Newest articles on The Sacramento Press written by Barry Wisdom

Hometown orchestrator Matt Castle happy to be part of STC's 'Princess' diary

2013-05-14T17:23:51Z

For Matt Castle, a New York-based jack of all musical trades whose work can currently be heard in Sacramento Theatre Company’s lauded world-premiere production of “A Little Princess” (extended through the evening of May 19), taking on the task of orchestrating Eric Rockwell’s score was a multi-layered labor of love.

Not only did it allow Castle, a Sacramento native now living in New York, the opportunity to participate in the gifting of his hometown with an original musical adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved novel, but it provided yet another project on which he and husband Frank Galgano could collaborate – further establishing the duo’s reputation as go-to guys for musical theater orchestrations.

“When Eric came to me and Frank, we were happy to be asked,” said Castle during a rehearsal break from his current gig as the musical director/pianist for the Fiasco Theatre production of “Into the Woods” at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, N.J. “It’s definitely a big deal for Sacramento Theatre Company to be creating a new musical. It’s a huge endeavor.”

“We talked with him and the other two authors (lyricist Margaret Rose and book writer William J. Brooke), discussed the space available, and once we had the choice of instruments set (harp, cello, clarinet/flute/piccolo, piano/synthesizer, percussion), we went to work.”

Castle said he likens the work he and Galgano accomplish to what one sees on “reveal-happy” reality shows. “You get the parameters from those in charge, and then you have to balance your work between utility and design and cost. It’s a wonderful process – it uses your whole brain.”

What followed were an exchange of ideas and digital files between Castle and Galgano, and the other members of the creative team that also included Sacramento Theatre Director Executive Producing Director Michael Laun, who oversaw Equity principal auditions in New York this past October. The 18-member cast – led by Jerry Lee, Josh Powell, Michael De Souza and Deborah Tranelli – first gathered for a read-through in February, with rehearsals starting in earnest a month later.

“We understood very well the style of Eric’s score, Margaret’s lyrics and William’s book,” Castle said. “Our primary challenge as orchestrators – and what we had no way f knowing – was the tone and style of the production itself. We hoped to orchestrate with a design that will last for the life of the show, something that fits with the play as written. We didn’t know Michael Laun’s work as a director, we hadn’t seen set sketches or costume sketches. We were, after all, on the other side of the country.”

“One thing we did to help bridge the distance after scoring the first song, was orchestrate what was essentially a karaoke track so the other designers could hear a soundscape. We sent it out to the design team to help them imagine a jumping-off place.”

The feedback from Rockwell was more than positive, said Castle.

“He said some very gracious and complimentary things about our work on the show,” he said. “He said we took what he wrote and lifted it to a new, higher level. We couldn’t ask for a better compliment than that.”

Despite the kudos the creative team was trading, a certain amount of anxiety comes with the opening of every world premiere. They needn’t have worried; local reviewers were extremely generous, tossing out superlatives like Mardi Gras doubloons.

“Exquisite score,” proclaimed The Sacramento Bee. “This show has everything one could want to make it a hit,” said The Davis Enterprise. “The music, by composer Eric Rockwell, is one of the stronger aspects of ‘A Little Princess.’ And just about everyone in the large cast ... sings well,” broadcast Capital Public Radio.

“It turned out much better than I ever hoped it would,” said Castle, who said he tends to avoid embracing expectations. “I guess that’s a benefit of enjoying the unknown as I do. I don’t have to meet an expectation; I just go forward doing the best I can, enjoying it as it happens. I don’t often feel disappointed because I go in with high hopes, with open eyes, and an open heart. Part of the reason I feel successful – and my standard of success is based on what I’m doing, if the work I’m doing today better than what I was doing yesterday – is that I feel very happy about what I’m doing.”

Castle’s positive attitude and willingness to explore the unknown have served him well in an industry where knowing too much can often dampen a performer’s creative spark before it has a chance to catch fire. His never-say-die spirit was evident even as a University of Pacific Conservatory of Music student, said Professor Sue Eskridge, who served as Castle’s mentor and collaborator during his matriculation and subsequent tenure as head of the school’s summer enrichment program, which facilitated musical theater training for juvenile artists.

“Matt’s the only perfect person I know,” said the now-retired Eskridge, “not that I'm biased. He truly does come close to perfect. During the 10 years he was artistic director for SEP, he wrote the shows, directed the shows, did everything, including playing the piano. I think I called myself the program director. I created it and raised bundles of money so he could make it wonderful, which he did. But he was the artistic genius. Yes, I am quite biased, but it is all true.”

“Since I first met Sue she fully expected me to go to New York and take over ‘Phantom,’” laughed Castle. “But it’s easier for some else to say than saying it about yourself. That’s not how my ambition functions. Since my first involvement in theater as a sophomore in high school, I subconsciously felt that pull until my mid-20s. Then it took a little time to feel ready.”

After a few months of study with Fair Oaks-based vocal coach Jackie Victorino, Castle said it was time to head east.

“There was nothing left but to jump in and try to do my best and see if it would work out,” Castle said.

When Castle decided to make the move in the fall of 2000, he confesses to going in blind.

“I can honestly say I moved to New York City without one expectation of what it would be like,” said Castle. “I knew I couldn’t predict it, couldn’t even imagine it. I’ve never been a five-year plan person – it’s just not my style. I enjoy the unknown, and the adventure of what that means. I went to New York to make an identity for myself as an actor, and knew exactly two people in the entire city. I had no idea how it all works. I had a headshot and a résumé, but didn’t know where to go to find where auditions are. Plus, I had no professional training as an actor – all my training was in music. I learned it all on the job.”

Call it luck, call it talent – or a combination of both – but Castle found a modicum of success right off the bat.

“Then September 11th came, and the job market changed overnight,” said Castle of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers. “Those with Broadway jobs had to take jobs out of town; people at the top of the food chain changed. I had such a slight foothold that I was completely bumped – I did what I had to do, and that included going to temp agencies and taking clerical tests.”

But Castle never had to trade in the calluses built up over years of playing the piano for paper cuts garnered from daylong sessions of filing legal folders thanks to a job offer playing for rehearsals at New York University.

“I began playing more, and getting musical-direction jobs,” said Castle. “And I was still auditioning from time to time. That led to work as a musician-actor combination, which is how I got to understudy Eric Rockwell in ‘The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)’ off-Broadway. He didn’t want to do the show eight times a week, and the producers allowed him to sit out three days a week and I was going on every matinee in his place, as well as occasionally for the other male lead.”

In 2006, Castle made it to Broadway as a cast member in the Tony Award-winning revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” an experience he hopes to repeat.

Soon thereafter he and Galgano discovered one another and thus began their personal and professional partnership.

“Frank comes to music as a singer,” said Castle of the duo’s approach to orchestration. “His knowledge comes from recording other people’s orchestrations. He’s recorded more than 100 Broadway shows instrument by instrument. His training reminds me of how orchestrators trained before computers.”

“I often do the nuts-and-bolts work, the technical side. He maintains the broader, stylistic, overall view of what we do. Sometimes he does the forest and I do the trees. Other times, he does the fun aspects, and I do the detail work. For me, the nuts-and-bolts stuff is fun so we both have jobs suited to our personalities.”

In just a few short years of working together, Frank and I are becoming known as a creative team,” said Castle, who said the couple’s professional teaming has happily tipped the scale of his creative endeavors in favor of orchestration work.

“In the past eight or nine years, a lot of what I’ve been doing has been musical direction, with some orchestration,” said Castle. “Now orchestration is a bigger piece of what I do, and that’s partly because it’s something Frank and I can do together – something we can do better together.”

Together for more than four years now, the couple made it official a year-and-a-half ago.

“We have both been actors, but Frank doesn’t act that often anymore, so I guess for me it’s not so much about changing focus than switching my work balance a bit,” Castle said. “I’m very happy with the current balance – happier than before. It’s a silly thing to say, but it’s true. It’s more enjoyable because I get to do it with my husband.”

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The world premiere production of "A Little Princess," a new musical by Eric Rockwell (composer), Margaret Rose (lyricist) and William J. Brooke (book)

WHERE: Sacramento Theatre Company, 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHEN: Plays through May 19, with performances at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday,12:30 and 6:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday

WHO: Directed by Michael Laun; orchestrated by Matt Castle and Frank Galgano; with musical acompaniment by Erik Daniells (conductor/piano), Elaine Lord (percussion), Alex Winter (cello), John Doolittle (reeds), Beverly Wesner Hoehn (harp); featuring Lauren Metzinger/Alyssa Middleton (Sara Crewe), Jerry Lee (Captain Crewe, Sara's father), Josh Powell (Tom Carrisford), Michael De Souza (Ram Dass), Deborah Tranelli (Miss Minchin), Tyler Wipfli (Mariete), Tori Johnson/Emma Vance (Becky), Martha Omiyo Kight (Amelia), Meghan Greene/Abbey Williams-Campbell (Lavinia), Devon Hayakawa/Christine Miyashiro (Ermengarde), Courtney Shannon/Jordan Taylor (Betsy), Sydney Christofferson/Ana Riley-Portal (Ruth), Kiki Burns/Bella Bagatelos (Jessie), Angel Marie/Jillie Kate Randle (Lottie), Jeffrey Lloyd Heatherly (Constable), Blair Leatherwood (teacher), Carol Miranda (cook), Kayla Berghoff (maid), Courtney Shannon/Jordan Taylor (beggar girl), David McDaniel (beggar), Kayla Beghoff, Kailey Diggs, Jeffery Lloyd Heatherly, Blair Leatherwood, David McDaniel, Carol Miranda (other servants and Londoners)

HOW MUCH: $15-$38 (discounts for students, seniors, and groups available)

FOR MORE INFO: (916) 443-6722; www.sactheatre.org

Big Idea's 'Private Eyes': Who's zoomin' who?

2013-05-03T15:09:48Z

With all of the social media outlets available to theater professionals – arguably one of the Sacramento area's most "vocal" populations now posting, tweeting, webbing and pinning – it's a challenge for those company members charged with "getting the word out" to play it close to their Velcroed vests to avoid spilling "spoilers."

But that's exactly the very thin, gaffer-taped line that director Jouni Kirjola is walking these days as he promotes the Big Idea Theatre production of "Private Eyes," playing April 26 through May 25.

"It's so hard to describe without giving away the secrets," said Kirjola of the show, what playwright Steven Dietz calls a “relationship thriller.” "It's an exploration of relationships and dynamics within relationships, but also of perceptions. Maybe I should just say it's a fast-paced, comedic, dramatic, schizophrenic exploration of deception within relationships."

The title of the play might suggest it’s something of a play noir, about a hard-boiled detective, a leggy lady in distress, a menacing mobster and a gal Friday all in pursuit of some mysterious (albeit valuable) objet d’art. But as Kirjola says, “Private Eyes” is more about betrayal on an emotional level, and how emotions (and the passage of time) can alter one’s recollections and interpretations of the past.

“It has heart, it has emotion, it has sex, it has a lot of comedy – it has a little bit of everything,” said Kirjola, a second-year Big Idea company member whose directorial credits include 2012’s “Moonlight and Magnolias.”

Told in a decidedly non-linear style, and featuring a plot course with more twists and turns than a Formula One race track, it’s a show best seen when fully rested, when one’s eyes aren’t prone to flutter and one’s chin isn’t likely to fall to chest level.

But as much as he’d like audiences to put their faith in him and his cast without a word of preface, he’s aware that in this information age people prefer to take journeys of discovery only after having read the last screen of a text.

For those folks, he offers this hors d'oeuvre of an overview: “Matthew’s wife, Lisa, may be having an affair with Adrian, a British theater director. Or, perhaps, the affair is part of a play being rehearsed. Or could it be Matthew has imagined all of it simply to have something to report to his therapist Frank? And who is the mysterious woman who seems to shadow the others?”

“Nothing is as it seems,” said Kirjola. “That’s part of the fun of it – nothing is certain; it inspires conversations and warrants a second viewing.”

The cast features Bert Andersson as Adrian, Kristine David as Lisa, Dan Featherston as Matthew, Nina Collins as the “mysterious woman,” and Big Idea company member Gregory Smith as Frank.

Kirjola credits his actors for tackling the play's admittedly steep peak, and for reaching the rarefied air of its summit.

“The script is extremely complex,” said Kirjola. “It has so many different layers. There are alternate realities, flashbacks told out of order. But each of the actors has truly delivered not only an understanding of the show itself, but of each of the characters. And that’s important because each character should have a soul, and be relatable to the audience somehow. The cast has really delivered that heart and soul.”

Kirjola discovered the play during one of Big Idea’s regular confabs when the company’s upcoming season is mapped out, and its members decide who is going to take on directorial duties.

“I just latched onto it,” said the Placerville native. “It was my favorite show out of all the plays we read. I pushed hard for it with my intention of directing it. Every actor in the show gets to play every emotion, so it’s a fun story to tell. I just got super excited about it.”

“Though I’m more of an actor than a director, this play really spoke to me,” continued Kirjola (“Arcadia”). “Even when I’m directing, I come to a play as an actor and will help my cast discover their characters. There’s so much going on with this script in particular, so I worked with each actor on points of humanity, and tried to engender a sense of fun during the process. I encourage them to try new things, and to join them in that process is definitely fun for me.”

Just as his cast has done, Kirjola said he hopes Sacramento-area audiences will take the leap with him to discover all that “Private Eyes” has to offer.

“Even my friends are cautious about seeing new shows because they’ve seen so much bad theater,” said Kirjola. “But this is an incredibly engaging show, and I think people – even those who don’t like theater, or have been bored by plays in the past – might be surprised at how entertaining it is.”

“Everyone has been lied to or deceived. We’re all 'private eyes' throughout the show; we’re all trying to put all of the loose ends together and solve the mystery. That, in itself, makes ‘Private Eyes’ an extremely rewarding and exciting – and fun – adventure.”

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Big Idea Theatre production of Steven Dietz's "Private Eyes"

WHEN: April 26 through May 25, 2013, with performances at 8 p.m. April 26 and 27, May 2 through 4, May 9 through 11, May 16 through 18, May 23 through 25

WHERE: Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Directed by Jouni Kirjola; featuring Bert Andersson (Adrian), Kristine David (Lisa), Dan Featherston (Matthew), Gregory Smith (Frank), "Mysterious Woman" (Nina Collins)

HOW MUCH: $14-$16 (online); $18-$20 (at the door); $10 "Thrifty Thursday" tickets available May 2, 9, 17, 24

MORE INFO: Call (916) 960-3036; www.bigideatheatre.com

Actor Dan Fagan adds playwright to résumé with 'A Tiger Without Mercy'

2013-05-02T18:00:25Z

On June 24, boxing fans around the world will commemorate the 118th anniversary of William “Jack” Dempsey’s birth.

This evening – May 2 – Sacramento’s Geery Theatre gets the party started for the well-liked heavyweight champ with its world premiere of Dan Fagan’s “A Tiger Without Mercy.” The one-man show, starring Fagan as Dempsey (as well as some 30 real-life figures in the prizefighter’s life), and directed by Anthony D’Juan, continues through May 10.

As the first-time playwright (and up-and-coming actor) details, this “Tiger” is no blindly “Raging Bull,” but neither is he a pussycat. Dubbed “the Manassa Mauler” by writer (and boxing aficionado) Damon Runyon, whose Broadway-based stories inspired such works as “Guys and Dolls” and “The Lemon Drop Kid,” Dempsey was a gritty, small-town Colorado boy who would develop world-class tactical skills to complement his God-given boxing talents.

Writer Joyce Carol Oates calls his style “fast, direct and merciless.” Journalist Mike Casey, calls Dempsey the greatest of all time.

“Jack, the ninth of 11 children of an impoverished family of Mormon itinerant workers in Colorado, welded brilliant technique and strategy with a stupendous punch like no other boxer,” writes Casey in one of the many pieces on the coal miner-turned-heavyweight champ Fagan would study during the seven months he spent researching and writing “A Tiger Without Mercy.”

“His punches came packed with the full power of his entire shoulder span," continues Casey. "He was a nightmare of an opponent. He hated sharing the ring with anybody else. He appeared to be a fist fighter from another planet. It was no coincidence that they called him ‘the man killer.’"

“The chilling term of ‘man killer’ wasn’t casually lumped on Jack Dempsey in the throwaway manner that nicknames are handed out today. It was thoroughly earned in the toughest schools the fight game has ever seen. It was earned thrillingly, violently and sometimes shockingly by a unique force of nature.”

“He was a great personality to write about,” said Fagan of Dempsey, who elicited his fair share of roars during the Roaring ‘20s. “He was someone who started with nothing, but who achieved a lot. As an actor and a writer, I’m drawn to characters who are complex and interesting – Dempsey fit the bill.”

Fagan, who, as a very young boxer-to-be, spent three successful years in the ring making his father proud and his mother nervous, brings more of himself to his script (and to his performance as Dempsey) than a shared appreciation of the manly art.

Born and brought up in a cozy, cloistered community (Cody, Wyo.) whose population has yet to hit exceed four digits, Fagan was drawn to televised bouts, and then to the local boxing gym.

“I fell in love with it,” said Fagan, 27, who went on to become a two-time state boxing champion. “It was a very demanding sport, and forced me to be committed and dedicated.”

But when city-funded support was cut, Fagan looked for other outlets for his energy. He found some satisfaction in playing a variety of team sports, but nothing was quite the same as lacing up the gloves and going mano-a-mano.

“I grew up in the country outside of town – swimming in the canal, climbing mountains and hay bales, and riding horses,” he said. “We didn’t have cable, we had five TV channels. It wasn’t a typical childhood, but it was a memorable one.”

But Fagan was eager to escape the confines of village life, and pursued a variety of odd jobs that he looked to take him to more romantic locales than the interior of a coal mine. His wanderlust would eventually land him in Buenos Aires, where he bartended until his visa expired.

“I always had a desire to go out and see other places – much like Jack Dempsey,” said Fagan. “I had a fascination with South America. To me, Buenos Aires was mysterious place, deserving of the nickname ‘the Paris of South America.’ I made a snap decision to go there and live for a while.

“It was a wonderful three months.”

But as they say, all good things must come to an end.

“I was 22, and I asked myself, ‘Now what are you going to do?’”

The answer turned out to be head back to Sacramento where he had family living in nearby Elk Grove.

While taking classes at Cosumnes River College, he met drama instructor and River Stage founder Frank Condon who invited him to participate in the 2010 premiere of his “True Life Stories” project about the personal and professional challenges facing six student actors. (Think “A Chorus Line” without the dance belts and Danskins.)

Since then, Fagan completed a successful acting internship at the B Street Theatre, nailing a number of roles along the way, including parts in the company’s productions of “Carapace,” “In Absentia,” and “We Declare.” Additional Sacramento-area credits include “Strangers on a Train” (Actor’s Theatre of Sacramento), and “My Fellow Creatures” and “Liar” (EMH Productions).

Looking back on his short-lived career as a pre-teen boxer, Fagan said the program’s closure was the best thing that could have happened to him.

“After I stopped boxing, I made this huge discovery in theater,” said Fagan. “It changed the course of my life, and it was all for the best.”

To view additional production photographs, click here.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The world premiere of "A Tiger Without Mercy"

WHEN: 8 p.m. May 2, 3, 6, 9, 10

WHERE: The Geery Theatre, 2130 L St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Written and performed by Dan Fagan; directed by Anthony D'Juan

TICKETS: Call (307) 250-1891

B Street's 'Fantasy Festival XXVII' puts student playwrights in spotlight

2013-04-23T14:31:29Z

Today’s headlines: King Arthur and Sir Robin of Locksley pull out all the stops (as well as their sword and bow) to vanquish the evil Mordred; a boy’s neighbors find a bit more spring to their steps when a fairy godparent turns city streets into trampolines; a time-traveling scientist turns up the volume for all those he encounters during a mid-19th century sojourn; rival lemonade-stand entrepreneurs discover more in common than a mutual love of citrus fruit; and when a rebel cowgirl arrives in Rodeo Riday, she spurs the populace into making drastic changes.

If only the real headlines of the day were as entertaining as these.

These may not be actual breaking-news stories, but those familiar with the B Street Theatre School Tour’s annual “Fantasy Festival” productions have come to expect zany with a capital “Z” each spring, when company members collaborate with budding K-8 playwrights to break everything from conventional theater boundaries to “wind” in pursuit of laughs.

More than 150 plays from Sacramento-area elementary and middle-schools were submitted for this year’s “Fantasy Festival XXVII” competition, said Alison Whismore, coordinator of the midtown troupe’s outreach and education office. Five were ultimately selected, with each getting a bit of professional B Street polish by resident playwrights Dave Pierini and John Lamb.

“In the 27 years of serving schools, child audiences remain entertained and involved in the B Street Theatre School Tour,” said Whismore. “As it is the first – and sometimes only – exposure to live professional theater for many kids, the plays continue to be received with delighted surprise by all our audiences.”

Since March 18, school tour company members Mikey Pollock, Andrew Perez, Denver Vaughn and Andy Rathburg have been performing the 45-minute show for students and their teachers in cafeterias and auditoriums throughout Northern California. Before the show closes on June 7, the cast will have presented the fast-and-furiously funny showcase at 144 assemblies at some 110 schools.

On April 13, the troupe gave a pair of public performances at the Fairytale Town-hosted Sutter Children’s Center Wellness Festival. A free public performance is scheduled for 10 a.m. April 27 on the B Street Theatre’s B3 stage (2727 B St., Sacramento, Calif.).

Whismore, a two-and-a-half-year veteran of the B Street’s outreach/education office, said that while she’s come to understand and appreciate that the school tour program often plays to students who are live-theater newbies, she continues to be taken aback by the number of teachers and administrators who are among the uninitiated.

“This is hard to believe for some of us,” said Whismore. “There are many teachers in the counties we serve who have never seen a live professional performance of any art form: theater; ballet; orchestra; opera. So, culturally, we’re dealing with preserving the notion that these art forms exist and still have social power and impact.”

One of the greatest achievements of the school tour productions is demonstrating that kids and adults alike can actually survive for more than a half-hour without once pushing a smartphone keypad.

“My perception of our artistic goals as a company is that we want to bring arts exposure to students in the form of a professional live theater production,” Whismore said. “The entity being presented is a crafted play written, directed and performed with purpose. It is not structured to be interactive, which seems to be the trend of demands in recent years. More and more there’s a hope that we will involve the kids in interaction during a show. Our definition of audience engagement is achieved when the kids lose themselves in the stories and cheer, gasp or applaud in response to what they are experiencing.”

“In this age of social networking, and instant ‘gotta-share-this-now-with-someone-who-isn’t-here’ society ... one hopes that it is a measure of accomplishment when actors can hold the attention of an audience of both children and adults for 45 minutes without a single audience member feeling the compulsion to ‘tweet’ the experience. That says a lot, I believe, about engagement and involvement, when the individual in the audience allows the moments to be that communal experience experienced with the ‘community’ – aka the audience – present in the same room.”

Of course, “Fantasy Festival” is as much about the playwrights’ accomplishments in holding the attention of audience members, as it is the actors’ performances.

This year’s winning playwrights and their plays are: Angela Tomasello (third grade, Williamson Elementary School, Rancho Cordova) for “The Trampoline”; Dolores Villaruel (fourth grade, Cordova Villa Elementary School, Rancho Cordova) for “Lemonade vs. Lemonade”; Jordan Dreyer and Abby Benvenuti (eighth grade, Sierra Oaks K-8 School, Sacramento) for “Jordan Da Rebel”; Josh Golden (sixth grade, Rocklin Elementary School, Rocklin) for “Robin Hood’s Adventure in Camelot”; and Emily Walmer (seventh grade, Quincy Junior/Senior High School, Quincy) for “The Time Traveler.”

While school budgets are continually scrutinized for possible cutbacks, Whismore said the B Street Theatre’s School Tour productions have earned such high praise in the last three decades that communities are loathe to let go of the opportunity to host them – including the annual “Fantasy Festival” shows.

“I was just calculating the number of shows sponsored by outside organizations,” said Whismore. “And it looks like 79 are being sponsored this year – 79 that the schools themselves didn’t have to pay for. That includes support from a lot of Rotary Clubs, whose emphasis is on literacy. While budgets keep getting cut, cut, cut in schools, these other organizations are rising to the challenge to make sure kids are getting arts education in schools.”

For more information on “Fantasy Festival XXVII,” the B Street Theatre School Tour program, or Saturday's free public performance, call (916) 442-5635 or (916) 443-5300, or go online at www.bstreettheatre.org/school-tours.

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A powerful 'Agnes' at Celebration Arts

2013-04-21T03:55:58Z

In putting together a season roster, artistic directors must weigh factors both creative and financial – from the cost of royalties, to the size of the stage, to scenic-design requirements. And though the finished dish may be delectable, rarely does a recipe end up with that perfect combination of ingredients in all of the right proportions.

But, sometimes, prayers are answered.

Celebration Arts Artistic Director James Wheatley, who directs the theater's current production of "Agnes of God" (March 22-April 28), was searching for a show that would satisfy some very-specific needs, including the above-mentioned considerations.

"I was looking for a small-cast play featuring females," said Wheatley, noting the greater availability of female actors in the Sacramento area. "When I thought about 'Agnes,' it seemed like it would be a nice challenge for the actors, that it would stretch them out."

Most importantly, he said, play selection is all about satisfying audience expectations, and "Agnes" seemed to be a good fit for Celebration Arts' drama-heavy, 7-year-old wheelhouse.

"I liked the story," said Wheatley. "I liked the way playwright John Pielmeier told the story, the way it's done in a seamless series of short scenes. It should provide a good experience for the audience."

"It really was good for us," he continued. "It didn't require extensive sets – just a table and a couple of chairs. There aren't even a lot of props. I have to rely a lot on the actors to convey the story."

As summarized by the play's publisher, "Agnes" is the emotionally charged story of a horrifying discovery at a convent.

Dr. Martha Livingstone (Voress Franklin), a court-appointed psychiatrist, is charged with assessing the sanity of Agnes (Imani Mitchell), a young novice accused of murdering her newborn. But Miriam Ruth (Alana Mathews), the Mother Superior, is determined to keep Agnes from the doctor, further arousing Livingstone's suspicions.

"Who killed the infant – and who fathered the tiny victim? Livingstone's questions force all three women to re-examine the meaning of faith and the power of love leading to a dramatic, compelling climax."

Set in the early-1970s, "Agnes of God" debuted in 1980 to popular and critical acclaim, earning it a place in the 1982 Broadway season. Three years later, a big-screen adaptation of "Agnes" (also written by Pielmeier) premiered, starring Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft and Meg Tilly.

"Shows make people think," said Wheatley, a retired California EDD manager who also finds time to act in addition to his Celebration Arts administrative duties. "We don't do plays just to do plays. But there's no guarantee any play will draw anybody. It's sort of a crapshoot every time you do one. You just never know – you just keep trying."

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Celebration Arts production of John Pielmeier's "Agnes of God"

WHEN: Plays March 22 through April 28, 2013, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. Sundays

WHERE: Celebration Arts Theatre, 4469 D St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Directed by James Wheatley; featuring Voress Franklin (Dr. Martha Livingstone), Alana Mathews (Mother Miriam Ruth), and Imani Mitchell (Agnes)

HOW MUCH: $8 to $15, with discounts available for children (under 12), students, seniors and SARTA members

MORE INFO/TIX: Call (916) 455-2787; www.celebrationarts.net

TAAC's Rose transfers 'Shrew' to trailer park in directorial debut

2013-04-19T07:01:58Z

Denizens of the Padua and Verona trailer parks are stereotypical "white trash" ne'er-do-wells one would expect to see feudin' and fightin', swillin' and smokin' on an episode of "Cops" – not spouting iambic pentameter center stage in a Shakespearean comedy.

But that's exactly what distinguishes The Alternative Arts Collective's cast of characters in its world-premiere adaptation of "Taming of the Shrew," now playing through May 4 at the Blue Box Theater.

"I was trying to think what would be fun to do for a contemporary take on Shakespeare," said TAAC company member Cameron Rose, a familiar face on stage ("Suburbia," "Equus") who's making his directorial debut with "Shrew."

"Then it just came to me," he said. "I've always loved 'The Taming of the Shrew' – it's one of the least obtuse of Shakespeare's plays. And I also love modernizing his work, so I asked myself, 'Why not have fun with it?'"

Inspired by the remnants of holiday decor in his own backyard, Rose projected a contemporary re-telling of the familiar boy-meets-girl, girl-hates-boy story transferred to a 21st-century, AstroTurf-covered, low-rent landscape littered with Airstreams and aerials, Pabst cans and pink flamingos.

The play was ripe for an infusion of "zany," said Rose, given that – even as originally written – man-hater Kate, her sweet sister Bianca, lioness-tamer Petruchio, and their friends and family are exaggerated, crazy caricatures whose motivations and actions don't exactly require a Rosetta Stone to be understood.

Rose's concept was immediately embraced by TAAC Founding Artistic Director David Blue Garrison, who describes the 4-year-old troupe's third Shakespearean production as "very fun, very witty – and sometimes crude."

"But so was Shakespeare," laughed Garrison, who dons a polka-dot dress and seven-inch heels late in the second act to play a member of Katherine and Petruchio's Cheetos-munching wedding party. (Garrison also shares set-design credit with Rose and Richard Spierto.)

In Rose's updated take, Baptista (Susan Madden), owner of Padua Trailer Park, announces her daughter Bianca (Denver Vaughn) will remain single until her older sister Katherine (Ashley Eigenman) gets hitched.

But Lucentio (Ciara McClary), a student and daughter of a prominent merchant, is in love with Bianca and poses as a tutor to get close to Baptista's baby girl.

Meanwhile ... Petruchio (Tony Hutto), a decidedly non-gentleman from Verona (the neighboring Verona Trailer Park), pays a visit to the Padua park in hopes of securing a bride.

In hopes of paving the way for his own betrothal, another of Bianca's suitors, Hortensio (Jason Rodriguez), attempts to direct Petruchio's attention toward Katherine.

Intrigued by the challenge Katherine's attitude presents, Petruchio sets his course for the fiery "Kate" which delights Hortensio, as well as his fellow suitor Gremio (Joel Porter), an old, tie-dyed pot farmer who may remind audiences of the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia. The pair pledges to cover Petruchio's expenses as long as he focuses on Kate.

"It's been an amazing experience," said Rose of his inaugural voyage through somewhat unfamiliar theatrical waters, describing himself as a "chatty guy" who loved the pre-production and rehearsal phase of "Shrew." "I loved going from person to person, interacting with the designers and actors."

Rose said his 13-member cast – which also includes Yuri Tajiri as Grumio, Jason Vitaich as Vincentio, Sandy Phillips as the drunk/fake Vincentio, and Robin Southworth as the widow – brought a wealth of talent and experience (not to mention opinions) to the process.

While some directors prefer to maintain their own preconceived notions on how a part should be played, Rose was open to his cast's interpretations.

"I learned to 'go with the flow.' I kept telling myself that I cast these people for a reason, and that's been good advice. They've been making me laugh every night."

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Alternative Arts Collective production of "Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare

WHEN: April 18 through May 4, 2013; performances are slated for 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and 7 p.m. Sundays.

WHERE: The Blue Box Theater (corner of Oxford Street and Lea Way, Sacramento, Calif.)

HOW MUCH: $10 to $15 (plus service charge); brownpapertickets.com

FOR MORE INFO: www.taactheatre.com | Facebook | david@taactheatre.com

To view additional production photographs, please click here.

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STC culls Lloyd Webber canon for latest cabaret offering

2013-04-14T14:14:13Z

For those who thought Sacramento Theatre Company's April 2012 cabaret production of "Music of the Night: The Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber" had exhausted the best of the composer's catalogue, the company's closing cabaret offering of the 2012-13 season, "As If We Never Sad Goodbye," might well force a change of mind.

Subtitled "A Brand New Tribute to Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber," "As If ..." takes listeners back to the beginning with selections from the 1960s ("Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat"), to the 1970s ("Jesus Christ Superstar," "Evita"), to the prolific 1980s ("Starlight Express," "The Phantom of the Opera," "Aspects of Love"), to the '90s ("Sunset Boulevard," "Whistle Down the Wind") and through today ("Love Never Dies," the sequel to "The Phantom of the Opera").

Featured performers are STC Executive Producing Director Michael Laun, Tyler Wipfli, Mark Ettensohn, Lauryn Caruso, Justin Petersen, Michael RJ Campbell, and Abbey Williams-Campbell.

Musical accompaniment is provided by pianist Samuel Clein and drummer Brian Ivie.

The show plays at: 7 p.m. April 4, 8 p.m. April 5; 8 p.m. 8 p.m. April 6; 2 p.m. April 13; and 2 p.m. April 14.

Tickets cost $25 (with group tickets discounted to $20). To purchase tickets, call (916) 443-6722, or go online at www.sactheatre.org.

Kleber brings bigger-than-life laughs to B Street's Family Series

2013-04-12T14:13:21Z

B Street Theatre veteran Rick Kleber, who began performing for the company’s multi-generational audiences in the mid-1980s as a member of its Fantasy Theatre touring cast, is no subtle supporting actor, but an overwhelming comedic presence who doesn’t so much evoke LOLs from children and their parents (and their parents), as demand them.

In the B Street Theatre’s Family Series production of “Finding Our Voice: Susan B. & the Women’s Suffrage Movement,” which continues through Sunday, April 14, the Los Angeles-based Kleber – who was last seen here in 2012’s as the witch in “Hansel & Gretel” – once again pulls a Kleber. That is, he turns the comic sensibility up to “11,” changing personas as quickly as costumes.

“I’m playing three different characters,” said Kleber of the David Pierini-penned world premiere. “I’m playing a misogynistic garment-factory owner who treats women horribly – which is one reason why the women want better rights. I’m also playing a prison guard, and Dudley Field Malone – one of Woodrow Wilson’s right-hand men who became an assistant secretary of state. Malone was told to spy on the women involved in the suffragette movement, but he began to see their side and quit to represent the women by adding his legal know-how to help their cause.”

“Dave’s written a nice show,” said Kleber, adding his regular twice-a-year trips to Sacramento and the B Street are like “coming home.”

“It’s the same group of actors who have been together for years,” he said. “You build up certain relationships with these guys. At the beginning of rehearsals, we just sit back and reminisce a lot – it’s a kick.”

Among Kleber’s fellow veteran B Streeters featured “Finding Our Voice” are Ed Claudio as Woodrow Wilson, Greg Alexander as father of suffragette Mary Foster (Sarah Clancy), and Jamie Jones as Susan B. Anthony in her later years, as well as suffragette Alice Hall.

But for all of the star power B Street Producing Director Buck Busfield has brought to bear for “Finding Our Voice,” it wouldn’t be uncommon for Kleber’s performance to be the one exiting audiences will most fondly remember.

“I’m a bigger-than-life type of character,” said Kleber, a trained opera singer who’s usually cast in musical-theater roles when not performing at the B Street. “They always come to me for cartoonish characters, and I give them a variety of extremes. They don’t have to build me up – I’ll start at the top, and then they’ll rein me in.”

It’s this over-the-top, playing-to-the-balcony persona, which has made Kleber a favorite of B Street patrons of all ages.

“I think I’m a true character actor,” said Kleber, who’s also made his mark on the B Street main stage in such productions as “Gun Metal Blues” and “Death of Zukasky” (a personal favorite). “I don’t play a lot of straight-man roles – that’s not what they hire me for. I’m one of their human cartoons, though I still perform my characters from the heart. There is some realism involved. I perform from my heart so I can believe what I’m doing. You can’t fake stuff in front of kids. Sometimes you can with adults, but there’s no faking it with kids. If they don’t like you, you can see them get restless.”

“But I’ve always had good responses from children – and that’s why Buck has kept me doing kid’s stuff."

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: B Street Theatre Family Series production of “Finding Our Voice: Susan B. & the Women’s Suffrage Movement” by David Pierini (recommended for children 8 and older)

WHEN: March 9-April 14, 2013; with performances at 1 and 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

WHERE: B Street Theatre B3 Stage, 2727 B St., Sacramento, Calif.

HOW MUCH: $18-$27

FOR MORE INFO: (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org

'Twilight Zone' stories form basis of Big Idea's 'BIT More' debut

2013-04-06T13:52:40Z

More than one artistic director would appreciate an army of tireless, nimble-fingered scenic-designer elves who emerge at night to tear down old sets, then build and paint new ones. But the reality is it takes many human hands to ready a stage for a company's acting contingent.

Recognizing the toll its quick turn-around schedule was taking on its design and technical team – and how the Del Paso Boulevard theater's relatively short-runs might be affecting attendance – Big Idea Theatre company members Brian Harrower and Wade Lucas put their heads together over a few holiday-break drinks.

"Our solution was to do fewer main-stage shows, but schedule them for longer runs," said Lucas. "That would give us more time between shows to catch our breath, and to do things like our 'A BIT More' series."

"BIT," which is both an acronym for Big Idea Theatre and a description of the short-run, short-in-length productions the duo had in mind, will make its debut April 4 through 7, with back-to-back performances of two Rod Serling-penned "Twilight Zone" favorites ("The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," "To Serve Man") at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 5 and 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

A test run of the "BIT More" concept was conducted during a December fundraising event, when the company performed an adaptation of Serling's "Twilight Zone" teleplay "Five Characters in Search of an Exit."

Lucas, who is directing both one-acts, said the theater is "passionate about telling stories," and hopes the new series will give the 19-member company an opportunity to tell more stories than ever before.

In addition to presenting "live on stage" adaptations of classic "Twilight Zone" episodes, Lucas said future "BIT" productions will likely include special one-night readings, "black-box" one-acts, new works, as well as one-man and one-woman shows – basically anything that doesn't require complicated sets, lavish costumes, or extensive rehearsals.

"I am positively giddy with enthusiasm to be able to bring two more episodes to life on the BIT stage," said Lucas. "We have a group of talented and funny people on board who will reallly make for an enjoyable night of theater for all ages."

Lucas said the cast of this inaugural "BIT More" production is a mix of Big Idea veterans and newcomers. Those returning to the BIT stage are: Dan Beard; Christina Clem; Robyn Colburn; Jamie Kale; Ryan Snyder; and Earl Victorine. Making their BIT debut are: Dennis Beck; Bethany Hidden-Cauley; Jack Hastings; Raymond Keller; LeeMarie Kelly; Edward Nason; Daryl Petrig; Ariel Ryan; and Amos Wright.

Providing additional opportunities for BIT's established company members to "shine a bit more," as well as giving first-time BIT players extended, real-life tryouts are also benefits of the "BIT More" productions, said Lucas.

For the uninitiated, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" is the story of what happens to a group of everyday American suburbanites whose neighborhood mysteriously loses electricity after a shadow passes overhead (accompanied by a deafening roar and flash of light). Panic ensues, fingers are pointed, and in true Cold War fashion, neighbor turns on neighbor.

"To Serve Man" like "Monsters," features an O. Henry-styled twist at the end, and is a look into a future when man makes first contact with a seemingly benevolent extraterrestrial race known as the Kanamit (played here by Hastings in a role created by a young Richard Kiel). in this tale, a linguist (Keller) and his assistant (Kale) attempt to decipher the Kanamit language in order to read one of their books.

While it is the company's goal to remain faithful to the original scripts, Lucas said a bit of camp will be injected where appropriate.

"Both one-acts presented unique challenges, but I think they turned out very, very well," said Lucas.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: Big Idea Theatre's "A BIT More" series debut, featuring "'The Twilight Zone': Live On Stage"

WHEN: 8 p.m. April 4 and 5; 5 and 7 p.m. April 6 and 7

WHERE: Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Directed by Wade Lucas; stage managed by Cyndi Lopez; featuring Dan Beard, Christina Clem, Robyn Colburn, Jamie Kale, Ryan Snyder, Earl Victorine, Dennis Beck, Bethany Hidden-Cauley, Jack Hastings, Raymond Keller, LeeMarie Kelly, Edward Nason Daryl Petrig, Ariel Ryan, and Amos Wright

HOW MUCH: $10; call (916) 960-3036; www.bigideatheatre.com

Resurrection Theatre fundraiser features James McLure doubleheader

2013-03-22T19:22:40Z

In addition to the pair of James McLure comedic one-acts ("Laundry and Bourbon" and "Lone Star") Resurrection Theatre Company is serving up as the main course of its inaugural fundraising event, staff members of the 4-year-old troupe are hoping patrons will take away a never-ending hunger for their house specialty: "challenging and fiscally responsible theater."

"Laundry and Bourbon" is a semisweet tale about "discontented and gossiping small-town wives, whose marriages are less than ideal." But with the help of a bit of alcohol and a lot of fabric softener, they manage to dissipate a lot of the static that exists between them. In "Lone Star," three "good ol’ boys" spill their feelings without losing a drop of their beloved beer of choice during a Friday-night gabfest.

With the first two shows having sold out, theater spokeswoman Margaret Morneau said those interested in attending the final performance (8 p.m. Saturday, March 23) at the 30-seat Three Penny Playhouse shouldn't wait to buy tickets at the door, but call or buy tickets online (see below).

Tickets for Saturday's show are priced at $30, and include complementary bourbon, beer and other refreshments.

In keeping with its mission to present "fiscally responsible" productions, Resurrection's stagings are produced on the cheap. The props for this weekend's fundraising shows, for example, are "found" pieces from company members' homes or discovered in storage rooms, and in the parking lot at the Three Penny complex at 25th and R streets.

But with this season's next two shows leaning toward the more-ambitious side (Geoffrey Naufft's "Next Fall," set to open in May; Edward Albee's "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?," tentatively scheduled for September), Morneau said real money will have to be spent on set design and construction.

Monies raised this weekend will also be earmarked for facility rental, as well as filing fees for the theater's 501c3 (nonprofit) application.

"Once we have nonprofit status, we'll be eligible to apply for grants, which will enable us to host workshops aimed at teens who aren't necessarily exposed to theater," said Morneau. "Roseville and Natomas Charter School have great theater programs, but some other high schools, well, their programs are just sad.

"I'm thinking there should be an outlet for them somewhere."

But filling the company's coffers is just one goal of the three-night series of fundraising performances, said Morneau, who's been a Resurrecton company member since 2010.

"We also want to have the opportunity to mingle with our audience members, and talk about what our goals are, and encourage them to get involved with theater – and not just our theater.

"We'd like to help build more of a theater community, to build awareness and get people to go to more than one theater."

