaming up creative projects and considers Parker a mentor; he started learning the trade as a teen. She started an Instagram account a couple of years ago to share photos and updates. She runs her company, Tools and Transformations, whenever she gets a moment; she works for a nonprofit during the day. She offers advice on building furniture, tools and safety gear, and the payoff of teaching yourself new skills. Her account clocked 100,000 followers a year ago, catching the attention of HGTV. A representative sent her a message about the show.

After she verified that the person was legit, Robinson pulled Parker into their next adventure. They can’t say much about the show except that the panic and nailbiting are real. So is Victoria, who has helmed several HGTV programs.

“She’s a tough cookie just like I am,” Parker said. “She’s every bit of what you see on TV.”

Robinson is still working on her home though Parker says she could have finished by now. She knows too much to stay still and is constantly retooling. Robinson laughs at her first attempt at nailing plywood and batting together for a headboard years before she discovered her skills.

“It was so janky,” she said, laughing at the memory. “Compared to what I can do now. Wow!”

Denise M. Watson, 757-446-2504, denise.watson@pilotonline.com

The Norfolk philanthropist and business owner will give her collection of more than 150 Torah pointers, or yads — Hebrew for hand — to the Fralin Museum of Art at UVA.

A yad, which often has a pointing finger at one end, is used to help readers navigate the lines of text in the Torah. It also prevents people from touching and damaging the fragile parchment.

Barr began collecting yads nearly 30 years ago in honor of her late husband, Jay Barr, who died in 1994. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from UVA.

The collection includes pieces crafted from various media, including ivory and the wood of a skateboard, to different lengths, from a few inches to nearly 2 feet. It includes work by artists and jewelers including Ghiora Aharoni, Wendell Castle and Yaakov Greenvurcel. One of the oldest yads dates to the 1700s.

The collection has been featured in museums around the country as “The Guided Hand” exhibition, including a stop at the Chrysler Museum of Art in 2022 and Christopher Newport University this year.

Several pointers will be on view in the Fralin’s Joanne B. Robinson Object Study Gallery. The university will produce an academic publication about the collection and create an exhibition for 2025. The collection will also travel to museums, synagogues and other venues.

“When a loved one has passed, it is Jewish tradition to keep them alive by speaking their name,” Clay Barr said in a news release. “By making this donation to The Fralin, I am ensuring that my husband’s name and legacy are kept alive and spoken in perpetuity. Additionally, I hope this gift inspires others to further enhance Judaica at The Fralin.”

Denise Watson, 757-446-2504, denise.watson@pilotonline.com

Seriously. At least three artists or groups created dioramas with the colorful marshmallow treats that imagined Peeple living and working in space.

Television shows and movies, including “Barbie” and “Jurassic Park,” were well and humorously represented. We received entries from classrooms, retirees, and astronaut trainees in Hampton. Several Swifties sent homages to the music icon Taylor Swift and her beau, Super Bowl champ Travis Kelce, but none of those entries made our final list. (We appreciate the fandom, though.)

We ranked entries on creativity, how well the pieces were executed and LOL-ness — the ability to make us laugh out loud. We’ve included our favorites here, and these and a few others can be found online at pilotonline.com and dailypress.com.

The call was a video from Oprah — philanthropist, media mogul, and goddess to some — to support the new “The Color Purple,” a movie musical that hits theaters on Christmas.

Cobb felt Oprah’s appeal wasn’t about money; Oprah, one of the movie’s producers, has plenty. It was about the appeal of the 1982 literary masterwork on which the film is based. It is about how its female protagonists overcome sexism, racism and abuse. It is believing, as one character declares after years of being told that she was nothing: “I am beautiful and I’m here.”

Cobb worked with some sister friends at Grace Episcopal Church in Norfolk and organized an advance screening for Saturday. While planning, she learned that African American churches, sororities and service groups in the area and around the country were also planning “Color Purple with a Purpose” events, watch parties and women’s empowerment meetings around the movie.

Cobb said she would have been grateful to sell 30 or 50 tickets. The Regal Columbus theater they’ve rented in Virginia Beach is nearly sold out, with more than 100 tickets gone.

The storyline, from the book to Broadway to movies, has attractive universal themes.

“I think the movie is about sisterhood,” said Cobb, who is a fan of the Alice Walker book. “I don’t care if it’s a man’s world; women are really running everything!”

