Tag: Theater

New Season for the Clay and Wattles Theatre in Bethlehem

The 2014 Season at The Gary-The Olivia Theater in Bethlehem (on the grounds of the Abbey of Regina Laudis) begins with two one-act plays written by American Playwright Horton Foote. “Blind Date” and “The Actor” will be performed on June 13, 14, 20, 21 at 7:30 pm and June 15 and 22 at 2:30 pm.

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These beautifully written comedies set in the fictional town of Harrison, Texas are guaranteed to delight audiences with their poetry, insight into human nature and comic touch.

A prolific writer and winner of many awards. Mr. Foote wrote over 60 plays, television dramas and screenplays spanning a sixty year career. Perhaps most widely know for his screenplays for the films To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Tender Mercies (1983), winning the Oscar for both, Mr. Foote received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1995 for the play, The Young Man From Atlanta.

Both comedies deal with conflicts between the generations. In Blind Date, a former beauty pageant queen tries to persuade her recalcitrant and unwilling niece on the art of “How to attract a suitor,” and in The Actor, the well-intentioned parents try to dissuade their young son from pursuing a career in the theater.

Set in the fictional South Texas town of Harrison in the 1930’s, these plays bring out both the charm and pitfalls of small town USA in a humorous and engaging way.

On Friday, June 13, 2014, our opening night gala performance for Blind Date and The Actor will include complimentary wines from Walker Road Vineyards and local artisan made cheeses. Tickets are $25 per person for opening night and $20 per person for the run of the show. Season Subscription Package and Senior Discounts are available at: http://www.thegarytheolivia.com. 11 yrs and younger are admitted free.

Admission for opening night and details on our 2014 season is at: thegarytheolivia.com. More information:info@thegarytheolivia.com or 203-273-5669.

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Tri-Arts Theatre’s Patio Cabarets July 21-27

Fun at TriArts New Venue – Photo credit: Sean Bemand

TriArts Sharon Playhouse has announced a new venue for summer fun…Patio Cabarets! The entertainment will take place on the new covered patio attached to the Sharon Playhouse. Patio cabarets will feature the talented production cast members from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Altar Boyz. Cabarets will commence after the regular main stage performance on selected dates. The performers will be singing material of their own: Broadway, standards, pop, country…you’ll hear it all!

Tri-Arts is always looking for new ways to make the Sharon Playhouse a place that people can enjoy and with this new beautiful patio and bar area it is a winning combination. Patrons are encouraged to arrive at the Playhouse early for a bite to eat and then (on certain nights) stay late to enjoy the tremendous talents of the casts. As all theatre goers know, sometimes actors don’t have the ability to showcase their full talents in any given production role. The conviviality inspired by patio cabarets will both allow incredible performers to impress with their myriad skills, as well as continue to find ways for audiences and artists to mingle.”

Photo credit: Sean Bemand

The environment is casual and the bar will be open; stay for a few minutes or for the entire hour.

Patio Cabarets will take place on Saturday July 21st, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, July 25th; 26th and 27th. There is no charge and you will have the chance to meet the cast.

Upcoming Shows

The 2012 Summer Season at TriArts Sharon Playhouse continues with The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas starring Adinah Alexander, the award-winning musical Altar Boyz (July 20-29) and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music (August 9-26).

About TriArts Sharon Playhouse

TriArts Sharon Playhouse (Alice Bemand, Executive Director; Michael Berkeley and John Simpkins, Artistic Directors) is a not-for-profit theatre, located in Litchfield Hills, Sharon, CT. In addition to producing mainstage musicals and many special events each summer season, TriArts also offers a summer youth theatre program, workshops and readings of new musicals, concerts, and special events throughout the year in its Bok Gallery. For more information on TriArts Sharon Playhouse, please visit http://www.triarts.net or call 860-364-SHOW (7469).

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Westport Country Playhouse Opens Season With “Into the Woods”

Into the Woods Laren Kennedy, Erik Liberman and Danielle Ferland

A 25th anniversary production of the imaginative, fractured-fairy tale musical “Into the Woods” by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim will be staged at the theater where Sondheim was an apprentice in 1950, Westport Country Playhouse, in Westport, CT, May 1 through May 26. Directed by Mark Lamos, the Playhouse’s artistic director, the musical will open the historic theater’s 82nd season. It is co-produced with Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE.