Morneau said she and her fellow Resurrection Theatre Company artistic staffers (Laura Gonzales, Joshua Glenn Robertson, Shawn B O'Neal) are walking the walk, and have been supporting area theater through such channels as social media – going so far as to promote other theaters' shows on the company's Facebook page during those weeks when its own playhouse is dark.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Resurrection Theatre Company's inaugural fundraising event, featuring a pair of James McLure comedic one-acts ("Laundry and Bourbon" and "Lone Star")

WHEN:Thursday, March 21, 8 p.m. (sold out); Friday, March 22, 8 p..m. (sold out); Saturday, March 23, 8 p.m. (Saturday's performance is followed by a reception featuring complementary beer, bourbon and hors d'oeuvres)

WHERE: Three Penny Playhouse, 1723 25th St., Sacramento (between Q and R streets)

WHO: Directed by Shawn B O'Neal and Joshua Glenn Robertson; featuring Kellie Yvonne Raines (Elizabeth), Laura Kaya (Hattie), Eliza Webb (Amy Lee), Scott Devine (Roy), William Gilbert (Ray), Jonathan Hansen (Cletis)

HOW MUCH: $20 Thursday and Friday; $30 Saturday (includes refreshments)

TICKETS: Purchase online at www.brownpapertickets.com

MORE INFO: Call 916.223.9568, or see the Resurrection Theatre Company website

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It's a wrap: Sac Fashion Week ends with showy Designer Collection Showcase

2013-03-11T19:13:44Z

Sacramento's "hautest" male and female fashionistas crowded the capital city's Elks Tower ballroom March 2, 2013, for the final runway walks of Sacramento Fashion Week 2013.

Local fashion designers Yennie Zhou, Karisa Gold, Dottie Charles, Felix Rodionov, R. Douglas, Janelle Cardenas, Nolan Kouri and Vasily Vein showed off their wearable art to appreciative audience members who almost outflashed the small army of still photographers and videographers who chronicled every look, every hairstyle, every shoe, and every lash that had been meticulously sewn, coiffed, polished and teased in anticipation of the annual event.

Admission fees for this year's Sacramento Fashion Week shows benefitted the Junior League of Sacramento.

First look: B Street Theatre presents world premiere of Michael Elyanow's 'Robyn Is Happy'

2013-03-04T01:12:25Z

Photographs by Barry Wisdom /

The B Street Theatre continues to reinforce its reputation as Sacramento's leading new-works playhouse with its third world premiere of the season: Michael Elyanow's "Robyn Is Happy," opening Sunday, March 3, and running through April 14.

Directed by B Street Producing Artistic Director Buck Busfield, and featuring Elisabeth Nunizato, Amy Kelly and Melinda Parrett, "Robyn Is Happy" is "a dark comedy about three women whose lifelong friendship falls apart when one of them embarks on an unusual romance."

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The B Street Theatre production of Michael Elyanow's "Robyn Is Happy"

WHEN: Opens at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 3, and runs through April 14, 2013, with performances at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 2 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays

WHERE: B Street Theatre main stage, 2711 B St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Directed by Buck Busfield; featuring Elisabeth Nunziato (Robyn), Amy Kelly (Trudy), and Melinda Parrett (Hannah)

HOW MUCH: $23-$35 ($5 student rush and $10 preview tickets also available)

MORE INFO: (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org

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STC's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' will be ribald, not reverential

2013-03-01T15:52:20Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Talk about a BFF.

For centuries, Shakespeare has proven to be the very best friend a theater troupe could have. With all of the playwrights who have since put pen to parchment, or have ignited the afterburners on their inkjet printers, it’s still Wild Bill Shakespeare who today’s stage companies turn to when looking to balance their sometimes costly, sometimes scatological world premiere programming with established, “classy” classics (many of which are royalty-free).

In addition, directors around the world have demonstrated time and again that the Bard’s canon is not a dry, static collection of Dead Sea scrolls, but a treasure chest of ever-relevant human emotions open to endless reinterpretation.

In just the past year, Sacramento-area playhouses have presented Shakespearean plays that have featured zombies getting whacked by sword-wielding, iambic pentameter-spouting royals, as well as productions with 21st-century twists that jazzed-up the oft-told tales with updated settings, costumes, and props, including anachronistic cell phones (“Good morrow! Dost thou hearest me now? Dost thou hearest me now?”).

In Sacramento Theatre Company’s upcoming production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” opening Saturday, March 2, ancient Athens has moved forward in time to the 1930s, but what really distinguishes STC’s take on Shakespeare’s most-magical of comedies, is evident in its cast list.

“What I find most interesting, exhilarating and challenging about this production is that we were tasked with the casting of nine actors in total,” said director Christine Nicholson, who was experienced in mounting minimized Shakespearean productions on behalf of such companies as Capital Stage and the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, but was never required to develop a roster with fewer than 10 speaking parts.

“I had seen a six-person ‘Macbeth’ in Seattle,” she said, noting the concept of the intimate “chamber” play” seems to be “really taking fire.”

“I found that ‘Macbeth’ to be an amazing production that was really actor-focused. So the opportunity to work on a kind of chamber ‘Midsummer’ was a wonderful opportunity. Each actor plays a character in each of the three intertwining stories. It's pretty exciting.”

“They often walk off stage as one character, and almost immediately walk back on as another character,” said Nicholson. “Our costume designer, Jessica Minnihan, has worked tirelessly to create costumes that can be completely changed in a matter of seconds. I've tried to cast actors who have the skill set to quickly change from character to character, and I love watching that transformation.”

In addition to selecting actors proficient in the art of the quick change, Nicholson said there were more artistic considerations involved in populating the three worlds of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

“I've also tried to cast actors who have real comedic sensibilities,” Nicholson said. “At its heart, ‘Midsummer’ is a romantic comedy driven by ‘fairies.’ I like to think of the fairies as those aspects of our humanity that drive us to wonderful, unexpected, crazy behavior as we pursue that most human of all emotions – love. And I love every minute of it.”

Nicholson’s cast with “real comedic sensibilities” is familiar to active theatergoers: Elizabeth Holzman, Brent Bianchini, Matt K. Miller, Michael RJ Campbell, Troy Thomas, Melanie Marshall, Anthony Person, Carolyn Howarth and Jason Oler.

Holzman, an Elk Grove native with a degree in theater from California State University, Stanislaus, is one of those local actors who have ridden the recent wave of Sacramento-area Shakespearean productions, with roles in “Taming of the Shrew” at Sacramento Shakespeare Festival and Jackson’s Main Street Theatre Works, “Romeo and Juliet” at Resurrection Theatre, “Love’s Labours Lost” at Big Idea Theatre, and “Merchant of Venice” at Imprint Theater Works.

“I love the language,” said Holzman, whose first brush with Shakespeare came early as a sixth-grade GATE student. “This play has been done thousands upon thousands of times on stages all across the globe; and, at the same time, there’s no production that’s exactly the same. That’s the magic of Shakespeare. Nothing is permanent in the theater world.”

Holzman’s admiration for Shakespeare’s wordsmithing is shared by Bianchini, a Sacramento State junior who added a bit of derring-do as the university’s titular lead in last year’s iambic pentameter-flavored adaptation of “Robin Hood.” He also put a similar spin on the Excalibur-swinging once-and-future king in Luther Hanson’s 2012 adaptation of “King Arthur” at Sac Shakes.

As comfortable as he is performing Shakespeare, Bianchini said he’s by no means a master, but a journeyman with much to learn.

“To this day, it’s a challenge; I still have to look up words and do research,” Bianchini said. “The average theatergoer is going to miss more words than they get – it’s the actor’s job to do that work for them, to understand everything being said and make it clear.”

“We had a group of sixth-graders in here today (for a preview),” said Holzman. “I can guarantee they didn’t understand every word, but they were uproarious. They understood enough, and loved what we were doing onstage. If the actors are doing their jobs, it takes about 15 minutes to adjust to the language. You don’t need to understand every word – the brain is smart enough to translate.”

“It’s like broccoli,” she continued. “You may not like it, but if you put cheese on it, it becomes palatable. Well, what we actors do on stage is add the cheese.”

For those still on the fence about taking in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” STC is offering a “prologue” 45 minutes before each performance – providing ticket holders a cost-free opportunity to learn more about the show, its themes, its author and its production history.

Along with the physical humor and “cheese,” Bianchini said many theatergoers with only a passing familiarity with Shakespeare might be unaware of how low-down and earthy the Bard could be.

“Shakespeare was pretty dirty, and once audience members realize what his characters are saying, it’s sometimes shocking to them,” said Bianchini. “For the actor, it’s quite entertaining to add to that ribaldry. It’s definitely an art form to be suggestive without being vulgar.”

As one might imagine, the show’s director is a similarly enamored of Stratford-upon-Avon’s favorite scribe.

“Someone once said to me they told fearful relatives the way to watch and experience Shakespeare is to listen to the set-up of each scene, and then to really watch it unfold,” said Nicholson. “Shakespeare works visually, and his stories can be followed visually. We may not know all of the allusions to Greek classics or Elizabethan politics, but we can see people fall in and out of love.”

Nicholson said her affection for Shakespeare – from his talent and skill as a playwright, to his place in contemporary theater programming, is far from being as fickle as the passions exhibited by the bewitched couples in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

“I've been a part of Sac Shakes for many years … so, I have very strong ideas about Shakespeare's place in the theatrical repertoire. I believe that his works wrestle with the human experience in some of the most profound ways possible. And I think that most regional theaters do have a relationship with his body of work, whether they produce him yearly or not.”

For Nicholson, the play’s the thing. The fact that Shakespeare’s catalogue is free of royalties is secondary. Still, she can’t ignore the financial considerations in an economy in which theater troupes have to make every shilling count.

“Definitely, royalties can be a staggering budget point for many companies, large and small,” Nicholson said. “And it is always a consideration. But, usually, the cast size and tech requirements are large, which is why I say that royalty-free is definitely only one consideration.”

“I think that most companies produce his works because they are powerful depictions of human interaction, of the experience – both good and bad – of this life we lead,” she continued. “And Shakespeare has a great deal to say about the contemporary experience. He deals with themes of greed, ambition, betrayal, deception, intrigue, of matters fiscal, of patriotism, family dynamics, human psychology, and, of course, the workings of love.

“He explores our passions as they ennoble us, and our passions as they degrade us. Generally, the comedies explore the former, and the tragedies the latter.”

“’Midsummer’ looks at love through the eyes of youth and the flame of our first passion, through infatuation, through love as it drives us to distraction,” she said. “(Shakespeare) explores how parental love may differ, and interfere with the desires of the child, even when that parent acts out of what is considered to be in the child's best interest. He looks at the intersection of love and power, of love and jealousy, of love and desire. And he does it all through comedic devices we recognize and love.”

JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
WHERE: The Sacramento Theatre Company Main Stage, 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.
WHEN: Previews continue through March 1; opens 8 p.m. March 2 and plays through March 24, with performances at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 12:30 and 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays
HOW MUCH: $15-$38 (discounts available for students, seniors and groups)
MORE INFO: Call the STC Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office at (916) 443-6722 or toll free at (888) 478-2849, or go online at www.sactheatre.org

Playwright Robinson thrilled to see B Street giving 'Carapace' West Coast premiere

2013-02-24T16:28:40Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Writer’s block has stymied everyone at one time or another. Remember those fourth-grade book reports that had us biting our nails and chewing our pencils?

It’s no different for those masochistic enough to choose playwriting as a profession.

Some may attempt to lubricate their path to inspiration with hot buttered rum (heavy on the butter, even heavier on the rum).

A fortunate few, however, are able to navigate the blockade and find their way to an emergency slide. Sometimes said slide is an express ride that leaves them sitting with a good play in less time than it takes to compose a grocery list.

Count David Mitchell Robinson, author of “Carapace” (on stage through Feb. 24 at the B Street Theatre) as one of those lucky enough to have a muse on retainer.

“I didn’t do any pre-writing, I just sat down and spewed out whatever was on my mind,” said Robinson via telephone from his Chicago home. “It was the quickest thing I’ve probably ever written, as well as my first full-length professional play.”

What was on my mind was addiction and recovery, and what prompts an addict to share and tell their stories. The freedom to abuse substances or achieve oblivion through drugs or alcohol is the fullest expression of free will in some sense.”

Robinson emphasized that his award-winning play about an alcoholic sportscaster (played by David Pierini) and his earnest – if clumsy – attempts to reconnect with an estranged daughter (Stephanie Altholz) is no heavily sauced slice-of-life, but a flask-full of fiction.

“It’s less like a biographical chapter of mine – or anyone else I know– than an expression of what was running around my internal racetrack,” he said. “Addiction and recovery have always been interesting to me.”

The 31-year-old said the draft of “Carapace” that won the Alliance Theatre’s 2010 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, and Ohio University’s Scott McPherson Playwriting Award was completed in approximately a week-and-a-half while interning at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre.

Not that it was all about inspiration. Robinson credits desperation as well.

“What happened was that I was supposed to present a play as part of my MFA requirements that I had turned in the previous quarter,” said Robinson. “But the play I had submitted wasn’t good – I wanted to set it on fire and set it out to sea.”

The result was “Carapace.”

“I was more surprised that it was good,” he said, “not so much that it came so quickly.”

Despite the positive responses that his rapidly written comedy-drama elicited from his core group of early adopters, Robinson said he walked into the workshop rehearsal hall at Ohio University not knowing if he had something good on his hands, or if he had “laid his biggest turd” of the year.

But the play’s critical and public reception – as well as the awards it garnered – helped erase his self-doubt, not that he ever leaves a play fully satisfied.

“Honestly, even now that it is published and theoretically written in stone, I’m not finished with it in my head,” he said. “I’ll never feel like anything I’ve written is ‘done.’ Every time I look at it, I see something to change.”

A self-described high school “drama nerd,” Robinson said he originally aimed his pen at a career writing for film, but ended up in a program that didn’t offer screenwriting as a major.

But playwriting was in the curriculum, and he ultimately fell in love with his ricochet romance, earning an MFA in playwriting in the process.

“The limitations of the form – its restrictions – I found to be bizarrely freeing,” said Robinson.

As part of his degree requirements, Robinson said he wrote a five-minute play every week (or a total of 70), as well as five full-length lays and two one-acts.

He said his body of work does have a commonality running through it.

“My plays tend to have a common objective,” he said. “It’s to try and understand – and empathize – with people who make extremely bad decisions. That’s at the center of my best writing for sure; people who just get it all wrong.”

Again, Robinson said “Carapace” (which is another word for a “shell” that protects and hides its bearer) is fiction, and that any resemblance to persons living or dead is mere coincidence.

But, he added, that’s the beauty of the art form.

“Theater is at its best when it takes someone who is extremely unlike yourself, and brings them in proximity to yourself.”

Robinson said he’s thrilled that the B Street – a playhouse dedicated to producing new works by emerging artists – chose to give “Carapace” its West Coast premiere.

“It is a very big deal,” he said. “I’m super excited about every publication or production opportunity I can get.”

Jerry Montoya, director of "Carapace's" B Street Theater staging, said he's similarly thrilled with the opportunity to mount Robinson's play.

"Dave (Pierini) first discovered it for us, and was very excited to play the role of Jeff, the alcoholic sportscaster looking for a second chance," said Montoya. "Though it looked to be a challenge to produce due to its multiple locations, broken timeline and technical requirements (including a car onstage), it was a really lean, clean story with really no fat on the bone. It was very inventive, everything is motivated, very succinct, and it was clearly workshopped very well. I always appreciate a very strong and clear story."

"This may be my favorite play I've done in a while," Montoya added. "People are going to experience Dave Pierini in a way they never have before. I feel this is a tour de force for him."

For more information on the B Street Theatre production of David Mitchell Robinson's "Carapace," or for tickets, click here.

American River College to host regional edition of Kennedy Center theater fest

2013-02-13T20:59:57Z

It may still be winter, but Sacramento’s pro-am theater landscape is blossoming, so what better setting could there be for a regional staging of the 45th annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and New West Drama Conference?

Sacramento’s festival, one of eight editions being presented from Maine to Hawaii, begins its five-day run Monday, Feb. 18, at American River College (and its auxiliary site, the Crowne Plaza Northeast Sacramento). Daily workshops, lectures, master classes and performance competitions will be available to the more than 1,100 registered students who are studying a variety of theatrical disciplines, said Michael Phillips, a KCACTF regional officer who is serving as coordinator for the Institute for Theater Journalism and Advocacy, and Dramaturgy Initiative presentations.

“ACTF is a program out of the Kennedy Center in D.C., but a lot of the activity is on a regional level. The country is divided into eight regions, and our region is Region 7. We cover Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Northern Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming.”

Festival programming, provided pro bono by some 50 invited working professionals and faculty members from across the country, covers all areas of theater, including acting, directing, playwriting, design, dramaturgy, and stage management, said Phillips, noting that the nonstop lineup of classes and activities routinely start at 7 a.m. and wrap at 1 a.m. the following calendar day.

While workshops run the gamut, from makeup techniques and self-marketing, to set design and stage combat, the largest audiences are expected for the performance curriculum offerings, said Leigh Selting, chairman of KCACTF Region 7. Among the comprehensive performance offerings will be mime, a topic to be addressed on Feb. 22 by keynote speaker Bill Bowers, a protégé of Marcel Marceau.

Faith Prince, a 1992 Tony Award winner for her leading role in the 1992 Broadway revival of "Guys and Dolls," is another nationally known theater professional scheduled to present. Prince, co-founder (with local director-educator Natasha Burr) of the Sacramento-based Minimoon Productions acting studio, will partner with Burr to offer "an insider's perspective" on "The Business of the Business" from 3 to 4 p.m. Feb. 22 in ARC's Stage 2.

Prince and Burr will also be among the auditors for the fest's regional finals in the nationally recognized Irene Ryan performance scholarship competition.

Additional local actors and directors contributing their time as festival "respondents" – seasoned pros who will offer constructive criticism and advice to the student actors – include Big Idea Theatre Managing Director Shannon Mahoney and Capital Stage Founder and Producing Artistic Director Stephanie Gularte.

Selting said 244 students will be vying for two available spots in the national finals of the Ryan scholarship, named after Kennedy Center benefactor and stage and screen actress Irene Ryan, best known as the ornery Granny on television's "The Beverly Hillbillies."

"Hundreds" of additional students, he said, will be pursuing scholarship monies in the musical theater arena.

But the focus of the festival isn't on scholarships or prizes, said Selting.

"Our goal is to give feedback to every student involved in every type of theater work," Selting said. "This is the organization for American college theater today. It's an opportunity for the best and brightest to move onto a national stage and bridge the gap between the academic and the professional worlds – that's what the KCACTF is all about."

Even those students who participate in the annual festival and go no further with their theatrical training stand to gain from the experience, said Selting.

"It has a huge impact on those who are in, and who are about the arts," Selting said. "Whether or not they move into a professional career, or just want to have the arts as part of their lives."

Students will get a firsthand look at their peers' work onstage (and off) via a series of full-length and short works to be presented next week.

This year’s invited full-length productions, distilled from more than 150 shows mounted by nearly 60 colleges and universities, are: “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” (Ohlone College); “Spring Awakening” (Saint Mary’s College of California); “Icarus” (Central Washington University); and “Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter” (University of Idaho).

While local colleges failed to place a play or musical theater work on the roster of featured productions, ARC and Sacramento State found spots on the festival’s “alternate productions” list with their respective stagings of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.”

Festival passes – good for all events and performances – are still available for students ($95) and non-students ($115) alike, said Selting. To register, please see the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (Region 7) registration page.

For a complete festival program, click here.

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Disclosure: Barry Wisdom will be presenting daily as the guest journalist for the KCACTF's Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy program at American River College.

Theatrical journeys a family tradition for 'Into the Woods' director Katie Daley

2013-02-10T15:42:52Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

When the Light Opera Theatre of Sacramento was founded in 1982, its mission goals were clearly defined: to present "the comic humor of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan"; to provide "via an open-audition process, an opportunity for local performers to bring their talents to Sacramento audiences"; and to promote "the performing arts in the Sacramento region."

Those goals may have been flexed and bent a bit to allow for the staging of such non-Gilbert and Sullivan productions as Darion and Leigh's "Man of La Mancha" and Stephen Sondheim's "Side by Side" on regional stages in Woodland, Placerville and Davis, but for the most part LOTS has not strayed far from its original path.

Not only has the LOTS board of directors stayed the course, but so have co-founders and current artistic directors Mike and Debbie Baad, who've seen their children Chris Baad and Katie Daley happily follow them in roles on- and off-stage.

"It was one of those things you don't realize is as unique as it is," said Daley. "It's not every kid who knows every word of the GIlbert and Sullivan catalog. I can't imagine having grown up without theater – it's been a huge part of my life."

Today, Daley – a University of California, Davis, theater arts graduate who spent a year of post-grad seasoning in New York, as well as a summer working at Music Circus (where she earned her Equity card) – has transitioned from her long-standing role as LOTS' production manager/producer to director. She is currently at the helm of Sondheim's fairytale foray "Into the Woods," which continues through Feb. 17 at the 24th Street Theatre in Sacramento.

Switching gears from the comic camp of Gilbert and Sullivan to the erudite, close to sung-through score of Sondheim could be called – at the very least – ambitious.

"Ambitious is a good word for it," said Daley. "But we're (Daley and her husband) familiar wtih his work, having produced it in college. Philip, especially, had a good grasp of the music. But we knew it was always going to depend on the cast.

"We were so lucky with auditions.The people who came out to audition were wonderful musicians as well as actors. I feel we had the pick of the litter when it comes to talent in Sacramento."

Among the cast's principals are: Sara Haugland (Cinderella); Kate Murphy (Rapunzel); Kelly Cullity/Jennifer Morrison (Little Red Riding Hood); John Unrath (Jack); Rhonda Thomas (the Giant); Margherita Valeriano (the Witch); Mike Yee (the Baker); and Dani Hansen (the Baker's Wife). Also featured are Daley's brother Chris as the Wolf, and her father Mike as the Narrator/Mysterious Man. (Daley's mother, Debbie, is serving as costume designer.)

"I think this is a beautiful show," said Daley. "And, if it is, I keep telling the cast it's not because of me, it's because of them."

Daley, who was born during a 1984 run of "The Pirates of Penzance," began her career as an actor with LOTS as a precocious onstage presence, making her acting debut at 5 with a small part in "The Mikado."

Two distinct memories of that production still linger.

"I remember doing a little dance with my parents and two of the supporting actors," said Daley, "and I remember getting into trouble for coming to school wearing (leftover) eyeliner from the show."

Daley, who met her husband (and LOTS' future music director) Philip Daley at UC Davis, said the eyeliner incident wasn't her only brush with authority while in primary school.

"My father would say, 'Crap!' when he forgot his lines," said Daley. "I got in trouble at school for saying 'crap' more than once. I have a lot of those kinds of stories that come from watching my parents onstage."

Her theatrical eccentricities are more likely to garner applause than detention slips these days, however.

While "Into the Woods" is Daley's first full-length directorial assignment for LOTS, she got her feet wet almost five years ago when she directed Gilbert and Sullivan's 30-minute production of "Trial by Jury" as part of a 2008 fundraising event.

"I thought, 'Oh, that'll be fun,'" said Daley, who confirmed that it was, indeed, fun. "It was a great experience for me from the beginning, in a setting where I did everything – from casting to directing. It was kind of an unofficial changing of hands."

"My parents," Daley continued, "are still very much involved. But they've paid their dues and can do what they want now. For years, my husband, brother and I have been jumping in doing what needs to be done. Now I'm really looking forward to being on the creative side in a leadership role."

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Light Opera Theatre of Sacramento production of the Stephen Sondhem-James Lapine musical "Into the Woods"

WHEN: Feb. 1-17, 2013, with performances at: 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 1; 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2; 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 3; 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9; 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10; 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17

WHERE: 24th Street Theatre, 2791 24th St., Sacramento

HOW MUCH: $15-$20; to purchase tickets online, click here

To view additional production photos of LOTS' "Into the Woods," click here.

'The Great Gatsby': Scenes from a dance

2013-02-10T08:39:54Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

For those who were first introduced to author F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" as a required high school or college reading assignment, it may have seemed to be just another story about unrelatable characters from a bygone era.

A copy of CliffsNotes and a Costco-sized bottle of NoDoz will not, however, be required to embrace the Sacramento Ballet's world premiere adaptation of Fitzgerald's passionate prose about gin-soaked gents and gamines imbibing on all the Jazz Age had to offer.

The first new work created by Sacramento Ballet Artistic Director Ron Cunningham in five years, "The Great Gatsby" is being paired with George Balanchine's Gershwin-scored "Who Cares?," and musical accompaniment by Billy Novick's Blue Syncopators, as well as by vocalist E. Faye Butler. Onstage spoken narration is provided by Connor Mickiewicz (as "Gatsby" character Nick Carraway).

Principal cast members include: Stefan Calka (Gatsby); Alexandra Cunningham (Daisy Buchanan); Christopher Nachtrab (Tom Buchanan); Amanda Peet (Myrtle Wilson); Michael Separovich (George Wilson); Isha Lloyd (Jordan Baker); and Oliver-Paul Adams (Nick Carraway).

The closing performance is set for 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, at Sacramento's Community Center Theater. Individual tickets cost $17 to $70.

For those who can't pass the opportunity to "hob-nob with high society," Sacramento Ballet is hosting a post-performance "Great Gatsby Prohibition Party" at 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, at the Memorial Auditorium. In addition to dinner and drinks, the music of Peter Petty and his Jazz Orchestra are on the menu. Tickets cost $175 to $250, and are available by clicking here.

To view additional production photos taken during Feb. 6's dress rehearsal, click here.

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Music Circus announces 2013 lineup; season tix on sale Monday

2013-01-20T13:49:22Z

A mix of old-school favorites, contemporary classics and a little-seen musical-comedy gem will take center stage for Music Circus' 63rd summer season, announced Calfiornia Musical Theatre Executive Producer Richard Lewis.

The five-show season will consist of the Music Circus premiere of the Kander and Ebb hit "Chicago"; a production of "The Wizard of Oz" based on the 1939 film; the Wells Fargo Pavilion premiere of Jerome Kerns' American theater masterpiece "Show Boat"; the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic "The King and I"; and "Sugar," the stage version of the Billy Wilder film comedy "Some Like It Hot."

”We’re very excited to finally be able to bring the hit musical 'Chicago' to the Music Circus stage," said Lewis. "It’s a show that our patrons have been requesting for a long time. And I know that fans of the Marilyn Monroe movie 'Some Like it Hot' are going to really enjoy the hilarious production of 'Sugar.' It’s based on that classic movie, and features a wonderful score written by (Jule Styne and Bob Merrill) the composer and lyricist who created 'Funny Girl.' With the variety of shows in the 2013 season, we truly have something that everyone can enjoy.”

Season ticket holders from 2012 should receive renewal invoices in the mail by Monday, Jan. 21, and the Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office (1419 H St., Sacramento) will begin taking paid reservations for new subscribers on that day as well. Five-show season tickets will range from $150 to $256, depending on performance time and seating location. Reservations and renewals are available at the box office, or by phone at (916) 557-1999, beginning at 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 21. For more information, see the Music Circus website by clicking here.

Lewis also noted that as with the 2012 season, a limited number of tickets for each show will be available for $30, and season subscribers will see all five shows for the price of just four.

In addition to saving as much as $128 on a pair of season tickets, Music Circus subscribers will receive a number of perks, including the opportunity to claim the best-available-seating locations, an invitation to order additional single tickets before the general public, the ability to exchange tickets for an alternate performance free of charge, and guaranteed renewal privileges.

The 2013 Music Circus season

"The Wizard of Oz" • June 21-30
Join Dorothy, Toto, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion as they band together on an adventure down the Yellow Brick Road and a face-to-face with the wonderful wizard or Oz. The production will be true to the iconic MGM movie that has enchanted fans of all ages for decades, and features such enduring songs as “Over the Rainbow,” “We’re Off To See the Wizard,” and “If I Only Had A Brain.”

In the first week, performances are set for: 8 p.m. Friday, June 21; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, June 22; and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 23. In the second week of shows, evening performances are set for: 7:30 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday; and at 8 Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Matinee performances are set for 2 on Thursday and Saturday.

$30 tickets will be available for children ages 4 through 12 in all sections (this show only).

"Show Boat" • July 9-14
A true musical-theater landmark, generally considered America’s first true musical, "Show Boat" boasts one of the greatest scores ever (by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern), and features such memorable tunes as “Ol’ Man River,” “You Are Love,” and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man.” The show, which has not been at Music Circus in 12 years, is making its Wells Fargo Pavilion debut this year.

Evening performances are slated for 7:30 Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, and at 8 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Matinee performances are at 2 Thursday and Saturday.

"Sugar" (based on the film "Some Like It Hot") • July 23-28
It’s the classic movie "Some Like It Hot" adapted for the stage, with a brassy Jule Styne-Bob Merrill score to highlight the hilarious antics of two male musicians, who have disguised themselves as women in an all-female band to flee the Chicago mob.

Evening performances are set for: 7:30 Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday; and at 8 Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Matinee performances are at 2 Thursday and Saturday.

"The King and I" • Aug. 6-11
One of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most treasured musicals. East meets West, cultures and generations clash and reconcile. A classic tale of passionate but forbidden love, filled with indelible, exhilarating moments and equally memorable songs, including "Getting to Know You," "Something Wonderful," and “Shall We Dance?”

Evening performances are set for: 7:30 Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday; and at 8 Thursday, Friday and Saturday.. Matinee performances are at 2 Thursday and Saturday.

"Chicago" • Aug. 20-29

The sizzling, sexy Kander and Ebb smash hit makes its Music Circus debut this year, with choreography by the legendary Bob Fosse. In the show, convicted murderesses Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly find themselves on death row together – fighting for the fame that may keep them from the gallows. The killer score includes the songs “All That Jazz,” “Razzle Dazzle,” and “Cell Block Tango.”

In the first week of shows, evening performances are set for: 7:30 Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday; and at 8 Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Matinee performances are slated for 2 Thursday and Saturday. In the second week of shows, performances are at: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday; 7:30 p.m. Aug. 27 and 28; and 2 and 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 29.

Music Circus is produced under the leadership of artistic director Glenn Casale and associate producer Scott Klier.

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B Street favorites Jones, Johnson make it a baker's dozen with 'Anastasia Krupnik'

2013-01-14T17:48:06Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Longtime B Street Theatre patrons are used to seeing company members Kurt Johnson and Jamie Jones light up the stage – usually as boyfriend-girlfriend or husband and wife.

Since their first pairing in 1996 – in Anthony Clarvoe’s sweet-and-funny romcom “Let’s Play Two” – Johnson estimates he and Jones have played opposite one another 12 times.

With the Family Series production of Lois Lowry’s “Anastasia Krupnik,” which runs Jan. 12 through Feb. 17, Jones and Johnson are making it a baker’s dozen of shared theatrical memories at the B Street, though they actually met back in 1992 while performing at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. While they socialized offstage, they had no opportunity to share a stage, though Jones’ husband-to-be Michael Stevenson acted with Johnson in productions of “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “King Lear.”

In the Elisabeth Nunziato-directed “Krupnik,” however, there are no perfectly timed, LOL-generating awkward pauses or halting, stilted hellos that these masters of the meet-cute have delivered to the delight of Sacramento-area audiences for almost two decades. For this time around, they’re not sharing kisses, but DNA, as mother (Grandmother Krupnik) and son (Anastasia’s professor-poet father Myron) in one of the show’s more-touching plot points.

In another scene, Johnson enjoys a second childhood as a 10-year-old classmate of the title character (played by Sara Perry), while Jones pulls double-duty as Anastasia’s teacher, Mrs. Westvessel.

It’s a change of pace and pacing – and a welcome opportunity to stretch – for the two.

“The show’s sort of a comical tale of a 10-year-old ‘tween’ coming to terms with growing up,” said Jones, who – like Johnson – began her tenure with the B Street as a member of its Fantasy Theatre troupe (now the B Street Theatre School Tour). “There are events in her life she has to deal with: the birth of a new baby brother; being dethroned as an only child; the loss of love. But she’s a spunky, little gal with great folks.

“As Mrs. Westvessel, I appear twice. She’s kind of there for the purpose of teaching kids about poetry. In one scene, I give Anastasia an ‘F’ because she didn’t follow particular instruction, but I’m redeemed by making a very personal phone call about the death of her 89-year-old grandmother suffering from severe dementia and other maladies.”

“Mine’s a small role,” said Johnson. “I get a lot of laughs, and there are some poignant moments as well. The show doesn’t talk down to kids, but offers a true-to-life experience.”

Jones and Johnson, like so many of B Street Producing Director Buck Busfield’s resident actors, are members of a mutual admiration society who never tire of acting together, but who look forward for that next “play” date.

“Kurty’s a genius,” said Jones. “He’s a brilliant, brilliant actor who always brings something different – he can do anything. And he also has the devil in him – he always keeps it fresh; he’s always thinking, always inventing. One of the things I love about the B Street Theatre in particular is that they know that the core of comedy is payoff and danger. And Kurt serves it up – in the most positive and exciting way. There’s always chaos to be had, and you never know what you’re uncorking with him. It’s thrilling – he can totally break me.”

That’s high praise coming from an actress who Johnson said is one of the most unflappable onstage partners he’s had the pleasure to work with.

“First of all, Jamie’s extremely talented,” said Johnson. “She’s really, really funny onstage, but she’s also really positive and funny backstage and can roll with everyone. She can roll with new stuff I try, and she doesn’t blink twice even during the rehearsal process.”

Johnson, who directed Jones in the 2002 B Street production of “F-Stop,” added that Jones’ ability to essay multiple roles and “change on a dime” in a single show is a thing of wonder, as is her unfailingly upbeat attitude, her ‘great laugh,’ and a sense of style that allows her to zero-in on thrift-store finds that astound and amaze.

“Things can get really stressful during tech week,” he said, “what with blocking scenery and all. But things never seem to bother her, or at least she doesn’t show it. Hers is a real positive energy to have in the theater; she’s really smart, and she knows what she’s doing, but she’s never arrogant.”

Both actors also serve as teachers at the B Street Theatre. For nine years, Jones and husband Michael Stevenson – both of whom hold MFA degrees from San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre – have lead the company’s conservatory classes for adults, offering a rotating pair of Monday-evening semester classes nine months out of the year (six total). The next two class sessions begin that Jan. 28.

Johnson, Penn State alum, who has led the theater’s internship program, now teaches the company’s summer program for students, with a curriculum that includes improvisation, acting and playwriting. Details for this year’s program, which typically runs from mid-June though the end of August, are due to are announced in February.

“I think it’s great to have that variety,” said Johnson, “to be able to switch gears and hang out with a bunch of kids. It makes me revisit what it means to be an actor, and how to do it. “

Despite their long association with one another, familiarity has yet to breed any contempt.

Their relationship, said Jones, is one of genuine affection, with Johnson taking the role of resident “little brother.”

“We like to torture each other a little bit,” said Jones, who clearly had examples on the tip of her tongue to share, but didn’t want boss man Busfield to know just how many times Johnson was on the verge of cracking her usually unbreakable facade by playing Tim Conway to her Carol Burnett.

“It’s really nice working with someone over and over together,” said Johnson, who mentioned “Let’s Play Two” and Richard Greenberg’s “Three Days of Rain” as among his favorite shows in which the two have co-starred. “’Three Days of Rain’ was a great experience – it was great working with Jamie and the quality of that show was wonderful.”

Jones also considers “Let’s Play Two” and “Three Days of Rain” as two of her favortie Jones-and-Johnson shows, and adds a third – the Busfield-penned holiday show, “Throwing Parties” (2007), for just being “flat-out fun.”

No matter how many shows they do together, Jones said it’s always a fresh and fun experience.

“Kurt is just this incredibly inventive individual. It’s anew every time and it’s just easy to work with him.”

Johnson – who reveals another example of his and Jones' shared synergy when he offers the fun fact that he unknowingly rented an apartment which Jones had previously leased when he moved to Sacramento – returned the compliment.

“There’s a real sense of fun with Jamie,” he said. “She works hard on roles, but there’s no sense of privilege.”

For Sacramento theatergoers, the privilege is being able to see two of the city’s most-accomplished and talented performers in their lucky 13th show – and counting.

See additional production photos of "Anastasia Krupnik" by clicking here.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The B Street Theatre Family Series production of Lois Lowry’s “Anastasia Krupnik,” adapted by Meryl Friedman (based on Lowry’s series of juvenile-fiction books)

WHEN: Plays Jan. 12-Feb. 17, 2013, with performances at 1 and 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

WHERE: B Street Theatre B3 Stage (2727 B St., Sacramento, Calif.)

WHO: Directed by Elisabeth Nunziato; featuring Sara Perry (Anastasia Krupnik), Kurt Johnson (Myron Krupnik), Brittni Barger (Katherine Krupnik), Jamie Jones (Grandmother Krupnik/Mrs. Westvessel), Sarah Clancy (Jennifer McCauley)

HOW MUCH: Tickets range from $12 to $27; call (916) 443-5300 or go online at www.bstreettheatre.org

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Onstage: Imprint Theater Works' 'The Merchant of Venice'

2013-01-06T04:22:41Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

"The Merchant of Venice," Imprint Theater Works' debut production, puts both a shabby and chic contemporary sheen on the Shakespearean tragicomedy.

In this "Merchant," which opened Friday, Jan. 4, and plays through Jan. 26, the nobles are represented as corporate three-piece-suiters while background players huddle in the corners of the Grange Performing Arts Center stage as homeless people.

Directed by Imprint Artistic Director Alysha Krumm, who joined producing director Jeffrey Lloyd Heatherly, and Robin Southworth in adapting the script, "Merchant" features: Heatherly (Shylock); Southworth (Duke of Venice); Ryan Antonio (Ryan Snyder); Elizabeth Holzman (Portia); Brennan Villados (Bassanio); Tara Henry (Gratiano); Amanda C. Johnston (Nerissa); Matthew Donaldson (Lorenzo); Denver Skye Vaughan (Jessica); Brandon Lancaster (Salanio); Tony Hutto (Salarino); Ashley Eigenman (Gabbo); and Cody Parcell (Tubal).

Performances are set for Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at the Grange Performing Arts Center, 3823 V St., Sacramento. For tickets and/or more information, call (916) 838-0618. See the company's Facebook page by clicking here.

To view additional production photos, please click here.

Rigby returns to high-flying, adored title role in 'Peter Pan'

2012-12-26T06:06:56Z

Did the kids balk at the gifts they found under the tree? It’s not too late to be a Christmas hero, and the best part is that there are no maniacal malls to brave.

“Peter Pan,” starring the former Olympic gymnastics star Cathy Rigby, flies into Sacramento’s Community Center Theater Wednesday, Dec. 26, for a five-day, Broadway Sacramento-presented run that’s sure to erase any memories of a disappointing yuletide haul consisting of underwear and socks.

Rigby, who first played the boy who wouldn’t grow up in a 1974 regional theater production before earning a 1990 Tony nomination for her subsequent Broadway performance as Pan, recently took time out to talk about her love for the part and why she’s back in the air at 60 after having said goodbye to the role in a 2004-05 “farewell” tour.

“I missed doing it,” said Rigby, who co-helms the company (with husband Tom McCoy) that’s producing the current national tour that’s officially billed as “Cathy Rigby Is Peter Pan." “It’s the most amazing show – it keeps you young and in shape. When the idea was brought up, I said, ‘What the heck? I’ll do it again if I’m believable – if I can do it as well or better.’”

Rigby, who said she didn’t want to disappoint any theatergoers who might have seen an earlier incarnation, threw herself into training for a return to Never Never Land like, well, like an Olympic athlete going for the gold. “I got myself a Pilates trainer and worked very hard,” she said. “The only thing I took out that I used to do, was a jump from the dog house to a bed. I’m actually flying more – this incarnation is actually more physical than it was.

“I wear a double harness for the flying, I dance as much as before and perform handsprings – I’ve surprised myself.”

“Flying” – the stage art of rigging performers in harnesses and either mechanically or manually lifting and maneuvering their airborne forms across the stage and/or audience has always been one of the most memorable elements of “Peter Pan” productions. It’s made the news in the past year or so due to the accidents suffered by cast members of Broadway’s “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”

Rigby, who’s seen the show, draws distinctions between the highly mechanized, tech-heavy “Spider-Man” musical and “Peter Pan,” which leans on old-school ways of “flight controllers” Jimmy Little and Paul Rubin manipulating her take-offs and landings.

That’s not to say that making magic happen in “Pan” is completely free of risk.

In her recent run of “Pan” in Houston, Rigby was wielding a sword during a high-flying battle scene between Peter and Captain Hook when an errant thrust deflected off of a crow’s nest set piece and grazed her head – resulting in a cut that required 10 stitches.

But such incidents are rare in Rigby’s production of “Pan,” whose appeal isn’t based on the thrill of potential catastrophe, but on the wonder of J.M. Barrie’s storybook tale of Peter’s heroic derring-do versus the inept evildoing of Hook (Brent Barrett).

It’s an enchanted, thoroughly alluring formula that seems to appeal not only to each new generation of theatergoers, but for Rigby herself.

“It’s two hours a night of spontaneity and mischief for me as I watch these little boys in the audience just take in the adventuresome spirit of the show,” said Rigby. “They’re fascinated by everything. One moment they’re very quiet, the next minute they’re cheering. I love all those qualities about children. For many of them, it’s their first time in a theater and it’s wonderful to become part of that memory of theirs. Then there are the audience members who were kids themselves when they first saw the show. Now they’re bringing their own children to the show and they’re watching it through their children’s eyes and remembering.”

Rigby’s own youthful memories aren’t full of evenings in the theater, but of repetitive gymnastics exercises on balance beams and padded gym floors.

“I started with ballet at 7,” she said. “I was one of those active kids who jumped on everything. I was introduced to gymnastics when I was 10 and taking a recreation program.”

Though many kids start earlier, Rigby said being a very physical child who would spend hours on her neighborhood playground’s swinging rings and monkey bars performing “death drops” into the sandbox served her well in preparation of the formal training she would soon undertake.

“I used to have my parents take the sheets off my bed and jump off things holding those sheets like a parachute,” she said. “I was fearless – and you need to be fearless to work on a 4-inch-wide apparatus – it’s kind of precarious.”

The sport became an all-consuming passion for Rigby who said her training schedule didn’t leave time for other interests. The closest she came to the world of musical comedy, she said, was a middle-school field trip to a local theater’s production of “West Side Story,” and practicing routines at the gym to the soundtrack of Walt Disney’s “Mary Poppins.”

Still, the seed was planted, and she still fondly recalls her live-theater excursion.

“It was the most magical recreational trip I’d ever taken – I loved the singing,” she said. “But I never considered it as a career.”

For one, there just wasn't time to consider future careers. Rigby said she would spend as many as six hours a day training in anticipation of her first Olympics in 1968.

The dedication paid off, as she left the Mexico City games as the highest-scoring American gymnast. An injury hampered her 1972 results and she retired from competition soon thereafter.

Among those who came calling to capitalize on the Olympian’s notoriety were regional theater producers wanting Rigby for a new production of “Peter Pan” that would feature a more athletic Peter, as well as Sacramento’s Music Circus where her performance as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” served as an audition of sorts for the producers at Los Angeles’ Pantages Theatre.

She would also accept a variety of TV offers that would cast her in guest-star spots in “The Six-Million Dollar Man,” “Police Woman,” and “The Hardy Boys Mysteries,” among other series.

