The ETC offers a fantastic view from every seat (about 200 or so by my guestimations), and also has surprisingly good acoustics for that space. What makes the venue even better is the building itself…it is a gem and has all sorts of architectural details for you to enjoy (if you’re in to that sort of thing).

As for the show we saw ‘Rabbit Hole’ which is the winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Best New Play and a Tony Award-winning drama. The show was great and the seats were full…at the end the audience gave a standing ovation for the great performance. The ETC is a great theatre that has a strong history and is nationally known.

I highly recommend a visit to the ETC. It is a good alternative to the movies and the show lets out with plenty of time to go out drinking afterwards. The ETC offers student discounts, as well as, senior discounts. You can now also buy tickets online…and if you want to see ‘Rabbit Hole’ then you better hurry because its time runs up this Sunday.

Evidently, Hampton maintained his beguiling knack for separating urbanites from their money long after Guare dramatized, in 1990, Hampton’s most impressive scam, that of persuading members of Manhattan’s upper crust to take him in as the son of Sidney Poitier. Of course, Guare is interested in more than the attractions of one con artist; he uses the story both to poke fun at and commiserate with his real subject: the well-meaning but somewhat lost liberal rich.

The play’s success in performance hinges on whether we buy that Paul (the Hampton character) could charm the pants and pocketbook off pretty much anyone. On that account, Marra’s otherwise lively production fails: Engelen brings to the character a childlike sincerity that justifies the older characters’ parental concern for him, yet there’s nothing irresistibly seductive about his Paul. As the principal scamees, Griffith and Steinhagen display some comic timing but lack the necessary air of patrician breeding troubled by liberal guilt.

Read more: http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/theater/69269/six-degrees-of-separation-signal-ensemble-theatre-at-chopin-theatre-theater-review#ixzz0ah3XrnwH

“If the world were like the movies

we would never make mistakes

we’d correct our little blunders

and select our better takes”

- From the 1982 film

“My Favorite Year”

The shows I’m reviewing this week, “The School for Scandal” and “The Altar Boyz,” are a mixed bag of entertainment pluses and minuses. While each show has a lot going for it, each has a way to go or grow, depending on how you look at it.

The Role Players Ensemble Theatre in Danville is presenting a brilliantly clever restoration comedy, “The School for Scandal,” by the articulate author, renowned orator and British parliamentarian, Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

First produced in 1777, Sheridan’s marvelous play affectionately satirizes the fashionable society of the wealthy class, with its overt materialism, gossip and hypocrisy. His story takes place within an elitist social circle whose members’ favorite pastime seems to favor finding someone to defame, ridicule or malign through carefully constructed falsehoods and/or innuendo. These individuals focus their primary interests into devising secret, cunning and complicated schemes, all to achieve a particular goal or to cause harm to others, often for their own personal gain or pure entertainment. These egregious character-slayers comprise many layers in “School for Scandal.”

This is a complicated play and certainly a very ambitious play for community theater

There are 15 diversely comic and intriguing characters in this farcical story about sibling rivalry, love, lust, fidelity, infidelity and artificial relationships. The characters are given names that in some small way describe some aspect of their character, such as Snake Lady Sneerwell, Sir Benjamin Backbite, Mrs. Candor, Mr. Crabtree, Sir Peter Teazle and Lady Teazle, Moses and the Surface Brothers.

The plot is blunt. Practically everyone has something to glean by mischievous and treacherous means.

Director Sue Trigg has done an excellent job of selecting cast members capable of providing full meaning to their characters. This play is an outrageous farce, a grand comedy and for the most part it is carried off very well. The language is “stately English” and at times is difficult to capture, for lack of familiarity.

It was not until I went online to review the actual script that I fully grasped some of the relationships. The play opens with two of the lesser support characters plotting to spoil Charles Surface’s character. It is here where we begin to grasp that there is a circle of socializers who gather routinely to pander in slander, to gossip and trade “delicious” tales out of context, fabrications and fornications of the truth.

