Carnival-Themed Discovery Day Lets Kids Explore Theater

Families are invted to discover the fantastick world of theater at Long Wharf Saturday Nov. 7 for its third annual Discovery Day.

This year's community outreach event features a carnival theme and is appropriate for kids, age 2 to 16. Backstage tours and hands-on workshops in mask making, audio-visual experiments, juggling, prop making, and story-telling will be offered from 10 am to 1 pm. To enhance the carnival themed Discovery Day, there will be face painting, food and music.

Through these creative activities, kids will have the opportunity to collaborate in putting on a play of their own. This year, families will tell the story of the Forgotten Clown, an original skit performed by the Next Stage Residents and the children.

“It is my wish that all who attend will leave with a greater understanding and enjoyment of theater," said Annie DiMartino, director of education and Next Stage administrator for Long Wharf. "Hopefully this day will begin the development of a lifelong interest in the arts."

There is a suggested donation of $5 per family.

Fantasticks' Creator Tom Jones At Long Wharf Symposium Sunday

Tom Jones, the co-creator of the iconic musical theatre classic The Fantasticks, currently playing on Long Wharf Theatre’s Mainstage, will be the featured guest at the theatre’s Sunday Symposium Sunday, Oct. 25 after the 2 pm matinee.

Long Wharf Theatre Associate Artistic Director Eric Ting will host a discussion with Jones who, along with his longtime collaborator Harvey Schmidt, have created some of the theatre’s most enduring musicals, including 110 in the Shade and I Do, I Do!, (which plays next summer at Westport)in addition to The Fantasticks, which ran for 42 years at the Sullivan Street Playhouse and is currently being revived in New York.

When the show was first produced in 1960, Jones was pleased with the piece and hoped that critics would connect with its themes, and that an audience would follow. Indeed, the opposite occurred, with audiences gradually getting behind the show despite middle of the road reviews. “I didn’t think it was going to run for 42 years,” he said with a laugh.

The other turn of events Jones didn’t anticipate was acting in the piece. The role of Henry, the Old Actor, was written with a classical actor in mind. When that particular performer was unavailable, Jones, Schmidt and the rest of the show’s production team kept having auditions. Jones, as a matter of expediency, kept reading in the part. “I wound up reading it in the rehearsal process and I was good,” he said.

Every so often he returns to the role, even receiving fine reviews from the New York Times in the recent New York revival at the Jerry Orbach Theatre, a production he described as “fun, sprightly and honest.”

He believes it is the musical’s mythic and classical underpinnings that give the story a resonant texture, enhancing the story’s take on love and growing up.

“It is funny and romantic and has some beautiful numbers and some comedic numbers,” Jones said. “It is very much a celebration of the theatre itself and the possibilities of what you can do within the theatre.”

For more information about the show, or to purchase tickets, visit http://www.longwharf.org/ or call 203-787-4282.

Dennehy Hosts Westport's 'Letters Home'

Paul Kaiser photo

Award-winning actor Brian Dennehy will host Westport Country Playhouse’s presentation of Letters Home, a dramatic production of actual letters written by U.S. troops serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on Veteran’s Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11. Produced by the Griffin Theatre Company of Chicago, the initial production last winter was critically acclaimed and nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for “Outstanding New Play.”

In conjunction with Letters Home, the Westport Arts Center (WAC) will install an exhibition in the Playhouse lobby, “Daily Exchanges: U.S. Soldiers in Iraq - The Ordinary in Images.” Curated by WAC's Director of Visual Arts Terri C. Smith, with the guidance and input of artist and "Operation Enduring Freedom" veteran Paul Kaiser, "Daily Exchanges" will feature photographs and videos depicting the everyday lives of troops serving in war.

