Friday, February 28, 2014

The Scene for February 28, 2014


February is ending, and March begins this weekend.  Hard to believe that we’re only one month from the Carbonell Awards!
 
The hot tickets this weekend: Capital Steps at the Broward Center; their 50 Shades of Fiscal Gray is almost sold out.  And if you can get in to see Frida: Unmasked, we predict you’re in for a treat.  Deborah Sherman is a passionate actor on her quietest day, and we happen to know that Frida Kahlo has been a passion of hers.  Expect a tour-de-force performance.
 
Several exciting shows opening this week; Barbara Bradshaw is playing Molly Ivins at Women’s Theatre Project, while Patti Gardner and Jacqueline Laggy are appearing in The Anarchist in the brand-spanking Primal Forces, a spin-off from the Boca Raton Theatre Guild.
 
Here's what's playing on the scene this weekend:



opening...
 

The Women’s Theatre Project offers Red Hot Patriot: the Kick Ass Wit of Molly Ivins at the Willow Theatre through March 16.

Fighting Over Beverly opens at The Theatre at Arts Garage, through March 23rd.

Storycrafter Studio offers A Kiss For Cupid through March 23rd.
 
The Boca Raton Theatre Guild’s Primal Forces is opening its freshman project; David Mamet’s The Anarchist.  It’s playing at the Andrews Living Arts Theatre through March 23.
 
Evening Star Productions offers Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde through March 16.




you still haven't missed...

Thinking Cap Theatre  presents Pool (No Water) at the Muse Center for the Arts through March 8, 2014
 
If you find yourself at the southern end of South Florida, the Key West Fringe Theatre offers A Delicate Balance through March 8.
 
Weisenthal plays at the Broward Stage Door Theater, through March 16.
 
The Plaza Theatre opens Rags, through March 16th.

The Wick Theatre offers The Full Monty through March 23rd, 2014
 
Laffing Matterz is back for another season of dinner, music, and outrageous original comedy at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Thursdays through Saturdays, with some Sunday matinees.
  



coming and going...
   
Friday night is your only chance to catch Big & Tall with Bruce Vilanche and Judy Gold at The Parker Playhouse.  You’ll have a gay old time.  Really.
 
Former Promethean Theatre Company artistic director Deborah Sherman performs in her own biographical play Frida: Unmasked, a commissioned piece about artist Frida Kahlo on Saturday, March 1st at the Miami Light Box.
 
Capitol Steps performs 50 Shades of Fiscal Gray in the intimate Amaturo Theater of the of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday only.  Tickets are selling fast for this comedic romp.

Memphis rocks the Au-Rene Theater of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts through March 9.




last chance to see...

If you somehow managed to miss My Son The Waiter all those weekends it was playing at the Stage Door Theatre last year, you still have this weekend.   Miami Stage Door Theatre brings Brad Zimmerman and his one-man-show back to the Byron Carlisle Theater through March 2.
 
Harold Pinter’s Old Times is challenging audiences at Palm Beach Dramaworks through March 2.
 
New Theatre presents David Caudle’s Visiting Hours at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center  through March 2, 2014
 
The Maltz Jupiter Theatre production of Other Desert Cities plays through March 2, 2014.




community/conservatory
  
Lake Worth Playhouse offers One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest through March 16, 2014.
 
Main Street Playhouse  presents Next Fall, through March 2.
 
FIU Theatre offers Julius Caesar through March 9, 2014.



for kids...

Pocahontas plays at the Showtime Performing Arts Theatre through March 1.

Actors’ Playhouse Theatre For Young Audiences presents The Wizard of Oz through March 20, 2014.






Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Maltz Jupiter Theatre: Other Desert Cities (reviews)

Other-Desert-CitiesThe Maltz Jupiter Theatre opened its production of Other Desert Cities on Febuary 16, 2014.
When a young novelist returns home to Palm Springs for the holidays, she announces that she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a tragic event in the family’s history. The book threatens to put her prominent all-American family back in the tabloids. But will her family stop her? Will the truth be exposed? This hot new Tony-nominated play sheds light on a dysfunctional family reunion everyone can relate to.
Peter Flynn directed a cast that featured Richard Kline, Angie Radosh, Andrea Conte, Susan Cella, and Cliff Burgess.

Thinking Cap Theatre: Pool (No Water) (reviews)

ThinkCAP PoolThinking Cap Theatre opened its production of Pool (No Water) at the Muse Center for the Arts on February 21, 2014

Mark Ravenhill’s one-hour play about a group of old friends and fellow artists who gather to recount the story of their most celebrated friend, her successes, failures, and the horrific accident that altered her life and theirs. As she struggles to survive, her friends show their true colors by shaping an unthinkable plan under the guise of empathy and art. Will her suffering become their masterpiece? Where is the line between art and exploitation? Dive into a world of envy, intrigue, regrets and reconciliation.

Nicole Stodard directed a cast that included Hannah Citrin, Casey Dressler, Niki Fridh,  Noah Levine,  Desiree Mora,  Miles Smith and Scott Douglas Wilson.