Lady Sneerwell wants to damage a budding relationship between Charles Surface and Sir Peter Teazle’s ward, Maria, because she had at one time been in a relationship with Charles and doesn’t want him to marry this beautiful younger woman. Sir Peter Teazle has a much younger wife, who has romantic aspirations toward Charles’ brother, Joseph. While Joseph pretends to have similar inclinations toward Lady Teazle, he does so in order to get back at his brother, Charles, because he also lusts after the attractive young Maria.

Intrigue after intrigue compound the relationships, especially that of a wealthy uncle of the brothers, Sir Oliver Surface. He arrives on the scene incognito to determine the true character of his nephews, to help him decide who is the most worthy to inherit his estate when he dies. Sir Oliver Surface is played by Chris Chapman. Lady Teazle is played by Kathryne Davidson, Maria by Xanadu Bruggers, Mrs. Candor by Melynda Kiring, Mr. Crabtree by Candy Campbell (a lady who plays an older man very well), Moses by Elias D. Protopsaltis, Rowley by Michael Green, Careless by Jill Davidson, Snake and Sir Benjamin Backbite by Paul Plain and the stalwart servant by Joel Stefani.

Sir Peter Teazle (John Blytt) acknowledges his uneven and contradictory friendship with his deceased friend’s sons, the brothers Joseph Surface (Michael Sally), and Charles Surface (Craig Eychner). He believes Joseph to be the epitome of virtue and honor, while he believes Charles to be the opposite in character, the epitome of personal corruption and deplorable financial carelessness. He wishes that his young ward, Maria, would find Joseph an acceptable suitor for her hand in marriage, over her obviously romantic admiration for the more colorful and more handsome Charles Surface.

As the play develops, we quickly discover that brother Joseph Surface is a two- faced individual. Lady Snearwell describes him thus, “I have found him out a long time since. I know him to be artful, selfish and malicious-in short, a sentimental knave; (but) while with Sir Peter, and indeed with all his (general) acquaintance, he passes for a youthful miracle of prudence, good sense, and benevolence.”

I enjoyed the play very much and laughed at times. I did find fault with some aspects, but not enough to belabor any specific points. It was obvious that the play fell shallow on some ears. This is a long play, too long without a full professional cast. The first act was hard to sit through, but the second act moved much better. On the whole, the production never quite came together.

While every member of the cast contributes significantly to this production, the following actors deserve “outstanding” kudos for their efforts: Michael Sally, Melynda Kiring and Craig Eychner.

This humorous restoration comedy plays Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. through Saturday, May 10, in the Community Center Theater at 420 Front Street in Danville.

Tickets may be purchased by calling 314-3400 or 314-3463, or online at www.villagetheatreshows.com, or in person at the Community Center, 420 Front Street, in Danville. Tickets are a reasonable $22 to $25 each.

“Altar Boyz” at the Willows

The Willows “Cabaret” Theatre in Martinez is carrying forward the little theater’s theater of Catholicism with another musical that will be appreciated by anyone with a personal history closely aligned with Catholic experiences. This cabaret-style theatre is presenting the Off-Broadway musical, “Altar Boyz.”

This is a venue where the audience sits at small tables where they can order drinks and snacks to enjoy during the show.

This upbeat, modern religious rock musical professes no one specific religious point of view. It must have been penned by someone with a great knowledge of Catholic ritual and rhetoric. “Altar Boyz” tells the inspiring, upbeat story of five guys from small-town USA who are drawn together in their quest to “save souls.” They form a singing, dancing company that travels town to town, like a comic revival show, seeking to inspire, cajole, convert and re-commit a sagging religious following among the young; to seek out and embrace Jesus as their savior. They make fun of religion, but not too offensively.

With songs such as “Jesus Called Me on My Cell Phone” and “Girl You Make Me Want to Wait,” the verbal message is loud and clear, but their sinfully terrific dancing, suggestive body language and straight street talk are modern and in touch with today’s hip overtures.

The musical is youthful, exuberant and exciting, tuning the audience into their party-exhilaration wavelength before the evening is over. The songs include the terrific “Rhythm in Me,” “Church Rulez,” “Something About You,” “Everybody Fits,” “La Vida Eternal” and “I Believe,” to mention a few. The songs relate to issues in the boy’s lives as well as issues that many audience members must have found relative as well. The audience was enthusiastic and appreciative. The lyrics are clever and fun.