A multiple Tony Award winner, “Into the Woods” takes the audience to a beguiling and dark place inspired by the Grimm fairy tales. Among the classic characters that wander the woods searching for fulfillment of their wishes are Cinderella and her wicked stepsisters, Little Red Ridinghood and the Wolf, Rapunzel and her Prince, and Jack of beanstalk fame. As their fanciful tales intertwine, they are forced to confront the harsh reality of what actually happens after “happily ever after.”

Director Mark Lamos, who also serves as Westport Country Playhouse artistic director, has helmed Playhouse productions of “Twelfth Night, or What You Will”; “Lips Together, Teeth Apart”; “Happy Days”; “She Loves Me”; “The Breath of Life”; “That Championship Season”; and “Of Mice and Men.” His extensive New York credits include “Our Country’s Good,” for which he received a Tony Award nomination. A former artistic director at Hartford Stage, he received the 1989 Tony Award for the theater’s body of work.

The performance schedule is Tuesday at 8 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Special series feature A Taste of Tuesday, Previews, LGBT Night Out, Opening Night, Thursday TalkBack, Sunday Symposium and Backstage Pass. In addition, the Playhouse will offer an open captioned performance on Sunday, May 13, 3 p.m., for the hearing impaired.

For more information or tickets, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online 24/7 at http://www.westportplayhouse.org.

About the Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, professional theater under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos and management leadership of Michael Ross. The Playhouse creates five live theater experiences, produced at the highest level, from April through November. Its vital mix of works—dramatic, comedic, occasionally exploratory and unusual—expands the audience’s sense of what theater can be. The depth and scope of its productions display the foremost theatrical literature from the past—recent as well as distant—in addition to musicals and premieres of new plays. During the summer, the Playhouse is home to the Woodward Internship Program, renowned for the training of aspiring theater professionals. Winter at the Playhouse, from November through March, offers events outside of the main season—Family Festivities presentations, Script in Hand play readings and a Holiday Festival. In addition, businesses and organizations are encouraged to rent the handsome facility for their meetings, receptions and fundraisers.

As an historic venue, Westport Country Playhouse has had many different lives leading up to the present. Originally built in 1835 as a tannery manufacturing hatters’ leathers, it became a steam-powered cider mill in 1880, later to be abandoned in the 1920s. Splendidly transformed into a theater in 1931, it initially served as a try-out house for Broadway transfers, evolving into an established stop on the New England straw hat circuit of summer stock theaters through the end of the 20th century. Following a multi-million dollar renovation completed in 2005, the Playhouse became a state-of-the-art producing theater, preserving its original charm and character.

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The Pietasters, Ska Music Like the English Beat, on StageOne

The Pietasters

StageOne in Fairfield (www.fairfieldtheatre.org) is celebrating St Patrick’s Day, March 17th, with a special concert by The Pietasters at 7:30 PM (doors open at 7:00 PM). Tickets are $22 and members get a $3 discount.

The Pietasters — a term of British slang for “fat guys”– are a seven-piece ska revival band founded in 1990 in Washington, DC by Stephen Jackson and some friends from Virginia Tech. Ska, for the uninitiated, is a musical style that originated in Jamaica in the fifties; a mix of horn riffs, calypso and Caribbean sound played by musicians with a general appreciation of drinking, fun-loving, and rebellion. It is also recognized as precursor to reggae.

Obsessed with the musical history of soul and Motown and influences coming from seventies ska bands like The Specials (Coventry, UK) and Bad Manners (London), The Pietasters stepped into the spotlight when they opened for the British ska band Bad Manners in 1992.

Their tight, high-energy, brassy punk reggae style gets people up and dancing before they know it. This could be why bands like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Ozomatli, and Cherry Poppin Daddies have asked them to share the stage on tour, or why James Brown had them back him up in front of 25,000 people in DC.