”I usually played a part in which I would have an accent, which was fine,” Rigby said. “I had been around girls from around the world and picked up their accents. I was on familiar ground – it wasn’t much of a stretch. But it was very cool, and the stars of those shows – like Lee Majors – were very kind and helpful.”

These early acting experiences proved successful and personally satisfying enough that they whet Rigby’s appetite for more, and she began working toward raising her game to a world-class level with a spate of acting and singing lessons that she would continue for seven years while acting in and producing a variety of musical-theater shows.

“I didn’t just want to be considered as someone who sings really well ‘for a gymnast.’ Plus, I didn’t want to take a role away from someone who really could perform – I wanted to be judged on the same level as any other actress.”

“At first, the thought of ever standing on stage was impossible,” she said. “But I understood how to train; the voice, like an other muscle in the body, is something you have to exercise.”

Rigby returned to “Pan” in a 1989 national tour, earning rave reviews and a subsequent stint on Broadway that garnered her a Tony Award nomination.

“Broadway for me was like the Olympics of theater,” said Rigby. “But it’s truly a team effort and I loved it. It was really magical to be able to get to that level and gain the acceptance of the theater community.”

Rigby is not opposed to saying that she might well fly again after the current tour closes its 20-city run in Boston next April.

“There’s this freedom with this role to change it up,” said Rigby. “I love the flying, I love the touring. I love getting to know this group of people in the cast and crew who become family.

“You do what you love.”

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: California Musical Theatre's Broadway Sacramento presentation of "Peter Pan," a musical adaptation of J.M. Barrie's play (and novel) with a score by Mark "Moose" Charlap and Jule Styne, and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, and Betty Comden and Adolph Green; produced by McCoy Rigby Entertainment, Nederlander Presentations, and Albert Nocciolino in association with Larry Earl Payton, Michael Filerman, Heni Koenigsberg and La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

WHERE: Community Center Theater, 1301 L St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHEN: Runs Dec. 26 through 30, with performances at: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 26; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 27; 7:30 p.m. Dec. 28; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 29 and 30

WHO: Featuring Cathy Rigby as Peter Pan, Brent Barrett as Mr. Darling/Captain Hook, and Kim Crosby as Mrs. Darling; directed by Glenn Casale; flying sequences choreography by Paul Rubin; choreography by Patti Columbo; musical direction by Keith Levenso; lighting design by Michael Gilliam; sound design by Julie Ferrin; fight direction by Sean Boyd; and casting direction by Julia Flores

TICKETS:Ticket prices range from $19 to $86, and are available by calling (916) 557-1999 (Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office) or (916) 808-5181 (Community Center Theater Box Office), in person at the Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office and at the Community Center Theater Box Office, or by going online at tickets.com. For more information on tickets, click here.

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Big Idea Theatre staff hopes to offset theft with holiday fundraiser

2012-12-22T00:13:52Z

For a matter of months, the company members of the 5-year-old Big Idea Theatre have been prepping for its Dec. 22 holiday fundraising event – a yuletide party that includes a live reenactment of a Rod Serling-penned “Twilight Zone” episode, dance performances courtesy of local studios and choreographers, food and drink, and a silent auction for such gift items as Big Idea season passes, bottles of wine and a Cheesecake Factory gift certificate.

Being a nonprofit arts agency, such planned parties are necessary to keep doors open and creditors at bay, said Mahoney.

So when persons unknown broke into the theater’s Del Paso Boulevard offices over the weekend and absconded with a computer and a cash box, the importance of a full house of open wallets for the already-planned fundraiser became even more important.

“We were very saddened by it,” said company spokeswoman Shannon Mahoney of the robbery which she surmised had to occur between 11 p.m. Saturday night and 9 a.m. Sunday morning. “It was pretty devastating to walk into the theater Sunday and see all that had been taken.”

Some $1,000 was stolen, said Mahoney, who noted that it’s not standard practice to leave any money in the theater’s office,

“That’s money that would have ordinarily funded the production of a show,” she added.

It was another blow for the critically acclaimed troupe, which suffered flooding during that same weekend.

“One of the reasons we even came in as early as we did Sunday morning was to clean up the water that had created a little swimming pool for our ‘Love’s Labor;s Lost’ cast,” said Mahoney, referring to the company’s recently closed comedy.

Last year’s inaugural fundraising event was a sell-out, said Mahoney, who has her fingers crossed for a similarly well-attended event Saturday.

“Everyone has been working really hard for this one night,” she said of Saturday’s 7 to 10 p.m. event.

The cast – Ashley Lucas (bagpiper), Jamie Kale (ballerina), Christina Clem (clown), Gregory Smith (hobo), Walt Thompson (major), Jeff Kohlhelpp (Rod Serling) – will perform an adaptation of Serling’s 1961 “Twilight Zone” teleplay “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” a seasonal offering that features one of the series’ trademark O. Henry-style twist endings.

Company member Wade Lucas directs.

Mahoney said she hoped to produce more playlets from “The Twilight Zone” canon in support of future fundraisers. “They’re fun, first of all,” she said, “and, second, it’s stuff that’s never been seen on our stage before. It gives the community an opportunity to see something different. Plus, it’s easier for actors to commit to a one-evening production rather than five weeks of rehearsal and a five-week run."

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Big Idea Theatre second annual holiday fundraiser, featuring a performance of Rod Serling’s “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” dance pieces, food and beverages and a silent auction

WHEN: 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012 (performances at 7:30 and 8:30 p.m.)

WHERE: Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, Calif.

TICKETS: $25 online, $30 at the door; call (916) 960-3036, or go online at bigideatheatre.com

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Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet Theatre to present fun, frothy, fantastical 'Nutcracker'

2012-12-21T17:47:40Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

"I like to keep it fresh," says Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet Theatre Artistic Director Pamela Hayes about her annual "Nutcracker" productions, the latest of which debuts Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, at Folsom Lake College's Harris Center for the Performing Arts (aka Three Stages).

She also likes to keep the classic Tchaikovsky ballet funny, infusing the fantasy with frolicsome bits of stage business and comic choreography that distinguishes it from other "Nutcrackers," as does the company's casting choice of a more mature Clara.

Former PHCB student Allyn Ginns returns this year to play the young girl whose gift of a toy nutcracker from the mysterious Herr Drosselmeyer (guest artist Michael Onstad) leads her into a magical adventure involving a trip to a snowy wonderland, and to the delightful Land of Sweets where she's entertained by an international cast of exotic characters.

Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet Theatre presents “The Nutcracker” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23.

Single tickets, priced at $15 to $26, are available by calling (916) 608-6888, or online at www.threestages.net. For more information, visit www.phcb.org.

To view Barry Wisdom's complete collection of gallery photos, please click here.

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Humor, fresh faces to distinguish Pamela Hayes' 'Nutcracker'

2012-12-19T16:24:16Z

In the 120 years since its debut at St. Petersburg’s Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, “The Nutcracker” has been staged by a host of renowned choreographers on behalf of an equally impressive number of ballet troupes.

Though original reviews were mixed, in the past half-century, librettist Marius Petipa’s magical mystery tour (based on Alexandre Dumas’ adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story) has become a perennial favorite of companies that have used the romantic production to introduce generations of would-be ballerinas to “the dance.”

Count Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet among them. PHCB’s debuted its take on Tchaikovsky’s fanciful ballet in 2000, when the company was still based at the Sheldon High School Performing Arts Center. The company’s 12th annual production opens Friday, Dec. 21, for four performances at its current home: Folsom Lake College’s Harris Center for the Performing Arts (formerly Three Stages).

Though it now presents at a newer, state-of-the-art venue, PHCB is still facing the same-old challenge of preserving the “classic” in “Classical Ballet Theatre,” while communicating the distinctions of its “Nutcracker” from myriad rival stagings.

“There are a zillion of them, but I have tried to make ours more entertaining,” said PHCB Artistic Director Pamela Hayes, who acknowledged that “The Nutcracker” has been historically criticized for a rather uninspired first act. “I became aware when I became more of an observer than a participant that the first act ran long, and could be boring. So now we try to make ours more entertaining and humorous by inserting more comedy to make it funnier than others.”

Though ballet aficionados might not perceive even the original staging of little Clara’s journey to a snowy pine forest, and the magical Land of Sweets (escorted by her Nutcracker Prince) as anything but perfection, Hayes said she’s keenly aware that many of the dads, grandfathers, boyfriends and husbands in the audience may have been cajoled, guilted, threatened, or even blackmailed to attend.

With that in mind, Hayes – a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Dance and an alum of the Royal Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, Ballet West and Eugene Ballet – said a great deal of her focus is to offer a “Nutcracker” that’s not only family friendly, but is unabashed family fun for girls and boys, moms and dads, dancers and nondancers, and everyone in between.

“That’s my goal, and – hopefully – what sets us apart from some of the larger companies,” said Hayes.

“From those audience members we’ve heard from – especially those who have been dragged out, as well as disinterested children with short attention spans – we’ve succeeded.”

In addition to injecting more than its fair gaggle of giggles, PHCB’s “Nutcracker” is keen on bringing aboard notable guest artists to perform key roles, or to serve in advisory capacities.

This year, Hayes welcomes Peter O’Brien, whose real life inspired the lauded film (and its subsequent Tony-winning stage adaptation) “Billy Elliot,” about a young boy whose interest in ballet provided an escape from a decidedly working-class British mining town.

Hayes met O’Brien some years ago when both were students at the Royal Academy of Dance.

O’Brien will return to Sacramento in August to work with Hayes and company on PHCB’s full-length production of “Giselle.”

“He’ll be consulting on ‘Giselle’ and teaching a summer workshop, so that’s kind of exciting,” said Hayes.

Joining “The Nutcracker” cast in guest-performer capacities are Michael Onstad as Herr Drosselmeyer, and Georgy Rusanov as the Sugar Plum’s Cavalier.

“We’re lucky to have Michael,” said Hayes. “We’re always grateful when he can do our ‘Nutcracker’ because others would love to have him.”

While having new dancers aboard is energizing, it’s also nice to see former students return to dance, said Hayes, noting that three alums are coming back this year to “slide into roles they’ve done before.”

Among those returning for onstage appearances is PHCB alumna Allyn Ginns, who has danced in the company’s 11 previous “Nutcracker” productions.

“Allyn first danced the role of Clara, back when she was 17,” said Hayes, who mentioned that it’s a special treat for Ginns to return for another “Nutcracker,” reprising her role as the Sugar Plum Fairy, considering how hectic her year has been.

“She’s just back from college – Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In fact, she just passed the New York state bar. She’s quite an amazing young woman.”

In speaking about Ginns and her history with PHCB as a student and performer, Hayes is reminded of another distinction between her company and others.

“One of Allyn’s early dreams as a very young student was to dance the role of Clara,” said Hayes. “Well, she was such a lovely dancer, and even at 17 so petite that she could fit into the Clara costume. So she ended up as my Clara. After she debuted in the role, it became our tradition to feature mature, more accomplished dancers in that part.”

Hayes said her cast’s younger students only perform age-appropriate roles, that is, roles that call for only a level of training one could expect from a student.

“I struggle to keep a promise I made to my studio’s then-students more than a dozen years ago,” said Hayes, “because I’m a perfectionist with a respect for my craft, and what’s onstage has to be beautiful and come up to professional standards – it’s not a ‘recital’ version.”

“We pride ourselves on putting a very-professional product onstage. I want to give the students the experience of what it’s like working with a ballet company one day, and to give them an idea if this is what they want to do.”

In addition to Ginns, other PHCB alums that are returning to the fold for a “Nutcracker” reunion are: Sarah Kosterman (as Clara); Aly Andersen (as one of Drosselmeyer’s dolls and as a Spanish dancer); and Katryn Davis and Marie L’Hermine (as party scene parents).

Along with featuring a mix of fresh faces and experienced alums in creative and performance roles, Hayes said what distinguishes her company’s “Nutcracker” is its continual updating of sets and costumes so that even those who aren’t ballet aficionados have a plethora of eye candy on which to feast.

“We have the new costumes for our snow scene that we had made last year,” said Hayes, who also mentioned there were just-stitched costumes waiting to be unveiled, including those for the dolls in the party scene.

“And this is the first year for our snow sets. Our snow scenes for 2012 are as beautiful as we could possibly create, with white-and-fluffy snow. There should be an audible ‘Wow’ from the audience.”

“Each year it’s a little different,” said Hayes. “I like to keep it fresh.”

Hayes said she believes what also makes the PHCB production stand out is the inclusion of a number of characters that don’t normally get much stage time. Introduced during the company’s first productions (to facilitate costume changes for the then-smaller cast), she kept them even after more dancers were added.

“They were so entertaining, we just left them in there,” she said, noting that her 80-member cast – which includes children as young as 3 – performs in every show. “We’ve even added more older roles this year – more dancers in short tutus. A lot of people don’t feel like they’ve gone to the ballet unless they’ve seen a lot of short tutus.”

Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet presents “The Nutcracker” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23.

Single tickets, priced at $15 to $26, are available by calling (916) 608-6888, or online at www.threestages.net. For more information, visit www.phcb.org.

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Barger, Altholz: B Street's Mary and Rhoda thrilled to be sharing stage in 'Magi'

2012-12-14T18:37:56Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

In the interest of completing a team task, or just keeping one’s job, employees are often required to play “nice” with one another when they’d rather be playing a no-stopping-on-cuts-or-blood bout of Alien vs. Predator.

Of course, it’s the goal of every good boss to hire an amiable mix talents and personalities who will complement (if not outwardly compliment), respect, and – ideally – like their co-workers.

This desired dynamic can be challenging to achieve, especially in a creatively competitive environment where most everyone has an opinion of how to achieve success.

So when your workplace is introduced to another Type “A” personality of a similar age and skill set who turns out to be someone with whom you click like a Lego brick – someone who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile – it’s cause for celebration.

Just ask Brittni Barger and Stephanie Altholz, the Mary and Rhoda of the B Street Theatre.

Currently co-starring through Dec. 30 in associate producer Jerry Montoya’s laughter-laden adaptation of O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” on the theater’s Family Series stage, the 20-something company members had been fans of each others’ work while paying their dues as interns, children’s theater “tourists,” and box-office clerks.

“When I first saw Stephanie performing, it was during one of the company’s monologue nights,” said Barger. who plays the so-sweet-she’s-dripping-with-honey badger Della in “Magi.“ "I was immediately impressed by the level of her talent. I knew I would learn a lot from her.”

When the pair finally shared a B Street stage in 2010’s “Junie B. Jones in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!,” Barger found herself in the title role of author Barbara Park’s smart-and-sassy young heroine, while Altholz played Jones’ mean-and-testy nemesis, Tattletale May.

It was laughs at first sight.

“Our friendship really blossomed during ‘Junie,’” said Barger. “I think it was the very first day of rehearsal when we became enamored of each other.”

Altholz, who’s a gives a silent nod. “To this day, it’s my favorite show. We still talk about it and how much people loved it and how well Britt and I play off each other.”

When the opportunity to play opposite each other came up again with “Magi,” with Altholz playing Della’s sister-in-law, a very pregnant badger named Winnie, there was a lot of jumping up and down and texting.

Though both are well-trained, accomplished young actresses with star turns at the B Street and beyond (Barger was recently featured as Anne Sullivan in the Sacramento Theatre Company production of “The Miracle Worker,” while Altholz starred in such B Street shows as “Rx,” with both participating in the summer improv and sketch comedy series “B Sketchy”), they’re far from being clones.

Altholz said one of the reasons they’ve found themselves supporting and not sniping at one another is that their innate personalities tend to steer them toward completely opposite roles, eliminating the possibility of jealousy rearing its titian-hued head. Plus, she added, Barger is just too damn nice to dislike.

“Brittni is a sweet, thoughtful person and she gets cast in thoughtful roles like Annie Sullivan and I’m an inherently mean, vindictive, loud person and I tend to get cast in those kind of roles,” laughed Altholz. “We play off each other really well in person and professionally.”

“Steph has the brains and ideas, and I have the heart,” said Barger, who added that she and Altholz are lifelong members of a mutual-admiration society that both recognizes the weaknesses, and revels in the strengths of the B Street Wonder Twins.

“We are very different for sure,” said Altholz. “She’s very patient and kind, and a nice person to have around all the time – and I’m not.”

Altholz said her mood ring often spans the entire spectrum throughout the course of a day, while the more even-keeled Barger’s might remain dark blue for weeks on end.

“I’m pretty mild-mannered,” said Barger. “It’s hard for me to dislike someone.”

“What I really admire about Brittni is her ability to remain unruffled even when things are falling apart. I can get very easily annoyed, distracted and distraught, and can feel like the world is ending, whereas Brittni is able to make friends with everyone and see the positive – whether in a show or in life. I appreciate how she is able to talk me through my angst and get me through things. Britt’s taught me how to embody love on stage – real deep, deep emotions and to feel them. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like Brittni.”

“I know a lot of people who don’t like me,” laughed Barger, “but I won’t name names.”

True to her self-described contradictory nature, Altholz couldn’t let her friend’s statement go unchallenged.

“Everybody does love her – everybody does,” said Altholz.

What Barger loves about her comrade-in-greasepaint is the degree of self-confidence Altholz exhibits onstage.

“The way she can project that confidence in her performances, that lack of questioning – I want to be able to do that one day,” said Barger. “Plus, she also good at accents!”

Altholz said offstage she can be a standoffish grumpy bear even in the midst of the most social of social situations (think Andy Rooney), while Barger would have no qualms in giving “hello hugs” to plague-infected porcupines, but that they also share much – like a twisted sense of humor.

Altholz half-recalls Barger’s celebratory night out following the end of her B Street Theatre internship.

“I woke up in her apartment on her couch with a bowl of mac and cheese in front of me,” said Altholz. She had taken me home and put me in her pajamas – which happened to be onesies – gave me water and put me to sleep. When Hanukkah came around, the first thing she got me were these giant turquoise onesies.”

“Yes, she has a very, very disturbed, dark sense of humor,” Altholz said. “But ultimately, she’s just a very person who takes care of others – me included. That’s why she often gets cast both here and at other theaters in the lead – playing the heart and soul of the show.”

The duo (whose “Magi” castmates include John Lamb, Michael Stevenson and Sam Arnold) said they also share a fierce work ethic, and that they tend to work quickly when it comes to learning lines and hitting marks, which is a good thing because when you and a BFF are playing high-energy, sarcastic forest varmints – and laughing all day long – it tends to require double-timing at some point to catch up.

“Our first week of rehearsal – and the week leading up to that – was spent talking and laughing so much that we maybe got two real hours of rehearsal in per day,” said Altholz. “That can be one of the great things working with people you like, you do mess around a lot more.”

But for as much fun as Barger and Altholz have sharing a stage (their comedic, rapid-fire exchanges in “Magi” are alone worth the price of admission), they said they are above all else professional actors who are able to convey a mood or emotion even when playing opposite a castmate with whom they have no real relationship.

“It’s easy to have a completely professional relationship,” said Barger. “You choose who your friends are. At the theater you’re doing a job and you‘re cordial and all that, but once you leave through that door, you live your life.”

“The main difference with working with someone you’re not comfortable with offstage is that you don’t feel as comfortable or as safe, which makes it harder to be ‘in the moment,’” said Altholz. “There are really no chance moments on stage.”

For performance schedules, more information, or to buy tickets, please call (916) 443-5300, or go to www.bstreettheatre.org.

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Galena Street East's 'Holiday Tapestry' is youthful homage to Welk, Williams

2012-12-13T13:40:08Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Like modern-day Mouseketeers, the boys and girls, and the young men and women of Galena Street East are Sacramento’s freshly scrubbed, unfailingly upbeat ambassadors of song and dance.

During the Golden Age of TV, the telegenic team (think the King Family or the Osmond Brothers) might have been featured regularly on variety shows hosted by such iconic hosts as Lawrence Welk, Andy Williams and Ed Sullivan.

Today, it’s the kind of all-ages, feel-good troupe one would more likely catch on a theme park or state fair stage (where they do, in fact, regularly appear).

Now in the midst of the group’s spate of annual “Holiday Tapestry” performances, which wrap with a 6:15 p.m. performance Dec. 19 at the California State Library Rotunda (900 N St., Sacramento), “Galena” co-founder and director Jeri Clinger took an uncharacteristic break to talk about what makes Galena Galena.

“Most people don’t sing and dance after they leave here, but use what they gain here in other aspects of life. It’s more about gaining confidence, about leadership and teamwork. You realize it’s not what you learn front and center as a solo performer, it’s about interacting with an entire team that makes a show happen. ”

Though the former schoolteacher and her pianist husband Richard Clinger – who both were once busy Southern California-based performers – started with a modest troupe of 14 some four decades ago, the current Holiday Tapestry cast boasts more than 80, with members ranging in age from 5 to 18.

But, as Clinger said, the success of Galena isn’t quantifiable.

“My goal is to create good people, not good performers,” Clinger said. For instance, Galena members are expected to contribute some 300 community service hours per year through various activities including participation in Project Birthday events.

Not that she’s opposed to seeing her good people also grow into show-stoppingly good performers. One such alumna recently appeared in the Broadway ensembles of “Mary Poppins” and “A Christmas Story: The Musical.”

The path that Galena cast members must follow may be yellow-brick shiny, but it’s also somewhat difficult to navigate, demanding discipline and self-sacrifice of its young cast as well as their families. Some routinely commute from as far away as Granite Bay and Lodi to attend the regular rehearsals, which include a 7 a.m. Saturday practice.

“It’s a long way to come twice a week,” said Clinger, who said that the group’s busy rehearsal schedule does have an upside beyond pitch-perfect performances.

“They don’t have time to get into trouble,” she laughed, adding that her troupes enjoy uniquely positive support systems that include Clinger and her creative team, volunteers (culled from parents and past performers), and even their fellow castmates.

Some of those families are intimately acquainted with the challenges of Galena’s grueling (if gleeful) schedule.

Clinger said 15 current Galena cast members are legacies – children of those who also chose to embrace the Judy-and-Mickey sheen over Sid-and-Nancy grit. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “Parents who were in the first Galena now have kids in the show. They’re helping backstage, and are building sets.”

And Galena cast members are nothing if not supportive of one another. Clinger said the members of her “great little community” are always there to offer friendly hugs of celebration and caring shoulders of consolation as needed.

Over the years, Clinger said the most significant changes to “Holiday Tapestry” hasn’t been about its positive, international-flavored content, but in delivering an ever-evolving, more-professional program that features trendy music and dance of the day, as well as preserving the familiar seasonal chestnuts of yesteryear.

This commitment includes recruiting additional choreographers (local legend Ron Cisneros has long led Galena's choreography team) who are specialists in ethnic dances. The introduction of unfamiliar global beats (and steps) to her students in an effort to expand their horizons is an important aspect of Galena, said Clinger, who has escorted her casts in performance tours around the world, from Asia to South America.

“We provide the opportunity for the kids to travel all over the world,” she said. “One reason is for them to see all the goodness and beauty there is in the world.”

For more information, please see the Galena Street East website by clicking here, or call (916) 731-4090.

To view additional photographs, please click here.

Visually stunning 'Nutcracker' returns to Community Center Theatre

2012-12-10T00:23:36Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

The beautiful thing about ballet is that you don't need to know the difference between a pirouette and a pierogi to enjoy and appreciate the aesthetic and athletic artistry involved.

Proof of that came through in the mainstream success of 2010's "Black Swan," the Oscar-winning psychological thriller set in the world of professional ballet.

But long before that dark film debuted, families that knew little of ballet had been making "The Nutcracker" one of their annual holiday traditions, like heading north to cut down a Chrismas tree, gathering around the kitchen island to bake festively decorated sugar cookies or watching "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" on the cathode-ray tube.

For 25 years, the lavish sets, colorful costumes, breathtaking effects, and Tchaikovsky's now-familiar score have combined with co-artistic director Ron Cunningham's elegant choreography to deliver a yuletide treat to Sacramento Ballet fans.

The 2012 production, now on stage at the Commmunity Center Theatre, plays through Dec. 23 with performances set for:

Dec. 9 • 1 p.m.

Dec. 14 • 7 p.m.

Dec. 15 • 2 and 7 p.m.

Dec. 16 • 1 and 5 p.m.

Dec. 21 • 7 p.m.

Dec. 22 • 2 and 7 p.m.

Dec. 23 • 1 and 5 p.m.

For more ticket information, click here, or call (916) 552-5800 ext. 2.

Here's a look at the 2012 production via dress rehearsal photographs. To view additional images, see the slideshow above, or go to Barry Wisdom's complete image gallery by clicking here.

Sac State's 'Robin Hood': Its aim is true

2012-12-02T09:47:59Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

In the current Sacramento State theater production of "Robin Hood," the forest greenery and verdant costuming aren't nods to the holiday season, but represent integral aspects of noted playwright Don Nigro's timely adaptation that puts Al Gore-fronted environmentalism ahead of Huey Long share-the-wealth socialism.

Directed by Sac State Professor Michelle Felten, Nigro's "Robin Hood" has villain Prince John hoping to clear-cut Sherwood Forest in favor of tennis courts, a munitions factory and a slaughterhouse.

As in more traditional versions, it's Robin Hood to the rescue, with his band of merry men at his side and Maid Marian in his arms.

The cast features Brent Bianchini as Robin Hood, Zane Boyer as Prince John, Jessica WIndhaus as Maid Marian, and Gavin Sellers as Grok the Jester.

The show plays at the University Theatre, 6000 J St., Sacramento, with performances at: 8 p.m. Nov. 28-Dec. 1; 2 p.m. Dec. 2; 6:30 p.m. Dec. 5-6; 8 p.m. Dec. 7-8; and 2 p.m. Dec. 9. There are no performances Dec. 3-4.

Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. performances cost $5 to $8. Tickets for all other performances cost $8 to $12. All tickets are available through the University Ticket Office, (916) 278-4323.

For more information, visit www.csus.edu/dram or call (916) 278-6368.

To view additional photos, please see Barry Wisdom's website gallery at: http://bit.ly/QXtUni

STC'S 'Christmas Carol' gets going-away makeover as it readies for five-year hiatus

2012-11-29T20:33:37Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

If you've consistently heard good things about Sacramento Theatre Company's almost-annual musical production of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," but have just never made it down to the company's main stage at 1419 H St., you may want to make an extra-special effort to catch this year's 25th anniversary mounting.

After the current run, which officially kicks off Saturday, Dec. 1, and closes Dec. 23, STC will be pulling a "Disney" and locking away playwright Richard Hellesen's adaptation (with music by the late David DeBerry) for five years. The next opportunity local audiences will have to enjoy the show that's become an STC tradition is 2017.

Returning to play Ebenezer Scrooge is STC favorite Matt K. Miller ("Dial 'M' for Murder," "Brighton Beach Memoirs"), who is joined onstage by young son Max as Tiny Tim (in rotation with Liam Nevin). STC Executive Producing Director Michael Laun helms the production.

Debuting this year are new orchestrations arranged by Sacramento-based composer Gregg Coffin.

Previews continue today and Friday, with the opening set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1. "A Christmas Carol" will play through Dec. 23 with performances at: 7 p.m. Wednesdays; 12:30 and 7 p.m. Thursdays; 7 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; and 2 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets, priced at $20 to $40, are available in person at the Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office (1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.), by calling (916) 443-6722 or (888) 478-2849, or online at www.sactheatre.org. Special pricing for students, seniors and groups is available.

B Street Theatre unwraps a pair of must-see world premieres

2012-11-19T21:48:08Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

It may be trendier to deck the stage with a commedia dell’arte zombie musical that features a naked, nunchuck-wielding, Shakespeare-quoting cast, but the holiday season at the B Street Theatre is more about comfort food than nouvelle cuisine.

Just as Thanksgiving diners count on menus offering green-bean casserole, turkey and cranberry sauce, Sacramento-area theatergoers expect to see such familiar B Street company members as Dave Pierini, Kurt Johnson, Elisabeth Nunziato, John Lamb and Michael Stevenson performing homegrown plays that expertly mix quirky humor and heart-tugging sentiment.

Just how long producing artistic director Buck Busfield, the traditional author of the B Street’s world-premiere yuletide productions, can keep his company’s streak going is anybody’s guess, but it won’t be this year as he again delivers a holly-jolly good main-stage show filled with deliciously sly giggles and semi-sweet, spiritual morsels.

In the company’s 17th original yuletide play, Busfield assembles Pierini, Johnson, Nunziato, as well as fellow B Street company members David Silberman and Stephanie McVay, for a sometimes gritty, but always-entertaining story of one man’s moral awakening (think Ebenezer Scrooge) and how it’s perceived by his family and business associates.

Next door, on the Family Series stage, seasoned B Street vets Stevenson and Lamb mix it up with fellow company members Stephanie Altholz and Brittni Barger, along with intern Sam Arnold, to deliver a fresh-and-funny, sweet-and-silly take on “The Gift of the Magi.”

This all-ages adaptation of O. Henry’s Christmas chestnut, written by B Street director-playwright Jerry Montoya, is another world premiere, with Montoya envisioning the self-sacrificing couple as a forest-dwelling bear and his badger bride who are facing the holidays with little more than their love for one another.

Whether one is looking for a holiday treat to share with visiting family/friends, or an escape from the Visa-dragging legions of the shopping dead, the B Street Theatre is providing sanctuary for one and all.

“The Gift of the Magi”

Wikipedia, the Internet’s usually verbose “free encyclopedia,” can only muster four short lines in summarizing O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.”

In addition to its skeletal plot, said story of a financially challenged young couple that sacrifice their personal treasures to procure gifts for one another has already been adapted for a variety of media ad infinitum.

To produce something new and appealing is a challenge, but one that the B Street’s Jerry Montoya has successfully met.

In the world premiere of this Family Series holiday staging, which opened Nov. 17 and continues through Dec. 30, young couple Della (Brittni Barger) and James (Sam Arnold) have the world by the tail, which is appropriate since they happen to be forest-dwelling critters (she’s a sweet, good-natured badger, and he’s a sweet, good-natured bear).

Della’s also a successful teacher who specializes in tai-chi inspired “stealth” exercises, and James is a third-generation railroad conductor about to break his father’s record for on-time arrivals.

When James’ boss (the chameleon-like Michael Stevenson, who brilliantly plays some half-dozen furry-and-funny character roles), tells the bear that the line is downsizing and the town’s stop is to be eliminated, the couple’s plan to split his bonus in order to exchange special gifts is similarly derailed.

As luck would have it, Della also gets pink-slipped, and it looks like their dreams for the perfect Christmas have been clear-cut. But with the support of Della’s brother Walter (John “I dare you not to LOL” Lamb), a music store impresario, and his very-pregnant wife Winnie (Stephanie “Queen of the Sarcastic Quips” Altholz), they forge forward with renewed faith and love.

Fans of the story already know a happy ending is in the offing, but Montoya weaves in some unexpected elements that will delight those well-acquainted with the tale, as well as children who aren’t even old enough to know about the O. Henry candy bar, let alone O. Henry the author.

Director-playwright Montoya knows his audience. The pacing is fast, the scenes are brief (perfect for short attention spans) and the farcical performances are delightful. The unexpected New “Yawk” accents (and attitudes) sported by Altholz and Lamb are a hoot. The quick-yet-graceful Animal Planet-perfect movements of Barger (not to mention the heartfelt carol she delivers near the end of the second act) are as sweet as honey, which matches up well with Arnold’s good-natured bravado as the Gentle James of the forest. And last, but certainly not least, Stevenson’s colorful interpretations of such diverse denizens of the woodland as a porcupine and mole are delicious and delicate, providing a nice counterpoint to the louder, broader characters.

And though not officially listed as a character, set designer Sam Reno’s “Magi” set is a living, magical entity, with enough color, angles and scenery to entertain even the squirmiest of theater patrons who choose to skip the concessions stand during intermission.

Many holiday productions promise that they’re “fun for the whole family,” but B Street’s “The Gift of the Magi” is like a whispered pledge received on Santa’s knee – it’s something one can truly count on.

“A Pail of Grace”

It wouldn’t be November at the B Street Theatre without one of producing artistic director Buck Busfield’s world premieres featuring a roster of dysfunctional, damaged characters who nonetheless retain enough clarity to deliver a clever turn of phrase.

“A Pail of Grace” (Nov. 18-Dec. 30, 2012) proves to be no exception. It is an exceptional entry in the Busfield Christmas canon, with a smooth blend of blindsiding comedy and drama.

It’s all about real estate magnate John Finuken (David Silberman) and his unexpected change of life via divine enlightenment in the shadow of a metropolitan Starbucks.

Once frugal with his time and money, Finuken has become dedicated to emulate Ebenezer, and open his heart and wallet to those willing to accept the will of the almighty. This includes taking a dip in his conference room’s makeshift baptismal font – a secondhand bathtub.

His family is divided over what to do. His neglected-but-concerned wife Sally (the appropriately fretful Stephanie McVay) is genuinely fearful for his mental and physical well-being. His son Les (Dave Pierini) – a struggling lawyer-to-be (after several attempts he has yet to pass the bar) – is more concerned about obtaining start-up funds for his awning business (and his next macchiato).

Doting daughter Brenda (Elisabeth Nunziato), who once eschewed playing with Barbies in favor of Virgin Mary figurines, has become (by her own admission) a materialistic bitch – “a haute couture soccer mom with a Maserati.” Her verbal battles with Pierini are among the show's most entertaining scenes.

His right-hand man, Zjelko Krelko (Kurt Johnson), an Eastern European refugee who was “adopted” by FInuken as a casualty of war and brought to the United States, is equally concerned for his “mister” – or at least his company.

All hands on deck deliver emotionally moving performances as their characters deal with Finuken's spiritual awakening, but it’s Johnson who’s the standout in “A Pail of Grace.” His ability to play smarmy and childlike (“I want to go to DisneyWorld.”) shysters who seamlessly morph into sinister and threatening sociopaths is without equal.

In a single minute, Johnson can have you laughing uncontrollably over a bit of physical business or an accent-laden line reading, and then prompt a frantic visual search for an exit sign “just in case.”

The well-deserved kudos for Busfield (as playwright and director) and his cast can't be given without also mentioning the work of scenic designer Samantha Reno, who has lately raised the quality of the B Street's sets to the point where one feels as if they're actually flies on a real fourth wall.

There are a few unanswered questions one might consider on the way home, but there’s no story, or play or movie that can ever possibly answer everything. Sometimes when a message is so good, you just have to accept what’s given and take the rest on faith.

For performance schedules, more information, or to buy tickets, please call (916) 443-5300, or go to www.bstreettheatre.org.

Greg Alexander on STC's 'Irma' emergency: The show must go on

2012-11-10T16:02:11Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

It was like a Hallmark Channel movie.

On Oct. 30 – just a few days before the start of “tech” rehearsals when lighting-and-audio settings are finalized in anticipation of preview performances – the Sacramento Theatre Company production of “The Mystery of Irma Vep” hit a snag.

Or, rather, co-star Aaron Wilton’s foot did.

As director Greg Alexander said, “It’s OK to tell an actor ‘break a leg,’ but not ‘sprain an ankle.’

But that’s exactly what happened when the Bay Area-based Wilton caught his foot in the folds of one of the many costumes he and co-star Benjamin Ismail slip in and out of during the course of Charles Ludlam’s frenetic comedy (opening Nov. 10 on STC’s Pollock Stage).

“His foot rolled over and it made a noise – it ‘popped,’” said Alexander. “It was clear that whatever happened, it wasn't something he could shake off.”

“I’m just glad it wasn’t broken”

Exit Wilton, enter … well, that was the question.

“The time restraints really limited our options,” said Alexander, who pondered such quick “fixes” as casting one of the actors who had originally auditioned for Wilton’s part, which involves playing multiple characters ranging from a werewolf to a vampire to a resurrected Egyptian princess.

“We had a lot of good actors who read for us, but most were committed to other parts and were working,” Alexander said. “Another possibility was finding someone somewhere who had already played the part.”

But the grim reality was there simply wasn’t enough time to locate, woo and recruit another actor to brush up his Ludlam and start quoting him now.

And, given the very physical nature of the show, in which a pair of actors must also make a fast-paced series of quick changes in a relatively small space, Wilton’s use of a cane or set piece for support were also ruled out.

“It’s a track meet,” said Alexander of the show’s staging. “There is any number of plays he could walk around on a cane in, but not in ‘Irma Vep.’”

There did remain one additional resource, however, one more chance to see that the show would, in fact, go on.

Enter … Greg Alexander.

An experienced actor in his own right, best known to Sacramento-area audiences for his comic turns on B Street Theatre stages, Alexander said canceling “Vep” was never discussed. In the words of legendary NASA flight director Gene Kranz, “Failure was not an option.”

“One reason we decided I would be the shortest route to a solution was that I had been around the script for weeks,” said Alexander. “I didn’t know the lines, but knew what he said.”

This isn’t the first time Alexander has been called on to replace another actor in the 11th hour. That alone bolstered his confidence, said Alexander.

“There have been three other times when I had to step in with short notice,” he said. “That gives me small comfort in knowing it is possible to do, and eases the anxiety a little bit.”

His most vivid memory among those last-minute saves was from the early-1990s when he was on tour directing a production of Fantasy Theatre (now the B Street Theatre School Tour). When a company member injured her knee, Alexander found himself improbably subbing for a teenaged African-American actress who had just graduated from high school.

“It was a little awkward,” said Alexander. “But it turned out fine. It was harder for me than it was for the junior high and high school audiences to accept – and it made for great storytelling. When I get together with other actors I can always say, ‘Hey, I played a 17-year-old black girl one time.’”

Alexander also came aboard at the last minute to star in “As Things Remain,” B Street Theatre’s 2000 yuletide production just “two to three rehearsals before going into tech.”

But his favorite story of being a replacement player took place in 1989 shortly after he had moved to Sacramento from New York.

As the understudy for the only human character in an educational play designed to provide children with safety tips, he had been hired to take over for an actor who was scheduled to leave the show before the end of its run.

He just never thought he’d be called upon to serve before the original actor’s scheduled departure date – or before he fully learned the part. But go on he did when the lead threw out his back and “could barely move.”

“I had the first 15 minutes down of a 45-minute show populated by a chicken, a crow, a duck and a little boy puppet,” said Alexander, who dashed from coast to coast to find himself talking to the animals in a matter of a few hours.

“It was surreal,” he said.

Alexander said that show’s puppeteers were extremely generous and helpful in getting him through his first few shows, redirecting his errant dialogue back on track.

A similar spirit of camaraderie and mutual support has made his current endeavor in emergency casting successful, said Alexander.

“Ben (Ismail) is just fantastic,” he said, “and has been there for me every step of the way. He hasn’t missed a beat – the whole staff has stepped up their game. I told our stage manager Suzy Tyler and all of our designers and staff that the answer to whatever question they may ask me is going to be 95 percent ‘yes.’ The rest we’ll fix on the fly. Everyone had to come together and they have.”

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Sacramento Theatre Company production of Charles Ludlam's "The Mystery of Irma Vep"

WHEN: Opens at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012, and plays through Dec. 16, with performances at 12:30 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays

WHERE: Sacramento Theatre Company's Pollock Stage, 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Directed by Greg Alexander and starring Benjamin Ismail and Greg Alexander

HOW MUCH: $15 to $38; tickets are available by calling (916) 443-6722 or (888) 478-2849, ordering online at www.sactheatre.org, or at the Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office, 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.

Storytelling is job one for 'Memphis' star Bryan Fenkart

2012-10-30T14:36:10Z

In “Memphis,” the four-time Tony Award-winning musical by David Bryan and Joe DiPietro (“I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change”), a white DJ (Bryan Fenkart) in 1950s Memphis, Tenn., champions the career of fledgling African-American singer Felicia with whom he eventually falls in love.

The show, which kicks off the 2012-12 Broadway Sacramento season Oct. 30 at the Community Center Theater, stars Broadway alum Bryan Fenkart as Hugo and Felicia Boswell as Felicia.

For Fenkart, who began his multi-threat career as a singer-songwriter-instrumentalist, there’s a lot to love about being in a show that focuses on story and character development as much as memorable, toe-tapping tunes.

“I love telling stories,” said Fenkart, whose history with “Memphis” began as an ensemble member and understudy before graduating to the status of standby and then lead in the National Touring Company. “That’s why I like to write my own songs, it’s like writing my own little stories – they’re tiny, little autobiographies.“

Not a particular fan of most of the newer, almost book-free musicals that consist of a string of pop hits culled from a single artist or group’s discography, Fenkart has embraced “Memphis” fully and offers two prime reasons.

“One, I love the message of the show,” he said. “The Civil Rights piece of it, and the power music has is important to me and to my peers. A lot of that stuff is still going on, civil rights battles are still being fought. But music helps bring us together.

“Two, it’s an original musical – not a ‘jukebox musical’ where someone has strung together a series of someone’s hits to make a show. For this little show, with an original story, to be able to take home all those Tonys, well, I’m proud to be a part of something like that."

“Yes, those ‘jukebox musicals’ are easier, they’re cheaper – they’re a safer bet, but that doesn’t make them better shows,” Fenkart continued. “There are a few gems out there that have dodged that stigma, but generally they’re not that interesting.”

The debut of “Memphis,” so close to the emergence of a show like “The Million Dollar Quartet” that is also set in 1950s Memphis but features real-life characters and an established set of songs, can be confusing to audiences, said Fenkart. But he is hopeful people will realize “Memphis” is a totally original "book" show.

“A lot of people do come in not knowing much about the show, or thinking it is one of those jukebox musicals,” said Fenkart. “I like to think that the majority of these people are pleasantly surprised at what they see.”

Tickets for “Memphis,” which plays Oct. 30-Nov. 4, are available by calling (916) 557-1999, or at the Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office, 1419 H St., Sacramento. Tickets are also available at Community Center Theater Box Office, 13th & L St., Sacramento, (916) 808-5181, or online at www.Tickets.com. For more information go to www.BroadwaySacramento.com.

Editor's note: An edit has been made in the second paragraph to reflect that accurate spelling of Felicia Boswell's last name.

Pontes, MSTW troupe stage 'War of the Worlds' broadcast as pre-Halloween treat

2012-10-29T08:09:08Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

It's hard to comprehend in this information age that listeners to a regularly scheduled, commercial radio program – an entertainment program – would think that a radio play based on a well-known novel was a breaking news alert.

But that's what occurred 74 years ago when Orson Welles' and his Mercury Theatre on the Air troupe performed a broadcast adaptation of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds."

Airing on the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network, the show made no attempt to "trick" listeners, and featured the very recognizable voices of the Mercury Players cast – including the distinctive baritone of Welles.

Yet, people were tricked by this pre-Halloween treat. The following day (Oct. 31, 1938), a New York Times headline screamed: "Radio Listeners in Panic, Taking War Drama as Fact: Many Flee Homes to Escape 'Gas Raid from Mars' – Phone Calls Swamp Police at Broadcast of Wells Fantasy."