 

Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:

The jealousy, ego and unbridled schadenfreude that exist in any normal human being seem to be intensified among the rarefied spirits we call artists – at least that seems to be thrust of Mark Ravenhill’s droll little satire, Pool (No Water) enjoying a hoot of an outing thanks to Thinking Cap Theatre in Fort Lauderdale.

The script is essentially a bare bones monologue and artistic director Nicole Stodard has invented a wry tone and an intriguing vision for the piece.

She has split up the lines among seven people to create a cross between the chorus of a verse play and all those narrators in The Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. The conceit of a supposedly tight knit “group” works perfectly with members chiming in a smooth narrative that they have told before…

It helps that the actors are mostly veterans of Thinking Cap’s pointedly alternative vision of experimental and thought-provoking plays produced on a shoestring budget. Each actor creates an individualized character and each is especially funny as storytellers imitating the voice and attitude of their nemesis, the successful artist. Miles Alexander, Hannah Citrin, Casey Dressler, Desiree Mora and Niki Fridh all work together seamlessly, but the standouts are Scott Douglas Wilson simply because of his larger-than-life brio and Noah Levine as an effeminate drug-addicted aesthete.

Pool (No Water) fits in perfectly with(Thinking Cap’s) vision. It really is a trifle, but it’s still an thoroughly entertaining diversion worth seeing that gleefully bulldozes over the boundaries of traditional theater.

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:

Mark Ravenhill’s pool (no water) is the sort of play that isn’t often produced in South Florida, a place where conventional theater forms rule.  But Fort Lauderdale’s Thinking Cap Theatre and founder-artistic director Nicole Stodard are all about risk-taking and artistic challenges. So the fact that Thinking Cap is launching its 2014 season with pool (no water) is impressive — the play is quite challenging for a director, actors and audiences — but hardly a surprise.

While the hour-long story is specific, its telling is fluid and abstract, requiring more from the actors and a concentrating audience. This is an ensemble piece, but you will notice and appreciate particularly vivid moments created by Wilson, Levine and Fridh.

Certainly, pool (no water) isn’t every theatergoer’s cup of tea. But those intrigued by boundary-stretching, intellectually provocative drama may find themselves intrigued by Stodard’s solution to Ravenhill’s puzzle.

Michelle F. Solomon wrote for Miami ArtZine:

Artistic Director Nicole Stodard’s production doesn’t only grow in the space of its 55 minutes, but surpasses what writer Mark Ravenhill probably envisioned when he arrived at his oddball dramatic structure.

Stodard’s imprint is all over the piece and it’s vibrantly wonderful to participate in the vision. She uses an artist space at Fort Lauderdale’s Muse Center for the ARTs, where the smell of oil paint wafts through the air, giving the environment an authenticity as a backdrop. Not a theater space by any means, her production team has rigged lights and music to wonderful effect.

Her ensemble is connected at its core, which is so crucial to the success of how the piece is constructed. Miles Alexander, Hannah Citrin, Casey Dressler, Niki Fridh, Noah Levine, Desiree Mora, and Scott Douglas Wilson, melt into one another, never dropping a beat. It’s thrilling to watch their tossing of lines to each other , almost like a game of hot potato with dialogue. A true ensemble, there are no standouts in this production (all are equally compelling), as each actor understands the nature of the piece.

Thinking Cap Theatre  presents Pool (No Water) at the Muse Center for the Arts through March 8, 2014

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Scene for February 21, 2014


We don’t know about you, but we’ve been busy.  But we are going to make it out to see Zoetic Stage’s critically acclaimed production of  ASSASSINS at The Arsht Center, which closes Sunday. 
 
But we’re intrigued by the National Theatre of Scotland’s offering ; a play set in a bar played in a real bar.  MDC Live Arts brought it over from The Auld Country.  So we might make a second trek down to Miami this week.  (Well, our fifth, truth be told).
 
On a completely unrelated note, do you know what really sucks?  When you go to peak at a theater’s web page while you’re at work, and suddenly your speakers blare to life because some jerk decided that the web site should automatically play music, alerting your boss that you’re not working on the TPS reports at all.  Don’t you hate when that happens?  We do.  So without naming any names, if you are an artistic director who happens to have a website that plays music, STOP THAT SHIT!
 
Here's what's playing on the scene this weekend:

opening...

The Wick Theatre offers The Full Monty through March 23rd, 2014.
 
The Plaza Theatre opens Rags, through March 16th.
 
Thinking Cap Theatre opens Pool (No Water) at its new home at The MUSE Center for the Arts, through March 8.
 

you still haven't missed...

Palm Beach Dramaworks presents Harold Pinter’s Old Times through March 2, 2014
 
New Theatre presents David Caudle’s Visiting Hours at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center  through March 2, 2014
 
The M Ensemble  presents Knock Me A Kiss at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center through February 23, 2014.
 
If you somehow managed to miss My Son The Waiter all those weekends it was playing at the Stage Door Theatre last year, you’re in luck.   Miami Stage Door Theatre brings Brad Zimmerman and his one-man-show back to the Byron Carlisle Theater through March 2.
 
Harold Pinter’s Old Times is challenging audiences at Palm Beach Dramaworks through March 2.
Weisenthal plays at the Broward Stage Door Theater, through March 16.
 