A reception and guided tour of the art exhibit will begin at 6 pm, followed by the performance of Letters Home at 7. A panel discussion moderated by Lisa Chedekel, an award-winning investigative reporter with more than 20 years experience writing for Connecticut newspapers, will follow. After the discussion, Smith and Kaiser will be available for comment on the exhibition.
Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for veterans. For more information or tickets call the Westport Country Playhouse box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit the box office at 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport, or www.westportplayhouse.org. For more information about the exhibition, call the Westport Arts Center at (203) 222-7070 or visit http://www.westportartscenter.org/.

Casting Announced for Yale's Pop!

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Yale Repertory theatre has announced casting and the creative team for the world premiere of POP!, a new musical with book and lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman and music by Anna K. Jacobs, directed by Mark Brokaw.

The cast of POP! includes Danny Binstock (Gerard), Randy Harrison (Andy Warhol), Doug Kreeger (Ondine), Leslie Kritzer (Valerie), Cristen Paige (Edie), Brian Charles Rooney (Candy), and Emily Swallow (Viva).

Choreography will be by Denis Jones, musical direction and vocal arrangements by Lynne Shankel, sets by Valérie Thérèse Bart, costumes by Ying Song, lighting by Kevin Adams, sound by David Budries, projections by Tal Yarden, orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin, dramaturgy by Catherine Sheehy, and stage management by Jenna Woods.

Pop! is a whodunit about who shot andy Warhol. It will play Nov. 27-Dec. 19.

Mandy Patinkin Makes Yale Debut in Compulsion

Mandy Patinkin.
Photo by Newspix.

Tony and Emmy Award winner Mandy Patinkin will make his Yale Rep debut in the world premiere of Compulsion by Rinne Groff, directed by Oskar Eustis, co-produced with The Public Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

The performance schedule has been adjusted so that Patinkin may fulfill previously scheduled concert engagements. Compulsion will begin on Friday, Jan. 29 and play through Feb. 28 at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street). The new Opening Night is Thursday, Feb. 4.

Additional casting and creative team members will be announced.

About the play: Sid Silver (Patinkin) wants nothing more than to bring Anne Frank’s story to an American audience, and he believes he’s the right man to translate the young girl’s diary and adapt it for the stage. But his passion spirals into a lifelong obsession when a New York publishing house reveals its own plans for what would become one of the most powerful and enduring documents of the 20th century.

Inspired by the story of Meyer Levin, Compulsion marks the Yale Rep debuts of Rinne Groff, whose plays have been praised for their “kaleidoscope style” (The Village Voice), and Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of The Public Theater.

Young Frankenstein is Alive at The Bushnell

Shuler Hensley and Roger Bart in

Young Frankenstein
(Photo: Paul Kolnick)

Read my review of the tour playing this week at http://curtainup.com/youngfrankensteinct09.html

Long Wharf seeks Next Generation of Theater Directors

Long Wharf Theatre is accepting applications for its 2009/2010 directing internships.

These are production-based opportunities for early-career theatre artists to gain experience working in a professional theatre environment. Interns will act as assistant to the director, duties to be determined with individual directors. Commitment is for the length of the production rehearsal process and previews (often four to five weeks, six days a week, 6-8 hours a day). This is an unpaid position.

Applicants should have access to local housing and transportation. Several internships are currently available for the season, and will be assigned at the discretion of the theatre.

Interested individuals should contact Eric Ting, associate artistic director, at 203-772-8267, or email resume and letter of interest to: eric.ting@longwharf.org.

LONG WHARF THEATRE (Gordon Edelstein, Artistic Director, Ray Cullom, Managing Director), in its 45th season, is recognized as a leader in American theatre, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classics and modern plays, rediscoveries of neglected works and a variety of world and American premieres. More than 30 Long Wharf Theatre productions have transferred virtually intact to Broadway or Off-Broadway, some of which include Durango by Julia Cho, the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Wit by Margaret Edson, The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer and The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn. Last season’s production of The Glass Menagerie will move to New York in the spring of 2010. The theatre is an incubator of new works, including last season’s Coming Home by Athol Fugard and A Civil War Christmas by Paula Vogel. Long Wharf Theatre has received New York Drama Critics Awards, Obie Awards, the Margo Jefferson Award for Production of New Works, a Special Citation from the Outer Critics Circle and the Tony® Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