In what is becoming an annual tradition, Sutter Creek's Main Street Theatre Works recently presented a stage adaptation of the original Mercury Players broadcast, offering a trio of performances Oct. 26 and 27 at the Native Sons Hall. The show's director, MSTW regular Allen Pontes, who also played Welles, said that while it may be the 21st century, the story of Welles' broadcast still commands interest.

"I think it's a curiosity," said Pontes. "It's hard for us to understand today how a radio show could have caused such a panic. And to see it performed live, you also get to see how the sound effects were performed."

While the 1938 airing may have raised the ire of the public, it proved that no publicity is bad publicity, and effected positive changes within the broadcast industry. It also boosted Welles and company's profile.

"It changed FCC rules, you can't say 'We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin' unless it's a real emergency," said Pontes. "It also got the Mercury Theatre on the Air a better, more consistent time slot, and garnered CBS a new sponsor in the Campbell Soup company, and it launched Orson Welles' career in Hollywood."

The MSTW show was a fundraiser for the company, and offered desserts along with a stylishly nostalgic look back to the heyday of radio drama.

Joining Pontes as Mercury Theatre on the Air cast members were Scott Adams, David Campfield, Ken Nitschke and Brandon Rapoza. Julie Anchor performed the duties of the company's sound-effects master.

To view additional photos, please click here.

Barger does her homework in creating an earnestly intense 'Miracle Worker'

2012-10-28T04:32:04Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

For her current role as Helen Keller's governess/teacher Anne Sullivan in the Sacramento Theatre Company production of William Gibson's "The Miracle Worker," Brittni Barger has received universally positive reviews.

The Sacramento Bee called her performance "compelling" and "fiercely convincing." Sacramento News & Review said the actress "does well" in her dramatic star turn, which the Davis Enterprise added was "full of spunk and fire."

Not that she'd know, unless a close friend or colleague decided to crack her cone of media silence and share the post-performance praise via the social media grapevine, or a between-rehearsals phone call.

"I'm not jaded enough to read my reviews," said the 20-something Barger, a Sacramento State University theater arts grad who interned at the B Street Theatre before earning an Equity card and making her professional debut in the supporting role of Lillian the French maid opposite Jamie Jones and Matt K. Miller in STC's 2007 production of "Private Lives." "There will be people who love any show that I'm in, and those who will hate it. I know very little has to do with me personally, but I'm just not ready."

"Everybody has a right to their opinion," continued Barger, who takes her final bow with "The Miracle Worker" Oct. 28 (2 p.m. matinee). "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You can say you didn't like it, but there are ways to say it that are kind - and ways that are unkind."

Barger points out the growing number of Web-bound "critics" whose sole credentials consist of a Wi-Fi connection, a WordPress account and a lifetime subscription to SnarkWeek.

"There's so much hatred on the Internet right now," said Barger, "and they can literally ruin people's lives."

Blame Barger's refreshing empathy, and comparatively thin skin to her "late" start in theater.

Unlike her six juvenile co-stars, including 14-year-olds Bella Bagatelos and Courtney Shannon, who share the role of Keller, and who all either attend private theater classes or a performing arts academy, Barger didn't embark on her theater career until she had graduated from high school.

And we're not talking about Beverly Hills High School, where theatrical agents are assigned as routinely as gym lockers, but Hanford High School, a secondary school boasting just 1,700 students located some 30 miles south of Fresno.

"At 14, I was involved in competitive cheerleading," said Barger, "doing all the regular high school things. I didn't get into theater until my first year of college. I didn't know that world existed."

Though she has appeared in a goodly amount of shows (mostly on stages at the B Street, where she holds the title of company member), she has yet to garner a negative notice ("As far as I know.").

Whether essaying the melodramatic role of the ill-fated Elizabeth in STC's 2011 production of "Frankenstein," or evoking yuks galore in the title role of "Junie B. Jones in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells!" (2010) for the B Street Theatre's Family Series, Barger has earned a reputation of not only being liked, but well-liked by Sacramento critics and audiences alike.

Barger's "Miracle Worker" director, Greg Alexander, is also a very vocal fan.

"The role of Annie Sullivan requires an actress who can be equally charming and ferocious; graceful and savage," said Alexander, himself a popular Sacramento actor. "Annie was known for her temper and clashes with authority. I like working with Brittni because she brings all of those qualities to the role. She has so much passion for the role of Annie. I really appreciated her willingness to try new tactics with the individual scenes as we went through the rehearsal process.

"In addition to the challenge of playing Annie, Brittni also had to work with and adapt her performance to two different Helen Kellers – the equally amazing Bella Bagatelos and Courtney Shannon. Brittni pulls this off with such poise and grace. She makes it seem effortless."

Appearing effortless in delivering a four-star performance is every actor's goal, but it doesn't come without doing a meticulous amount of homework – whether it's creating a background for the character or a well thought-out series of physical mannerisms and tics. For her role as Sullivan, Barger had some help in that Sullivan was a real-life person with copious amounts of material written about her.

Barger eschewed viewing the 1962 film starring Anne Bancroft as Sullivan as to avoid any form of conscious or subconscious imitation, but stuck with written chronicles of Sullivan's life with Keller.

"Before the role came up, I knew next to nothing about Helen, I didn't know Annie," admitted Barger, who quickly came up to speed. "I read the play and I was just blown away with how well it was written. And the fact that it was all true blew my mind."

"I'm a firm believer in researching through books and literature," Barger continued. "I didn't watch 'The Miracle Worker' movies, but I read all the books based on it.

As part of her pre-rehearsal research, Barger, who had never played a "real" person on stage before, began reading Sullivan's autobiography to get into the young woman's skin. Even after she was knee-deep into working the role on stage, she continued reading it for pleasure "because it was so good."

Sullivan, the orphaned daughter of Irish famine refugees, was born in Limerick, Ireland, and suffered a partial loss of vision due to an untreated illness. She found a new life at Boston's Perkins School for the Blind where she graduated as valedictorian in 1886. A year later, she'd arrive at the Keller's doorstep in Alabama.

"Annie lived in the shadow of Helen Keller, which was unfortunate because of all she contributed – she had a unique perspective on what being disabled means. She espoused the theory that you don't treat a person with disabilities like they have disabilities. That gives them hope to be a part of the world," said Barger. "Annie's life wasn't always happy: not everything ends in hugs and kisses and rainbows. At 40, she lost her eyesight completely, she suffered further health problems, and her husband divorced her. Then Helen became the crutch and they switched roles."

Playing Sullivan is a bit of a switch for Barger as well, often demanding an intense, quietness that hasn't often been a mandate in her roles.

"There's a stillness to Annie," said Barger, "and I'm a very frenetic actor – and that's not warranted in this character."

In addition to her biographical research and internal character development, Barger faced a few formidable physical challenges that would require completely different types of study.

One, the finger-spelling that Sullivan would introduce to Keller and her family as a gateway to communication, was easy – Barger had taken three years of American Sign Language in high school and signing the alphabet was as natural as her titian-hued tresses.

The second – stage combat – was a little tougher to manage. Over the course of the show, the tantrum-prone Keller frequently expresses her frustration in very physical ways – pulling, slapping, tearing, etc. Preparing these scenes with one acting partner is hard enough, but creating identical brute-force ballets with two (Bagatelos and Shannon) would seem overwhelming.

"It's like a dance," said Barger. "Every movement has a count to it. There's a breakfast scene that is seven pages long just explaining what they're doing. In total, there are five different fight scenes that our fight choreographer, Scott Gilbert, had to rehearse with us.

"He taught us how to punch and slap correctly so it looks real, but isn't. We devoted two entire rehearsals – about 16 hours – to the fight choreography. And there was a 'fight call' before every rehearsal after that when we'd refresh what we had learned for 20 minutes. At first, we were all really concerned about hurting each other, but other than a few bumps, it's turned out well."

To view additional photos, please click here.

For tickets, call (916) 443-6722. Mention Facebook and receive two tickets for $50. For additional information, see the STC website at www.sactheatre.org.

Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet shines in Midtown Arts Festival appearance

2012-10-22T12:41:18Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

The Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet company offered a preview of its 2012 production of "The Nutcracker," as well as several featured dances from its eclectic repertoire, at Saturday's Midtown Arts Festival, which Midtown Business Association representatives said drew some 4,000 to a variety of performance stages and vendor tables and booths on 20th Street (between J and K streets).

Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet will present three performances of "The Nutcracker" on Folsom Lake College's Stage 1 at the Harris Center for the Performing Arts (formerly Three Stages): 7:30 p.m. Dec. 21 and 22; and 2 p.m. Dec. 23.

Guest artist Michael Onstad will reprise his role as Herr Drosselmeyer. Tickets to the Pamela Hayes Classical Ballet presentation of "The Nutcracker" range from $15 to $26, and are available online, by clicking here.

STC conservatory student Bagatelos continues to learn by doing

2012-10-22T10:53:50Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

In her last main stage appearance at Sacramento Theatre Company, 14-year-old Bella Bagatelos played the ethereal Ghost of Christmas Past in 2011’s production of “A Christmas Carol.”

The role demanded that the Christian Brothers High School freshman exude an all-knowing, divine serenity as she guides a lost soul to self-awareness.

Some 10 months later, Bagatelos is back on the main stage in “The Miracle Worker,” garnering raves in a part that’s almost the polar opposite – that of a young Helen Keller, the very real, 19th-century author/activist who we meet as a wild child, cloistered in her own mind due to a childhood illness that left her blind and deaf.

It’s Keller’s escape from a world of sensory deprivation through the heroic efforts of teacher Anne Sullivan that is the story of “The Miracle Worker," which continues through Oct. 28.

While it may seem to some that a role free from lines to remember, that relies on instinctual behavior, might be somehow “easy.”

But as Bagatelos, a member of STC’s Young Professionals Conservatory, has discovered, the intense focus needed to ignore audio and visual stimuli while delivering a very emotional (and physical) performance is anything but easy. In fact, it's a task beyond the abilities of many more-experienced, adult actors.

“I was really excited about doing this part because I knew it would be a challenge,” said Bagatelos, who came to the role with some knowledge of Keller, having written a third-grade school report about her.

Unlike many of her adult peers, Bagatelos said she had no qualms about watching a movie adaptation of her show in preparation for the part. Seeing the DVD confirmed what she already knew, that “it was definitely different from anything I’d done before.”

That might sound a bit precocious if it had come from another young actor, but not in this case. Bagatelos has been performing since the age of 3, when she spontaneously got up on her feet and sang “God Bless America” at a political fundraiser attended by her family.

“She was always a shy kid,” said her mother, Jacqui, “but she was brave enough to stand up and do that.”

Her parents, Jacqui, a physician, and father Chris, a contractor, have been taking their daughter to live theater since she was 2 (a California Musical Theatre presentation of “Beauty and the Beast”). Her own theater debut came not too many years after that when she played an enchanted champagne bottle in the River City Theatre Company’s own production of “Beauty and the Beast.”

“She was probably on stage for five minutes, but she loved it,” said Jacqui.

A series of roles with Runaway Stage Productions would follow before she was cast in her first fully professional production: 2011’s “Oliver!” at California Musical Theatre’s Music Circus.

“That’s when she met a lot of kids from Sacramento Theatre Company’s Young Professionals Conservatory,” said Jacqui, who enrolled her daughter at the H Street company’s school for exceptional youngsters.

She would impress her teachers almost immediately, including “Miracle Worker” director Greg Alexander, who had the opportunity to see Bagatelos play to paying crowds in STC’s 2011 productions of “Frankenstein” and “A Christmas Carol.”

“I’ve been teaching and directing projects with the YPC for the past four years, and had had such a great time watching the young actors grow and learn,” said Alexander, who added that Bagatelos is part of a “pretty sophisticated bunch” at the conservatory, including “Miracle Worker” co-stars Griffth Munn and Garrick Sigle, who share the role of James Keller.

“I work with them exactly as I would with seasoned adults, and they are all up to the challenge.”

There’s that word again – challenge.

“It’s really interesting,” said Bagatelos, “you can’t react to anything you hear, anyone who’s talking to you, you can’t watch yourself walking up stairs – there’s no way to communicate.”

“It was really hard at first to stay focused, to learn to tune everything out and get into the role more.”

It’s a very physical role, as the frequently frustrated Keller is prone to tantrums to convey every negative emotion. During each performance, Bagatelos is called upon to literally flail and fall, as well as to fight with co-star Brittni Barger, who plays Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan.

She may not have had lines to learn, but there is an enormous amount of choreography involving Keller’s physical outbursts.

“It’s really tiring, very exhausting,” admitted Bagatelos. “Greg actually brought in a fight choreographer, Scott Gilbert. I think Brittni’s gotten banged up the most – but she’s been cool about it.”

Bagatelos credits Barger for making the intense rehearsal and performance schedule easier to navigate.

“Brittni is so fun,” said Bagatelos, who shares the role of Keller with fellow ninth-grader Courtney Shannon of Natomas Charter School. “She’s really great – an amazing actress. I’ve definitely learned from being on stage with her. She helps Courtney and I in so many ways. She’s so talented and so natural in this part, it makes the relationship between Helen and Annie feel really genuine.”

Though she said she is not convinced theater will be her career goal, she’s taking her current role very seriously and is exploring the emotional subtext of Keller, not just blindly (no pun intended) reacting to the situations in which she finds herself.

“Helen gets fed up, but she’s just trying to understand,” said Bagatelos. “She’s cautious in everything she does. She doesn’t understand, but she wants to. There’s a longing within her. It may seem like she’s not doing anything, but there’s so much energy involved.”

Not that her efforts have gone unnoticed, or unappreciated. In addition to the positive critical notices she’s received, Bagatelos and her fellow cast members have been regularly receiving heartfelt ovations.

“It’s interesting after the bows to see the audience so moved,” said Bagatelos. “It’s a happy ending, but it makes people cry.”

For tickets, call (916) 443-6722, visit the Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office (1419 H St., Sacramento), or go online at www.sactheatre.org.

A tale of two lovers: Sacramento Ballet presents 'Romeo & Juliet'

2012-10-20T20:22:09Z

Sacramento Ballet refers to its production of "Romeo & Juliet" as co-artistic director Ron Cunningham's "signature masterpiece and perhaps his greatest artistic achievement."

Cunningham himself calls it “the absolute best choreography of my career.”

Featuring more than "200 period-inspired costumes, beautiful sets and scenery, pageantry, swordplay, drama, and choreography that draws the viewer into every passionate moment," the three-act production of William Shakespeare's masterwork is "a complete sensory experience."

As the company's website state, "No need for words here, as the universal language of dance tells the world’s most famous love story."

In performance at the Sacramento Community Center Theatre Oct. 18 through 21, 2012, the ballet features Alexandra Cunningham and Amanda Peet sharing the role of Juliet, and Richard Porter and Stefan Calka alternating in the role of Romeo.

Individual tickets are on sale through the Sacramento Ballet Box Office, (916) 552-5800 ext. 2, or through the Community Center Theater Box Office, (916) 808-5181, and online through Tickets.com. Individual ticket prices range from $17 to $70 (an additional $9 per ticket and $3 per order will be applied to every order). To avoid these fees, one can call the Community Center Theater directly.

Groups of 10 or more receive a 10 percent discount on individual tickets. Groups of 20 or more receive a 20 percent discount on individual tickets. (Groups may consist of adults and children; the adult ticket price will reflect the discount, children’s ticket prices are a set price and will not receive an additional discount.) For more information, go online to www.sacballet.org.

To view additional photos, click here.

Choreography of Sac State faculty featured in 'Dance Sites 2012'

2012-10-19T18:06:05Z

photos by Barry Wisdom /

The innovative choreography of the Sacramento State University Department of Theatre and Dance faculty combine with the high-energy talents of their students in "Dance Sites 2012," a dance concert in performance at the University Theatre 6:30 p.m. Oct. 17 and 18; 8 p.m. Oct. 19 and 20; and 2 p.m. Oct. 20 and 21.

"Our exciting annual dance concert on the university main stage represents an array of different points of view on the art form of dance and perspectives from contemporary modern to Mexican folkloric," writes Sac State Department of Theatre and Dance Vice Chairwoman and "Dance Sites 2012" director Lorelei Bayne Yacur. "We are honored to present the work of our guest choreographer and visiting scholar Lori Bryhni, who has received national accolades for her complex and heartfelt choreography."

Bryhni is an instructor at Modesto Junior College. The other six contributing choregraphers are: Sac State faculty members Philip Flickinger; Dr. Linda Goodrich; Osvaldo Ramirez; Lisa Ross Nelson; Nolan T'Sani; and Yacur.

Yacur’s piece, "Ordinary Woman," was inspired by Marge Piercy’s poem “The Woman in the Ordinary,” and features a quintet of female dancers (ostensibly birds in a gilded cage) who are lavishly attired in eye-catching hoop skirts but cloistered behind a row of "bars."

“I was looking at women’s issues, thinking about how to make a metaphorical statement about the dual nature of being a woman, being strong versus submissive,” Bayne is quoted as saying on the Sac State website.

Among the dancers featured in Bayne's segment is Carmen Kuykendall, who said that audiences shouldn't expect every number to be so dramatic or metaphorical in nature. “There are things that everyone’s going to be wowed by,” Kuykendall said. “There are people flying off of chairs, crazy costumes, tons of music – something for everyone.”

Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. performances cost $5 (children under 12) and $8 (general, students and seniors). Other performances cost $12 (general), $10 (students and seniors), and $8 (children). For tickets, call the University Ticket Office at (916) 278-4323.

To view additional photos, click here.

Nick Lowe delivers in acoustic set at 24th Street Theatre

2012-10-10T18:24:29Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Sixty-three-year-old singer-songwriter Nick Lowe, a seminal figure in the "pub rock, punk rock and new wave" music scenes whose early work on the Stiff Records label as a solo artist and collaborator with such artists as Elvis Costello secured his reputation as a producer who got things done.

Though his biggest U.S. success came in 1979 with "Cruel to Be Kind" – what has sometimes been referred to as the perfect pop song – he has enjoyed a consistently brilliant career.

As rock critic Jim Farber wrote: "Lowe's recent albums ... moved him out of the realms of ironic pop and animated rock and into the role of a worldly balladeer, specializing in grave vocals and graceful tunes. Lowe's four most recent solo albums mine the wealth of American roots music, drawing on vintage country, soul and R&B to create an elegant mix of his own."

In his Oct. 4 show at Sacramento's 24th Street Theatre at the Sierra 2 Center, Lowe played an unpretentious, yet thoroughly enjoyable set of songs ranging fron the recent "The Old Magic" (2011), to 1979's "Labour of Lust." In his warm and subtly funny remarks, he warned the capacity audience that he'd be playing some of the old tunes ("Songs that are so old they've bought condos in Phoenix, Ariz.").

Though looking more like the Country Time Lemonade grandpa than a rock star, Lowe's voice and hipstamatic sway never let him down, and if you wanted to, you could close your eyes and imagine it was still the early-1980s and he was sporting his famous mullet and chatting it up with Letterman, or backing up Elvis Costello for a cover of Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding)."

Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Eleni Mandell – admittedly woozy and loose-tongued after a daylong drive up from the Southland – warmed up the crowd with her own brand of heartfelt and humor-laced songwriting.

To see more photos, click here.

Well-liked Lee ready for 'Perfect' cabaret run, New York move

2012-10-01T01:16:49Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Jerry Lee said his personal experience with romantic relationships wasn’t the most-likely reason that California Musical Theatre Artistic Director Glenn Casale cast him in CMT’s current production of “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.”

The 1996 Jimmy Roberts-Joe DiPietro Off-Broadway hit, which plays the Cosmopolitan Cabaret Sept. 28 through Nov. 18, takes a look at the trials and tribulations of hooking up, from first dates to marriage vows, from in-law interference to home-buying via a series of musical vignettes.

But like so many up-and-coming theater professionals, the Sacramento native’s days and nights have not been all about those meet-cutes, candlelight dinners and intimate conversations that dominate the lives of most 20-somethings, but have been consumed by classes, rehearsals and performances – as well as the occasional media interview.

“We actors might not admit it, but it’s kind of a weird reality,” said Lee during a rehearsal break phoner. “It’s a weird schedule you’re asked to keep – it’s a different kind of job, an interesting job, but this kind of schedule takes its toll especially when it comes to relationships.

“I focus a lot on my career. My big thing is that I really want to be a good professional actor. But it is time-consuming – I work while other people are out playing.”

Lee, who joins Melissa WolfKlain, Michael Dotson and Jennifer Malenke in playing multiple roles that showcase the “humorous absurdities” of coupling, hasn’t trained in vain, however.

Even as a student at Roseville’s Oakmont High School, Lee was performing regularly in the Greater Sacramento area for such companies as Garbeau’s and the Magic Circle Theatre thanks to supportive parents.

Following more study (and more roles) at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts at Santa Maria’s Allan Hancock College, he put his education and experience to work at such venues as Sacramento’s Studio Theatre and New Helvetia Theatre, Oregon Cabaret Theatre, and Sonora’s Sierra Repertory Theatre.

Along the way, he didn’t only collect glowing reviews (which he says he avoids reading), and a steady stream of job offers, but the admiration of fellow artists.

“I first saw Jerry in February 2005 playing Miss Bible Belt in ‘Pageant!’ at the Studio Theatre,” recalls actress-singer Rachel Songer. “Not only did he have a gorgeous tenor voice, but his comedic timing was uncanny. He was Miss Bible Belt. I was an instant fan.

“A few months later, I had the immense privilege of being able to share the stage with him in the four-person musical revue ‘Closer Than Ever.’ We had so much fun working together. He was still a teenager at the time, yet he was full of professionalism and charisma. I had just had my first child two months earlier, and was insecure about being back on stage so soon after giving birth. Jerry was so encouraging and made me feel like a princess worthy of the attention. Did I mention that singing with him is nothing short of delightful?”

Like Songer, actress-singer Martha Kight also recalls her experiences of sharing stages with a teenage Lee as more of a treat than a task.

"I first worked with the lovely Jerry Lee when he was 19, in Graham Sobelman's production of ‘Elegies’ by William Finn,” said Kight. “I was first struck by his amazing comedic abilities. This is a show about death, and Jerry took the comedy pieces and made them astounding. I have loved and adored him ever since. He has a huge heart.

“And when we mounted the show again five years later, he had grown so much as a person and an actor, and he was even more amazing. There was a piece we sang together, and he sat right next to me playing my son, and I was his dying mother, and we were on one last drive to visit the places we remembered in our town. Having Jerry next to me, fully committed, was a treasure. We broke each other's hearts every night.

Lee recalls his pre-Equity days as an immersion learning process, and appreciated the opportunity to soak up the combined knowledge of more-experienced performers and directors.

“I gained a lot of experience doing a lot of different things,” said Lee. “It was invaluable performance training.”

His flurry of roles in the last half-dozen or so years ultimately led to securing his Actor’s Equity card and professional roles at Sacramento Theatre Company – including 2011’s “Frankenstein,” “The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)” and “A Christmas Carol” – and a well-received performance in the Cosmopolitan Cabaret production of “Forbidden Broadway.”

Studio Theatre founder Jackie Schultz-Randall, who worked with Lee on “Pageant!,” “Closer Than Ever” and “Nunsense: Amen!,” speaks glowingly about what Lee brings to the table.

“Jerry is an extraordinary talent and is brilliant onstage,” said Schultz-Randall, “plus, he is a goofball! His voice could probably make the angels sing – literally! It is not all the time that a voice like his comes along wrapped in such a fine package, with sharp acting ability, comedic skills and leading-man good looks.“

There are a lot of talented performers out there, but Lee also has such comments as “funny” and “personable” under his résumé’s list of “Special Skills.”

“He has this fearlessness onstage, and that's one of the qualities I admire most in a performer – and he’s the funniest person I know,” said Kight. “When I got to perform with him in ‘The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)’ at Sacramento Theatre Company last year, I couldn't have been more excited. It was a truly hilarious show, great cast, and Jerry made me laugh every night.”

“Jerry’s delivery is well-timed, well-thought out and precisely executed,” added Schultz-Randall. “He’s funny as hell – a funny, little kid in a big guy’s body.”

It’s Lee’s charm and likeability that also makes him a good fit for “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” said Casale.

“He’s honest, he’s easygoing – he’s everyman,” Casale said. “Audiences have to see something in these guys that we relate to. That’s what works for him here.”

Lee said his career arc wasn’t entirely mapped out from the start, but charted by his own particular set of developing talents, his physical bearing, as well as by the economic realities now facing the theater industry. Large, expensive ensemble shows (straight plays and musicals) have been replaced by more intimate shows that rely heavily on multi-talented small casts whose members can handle dramatic soliloquies, comic patter, romantic ballads, physical comedy and novelty songs with equal ease.

“I seem to be doing a lot of four-person shows,” confirmed Lee. “With a small cast, you’re given so much material – it’s a large workload, with just you out there with a couple of other people. Sustaining your energy is challenging, but it’s also a lot of fun. In general, these small musical shows are supposed to be a good time for the audience. If you’re having a good time, the audience is usually having a good time.”

Lee stressed that despite the breakneck speed with which such shows as “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” go from table reads to opening night, it’s preferably to any other career he can think of.

“It’s funny sometimes to think of this as a job,” Lee said. “I’m having so much fun, and it really is exciting to go to work every day. You basically ‘play’ for a week creating something that’s playful and fun – while you’re having fun. It’s definitely a blessing.”

Lee, who has been eyeing a move to New York and a greater range of performance opportunities, said that following one additional local commitment following the Nov. 18 close of “Perfect” (a January concert staging of Neil Simon’s “Little Me” by New Helvetia Theatre), he’s going to climb that Big Apple tree.

“It’s crazy and it’s very exciting,” said Lee. “I’ve been saying I’m definitely going to do it since the middle of summer. I have so many classmates and friends in New York, and while I know I’ll hardly ever see them, I have friendly connections there, so it’s not like starting over. That really calms me a lot.”

One of those “friendly connections” is Casale. Casale, who mounted the West Coast premiere of a new stage adaptation of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” this summer at CMT’s Music Circus, said he’ll be in New York auditioning talent for another production of the “Mermaid” tale at the same time Lee is planning on making his move.

“I’m going to help him,” said the well-connected Casale, who was a fan of Lee’s even before he landed a part in “Forbidden Broadway” or was a featured member of the Music Circus subscriber series of cabaret performances. “He’s got the chops for it and the goods … now he’s just got to learn how good he is and take charge of it.”

To view additional dress rehearsal photographs of "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" by Barry Wisdom, please click here.

JUST THE FACTS

What: The Cosmopolitan Cabaret production of "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change"

When: Sept. 28-Nov. 18, 2012, with performances at: 7 p.m. Wednesdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: California Musical Theatre's Cosmopolitan Cabaret, 1000 K St., Sacramento, Calif. (across from the Crest Theatre)

Who: Book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro; music by Jimmy Roberts; directed by Glenn Casale; musical direction/accompaniment by Graham Sobelman; featuring Jerry Lee, Melissa WolfKlain, Michael Dotson and Jennifer Malenke

How much: single tickets start at $20 for all performances; call (916) 557-1999, or go online at tickets.com

Costello's 'Centenary Show' captivates Mondavi crowd

2012-09-30T18:29:09Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Man comes into this world alone and he exits it alone. So it is only fitting that Elvis Costello is celebrating an anticipated 100th anniversary on Earth sans Attractions, and free from Imposters with his wholly solo "Centenary Show 1954-2054."

Costello, who turned 58 last month, acknowledged in remarks to a Mondavi Center audience Friday night that the tour's name could be confusing to some – especially to American audiences who are more familiar with the term "centennial" than the UK version, which might be mistakenly read as the "Cemetery" tour.

There was no mistaking how freaking talented, funny, smart and downright personable Costello is as he took center stage at Jackson Hall to play a delicious pastiche of early radio hits, obscure B-sides, new songs, and soulful standards sung in loving tribute to his wife, the jazz artist Diana Krall.

Referring to Krall not by name, but only as "my gal," his otherwise strong and clear voice became hushed as he finished a subtle, jazz-flavored "All or Nothing At All," a standout track from Krall's 1997 album "Love Scenes."

"I miss her madly ... I miss her madly," he said softly as he set up to sing another pop classic from the American Songbook, "Walkin' My Baby Back Home."

But it was the more-familiar Costello standard, 1977's "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" with which the UK-born Declan Patrick MacManus opened the stripped-down, but impossibly entertaining show.

Joined onstage only by a quintet of his favorite guitars, a Kawai keyboard and a few microphones (one for standing, one for sitting), Costello shared his music, a few laughs and – most notably – himself over the course of some two hours, including a more-than-generous encore that ultimately ended with pal Nick Lowe's "Peace, Love and Understanding."

To view more photographs, please click here: http://bit.ly/StCfsA

Blondie, Devo team to whip up sonic rapture

2012-09-18T07:52:23Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Late-comers to the Baby Boomer party, the ones who first embraced American punk/New Wave frontrunners Blondie and Devo more than 30 years ago, proved it was not too late to whip it – whip it good – as they came together Friday night to celebrate the still-rockin' rapture of Debbie Harry's voice, and the industrial performance art of Devo founding sibs Mark and Bob Motersbaugh and Gerald and Bob Casale.

But the atypical teaming of Blondie and Devo, who have been co-headlining their "Whip It To Shreds" tour since Sept. 7 (it's set to end Sept. 26 in Chicago), was only the second oddest pairing of the night, with the very venue hosting the three-hour show (Citrus Heights' Sunrise MarketPlace Outdoor Pavilion) taking that honor.

The bands' current fanbase, which has expanded to include Gens X, Y and Z, perhaps didn't notice the irony of these once-rebellious, out-of-the-mainstream, punkster rockers playing in the parking lot of a suburban shopping mall in the shadow of a Macy's. Or perhaps they just didn't care, because – in the end – it's only the music that matters.

And the music was simply atomic. Though the years have limited Harry's vocal range (she's 67 for godssakes!), her power, fashion-forward style, and iconic appeal remain and she can still easily command a "room" the size of a tennis stadium.

In addition to running through the Blondie hits catalog ("Heart of Glass," "Call Me," "Maria") Harry and fellow vets drummer Clem Burke and guitarist Chris Stein also favored the crowd with music from the group's most-recent album "Panic of Girls."

The same held for Devo, which delivered all of the faves, including "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Whip It." In August, the group released a new single, "Don't Roof Rack Me, Bro! (Seamus Unleashed)," satirizing the Mitt Romney dog-rides-on-the-car-rooftop incident.

The group not only ran through their discography, but through more than three decades worth of costume changes, including radiation suits, the iconic planter hats, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes"-inspired half-masks and more.

See below for featured shots from the show. For more photographs of the Blondie set, click here. To view additional photographs of the Devo set, click here.

Better 'Red' than ... well, almost anything

2012-09-13T20:38:12Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

The Big Idea Theatre's deliciously seasoned and attractively plated "Red Herring" comes with an ample serving of tongue-in-cheek that's sandwiched between big, crusty slices of wry, as a trio of Cold War-era couples find themselves in assorted pickles involving the H-bomb and the "L" word - all precipitated when someone dials "M" for murder.

It's an irresistible dish of cutting-edge camp that's available for a limited time. In fact, those who are hankerin' for a satisfying meal of tasty theater should secure a seat before "Red Herring" closes Saturday, Sept. 15.

Ostensibly an homage to film noir, "Red Herring" gratefully deviates from that often-laconic storytelling style thanks to playwright Michael Hollinger's fast, frenetic and fitfully funny script that jumps from locale to locale with Big Idea's spot-on cast playing multiple roles to high-pitched perfection.

Those who enjoy lengthy, drawn-out scenes such as those featured in drawing-room comedies of days gone by, should be warned that climbing aboard Big Idea's production of "Red Herring" might consider it a ride on the disorienting express. My advice is to take a few Dramamine and just enjoy the ride.

Hollinger's bouillabaisse of a fish story has something for everyone - just like a big, ol' Cheesecake Factory menu. Set in the 1950s, there are a three couples in various states of coupling: Maggie (Joelle Robertson) is a police detective embroiled in a mysterious murder case that she's investigating alongside her marriage-minded FBI paramour Frank (Justin L. Chapman); Lynn (Kelly Cullity) is a sweet, young gal - and the daughter of commie-hunter Sen. Joseph McCarthy - looking forward to having her fella James (Caleb Salmon) put on a ring on it; and Mrs. Kravitz (Katie Chapman) is a nosy neighbor who discovers passion with Russian national Andrei Borchevsky (Matthew Udall).

Also in the mix: Jouni Kirjola and Elizabeth Holzman who expertly provide comic relief and in a variety of roles.

There are secrets aplenty involving stolen nuclear information, national allegiances and affairs of the heart.

Director Benjamin T. Ismail's extremely talented cast delivers on all emotional levels. You want adventure? You got it. Love romance? It's here times three. Intrigue? Yep. Drama? Check!

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Big Idea Theatre production of MIchael Hollinger's "Red Herring"

WHEN: Aug. 24 through Sept. 15, 2012, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, and 2:30 p.m. Sundays

WHERE: Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Directed by Benjamin T. Ismail; featuring Justin L Chapman (Frank Keller), Katie Chapman (Mrs. Kravitz), Jouni Kirjola (Male Swing), Kelly Cullity (Lynn McCarthy), Elizabeth Holzman (Female Swing), Joelle Robertson (Maggie Pelletier), Caleb Salmon, Matthew Udall (Andrei Borchevsky), and Hilary Wells (Lynn McCarthy understudy)

TICKETS: $10-$15; call (916) 960-3036, or go online at www.bigideatheatre.tix.com

Aviation fans flock to Capital Valley Airshow to cheer Thunderbirds, more

2012-09-10T12:20:02Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

There was no such thing as too fast, too loud, or too breathtaking as the annual Capital Valley Airshow took off this past weekend for a scorching two-day schedule of high-flying fun over Mather Airport.

The United States Air Force Thunderbirds jet demonstration team headlined the diverse schedule that offered the crowds props, as well as rumbling jets that mixed old-fashioned barnstorming stunt flying with majestic displays of military might.

In addition to the Thunderbirds, featured performers included: Eddie Andreini P-51 Mustang Aerobatics; the Kent Pietsch Comedy Routine; Parade of the Heavies; West Coast Ravens Formation Flying; Legacy of WWII Naval Aviation; Kent Pietsch Car Top; Tim Weber Aerobatics; Red Stars Formation Team; Steve Hinton/F4U Corsair Aerobatics; Beale T-38 Talons; U-2 Dragon Lady; Aces of the Air (Spitfire and P-51 Mustang); Smoke-N-Thunder Jet Car Race; USAF Heritage Flight; Kent Pietsch Dead Stick aerobatic demonstration; Sean Tucker Aerobatics.

Organizers said the event is dedicated to "the courage and sacrifice of our veterans, as well the men and women who currently serve our great nation while inspiring the next generation to achieve greatness."

To view additional photos from Saturday and Sunday's performances, please click here.

Folsom Lake College fine arts faculty to launch exhibition Friday, Sept. 7

2012-09-07T00:56:13Z

Three Stages at Folsom Lake College hosts the 12th annual exhibition of Folsom Lake College visual arts faculty in the Bank of America Gallery Sept. 7 through Oct. 28, 2012, with a special artists’ reception set for 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 28.

The Folsom Lake College visual arts faculty includes professional artists with diverse specializations encompassing the spectrum of classes offered, from studio arts, to art history and photography.

Folsom Lake College faculty members have exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally. The artwork exhibited will reflect a wide range of media and styles. Participating artists include: Talver Germany; Aleris Hart; Brian Hayes; Eunyoung Hwang; Shadieh Mirmobiny; Marisa Sayago; Heike Schmid; Betty Sederquist; Katherine Venturelli; and Margaret Welty.

The Bank of America Gallery is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays when exhibits are installed. In addition, the gallery is open beginning one hour before, and during intermissions of, each scheduled performance at Three Stages.

Regular admission to the gallery is free of charge. When visiting the gallery on a weekday, a parking permit is required. Permits are available for $1 per vehicle from automated kiosk dispensers located near the parking lot entrances.

For more information on Three Stages and the Bank of America Gallery, please visit www.threestages.net.

Disclosure: Barry Wisdom is the public relations technician (temporary) for Folsom Lake College.

Septuple-threat Noah Racey brings can-do attitude to 'Crazy for You'

2012-09-03T06:55:57Z

Multitalented musical-theater performers are often called "triple-threats" because they can "do it all": act, sing and dance. A lucky few might even develop a few additional talents in hopes of increasing their marketability, such as those actors featured in "Starlight Express" and "Xanadu" (roller-skating), "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (stage fighting/fencing), and "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" (aerial acrobatics/high-pain thresholds).

Rarer still are those who continually absorb truly relevant stage skills like mutant superheroes – X-Men with Equity cards.

Noah Racey, who stars as Bobby Child in the 2012 Music Circus season-ending production of "Crazy For You," has been so blessed. A musician, dancer, actor, singer, choreographer, director and songwriter, Racey could be called a "septuple threat" – a term he admits sounds silly, but is wholly accurate nonetheless.

Recently, the Seattle, Wash.-native sat down to discuss his history with "Crazy for You," his love of collaboration and his hatred of the "T" word.

Sacramento Press (SM): What performance skill did you first explore?

Racey: I was a drummer when I was a kid. When I was 3, my dad bought me a little snare drum and that was the end of it. That just ruined the whole house. I just banged for hours. And then I started playing hand drums growing up, got into drum circles and congas and just began playing with a group of people. Then I discovered theater in high school and that led to tap dancing. We did "Oklahoma!" and we had this little step-shuffle step-shuffle step-step-cowboy step thing, and I understood it like "that." (snaps) Because it was about rhythm, and it was this new thing of dance I was playing with, and so it made perfect sense. And it just progressed from there. We did "42nd Street" the next year in high school, and I learned my time steps, and it set me off on that track.

SM: Where did you go to high school?

Racey: Roosevelt High School in Seattle – the same school that Chad Kimball, who plays the lead in "Memphis" went to. He's just an amazing rock star Broadway performer. This guy who runs the program in Seattle – Ruben Van Kempen – is amazing. He’s a genius – I hate that word "genius" – blah – but he’s amazing. When I was in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (on Broadway), he had four kids in Tony- nominated shows that year, including myself and Chad. Ruben's an amazing human being. He woke me up. How I started all of this was drumming, then I found out I could act and I was in acting class in high school. And then I found out I could hold a tune, etc. But when I went to college, Ruben said, "Remember, the actor gets the job."

SM: How did you add "choreographer" to your résumé?

Racey: It was the collaborative nature of musical theater. I was working with choreographers who wanted (the feedback) of the dancers, and I found I liked the process of taking an idea and refining it – and that’s what I did with Rob Ashford with "Thoroughly Modern Millie." I was the associate choreographer for that. And it's just kind of having a big mouth, you know? It's not just taking a step and changing it, but augmenting what somebody creates and saying, "Here’s how it can fit on my body in a certain kind of way."

I also did it with Tommy Tune when we were doing "Easter Parade" – that was a workshop with Tommy Tune and Sandy Duncan. I was a young hoofer/tap dancer and there’s nothing hoofers like better than the 10–minute break every hour-and-a-half because we go into a corner and start jamming and start tapping.

Tommy started watching us and, after a while, said, "Come over here, kid," and asked, "What was that you just did?" I did a step, and he said, "Double that up, make a 16-count break out of it," and I did it. Tommy said, "Great! Let’s put that in," and Tommy started using me as a "stepsmith." You know. I just choreographed a show for Tommy Tune – he and I have been friends ever since, 10 years now. I helped him with his one-man show, and I choreographed his "Turn of the Century" starring Jeff Daniels and Rachel York at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

It was a process of just playing with what I love, which is movement, and working with choreographers who would turn and see something that was happening in a room – and these are the best choreographers that I know of – and say (he snaps), "What is that, what’s happening there?"

That (made me think), "Hey, I have something. I know what I’m doing. I have good ideas." Tommy was really helpful in that. Rob Ashford making me associate choreographer on "Millie" (I created the tap steps in "Millie"). He structured them, and put them in and showed me how he wanted the number to progress, and we created some Tony Award-winning choreography. That was kind of my track as to how I slowly morphed into a choreographer.

SM: Did the support provided by Tune and other choreographers, as well as Ashford's Tony win, give you the confidence you needed to pursue choreography as yet another career goal?

Racey: Totally, it was a massive, massive chuck on the chin – a "Hey, good for you man." Just being on Broadway and working with the dancers and watching them do my stuff was huge – that was a huge step for me. On opening night of "Millie," standing in the wings with tears in my eyes watching the girls do "Forget About the Boy" which was something Rob and I created together. Things like that, it was like, "Holy mackerel! You can’t beat that." For Rob to win the Tony was a huge hit for me. It was a really, really wonderful, wonderful experience.

I always liked creating steps. Even though it's hard work, I just love playing with steps, and playing with rhythms and ideas and body shapes. I have a company – The New York Song & Dance Co. - that I do a lot of different choreography with. We have a full-length show that’s happening in Florida this next season called "Noah Racey’s Pulse" that’s going to be happening, and it’s all my work. I’m in it, too. Jeff Calhoun’s directing it. It’s going to be a big revue of song and dance, so look out.

SM: It sounds like you're not interested in settling on a single career path.

Racey: I was so spot-on to be the performer. I had such an – "arrogance" is the wrong way to put it – but confidence about saying, "I’m Noah Racey, the performer, and if you want me, you want me." I’m a song-and-dance man – there aren’t a lot of us who do it. It’s a new way of presenting myself, but people have tiny, little memories, and tiny, little minds in New York City. I don’t blame them. There are just too many people coming through the city. You can’t expect everyone to go, "Oh, that’s Noah who likes macramé, and can sing" – nobody can remember all the stuff you can do. It's part of the reason I’m doing this show … I’m still performing, I’m starring in this show in Sarasota, I have a company and I direct and choreograph, and I’m going to do it all until they say, "You stop doing that."

SM: Do you see yourself eventually transitioning into a full-time director/choreographer?

Racey: I’m playing with it all right now. I don’t use the "T" word. Transition is a scary word. I like "augmentation." If you put it in people’s heads that you’re transitioning, it means you’re leaving something, and I’m not going to leave it. I’m going to Joe Mantello my way through all of this. I don’t want to stop and I don’t have to, I guess.

To me, Jimmy ("Crazy for You" director Brennan) is the quintessential triple threat. If you are a true triple threat, you learn about your craft, you can’t help it. And especially if you’re a triple threat who hangs out and makes a big name for himself as Jimmy did, you cannot not learn. You cannot but realize what your craft is, and how to get better at it, and how it goes wrong and how it’s misused, and that leads directly to directing and choreographing and being like, "Uh, uh – no wait, wait, don’t do that because nobody will see it and it needs to go this way. You end up just knowing about why things work on stage and why a script has to flow a certain way and why characters have to have arcs. If you’re not aware of that as an actor, you’re really limited.