The novel became an instant, and controversial, hit, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983.  It is set in the early 1900s in an impoverished, rural nook of Georgia. It follows the troubles and triumphs of several women, in particular sisters Celie and Nettie. The book also includes physical abuse, explicit language and sexual content, including rape and incest; it has the distinction of being one of the most banned and challenged books in the country since its release.

Oprah has spoken in numerous interviews about how she read the book and connected with Celie, who is a sexually abused teenager when the story begins. Oprah loved it so much that she bought copies to hand out to strangers. She was later nominated for an Oscar for playing Sofia in the 1985 Steven Spielberg adaptation. She also helped produce the 2005 original Broadway musical and its 2015 revival.

The upcoming movie is an adaptation of the Broadway show and will include several of its songs and new music, including a piece by Portsmouth native Missy Elliott.

Oprah said in the video about the movie that it is a “solid base of spiritual and emotional power for me.”

“Every woman and man who has been invisible, who has felt unseen and unvalued, this is their story.”

The cast includes some of the biggest names in show biz and music now, including Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks from the Broadway shows; Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson; Colman Domingo and Corey Hawkins; and Halle Bailey, from Disney’s 2023 live-action hit, “The Little Mermaid.”

Cobb said that planning a spiritual gathering around the movie seemed natural. Since one theme is self-love, the church is having a “Skin of Color Winter Care” health fair at the theater and giving out skin care products.

Several groups are sponsoring shows on Saturday, including the Newport News-based Social Butterflies Foundation, which is using its event at a Hampton theater to raise money for clients dealing with lupus and fibromyalgia. Regal Columbus will be busy with several, including one by the Virginia Beach NAACP and another by the Chesapeake and Virginia Beach alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, an African American sorority. Its event includes a post-movie discussion and asks people to come dressed in the sorority’s signature color — red — or the movie’s, purple.

Cobb’s group is also asking people to come dressed in the swinging attire of the 1920s, flapper dresses, plumed headdresses and the wide-brimmed hats seen in some of the jazzy movie clips.

“This is about ‘Yes, you can,’ self-care and uplifting,” Cobb said of the movie and what the church has planned. A few tickets are available and anyone can come; people don’t have to be associated with the church, she said.

“Everyone is open to uplifting.”

As he walked around and introduced himself to students, Stockard learned many of them didn’t even know the school had a theater on campus.

Recently, he started thumbing through the school’s archives and realized NSU once had a thriving, well-known reputation in local theater. The school opened in 1935 during the Great Depression, and its theater program started a year later, becoming the school’s first student activity.

The documentary, “Something to Behold,” premieres Tuesday and features photos and interviews about the history of the theater program. The night will include receptions before and after the screening and a panel discussion.

Stockard said the documentary idea first started as a way to mark the 10th anniversary of the current theater department and its growth. Recent milestones include: The opening of a $60 million theater complex in 2017; winning national honors at theater festivals and competitions; its formation of collaborations with arts groups including the Virginia Stage Company and Virginia Arts Festival, which have allowed his students more extensive training and work under equity contracts; and the launch of a bachelor degree in drama and theater.

He said the school’s founders knew in 1935 what administrators know now: Theater has value beyond a stage performance.

History students can work as dramaturgs and apply their expertise to make sure plays and productions are historically accurate. Electrical engineers can find jobs behind the technological scenes; medical and biology students can teach and learn in the makeup department. Finance students can help in the administration.

“I have yet to see a major where you couldn’t get real, intern-level experience without leaving campus,” Stockard said

The department begins its anniversary season Friday with the return of “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” the highest-grossing show in the school’s history.

“It’s an amazing time in the university’s history,” Stockard said. “I’m glad to be here.”

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If you go

When: 6:30 p.m. reception; 7:30 documentary screening

Where: NSU Brown Memorial Hall Mainstage Theater, Corprew Avenue of NSU campus, Norfolk

Cost: $35

Norfolk’s CommUNITY Play-In and Sing-Along was organized in two weeks and drew about 700 singers and musicians — professional and amateur, young and older, across a spectrum of races and ethnicities. The event became a September tradition to also remember 9/11 and its victims.

This year’s Sept. 10 concert happens to come after another hate crime: On Saturday, a white racist shot and killed three Black people in a Florida store.