Laffing Matterz is back for another season of dinner, music, and outrageous original comedy at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Thursdays through Saturdays, with some Sunday matinees.

coming and going...
SPANK! The Fifty Shades Parody plays at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday.
 
The National Theatre of Scotland/ MD College Arts Live  present The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart at Bar 337.   
 
There’s a shocking amount of theatre happening in South Miami-Dade county this weekend Philadelphia’s renowned Walnut Street Theatre brings its production of Driving Miss Daisy to the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center through Saturday; don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
 

last chance to see...

The Zoetic Stage  production of Assassins plays at The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts through February 23.
 
Parade Productions presents The Last Schwartz at the Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center, through February 23.
 
Broward Stage Door presents Crimes of the Heart, through February 23.


community/conservatory
 
The University of Miami Theatre Department offers the musical Floyd Collins at the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre through February 22.  If you go, and you find yourself itching to leave by intermission – DON’T!  Stay for the Act 2 opener.  After that, you’ll stay for the whole thing and you’ll be glad you did.  Trust us.
 
Nova University Theatre presents Everyman at the Black Box Theatre in the Don Taft University Center through Sunday.  Say THAT three times fast; we dare you.
 
Main Street Playhouse, which is not the oldest community theatre in South Florida, but is the oldest continually operating community theatre in Miami-Dade County, presents Next Fall, through March 2.
 
Florida Atlantic University Department of Theater offers Two Gentleman of Verona through February 23, 2014.

for kids...

Pocahontas plays at the Showtime Performing Arts Theatre through March 1.
 
City Theatre brings The Amazing Adventures of Dr Wonderful and her Dog to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday.

















































New Theatre: Visiting Hours (reviews)

visiting_hours_posterNew Theatre opened its production of David Caudle’s Visiting Hours at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center on February 7, 2014.
Coral Gables, Florida. The Present. A lesbian couple's longtime relationship is threatened when their estranged adult son resurfaces, having been arrested for aggravated assault. Their struggle mirrors that of any couple faced with the prospect that their child will never be "okay." Miami native David Caudle's engaging drama Visiting Hours questions whether parents can ever escape the guilt for the sins of their children.
Margaret M. Ledford directed a cast that included Madelin Marchant, Barbara Sloan, Maria Corina Ramirez, Kitt Marsh, and Alex Alvarez.

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:
Resonant yet deliberately slow to reveal its secrets, Visiting Hours centers on a devoted lesbian couple, Marian (Barbara Sloan) and Beth (Madelin Marchant).
Directed by Margaret M. Ledford, Visiting Hours plays out in a cramped apartment that is as ugly as Marian and Beth’s ongoing exploitation by Paul (Alyiece Moretto designed the odd set). The acting is strong, though on opening night some lines were blown or forgotten. Too, one more clarifying rewrite wouldn’t hurt Visiting Hours. The facts and history contained in the plot are sometimes more confusing than revelatory.
Sloan and Marchant are convincing and compelling as the couple who are deeply bonded despite their differences… and they make you believe that the final test of the relationship could play out either way. Marsh is lascivious as Nat comes on to the much younger Shelly, amusing and sad as she grows ever more inebriated, poignant in her expression of loneliness.
But it’s Alvarez and Ramirez as the sneaky, raging young couple who prove both fascinating and frightening. Both of the younger actors walk the sociopath’s tightrope, radiating reason (Alvarez) and kookiness (Ramirez) until their masks fall away, and it becomes clear that no amount of a parent’s redemptive love is going to make any difference in their exploitative cruelty. And in its waning moments, Visiting Hours becomes a study in hard-wired familial dysfunction.
Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:
Until the final scene, it’s not terribly clear what New Theatre’s intriguing Visiting Hours is about or what it’s trying to say – and then the ideas come at you so fast that it takes a while afterward to sort out what playwright David Caudle has been setting up all  night.
Fortunately, the production led by director Margaret M. Ledford is consistently engaging and Caudle’s characters are absorbing enough to keep your attention... Ledford is one of the region’s best directors and she has worked hard to make this show land well with a competent cast.
Sloan, the New Theatre veteran with a dozen terrific performances on her resume, deserves credit for making Marian’s unconditional love of Paul nearly credible… but Paul’s callousness and cruelty makes Marian’s Pollyanna denial very close to implausible and only Sloan makes this work although you want to shake Marian for being such a pitiful dishrag.
Marchant’s Beth has seen too much emotional betrayal in the world outside not to be on guard.
Alvarez… has been building a reputation for reliably portraying nasty, intimidating and violent characters. Paul adds to the list. Alvarez fearlessly accepts that Paul is an absolute heartless bastard. But there’s also a bit of charismatic likability that makes Paul’s eventual meltdown a bit jarring.
Playing quirky, mercurial and crazy is fun but also a difficult challenge; Ramirez pulls it off. Looking a lot like Penelope Cruz, Ramirez’s 20-something Shelly is not just a bit unhinged, but simultaneously an experienced hustler with a street pragmatism that knows no boundaries whatsoever.
Sam Deshauteurs’ lighting changed regularly as emotions ebbed and flowed, but actors often ended up in dark spots on the stage.
This is the first production in New Theatre’s new home in the Lab Theater at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, a new facility in Cutler Bay. The room gives the company the most space it has ever had in its history plus more equipment than ever before.
Roger Martin reviewed for Miami ArtZine:
Not that we want rainbows and doughnuts at every final curtain but seeing unlikeable characters change not one whit hardly fosters care and concern.
Madelin Marchant in a solid, grounded performance is Beth, Marian’s longtime partner and sees Paul with a much clearer eye than his mother.
Kit Marsh, as Nat, desperate for affection, plays the lonely drinker well. Marina Corina Ramirez as Shelly acts in all directions at once, watchable at times, annoying at others.
Alex Alvarez, a big man, spreads the snake oil with ease, the ultimate dodger of all responsibility with no care for others.
Margaret M. Ledford directed with set design by Alyiece Moretto, sound by Matt Corey and lighting by Samuel Deshauteurs.