Not everybody wants to direct or choreograph, but Tommy Tune really ruined it for me. Watching him, he messed the whole game up for me. Of course he’s Tommy Tune, and I will never be that, but watching him do "Easter Parade," and watching him stand in the middle of a room and watching this entire room move around and ask him questions and check with him about what how did he feel this was going ... it made me think, "I don’t know if I want that kind of career," and then I thought to myself, "Yes, I think I do. I would like to star and definitely want to be a part of a creative process. Not to lord over it, because the best decisions are made when you give them to smarter people than you – but to be in the middle of that kind of creative energy.

I don’t know how else to continue this love of performing and like what we do now. You speak up if you see something the director’s doing and you’re like, "You know what, how about this, check this out," and the best idea should always win because the show wins that way. That’s a long-winded answer to your question. Yes, I see myself directing more and writing and continuing to choreograph, although the choreography’s hard. To be a true stepsmith and to really come up with the meat of what you’re doing, you’ve got to have the legs and the energy. You start to pass it off to younger dancers to create and do the actual legwork to some extent. I think that’s where the real brilliant choreographers show themselves is when they start to get out of the trench – the blood and guts of really moving on the floor – and they start to have that relationship of seeing how the concept is moving and flowing and watching my buddies like Josh Bergasse of "Smash" and Greg Graham and young choreographers who are growing and learning about that dynamic.

I’m not pulling out of it, but I’m exercising all these different hats, learning when to put on what hat.

SM: Is it hard to leave directorial control behind and simply be a performer like you are in the Music Circus production of "Crazy for You"?

Racey: My job here – my true hat – is to perform and take care of Bobby. I’m in amazing, impeccable hands with (director) Jimmy Brennan. I saw Jimmy perform Bobby on Broadway in 1995, right before I did the national tour of "Crazy for You," and I basically copied Jimmy ... you know, I took what he had done, what I remembered of it, played with what I could do, and created my own show. He’s my hero.

And I love "Crazy for You." I spent more than a year in the national tour. I learned about performing while doing that show, I learned about being on the road. There are few better shows. It is truly one of the best shows. It is so well put together, and there are so many hits in a row, the comedy is impeccably put together for American vaudeville.

It's the fun, song-and-dance equivalent of "West Side Story." I love it – you can’t go wrong with Gershwin.

I met Jimmy that night in 1995 on Broadway backstage with Karen Ziemba backstage. I was this spit-and-polish little kid, and one of the people with me said, "This is the guy playing Bobby on tour," and James turned to me and said, "I’m so sorry," because it’s just brutal – so physically demanding. You have to eat, you have to eat and eat to keep weight on because you just burn and sweat out. I ate whatever I wanted, but in the pictures of me on the road I’m bone thin. I’m just this wiry, little muscle.

Jimmy was just so gracious – it’s just so Jimmy when you get to know him. It’s just him, he’s so, so wonderfully generous and positive. He’s just so, so warm.

Since then, I’ve seen him socially, and he came by to a show ("It Shoulda Been You") I had choreographed last season at New Jersey's George Street Playhouse that’s coming to Broadway next season, and he sat backstage with me for about a half hour and told me what he thought.

Those are the heroes in the business the ones who take the time to see people do what they’re doing and give of themselves.

For "Crazy for You" ticket information, call (916) 557-1999, or go online at tickets.com.

Big Idea Theatre lightens up the noir genre with fast, funny 'Red Herring'

2012-08-31T13:04:15Z

Noir – the crime-fiction genre that features cynical, hard-boiled antiheroes and “bleak, sleazy settings” – generally isn’t suffused with a lot of nyuk, nyuk, nyuks.

And that’s exactly what drew director Benjamin T. Ismail to Michael Hollinger’s “Red Herring.”

Playing Aug. 24 through Sept. 15, 2012, at Big Idea Theatre, “Red Herring” combines Cold War-era commie-hunting with a murder mystery, and a trio of love stories in a fast-paced LOL-fest that plays out in more than a dozen settings across the globe.

“It’s really cheeseball, but in the best way,” said Ismail, 26, a company member of the Del Paso Heights theatrical troupe, who has participated as both a performer and director during this three-year-plus tenure as a company member.

The cinematic-styled comedy is both cerebral and physical, said Ismail, who added its whirlwind set-and-costume changes (eight actors play 18 different characters) contribute to the rapid-fire laughs presented by the frenzied farce.

Calling Carl Reiner’s film noir send-up, “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” (starring Steve Martin), a good example of the tone employed by Hollinger, Ismail said “Red Herring” offers up a flurry of smart one-liners that reflect “my kind of humor.”

While some of the dialogue/situations are “over the top,” Ismail said simply following the blueprints outlined by B-movie film noir titles provide enough guffaws for today’s audiences without the need for undo exaggeration.

“That was why I really like it,” he said.

Presented to Ismail and his fellow company members in 2011 during Big Idea’s annual internal review of possible 2012-13 season selections, Ismail said he was an instant fan of the show and was “very excited” to have the opportunity to direct.

Ismail, a Memphis, Tenn., native, said that while his career has included acting and directing, directing has always been his first love and fondly recalls his first time as a theatrical ringmaster.

“At 13, I directed a school production of ‘The Ugly Duckling’ by A.A. Milne,” Ismail said. “I’ve always known I wanted to be a director, but opportunities are hard to come by.”

Since moving to Sacramento in 2008, Ismail has amassed almost 10 mainstage directorial credits for a variety of theaters, including Resurrection Theatre and Big Idea Theatre. He also helmed Asclepius Productions’ January 2012 staged reading of “August: Osage County,” a benefit on behalf of the American Cancer Society.

Kelly Cullity, the producer of “August: Osage County,” happens to be one the featured actors in “Red Herring” (as well as the show’s dramaturg).

“We have a really great cast,” said Ismail. “It’s an ensemble show, with costume, character and set changes taking place in as little as 30 seconds. It’s really incredible and I’m extremely proud of them – their teamwork is really cool to watch.”

Ismail said his seasoned cast boasts credits galore, including a quartet of new faces to Big Idea Theatre audiences – including Cullity’s.

“Kelly’s served as dramaturg for Big Idea’s production of ‘Arcadia,’ which I directed, but never acted for the company before,” said Ismail. “She plays the ingénue of the tale, who also happens to be the daughter of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. She’s cute as a button and really, really funny.”

Other standouts include Katie Chapman, who, like Ismail, is a veteran Big Idea Theatre company member. She plays nosey neighbor Mrs. Kravitz.

“We call her Madame One-Liner,” said Ismail. Her delivery is really, really tight – I love watching her.”

Ismail also has high praise for the show’s female “swing,” who – along with her male counterpart Jouni Kirjola – play multiple roles to great comic effect.

Kirjola, in her Big Idea debut, shows off a range that Ismail promises will amaze audiences, as she runs the gamut of comedy styles.

“We’re really excited to get to work with her,” he said.

Even those who may not recall vintage film noir stars such as Robert Mitchum, Humphrey Bogart and the like will find plenty to their liking, said Ismail, who said “there’s something for everyone.”

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Big Idea Theatre production of MIchael Hollinger's "Red Herring"

WHEN: Aug. 24 through Sept. 15, 2012, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, and 2:30 p.m. Sundays

WHERE: Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Directed by Benjamin T. Ismail; featuring: Justin L Chapman, Katie Chapman, Jouni Kirjola, Kelly Daniells, Elizabeth Holzman, Joelle Robertson, Caleb Salmon, Matthew Udall, and Hilary Wells

TICKETS: $10-$15; call (916) 960-3036, or go online at www.bigideatheatre.tix.com

Diana Krall delivers bossa nova-rich set to Thunder Valley audience

2012-08-20T07:21:36Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

At 43, Diana Krall is no longer the wunderkind who snuck up on jazz lovers in 1993, and gave them a small, wet kiss on the back of their necks in the form of her debut album, "Stepping Out."

Seasoned as a pianist, singer, writer, Krall is now a wife (she's married to Elvis Costello) and mother with 12 albums to her credit, and a 13th ("Glad Rag Doll") due out Oct. 2, she is – as they say – not getting older, she's getting better.

Krall, accompanied by a tight combo, showed off her still-maturing virtuosity in a romantic, sensuous set on the Thunder Valley Casino Resort Amphitheatre stage Saturday evening. The warm, late-summer breezes seemed appropriate for the bossa nova-rich set list heavily influenced by her 2009 album "Quiet Nights."

Dressed casually in a three-quarter-sleeve, butterfly-print top and jeans, and sporting gold-framed, round-lensed Ray-Bans to shield her eyes from stage lights, Krall delivered her dreamy, delicious songs with a mix of steam and sex that enraptured and captivated the amphitheatre's concertgoers.

Krall's world tour continues Tuesday with a performance at the Turlock Community Theatre, before heading to the Hanford Fox Theatre (Aug. 22), and a two-night engagement at the Hollywood Bowl (Aug. 24-25). To view future tour stops, click here.

'Great American Trailer Park Musical' returns

2012-08-17T13:17:34Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom

Summertime, and the theater-goin’ is cheesy … at least that’s the goal of Fair Oaks Theatre Festival Director Bob Irvin, who heads back to Armadillo Acres for a reprise of “The Great American Trailer Park Musical.”

A big hit in its 2011 festival debut, the David Nehls and Betsy Kelso musical, which continues through Sept. 9, has been variously described as: “Joyful and unashamedly vulgar … more fun than a chair-throwing episode of ‘Jerry Springer’ set to music” (The New Yorker); “(A) wheel-spinning, mud-splattering good time of a show” (“Talkin’ Broadway”); and “’South Park’ meets ‘Desperate Housewives’” (New York Sun).

“We made some nice money, so we thought we’d haul it out again,” laughs Irvin, an American River College theater professor, who said that the show is the musical-theater equivalent of a popcorn movie: “darn funny with a little heart to it.”

“As I say in my program notes, it’s not ‘The Music Man,’ but there is a charm to it, and certainly a lot of fun to it – and the music is awfully good,” Irvin continued. “It’s not just a parody of country music, there are a couple of songs that are really, really pretty.”

Set in a North Florida trailer park, Irvin said “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” is a sweet, guileless slice of Ritz mock-apple-pie life.

The show centers on a love triangle between toll collector Norbert Garstecki (Daniel W. Slauson, wife Jeannie Garstecki (Brianne Hidden) and Pippi (Analise Langford-Clark), a stripper on the run from her boyfriend, Duke (Jonathan Blum).

“Norbert and Jeannie have been married for 20 years, and she’s agoraphobic, so she can’t go out, and so he’s a little frustrated,” said Irvin. “Then he meets Pippi, and they have an affair, and then Duke shows up and wants to burn the place down.”

“And then there are these three women (Deane Calvin, Christianne Klein, Mary Katherine Cobb) who are like a Greek chorus who tell the story of this love triangle.”

Irvin said the seven-member cast from last year’s production returned for this year’s staging, which also includes fresh faces among the quartet of non-speaking chorus members (Erin Henderson, Joe Hart, Aaron Bayless, Helene Van Sant Klein).

“We are all excited,” said Irvin. “It’s really nice to work on a show that’s just fun where everybody – everybody – in it is having a good time. That’s the nice thing about doing a small cast show, because when you have 30 people in a cast, you always have somebody disgruntled, or groaning or moaning. In this production, they’re just happy to be singing the songs.”

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Fair Oaks Theatre Festival production of "The Great American Trailer Park Musical"

WHEN: Aug. 10-Sept. 9, 2012, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays

WHERE: Veteran's Memorial Amphitheatre, Fair Oaks Village, 7991 California Ave., Fair Oaks, Calif.

WHO: Music and lyrics by David Nehls, book by Betsy Kelso; directed by Bob Irvin; music direction by Joel P. Rogers; vocal direction by Tracy Martin Shearer; costumes by Beth Duggan; set design by Jeff Karl; lighting by Erin Carlson; choreography by Sunny Smith; featuring Deane Calvin (Betty), Christianne Klein (Lin), Mary Katherine Cobb (Pickles), Brianne Hidden (Jeannie), Daniel W. Slauson (Norbert), Analise Langford-Clark (Pippi), Jonathan Blum (Duke), Erin Henderson (Coralee Jane), Joe Hart (Uncle Mutt), Aaron Bayless (Romeo "Skeeter" Malraux), Helene Van Sant Klein (Sue-Bob).

HOW MUCH: $11-$15 (call 916-966-3683, or go online at www.fairoakstheatrefestival.com/purchase-tickets)

Auditions for Falcon's Eye Theatre production of 'Romeo and Juliet' set for Sept. 4

2012-08-16T18:12:18Z

Auditions for the Falcon’s Eye Theatre production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 4, 2012, in the Drama Lab (PAC-1170) of the Three Stages Performing Arts Center on the campus of Folsom Lake College, 10 College Parkway, Folsom. One-dollar parking permits are available at kiosks found throughout the parking lots.

Those auditioning must prepare a monologue that is no more than 90-seconds-long from any play written by William Shakespeare. Monologues from published or unpublished teleplays, screenplays, novels, essays, song lyrics, etc., are not acceptable.

The prepared monologue should best portray the actor's strengths and can be of any genre, but must be from a play written for the stage by William Shakespeare. Monologues must be memorized.

Auditions will be held on a first-come, first-served basis.

Auditioners are requested to bring an 8-by-10-inch headshot, and a resume of acting experience, if available.

Callbacks are set for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 5 and 6.

Auditioners who are called back will also be asked to perform cold readings from the text. Therefore, it is recommended that all those who try out be familiar with the play “Romeo and Juliet” before auditioning. The full script of the play can be viewed by clicking here.

Auditions and callbacks are expected to run until approximately 10 p.m. Sept. 4 through 6.

Evening and weekend afternoon rehearsals are tentatively scheduled to begin Sept. 17, 2012, and continue through Nov. 1, 2012. Please note: while minor conflicts with these dates is permissible, significant conflicts cannot be afforded.

The Falcon’s Eye Theatre production of “Romeo and Juliet” will expose the contemporary relevance of Shakespeare’s masterpiece by taking a modern and audacious approach to the tragic tale of young, star-crossed lovers separated by their feuding families, and the blind anger and ignorance of the adult world surrounding them.

“Romeo and Juliet,” directed by Folsom Lake College faculty member David Harris, will be presented Nov. 2 through 18, 2012, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays. Additional performances will be given at 2 p.m. Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8, and 10 a.m. Nov. 9 and 16.

Performances will be held at Stage Two: City Studio Theater in the Three Stages Performing Arts Center, Folsom Lake College.

For additional information, please call the Falcon’s Eye Theatre hotline at (916) 608-6800, or go online at www.falconseyetheatre.com.

Disclosure: Barry Wisdom is the public relations technician for Folsom Lake College.

Shirley Jones, Patrick Cassidy bring family history to 'Music Man'

2012-08-03T23:06:59Z

Growing up, Patrick Cassidy certainly had successful role models to emulate.

Mom Shirley Jones was an Academy Award-winning movie star ("Elmer Gantry"), and celebrated musical theater and television star. Dad Jack Cassidy was a similarly lauded, multi-media actor with a Tony Award ("She Loves Me") and a pair of Emmy nominations to his credit.

Stepbrother David Cassidy was a talented musician and actor who co-starred with Jones in TV's "The Partridge Family" and became an über-successful (if reluctant) teen idol. Older brother Shaun Cassidy followed in stepbrother's shoes as an actor ("The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries") and pop star.

But while the teenage Cassidy had brief flirtations with the footlights, including a secondary role in Beverly Hills High School's production of "The Music Man" ("I played the constable and 'Salesman No. 8'."), a summer theater stint playing opposite his mother in "The Sound of Music," he ultimately rejected offers from scores of record companies who hoped he'd follow in his brothers' hipster boots as a Tiger Beat cover boy.

He simply had no interest in joining the family business.

"They wanted to put me into the role of a teen idol, but that didn't appeal to me – I was interested in something with longevity," said the 50-year-old Cassidy, who stars as trombone-peddling huckster Harold Hill in the current Music Circus production of "The Music Man" (July 31-Aug. 5, 2012). "And I was much more into sports. I played everything – football, basketball, baseball."

"He was an excellent athlete," quickly added Jones, sounding very much like the supportive, velvet-wearing mother hen so many of us grew up watching on "The Partridge Family."

it was a career choice that delighted Mother Jones.

"I never wanted a career in show business for any of the children," said Jones, who co-stars with her son in "The Music Man" as Mrs. Paroo, the mother of Hill's would-be paramour, Marian ("the librarian") – the role essayed by Jones in the 1962 film adaptation. "It's a tough road. I wanted them to get college degrees."

But when a broken collarbone suffered during a senior year football game short-circuited the star quarterback's Super Bowl dreams, Cassidy reconsidered his decision to eschew singing and dancing in favor of CAT scans and bone screws.

Despite Jones' continued objections, Cassidy couldn't see committing to four years of college followed by a lifetime of water-cooler chatter in suits and ties as being his thing.

Jones admitted that the family's lifestyle and high-profile success didn't exactly support her argument.

"But, like with Shaun, who saw his mother and father in movies, on stage and TV, I realized I didn't have a leg to stand on," she said.

"I remember Shaun's eyes rolling and looking at me like, 'What are you smoking?'"

Since Cassidy's decision to fully embrace his showbiz birthright, he's amassed his own impressive list of stage and screen credits, including Broadway turns in "Annie Get Your Gun," and "42nd Street" in which he co-starred opposite his mother, making them the first mother-son duo featured in a Broadway musical.

Speaking of firsts, some might imagine that Jones and Cassidy's first "Music Man" teaming would have taken place years ago – and they'd be right, but not entirely.

While the current Music Circus production is, indeed, their first opportunity to share bows in a fully staged version of Meredith Willson's tuneful slice of 1912 Americana, the pair performed a "stylized" or concert version of the show in a 50th anniversary tribute produced by the Hartford, Conn.-based Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in 2008.

And then there was the time when ...

It was during the 1961 filming of "The Music Man" (the stage version had debuted four years earlier) that Jones – who was starring opposite Robert Preston in what would become his defining role – discovered that she was pregnant with her second child – Patrick. Aside from director Morton DaCosta and the costumer, few others were let in on Jones' unexpected news, and those that were sworn to secrecy until the shoot wrapped.

Until ... "It was during the scene on the bridge when Bob (Preston) and I kiss ... he was holding me and suddenly jumped back and yelled, 'What the hell was that?''"

"That," she told him, "was Patrick Cassidy."

Cassidy said that since his pre-natal collaboration with his mother in the celebrated film version of "The Music Man," and the above-mentioned concert staging, the two have been approached on at least three separate occasions to co-star in what they agree is "a perfectly constructed musical."

"But I was unavailable all three times," he said.

When Music Circus Artistic Director Glenn Casale – who had worked with both Patrick and Shirley – fronted the idea for them to co-star in a Music Circus production of "The Music Man," the window of opportunity was finally right for both and they happily said "yes."

"I think people love to see a mother and son perform together," said Jones, who added that the timing seemed perfect given 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the beloved film's release.

Like any actor tasked with recreating a role so indelibly identified with another performer, Cassidy said he gave much thought to his approach to the part of Hill.

"Preston has left his signature on this show – this part is really his," said Cassidy, who said he attempted to take the best parts of a trio of performances to deliver a "best-of" portrait of the cymbal-selling flim-flam man.

"For me, personally, I've mixed elements of Bob Preston, Jack Cassidy and Patrick Williams," he said. "There's a lot of me in this role. From the physicality of the character to his demeanor. For better or for worse, my essence is slick, and that's the essence of Harold Hill. This glove fits me perfectly."

Cassidy said it is that intrinsic quality which he hopes audiences respond to. He said there are fine actor-singers on stage who are just right for roles, and equally talented performers who just aren't because of what they personally project. He gives the example of Colm Wilkinson, the award-winning actor-singer who brought Jean Valjean to life in "Les Misérables."

"He came across as very noble and honest in that role, but even though he hit all the notes and delivered all the right lines, he didn't fit as the sexy and seductive phantom in 'Phantom of the Opera.'"

Jones said it was her fresh, American-as-apple-pie personality that helped land her the role of Laurey in her first film, the ground-breaking "Oklahoma!" (1955).

"After I completed the screen test, director Fred Zinnemann told me, 'Don't change a thing – you're a natural.' The only reason I got the role of Laurey was that I was Laurey," said Jones.

Cassidy said overcoming the shadow of Preston's performance was only part of the challenge in playing Hill. There was the narrow line to walk in playing "a dishonest con man with a woman in every town" who also needs to be incredibly likable."

"If you're going to love him – root for him and for him and Marian to get together – you have to like him," said Cassidy, who said that's where some of his own natural gifts come to bear.

With the travel, rehearsal and performance schedule ensuring much mother-and-son time for the two, the question of whether working together ever becomes too much of a good thing.

Nods to the negative come simultaneous.

"I'm not ashamed to say that I'm truly a mommy's boy," said Cassidy, unable to recall even a few years of teen angst when he pulled a Garbo and told his mother, "I want to be alone."

"He's always remained close to me," said Jones, who said Patrick was the son who shared everything, while Shaun never talked about anything, and youngest son Ryan (now an art director) would stay quiet until his emotions would "explode like a bomb."

"The were all very different children," she said.

Cassidy says his openness and desire to listen to others extends beyond his family, but is part of his personality.

"That's what makes him a good actor," said Jones, once again demonstrating why she is the coolest mom in pop culture history.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Music Circus production of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man"

WHEN: July 31-Aug. 5, 2012, with performances at: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 2 and 8 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 7:30 Sunday

WHERE: Wells Fargo Pavilion, 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Directed by Glenn Casale, with choreography by Dan Mojica and music direction by Dennis Castellano; and featuring Patrick Cassidy (Harold Hill), Shirley Jones (Mrs. Paroo), Brandi Burkhardt (Marian Paroo), Kevin Cooney (Mayor Shinn), Paula Leggett Chase (Eulalie MacKecknie Shinn), Bradley Benjamin (Zaneeta Shinn), Michael McGurk (Tommy Djilas), Jason Graae (Marcellus Washburn)

HOW MUCH: Tickets start at $30, and are available by phone at (916) 557-1999, online at www.tickets.com, or in person at the Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office.

Zombies replace the French in Big Idea's 'The Life and Undead of King Henry V'

2012-07-19T04:36:49Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Sacramento residents seem as hungry for all things zombie, as zombies are for delectable “brain food.”

One of the latest additions to the Slow Food menu of zombie delights is Big Idea Theatre’s “The Life and Undead of King Henry V,” Brian Harrower’s post-apocalyptic adaptation of Shakespeare’s historical works, combining elements of “Richard II,” “King Henry IV” (Parts I and II), and “King Henry V.”

Running July 6-28, 2012, at the company’s Del Paso Boulevard playhouse, “The Life and Undead of King Henry V” is an action-packed exercise in iambic pentameter terror that surprises in its easy, seamless transition from traditional heroic drama to “Omega Man” macabre.

“At the end of ‘King Henry IV,’ King Henry is fighting against the French,” said Big Idea Theatre spokeswoman Shannon Mahoney. “Our artistic director Brian Harrower adapted it so Henry is not fighting the French, but an army of zombies.”

Mahoney said even regular theatergoers tend to get nervous when “Shakespeare” is mentioned (“They think Shakespeare is hard.”). More than likely it’s just because of limited exposure to the Bard, she noted, such as a quick high-school read of “Romeo and Juliet” and a screening of “West Side Story.”

“With ‘Henry,’ we’re taking one of Shakespeare’s history plays and combining it with zombies,” Mahoney said. “We’re making it accessible to everyman.”

Shakespeare has always been an important component of Big Idea’s repertoire, said Mahoney, who ticked off a list of past jewels in the company’s crown: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”; “Richard III”; “Much Ado About Nothing”; “Twelfth Night.”

“We’re very excited about Shakespeare in general.”

A little more than a year ago, when Harrower (since named artistic director) proposed his unconventional adaptation to his fellow company members, it wasn’t met with skepticism, but was warmly embraced.

“We felt it was an easy, easy marriage,” said Mahoney. “It didn’t seem like the language was fighting the concept.”

“Of the 40-plus shows submitted by company members, it was among the Top 8,” Mahoney said. “We all loved it. It’s smart theater.”

Mahoney explained that in the spirit of democracy and consensus, each Big Idea Theatre company member is asked to submit three plays a year (including one royalty-free title) that will be considered for the following season’s schedule.

“No submission can go on stage without all of our support,” said Mahoney. “It guarantees we’re all excited about it.”

“Excited” would be an understatement. “We’re over the moon about it,” she said.

Harrower, a longtime member of the Big Idea company, said his inspiration for replacing the French with zombies came from Shakespeare’s own folio.

“The language just lends itself to it,” said Harrower, who also serves as the production’s director. “There’s a passage in ‘Henry V’: ‘Mark then abounding valour in our English, that being dead, like to the bullet's grazing, break out into a second course of mischief, killing in relapse of mortality.' Shakespeare’s histories are riddled with zombie imagery.”

Mahoney is confident audience members will be as fond of “The Life and Undead of Henry V” as the Big Idea company, and its cast – a lauded group distinguished by a number of Elly Award winners. Among the players are Joseph Cady, David Fox, James Gilbreath, Jeffrey Lloyd Heatherly, Ally Krumm, Leo McElroy, Janelle Neczypor, Ryan Snyder, Mark Urquhart, Denver Vaughn, and such Big Idea company members as Justin Muñoz, Gregory Smith, and Liz Tachella-Bowman. Principal zombies are Robyn Colburn, Jaina Frank, Aaron Hitchcock and John Young.

“I think they’re going to laugh, I think they’re going to enjoy it,” she said. “It’s not just hoity-toity for the super educated. It’s an everyman show.”

What makes the show so accessible goes beyond the George Romero-influenced storyline, but can be seen and touched thanks to the Big Idea creative team.

“It’s scary, too,” Mahoney said. “We worked really hard in creating that atmosphere. It’s really an all-encompassing piece dependent on lighting, sound, language, costumes, makeup – everything. It’s the whole package. It can be incredibly challenging.

“At Big Idea, we love that.”

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Big Idea Theatre production of “The Life and Undead of King Henry V” by William Shakespeare (adapted by Brian Harrower)

WHEN: July 6-28, 2012, with performances on July 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28 (8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:30 p.m. Sundays)

WHERE: Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento, Calif.

HOW MUCH: $15 general admission; $13 SARTA members, students and seniors; $10 “Thrifty Thursday” (July 12, 19, 26 only)

FOR MORE INFO: (916) 960-3036 (box office); www.bigideatheatre.com

Sac Shakes' 'Comedy of Errors' director claims Abbott & Costello, commedia dell'arte among influences

2012-07-18T11:44:26Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

“My approach when directing Shakespeare is making it an accessible and fun evening,” said David Harris, lead director of the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival’s current production of “The Comedy of Errors.”

Now in his 14th year with the Sacramento City College/City Theatre tradition, the 46-year-old Harris said his day job as an educator takes a back seat to his festival role as a people-pleaser when it comes to summertime mountings on the William A. Carroll Amphitheatre stage in William Land Park.

“If people want to bring picnics ~~and wine~~ and hang out at the park, that’s great,” said Harris, a former SCC faculty member now on staff at Folsom Lake College. “We’re trying to appeal to the whole family with this production. The goal is to give them something that is fun and pleasant and enjoyable.”

In boosting the already high LOL quotient of Shakespeare’s farcical “Errors,” which plays in repertory with “King Arthur” through July 29, 2012, Harris and co-director George Schau have added stylistic elements from such diverse sources as 16th-century Italy (commedia dell’arte) and 20th-century America (Abbott & Costello).

But don’t expect the two pairs of twin brothers central to the hijinx of “Errors” to channel the comic duo and reenact their “Who’s on First?” routine.

As Harris said, he and Schau are Shakespeare devotees. While they’re not opposed to boosting the delivery speed of the Bard’s banter a la Bud and Lou, or taking a sledgehammer to the fourth wall in keeping with commedia traditions, Bill’s nomenclature is sacrosanct.

“We have made no cuts or alterations,” said Harris. “I like to do that with all of my productions of Shakespeare as much as possible. What he wrote is such a musical thing. To alter that seems wrong to me.”

No “alterations” means no rewriting, including a ban on throwing in topical or local references to garner cheap chuckles from the River City crowd.

“In fact, George (Schau) was insistent that we don’t do that,” Harris said.

Introducing modern commedia elements to “Errors” is another matter, he said, as it affects staging or blocking rather than language.

“Using commedia is superfun, and allows for a back-and-forth between the actors and the audience,” Harris said. “It leaves Shakespeare’s words on stage as he wrote them, but provides room for some improvisation.”

“The actors are fairly aggressive in their interaction with the audience,” he continued. “It’s very commedia in its approach.”

Additional staging and design tweaks include a single actor playing each set of twins (Kevin Menager plays both Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus; Tara Henry takes on Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus), with only a whimsical quick change of coats signifying the quick change of character.

In addition, designer Nicole Sivell, who’s been with the festival since 1998, evokes the hardware-heavy ensembles worn by “Star Trek: The Next Generation” heavies the Borg by augmenting “Errors” actors’ costumes with vacuum-hose sections.

“Nicole’s costumes are just past anything you could expect,” Harris said, noting that Sivell is also playing with costume-piece proportions as well as materials.

“The idea is that the Syracusans are traveling the world looking for their twins, and encounter witches, mermaids and devils. The look of this place should be very strange, and Nicole has costumed all the people in this world with over-the-top Cirque du Soleil-inspired costumes.

“She’s outdone herself on this one.”

Harris and Schau’s creative contributions also include musicians (Peter Harding, Ismail Houraira) playing onstage, and a bit of belly dancing performed by actress Sarah Rowland as a courtesan.

Harris said he hopes the traditional mix of festivalgoers – which range from first-timers who have never seen a Shakespeare play performed live, to casual attendees (the majority), to those who count down the days until the next event – will embrace his and Schau’s “Errors.”

“This one is as much of a piece of candy as any play Shakespeare did,” said Harris. “A sweet treat.”

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Sacramento Shakespeare Festival production of "The Comedy of Errors"

WHEN: 8 p.m. July 6, 7, 12, 14, 19, 21, 26 and 29 (gates open at 6:30 p.m.)

WHERE: William A. Carroll Amphitheatre, 4000 Land Park Dr., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Written by William Shakespeare; directed by David Harris and George Schau; scenic design by Shawn Weinsheink, lighting design by Stephen Jones, costume design by Nicole Sivell, choreography by Lalena Hutton; featuring Kevin Menager, Tara Henry, Alejandro Padilla, Maszaba Carter, Skyler King, Ismail Houraira, Cathy Hardin Schau, Mar-y-sol Pasquiers, Mikayla A. Lambeth, Jacob Vuksinich, John Crabtree, Andrew Simon Zelny, Matthew Malone, Coleman W. Daniel Jr., Sarah Rowland, Shante Scrugs, Kathleen Poe, Sinead Kennedy

HOW MUCH: $18 (general admission); $15 (students, seniors, SARTA members); www.sacramentoshakespeare.ticketleap.com

MORE INFO/TICKETS: (916) 558-2228; www.sacramentoshakespeare.net

Editor's note: Edits were made to this article after publishing.

Memories of animated 'Mermaid' get the hook, replaced by Music Circus perfection

2012-07-16T09:53:02Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

In early 1990, I wasn't under the sea, but sailing through foamy ocean waves topside in my first contract with a cruise line catering to the über-rich.

As an onboard public relations representative whose duties included writing and editing a daily newsletter, I enjoyed non-uniformed “officer” status that allowed me full access to crew and passenger areas.

Among the passenger entertainment venues I frequented was the ship’s cinema.

One of the then-recent releases I recall being screened was the Walt Disney Pictures adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”

A comeback of sorts for Disney’s animated feature film division, the 1989 musical was distinguished by a traditional Broadway-style score featuring songs by the award-winning team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (“Little Shop of Horrors”).

Plus, Disney pumped a lot of krill into the production – more than they had for any animated feature in decades – ensuring it wasn’t going to end up in the direct-to-video bin.

Among the animation supervisors were Disney vets Glen Keane and Mark Henn, who shepherded the creation of mermaid princess Ariel, as well as the memorably splashy musical sequence set to Ashman and Menken’s hopelessly catchy “Under the Sea.”

(The duo reportedly based Ariel’s body type and personality on actress Alyssa Milano, who at the time was starring as Tony Danza’s daughter Samantha in the ABC sitcom “Who’s the Boss?”)

The film also boasted the considerable vocal talents of Broadway ingénue Jodi Benson (as Ariel), as well as veteran character actors Pat Carroll (Ursula the Sea Witch), Rene Auberjonois (Chef Louis), Buddy Hackett (Scuttle) and Kenneth Mars (King Triton).

But what truly bewitched this theater-degreed, arts writer – as I watched the film for the first time (sitting in the aisle in deference to paying passengers) while sailing across the Pacific – weren’t Disney’s rejuvenated production values, the hummable tunes, or even the eye-filling choreographed animation.

What hooked me were the kelp-me-Rhonda good looks of the water-breathing, shoulder-baring, titian-haired Ariel, who was pin-up worthy whether doing her Esther Williams shtick fathoms below, or waltzing in three-quarter time sans fins.

Perhaps it was an attempt by Keane and Henn to lure dads to join mom and the kids at the multiplex, but this Disney princess wasn’t sealed up like a can of tuna, delicately tip-toeing in crystal slippers, but was a rough-and-tumble nature girl who really filled-out her shells.

Instead of layer-upon-layer of ballgown accoutrements, the poster girl of Disney’s animation Renaissance sported a sparse-and-sexy, skin-tight (scale-tight?) ensemble that looked like it was painted on – which, of course, it was.

The Ariel package – including her wide-eyed, sweet and ever-smiling countenance –created a me-yowza! mix of comely charms that had me purring through multiple viewings. (There are a lot of sea days between Seattle and Nagasaki, Japan).

It’s important to note that I wasn’t the sole adult staff member who literally took an aisle seat to watch the newt play the flute, the carp play the harp and the bass play the brass. Members of the ship’s production team (singers and dancers) were also on hand whenever “The Little Mermaid” was scheduled.

But a sailor’s heart is a fickle one, and a new school of real-life bathing beauties would take her place. Eventually, Ariel became just some mermaid that I used to know.

Almost two decades later, she would again catch my attention when she resurfaced in the flesh as the star of a Broadway musical adaptation.

My chum-chum-cher-ee live on stage? I shrugged off the notion of a storybook reunion as an impossible dream of mythic proportions.

What we had was a once-in-a-lifetime, once-upon-a-time happening of decades past, when I cut my own impressive figure whether lifting a Nikon, or a glass of the distilled potato liquor favored by the line’s Norwegian captains and bridge officers.

Flash forward to 2012, and California Musical Theatre’s announcement it had secured the rights to Disney’s newly reworked stage adaptation of the animated classic.

It’s hard to say whether it was nostalgia or a desire to recapture my youth, but I decided to revisit the past and see if this new “Little Mermaid” had “legs.”

Long story longer … CMT’s Music Circus production of “The Little Mermaid” proves not only does the show have legs – thanks to director Glenn Casale’s visionary improvements (which recently debuted in a traditional proscenium stage setting in Amsterdam) – it knows how to use ’em.

Those subscribers who were thinking “No … no, there are not” when Pink Ladies ringleader Rizzo sang “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” during the Music Circus season opener of “Grease,” need not have worried that the remainder of their summer nights in the Wells Fargo Pavilion Theatre would be as coarse and colorless.

As a 1940s movie studio trailer might boast, “The standing ovations are back – and ‘The Little Mermaid’ has got ‘em!”

From the first note, the current Music Circus production “The Little Mermaid” is pitch perfect.

There’s an attention to detail and elevated production values (costumes, hair, make-up, scenic elements) regularly seen in CMT-hosted national tours at the Community Center Theater, but present an exceptional treat atop the pavilion’s turntable.

Casale’s casting choices for “Mermaid,” which runs July 10-22, 2012, also are on key.

From the moment the lights hit this show’s Ariel – Broadway-seasoned triple-threat Jessica Grové (“Les Misérables,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “A Little Night Music,” “Sunday in the Park with George”) – I knew the cartoon crush of my sailing days was gone forever.

That animated infatuation has now been replaced by a mature, age-appropriate, and restraining order-free appreciation for a performer whose every expression, every inflection, every movement make you believe she believes she’s a fairytale princess who just happens to sport fins, and who counts seafood among her closest friends.

Blessed with her late mother’s beautiful singing voice, young Ariel is her father’s favorite.

And because of her unrivaled vocal prowess, Ariel also has a No. 1 fan in court composer Sebastian (Kevin Smith Kirkwood), though his admiration is tempered by the young mermaid’s spotty work ethic.

“Teenagers ... give them an inch and they’ll swim all over you,” he bemoans.

It seems Ariel is more interested in the surface world (as she beautifully sings in “Part of Your World”) and its denizens than in her royal responsibilities, including singing the solo at a celebration marking the anniversary of her father’s coronation.

Sebastian’s complaints about the rebellious princess lead Triton to appoint the crusty crustacean as her teacher.

Ariel’s special treatment doesn’t elude her six sisters nor her aunt, the sea witch Ursula (the amazing Vicki Lewis), who’s still pretty steamed at her brother, King Triton (the regal Merwin Foard), for banishing her from his kingdom upon his rise to power.

But Ursula sees a way to take advantage of Ariel’s preoccupation with all things surface, and reclaim what she believes is her rightful place as the Queen of the Seven Seas.

Ariel isn’t the only independent-minded youth bristling at a life plan laid out by the pater familias.

Prince Eric (the heroic and sensitive Eric Kunze) is being groomed by his father to take over his kingdom, though – as he tells his crew – “I’d rather be a sailor than a prince any day.”

In an effort to distance himself from daddy’s expectations, he spends as much time at sea as possible, though royal mentor Grimsby (the properly officious Ron Wisniski) is always in tow.

When a squall lands Eric in the drink, Ariel swims to his rescue.

Prince Eric’s back-story is more fully explored in this expanded (and darker) stage version that also features two new songs (with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater): “Daddy’s Little Angel” (Ursula) and “If Only” (Ariel).

It’s impossible to talk about the show’s songs, without bestowing kudos to the entire cast for their Ariel-like vocal talents.

Words like “passionate,” “flawless,” and “simply perfect” come to mind when attempting to ascribe adjectives to their performances.

While I’m no longer prone to falling for doe-eyed Danish storybook characters, I’m not immune to developing a serious case of goosebumps upon hearing miraculous performers like Grové sing the bejesus out of “Part of Your World.”

And I dare anyone to catch this show without experiencing some sort of emotional reaction from any one of the lead or supporting actors’ performances.

Whether it’s the sweet yet adventurous Ariel (Grové), the comic villainy of Ursula (Lewis), the stoic bravery of Eric (Kunze) the charming adolescent innocence of “sk8er fish” Flounder (the nimble Henry Hodges), the blustering King Triton (Foard), the flamboyant Sebastian (Kirkwood), feather-brained Scuttle (Jack Doyle) or the delicious Chef Louis (the very funny Eric Gunhus), there’s an expertly crafted character to love and embrace.

Supporting these consummate pros is a league of expert designers, artisans and technicians led by Casale that include: choreographer John MacInnis; associate choreographer Billy Sprague Jr.; musical director Craig Barna; costume designer Mark Koss; scenic designer Jamie Kumpf; lighting designer David Neville; sound designer Robert Sereno; hair, wig and makeup designer Christine Conklin; flying sequence designer Paul Rubin; and puppet designer Richard Bay.

When Ariel plays into Ursula’s tentacles and trades her voice (and fins) for land-friendly legs, it does bring her closer to Prince Eric, but it also throws the entire undersea world into chaos that leaves the one or two people who haven’t seen the animated film wondering if a happy ending is in the offing.

Take the kids, take your parents, or just take yourself – “The Little Mermaid” is a wonderful (and perhaps unexpectedly rich) summertime confection for everyone.

The Music Circus production of "The Little Mermaid" plays July 10-22, 2012, at the Wells Fargo Pavilion Theatre, 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.

Tickets, priced at $30-70, are available online, by calling (916) 557-1999, or in person at the Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office, 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.

Workaholic Garrison ready to unveil contemporary take on Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'

2012-07-12T19:09:34Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Add the Alternative Arts Collective to the list of Sacramento-based theater companies presenting stylish, thought-provoking twists on classic works from the Shakespeare canon this summer.

In David Blue Garrison and Christopher DeVore's new adaptation of "The Tempest," playing July 12-29, 2012, at the Blue Box Theatre, the time is 1940, the place is New York City, and the bulk of the action is confined to the imagination of a renowned theater director-playwright-producer suffering from dementia.

"The play begins in a seemingly simple bedroom," said AAC Artistic Director and founder Garrison, who helms the production. "A few hours from the end of his life, the director – Cadence Du Cane – imagines and conjures up a perfect production of 'The Tempest' taking place in the bedroom."

Du Cane, 77, has suffered a stroke, which has left him in a coma for months. As the play opens, he unexpectedly awakes, bringing his Los Angeles-based daughter Miranda to his side. In addition to putting his affairs in order and escorting him home, Miranda also hopes to find a long-rumored manuscript – her father's final work, an adapted screenplay of Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

Garrison, who is celebrating the 3-year-old company's first major undertaking in its new 35-seat Del Paso Heights venue (after moving from Roseville in September), said the genesis of the play's adaptation came years ago when he served as a live-in caregiver for victims of dementia, strokes and other debilitating conditions.

More recently, upon rereading "The Tempest," Garrison said he was struck by the number of references Prospero makes regarding "his mind, his memory being at its end."

"It reminded me of the time I spent as a caregiver, and inspired the concept I came up with," said Garrison. "Then I approached Christopher about it and we bounced ideas back and forth and it grew from there."

"I knew this was going to be our first Shakespearean production in the new theater," said Garrison, who began making edits to the script beginning in June. "Basically, I wrote the first draft, then Christopher wrote the second, and back-and-forth like that all the while discussing what needed to happen, what needed to be said.

"It was a true collaboration," Garrison added, "especially on the 1940s part."

Garrison said that DeVore, a veteran screenwriter ("Hamlet," "Frances," "The Elephant Man") who also happens to be a neighbor of Garrison's, has been a true mentor – an expert on Shakespeare who has served as his "go-to person" on more than one occasion.

Part noir, part showbiz mystery, part fantasy, AAC's "The Tempest" features the traditional community theater mix of veteran pros and talented newcomers. The cast includes Richard Spierto, Sean Melby, Spencer Reed, Katie Hulse, Victoria Timoteo, Derek R. Thomas and Aviv Hannan.

"Spencer Reed, who plays Caliban, is really a treat," Garrison said. "He's really a phenomenal actor."

A Sacramento native, Reed was attending Southern California's Chapman University when "Tempest" auditions were scheduled, so he forwarded a video of himself performing scenes from the play.

"That's how he was cast; he's phenomenal" said Garrison, who noted that Reed also created a key video element that's projected late in the second act.

Other AAC newbies earning high praise from Garrison include Katie Hulse ("She's been a treat."), who's playing Prospero's sister Antonia, and Aviv Hannan, who has the role of Alonsa.