Beauty & the Beast Marks Hartford Children's Theater's 20th

Meagan MacLeod as “Belle” in Hartford Children’s Theatre’s

Beauty and the Beast. Photo by Thomas Giroir

Hartford Children’s Theatre will celebrate its 20th anniversary year with the family musical, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Under the direction of newly appointed Artistic Director Ryan Ratelle with musical direction and choreography by Lisa Foss, Beauty and the Beast opens on Friday, Oct. 30 at the Carol Autorino Center for Arts and Humanities on the campus of Saint Joseph College (1678 Asylum Avenue in West Hartford) where the show will run through Saturday, Nov. 7.

Adapted from the Academy Award-winning animated film by its original screenwriter Linda Woolverton, the show is the classic love story of Belle, a young woman in a “small, provincial town,” and the Beast, who is really a prince trapped in a spell. If the Beast can learn to love and to be loved, the spell will be broken and he will be transformed back to his former self, but time is running out, and if the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he will be doomed for all eternity. The unforgettable score with music by Alan Menken (Little Shop of Horrors) and lyrics by Howard Ashman (Aladdin) and Tim Rice (Evita) includes the Academy Award-winning title song and the show-stopping "Be Our Guest," plus additional songs written especially for the stage.

The cast of BEAUTY IN THE BEAST includes Meagan MacLeod as Belle, Matthew Berry as the Beast, Greg Ludovici as Gaston, Marcus Janetatos as“Lumiere, Emely Burns Larsen as Mrs. Potts, Andrew LaPlante as Cogsworth, Bruce Terrill as Maurice, Caitlin Sailer as Babette, Katie Harden as Madame de la Grande Bouche, Josiah Rowe as Lefou, Nick D’Angelo as Monsieur D’Arque and Timothy Perry as Chip.

Featured in the ensemble are Lorraine Blatt, Victoria Mooney, Melissa Anne Pilarski, Thomas Beebe, Jean Della Rocca, Michael Dikegoros, Sophia Foss, Scott MacDonald, Amaris Montoya, Anthony Piccione, Katrina Schwartz, Mary Terrill, Katie Woelfel, Arnie Woelfel.

Beauty and the Beastfeatures Scenic Designs by Greg Brock, Costume Designs by Melissa Richards and Hair Design by Linda Stanhope.

The performance schedule is Friday, Oct. 30 at 7 pm; Saturday, Oct. 31 at 2 pm; Sunday, Nov. 1 at 2 pm; Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 7 pm; Friday, Nov. 6 at 7 pm and Saturday, Nov. 7 at 10 am and 2 pm.

Tickets are $18 for Adults, $13 for Children (13 and under) & senior citizens and are available by calling the box office at 860-429-7970 ext. 12. Discounts are available for groups of 15 or more.

For more information visit http://www.hartfordchildrenstheatre.org/.

Broadway Stars to Perform at Westport's Gala

Westport Country Playhouse’s Gala 2009 will feature a star-studded evening of entertainment Monday, Nov. 2, highlighted by special salutes to Mary Rodgers Guettel, composer, and Elisabeth Morten, Playhouse board of trustees chairman.

Honorary gala co-chairs are Anne Keefe and Joanne Woodward, former Playhouse artistic directors. Proceeds, in part, will support the Woodward Intern and Apprentice program, recently named in recognition of Ms. Woodward’s interest in training the next generation of theater artists. The Playhouse’s intern and apprentice program has been in existence since 1946.

A special tribute will be made to Ms. Rodgers Guettel, who began her theatrical career as a Playhouse intern in 1950, and went on to write the music for the Broadway hit, “Once Upon a Mattress.” She is the daughter of composer Richard Rodgers. Stephen Sondheim, who also was in the 1950 Playhouse intern class, and Christopher Plummer, will be present to honor Ms. Rodgers Guettel.