John Thomason reviewed for the Miami New Times:
If it seems like New Theatre's latest production has an extra spring in its step — if the set design, lighting, and actors appear unusually dynamic — it might be because the peripatetic company has finally found a decent home.  One thing is certain: It picked a quality piece of a drama to relaunch its brand. Visiting Hours, a Florida premiere by Miami native David Caudle, is set affectionately in his childhood metropolis; keep an ear out for references to Coral Castle, CocoWalk, and Joe's Stone Crab.
Under the direction of arguably South Florida's most skilled theater freelancer, Margaret Ledford, each actor plunges deep into his or her emotional well.
The criminally underused Alvarez, who has proven he can be quirky and funny… as well as monstrous and harrowing… gravitates mostly to the latter as Paul. His sheer size makes him an intimidating force when surrounded by slender women, and his Paul is a self-destructive loose cannon, a psychopath careening toward an early grave. It's a performance built equally on small gestures — sniffing like a cokehead after convincing his mother he's clean — and uncontrollable, animalistic maneuverings, like a bipolar Stanley Kowalski.
Ramirez… plays sexy and straggly at the same time, a devious dynamo whose presence in a room can warp its energy faster than a passing poltergeist.
Sloan and Marchant make for a believable couple, each one's yin playing off the other's yang. The former is a classic motherly archetype, forever hoping there's an angel somewhere hidden in the demon seed she brought into the world. She effectively turns on the water works a couple of times, but it's the small touches that resonate the most, like the few times she reaches for her son only to have her affections ignored or rebuffed. Marchant's Beth anchors the show as its most grounded character, but she's also its least expressive performance, and it teeters at times toward emotional disconnection; it doesn't help that she rushes through a number of her lines. She stuns, finally, in an arresting confrontation and its aftermath in the second act.
Marsh may be onstage the least, but she's terrific every moment she's on... She plays Nat with a drunkard's loudness and lack of self-awareness, like a bedraggled matriarch from… the Tennessee Williams canon.
New Theatre presents David Caudle’s Visiting Hours at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center  through March 2, 2014

M Ensemble: Knock Me A Kiss (reviews)

Knock_Me_A_Kiss_Flyer-e1391404083557
The M Ensemble opened its production of Knock Me A Kiss at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center on February 6, 2014.
Knock Me A Kiss by  Charles Smith is a fictional account inspired by the actual events surrounding the 1928 marriage of W.E.B. Du Bois’s daughter Yolande to one of Harlem’s great poets, Countee Cullen. She agonizes over ther overwhelming devotion to her father, co-founder of the NAACP and publisher of Crisis Magazine,  to choose between her passion for jazz bandleader, Jimmy Lunceford and marrying Countee.
Lowell Williams directed a cast that included Andre’ Gainey, Carolyn Johnson, Samuel Umoh, Makeba Pace, Ethan Henry, and Lela Elam.