"It's been cool to have a few new people be a part of the company," Garrison said.

Garrison's creative team has provided a sumptuous environment for the entire cast. Among those sweltering in scorching summer temps as they grapple with hot lights, mixing boards and power tools, are: Tim Galindo (lighting designer); Richard Spierto, Charles Curtis and Garrison (set design) and Reed (sound designer).

Adding visual interest to the period set are original abstract paintings by John Krempel.

No one, however, is working harder than Garrison himself – and he's got the hospital "bracelet" to prove it.

"It's been a whirlwind last few months," Garrison prefaced, detailing a nonstop schedule of performing, writing, directing, producing and promoting that began with his May debut at Sacramento's Big Idea Theatre in its production of "Recent Tragic Events."

It was just a week later, while performing in a special, limited-run production of DeVore's adaptation of four Chekhov short stories at the Sacramento Temporary Contemporary Gallery (aka "The Temp), Garrison collapsed on stage.

"My body went into 'shut-down mode,'" he said. "I had to go to the emergency room."

Subsequent tests showed Garrison was suffering from exhaustion and malnutrition. The combination of prepping all week for the opening of "The Tempest," and performing weekends was simply too much – especially when one "forgets" to eat, drink and sleep.

"We're all going so fast," he said. "We're so involved with so many projects it's easy to get bogged down by everything and forget to take care of yourself."

But, as he shared with his Facebook followers this week: "I suppose I'll sleep after this week is over. (I said that last week ... and the week before.) Either I do not know how to manage my time ... or I really am doing way too much ... aka being an adult."

JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: The Alternative Arts Collective presentation of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (adapted by David Blue Garrison and Christopher DeVore
WHEN: Opens at 8 p.m. July 12, 2012; plays through July 29 with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays
WHERE: The 35-seat Blue Box Theatre, Oxford Street and Lea Way, Sacramento, Calif.
WHO: Written by William Shakespeare (adapted by David Blue Garrison and Christopher DeVore | Featuring: Richard Spierto (Cadence Du Cane/Prospero); Sean Melby (Ariel); Spencer Reed (Caliban); Victoria Timoteo (Miranda); Derek Thomas (Ferdinand); Christopher DeVore (Stephano); Alexandria Quinonez (Trinculo); Aviv Hannan (Alonsa); Katie Hulse (Antonia); Ciara McClary (Sebastian); Sandy Phillips (Gonzalo); Cassie Guthrie (Dorothy)
HOW MUCH: Tickets cost $15, and are available online at www.brownpapertickets.com, or at the door beginning 30 minutes prior to curtain

Jessica Grové gives voice to Music Circus 'Mermaid'

2012-07-10T15:53:30Z

rehearsal photographs by Barry Wisdom /

If she wanted to, Jessica Grové – who has the title role in the current Music Circus production of “The Little Mermaid” – could name drop with the best of them.

In the 15 years that the Hilliard, Ohio, native has been working professionally on stage, Grové has appeared in Broadway and Off Broadway shows, in national tours, as well as in regional theater and one-night-only concert events in collaboration with such Playbill cover girls (and boys) as Stephen Sondheim, Bernadette Peters, Elaine Stritch, Mickey Rooney, Jim Dale, Glenn Close, Eartha Kitt, James Barbour and Robert Cuccioli.

But the name that most often comes to mind these days is no Tony-winning, Broadway vet who was drawn by Hirschfeld, but a diaper-wetting, Broadway baby who was delivered by Grové just a short nine months ago.

“Saying good-bye to Gavin is really rough,” said Grové about the separation anxiety she suffers with every exit of the New York apartment she and husband Dan Cooney share with their newborn son. “Of course I couldn’t let Gavin know this.”

Grové, who brings Gavin with her to as many out-of-town gigs as possible, has had her son with her in Sacramento during “Mermaid” rehearsals thanks to the help of her mother, Katie Grové.

Only recently did grandma take Gavin home to New York for a reunion with his dad – who joined the cast of Broadway’s “Mamma Mia” in June.

Grové said her mother is happily reprising her long-running role of stage mother (“Stage grandma?”) since Gavin’s debut, once again providing an invaluable support system to her daughter while she dazzles audiences and critics alike.

“The first show I did was when I was 3,” said Grové. “It was a production of ‘Music Man’ at an outdoor summer theater. Mom was in it, dad was in the barbershop quartet, and my 6-year-old brother was a boy in the pool hall scene. I was a baby girl in the chorus singing, ‘Trouble … trouble … trouble ….’”

Along with mosquitoes, Grové said it was during that show when the theater bug first bit her.

“I did a lot of community theater as a kid,” she said. “The entire family was musical. We all did it for fun, then it became something I couldn’t get enough of.”

Grové blames it on her genes. Her mother – a performer in an Up With People international education touring company – met her father, William, while on a trip to his native Africa.

“It takes adventurous parents like that to understand and support a child involved in theater,” said Grové, whose early study with Bill Goldsmith at Columbus Children’s Theatre led to her first featured roles, including Dorothy Gale in “The Wizard of Oz.”

A year later, at 15, Grové – who had been regularly auditioning in New York for some time – took a giant leap over the rainbow, winning the role of Dorothy in the Madison Square Garden production of “The Wizard of Oz” and its subsequent two-and-a-half year tour.

It was during her MSG tenure that Grové enjoyed the opportunity to play opposite such stage-and-screen legends as Mickey Rooney and Eartha Kitt.

“I grew up watching all those Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland movies,” said Grové. “Garland was a hero of mine. And I totally knew who Eartha Kitt was. She became a good friend of my family and I. I had a very special relationship with her. I saw her the week before she passed away.”

“I’ve pretty blessed with the people I’ve worked with.”

Following her high school graduation, Grové made the move to New York, where she planned to attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts while dipping her toe into the audition pool.

“But then I got ‘Les Miz,’” said Grové, who vividly recalled the day she auditioned and got the job that put her on Broadway.

“I was doing a Coca-Cola industrial, and went to audition on my lunch break,” she said. “All I remember them saying was that ‘She’s a little young.’ I said to myself, ‘I can’t believe I’m going for it again.’ Having had auditioned for the part several times, I think I was less desperate, which gave me an edge.

“Because I had auditioned for it before, it was less daunting – I knew what to expect, and I had been on the road for more than two years with ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ I had grown up listening to the original cast recording of ‘Les Misérables,’ and, really, just auditioning for it was a dream come true.”

“When I found out I got the part of Eponine that afternoon, I quit the Coca-Cola job.”

In the decade or so since landing that dream role, there has been a steady succession of other Broadway appearances, including Miss Dorothy in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” Mrs. Anderssen in “A Little Night Music,” and Celeste in “Sunday in the Park with George."

On regional theater stages, she’s appeared as Laurie in “Oklahoma!” (helmed by “Mermaid” director Glenn Casale), Maria in “The Sound of Music,” Sarah in “Guys and Dolls,” Amalia in “She Loves Me,” and Luisa in “The Fantasticks!”

“I’ve been pretty fortunate,” said Grové. “I do think it’s been a combination of luck and hard work, plus ‘The Wizard of Oz’ opened a lot of doors for me. But at the same time, I was really young back then. Now that I am truly an adult, it’s hard for people to see me as an adult. But I’ve finally come into my own as a leading lady, I’m not the ingénue, not a 15-year-old. I’m not playing Liesl like I did just a few years ago, I’m playing Maria.”

“It’s fun to now be in roles that I can dig into a little deeper.”

Though a Disney project, the current Music Circus production of “The Little Mermaid” (playing July 10-22 at the Wells Fargo Pavilion) more than qualifies as providing one of those roles thanks to a rewrite-restaging that only debuted in Europe this year.

A darker, more-complicated storyline that emphasizes the complicated relationship between royal daughter Ariel (Grové) and her father, King Triton (Merwin Foard), as well as Prince Eric’s (Eric Kunze) own feelings of being an outsider, this new version of “The Little Mermaid” is giving Grové 20,000 leagues of emotional subtext under the sea.

Director Glenn Casale said Grové is handling the role swimmingly.

“Jessica is glorious as Ariel,” said Casale. “There are two things that Jessica brings to Ariel: There’s an innocence and a sense of magic in her eyes – a desire for, a wanting of something. You can see it on her face and in her eyes.”

Grové is equally devoted to Casale.

“I love Glenn – he is so great,” said Grové, who first worked with him in the 2007 Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera production of “Oklahoma!” (with Shirley Jones). “He’s so organized, so prepared. He knows every light, all the tech stuff.”

When asked where she sees herself in five years, Grové said she’d love to be starring in a new Broadway musical, originating a role, and that “a little bit of fame would be OK.”

“A Tony nomination would be nice, too – even a win. It’s good to have those ideas and plans. It’s so easy to become a victim of circumstance, so to say, ‘This is what I want, this is what I’m aiming for,’ gives you a little bit of control over what happens to you in life. It gives you the power.’

While she has forward-thinking goals and plans, Grové sums up her current roles as Ariel, a wife and a new mom in three little words:

“Life is good.”

The Music Circus production of "The Little Mermaid" plays July 10-22, 2012, at the Wells Fargo Pavilion, 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.

Directed by Glenn Casale, "The Little Mermaid" features Vicki Lewis (Ursula), Eric Kunze (Prince Eric), Jessica Grové (Ariel), Henry Hodges (Flounder), Merwin Foard (King Triton), Kevin Smith Kirkwood (Sebastian), Ron Wisniski (Grimsby), Jack Doyle (Scuttle), Scott Leindecker (Flotsam), Ben Roseberry (Jetsam).

With book by Doug Wright, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater, and music by Alan Menken, "The Little Mermaid" features Disney storytelling at its best. Unsatisfied with her life at sea, young mermaid Ariel longs to experience the human world above, so she embarks on a fascinating journey to discover her true self. The classic love story and memorable songs have captivated audiences of all ages.

Tickets, priced at $30-70, are available online at www.tickets.com, by calling (916) 557-1999, or in person at the Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office, 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.

To view a collection of performance videos featuring Jessica Grové on YouTube, click here.

Hanson brushes up his Shakespeare for pentameter-rich 'King Arthur'

2012-06-30T16:19:01Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Iambic pentameter. The very words strike fear in those who equate classic Shakespearean verse with a foreign language.

Luther Hanson, a Sacramento City College professor who also serves as the coordinator for the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, hopes to change the common perception that the Bard is for Brainiacs.

His newly reworked play, "King Arthur," which kicks off the 2012 Sacramento Shakespeare Festival season June 29, is not part of the Shakespeare canon, but is an homage to the playwright (1564-1616) whose legacy has tormented more high schoolers than Columbus, Susan B. Anthony, and FDR combined.

Written in Shakespeare's familiar style of verse (five metrical feet per line), "King Arthur" is no talky, static, lab practical, but a robust, arch telling of the Arthurian legend suffused with humor, and punctuated with high-energy action sequences featuring broadsword duels galore (men versus men, women versus women, men versus women).

Directed by Hanson and produced by City Theatre at Sacramento City College, "King Arthur" plays through July 27 at the William A. Carroll Amphitheatre, and features Brent Bianchini (Arthur), Breanna Reilly (Guenevere), Rob August (Lancelot), Bradley Moates (Merlin), Sara Hanson (Morgan), and Anthony Person (Mordred).

To view more production photographs, please see Barry Wisdom's "King Arthur" gallery.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Sacramento Shakespeare Festival production of "King Arthur"

WHEN: 8 p.m. June 29-30, and July 8, 13, 15, 20, 22 and 27 (gates open at 6:30 p.m.)

WHERE: William A. Carroll Amphitheatre, 4000 Land Park Dr., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Written and directed by Luther Hanson; featuring Brent Bianchini (Arthur), Breanna Reilly (Guenevere), Rob August (Lancelot), Bradley Moates (Merlin), Sara Hanson (Morgan), and Anthony Person (Mordred)

HOW MUCH: $18 (general admission); $15 (students, seniors, SARTA members); www.sacramentoshakespeare.ticketleap.com

MORE INFO/TICKETS: (916) 558-2228; www.sacramentoshakespeare.net

Community supporters go wild for Sacramento Zoo's 'King of Feasts' fundraiser

2012-06-25T14:16:45Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Street signage refers to Sacramento's wild-animal habitat as the "Land Park Zoo," but the 14.4-acre facility could have passed for a refuge in the South Pacific Saturday evening when the Sacramento Zoological Society hosted its "King of Feasts" fundraiser.

The Polynesian-themed event, which showcased menu items from more than 50 Sacramento-area food-and-beverage purveyors, also featured 60 silent-auction items spread across a trio of tables.

Auction items ranged from gourmet olive oil to kayak rentals, with proceeds earmarked to support the Sacramento Zoo's animal care, habitat improvements, and education and conservation programs.

The $60 admission tickets included complimentary food and beverages, and a mix of entertainment, including Polynesian dancers, the Hawaiian guitar stylings of Kalei Kema, the Na Aikane Ukulele Club, and DJ Blackheart and his "Tiki Dance Party."

Sponsorship for the event was also provided by Wells Fargo and Sacramento Press.

'Hairspray' director Hammond gets wiggy wit' it at DMTC

2012-06-24T21:26:10Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Jason Hammond, like many men who are a few follicles short of a pompadour, doesn't need to spend a whole lot of time with the Dapper Dan pomade to get his look "just right."

But when it came to the 40 wigs he painstakingly assembled for Davis Musical Theatre Company's current production of "Hairspray," the 37-year-old Jack of all theater trades started weaving and teasing, coloring and clipping a full year in advance of the show's June 22-July 15 run.

"When they approached me to direct, I knew that wigs were going to be a factor in the show," said Hammond, "so I immediately started thinking about it."

Saying "wigs were going to be a factor" in putting up a show called "Hairspray," is something of an understatement – like suggesting a boat (a big boat) might be somewhat important in mounting a musical titled "Titanic."

Hammond said the first step in his coif quest was to pull out the lavish stash of hair pieces collected during his more than three decades of community theater participation. He also shopped a plethora of thrift stores, combed post-Halloween clearance sales, and researched period 'dos groovy gals were piling up and flipping out in 1962 Baltimore – ground zero for Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan's all-singing, all-dancing story of "racial inequality, integration, interracial friendships and love."

"In my little work room at home, I put together collages of pictures I liked," said Hammond, "and 'bumped' them up for an exaggerated stage aspect."

With his breadth of theatrical experience, Hammond said he was mindful to walk that fine line between camp and over-the-top exaggeration. "You're not going to see any 'Beach Blanket Babylon' hair styles," he said. "Everything fits very well, nothing seems disproportionate."

A live-scan technician for the University of California, Davis, police department, Hammond's DMTC tenure began in 2003, a few years after moving to Davis from Ontario with wife Deborah (who is being directed by Hammond in her "Hairspray" role of TV personality Motormouth Maybelle).

Since then, he has amassed an impressive roster of area theater credits, ranging from actor to director, from set designer to light and sound board operator, at DMTC and such other community theater playhouses as Woodland Opera House, Garbeau's Dinner Theatre, Big Idea Theatre and Runaway Stage Productions.

Hammond said that while he's been passionate about theater "for as long as I can remember," his practical side kept him from pursuing it as a career, preferring to keep it all about love instead of love and money.

"I've always said my Broadway stage is whatever stage I'm on at the moment," said Hammond. "I've always worked 9-to-5 jobs so I could do theater. If theater was my job, I'd have to take jobs because I needed the money, versus taking them because I love the show, or want to work on a specific aspect."

After a year's prep work, the "Demon Barber of Pena Drive" is delighted to say he's content with the results of his wig wrangling. With an expressive cast, colorful costumes, and inventive scenic design, all eyes may not be on the cast's hairstyles, but he invites the scrutiny. If there is an occasional flat note on the production end, it won't be among the bevy of bouffants and beehives that will shake, rattle and roll across the DMTC stage during the show's three-week run.

But for as many hats as he's wearing for "Hairspray" (he's also serving as choreographer), Hammond stressed musical theater is far from a solo endeavor, and that without his creative team – including DMTC founder Steve Isaacson (musical direction, lighting design), Mark Deamer (scenic design), Denise Miles (costume design) and Marie Petersen (prop design) – this tuner would be far from the eye- and ear-filling event he's been envisioning over the last 12 months.

"My approach to theater in general comes from the perspective of an audience member," said Hammond. "What do I want to see?"

What Hammond is seeing now is a dream come true.

"The costumes are phenomenal; I think the sets are phenomenal," said Hammond. "I'm very happy with the way things have turned out."

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Davis Musical Theatre Company production of "Hairspray" (book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan; music by Marc Shaiman; lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman; based on the New Line Cinema film written and directed by John Waters

WHERE: Davis Musical Theatre Company Performing Arts Center, 607 Pena Drive, Davis, Calif.

WHEN: June 22-July 15, 2012, with performances at 8:15 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:15 p.m. Sundays

WHO: Directed and choreographed by Jason Hammond; musical direction and lighting design by Steve Isaacson; scenic design by Mark Deamer; costume design by Denise Miles; prop design by Marie Petersen; featuring Eimi Taormina (Tracy Turnblad), Danielle Hansen (Penny Pingleton), Scott Minor (Edna Turnblad), Andy Hyun (Wilbur Turnblad), Patricia Glass (Velma Von Tussle), Matt Taloff (Corny Collins), Emily Jo Seminoff (Amber Von Tussle), Alex Cesena (Link Larkin), Quentin Carbajal (Brad), Allison Ruanto (Tammy), Shane Osterhoudt (Fender), Deborah Hammond (Motormouth Maybelle), Erik Catalan (Seaweed J. Stubbs), Meghan Sandoval (Little Inez)

HOW MUCH: $9-$18 (to purchase tickets, click here, or call (530) 756-3682

FOR MORE INFO: call (530) 756-3682, email info@dmtc.org, or see the DMTC website

Actress Kristine David takes on role of director for Teatro Nagual's 'Anna in the Tropics'

2012-06-18T07:50:45Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Some were born to direct. Some have had directing thrust upon them.

For Kristine David, it’s been a bit of both.

David, who helms Teatro Nagual’s current production of “Anna in the Tropics” at Coloma Community Center, is the daughter of longtime Sacramento actor-producer-director (and Teatro Nagual founder/creative director) Richard Falcon, and Barbara Falcon, an event planner-turned-theater administrator. For David, greasepaint was part of her DNA makeup.

But David, like her father, began her career on the boards as an actor with no set plan to one day sit out front and call the shots.

“In the earliest stages of ‘Anna,’ I was simply going to stage manage,” said David, whose local credits include turns with B Street Theatre, Capital Stage, Big Idea Theatre, Resurrection Theatre, Celebration Arts, Beyond the Proscenium Productions, Main Street Theater Works, Woodland Opera House and River Stage. “Then I was tapped to assistant direct, then co-direct with my father, and then he handed me the reins to direct on my own. Having buffed up my résumé with acting gigs, commercial gigs, it seemed like the perfect time.”

David, whose father established Teatro Nagual in 2006 as a means to promote Latino theater, said that while she holds the title of director – and the full responsibilities that come with it – mounting Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about “love, literature, politics, and the loss of innocence” in a Depression-era Florida cigar factory has been a collaborative effort.

“It was something I really wasn’t confident I was capable of,” David admitted, noting that there was a bit of additional pressure in making “Anna” successful as its staging is part of Teatro Nagual’s campaign to raise money for a proposed children’s educational program. “I had wanted to direct in the past, and had been given the opportunity twice before, but I wasn’t sure until I took this project on. Richard and the actors have been incredibly kind and seem to trust me completely.

“They were more sure of me than I was in myself. They were on my side the whole way.”

A San Francisco native who moved with her family to South Sacramento when she was 5, within three years she was starting to perform on stage in and around Sacramento.

David – like so many aspiring actors – grabbed her high school diploma and headed to the Big City (in this case, Los Angeles) to gain some grown-up experiences.

“I dipped my toe in and ran home,” she laughed, who said that while the year in the Southland didn’t do much for her résumé, it did provide valuable “knowledge of the business.”

Back safe and sound in the River City, David began studying in earnest. She gives River Stage founder and producing director Frank Condon full “props” for prepping her for her career in theater.

“I credit him with everything I know today,” said David, whose tenure with River Stage included roles in “Mrs. California,” “Chicago Conspiracy Trial,” “Disability,” “A Christmas Carol,” and “Acts Unbecoming a Golem.”

While at the Cosumnes River College-based theater, she also had the opportunity to work with such guest luminaries as director Vada Russell, and Tony Award-winning playwright Mark Medoff (during the River Stage Playwright’s Festival).

“It was an incredible opportunity,” she said.

David also sought additional private tutelage from noted Sacramento-based actor-educator Janis Stevens (“She’s incredible.”).

Well-reviewed roles began piling up for David, who would go on to win two best actress Elly Awards: the first for her role as Lula in the Celebration Arts production of “Dutchman” (“My favorite role of all time!”); and the second for Big Idea Theatre’s “The Compleat Female Stage Beauty.”

In 2010, on the strength of such head-turning performances as the bitter, undervalued younger sister in Cap Stage’s production of “Mauritius,” she was named “Best Local Actor” in Sacramento News & Review’s annual best-of-Sacramento issue.

Many newcomers to the director’s chair might ease into the role by making their debut helming a show that features a small cast – perhaps taking on a light, comedic two-hander.

But “Anna in the Tropics,” which plays through July 1, is a highly charged drama with only a bit of comedic leavening, and demands rather intricate staging and blocking thanks to its substantial cast of eight.

To complicate her directorial debut, David’s rehearsal schedule – which began shortly after her March 1 casting decisions – was set on its ear due to last-minute conflicts.

“Some actors had to go – stepping down for personal reasons,” she said. “We ended up with less rehearsal time, but I think we have a better production.”

“A lot of them haven’t worked a lot, or have been out of acting for a while,” she continued. “But it’s great to have these fresh faces on stage and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at their skill level.”

Among her cast is father Richard Falcon, who plays the cigar factory’s owner Santiago. Also on the call sheet: Ernesto Bustos; Jay Patrick; Amanda Morish; Ana Maria Perales; Pierre Perales; Irene Velasquez; and Martin J. Rodriguez as the factory’s new lector, whose arrival “is a cause for celebration, but when he begins to read aloud from 'Anna Karenina,' he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom Tolstoy, the tropics and the American Dream prove a volatile combination.”

David’s staging seamlessly moves the audience’s attention from character to character, which playwright Cruz has facilitated by carving intimate moments between the actors as they convey a myriad of personal and professional emotions during a time of industry and world economic upheaval.

Big changes are afoot: the Great Depression is about to hit; mass production is threatening the Old World ways of cigar rolling; women are throwing off cultural yokes and becoming more assertive, independent thinkers; and the lovely tradition of professional storytellers reading to factory workers engaged in monotonous tasks is being challenged in favor of “efficiency.”

“I have an incredible love for the scenes and how they’re broken down to zero-in on one-on-one scene partners,” said David. “There’s so much language, all the audience needs to know is snuck in there. Every character has something else going on that they’re not saying, and it’s up to the actors to let the audience in on it without speaking to it. The people in the play are so multi-dimensional, and seem like characters from the novel ('Anna Karenina') that the lector is reading. The language in the play is just beautiful.”

“The compelling image of a young woman working tirelessly in a factory, finding reprieve through the words read by the lector – which provide a means of escape and perseverance amidst oppressive working conditions – has followed me throughout this process,” writes David in the show’s program. “The notion of traditions, and the loss of them, caused me to reflect on the probability that countless other strategies of survival, unacknowledged and underappreciated, have been cast away with the times and so-called progress.”

Now that “Anna in the Tropics” is up and running, David said she’s not only confident in her newly proven abilities as a director, but is eager to reprise the process.

“I channeled all of my favorite directors in working on this show,” she said. “Now I want to direct more and more – it’s like a new bug has bit me.”

To see more production photos of the Teatro Nagual production of "Anna in the Tropics," click here.

JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: The Teatro Nagual production of “Anna in the Tropics”
WHEN: June 15-July 1, with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 p.m. Saturdays, and 7 p.m. Sundays
WHERE: Coloma Community Center, 4623 T St., Sacramento, Calif.
WHO: Written by Nilo Cruz, directed by Kristine David, scenic design by Ron Reisner, stage management by Mary Goodall, and produced by Maria Celia Garcia. Featuring: Ernesto Bustos (Cheché); Richard Falcon (Santiago); Jay Patrick (Palomo); Amanda Morish (Marela); Ana Maria Perales (Conchita); Pierre Perales (Eliades); Martin J. Rodriguez (Juan Julian); Irene Velasquez (Ofelia)
TICKETS: $12-$20 (available online at brownpapertickets.com or at the door)
FOR MORE INFO: Call or email Richard Falcon (916-549-3341; richardfalcon@att.net), or see teatronagual.com

Just Be Theatre Company to offer trio of encore performances of '3'

2012-06-13T00:07:47Z

Just Be Theatre Company has announced that Sacramento's Artisan Theatre will host a trio of encore performances for the Anthony D'Juan play "3," conceived and performed by Danielle Moné Truitt, June 29-July 1, 2012.

The one-woman show, which had its Sacramento premiere June 7-10, is the first in a proposed trilogy ("Nappy Hair and Other Black Girl Blues") that examines "the lives of three women connected by friendship and history, while delving into the social and cultural issues rooted in misconceptions of race and beauty."

Tickets, priced at $20, are available at the door (1901 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento), or online at www.brownpapertickets.com.

Read more about the play's genesis by clicking here.

Truitt back in Sac performing new one-woman show at Artisan Theatre

2012-06-08T05:13:52Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

For some, memories are jogged by a Top 40 ballad. Others find aromas initiate the trek down memory lane.

For triple-threat Danielle Moné Truitt, it's not scents, songs or even Hipstamatic prints that prompt feelings of nostalgia. As wiggy as it seems, Truitt says the touchstones that trigger her internal "Way-Back Machine" are hairdos.

"When I think about all of the major things that have happened in my life, what I remember is how I was wearing my hair," said the former Sacramentan now based in Southern California. "Ask me about my junior prom and I can tell you exactly what style it was in."

It's a bit of a tangled connection between how a friend's discovery of a stress-induced bald spot behind Truitt's left ear five years ago led to the inspiration for her latest one-woman show, "3" (playing June 7-10 at Sacramento's Artisan Theatre), but she does her best to explain it to her follically challenged interviewer.

"My hair grew back, but I was amazed at how much my self-esteem was affected by this bald spot," said Truitt, who made an indelible impression in the B Street Theatre's 2010 production of Charlayne Woodard's "Neat." "I realized my hair and my identity were closely tied together. It's a love affair almost."

Desperate to explore the roots of her obsession, she turned to friend, former castmate (B Street's "The Beggars' Strike," "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day") and Sacramento-based playwright-director Anthony D'Juan to discuss the possibility of an emotional expedition that would launch from – where else? – the stage.

"I have an idea for a one-woman show called 'Nappy Hair and Other Black Girl Blues,'" D'Juan recalled Truitt telling him back in 2007.

Though D'Juan had little experience with solo shows, his friendship with Truitt and his respect for her talents (she was the model for Disney's Princess Tiana, and provided the voice for Georgia, in the animated feature "The Princess and the Frog") led him to consider her proposal.

"I wrote and performed a one-person show for myself in 2001," recalled D'Juan. "It worked for what it was. In retrospect, it sucked. ... After that I continued to write all these solo pieces, intended for other people – very few were ever produced. (But) she is one of the most creative actors I know – one of the rare ones who take acting as an art. She is freakishly natural with a large range. I could cast her as Albert Einstein and she'd pull it off."

D'Juan not only became a convert, but a true evangelist.

"I loved the theme," said D'Juan. "The moment Danielle mentioned women and hair, a thousand ideas hit me at once. I was able to write piece after piece after piece without flinching because taking such a, seemingly, shallow concept like hair and applying it to daily behavior revealed a complexity."

"Anthony wrote a few drafts, but I wasn't sure what I was looking for," said Truitt, who added that years went by before they agreed on the concept of a series of vignettes in which the audience looks at "the lives of three women connected by friendship and history."

"Women battle individuality and worldly acceptance," said D'Juan, "which I think is a part of how it all became a series. Originally this was to be one show. As I continued to write, it became clear that there was no way to communicate this in one show. Three-and-a-half years later, I proposed the idea that perhaps this should be a series.

D'Juan's long-simmering concept evolved into a trilogy bearing Truitt's original title, which became the series' title. After a four-year gestation, "3" would be the first of the "triplets" to be born.

"'3' refers to the three women in this play who grew up together from the age of 6," said Truitt during a break in rehearsals for the Sacramento debut production of "3" (mounted by Truitt under the auspices of her Just Be Theatre Company). "They're now in their 30s, and they're not as close anymore, but they've all followed a certain thread in their lives. This play centers on female self-esteem, and what happens when you don't confront issues in your life."

And while the love-hate relationship women have with their hair may have first inspired her pitch to D'Juan, Truitt said that aspect has been considerably refined.

"There are references to hair in the play, but it's not the central theme," she said. "The central theme is the reemergence of self and identity, and seeing people the messy parts of others. It's not a play about how unhappy we are about our hair. You're seeing the blues of these women. Any woman who sees these women will see a part of themselves they can identify with."

"The first character we meet is Keisha," Truitt said. "She's very urban and is in an on-and-off relationship that's completely ridiculous. She's being cheated on, but has no motivation to change her situation.

"Jill is a housewife with three kids and a husband who's controlling and not present – he's emotionally gone. They don't have a good relationship at all; he controls what she can and can't do. They're both accepting of things in their lives that they shouldn't be.

"The third woman – Stephanie – has achieved educational and business success. She's a big-time lawyer who just became partner, but she has a drinking problem. Stephanie's a loner. No family, no relationship with her parents ... she's very lonely."

The play's three characters don't break the fourth wall and directly address the audience, said Truitt, who wanted to avoid copying the format of "a lot of the plays in African-American theater where you're telling the audience what's happening."

Instead, the characters converse with one another and others via telephone and "in person," though Truitt inhabits only one character per scene. (The others are unheard and unseen.)

"(Originally, '3') was not at all a part of it," said D'Juan of his trilogy. "Not even a hint of those characters. It was heading toward a completely different direction. Deciding to split the show into a series removed the pressure that was building from the corner we pushed ourselves into. Then I broke away from the structure we were building with the other script and wrote '3,' which was not at all like what we were doing before. As far as the other two shows go, I can only say I am working on the second one and it is more rooted in music."

D'Juan said creating female voices might present a particularly difficult challenge for some male playwrights, but that he embraces the opportunity.

"For some reason, female characters have always been easy for me to write," said D'Juan. "I can only connect that to my upbringing -- raised in a house with all women. Female characters are simply able to say the stuff male characters want to say ... and get away with it. That's how I look at it."

It may have taken D'Juan a few years to form a clear vision that he and Truitt could agree on, but once the foundation was laid, scripting the first installment of "Black Girl Blues" was as easy as one, two, three.

"I wrote '3' in two days," said D'Juan. (The characters) all poured out. The only revision it had was a few tweaks when we were producing it in L.A. last September."

That world premiere, at Van Nuys' The Living Room – a Christian worship facility that's home to a performance-space-for-hire – may have been produced on the cheap, but holds a priceless place in Truitt's heart as her husband, Kevin, is the congregation's pastor.

In February, "3" was hosted by the Kansas State University (Manhattan) Black Student Union as part of its Black History Month celebration.

For those theatergoers concerned that "3" is a stage-mounted version of a "chick flick," Truitt said they needn't worry the show's 75-minute running time will seem like 75 days.

"Even men will be able to see themselves in these women," she said.

"That's another reason I love Anthony, he makes characters human and all types of people can relate to them. '3' is for all people. I think that's important for this generation. It's not always about being black."

For tickets, see www.daniellemonetruitt.com.

Theater tour's dance captain teaches local students some 'Wicked' moves

2012-06-03T12:10:57Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

More than 20 area dance students were treated to an Oz-some tutorial Friday afternoon when "Wicked" dance captain Shanna VanDerwerker provided on- and off-stage insights as part of California Musical Theatre's continuing series of Broadway Sacramento master dance classes.

VanDerwerker, who's performing in the first national tour of the Stephen Schwartz-Winnie Holzman megamusical that's playing through June 17 at the Community Center Theater, shared a mix of professional guidance and backstage anecdotes during the 90-minute class held at Sacramento's Sierra 2 Center for the Arts and Community.

Using Wayne Cilento's off-center, almost Seussicalian musical staging for the show's ensemble numbers, as well as his acrobatic (yet equally skewed) choreography designed for the Wicked Witch of the West's squadron of Flying Monkeys, VanDerwerker demonstrated what it was like to perform over the rainbow.

The session began with the de rigueur warm-up exercises and ended with a lively Q-and-A session which saw the young men and women ask everything of VanDerwerker, from her favorite "Wicked" numbers ("One Short Day" as a performer; "Defying Gravity" as a fan), to the number of ensemble parts she's played in the show (all nine female roles, plus one short, male monkey).

VanDerwerker, who married fellow cast member Justin Brill (Boq) in October 2010, joined the show's first national tour more than three years ago following a long run in the Broadway cast.

A graduate of Pittsburgh's Point Park University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in dance, VanDerwerker's credits include stints with: Theater Under the Stars in Houston, Texas; The Walden Company in New York; the Fireside Dinner Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Wis.; and the New York-based dre.dance company.

Stressing that roles aren't necessarily assigned to the best technical dancers, but to those who interpret their role's choreography through nuanced gestures and facial expressions, VanDerwerker said "storytelling is the most important thing a dancer should keep in mind."

If a dancer conveys a true sense of purpose, certain weaknesses in technique may be overlooked, she said.

VanDerwerker also stressed the importance of learning dance history, urging her students to "watch AMC, watch Turner Classic Movies, watch Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse."

She asked if anyone was aware that the newspaper dance sequence in Disney's current Broadway hit "Newsies" ("Seize the Day") was actually inspired by a 62-year-old Gene Kelly number (choreographed by Michael Kidd) from MGM's "Summer Stock" (1950).

VanDerwerker also advised one college-bound student that there was no reason to limit her applications to East Coast schools, that professional companies search coast-to-coast for new members. "I went to school in Pittsburgh, and I'm doing OK," she smiled.

California Musical Theatre-sponsored master dance classes include a summer series of weekly, 90-minute workshops taught by choreographers and performers from the upcoming Music Circus productions of "Grease," "Disney's The Little Mermaid," "The Music Man," "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Crazy for You." For more information about these classes as well as future Broadway Sacramento offerings, call the California Musical Theatre education department at (916) 446-5880 ext. 147.

Tributes pour in after local actress Mindy Stover loses battle with brain cancer

2012-05-27T15:46:29Z

Friends and colleagues of Mindy Stover flooded social media channels and public websites this weekend as they shared their feelings of love and loss upon learning that the longtime local actress known for diverse musical roles that ranged from her iconic Dorothy in the Music Circus production of "The Wizard of Oz," to Minnie Fay in the Sierra Repertory Company staging of "Hello, Dolly!," had lost her almost two-year battle with brain cancer May 20. She was 40.

"Never was one so loved," posted veteran actor-director-designer Martha Kight on Stover's Facebook site Saturday. "We were deeply lucky to have her in our lives."

A day earlier (May 25), Stover's family had posted an obituary in the site's notes section:

Mindy Alice Stover was born on Aug. 12, the day of the Perseid Meteor Shower. With the flair that was characteristic of her personality and life, she made her final exit with a little smile on her face on the day of the most recent solar eclipse, May 20, 2012. At age 40, Mindy passed away at the home of her parents, in Sacramento, Calif., after a nearly two-year battle with brain cancer. She is now truly “over the rainbow.”

Mindy, known affectionately by many of her friends as "Minky," was born in Modesto, Calif., to parents Richard and Jan Stover. She grew up in Sacramento with her parents, three siblings, and a household full of family cats and dogs. Mindy attended Sacramento High School, Sacramento City College, and as she liked to say, the “school of hard knocks.”

At Sac High, she was heavily involved with the vocal performing group Star Makers, as well as the Sacramento High School Marching Band, for which she played clarinet and was Drum Major during her senior year.

From the time she was young, Mindy’s dream was a career in theater, and through her talent, hard work and tenacity, she was able to live that dream – earning her living as “an official, card-carrying professional actor in theater.”

She performed locally (appearing regularly on the Music Circus and B Street Theatre stages in Sacramento, the Davis Musical Theatre Company, the Ensemble Theatre Company in Santa Barbara, and Sierra Repertory Theatre in Sonora), and in many other cities across the country and around the world.

This included New York, Los Angeles and three years of touring Central Europe (Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden) in the role of “Columbia” in the West End stage production of "The Rocky Horror Show."

Her achievements included, as she said in her own words: “a sturdy set of extremely worn luggage; a heavily stamped passport; an amazing résumé; a few lifetimes worth of photos, memories and adventures; a storage unit full of apartment stuff still waiting to be used; and the thrill and pride of knowing that I am actually doing what I always wanted/dreamed of doing.” She was quick to boast that she enjoyed “continually living the life that Peter Pan would be proud of – literally getting paid to play for my career, having grand adventures in doing so, and essentially never growing up.”

Mindy is survived by her parents; siblings Carol Stover, Guy Stover and Bonni Stover; her greatly adored niece, Halli Belle; and an enormous and beloved “family of friends” around the globe.

A Celebration of Life service is planned for late June or early July – the exact date and time is to be determined and will be announced soon.

In lieu of flowers or donations, the family requests memorials celebrating Mindy’s life in the form of written stories and photos. Kindly submit memorials to the online at www.remember.com/people/mindy-alice-stover. The family plans to share these memories at the upcoming Celebration of Life service.

The Stover Family wishes to express heartfelt thanks to all of the family; friends; and to the healthcare professionals at Mercy Hospice, including Mika, Justin, Susan, Angelic, Dr. Quadro, Stefanie, Lanny, and the many others, who have provided love and support to Mindy and her family over the past two years. Words cannot express how much your thoughts, words and visits were valued by both Mindy and the entire Stover Family.

Memories of Mindy

Immediately following the Stovers' announcement via Mindy's Facebook page, loving anecdotes and rememberances from dozens of her friends around the world, who had been hoping for a miracle since she was diagnosed with a rapidly growing and inoperable brain tumor in July 2010, started appearing.

Many came from those theater professionals with whom she had collaborated and became friends with, including longtime Music Circus Producing Director Leland Ball ("See you again, my precious. Somewhere over the rainbow."), and fellow B Street Theatre actor Dave Pierini, who posted the succinct comment "Damn."

The support shown by those who knew Mindy was consistently positive, and included inspiring get-well videos and a website dedicated to fighting her specific form of cancer (glioblastoma) through the sale of T-shirts, mugs, keychains, mousepads, caps and more.

The following are among the posts made between Friday evening and early Sunday morning (May 27), many of which were accompanied by a photo or video featuring their friend in happier times, or a symbolic pair of ruby "slippers":

"My heart is breaking. I know you are in a better place ... and we are forever better having shared some time here with you. Every time I see a rainbow I will smile and think of you."

"What an amazing spirit and woman Mindy is and always will be. I feel so fortunate to have shared a time and space with her in high school. I idolized her talent then and loved to watch her perform. She is a true gift to all who knew her. Love always."

"I am so saddened to learn of Mindy's passing. I had such hope for her recovery, somehow. I shall always remember her tight hugs when we were in 'Annie' together ... such a brilliant and extremely talented young woman. I was fortunate to have worked with her and will cherish her memory forever. Love you, Mindy."

"Saw 'Wicked' last night and every reference of Dorothy made, the picture that came to mind was you, sweet Mindy ... and then I read this news tonight. You are and will always be the 'Dorothy' in our hearts and memories! Hope your flight over the rainbow was peaceful and as wonderful as you. Sending prayers of comfort for your family and for so many whose lives you touched who will miss you so."

"Mindy, the first time I ever stood on a theater stage was with you. And every time I stand on stage now, you are with with because of that. You were truly a brilliant star ... now you are soaring in the heavens just as you should be. You will be missed. Love to your family."

"I am crushed."

"Mindy you were such a little pistol with so much life. I just saw 'End of the Rainbow' last night, and in the middle of the show she actually did one of your infamous karate kicks and all I could think of was you. She must've been channeling you. I will always remember your fun, smiling face. My prayers go to your family."

"Mindy, you and I go back to the Max's Opera Cafe days. We were just young ones then and oh, the fun we had! Your talent was so great then and became stronger and stronger through the years. I will miss your beautiful smile and giving spirit. Many times your heart of gold and loving ways made my day even brighter. Although I am deeply saddened by your transition, I choose to celebrate your life because I know this is what you would want. Happiness was your greatest gift to us all and it will always be a big part of the amazing memory of you. Rest in peace forever dear friend."

"I just read her obituary, very beautiful! I kid you not, my family and I were at Disneyland last weekend celebrating my son's 4th birthday. I had never been on the ride The Flight of Peter Pan, but on Sunday, May 20, at the time of the eclipse, we got on the ride, not knowing that Mindy had crossed over the rainbow. The memory of that first ride will always be united with Mindy."

"Mindy Stover (1971-2012) was a warm, funny, wonderful, beautiful human being, as well as an extremely gifted and sparkling presence on stage. It was such a privilege to have gotten to know her, and to share a stage with her. Fare ye well, Little Becky Two Shoes! (This video was made in August 2010, and is a great sampling of how many lives Mindy touched.)

"I am beyond devastated to hear of the passing of my dear friend Mindy Stover. Betty Jean, you will live inside my heart forever and I will never, ever forget the impact you had on me on and off stage. I am so happy I was able to reach you a few days before you went, and just two weeks ago I sang 'Over The Rainbow' at a concert in your honor. I miss you and pray for the promise of a joyful reunion one day. XOXO."

"I love you Mindy Stover. I was so blessed to share that Sonora winter with you – still to this day some of the best memories of my life. You taught me SOOOO much more than just how to knit a scarf and I am so grateful! My heart hurts tonight. Rest in peace. XOXOX."

"Heaven just became a little brighter."

"Anyone who knew Mindy was truly blessed. A rare and beautiful human being in every way. She will be missed."

"I can't believe it. Another amazing, kind-hearted, giving, fun-loving soul has passed away. Mindy Stover, you were beautiful inside and out. So many great memories with you doing 'All Shook Up' in Sonora! Some of the best times! Rest in peace."

"So heartbroken to lose another friend. Mindy Stover was a pistol, with an enormous heart and voice to match. She was ferocious, talented, clever, sentimental, wickedly funny, and I'm lucky to have known her. She's no longer imprisoned by the earthly body that betrayed her. I like to think she's up there now, singing and dancing and cracking jokes ...."

"I am so privileged to have twice shared the stage with you, Mindy. You will always be the oldest living orphan and the best Dorothy I ever worked with. Forever in my heart, Minky! Be at peace. Prayers and love to the Stover family."

"I'm so lucky to have shared Europe, the stage, countless laughs and so many crazy fun adventures with you. I'm sure the tour you are on now can't be beat."

"Love you my sweet spirit. Who will I Jitterbug with now?"