Director and Choreographer Mickey Nugent has brought together five unique young men that include Kenneth Scott as Matthew, Bobby Bryce as Mark, Michael Scott Wells as Luke, Rod Voltaire Edora as Juan and Herbie Raad as Abraham. The musical director, Carl Pantle, provides great accompaniment.

The sound didn’t work for me. It too loud to be comfortable and many lines were walked over or just not delivered clearly. Rod Voltaire Edora who portrayed Juan had such a thick accent that I missed many of his lines entirely. They are all outstanding talented performers, but if you cannot understand them, the show loses much of its punch.

The other problem I have is that the theater seating is just too crowded for comfort. Other guests expressed the same feeling to me. This is a great show, an attractive little venue, but how often does one want to be so crowded that when the young women who serve drinks and snacks (at a fairly hefty price) have to shove their way past you so that they can reach other patrons.

If you sit near the aisle, you continually have to move your chair even closer to an already uncomfortably small table and other guests, so much so that it disturbed my enjoyment of the show and its hardworking performers. This is not good. One reason I don’t often go back to this theater to review shows is that the experience of the theater itself is basically the same, and that’s a shame! The whole concept is a great idea, if they just didn’t try to squeeze so many people in.

“Altar Boyz” continues Wednesdays at 3:30 and 7:30 p.m., Thursdays at 7:30, Fridays at 8, Saturdays at 2 and 8, with Sunday performances at 3, now through May 11.

The Willows Cabaret “Campbell” Theatre is located at 636 Ward Street in Downtown Martinez, one block east of Main Street at the corner of Estudillo Street. Call 798-1300 for tickets or visit the Willows Web site at www.willowstheatre.org. Tickets range between $20 and $30 each with discounts for seniors.

But that aside, I enjoyed Katjana Vadeboncoeur and the Washington Ensemble Theatre’s take on Titus as much as anyone who fundamentally dislikes a script can.

Notorious for being one of Shakespeare’s most violent plays, many love it for its gory and cheesy nature. But if you’re expecting buckets of fake blood to get thrown around the stage, this isn’t your play. The design team instead opts for confetti and rose petals blown by characters or shot from slingshots.

This decision is a small part of what makes this production work; WET does an excellent job balancing the tone of the play. Instead of creating the dark, erotic production that usually comes with Titus, Vadeboncoeur and the WET create something more surreal and dreamlike, ultimately drawing more attention to themes of grief than to the spectacle of revenge and murder.

The menacing core of the play is still there, but it’s given a little relief by short, artistic dance numbers, old jazz songs, and the projection of images such as raindrops in the background.

The cast does a fine job: guest performer Adam Standley in particular makes a rock star out of the evil emperor Saturninus, and Nathan Sorseth, playing Titus in his WET debut plays the role with confidence.

Despite my prejudice coming in, the Washington Ensemble Theatre has impressed me once again with its creativity and enthusiasm, and if you’ve never seen Titus before, this version is the one to go to.

This first season features a modern, relevant, and personal play by one of todays most notable and distinguished authors: David Mamet. Future ambitions include harboring original new works, and, as long as youth prevails a dominant characteristic of the ensemble, being a leading resource for writers to premier their new theatre for the next generation of emerging artists.

The programs and operations of The Ensemble Theatre benefit a multicultural audience that is diverse in age, income, ethnicity, and culture. Its core audience is African American (90%). The Ensemble produces a Mainstage Season of six contemporary and classical works devoted to the portrayal of the African American experience by local and national playwrights and artists. The Ensemble’s Performing Arts Education program provides educational workshops, artist-in-residence experiences, and live performances for students both off-site and at the theatre, and the Young Performers Program offers intensive summer training for youth ages 7 to 17 encompassing instruction in all disciplines of the theatre arts. Through its varied programs, The Ensemble reaches over 60,000 people annually.