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:
Black History Month is underway, and Miami’s oldest professional theater company is offering up a historically inspired lesson in romance gone wrong, skewed family values and the private lives of public figures.
Staged by Lowell Williams, the play is set in late 1920s New York during the Harlem Renaissance. It helps to hold that period in your mind as you watch the show unfold because little in Gregory Contreras’ set or Shirley Richardson’s costume design suggests the ‘20s, the most notable exception being the Jazz Age dresses worn by leading lady Makeba Pace.
The most compelling reason to make the long drive to Cutler Bay… is to savor the actors’ work. Henry, who is up for a best actor Carbonell Award, is irresistibly magnetic as Jimmie, a kind of life force whenever he’s onstage. Pace is compelling as a spoiled young woman who winds up sadder but wiser.
Carbonell winner Elam is masterfully funny and provocative as Lenora, Umoh persuasive as the smart and secretive Cullen. If Gainey is rather warm and soft as Du Bois… and Johnson’s Nina is emotionally all over the place, well, that’s how playwright Smith crafted the couple.
Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:
Some vibrant performances – one of them pure electricity – rescue M Ensemble’s uneven production of Charles Smith’s intriguing but flawed script about boldface names from the Harlem Renaissance, Knock Me A Kiss.
Ethan Henry has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting actors in the region. As with his title character in M Ensemble’s King Hedley II, Henry vibrates like a tuning fork. From the moment Lunceford dances onto the stage with Yolande, Henry seems to throw an oversized electrical switch to energize a bank of floodlights. His Lunceford exudes a charismatic lifeforce all the time, but doubly so when he is in wooing the woman he loves.
Pace, who is Henry’s real-life wife, is similarly as reliable a hand as a director could hope for. As she did in her aria last season as the agonized wife in King Hedley II, Pace uses her twinkling eyes, warm smile and fierce intelligence to build a Yolande who is both admirable and flawed.
Every Hamlet needs a Horatio to talk to or at least a Thelma Ritter. Few fill that sidekick bill as well as the ever-dependable Lela Elam, who savors every whipsmart wisecrack with a toss of her head and radiates jubilation.
Gainey exudes a warm geniality in almost every role we’ve seen him in. Unfortunately, those qualities don’t jibe with the imposing, fearsome gravitas that this role requires. Smith’s vision of Du Bois is of a man willing to sacrifice every aspect of his life, including personal and familial, to the greater good. Gainey seems just too nice a guy to make that supreme pragmatism plausible
Johnson is incapable of a bad performance, but her tamped down distracted Nina is uneven... Occasionally Johnson gets a protracted reminiscence and then her reverie becomes hypnotic.
Umoh has a tough challenge because Cullen is so stiff and formal around the Du Bois family that he seems one-dimensional and bland. We only see a little charm peek out on a date with Yolande; virtually no emotion slips out until their marriage begins to fray.
A nod is due the costume design by M Ensemble co-founder Shirley Richardson for Yolande’s sequined flapper dress and headband to the elegant bowties and vests of Du Bois and Cullen
Roger Martin reviewed for Miami Artzine:
There’s a lot of good humor in this piece despite it being a history lesson. Lela Elam goes on a wild ride as Lenora, Yolande’s confidante; always willing to help and then some. Ethan Henry is, as usual, the guy who lights up the joint. It’s a different Knock Me a Kiss whenever he’s on stage. And Makeba Pace, who’s in almost every scene, is completely smooth and believable as she plays her arc.
Written by Charles Smith and directed by Lowell Williams the play has a static quality to it, not helped by the laid back performances of André L. Gainey as W.E.B. Du Bois, Carolyn Johnson as his wife, Nina and Samuel Umoh as Countee Cullen.
The M Ensemble  presents Knock Me A Kiss at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center throught February 23, 2014.

Off Stage Conversations

Hello, this is Andie Arthur the Executive Director of the South Florida Theatre League. I'm here with Off Stage Conversations, a semi-regular posting on what's happening in the national and international theatre community as well as post any tips that could be useful for producers.

The Summit

Molly Smith, the Artistic Director of Arena Stage in DC, asked Peter Marks, the theatre critic for the Washington Post (and someone to follow on twitter), to do a series of discussions on topics of his choosing at Arena Stage. Marks decided to do three conversations: one with Artistic Directors, one with directors and one with playwrights. On Monday night, the first conversation happened -- and there was a surprising amount of candor about ticket prices, lack of younger audiences, and discussion on why female playwrights' works aren't appearing on major DC stages. Some of those in attendance shared their commentary on social media, causing those in the #2amt stream to interact with the discussion. Elissa Goetschius, the Artistic Director of the Strand Theater in Baltimore, wrote eloquently about her experience in the room and her question to the panel on how the upcoming DC Festival of Women's Voices will help artistic directors diversify their seasons.

First off, I think it's really great that the DC community is willing to get together to have these conversations, even if the content of the conversations is infuriating. In my work with the League, I try to bring people together and I've even hosted an internal diversity discussion, but we don't have anything on this scale. That being said -- what was shared here really rightfully infuriated a lot of people. To attest that there are no female playwrights in the pipeline is insulting. As a local, national and international community -- we ALL need to be better about diversity and gender parity. And if the social justice isn't enough for you -- the commercial argument should.

Ticket Prices

Along with the gender parity discussion, another thing mentioned in The Summit was ticket prices. The Center for the Future of Museums blog has a piece on ticket pricing, specifically pointing out that if non-profit theatre prices look like for-profit theatre prices, how much public benefit do they have to provide in order to jusitify non-profit support?

Similarly, Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune writes on the lack of low-end theatre options. With the erosion of the middle class, there's people buying very high end things and people buying very low end things, but the middle end market is diminishing. What is the arts equivalent of a Dollar Store?

Facebook Pages

A good guide on the dos and don'ts of facebook page management.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

The Scene For February 14, 2014

Lots playing around South Florida this weekend, but not a lot of stuff opening this week.

For those of you who keep asking if there’s anything special to see on Valentine’s Day, The Plaza Theatre is offering People Will Say We’re In Love this Thursday and Friday.  It’s a revue of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s most romantic songs.  We also recommend Warhorse, simply one of the best pieces of theatre playing on a stage anywhere.  And of course, Laffing Matterz serves up dinner AND a show, which makes a complete evening for your valentine.

 

And while it’s not theatre per se,  four time Tony-Award-winner Liza Minelli will certainly be theatrical when she plays the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday; and there are still some pretty good seats left. 