"One of the most charismatic people I've ever known. The world will miss you."

"Mindy you will always be in my heart. When I walk on my street I will always remember our childhood and walking home from school together.You will be dearly missed by all of us who had the opportunity and privilege of knowing you."

"Bradley Dean posted this on his wall and it is such a wonderful video that captures the sparkle and beauty that is Mindy. You are so loved Mindy."

"Woke up this morning to the news that the amazing Mindy Stover has left this world for the next. I feel honored to have known and loved her during her time here, and although we weren't able to follow through on our plan to audition for 'The Amazing Race,' I know we would have given the world a show. Godspeed you amazing girl."

"Thanks, Mindy, for teaching me if you can't have fun, you're doing it wrong. You are a joy and a treasure forever."

"My beautiful friend, my heart aches. Thank you for keeping me on my toes. Making me laugh. Keeping me dreaming. For quoting 'Peter Pan' to the point of exhaustion. For sharing good food, either the healthy stuff or the sinfully delightful. Thank you for listening to everything I told you, and for caring so deeply about my family and friends, even those you never got to meet in person. Thank you."

"A ridiculously talented, sweet, hilarious, joyful ray of sunshine has passed and I can only hope that she is basking in rainbows. Mindy Stover, it was an honor, a pleasure, and true joy to be your pal."

"I had the distinct pleasure of working with the luminous Ms. Mindy just once in 'A Christmas Carol' for Sacramento Theatre Company. Thank you, Mindy, for being the finest role model for living with joy for which I could have hoped. I, like so many, will miss you terribly. Save me a good seat.'

I got this at Bluebird Tattoo the day after I closed 'Rocky Horror' last year, so you would always be there on my shoulder."

"I will never forget the precious time I had with Mindy on stage when we did 'The Wizard of Oz.' I played Cowardly Lion and she played Dorothy. Mindy, you will always be my precious Dorothy. Thank you, Mindy. You will be missed."

"Few people I have ever met, have I ever had the honor of knowing from such a young age and into adulthood. From 'The Sound of Music' to that bright red hair as Columbia in 'The Rocky Horror Show' to 'The Last Night of Ballyhoo'. (I loved that last show. I bought the art deco coffee sever from the dining room and kept the 'Gone with the Wind' still I made for ya. Prop guys keep memories in this way I guess.) You were more than talent. You were a bright, smiling face that always made me feel like I should stop and remember every day. Break a leg, Mindy."

"Mindy, I remember being in the wings waiting to tap dance out into the land of Oz with you ... giggling and joking ... until the split-second we had to 'go' ... and we would magically snap into character. You were/are a true professional and friend! I'm hoping when I see you next we can dust off those tap shoes and do it for an eternity!! (I'm hoping you'll remember the choreography!!) Until that day, I love you and miss you!"

"I love you, Mindy Stover. Rest sweetly, you will be so missed."

"Mindy truly was one of the sweetest people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. She will always be my Dorothy!"

"I danced with you at 'Ballyhoo' ... A hightlight in my little life. Thank you, Mindy, for sharing your LIGHT with Santa Barbara."

"Rest in peace sweet Mindy! I will always see you in every rainbow."

"Things I will always be grateful for: teaching me the ropes at The Tent, sharing your Bikram practice with me, all our chats about boys named Chris, Cranberry Cosmos on New Year's (also grateful that Daddy Chet walked you home that night ... errr, morning), your sage advice on anything related to hair color, our impromptu slumber party at the famous SRT tray-tray in Sonora ... but, above all, for being the big sister I never had. I have always, and will always, look to you as an example of a life well-lived ... sass, smarts, and smiles. Forever Dorothy, forever Liesl, forever our Mink."

"There are no words to truly express my feelings of loss right now even though I've had a couple of days to process. We were thrown together late summer of '85 at band camp; sheer havoc after that. We understood each other. We double-dated proms together. She sat next to me in silence on the bus after the Woodland Christmas Parade the very day after my father passed. She along with Miranda and Lisa were the first on my doorstep to console me. We lost touch but reconnected after about 20 years, it was like nothing was lost. When she was diagnosed she was the one that wiped MY tears. I will always love you. Thank you for being a part of my life!!"

"So sad to hear the news of your passing. I will always remember the first time I met you. Doing 'Music Man' under the tent summer 1983. I looked up to you, I wanted to be you. We shared the stage together more times than I can count, but what I will always remember most was your infectious smile. No matter how bad the day, no matter how stressful the situation your smile could change everything. That is what I will remember most, and as I fight back tears knowing you are no longer with us, your smile is forever imprinted in my memory. Something I will never forget. Love you!"

"I am so grateful to have had you in my life, you amazing firecracker of a woman. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the absolute gift of your life and friendship. You are my constant inspiration to work hard and NEVER give up, and your bravery and strength changed my life. I am buying a bag of Riesens tomorrow to give to my cast in your honor. ... Love you, BJ. All my love, Cindy Lou."

'Wicked' national tour rolls into Sacramento

2012-05-23T03:57:55Z

Jason Daunter clearly recalls the first time he saw "Wicked," the magical, and soul-touching musical by composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz and author Winnie Holzman. It was in 2005 during the first of a record-setting four visits one of the show's touring companies has paid to the Mile High City.

But ask him how many productions he's witnessed since first falling under the spell of what is sometimes called "the untold story of the witches of Oz," and he has to make an educated guess that has lots of zeros.

The St. Louis native, who originally studied directing for the stage, first joined the "Wicked" family on Broadway more than four years ago before taking on the job of national tour production stage manager, coordinating the artistic integrity of the show (basically responsible for everything that slides, is plugged in, hung up, worn or sold). It's a year-round job as cast and crew travels from coast to coast and beyond (the company will spend Thankgiving and Christmas performing in Hawaii this year).

For the next four weeks, Daunter is wrangling his team of 130 – including 60 local "temps" – for the Broadway Sacramento presentation of "Wicked," which runs May 23-June 17, 2012, at the Community Center Theater.

"There are eight companies worldwide right now," says Daunter during a Tuesday morning meet-the-media break underneath the show's silver "Time Dragon" (which looks metallic but is mostly fiberglass). "And it's the same production worldwide – the same version."

One of the primary reasons why the show has yet to show any signs of audience apathy – even after multiple return visits – is the "Wicked" dedication to consistency and Broadway-grade production values that fully replicate the experience a visitor to New York's Gershwin Theater might have enjoyed when original cast members Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel and Joel Grey debuted the show in October 2003 (after a successful San Francisco tryout).

"There's a drive to maintain how fresh it is," said Daunter, who said "Wicked's" evergreen themes of alienation and acceptance deserve equally timeless staging. "It's a worldwide cultural phenomenon, and it continues to maintain its integrity. It's a show people will come back to time after time."

Daunter, a veteran of such Broadway tours as "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "A Christmas Carol," said a fairly regular rotation of cast and ensemble members also serves to keep the show fresh – both for audiences and longtime staff members.

While identical loads of scenery, set pieces, props, costumes, lighting rigs, musical instruments, sound equipment and more roll from city to city in 14 semi-trailer trucks in support of both the first and second national tours (the second national tour typically plays shorter runs in smaller or infrequently visited cities), cast and crew fly the friendly skies to gain more time to rest and rehab between their eight-show-a-week engagements.

This week, the second national tour of "Wicked" is completing its run In Durham, N.C.

For Daunter, the first order of business after checking in is a bit of personal housekeeping.

"The first thing I do is to unpack everything and put away the luggage," said Daunter, "so it doesn't seem like a hotel."

Another aspect of Daunter's job is providing peace of mind.

When casts and crews arrive, they have the confidence of knowing an advance team has already surveyed the performance venue during an earlier site visit. Daunter first came to Sacramento in January to confirm what was going to have to be changed or cleaned out to accommodate the show. What audiences see on stage may be identical from city to city, but there are alterations frequently made backstage in order to provide makeshift makeup and dressing rooms, as well as spaces for physical therapy tables and equipment.

A "Wicked" run at a city's local performing arts center means more than giving theaterlovers a taste of the Great White Way in their own backyard, it's a solid boost to the local economy, said Daunter. From the visiting company's need for hotel accommodations, restaurant visits, and Whole Food market runs, to the temporary union-heavy jobs the show provides, a host city can expect a decent employment and revenue bump.

Among the 60 jobs created by the company's visit to the Community Center Theater are those for stagehands, electricians, musicians, carpenters, dressers and merchandisers.

Daunter said "Wicked" will reach another milestone during its Sacramento run, delivering its 3,000th performance while on tour.

Occasionally forgetting what city one's in is an occupational hazard, said Daunter, who admitted to losing track of everything from the day of the week to his current time zone. But he's not complaining – or planning an exit.

"As long as I enjoy what I'm doing, I'm going to be here," he said. "I don't think I'll ever get bored of it – there's always new people, new cast members and crew. It's a great show."

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Broadway Sacramento presentation of the Stephen Schwartz-Winnie Holzman musical "Wicked" (based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West")

WHEN: Plays March 23-June 17, 2012, with performances at 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 2 and 8 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays (plus an additional 7:30 p.m. Sunday performance May 27)

WHERE: Community Center Theater, 1301 L St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Directed by Joe Mantello; musical staging by Wayne Cilento; featuring Nicole Parker (Elphaba), Alli Mauzey (Glinda), Liz McCartney (Madame Morrible), PJ Benjamin (The Wizard), Justin Brill (Boq), Emily Ferranti (Nessarose), Paul Slade Smith (Dr. Dillamond), Andy Kelso (Fiyero)

TICKETS: (916) 557-1999 or (916) 808-5181; Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office, 1419 H St., Sacramento; Convention Center Box Office, 1301 L St., Sacramento; www.calmt.org. Please note a lottery for a limited number of $25 orchestra seats will be held before each performance of "Wicked."

B Street Theatre aims for emotional bullseye in 'Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them'

2012-05-19T11:20:34Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Each year, B Street Theatre Producing Director Buck Busfield and his consiglieri head to the Humana Festival of New America Plays in Louisville, Ky., to check out the freshest and fiercest that U.S. playwrights have to offer.

At 2011's festival, among the works at which Busfield took aim was A. Rey Pamatmat's "Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them."

The drama concerns three kids: 16-year-old Kenny and his 12-year-old sister Edith, and their friend Benji. Kenny and Edith are "all but abandoned on a farm in remotest Middle America," but the siblings care for each other with more devotion than offered by their parents.

As Benji and Kenny's relationship evolves into something more than friendship, and the protective Edith makes a tragic error in judgment, their world is forced open by an intrusive outside world.

Recipient of a 2012 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association Citation, "Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them" opens on the B Street Theatre's B3 Stage at 8 p.m. May 19, 2012, and runs through June 17, 2012.

Directed by May Adrales, the show features Teresa Avia Lim as Edith, Jon Norman Schneider as Kenny, and Jason Edward Cook as Benji.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: B Street Theatre production of "Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them"

WHERE: B Street Theatre B3 stage, 2727 B St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHEN: Opens 8 p.m. May 19, 2012, and runs through June 17, 2012, with performances at: 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Thursdays (May 31, June 7 and 14); 7 p.m. Fridays; 8 p.m. Saturdays; and 1 p.m. Sundays (June 10 and 17)

WHO: Written by A. Rey Pamatmat; directed by May Adrales; featuring Jon Norman Schneider (Kenny), Teresa Avia Lim (Edith), Jason Edward Cook (Benji)

HOW MUCH: $23-$35 ($5 student rush)

MORE INFORMATION: (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org

Concerts in the Park series enjoys record-breaking opener

2012-05-05T12:34:53Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

The volume wasn't the only thing turned to "11" the evening of May 4, as an off-the-dial number of revel-hungry music lovers descended on Cesar Chavez Park for the 2012 Concerts in the Park season opener.

Some 6,300 men, women and children – a record for the 21-year-old free, all-ages concert series – filled the downtown Sacramento venue to celebrate the River City's unofficial summer kick-off.

Local musician and erstwhile emcee Danny Secretion hosted the Downtown Sacramento Partnership-sponsored event, offering loving introductions to The Storytellers, Island of Black and White, and Arden Park Roots.

The Storytellers, described on the DSP website as a group of "up-and-coming roots, reggae, and ska musicians," whose performances captivate "with jazzy trumpet verses, strong rhythm, and groovy bass lines," opened the show.

The El Dorado Hills-bred Island of Black and White followed, delivering high-energy "soulful blues and funky reggae."

Headlining the show was Arden Park Roots, which closed out the evening with its mix of "melodic reggae and rock," what has been called "modern California reggae."

DJ Shaun Slaughter provided transition music between acts.

The Concerts in the Park series continues Fridays (5 to 9 p.m.) through July 27. On tap for May 11: Middle Class Rut, Lite Brite and Horseneck, along with DJ Whores.

For more information, see the DSP website, or call (916) 442-8575.

B Street's 'Rx' the perfect prescription for pre-summer doldrums

2012-05-02T23:17:05Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

The B Street Theatre, best known as a new-works playhouse that specializes in staging cozy, serio-comedies of quiet quirkiness, takes an early summer vacation from the subtle in its West Coast premiere of Kate Fodor’s “Rx.”

A satire on America’s never-ending quest for pharmaceutical solutions that’ll cure what ails ya, “Rx,” which plays April 29 through June 10, 2012, is a high-energy, medicinal hilarity dispensary that guarantees relief from overwrought, overdone dramas.

Buck Busfield directs the farcical, physical, frenetically paced production that is bold and brassy, with comically exaggerated huffing and puffing, punching and puking, hugging and humping, tweeking and twirling, sobbing and simpering taking center stage for most of the show’s two hours.

Meena Pierotti (a delightfully manic Stephanie Altholz) is like so many members of today’s work force: uninspired, unhappy and ultimately unwilling to live a life of quiet desperation. The 31-year-old managing editor for Piggeries, an American Cattle and Swine publication, Meena holds an MFA and is a published poet – albeit a published poet whose sole book (of prose poetry) was poorly reviewed and sold just 114 copies.

Bypassing any attempts at psychological therapy, life coaching or off-time diversions (other than twice-daily jaunts to the plus-sized women’s underwear section of a nearby department store for clandestine crying fits), Meena contacts pharmaceutical giant Schmidt Pharma in hopes of becoming part of a study for a new “workplace depression” drug.

During her screening, researcher Dr. Phil Gray (Peter Story) sees that Meena’s spinning, state fair-sized mood swings might make her a perfect candidate, and sets her up with an initial dosage of SP-925, which Schmidt Pharma’s marketing guru, (Kurt Johnson, in one of two roles he plays in “Rx”) dubs “Thriveon.”

Almost everyone in “Rx” gets an opportunity to exercise his or her expertise in bringing down the house, playing it large and loose one moment before pulling it in for a little woeful wallowing the next.

There’s no better example of this comic contrasting than when Johnson – as SP's marketing guy, Richard – leads Schmidt Parma project manager Allison (Melinda Parrett) in an impromptu pas de deux to celebrate the 90 percent certainty that they’ve secured Dolly Parton’s “Nine to Five” as Thriveon’s jingle, before collapsing in tears and rage when Phil suggests “Surviveon” is a more apt moniker for the drug.

Parrett, too, showcases her range when the by-the-book Allison takes a professional tumble and lands in the bottom of a whiskey bottle.

The corporate process in developing a marketing a new drug is really just a set piece for the up-and-down (and forbidden!) romance between Phil and Meena, which occasionally veers into the creepy. Aside from the well-stated unethical aspect of the relationship, there’s Meena’s growing dependency on her Phil-prescribed pills and the question of whether she's truly attracted to him or to the milligrams he supplies.

Her oft-repeated line, “Please don’t take me out of the study,” is a little too real to be enjoyed as a comedic plea. Similarly, Phil’s oddball (and distractingly unnecessary) foot fetish isn’t adorkable, but just weird (like Pee-wee in a porn theater).

As Meena begins to feel better, her confidence and interest in work inspires Phil, whose own career took a detour after lowering the verbal boom on a young emergency-room patient.

While Meena’s “growth” makes her work life more tolerable, including a more-collaborative relationship with her magazine’s editorial director, Simon (Jason Kuykendall), it’s causing the insecure Phil all sorts of heartache.

Luckily, Schmidt Pharma has a pill for that.

A subplot involving Meena’s chance meeting of an elderly woman (Tamara Walters) while on one of her sob sessions at the department store, seems superfluous, other than to remind that life is short and that it’s OK to treat yourself to a new pair of underwear (or a trip to the Galapagos Islands) every now and again.

Additional support (that’s less jarring in tone) is provided by Johnson in his second “Rx” role of Ed, Phil’s fellow researcher at Schmidt Pharma. An older, somewhat distracted and daft MD, Ed has to turn down Phil’s request to join his heartbreak drug study, but happily fishes for a baggy full of sample capsules that he promises will ease his pain (and possible loosen his teeth).

Johnson’s halting, deadpan delivery as the rumpled and stained Ed is one of the funniest bits in a show full of high-potency, non-generic laughs.

JUST THE FACTS

What: The West Coast premiere of Kate Fodor's new romantic comedy "Rx"

Where: The B Street Theatre (main stage), 2711 B St., Sacramento, Calif.

When: opens 7 p.m. April 29; plays through June 10 with performances at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 2 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays

Who: Directed by Buck Busfield; featuring Stephanie Altholz (Meena), Peter Story (Phil), Kurt Johnson (Richard/Ed), Melinda Parrett (Allison), Jason Kuykendall (Simon), Tamara Walters (Frances)

How much: $23-$35 ($5 student rush; $15 previews)

More info: (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org

B Street's 'Hansel & Gretel': A wonderfully wacky trip into the woods

2012-04-30T23:52:09Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Go ahead and Google “Hansel and Gretel,” and nearly 200,000 results will pop up – results that feature such headlines as: “a tale of childhood terror”; “maternal cannibalism”; “gruesome fairy tales”; and “a tale dark and Grimm.”

Nothing like a soothing, happy-go-lucky story before bedtime.

Happily, in adapting Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s 1812 classic about a runaway brother and sister and their wicked encounter with a wand-wielding witch, B Street Theatre Associate Producer-Resident Playwright Jerry R. Montoya (and young son Malachi) have given the two-dimensional story a hilarious and heartfelt makeover.

In replacing the Grimms’ original series of nightmare-inducing unfortunate events, the Montoyas – who were credited at April 28’s opening with being the first father-son duo to author a B Street world premiere – have used a no-tears Family Series formula (suitable for children 5 and older) full of playful, pop culture-infused patter and manic physical comedy.

Also featuring eight sweet-and-silly songs by Noah Agruss, and a gaggle of new LOL characters (including a pair of puppets created by Christopher Cook), “Hansel & Gretel’s” youthful protagonists (Brandon A. McCall and Brittni Barger) do not end up backstroking in a witch’s Crock-Pot, but still manage to find themselves in plenty of hot water.

As witch Daisy (the B Street’s king of drag, Rick Kleber) sings to her pet cat Pookins (manipulated by the talented and versatile John Lamb) in “I Don’t Want to Be a Witch”: “I’m a witch, I have no friends, these legs are very hairy; this wart, especially scary.”

Her loneliness and isolation has prompted Daisy to send more than 300 letters to her coven asking to be released from her otherworldly obligations.

She thinks she’s finally won her freedom when the coven’s legal representative, goblin G.G. Graffle (the pitch-perfect Amy Kelly), comes knocking on her Black Forest door.

It’s bad news for Daisy, however, leaving her with one other option. She can cook up a potion that will make her human, but a key ingredient is missing from her pantry shelves: 400 pounds of children.

No fan of her own indentured servitude to the witches’ council, Graffle requests that Daisy double her newt-flavored recipe so she may join the human race as well.

Unfortunately, there’s no two-for-one coupon day at the local food co-op, so Daisy and Graffle conjure a plan to obtain the potion’s key ingredient by "recruiting" Hansel and Gretel.

Meanwhile, Hansel and Gretel find their dog Fritzi’s secret stash of household items, including their late mother’s favorite shoes, a discovery that evokes sadness in Gretel (“Mamma Sang Sweetly”) and the siblings’ father (David Pierini), who reminds his children that it’s OK to miss their mom and that they still have each other (“Father’s Reprise”).

Realizing the only way to secure her secret ingredients is to get the children’s protectors out of the way, Daisy casts a spell, marries the delusional dad (who soulfully growls, “Whatever my Daisy wants, is what my Daisy is gonna get!”) and goes to work in fattening up the kids (“Skin ‘n Bones”).

Will the children escape the clutches of Daisy? Will Graffle find freedom from the dark side and get those eyebrows waxed? Will Daisy stop talking in positively inane, bumper-sticker speak (“Let’s fix the problem, not the blame.”)?

More than likely. This is, after all, a Family Series production and not a B3 offering.

What’s amazing about this new take on “H&G” is how affecting it proves to be even with all the schtick and shenanigans flying at the audience like a squadron of Quidditch chasers.

The cast’s singing voices – especially Kleber and Barger – go a long way in selling the emotion of the moment. It makes one wish an original cast recording of Agruss’ score was available on iTunes.

As Gretel, Barger shows off a sweet, sincere vocal prowess that has you lost in the moment with no desire for a breadcrumb-lined escape route.

Kleber not only has a grand, operatic singing voice, but he skillfully changes tone/inflection and facial expression from moment to moment, evoking laughter at will. He’s no witch, but he is a supreme wizard of the wacky.

Under Sarah Zemach’s smooth direction, Kelly, too, chews Catherine Frye’s magically warped scenery. It’s hard not to take in Graffle’s officious, barrister-flavored manner and not smile.

The musical’s human characters have less room to maneuver, but when they get the opportunity, McCall, Barger and Pierini make the most of their respective comedic skills.

In an attempt to woo the witch’s cat, Pookins, to her, Barger’s Gretel offers an over-the-top impression of Kleber’s Daisy that’s just gut-busting funny.

Pierini gets his moments as well, such as when Hansel and Gretel’s father recalls the fateful day when his wife had a run-in with a bear, or when he can’t keep his hands off of Daisy during his time under her enchantment.

Speaking of enchanted, Nancy Pipkin's costumes are freakin' fantastical as is the make-up design. Kelly's goblin look is especially ghoulish.

Everyone involved just makes magic happen.

A delight for children and adults alike, “Hansel & Gretel” continues through June 3, 2012.

JUST THE FACTS

What: The B Street Theatre Family Series production of "Hansel & Gretel," adapted by Jerry R. Montoya and Malachi Montoya (based on the story by the Brothers Grimm), with music and lyrics by Noah Agruss

Where: The B Street Theatre B3 Stage, 2727 B St., Sacramento, Calif.

When: Previews at 1 p.m. April 28; opens at 4 p.m. April 28; plays through June 3 with performances at 1 and 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Who: Adapted by Jerry R. Montoya and Malachi Montoya; music and lyrics by Noah Agruss; directed by Sarah Zemach; puppet design by Christopher Cook; set design by Catherine Frye; lighting design by Ron Madonia; costume design by Nancy Pipkin; stage management by Lynnae Vana; and featuring Rick Kleber (Daisy the Witch), Amy Kelly (G.G. Graffle the Goblin), Brittni Barger (Gretel), Brandon McCall (Hansel), David Pierini (Father), John Lamb (puppet operator)

How Much: $18 to $27 ($12-$15 preview tickets)

Running Time: 90 minutes (including intermission)

More Info/Tickets: www.bstreettheatre.org; (916) 443-5300

B Street Theatre promises perfect 'Rx' for shortness of mirth

2012-04-29T14:16:11Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

There seems to be "an app" for everything. If only the pharmaceutical industry was as quick on the draw to deliver niche narcotics as Apple and its partners have been in creating software that satiates every possible desire.

Perhaps it's not the drug companies' fault. Maybe it's that pesky Food and Drug Administration and its obsessive compulsion to ensure the safety of the U.S. population that forces most of us to get through the work day unmedicated and unhappy. Sure, there are illegal alternatives to doctor-prescribed "happy pills," but wouldn't it be so much better not to risk losing one's job and having employer-paid healthcare foot the bill for the mood-elevating meds?

That's the satirical set-up for Kate Fodor's new romantic comedy "Rx," which is getting its West Coast premiere courtesy of Sacramento's B Street Theatre (April 29-June 10, 2012).

Among those impatient for that legal, side-effect free, made-especially-for-a-workplace-of-woe wonder drug, is Meena Pierotti (Stephanie Altholz). The managing editor for a less-than-inspiring publication (American Cattle and Swine magazine), Meena – a published poet – is understandably unfulfilled and prone to regular excursions to a nearby department store where she indulges in covert crying jags.

Thinking there might be a pill for that, she meets with Dr. Phil Gray (Peter Story) and volunteers for a clinical trial he's researching. As Meena and Phil's relationship evolves from doctor-patient to something a bit more intimate, Meena's prescriptions start to take hold, and she finds work and her boss (Jason Kuykendall) more tolerable. At the same time, Phil's job and fellow employees (Melinda Parrett and Kurt Johnson) begin grating.

Whether one hates their dead-end, uninspired job, or is merely lovesick, B Street Theatre marketing and sales manager Carrie Rosing says "Rx" is the perfect prescription.

JUST THE FACTS

What: The West Coast premiere of Kate Fodor's new romantic comedy "Rx"

Where: The B Street Theatre (main stage), 2711 B St., Sacramento, Calif.

When: Previews 5 p.m. April 28 and 2 p.m. April 29; opens 7 p.m. April 29; plays through June 10 with performances at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 2 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays

Who: Directed by Buck Busfield; featuring Stephanie Altholz (Meena), Peter Story (Phil), Kurt Johnson (Richard/Ed), Melinda Parrett (Allison), Jason Kuykendall (Simon), Tamara Walters (Frances)

How much: $23-$35 ($5 student rush; $15 previews)

More info: (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org

Director Van Camp makes the case for a commedia dell'arte comeback with 'The King Stag'

2012-04-27T15:29:36Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

The Three Stages Performing Arts Center at Folsom Lake College is a contemporary, fully computerized, state-of-the-art performance venue, so it would seem an 18th-century Italian play presented in the 500-year-old commedia dell’arte style would be anachronistic to say the least.

But Jamie Van Camp, who directs the Falcon’s Eye Theatre production of Carlo Gozzi’s comedy “The King Stag” (opening Friday, April 27, in the City Studio), said when it comes to commedia dell’arte – which focuses on physicality, improvisation, music, dance, masks, puppetry and a strict reliance on character archetypes – everything old is new again.

Though still a very foreign form to his 21-member cast, the 29-year-old freelance director said he’s seeing a worldwide resurgence in commedia dell’arte as a viable acting style.

“I always wanted to do the physical theater thing,” said the El Dorado High School graduate, recalling hours spent writing and directing his own scripts, as well as studying such diverse masters of comic movement as Charlie Chaplin and Jim Carrey. “But I had real trouble finding a school that specialized in it.”

Eventually, Van Camp discovered the Tooba Physical Theatre Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he learned to incorporate his entire body in the storytelling process.

“It was a great school and I got to work with some fantastic artists, including outstanding mime and clowning teachers,” said Van Camp, who followed up his training in Canada with a three-year MFA program specializing in melodrama, clowning and directing at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre along California’s North Coast near Arcata.

Today, Van Camp happily reports locating college-level commedia training is no longer akin to finding a vanilla bean in the gelato. That’s not to say, however, that troupes of commedia artists are now rolling across the country in Gold Rush numbers.

When he started the casting process in early February, Van Camp and Producing Artistic Director David Harris found only a few of their young actors had any familiarity with commedia.

“Some had just not heard of it,” Van Camp said, “while some had just an idea.”

But to his delight, his new-to-commedia cast of “The King Stag” proved to be quick studies, with some becoming so enamored of the structured, yet freeing, format that they sought his advice on where they could pursue training similar to his.

“The biggest challenge for most of the cast has been understanding the relationship between spontaneity and structure,” said Van Camp, “and staying in the moment.”

Also key to the success of “The King Stag” are the members of the play’s production staff, he said, with production designer Scott Gilbert, costume designer Paulette Sands-Gilbert, mask designer Tara Carisio, lighting and sound designer Les Solomon, and percussionist Scott McConaha teaming to deliver a feast of colorful visuals and loopy audio effects that further enhance the surreal experience of Gozzi’s “magical fantasy.”

Though some traditional aspects of the commedia dell’arte experience have had to be sacrificed due to time constraints in the rehearsal schedule, Van Camp said he’s not giving up, and continues to add commedia elements as his cast gets better and better in delivering the format’s core performance requirements.

“The great thing about this group is that they’ve been absolutely dedicated to fixing what’s come their way,” Van Camp said.

“A lot of them don’t have improvisation experience, and some have no acting experience at all,” he continued. “But they’re really working to fill in the gaps, with their energy, pacing and comic timing. The biggest challenge they’re facing is to take ownership of their characters, to get out of the mindset of following my outlines, but now they’re getting it. It’s really important they’re engaged and active in playing to the audience. I am personally striving to get them to do that.

“It’s a very terrifying thing, to be very vulnerable to an audience, but that is what is so exciting about it.”

JUST THE FACTS

What: The Falcon's Eye Theatre production of Carlo Gozzi's "The King Stag" (adapted by Shelley Berc and Andrei Belgrader

When: Opens at 8 p.m. April 27, and continues through May 13, with performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, as well as two "extra" performances at 2 p.m. May 5, and 8 p.m. May 10

Where: The City Studio at Three Stages Performing Arts Center on the campus of Folsom Lake College, 10 College Parkway, Folsom, Calif.

Who: Written by Carlo Gozzi and adapted by Shelley Berc and Andrei Belgrader; directed by Jamie Van Camp; featuring Ross Branch (King Deramo of Serendippo), Chloe Cornelius (Smeraldina, Sister of Brighella), Gaby Haught (Brighella, Butler to the King), Tiffany Martin (Clarice, Daughter of Tartaglia), Matti McKenzie (Angela, Daughter of Pantalone), Ben Schilling (Pantalone, Minister to the King), Gavin Sellers (Truffaldino, a Bird Catcher), Michael Spargo (Tartaglio, Prime Minister of Serendippo), Jacob Vuksinich (Leandro, Son of Pantalone), Dana Alarian (Cigolotti, Servant to the Great Magician Durandarte), Patrick Gonzales (Guard/Ensemble), Jeremy Kaderka (Ensemble), Alyssa Matthews (Statue/Ensemble), Brandon Meyer (Ensemble), Suyash Pandey (Ensemble), Lindsey Ross (Bear/Ensemble), Frank Sanford (Durandarte, the Great Magician, and sometimes Parrot), Emily Thompson (Ensemble), Ben Woehler (Guard/Ensemble)

How much: $5-$15

More info: www.threestages.net; (916) 608-6888

Sacramento Theatre Company closes season with 'Little Shop of Horrors'

2012-04-27T08:25:52Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Sacramento Theatre Company closes its 2011-12 season with a blast from the past, staging an all-new production of "Little Shop of Horrors," a huge hit during its 1986-87 season, that is set to play April 28 to May 20, 2012.

The show, which originated more than 50 years ago as a Roger Corman film about a milquetoast florist's assistant and his blood-craving spore from outer space, has enjoyed several incarnations, from film to stage, then back to film, before last landing on television as an animated children's series.

Undoubtedly influenced by the cinematic seeds planted in his subconcious by such sci-fi classics as "The Thing from Another World" (1951) and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956), director Roger Corman released his own movie about an extraterrestrial leaf form ("The Little Shop of Horrors") on an unsuspecting public in 1960.

Notable for its Ed Wood-style production values – as well as an early big-screen appearance by Jack Nicholson – "The Little Shop of Horrors" didn't break any box-office records or spawn any sequels, but after more than 20 years it did mutate into a successful stage musical following award-winning Off-Broadway, West End and Los Angeles runs as "Little Shop of Horrors."

With a book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken, the stage musical was transferred back to the silver screen as the Frank Oz-directed "Little Shop of Horrors," garnering an Oscar nomination for the original song "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" (added to the show's score for the film).

The Sacramento Theatre Company revival, which previews April 25-28, is directed by STC Producing Director Michael Laun, with musical direction by Dan Pool and choreography by Jerald Bolden.

The cast includes Andrew J. Perez (Seymour), Jessica Goldman (Audrey Goldman), Michael RJ Campbell (Mushnik), William Elsman (Orin, Bernstein, Snip, Luce and others), Miranda Lawson (Crystal), Ure Egbuho (Ronnette), Gabriella "Ella" Isaguirre (Chiffon), Jeffrey Lloyd Heatherly (voice of Audrey II), Aaron Hitchcock (Audrey II manipulator), and Tom Block, Javen Crosby, Dafydd Wynn and Garrick SIgl (additional puppeteers).

Sacramento Theatre Company has announced that it is rolling back ticket prices for the 2 p.m. April 28 preview to celebrate the show's return. These discounted tickets, priced at $15, are available through the STC box office as well as online.

For those interested in learning more about the history of "Little Shop of Horrors," the company is hosting prologue sessions 45 minutes prior to each performance.

JUST THE FACTS

What: The Sacramento Theatre Company production of the Howard Ashman-Alan Menken musical "Little Shop of Horrors"

When: previews April 25-April 28; opens 8 p.m. April 28 and plays through May 20 with performances at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 12:30 and 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Sacramento Theatre Company Main Stage, 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.

Who: Book/lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken; directed by Michael Laun; featuring Andrew J. Perez, Jessica Goldman, Michael RJ Campbell, William Elsman, Miranda Lawson, Ure Egbuho, Gabriella "Ella" Isaguirre, Jeffrey Lloyd Heatherly

How much: $15-$38 (discounts available for students, seniors and groups)

More info: www.sactheatre.org; (916) 443-6722 or (888) 478-2849

Junior League of Sacramento to present family friendly 'Carnivale' at Fairytale Town

2012-04-27T03:11:57Z

The Junior League of Sacramento – whose 800 members are passionate experts at putting together win-win events – is readying its season-ending fundraiser: the eighth annual Family Fun Fest.

Set for 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, April 28, 2012, at Fairytale Town (3901 South Land Park Drive, Sacramento), the community will "win" as families will be able to enjoy games, activities, live entertainment, sports demonstrations, healthy food offerings and more at Sacramento's magical amusement venue. Nonprofits also stand to win thanks to funds raised through ticket and vendor sales.

Among the beneficiaries of the Junior League's fundraising efforts have been St. John's Shelter Program for Women and Children and the Sacramento Children's Museum.

Amanda Merz, the league's fundraising chair, is hoping the festival's lineup and the projected good weather results in huge crowds as the depressed economy has negatively impacted donations during the 2011-12 season.

"We've been hit by the economy for sure," said Merz, "but our members have really rallied around the organization."

Merz said the group's members – 200 of which are considered "active" – have put their minds toward working more aggressively to plan and execute events that the community wants to attend and support.

This year's Family Fun Fest theme, "Carnivale: A Magical Evening in the Park," will feature live music and dance performances (including local cover band The Mixx), sports demonstrations (Imani Fencing Foundation), games and activities such as face painting, and nutritious alternatives to traditional, deep-fried carnival fare.

"There will be turkey burgers, fresh fruit, macaroni salad, Johnsonville Sausage, as well as regular burgers and hot dogs," said Merz.

In addition, beer and wine are available for adult tastes, and a series of raffle drawings will be held, including an opportunity to win four Disneyland Resort One-Day Park Hopper tickets.

"The Junior League started Fairytale Town, so we always enjoy going back there for our annual fundraising event," Merz said. "This year, we've put a new spin on it that focuses on nutrition – adding three new areas to our focus: a food pyramid race; five stations where kids will be challenged by questions and exercises; and a carnival-style activity. We're trying to keep the event as close to our mission, as well as keeping it fun."

Festivities will include the finals of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Sacramento Cook-Off Competition, in which area children will put their best food forward in hopes of wowing a quartet of celebrity judges: Chef Stu Edgcombe of Plates Café and Catering; Andrew Blaskovich, owner/chef of Drewski's Hot Rod Kitchen; Christine Collins, owner of Dad's Kitchen; and, in keeping with the event's venue, "Princess" Kimberly (Peterson), manager of Once Upon a Princess.

"Our 'Kids in the Kitchen' program has been a year-long process," said Merz. "We've been going to Boys & GIrls Club classes and showing them how to make nutritional snacks at home – things like whole-wheat pizzas, veggies, lower-fat cheeses."

For the finals, Merz said the kids will be making parfaits (6-8 age group), English muffin pizzas (8-12 age group), and egg dishes (over-13 age group).

While geared to providing a family friendly party for the entire Sacramento area. Merz said the festival also offers a chance for Junior Leaguers to participate with their own kids.

"We love this event," she said. "We don't always get to have our families present at our events, but the Family Fun Fest provides an opportunity for our members to enjoy the day with their families, when they can come together with their children."

This year, Merz said the league is hoping to raise $13,000, and see attendance break the 700 mark, a significant increase over last year's 300. In addition to admission tickets and vendor sales, she said they're banking on big raffle sales.

"The raffle tickets will be $1, and will include various prizes that have been donated by the community, including tickets to ComedySportz Sacramento and the Discovery Museum Science & Space Center." said Merz. "We will also be having a grand-prize drawing for a family four-pack of Disneyland One-Day Park Hopper tickets. Raffle tickets for this grand prize will be $15 each or 10 tickets for $100.

"This is our final hurrah for the season – it's got to be big."

Admission to the Family Fun Fest event cost $10 for those 13 and older, and $5 for children 3 to 12. Those 2 and younger will be admitted free of charge.

For admission tickets, see www.jlsac.org, or purchase them in person the day of the event (4:30-6:30 p.m.) at La Bou, 4400 Del Rio Road, Sacramento.

Family Fun Fest Entertainment Schedule

5:30 to 6:15 p.m. – The Mixx performs (local family-friendly cover band)
6:15 to 6:25 p.m. – Welcome remarks and introductions
6:25 to 6:45 p.m. – Deanne’s Dance Studio performance
6:45 to 7 p.m. – Move Studios dance performance
7 to 7:15 p.m. – Top Hat Trio dance studio performance
7:15 to 7:30 p.m. – Imani Fencing Foundation fencing demonstration
7:30 to 7:35 p.m. – Cook-Off Competition winners announced
7:35 to 8:30 p.m. – The Mixx performs

B Street's Montoya teams with young son to pen fresh, funny take on 'Hansel & Gretel'

2012-04-22T16:12:43Z

It’s a common bedtime plea: “Just one story!”

Usually, it’s a child making the request of his or her mother or father. But when Jerry R. Montoya, associate producer and contributing playwright for the B Street Theatre, came down with a major case of writer’s block, it was his son, Malachi, who was getting the “Pretty-please-tell-me-a-story” treatment.

“I was working on a stage adaptation of ‘Hansel & Gretel,’” began Montoya. “Like many of the Grimm fairytales, it’s very short with not a lot of backstory, told in a straight line with a clear message.”

“One night, I was re-outlining the plot and waiting for inspiration,” Montoya continued. “I was kind of moving forward, but without a real sense of what I wanted to do with it.”

With a looming deadline for the show, which opens April 28 on the B Street Theatre's B3 stage, Montoya was running out of time for an appropriately loopy light-bulb to go off.

“When I was writing the play on Harriet Tubman, I read a bunch of biographies about her, and checked out a lot of children’s books to see how that adult topic had been adapted for kids,” said Montoya, referring to his 2010 Family Series world premiere of “The Conductor: Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.”

“Thinking of that one night is what inspired me to go into Malachi’s room and ask him if he knew the story of ‘Hansel & Gretel,’ what he remembered about it, and what was his lasting impression.”

“He said, ‘You know, it’s not a very good story.’”

Father and son agreed that the Brothers Grimm weren’t only known by that moniker because it happened to be their name. Aside from featuring a house made of gingerbread, “Hansel & Gretel” was as sweet and funny as a woodsman-turned-assassin with an axe to grind.
The impromptu meeting of Montoya minds led to a mini-brainstorming session.

“I asked him what would make it better, what’s missing,” said Montoya. “He said it didn’t have pets. I then asked, who should have pets? He said Hansel and Gretel could have a pet dog, and the witch could have a cat. That’s how it began. I came back to him the next day and asked if he wanted to formally work on it with me.”

Though Malachi, a fifth-grader at Sacramento’s Alice Birney Waldorf-Inspired K-8 School, has been crafting personal writing projects for almost three years – including a collection of short stories he hopes will become a full-length book, and a comic about a dog named “Oscar” – he and his father had never hovered over a keyboard to collaborate.

The invitation to work together on “Hansel & Gretel” elicited a quick “yes” from Malachi.

“I was surprised and excited,” said the 11-year-old, whose career aspirations are far from set in stone, but are typically wide ranging for a pre-teen, and include such jobs as writer ("It's creative and fun."), inventor and race-car driver.

Montoya said like any good parent, he’s not interested in force-feeding Malachi any particular vocation, but said Malachi’s facility with words was evident early on.

“He’s shown a talent, a sense of irony unique to someone so young,” said Montoya. “He understands the basics of what makes a great story and an innate sense of who the characters are.”

With his son playing the part of muse, and offering rapid-fire, out-of-the-box suggestions and scenarios, Montoya discovered dozens of departure points instead of one big dead-end. “Once he and I got going, it really tumbled quickly,” said Montoya, who promised he was going to reward his junior partner with a hefty bonus to his allowance.

“I would ask, ‘What could happen next? Then what would happen?’ And he just started coming up with ideas about what Hansel and Gretel’s dog would do, what the witch talks about with her cat ('She doesn't want to be a witch anymore.'), what exactly happened to Hansel and Gretel’s mother, and why the witch needed the kids.

“We went through the entire play in a couple of nights, with it becoming more of the witch’s story than all about Hansel and Gretel. We would riff on each scene, coming up with what could happen, and then I’d dialogue it.”

Montoya said he and wife Erika, a scenic-artist-turned-biologist, have always emphasized language arts with Malachi, and that attention to those skills helped fuel his imagination.

“My wife constantly reads him stories, she has since he was very young,” said Montoya. “What I used to do with him was ask him to give me three things – like a donkey, a kangaroo and a squirrel – and I’d make up a story on the spot. We’d do that from the time he was 2 to 7. He’d just give me elements of a story, and I’d give him a basic tale.

“That laid the pipe for how stories are created, the elements you have to have to write a story.

“In following those steps for ‘Hansel & Gretel,’ he gave me completely new elements with which to improve and complete the show. I went from, ‘I don’t get this at all, to having thunder behind my typing.”

Malachi said coming up with new ideas was relatively easy, but some concepts definitely required more thought and refinement. His favorite contribution to the script is the addition of a foil for the witch – a goblin named Graffle (“Because he’s funny.”).

To prevent his own creative juices from getting dammed up, the well-rounded Malachi enjoys a host of intellectual, athletic, artistic and just-for-the-fun-of-it age-appropriate diversions, including acrobatics on his trampoline, shooting hoops, cavorting with his dog Charlie, pleasure reading (Jon S. Lewis’ “Grey Griffins” and Jenny Nimmo’s “Charlie Bone” series are faves), watching “Phineas and Ferb” and – “when my parents allow” – playing video games.