Music and fellowship will again be a balm, said De’Jonna Mayo, communications manager for the symphony.

“This is uniting everyone through music and community.”

The first rehearsal of the chorus and orchestra is Wednesday night.

Last year’s CommUNITY was the first after a two-year absence because of the pandemic. More than 1,000 performers, 5- to 85-year-olds, filled the Half Moone Cruise and Celebration Center. Organizers are expecting more musicians and more people in the audience and have moved the concert to Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall at Norfolk State University.

The event will include dance and spoken word. Musical selections by the community orchestra and chorus include “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and the “Raiders March” from the “Indiana Jones” movie franchise. Conductors include VSO’s music director, Eric Jacobsen, and director of education, Helen Martell, and Stephanie Sanders, NSU’s assistant director of bands. The U.S. Fleet Forces Band and NSU choir will also perform.

Another rehearsal will be held on the day of the concert; participants should attend at least one practice, Mayo said. Participants must register and will receive a link to download music; music is available for any instrument and voice at any level. To register, visit bit.ly/CommUNITY2023

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If you go

Rehearsals: 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Taste-n-See Murray Center, 455 E. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk; 2:30 to 4 p.m. Sept. 10, Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall, Norfolk State University, 700 Park Ave.

Concert: 4:30 p.m. Sept. 10, Echols Hall, Norfolk State University

Tickets: Free

Details: virginiasymphony.org/community

Mandela Day is celebrated on July 18, the birthday of Nelson Mandela. Mandela, who died in 2013, spent most of his life fighting South Africa’s segregationist apartheid system, including spending 27 years in prison. He was released in 1990 and was elected president in 1994. Mandela Day was established to encourage people to perform work to benefit their communities.

Nando’s is known for its grilled chicken seasoned with African peri-peri chiles. The chain started in South Africa in 1987 and now has locations worldwide.

Tuesday’s event runs 4-7 p.m. and customers who bring in any new back-to-school item will receive a chicken quarter, breast or thigh.

We’re asking readers to submit imaginative dioramas featuring marshmallow Peeps treats. The theme can be anything that allows you to be creative — it can be about Hampton Roads; a national or international event, person or group; a favorite movie or TV show. Make sure you give your diorama a name, take a high-quality, high-resolution photo and write a few words explaining it. Please include the ages of the artists; we will have categories for adults and children.

We want three-dimensional entries. Peeps simply set against a backdrop won’t be considered.

Email your image, the names of the artist(s), the city where you live and your phone number to daily.break@pilotonline.com.

The most creative will be selected to run in the newspaper and online. The deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, March 31.

“He truly was a sweetheart,” she said Wednesday. “Such a sweet guy.”

Myron “Mort” Fryman, 74, a retired Virginian-Pilot photographer, died in his sleep Tuesday. He left The Pilot in 2009 after nearly 40 years of adding his poignant touch to Navy homecomings, holiday parades and portraits of people in Hampton Roads.

Fryman was born in Carlisle, Kentucky, and joined the Navy, where he taught himself how to shoot pictures. He left the service and worked as a laborer but would go to a TV station and bug the manager about a job as a cameraman. Shelby Fryman said she believes the guy got so tired of her husband that he told him about an opening at The Pilot just to get rid of him.

Mort Fryman started at The Pilot in 1971 as a technician in the photo lab. He then volunteered to take assignments and eventually landed his dream job.

“Mort Fryman was a man with a good heart and compassion for the people he photographed,” said Bill Tiernan, another retired Pilot photographer. “He always made photographs that told stories, whether the assignment was for news, features or sports. He was something of a street photographer, finding the humor and drama in the everyday events.”

Mort will be remembered and missed by his family, his friends and, always, his Pilot family.

The stop-motion musical is a brooding take on the children’s book about a wooden puppet who wants to become a boy. Disney popularized it in its 1940 animated movie and recently released a reboot with Tom Hanks as the father and woodcarver, Geppetto, and newcomer Benjamin Evan Ainsworth in the titular role.

Del Toro is known for bringing emotional resonance to his horror and fantasy films. He won Academy Awards for the 2006 “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Shape of Water” in 2017.

His “Pinocchio” includes the voices of Hollywood A-listers including Cate Blanchett, Ewan McGregor and Christoph Waltz.

Visit narocinema.com for details.