The Pietasters have been playing together for 22 years. They are known as a band playing catchy, energetic music that knows how to take control of a room, playing such favorites as Drunken Master, Night Owl, and One Dollar Bill besides fan favorite renditions of Maggie Mae (Rod Stewart), Come Together (The Beatles) and Listen to Her Heart (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers). Their lineup has changed over the years but some core members remain — namely founder Steve Jackson on vocals — but their sound is as tight as ever. Don’t miss this eight-man band that SPIN Magazine calls “an equal opportunity dancehall crasher — part ‘60s keg rock, part 2Tone and part Motown.”

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Bravo! A Century of Theatre in Fairfield County at the Fairfield Museum and History Center


Photo Caption: Katharine Hepburn as Portia in Merchant of Venice American Shakespeare Festival Theatre, Stratford. Photo Credit: Friedman-Abeles Courtesy, ASFTA Archives

When the curtain rises on Bravo! A Century of Theatre in Fairfield County, Fairfield Museum and History Center expects the crowds to be standing room only!

The six-month exhibition will begin with a special gala fundraising preview that will honor actor Christopher Plummer; playwright A.J. Gurney; director Mark Lamos; and costume designer Jane Greenwood on Saturday, September 24th at the Museum.

The honorary event chair is distinguished actor Joanne Woodward and the gala event chairs are Mary Jane Berrien, Lisa Callahan and Caroline Owens Crawford, all of Fairfield.

According to Director of Exhibitions and Programs for the Museum, Kathleen Bennewitz, Bravo! opens to the public on Sunday, September 25th and will run through Sunday, March 18th, 2012. “It will be the largest, first-of-a-kind exhibition the Museum has undertaken and will focus on the legacy of Fairfield County’s regional theatres, highlighting the Westport Country Playhouse, the White Barn Theatre and the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre and Academy,” she said.

Photo Caption: From left…Actors Maggie Lacey, Paul Newman and Ben Fox in the 2002 Westport Country Playhouse production of Our Town.

The Fairfield Museum and History Center is working in partnership with Martha S. LoMonaco, PhD, Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University, who is guest curating this exhibition. The Fairfield Museum has chosen this topic because Fairfield County holds a unique place in the history of American theatre and is rich with vibrant stories. “One of Connecticut’s important roles in the performing arts has been as an ‘incubator’ of emerging talent, providing a place where playwrights, actors and designers have had the freedom to experiment with groundbreaking ideas,” Bennewitz noted. “Over the past century, regional theatres have provided opportunities for internationally known artists to ‘try out’ their craft on a regional stage to allow audiences to experience the best in classical, popular and innovative dramatic art in a different setting outside New York. “Collectively, the productions have comprised a who’s who of stage artists like Katharine Hepburn, Alfred Drake, Morris Carnovsky, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Christopher Plummer, James Earl Jones, June Havoc, Robert Ryan and Bert Lahr, to mention only a few.

Bravo! will offer visitors a unique opportunity to hear the fascinating stories behind those actors and some of their landmark performances,” Bennewitz added. Bennewitz explained that interactive stations will provide a window to “behind the scenes” stage production and a colorful array of costumes, props, photographs and manuscripts will combine to illustrate Fairfield County’s theatrical history.

Photo Caption: The internationally famous and glamorous producer, Lucille Lortel, popularly known as the “Queen of Off-Broadway”, opened the White Barn Theatre in 1947 on her Westport estate in a former horse barn.

The Museum will also offer a slate of public education programs, related to Bravo!, where visitors may participate in activities, presentations and performances at the Museum and at partnering institutions. These programs will provide the experience of live theatre while inspiring the artists and audiences of tomorrow.”Another of the very exciting aspects of Bravo! is the partnerships we have established with more than 60 performing arts organizations throughout Fairfield County that will co-promote the exhibition and its related educational programs and performances,” Bennewitz said. “These partnerships will help make the exhibition and their own performances appealing.”

For more information on Bravo! A Century of Theatre in Fairfield County, its programs and the opening gala, visit http://www.fairfieldhistory.org or call 203-259-1598.

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