Here's what's playing on the scene this weekend:


opening...

Empire Stage revives Making Porn, through February 16.  We’ve lost count of how many times this has played in Fort Lauderdale, so don’t ask us.


you still haven't missed...

Palm Beach Dramaworks presents Harold Pinter’s Old Times through March 2, 2014

 

New Theatre opens Visiting Hours at its new digs in the Lab Theatre at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, through March 2nd.

 The M Ensemble also opens its first play at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, staging Knock Me A Kiss in SMDCAC’s Black Box Theater.

 
If you somehow managed to miss My Son The Waiter all those weekends it was playing at the Stage Door Theatre last year, you’re in luck.   Miami Stage Door Theatre brings Brad Zimmerman and his one-man-show back to the Byron Carlisle Theater through March 2.

 
The Zoetic Stage  production of Assassins plays at The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts through February 23.

 
Parade Productions presents The Last Schwartz at the Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center, through February 23.

 
Harold Pinter’s Old Times is challenging audiences at Palm Beach Dramaworks through March 2.


Weisenthal plays at the Broward Stage Door Theater, through March 16.

 
Broward Stage Door presents Crimes of the Heart, through February 23.

 
Laffing Matterz is back for another season of dinner, music, and outrageous original comedy at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Thursdays through Saturdays, with some Sunday matinees.


coming and going...

The 60’s come alive when Hair plays the Crest Theatre this weekend.

 

The 60s not your decade?  Then check out Stayin’ Alive at the Wold Perfomring Arts Center this Saturday and Sunday.

 

The Plaza Theatre is offering People Will Say We’re In Love this Thursday and Friday.

 
The national tour of Warhorse stops in at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday.


last chance to see...
 
The Wick Theatre production of 42nd Street winds up its extended on February 15, 2014.

 

Steve Solomon’s new one-man show, Steve Solomon’s Canoli, Latkes, & Guilt! The Therapy Continues plays at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts through February 16.


Other Desert Cities plays the Waterfront Playhouse in Key West through February 15.

 


community/conservatory
 

The oldest community theatre in South Florida, Delray Beach Playhouse,  offers You Can’t Take It With You through February 16.

 

The University of Miami Theatre Department offers the musical Floyd Collins at the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre through February 22.  If you go, and you find yourself itching to leave by intermission – DON’T!  Stay for the Act 2 opener.  After that, you’ll stay for the whole thing and you’ll be glad you did.  Trust us.

 

Nova University Theatre presents Everyman at the Black Box Theatre in the Don Taft University Center.  Say THAT three times fast; we dare you.

 
Main Street Playhouse, which is not the oldest community theatre in South Florida, but is the oldest continually operating community theatre in Miami-Dade County, presents Next Fall, through March 2.

 
Florida Atlantic University Department of Theater offers Two Gentleman of Verona through February 23, 2014.


for kids...
 

Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo Live plays at Parker Playhouse through Sunday.


Pocahontas plays at the Showtime Performing Arts Theatre through March 1.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Off Stage Conversations

Hello, this is Andie Arthur, executive director of the South Florida Theatre Legaue, and I'm back with Off Stage Conversations, where I take a look at some of the interesting blog posts, articles, and discussions happening in the national and international theatre communities.

Playwrights, Directors and Copywright

Melissa Hillman writes about how directors violate playwrights' copyright and specifically going through the various defenses that directors bring up when they are caught violating their contracts.

A New NEA Chair

Rocco Landesman resigned as the NEA chair in 2012 and yet the Obama administration has not yet found a replacement. Sign the official whitehouse.gov petition to ask President Obama to find a new NEA Chair.

Speaking of the NEA...

A new SMU study proves that NEA Grants do not primarily benefit the rich, despite what Paul Ryan has recently asserted.

Changing the Audition Process

TCG has an article about two companies in Boston that engaged in a longer audition process for more complicated shows. Are there circumstances when a monologue is not enough?

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Scene for February 7, 2014


Blink and you’ll miss it; this week’s Scene is out early enough to tell you about the Arts Garage Radio Theatre production of Casablanca tonight, Thursday February 6th, only. 
 
New Theatre and M Ensemble both open shows at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center – kudos to Eric Fliss for working with both companies to make this happen.
 
A lot of closings this weekend – if you haven’t caught Gablestage’s Anthony and Cleopatra, or Slow Burn’s Parade, or ONCE at the Arsht Center, or Boca Raton Theatre Guild’s Pippin, or Julie Johnson at Kutumba, or End of the Rainbow at Actors’ Playhouse, well, you might manage it if you double up on Saturday and Sunday.

But man, that’s a lot to cram in.
Here's what's playing on the scene this weekend:



opening...

  
New Theatre opens Visiting Hours at its new digs in the Lab Theatre at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, through March 2nd.

The M Ensemble also opens its first play at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, staging Knock Me A Kiss in SMDCAC’s Black Box Theater.
 
If you somehow managed to miss My Son The Waiter all those weekends it was playing at the Stage Door Theatre last year, you’re in luck.   Miami Stage Door Theatre brings Brad Zimmerman and his one-man-show back to the Byron Carlisle Theater through March 2.