Ms. Morten will be honored for spearheading the Playhouse’s successful, multi-million dollar renovation in 2005. She has served as chairman and president of the Playhouse board of trustees since 1999, having joined the board in 1996. Ms. Morten is a Tony Award voter and theatrical producer.

A musical performance, entitled “An Enchanted Evening---The Music of Richard Rodgers,” will feature Broadway stars James Naughton, Tony Award winner for “Chicago” and “City of Angels”; Kelli O’Hara, Tony Award nominee for “South Pacific,” “The Pajama Game” and “The Light in the Piazza”; Steven Pasquale, who created the role of Fabrizio in Adam Guettel's “The Light in the Piazza” and appears on FX's "Rescue Me.”; Karen Ziemba, Tony Award winner for “Contact”; and others.

A cocktail reception and silent auction will begin at 5:45 pm, followed by the performance and tributes at 7:30 pm with dinner at 9.

Gala co-chairs are Ann Sheffer and Bill Scheffler and Cindy and John Vaccaro. The performance is produced by Kevin Duncan with musical direction by Mary-Mitchell Campbell.

Benefit tickets start at $500. Reservations are limited by the size of the theatre. For more information or ticket purchases, call Kim Maresca, special events associate, at (203) 227-5137, ext. 138, or email kmaresca@westportplayhouse.org.

Yale Performances Have 'No Boundaries'

No Boundaries, a series of global performances presented by Yale Repertory Theatre and World Performance Project at Yale has announced the 2009-2010 season, which includes Wormwood by Theatre of the Eighth Day (Teatr Ósmego Dnia); The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac written and performed by Taylor Mac; and Baby-Q’s MESs by Yoko Higashino and Toshio Kajiwara.

No Boundaries celebrates the diversity of voices and experiences in today’s world and explores—and explodes—the frontiers of theatrical invention through cutting-edge, thought-provoking dance, music, and theatre. Tearing down cultural, linguistic, and geographic barriers, No Boundaries extends and enhances the educational mission of Yale University through a series of performances by artistic innovators from around the globe.

Here's the lineup:
POLAND
WORMWOOD by Theatre of the Eighth Day (Teatr Ósmego Dnia)
Nov. 5-7 at 8 pm Iseman Theater (1156 Chapel Street)

Like a diary from a journey across a country plunging into the night, or a letter written by shipwrecked people who entrust it to the sea, Wormwood blurs the line between fantasy and reality in its portrayal of life in Poland under martial law. At once heartbreaking, humorous, and brutally physical, Wormwood—performed by the original Polish cast—is a rare remounting of the landmark 1985 production that prompted Theatre of the Eighth Day’s exile from Poland.

For mature audiences. Performed in Polish with English supertitles. Approximate running time: 60 minutes. Wormwood is presented in association with the Polish Cultural Institute in New York.

USA
THE BE(A)ST OF TAYLOR MAC, written and performed by Taylor Mac, directed by David Drake

Jan. 28-30 at 8pm, University Theatre (222 York Street)

New York solo performance art legend Taylor Mac sings about love, mermaids, subway safety, and revolution in The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac, a wild—and wildly funny—gender-bending fusion of cabaret, politics, and stark raving fabulousness.

Contains strong language. Approximate running time: 90 minutes.

JAPAN
Baby-Q’s MESs by Yoko Higashino and Toshio Kajiwara

March 25-27 at 8 pm, Iseman Theater (1156 Chapel Street)

Piercing lasers, flashing LEDs, and a pulsing techno beat illuminate choreographer and performer Yoko Higashino’s exploration of gender and transformation in a world of constant loss and confusion.

For mature audiences. Approximate running time: 45 minutes.

Each performance is followed by a talk back with the artists. In addition, No Boundaries offers a variety of related workshops and lectures (TBA) that allow audiences to engage with its diverse group of artists before and after the performances. All events are free and open to the public.


For more information, please visit www.yale.edu/wpp and yalerep.org/noboundaries.