Mondays are Dark

We thought we’d start with some stuff going on that hasn’t actually gotten a story yet.

 

The Broward Center for the Performing Arts will be opening the national tour of Chicago with re-vamped public spaces; new bars, new bathrooms, new signage, and more to come.

 

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre is also undergoing major renovations, and we’ll get to see the final result later this month, when they open Dial M for Murder.

 

The 24 Hour Theatre Festival is coming up on October 28: contact The Naked  Stage if you’re interested in volunteering some support.  This year, Palm Beach Dramaworks is hosting the event, in which several one-act plays will be conceived, written, cast, and staged within a 24 hour period.

 

Now here’s your Monday reading list:

 

Speaking of Dramaworks

The Palm Beach Daily News talks with the director and cast of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men, opening Friday at Palm Beach Dramaworks.

Speaking of Festivals

The Miami Herald reports that TEMFest opens Wednesday at the Miami Dade County Auditorium.  The fourth edition of the Spanish-Language theatre festival runs through October 27th.

From Center Court to Center Stage

The Miami Herald reports that Julia Dale, the 12-year-old good luck charm for The Miami Heat, will make her regional theatre debut in Ruthless! The Musical, opening this week at Actors’ Playhouse.

“I asked myself how you pull off this show without a young star-to-be in the role of adorable, devilish Tina Denmark,” Arisco said. “Well, then came along Julia Dale singing the national anthem during the Miami Heat championship series, and we found our star. Add five virtuoso, comedic and singing adult actors, and you’ve got the funniest play you’ll ever see.’’

The Low Down on Down In Front

The Examiner fills us in on one of South Florida’s newest theatre companies.  Down In Front Theater Company just opened the comedy Social Security at Sunrise Soref JCC in Plantation.  Richard Cameron’s writing is as impenetrable as ever, stating that the company was displaced from another location, but otherwise glosses over any substantial beyond telling us that the company was “displaced when its' (sic) Tamarac location was no longer a choice to produce live theatre.” 

Sightings

Ken "Cast Ken" Clement got cast - in one of the National Tours of ELF, The Broadway Musical.  He'll be playing a role he's played to great reviews in the past: Santa Claus. Playbill runs down the rest of the cast, and where you can see them.

Wondering what Nick Duckhart is up to?  We can’t blame you.  The versatile actor is over on the Gulf shore, where his performance in Venus in Fur gets a thumbs up from The Naples News.

O’ Hurley Homecoming (sort of)

Florida Theatre On Stage interviews John O’Hurley, who you probable remember as J. Peterman on Sienfeld.  But he’s starring in the National tour of Chicago, opening Wednesday at The Broward Center for the Performing Arts .  And as it turns out, he’s no stranger to Fort Lauderdale; he’s a 1972 graduate of Cardinal Gibbons High School. The Sun-Sentinel, clueless in the world of culture as ever,  relegated the story to their Gay Blog.

Loss of Symbiosis in Chicago

HowlRound examines the relationship between critics and the theatre companies they criticize, and the devastating effects when those voices are lost.

But this article is not merely a history lesson, a look back at one of the true greats in dramatic criticism. This is a look at the impact a critic can and does have on an entire community, how critics can nurture that community, and how the shrinking of the critical landscape in Chicago and elsewhere is a much more distressing prospect to our chosen careers than I think artists realize.

Certainly, we’ve felt the harsh reality of that impact here in South Florida.