Steve Solomon is at it again; he has a new one-man show, Steve Solomon’s Canoli, Latkes, & Guilt! The Therapy Continues…, playing at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts through February 16.




you still haven't missed...

Other Desert Cities plays the Waterfront Playhouse in Key West through February 15.
 
The Zoetic Stage  production of Assassins plays at The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts through February 23.
 
Parade Productions presents The Last Schwartz at the Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center, through February 23.

Harold Pinter’s Old Times is challenging audiences at Palm Beach Dramaworks through March 2.
 
The Wick Theatre production of 42nd Street has been extended through February 15, 2014.
 
Island City Stage presents Secrets of the Trade at Empire Stage, through February 9.
 
Weisenthal plays at the Broward Stage Door Theater, through March 16.
 
Broward Stage Door presents Crimes of the Heart, through February 23.
 
Laffing Matterz is back for another season of dinner, music, and outrageous original comedy at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Thursdays through Saturdays, with some Sunday matinees.



coming and going...
  
Mandy Patinkin brings his Dress Casual to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday.
 
The musical Once passes through the Arsht Center this weekend. See it by Sunday, or you’ll have to wait until next season.
 
The national tour of Sister Act stops in at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts through Sunday.




last chance to see...
  
Teatreo Prometeo’s production of Electra in Spanish winds it up this Saturday at Miami Dade College.

GableStage ‘s acclaimed  Anthony and Cleopatra at the Colony Theater in Miami Beach winds up its run this Sunday, February 9. This is their co-production with London's Royal Shakespeare Company and New York's Public Theatre.
 
Boca Raton Theatre Guild ‘s production of Pippin at the Willow Theater closes this Sunday, February 9, 2014.
 
Slow Burn Theatre's critically acclaimed production of Parade winds it up this February 9, 2014.
 
Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theater production of End of the Rainbow also closes February 9.
 
The Kutumba Theatre Project‘s  Julie Johnson at The Galleria Studio Theatre closes February 9.
 
The Plaza Theatre’s production of Renee Taylor’s My Life On A Diet comes to an end February 9.  Directed by Joseph Bologna.  Yes, really.  He might even be there.



community/conservatory
 
The oldest community theatre in South Florida, Delray Beach Playhouse,  offers You Can’t Take It With You through February 16.
 
Main Street Playhouse, which is not the oldest community theatre in South Florida, but is the oldest continually operating community theatre in Miami-Dade County, presents Next Fall, through March 2.
 
Florida Atlantic University Department of Theater offers Two Gentleman of Verona through February 23, 2014.




for kids...

Pocahontas plays at the Showtime Performing Arts Theatre through March 1.
 
The University School Of Nova Southeast University offers Shrek the Musical this weekend only.


Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Zoetic Stage: Assassins (reviews)

Zoetic Jan ONSTAGEZoetic Stage opened its production of Assassins at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts on January 30, 2014.

Winner of five 2004 Tony Awards including "Best Revival of a Musical," Assassins is the show that gives new meaning to the phrase "killer musical." With a stylish Stephen Sondheim score and a provocative book by John Weidman, Assassins brings to the stage a (shooting) gallery of some of history's most notorious players—the men and women who have attempted to kill American presidents.

Stuart Meltzer directed a cast that featured Shane Tanner, Chris Crawford, Nicholas Richberg, Gabriel Zenon, Henry Gainza, Nick Duckart, Iren Adjan, Lindsey Forgey, Chaz Mena, and Clay Cartland.

 

Christine Dolen reviewed for The Miami Herald:

Sondheim’s work is more intellectually and musically challenging than most, so props to the still-young Zoetic and artistic director Stuart Meltzer for choosing Assassins as the company’s first musical. Presented in the Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the show is a riveting, first-rate exploration of the way dreams and beliefs can turn into dangerous disillusionment.

Given that some of the real-life killers were murderous misfits or clearly deranged, you might think that Assassins would make for a grim piece of theater. Not so. Sondheim, whose work stylistically embraces the different eras in which the assassins lived, and Weidman, who captures the thematic connections among the characters in substantial scenes, embrace humor and irony as storytelling tools.

With intricately detailed staging by Meltzer and musical direction by Caryl Fantel, Assassins really does sing. To a man and woman, the cast has the vocal skills and finesse that the material requires. Richberg is a mesmerizing Booth, utterly convincing as a 19th century actor who went out in an inglorious blaze. Duckart, with his deep voice and tormented demeanor, makes Czogolsz emblematic of those who work themselves nearly to death and get exactly nowhere. Ditto Gainza’s ailing Zangara, whose soaring voice is silenced by the electric chair.

There’s a place for theater that simply wants to entertain its audiences, but a piece like Assassins aspires to much, much more. Theatergoers who take the leap with Zoetic and experience a musical that remains all too relevant will go home thinking, talking and enriched.

Bill Hirschman reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:

That Zoetic has chosen this uncommercial Stephen Sondheim /John Weidman opus for its first musical – and succeeded in scaling its genius – is cause for local celebration. Director Stuart Meltzer and a superb collection of actors and designers have scored, forgive me, a bull’s eye.