Why did you decide to start using social media?
We started for a couple of reasons. We knew we needed to start trying new ways of reaching audiences. Print advertising has been losing its effectiveness for years. And it seemed like everyone was getting MySpace pages and blogging. It just seemed like to band wagon to jump on. We started using social media at the same time we really stepped up our grassroots marketing efforts. We’re really focused on creating good word of mouth buzz, and social media is a great way to do that.
Anthology of Instrumental Music from the End of the Sixteenth to the End of the Seventeenth Century (Da Capo Press Music Reprint Series)
How did you start?
We started about 3 years ago with a MySpace page, followed by a Facebook page and Youtube a few months later. We started blogging about 2 years ago and have been on Twitter since February 2009. We just jumped in. Not much of a plan at all! Three years ago when we started, there wasn’t as much buzz about social media as there is now. There weren’t conferences and webinars and people telling you how to integrate you social media plan with the rest of your marketing or how to calculate ROI. Or maybe there were, but I didn’t see them! For us, it was a way to reach younger audiences (although that really hasn’t been the case. The majority of our Facebook users are in the 35-55 age group!) and to expand marketing efforts as print advertising becomes less effective and print editorial space declines. So we jumped in, figured out how all the different outlets worked, and then went back and thought about planning. Which worked for us, I think if you wait until you have the perfect plan, you’ll never dive in and figure out how to tweet or upload a video or whatever.

What tools/sites are your currently using?
Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and a blog. We also have a Myspace, but just keep it updated with show dates, not much interaction there anymore for us.

What results have you seen?
I think Twitter has been amazing at raising our visibility among local people and businesses. MET has definitely been given opportunities though the twitter community- partnerships and whatnot, that we would not even know about otherwise. It’s really hard to judge the impact on ticket sales, but I look at our social media efforts as public relations, not advertising. Our blog posts, videos and Facebook posts have really started to generate conversations about our work, which is super exciting. Just this week we got ‘like’s and comments on facebook from people I don’t even know! So I see our online community starting to grow beyond the inner circle of employees, board members, volunteers, season ticket holders, etc. I think that’s the most exciting part – to put up a video of a rehearsal, or interview with a director and a week later over 100 people have watched it, and some have posted comments and we get to have a conversation. A conversation that we would never have without social media. People would just come to see a show, sit in the seat and maybe read the director’s notes in the playbill, then go home. But with our social media efforts, the experience begins even before they get here – with the reading of a blog post, or commenting about rehearsal photos on Facebook, or watching a video. And then after they see the show, there’s a place for them to talk about what they thought, it’s a whole different way to connect with patrons.

What has been your biggest challenge in using social media tools?
Time! Social media is time consuming. Maintaining a consistent presence on Facebook and Twitter, shooting, editing and uploading video to YouTube and trying to blog at least 3 times a week takes a lot of time. So juggling that with all the other things on my plate is hard, especially since social media is so much more fun than the other things on my plate! I’d say a second big challenge is measuring results in a way that I can present to my boss and to our board of directors. I know MET’s visibility has been raised through our social media efforts, but I don’t have any numbers or charts to back that up. And it’s almost impossible to track how social media affects our ticket sales. But in the end, our social media strategy is to engage our audience members and our community and I think we’re doing that.

After 10 years of being one of LA’s edgiest Asian American theatre groups, the Lodestone Theatre Ensemble is about present its final show, before shutting its doors for good. Don’t worry– this was a conscious decision made years ago by the artistic directors, not a victim of the global recession.

In 1995, following the 1992 Los Angeles riots, veteran actor Soon-Tek Oh created the Society of Heritage Performers (SHP), a Korean American theatre ensemble. SHP evolved into Lodestone Theatre Ensemble in 1999, organized by original founders: actors Alexandra Bokyun Chun, Tim Lounibos and Chil Kong, and writer Philip W. Chung. Their new focus was embracing a broader Asian Pacific American identity. Chung and Kong have remained to the end as co-artistic directors, artist, actor.

You can still catch the final weekend of their final production, Grace Kim & The Spiders from Mars, which is a play that was specifically written as a farewell to Lodestone.

Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker (American Ballet Theatre) [VHS]

When the theatre first opened on Oct. 15, 1930, the super-cinema was called the New Victoria Cinema and played a George Arils film in Old English, which was based on a John Galsworthy stage play. The Apollo Victoria was equipped with a theatre organ, which was played opening night by Reginald Foort. Aside from the films shown, the theatre also offered variety shows to the public. Soon after the theatre’s opening, the management diminished the number of variety shows and began to specialize in film showings and the occasional performance by big bands. In June 1939, the cinema became one of three sites in London used to present The Epsom Derby in live, experimental transmissions.

The theatre closed temporarily, due to World War II, from September 1940 to May 1941, but did not suffer any serious damage and reopened quickly thereafter. In the 1950’s, plans were made to demolish the theatre, but these plans fell through the venue was used for a combination of live shows, films, and ballet.
Live at the Orange Peel and Tennessee Theatre
In November 1975, the cinema played its final show, a double showing of “Legend of the Werewolf,” starring Peter Cushing, and “Vampire Circus,” starring Adrienne Corri. The theatre was closed after this showing, and underwent extensive renovations. It reopened in 1981, renamed the Apollo Victoria Theatre, and specialized in presenting concerts, the first of which was performed by Shirley Bassey. Other musical acts shown during the early 1980’s include Bucks Fizz, Dean Martin and Liza Minelli. During this time, the theatre also began staging musical theatre performances.

Theatrical performances in the last two-and-a-half decades or so include “The Sound of Music,” which ran from Aug. 17, 1981, to Sept. 18, 1982; “Camelot,” running from November 1982 to February 1983; “Fiddler on the Roof,” which ran from June to October 1983; 1984’s “Starlight Express,” a show which required the theatre to undergo interior modification to allow roller-skating performers to skate through the audience, running for an extremely successful 18 years; Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Bombay Dreams” in 2002; “Saturday Night Fever,” shown in 2004, “Movin’ Out,” a musical based on the songs of Billy Joel, in 2006; and Stephen Schwartz’s “Wicked,” which is playing currently and which began its run Sept. 27, 2006. “Wicked,” has proven to be exceptionally successful for the theatre, as it pulled in £761,000, a record-breaking amount, during the first eight performances of the show and has, to date, grossed more than £50 million in London.

Author:
If you fancy visiting the Apollo Victoria Theatre or buying London Theatre Tickets visit the website.

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Source: www.articledepot.co.uk

The first major stage of making a successful application to drama school is finding the performing arts training programme which is best suited to you at this time. Focus on your current performance skills and your career aspirations. For example, if you can sing and act but not dance and you want to be a ‘triple-threat’ musical theatre performer, don’t apply for a course which has a crucial dance component. Instead, I would recommend finding a one-year foundation level course which will help you to develop your dance skills or focussing on your singing and acting skills and finding a courses which just focuses on these disciplines.

Once you have done your homework into the courses which suit your skills, requirements and career aspirations, you can think about submitting your application forms. In my experience, the people who apply for ten or even more courses in the same year are less successful overall than those who focus on three or four applications. So I recommend narrowing your choices down to the courses which you think are most suited to you at this time and then focussing on submitting excellent application forms for these institutions.

Your application form should be completely truthful about the skills and experience you have in the performing arts – any enhancement of the truth will be spotted as soon as you start to perform at audition. Your opportunity to impressive the admissions team reading your application form is in your personal statement. Spend time getting this right – it’s really important! Make sure you demonstrate your reliability, commitment to the arts and strong work ethic which are important traits of all performing arts students. In addition, you should highlight special performances and projects you have done and, importantly, indicate why this has made you a stronger performer. Unique performance skills are also worth mentioning even when applying for the more traditional drama schools.

When you get your audition date, begin preparing right away. Don’t leave it to last minute and make your decisions about your monologues and singing repertoire quickly so you can get to work on them. Seek advice on your monologue and song choices to make sure you are not only presenting the most suitable material for you but also for the drama school you are applying to.

For more advice and guidance to help you make a successful application to drama school, register free at MyStageDoor.co.uk. Register today and get free access to training tips, leading advice for the performing arts, industry news, info on events in your area and the opportunity to meet other like-minded performers.
High School Musical

Author:
Maxwell David is one of London\’s leading performing arts specialists and Co-Founder of MyStageDoor.co.uk, the platform for aspiring performers. Aspiring performers can register free at mystagedoor.co.uk and get unlimited access to training tips, career advice for the performing arts, info on events in their area, industry news and the opportunity to meet other like-minded performers.

Terms: Articles may be reprinted provided content is not edited and links are kept live

Source: www.articledepot.co.uk