…the cast and band under Caryl Fantel’s music direction do justice to a challenging score that riffs on classic musical Americana, encompassing Sousa marches, a barbershop quartet and minstrel show cakewalks. But the traditional melodic strains are played off against anarchic atonal passages of angst and anger.  Echoes of Sondheim’s other work are clear, such as the nimble wordplay of Into The Woods and the dissonance of Passion.

In any other review, the quality of every performance would rate at least a couple of paragraphs. But with such a large assemblage, we’ll have to give some people short shrift. While these players certainly work together smoothly, ensemble isn’t quite the right term. Every one creates an independent vibrant individualized performance as evidenced by their spotlit solos.

Nicholas Richberg… exudes Booth’s mixture of self-deluded ego and patriotic altruism. A matinee idol’s charisma pours off him as he seduces Oswald from killing himself to killing Kennedy.

Chaz Mena (Sam Byck)… is simultaneously a hilarious and terrifying cartoon in a rumpled Santa Claus suit as he munches greasy junk food and dictates taped manifestos destined for Leonard Bernstein, Jonas Salk, Jack Anderson and Hank Aaron. Mena, a criminally underemployed actor… skillfully brings a variety of tones and emotional levels to what could have just been an unrelieved spewing of bile.

Nick Duckart… as Czolgosz who shot William McKinley, embodies the outrage of the blue-collar worker at the system’s inequity. Singing in the basement of his register, Duckart brings the intensity of a barely controlled explosive.

The certifiable Charles Guiteau as portrayed by Gabriel Zenone would be laughable if we didn’t know he was so dangerous. Zenone… makes Guiteau gleefully living in his own fantasy.

Chris Crawford… has a strong clear Midwestern decency that he emanates for most the show as The Balladeer, a narrator who sees the assassins for who they really are. But later, he is completely plausible as the conflicted Lee Harvey Oswald.

Just as good are Lindsey Forgey as Charles Manson’s acolyte Squeaky Fromme who tries to kill Gerald Ford; Irene Adjan as the addled but ordinary looking Moore (and Emma Goldman); Henry Gainza as Giuseppe Zangara who failed to hit Franklin Roosevelt but killed a Chicago mayor during a state visit not a mile away from the Arsht Center at Bayfront Park; Shane Tanner as the proprietor of the shooting gallery amorally arming the assassins for a buck; Clay Cartland as a woebegone John Hinckley…  and a nod to young ensemble members Kristian Bikic, Stephanie White and Aidan Neal.

Meltzer’s staging also is dead on and he adds dozens of little fillips of his own such as a well-timed somersault whose context we won’t spoil here. While there are scene changes in blackouts, he makes the evening seem to slide by gracefully.

Any Sondheim fan understands that his work is not everyone’s cup of saltpeter. But for those who seek intelligent, thought-provoking musical theater, there are few pieces as superb as this.

John Thomason reviewed for the Miami New Times:

Dressed in all black, a character known as the Proprietor (Shane Tanner) dispenses guns to various miscreants; we'll eventually come to recognize these disturbed souls as nine assassins, or would-be assassins, of sitting presidents. But at this time, they're simple trying out their new toys and singing about their freedom to wield them. There's something more than a little unnerving about eight people pointing pistols at the audience of a packed theater.

The reason a scene like this works so well is that director Stuart Meltzer has struck the perfect Sondheimian balance between danger and beauty, a delicate tightrope he'll spend the next two hours walking. When done right, carnage and loveliness intermingle in many Sondheim scenes, with comic irony often acting as their offspring.

Under Meltzer's direction, each assassin is bestowed with character quirks that leave a powerful impression. Richberg's Booth, with his dark suit and ostentatious red-felt vest with a gold pocket watch, projects erstwhile Southern gallantry — a pitiful B actor with a wounded leg, limping around a Virginia barn about to be set ablaze by the authorities. Richberg is such a good actor, imbuing this cretin with such tragic torment, we actually sympathize with him a little. Mena's Byck is America's irate id, a fount of delusional outrage in an absurd Santa costume who, if he were around today, would probably earn high ratings on hundreds of Clear Channel talk stations.

Zenone plays Guiteau like an unctuous dandy, hilariously waving jazz hands as he's led to his gallows. Cartland's Hinckley is a sensitive, guitar-strumming nerd with an unhealthy obsession with a certain Taxi Driver costar, a role that feels as informed by Cartland's own body of work as by the real-life Hinckley. As Fromme and Moore, Forgey and Adjan are the Keystone Kops of presidential assassins, and Meltzer draws some of the show's wittiest exchanges from these two actors. The Sondheimian balance doesn't extend to them: We never get any sense of a genuine threat when they're onstage, but they're so funny we don't miss it.

This is a production that continually goes the extra mile to surprise and impress, from Michael McKeever's intricate set design… to Ron Burns' lighting design… The amusing props, courtesy of Jodi Dellaventura, result in a couple of knockout gags I won't spoil.

Buried beneath the winning humor, clever songcraft, and excellent acting is the sobering and horrible reality that in the Balkanized political landscape of 2014, the next Booth or Guiteau or Hinckley really is just a shot away.

The Zoetic Stage production of Assassins plays at the Arsht Center through February 23, 2014.