A budding musician as well, among Malachi’s favorite courses is the Birney school’s “Strings” class, which offers instruction on the cello, bass, violin and viola.

That musical background is also being put to good use in “Hansel & Gretel,” with Malachi and his father contributing an original song to composer Noah Agruss’ score.

Montoya said the experience of working on “Hansel & Gretel” with his son has been a wonderful adventure that has allowed him to experience the same joy his wife has had in sharing her particular talents as a musician and painter.

Malachi echoed his dad’s sentiments, and said he’s looking forward to doing it all over again, but is currently focused on seeing how audiences take to his and his father’s fresh choices in their adaptation of “Hansel & Gretel.”

For Montoya, getting the show up and running at the B Street is just the beginning.

“We now have something that has both of our names on it. I’d love to get it published.”

JUST THE FACTS

What: The B Street Theatre Family Series production of "Hansel & Gretel," adapted by Jerry R. Montoya and Malachi Montoya (loosely based on the story by the Brothers Grimm), with music and lyrics by Noah Agruss

Where: The B Street Theatre B3 Stage, 2727 B St., Sacramento, Calif.

When: Previews at 1 p.m. April 28; opens at 4 p.m. April 28; plays through June 3 with performances at 1 and 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Who: Adapted by Jerry R. Montoya and Malachi Montoya; music and lyrics by Noah Agruss; directed by Sarah Zemach; puppet design by Christopher Cook; set design by Cat Frye; lighting design by Ron Madonia; costume design by Nancy Pipkin; stage management by Lynnae Vana; and featuring Rick Kleber (The Witch), Amy Kelly (Graffle the Goblin), Brittni Barger (Gretel), Brandon McCall (Hansel), David Pierini (Father), John Lamb (puppet operator)

How Much: $18 to $27 ($12-$15 preview tickets)

Running Time: 90 minutes (including intermission)

More Info/Tickets: www.bstreettheatre.org; (916) 443-5300

'80s synth-pop icon Thomas Dolby packs Harlow's for Second Saturday show

2012-04-15T23:38:28Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom |

The hair and trademark round spectacles are long gone, but 1980s synth-pop icon Thomas Dolby, whose 1982 worldwide hit "She Blinded Me With Science" helped launch MTV, delivered a two-hour set to a capacity Harlow's crowd April 14 that proved his unique storytelling ability, voice and musicianship are as fresh as ever.

The stop, part of Dolby's current "Time Capsule" tour that kicked off March 16, 2012, in Austin, Texas, featured well-known cuts from the last 30 years – such as "Europa and the Pirate Twins," "One of Our Submarines," "Hyperactive!" and, of course, "Science – plus selections from his recently released CD "A Map of the Floating City."

Though the 2011 studio album was his first in 19 years, it's not as if Dolby has been holed up in his UK beach house counting his royalties as a solo artist and well-regarded collaborator. In the interim he's done a bit of everything, from founding the company that developed the Nokia ringtone to creating a multiplayer online role-playing game tied to his latest album.

At the April 14 show, he displayed good humor and appreciation for his fans – young and "old" – who crowded every inch of floorspace, and who demanded multiple encores.

'Titanic: The Musical' sets sail in Davis Musical Theatre Company revival

2012-04-14T03:00:09Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom |

He may not have followed film director-turned-National Geographic explorer James Cameron to the bottom of the Atlantic in pursuit of White Star china fragments or a really big blue diamond necklace, but Davis Musical Theatre Company co-founder and co-producer Steve Isaacson is no less obsessive about the ill-fated passenger liner Titanic than the Oscar winner.

Since first mounting Peter Stone and Maury Yeston’s “Titanic: The Musical” six years ago, Isaacson has been making his own plans to “go back to Titanic” in a centennial commemoration of the ship’s April 15, 1912, sinking.

But when DMTC’s revival of the Tony-winning show opens April 13 for a four-weekend run, Isaacson, who leads both the stage and musical direction (with Jonathan Rothman), says there will definitely be changes in store for those who caught his original production.

Yes, the ship still hits an iceberg and more than 1,500 souls are lost, but Isaacson has ratcheted up the drama with the aid of enhanced scenic effects (designed by Isaacson and Mark Deamer), including a winch-and-pulley operated 36-by-10-foot platform that reaches a 45-degree angle some 20 feet off the stage.

“Every single scene where it was tilted last time is twice as high,” said Isaacson. “It stretches from the main stage all the way up to the light bars. At one point, actor David Holmes, who plays ship’s designer Thomas Andrews, is literally holding on for his life.”

Isaacson said that the volunteers who power DMTC has made the show’s technical improvements possible, with supporters who include professionals in the construction, civil engineering and safety instruction industries. (No “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” mishaps on this stage!)

Every inch of the 238-seat Pena Drive venue is being used to create the expansive feel of what was, at the time of its launch, the largest vessel afloat.

“We cover the entire stage,” said Isaacson, who credits carpenter shop lead Michael Karoly for making the magic happen.

At stage left, second and third levels have been built to recreate the ship’s bridge and wheelhouse, the scene of many angry discourses between Captain E.J. Smith (Joel Porter) and his boss, White Star Line Director J. Bruce Ismay (Adam Sartain), who is more concerned with breaking speed records than passenger safety.

Posted high above the floor on stage right is the ship’s crow’s nest (complete with a ship’s bell and telephone), where lookout Frederick Fleet (Steve Mo) belatedly spots the iceberg that is destined to cut short the maiden voyage of the “unsinkable” Titanic.

Mo, said Isaacson, is an experienced rock climber with “no fear of heights” and was the perfect choice for the role.

As proud as Isaacson is of his team’s set work for the DMTC revival, he also is impressed by the attention to the minute details that he says will blow away those seated from the theater’s back row to the front row.

Those details, provided by prop designer Marie Petersen and costume designer Jean Henderson, include: opulent dining room table settings (and first-class gowns); nuanced, early-20th-century radio room tech; and a ship’s boiler that “glows” red and orange as stoker Frederick Barrett (Dan Masden) shovels coal into its great metal maw.

Isaacson himself added another dimension to the production with some pulse-pounding (and seat-shaking) sound effects that he promises will provide theatergoers with the closest thing to an iceberg encounter of the third kind that won’t have them scrambling for a lifeboat.

“I recorded this nasty, nasty sound – a mix of a subway screeching to a stop and a tugboat,” said Isaacson. “With our 300-watt subwoofer they will not only hear it, they’ll feel it.”

“It’s better than 3-D, it’s 4-D!”

While Isaacson admits that an all-volunteer crew can’t usually outshine a professional, Equity staff, he says he’d lay odds that his troupes – especially his current tech staff, 20-piece orchestra and 55-member cast – equal or even top any local company when it comes to passion and “heart.”

Among the specialty performers Isaacson has tapped for his second voyage with “Titanic” are Jenny Plasse and Doug Barbieri, cheer instructors at University of California, Davis, who have worked with choreographer Jacob Montoya to create a dazzling routine featuring athletic lifts and flips.

Audience members’ emotions will get similar workouts, Isaacson said, with the heartfelt deliveries of such numbers as stoker Frederick Barrett’s (Masden) love-letter to his intended bride (“The Proposal”) and first-class passengers Isidor and Ida Strauss’ (Scott Minor, Marguerite Morris) goodbye (“Still”).

While Jack and Rose and the Heart of the Ocean are nowhere to be found in “Titanic: The Musical” (a point of order Isaacson finds himself having to continue clarifying), he said ticket sales for both the show, and the Titanic-inspired 11-course fundraising dinner (April 14) have been brisk.

“I first learned of this show when I was in New York and read a story in The New York Times about it being in pre-production,” Isaacson said. “I thought to myself, ‘A musical of the Titanic? You’ve got to be kidding!’”

“But then I got the CD of the original cast recording, and thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to do this show when it’s released!’ The first time I heard the number ‘To the Lifeboats’ it made me cry.”

Isaacson’s first production of the musical in 2006 was satisfying, he said, but his second time around the Titanic’s promenade has been more than he could have hoped for.

“I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having.”

“Titanic: The Musical” plays April 13, 2012, through May 6, 2012, with performances at 8:15 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2:15 p.m. Sunday, at the DMTC Performing Arts Center, 607 Pena Drive, Davis, Calif.

Tickets cost $18 for general admission, $16 for students and seniors, and $14 per person for groups of 10 or more. A special 11-course fundraising meal will be held April 14 in commemoration of the exact time/date of the ship’s sinking. Tickets for the April 14 fundraiser (including a ticket to the musical) are priced at $100.

Proceeds from the fundraiser benefits the musical theater and its children’s program, YPT. Tickets are available online at www.dmtc.org, or by calling (530) 756-3682.

For further information, contact Steve or Jan Isaacson at info@dmtc.org or (530) 756-3682.

B Street to host public performance of 'Fantasy Festival XXVI' April 14

2012-04-12T12:09:39Z

It may seem like elementary stuff – getting up in front of grade-schoolers to play dancing French dogs, slacker teens who ride a cardboard rocket to Mars, and runaways who end up running from reanimated Egyptian mummies – but the actors who introduce live theater to Northern California youth via the B Street Theatre School Tour are well-trained experts in tomfoolery.

Currently touring more than 100 primary and middle schools with “Fantasy Festival XXVI” – a showcase of five award-winning playlets written by area students participating in the B Street’s annual playwriting festival/contest – the troupe will present a public performance of the kid-penned anthology at the B Street Theatre at 10 a.m. April 14, 2012.

Among the B Street actors who are very serious about being silly, is Sacramento native Isabel Siragusa, who joined the 26-year-old troupe ~~late in its winter 2011 season~~ early this year.

A 2011 Yale University graduate with a degree in theater studies, Siragusa had her sights set on an acting career even before she made her first stage entrance at 12.

“As a 5-year-old I loved ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ‘Mary Poppins’ and Luciano Pavarotti,” recalled Siragusa. “I would watch videos of the Three Tenors in concert over and over again.”

“Audrey Hepburn is a huge inspiration because she was so graceful and giving. When I was in sixth grade, I saw ‘Moulin Rouge’ and that movie changed my life,” Siragusa continued. “I knew I had to do that for the rest of my life.”

About the same time, her parents took her to New York where she saw her first Broadway show: “The Lion King.”

“I had never experienced anything like that,” said Siragusa, who attended Sacramento Country Day School, adding that while mom and dad frequently took to her live performances, “I wish I could have had a program like B Street’s come to my school.”

When the 22-year-old Siragusa was hired for the B Street School Tour – as a last-minute replacement for another actor – she was both excited and anxious. It was, after all, her first professional gig, though her Ivy League training was more than extensive.

“During college, I worked with Clowns Without Borders in South Africa,” she said. “We traveled to schools in rural villages and put on clown shows and taught workshops.”

“I was just put on the road,” said Siragusa of her B Street introduction. “It’s been a whirlwind experience. But (Associate Producer) Jerry (Montoya) really helped me get ready to perform for large audiences so that they can see and understand everything I do. (B Street Theatre Producing Director) Buck (Busfield) said that the School Tour is the best training, and I completely agree. I’m so grateful for this opportunity.”

Siragusa said any pre-performance angst she experiences fades once she takes the “stage” – which often is just a cafeteria or “multi-purpose room” floor.

“Getting the kids excited about theater makes my day,” she said. “I love talking to them and seeing the joy they get from our show. I especially love doing the Fantasy Festival because all the pieces were written by kids. It makes it even more inspiring and fun for the students.”

This year’s winning quintet of works (more than 150 were submitted) are: “Gretel and Bob and the Curse of the Sarcophagus” by Tamsen Dean and Nathaniel Wiede (Rocklin Elementary School); “How Chad and Jimmy Saved the World” by Jessamy Johnson (Gold Oak Arts Charter School); “Mutts in a Rut: A Silent Film” by Kimberly Bean (Taylor Street Elementary School); “What Not to Wear: Royal Edition” by Chrissy Ainger and Dominique Perez (Sutterville Elementary School); and “A Series of Sitters” by Mia Whitfield (Sutterville Elementary School).

Siragusa won’t commit to a favorite among the five (“They all wrote such fun stories.”), but said “Mutts in a Rut” is particularly fun to perform.

“It’s such a different style,” Siragusa gushed of the play inspired by the Oscar-winning film “The Artist.” “I love playing a dancing dog in a silent film!”

April 14 will be a busy day for Siragusa, who in addition to performing in the public performance of “Fantasy Festival XXVI,” will be featured in a 7 p.m. benefit staging of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues” at the Crest Theatre as part of Sacramento Women Take Back the Night.

For more information about the April 14 public performance of "Fantasy Festival XXVI," call the B Street Theatre at (916) 443-5300.

Editor's note: Edits have been made to this article after publishing.

STC to pay homage to Lloyd Webber in latest cabaret offering

2012-04-05T21:44:37Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom |

In a recent New York Times article about "The Phantom of the Opera" reaching the milestone of 10,000 Broadway performances, "Phantom" investor James B. Freydberg said he and his partner figured putting money into a Broadway show had to be better than dumping ducats into the stock market.

Was he ever right. Since "Phantom" opened 24 years ago, the tuner has earned them some $12 million.

“No one ever, ever expected this kind of wealth,” Freydberg said. “My only other investment that has performed better is my Apple stock.”

Such is the magic of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose list of stage successes like "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita" are currently enjoying Broadway revivals.

It is that magic with which Sacramento Theatre Company is closing out its 2011-12 Broadway Cabaret Series. "Music of the Night: The Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber" plays April 5-15, 2012.

Starring Byron Roope, Meghan Greene, Ruth Phillips, Michele Hillen-Noufer, Mark Ettensohn and STC Producing Director Michael Laun (who also directs), with musical accompaniment by Richanne Roope and Joanna Roberts, "Music of the Night" is a loving homage to Lloyd Webber's catalog, and features songs from the scores of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "Tell Me on a Sunday," "Cats," "Starlight Express," "Aspects of Love," "Sunset Boulevard," "Whistle Down the Wind" and "Love Never Dies" – as well as the above-mentioned "Evita" and "The Phantom of the Opera."

"Music of the Night" plays at 7 p.m. April 5; 8 p.m. April 6; 2 and 8 p.m. April 7; 2 and 8 p.m. April 14; and 2 p.m. April 15.

Tickets, priced at $25, are available at the Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office or by calling (916) 443-6722 or (888) 412-8849.

Raffle tickets also are being sold for a $10,000 cash prize. A maximum 3,000 tickets will be sold ($20 each) with the drawing set for 1 p..m. April 20, 2012. (all tickets must be in by 11:50 p.m. April 19, 2012). In addition to the chance to win $10,000, raffle participants will be entered into additional drawings for such prizes as local restaurant gift cards, and a walk-on role in STC's upcoming production of "Little Shop of Horrors" (as well as 40 tickets for friends). Those purchasing five or more raffle tickets will receive a $20 STC gift card, redeemable at the STC box office.

Capital Stage to open Sam Shepard's 'True West' March 24

2012-03-21T20:47:54Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom |

Capital Stage continues its inaugural season at its new J Street home with Sam Shepard's iconic 1980 work "True West," opening March 24, 2012, for a four-week run. Discounted previews are set for March 21-23.

Originally produced by San Francisco's Magic Circle Theate in 1980 during Shepard's tenure as the company's resident playwright, "True West" is a character study exploring the relationship between the Ivy League-educated Austin, a screenwriter, and his older brother Lee, a shiftless, beer-swilling ne'er-do-well. Set in the suburban Southern California home of their mother, for whom Austin is house-sitting, their life-long conflict comes to a head when con-man/thief Lee pushes his way into a picture deal that Austin is pitching to a high-placed Hollywood producer.

"I wanted to write a play about double nature, one that wouldn't be symbolic or metaphorical or any of that stuff," said Shepard. "I just wanted to give a taste of what it feels like to be two-sided. It's a real thing, double nature. I think we're split in a much more devastating way than psychology can ever reveal. It's not so cute. Not some little thing we can get over. It's something we've got to live with."

Called Shepard's signature work, "True West" has enjoyed several high-profile productions, including an infamous New York mounting by Joe Papp's Public Theater starring Tommy Lee Jones (Austin) and Peter Boyle (Lee) in December 1980.

Two years later, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company staged a revival featuring then-unknown actors Gary Sinise and John Malkovich. That production was transferred to New York's Cherry Lane Theatre where it ran for 762 performances. A filmed version of this production debuted on the PBS "American Playhouse" series in 1984.

In 2000, a Broadway revival of "True West," featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman (now garnering kudos as Willy Loman in Broadway's latest incarnation of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman") and John C. Reilly, opened at the Circle on the Square Theatre. The show earned Tony noms for best actor (both Hoffman and Reilly), best director and best play.

The Capital Stage production features company co-founder Jonathan Rhys Williams as Lee, and Cole Alexander Smith as Austin, along with Eric Baldwin and Capital Stage Associate Artist Janis Stevens. Capital Stage Artistic Director and Co-Founder Stephanie Gularte directs.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Capital Stage production of Sam Shepard's "True West"

WHERE: Capital Stage, 2215 J St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHEN: Previews 7 p.m. March 21, 8 p.m. March 22 and 23 ($18); opens 8 p.m. March 24 ($38); continues through April 22 with performances at 7 p.m. Wednesdays ($20), 8 p.m. Thursdays ($28), Fridays ($28) and Saturdays ($32), 2 p.m. Sundays ($28)

WHO: Featuring Cole Alexander Smith (Austin), Jonathan Rhys Williams (Lee), Eric Baldwin (Saul Kimmer), Janis Stevens (Mom); directed by Stephanie Gularte

MORE INFO: (916) 995-5464; www.capstage.org

B Street Theatre mounts U.S. premiere of Morris Panych's 'In Absentia'

2012-03-03T12:08:16Z

Photographs by Barry Wisdom |

The B Street Theatre continues sharing its passion for the latest and greatest plays by mounting the U.S. premiere of Canadian playwright Morris Panych's "In Absentia," which previews March 3 and 4, 2012, before opening at 7 p.m. March 4 for a six-week run on the Sacramento company's Mainstage.

A prolific playwright and accomplished director and actor, Panych's work (if not his name) should be familiar to longtime B Street theatergoers, who flocked to the theater's productions of his plays "Vigil" (1997) and "Lawrence & Holloman" (1998).

"In Absentia," which concerns a woman's "attempt to deal with the lengthy absence of her husband, captured by insurgents in Columbia, through a relationship with a young transient," enjoyed its world premiere at Montreal's Centaur Theatre in January.

Directed by Producing Artistic Director Buck Busfield and co-directed by Laura Baker, "In Absentia" features B Street veterans Elisabeth Nunziato, Kurt Johnson, Jamie Jones and David Pierini, as well as B Street acting intern Dan Fagan (whom Nunziato directed in the 2011 Actor's Workshop of Sacramento production of "Strangers on a Train").

Additional creative team members include Jerry Montoya (associate producer), Steven Schmidt (technical director and scenic designer), Ron Madonia (lighting designer), Paulette Sand Gilbert (costume designer), Anthony Poston (stage manager) and Elizabeth Hadden (scenic painter and prop mistress).

"In Absentia" is the second U.S. premiere offered at the B Street this season. The B3 Series production of Mark Swivel's "Water Falling Down," which closed Feb. 26, was the first.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The B Street Theatre Mainstage production of Morris Panych's "In Absentia"

WHERE: The B Street Theatre, 2711 B St., Sacramento, Calif.

WHEN: Previews 5 p.m. March 3 and 2 p.m. March 4; opens 7 p.m. March 4; plays through April 15 with performances at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 2 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays

WHO: Directed by Buck Busfield (co-directed by Laura Baker); featuring Elisabeth Nunziato (Colette), Kurt Johnson (Tom), Jamie Jones (Evelyn), David Pierini (Bill), Dan Fagan (Jasper)

HOW MUCH: $18-$30 ($5 for student rush tickets; $10 for preview tickets)

MORE INFO/TICKETS: (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org

'Dial 'M' for Murder' next up in STC's season of 'Mystery, Music and Mayhem'

2012-03-01T22:06:01Z

Photographs by Barry Wisdom |

Sacramento Theatre Company veterans Matt K. Miller ("A Christmas Carol") and Jackie Vanderbeck ("The Belle of Amherst") lead an ensemble cast in STC's production of playwright Frederick Knott's "Dial 'M' for Murder," opening at 8 p.m. March 3, 2012.

Famously filmed by master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, "Dial 'M' for Murder" concerns British ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice (Miller), whose neglected wife's (Vanderbeck) past dalliance with an American writer (Barry Hubbard) leads to the plotting of the perfect crime – or does it?

Also starring are Gary Alan as Inspector Hubbard, and Scott Divine as Wendice's accomplice Captain Lesgate. Greg Alexander directs.

The show continues through March 25, with performances set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 12:30 and 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays on the STC Main Stage, 1419 H St., Sacramento.

Tickets are priced at $15 to $38, with discounts available to students, seniors and groups. Half-price "rush" tickets are sold one hour prior to each performance (subject to availability).

To purchase tickets, call the STC Wells Fargo Pavilion Box Office at (916) 443-6722, or (888) 478-2849. For additional information, visit www.sactheatre.org.

Sacramento Opera's 'Rigoletto': Tears of a clown

2012-02-24T14:30:59Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom |

Smokey Robinson may not have been singing about the titular character of Giuseppe Verdi's 19th-century opera "Rigoletto" in his and the Miracles' "The Tears of a Clown," but the hunchbacked court jester rivals Pagliacci as one of least funniest fools in popular culture – ranking right up there with Ashton Kutcher.

Mean and prone to mockery, Rigoletto has earned few fans in the court of the Duke of Mantua. When the Duke becomes enamored of Rigoletto's daughter, Gilda, the clown stops mocking and starts plotting to do away with Gilda's sleazy suitor.

What follows is a series of twists and turns en route to a three-tissue finale.

For a complete synopsis, click here.

Sung in Italian (with English supertitles), the three-act classic closes the Sacramento Opera's 2011-12 season this weekend with a pair of performances (8 p.m. Feb. 24; 2 p.m. Feb. 26) at the Sacramento Community Center Theatre, 1301 L St., Sacramento.

Accompanied by conductor Timm Rolek, the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra and the Sacramento Opera Chorus, "Rigoletto" features David Small (Rigoletto), Katrina Thurman (Gilda), Scott Ramsay (Duke of Mantua), Buffy Baggott (Maddalena) and Andrew Gangestad (Sparafucile).

Tickets, priced at $27 to $117, are available by calling (916) 737-1000, or by going to the Sacramento Opera website.

Kevin King: The idea man behind 'The Idea Man'

2012-02-18T17:15:22Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom

Playwright Kevin King's career has had more moving parts than the Orwellian tool factory in which his award-winning dramedy "The Idea Man" is set.

After earning a philosophy degree from the University of Michigan, King aborted plans for a master's degree ("I decided academia wasn't for me.") in favor of ricochet romances with journalism (he founded a pair of Detroit-based entertainment magazines, wrote film reviews, and freelanced features for a variety of publications, including The Sacramento Bee), documentary filmmaking ("Baker's and The Bird"), software engineering and tool-and-die mold-making.

And all of this before penning "The Idea Man," which plays Feb. 18-March 17, 2012, at Sacramento's California Stage. Originally produced at Hollywood's Elephant Theatre Company, "The Idea Man' was King's first full-length play (which just happened to earn him a 2008-09 Ovation Award for playwriting).

"I was the most surprised person in the room," said King, who admits not even his entourage of family and friends had much confidence he'd beat out his experienced and well-known competition and bring home the trophy, "If you watch me during the awards clip on YouTube, you'll see what I mean."

Though he pooh-poohs the notion that he's a genius ("I've worked with people who are way smarter."), King would be hard-pressed to successfully argue against being tagged anything less than a "Renaissance man."

Blessed with a "can-do" attitude, and a frighteningly disciplined work ethic he credits to his parents and wife, Sally, the Los Angeles-based King currently has more irons in the fire than a cavalry blacksmith. In addition to pursuing an MFA in dramatic writing at the University of Southern California (on scholarship no less!), King is preparing to open a new show in March at Chicago's American Theatre Company as part of its short play festival, and is in the process of developing a television pilot. He recently sold a screenplay to Northern Lights Films – a "psychological horror movie" – that's scheduled to start shooting this summer.

King, who will be participating in an audience talk-back session following California Stage's Feb. 18 opening of "The Idea Man," said his career history has garnered him substantial and varied "capital" from which to draw from.

Like most of his scripts, "The Idea Man" has roots planted in King's real life. On the surface, "The Idea Man" is about how monolithic corporations are prone to take advantage of their workers in order to keep costs down, bolster stock prices and keep shareholders happy.

But it's also about choices and how one balances financial needs (and wants) against morality.

Al Carson (Loren Taylor) is a tool room worker and union rep whose moral choices have lately lost out to his more base "needs." A jokester and womanizer, Al is also bit of a machine shop savant who has devised refinements for an essential piece of factory equipment – refinements that will not only make his job easier, but save his company millions.

But since engineering isn't part of Al's job description, the company's plant manager, Jim Simmons (Charlie Holliday), needs him to sign a release before they can put his designs to work. After an insulting initial "thank you" of a $100 check and engraved plaque fails to impress the crude but canny Al, Simmons recruits mid-level engineer Frank Thompson (Eric Baldwin) to alternately bully and cajole Al to hand over his rights.

Frank is close enough to the top of the pyramid to have seen the view from on high, but low enough to still be somewhat grounded. The decisions both Al and Frank have to make are at the heart of "The Idea Man."

King said he knew men like Al during his 15 years in software engineering and manufacturing, and that what stuck with him was how locked into their roles they seemed to be – so far removed from the "open to anything" outlook he has enjoyed for most of his life.

But King stressed that while there's much food for thought to chew on (its Hollywood staging was reviewed by the World Socialist Web Site), his play has plenty of humor.

"I want it to be funny," said King. "I don't want to hector the audience or lecture anybody – I want to deliver a great experience and share it with people."

Watch California Stage Producer Ray Tatar's interview with "The Idea Man" stars Loren Taylor and Michele Koehler on Access Sacramento's "Live Wire."

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The California Stage production of Kevin King's "The Idea Man"
WHEN: Feb. 18 through March 17, 2012; Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m.
WHERE: California Stage, 2509 R St., Sacramento, Calif.
WHO: Directed by Penny Kline, and featuring Loren Taylor (Al Carson), Michele Koehler (Francine Carson), Eric Baldwin (Frank Thompson), Christina Clem (Maureen Thompson), Charlie Holliday (Jim Simmons), West Ramsey (Gino), Jawara Duncan (Doyle) ad Nicholas Koehler (Bobby)
HOW MUCH: $12-$20
RESERVATIONS/INFO: (916) 451-5822; www.calstage.org

Good, good, good, good vibrations: Consummate cast overcomes overlong, disjointed script in Capital Stage's 'In the Next Room'

2012-01-30T14:10:52Z

With a title like "The Room Next Door, or the vibrator play," audiences might well expect a jolt or two – and not of the AC variety the newfangled electric gadgets of the late-19th century were known to occasionally deliver.

For those looking for a bit of shock and awe from J Street's "bold, intimate, live" theater, the current Capital Stage production of Sarah Ruhl's comedy does not disappoint. Though Ruhl's script goes for the gag switch a few too many times, and changes polarity with unsettling frequency, the uniformly strong cast led by Michael Stevenson, Elena Wright and Katie Rubin shine brightly and consistently.

Playing through Feb. 26, "The Room Next Door" is set in the late-19th century when the country was getting wired up, and men and women were getting buttoned up. As men's and women's fashions were adding layers and layers of floor-length outer and undergarments (fabulously designed here by costumer Gail Russell), so too were they masking their most primal emotions and desires in what was perceived as civility.

Dr. Givings (well-played with appropriate restraint by Stevenson) is a respected New York gynecologist who proudly refers to himself as a "man of science." His clinical bedside manner is respectful but wholly detached as he prattles on about the accomplishments of Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison and their contributions to the electrification of America while matter-of-factly applying what looks like a hand-held floor polisher to his patients' nether regions.

Convinced of the therapeutic value of the experimental contraption (which he believes cures a host of female-centric ailments, including "congested wombs" and the resulting "hysteria" they cause), Givings offers quick two- or three-minute applications (isn't that always the case?) to "release the juices downward."

He promises the women (and their husbands) who visit his home-based "operating theater" that they will see immediate results.

Among those calling on the good doctor are Mr. Daldry (a suitably stoic Alexander) and his wife, Sabrina (Rubin). Daldry is concerned that his wife is no longer the woman he married and that "there is very little sympathy between us."

"You have no idea what a source of anguish my wife's illness has been to me," he says, pausing just a moment before thinking to add, "And to her, of course."

Other concerns dominate the Givings household as well. Givings' wife Catherine is unable to properly nurse the couple's newborn daughter, who is losing weight. Offering the same clinical compassion to his wife as he does to his patients (whose moans and occasional cries to "God" go unnoticed), Givings flatly tells Catherine, "Your milk isn't adequate."

As he explains, he's not leveling blame, just stating the medical facts.

The grateful Mr. Daldry offers the services of their maid, who recently lost her own newborn, and is willing to serve as a wet nurse.

Frustrated by her inability to properly bond with her baby daughter, as well as with her husband, the always prowling, cat-like Catherine increasingly looks to her husbands' patients for conversation and more. One might think the Givings' home, which begins to feel like Grand Central Station in the second act, would annoy after a fashion, but Wright (in a marvelously antsy, even "hungry" performance) delivers a Catherine who doesn't mind the constant interruptions, but welcomes them to escape her passion-free home life.

"Experiment on me!" Catherine pleads to her husband, longing to witness the bright lights some of her husband's patients have reported seeing during their treatments. Essentially, she, too, would love to be blinded by science.

The era's repressed sexuality is repeatedly used as a punch line throughout the first act, as Sabrina's early trepidation evolves into a daily sprint through the Givings' parlor and into "the room next door" for longer and longer sessions.

These scenes become repetitive and merely stretch out what is already an overlong second act in which one wants to shout out, "Yeah – we get it! The vibrator is getting them off!" The larger joke (one that is also overused) is that the doctor seems oblivious to what his "treatment" is actually doing.

Adding to the bloated second act, and its deviation from massage-and-tickle farce to a more-serious treatise touching on everything from interracial relationships, gender preferences and death and dying, is the focus on two new characters – Elizabeth (Victoria Alvarez-Chacon), the Daldrys' African-American maid who is nursing the Givings' baby, and Leo Irving (Kirk Blackinton), an artist whose recent breakup during a European sojourn has resulted in a stifling creative malaise.

Those who love the vibrator of the title will love what the doc comes up with to alleviate Leo's artist's block.

Under the direction of Peter Mohrmann, there's really not a false moment delivered by the cast. Even in the most-absurd "Saturday Night Live" sketch-like moments of the play, they are true to their characters and rise above Ruhl's material. During the show's quieter scenes, such as in the climax (no pun intended) when Givings and his wife shed convention (and a good many layers of their wardrobe) to finally make a true emotional connection, Stevenson and Wright are absolutely mesmerizing.

Rubin, too, is very good – especially in her scenes with Wright in which the ladies let themselves into Givings' locked operating theater to do a little AC/DC experimentation on their own.

Alvarez-Chacon, who delivers her predominantly poignant lines as mandated by the script, seems a bit out of place. Her character seems like she's on loan from another play. It's not her fault – she, too, does the best she can with Ruhl's occasionally unruly script which is somewhat of a letdown following the pace and comedic tone of act one. Also, a case could be made that her character's speech about sexual satisfaction being best achieved through relations with a flesh-and-blood husband versus a power tool is a bit racist.

At Elizabeth's suggestion of such a scenario, both Catherine and Sabrina pooh-pooh the very thought, as if white, well-to-do women couldn't possibly understand the sexual honesty an "earthy" housekeeper of color such as Elizabeth takes for granted. One could also argue that Ruhl is saying that all lower-income African-American women have a genetic trait that makes slipping and sliding to Morris Day & The Time's "Jungle Love" second nature. Either way, it presents uncomfortable stereotyping.

Whether those who go to "In the Next Room, or the vibrator play" do so for pure titillation, for a glimpse at 19th-century sexual mores, as fuel for a discussion on playwriting, or simply to witness actors on top of their games, there are plenty of reasons to plug in.

JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: The Capital Stage production of Sarah Ruhl's "In the Next Room, or the vibrator play"
WHERE: Capital Stage, 2215 J St., Sacramento, Calif.
WHEN: Plays Jan. 25-Feb. 26, 2012, with performances at 7 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 7 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays (special Valentine's Day performance at 8 p.m. Feb. 14)
HOW MUCH: $20-$32; call (916) 995-5464, or go online at www.capstage.org
DIRECTOR: Peter Mohrmann
CAST: Michael Stevenson (Dr. Givings); Elena Wright (Catherine Givings); Katie Rubin (Sabrina Daldry); Greg Alexander (Mr. Daldry); Shannon Mahoney (Annie); Kirk Blackinton (Leo Irving); Victoria Alvarez-Chacon (Elizabeth)

Sacramento Theatre Company Cabaret Series revue aims to 'Make 'Em Laugh'

2012-01-28T12:13:36Z

Remember when musical theater was called musical comedy?

True, dramatic plot turns have consistenly been essential elements in most of the Great White Way's all-singing, all-dancing productions. From the issue of racial discrimination explored in Jerome Kern's landmark "Show Boat" (1927) to the gritty realities of abortion, rape and suicide facing teenagers in Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's "Spring Awakening" (2007), musicals often have featured some measure of conflict.

Maybe it's the rose-colored opera glasses audiences tend to slip on when looking back, but some still bemoan Broadway's shift away from happy-go-lucky book musicals in which the most-serious issue was the question of who's taking Laurey to the box social.

The truth is even after the musical scale tilted toward heavier fare (think "Evita," "Les Misérables," "Phantom of the Opera," "Side Show," "Parade," and "Spring Awakening"), most every tuner – no matter how dreary the score – continues to feature at least one or two songs that provide some measure of comic relief.

During this cold midwinter, Sacramento Theatre Company presents more than just a few LOL numbers in "Make 'Em Laugh: Broadway's Best Comedy Songs," its latest Cabaret Series revue.

Set to run Jan. 26-28, 2012, "Make 'Em Laugh" is geared to leaving audiences humming (and not bumming) as they exit the STC lobby by showcasing songs from such carefree shows of yesteryear as "Guys and Dolls," "Wonderful Town" and "Once Upon a Mattress."

Directed by STC Producing Director Michael Laun, with musical direction by Sam Schieber, "Make 'Em Laugh" features Jessica Crouch, Christine Nicholson, Madeleine Wieland, Robert Irvin, Devon Hayakawa and Laun. Accompaniment is provided by Schieber (piano) and Kellen Garcia (bass).

"Make 'Em Laugh" plays at 7 p.m. Jan. 26, 8 p.m. Jan. 27, and 2 and 8 p.m. Jan. 28. Tickets, priced at $25, are available by calling (916) 443-6722, or by going online at www.sactheatre.org. Please note that $12 student rush tickets go on sale 30 minutes prior to performances (subject to availability).

'Forbidden Broadway' vet Selby sings praises of Cosmopolitan Cabaret's game-for-anything cast

2012-01-27T03:04:26Z

William Selby remembers well when he first heard about a little cabaret show that was generating buzz among New York theater fans.

“I was a full-time actor at the time, and I had a roommate who was a waiter at this place – Palsson’s (Supper Club) on West 72nd Street,” Selby said. “He came home one night raving about something called ‘Forbidden Broadway’ and did a number for me.

“I fell off the bed laughing – I knew I loved it right then and there.”

Selby wasn’t the only one who embraced Gerard Alessandrini’s concept of a satiric revue that both celebrated and skewered musical theater.

Since its opening 30 years ago this month, “Forbidden Broadway” played almost continuously in New York (after more than 9,000 performances and 20 editions) before closing in 2009. Additionally, Alessandrini’s parodies of both popular and pompous Broadway tuners have spawned a worldwide cult fueled by a continuously updated score and countless tours and special engagements.

One such production, directed by Selby, opens in Sacramento Jan. 27 for an eight-week run at California Musical Theatre’s Cosmopolitan Cabaret.

Selby joined his first “Forbidden Broadway” cast in 1985 when he was selected for a Washington, D.C., production.

Just as he imagined, Selby found it was love at first spoof.

Beyond the joy of performing twisted versions of the Great White Way’s greatest hits to wildly appreciative audiences, Selby said he became a part of something more permanent than a Playbill listing.

“One of the nice benefits of being part of ‘Forbidden Broadway’ is that it’s a family,” he said. “I’ve made some of the truest friends I’ve had.”

“I’ve always come back to it because I love it,” Selby continued.

After 15 years of playing dozens of theater legends in their best and worst roles from San Diego to Singapore, Alessandrini and producer John Freedson suggested Selby join the team’s directorial staff.

“By that time, you know what works,” said Selby.

Since making his directorial debut in Minneapolis in 2001, he has led shows in New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Long Island, N.Y., and at sea onboard a Regent Seven Seas Cruise Lines voyage.

The production at the Cosmopolitan Cabaret marks his 15th show at the helm.

While he said he keeps “pretty busy” with “Forbidden Broadway,” both as a director and performer, the Emerson College alumnus continues to take acting gigs that are far from his “FB” roles, including playing the prompter opposite Keith Baker in “Barrymore.”

Selby said working on both sides of the “Forbidden Broadway” footlights gives him invaluable insight on what works – and who works – on stage.

He said he was quick to pick the four performers ultimately selected for Sacramento’s production from the L.A.-based auditions.

“I know in the audition if they can do it – it’s a matter of confidence,” Selby said.

Freedom from fear of failing is an important trait shared by successful “Forbidden Broadway” cast members, he continued. Most of those who try out aren’t professional impressionists, “But as we always say, you don’t have to be a great impersonator, just be willing to try.”

Selby gushed about the way his cast (Marc Ginsburg, Jerry Lee, Jessica Reiner-Harris, Melissa WolfKlain) has shed all self-doubts and vanity to take on the diverse numbers (and costumes) demanded of “Forbidden Broadway” performers.

Jerry Lee and Jessica Reiner-Harris have River City roots, and WolfKlain recently spent eight months at the Cosmopolitan Cabaret performing as the soubrette in “A Grand Night for Singing,” and Cindy in “Suds.”

Ginsburg is a Philadelphia native and former New Yorker now living in Los Angeles ~~Sacramento~~ .

“These guys have totally nailed it,” Selby said of the quartet that escorts their audiences through a whirlwind tour of classic and contemporary musicals from “Hello, Dolly!” to “Hairspray,” and from “Man of La Mancha” to “Jersey Boys.” “Even after all of these years, I don’t take the show lightly. They have to perform the numbers as if they’re actually doing the original shows.”

Selby stressed that one does not need to be a fan of said original productions – or musical theater in general – to enjoy a “Forbidden Broadway” revue.

“You don’t even need to be aware of all of the shows,” he said. “The costumes alone are hysterically funny.”

Selby said Alessandrini and his creative team are very conscious that their audiences aren’t all New Yorkers with easy access to the Times Square TKTS booth, and dismiss more-obscure titles from their list of shows ripe for mocking.

One of the things his New York-based team does in tailoring a “Forbidden Broadway” show for a particular city is to look at what tours recently played in that area. (“Mary Poppins,” which recently played at the Sacramento Community Center Theatre under the California Musical Theatre banner, is featured in Sacramento’s “FB” revue.)

But he also said they try not to underestimate audiences as they’ve found audiences in the hinterlands who were crazy for numbers culled from lesser-known shows.

Call “Forbidden Broadway” a parody, a spoof or a mock-musical, but Selby said it’s not an all-out farce.

“You can play it too broadly,” he said, switching gears to offer up an example of a Carol Channing impression gone awry.

“It can be grotesque,” he said. “There’s a level, and you have to keep that level.”

It’s a balancing act his current cast has perfected, he said.

“They’ll give you what you ask for – they’ve found capabilities even they didn’t know they had.”

Selby said all four shine as newly minted mimics.

“Jessica does a tremendous Patti LuPone. Marc’s Mandy Patinkin … well, I was proud of mine, but his is better. … Melissa – her Carol Channing is so funny. ... Jerry is a terrific Robert Goulet. These four have very strong voices.”

Along with kudos to his cast, Selby applauded the California Musical Theatre/Cosmopolitan Cabaret creative team, including Executive Producer Richard Lewis, Artistic Director Glenn Casale and ~~Company Manager~~ Cosmopolitan Cabaret Associate Producer Marlene Shire-Anderson.

“I’ve decided this is the best team by far that I’ve ever worked with,” said Selby. “They dot every ‘I,’ cross every ‘T.’”

JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: “Forbidden Broadway,” a musical revue parodying classic and contemporary musical theater hits from “Man of La Mancha” to “Wicked.”
WHEN: Jan. 27-March 18, 2012 (7 p.m. Wednesdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays)
WHERE: Cosmopolitan Cabaret, 1000 K St., Sacramento
TICKETS: $33-$43; call (916) 557-1999 or go online at www.tickets.com
FOR INFO: www.calmt.com

Editor's Note: Edits have been made to this article after publication.

'Aliens With Extraordinary Skills': All they need is love

2012-01-17T02:08:55Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom

Everyone wants to be appreciated for who they; for their personalities, for their accomplishments, for their talents – for their “extraordinary skills.”

On the surface, “Aliens With Extraordinary Skills” – Saviana Stanescu’s seriocomic play now on stage at the B Street Theatre – is a story of the new generation of immigrants who are coming to America.

Some, like Nadia (Stephanie Altholz) and Borat (John Lamb) have landed with less-than-legal credentials and are on the run from the INS.

Lupita (Rinabeth Apostol), a wannabe actress from the Dominican Republic who pays the rent by working as an exotic dancer and renting out her living room, is more pragmatic. She has followed the rules and holds a Green Card.

Also in the mix is Bob (Brian Rife), a recently divorced former musician, who connects with Lupita via Craigslist in order to buy her used couch (and provide a handy love interest).

Stanescu, herself a Romanian immigrant, focuses on what she knows.

In her center ring are Nadia and Borat, professional clowns from Eastern Europe who have given their trust (and most of their money) to an unscrupulous agency responsible for arranging work visas on behalf of “aliens with extraordinary skills.”

But the duo soon discovers the circus they were told had hired them does not exist, and with no employer to sponsor them, the INS has politely told them to drop their dreams, pick up their luggage, and exit coast left.

The chronically upbeat Nadia, who has recently been orphaned, and can’t bear the thought of returning to the “unhappiest country in the world” where she can’t realize her dreams of making people laugh, follows Borat to New York City.

More than a land of endless McDonald’s PlayPlaces where happy-go-lucky, balloon animal-loving kids and their parents frolic, it’s also the home of her “Sex and the City” idols. Nadia may want to bring laughter to the Big Apple’s populace, but she would also love to have a Mr. Big bring her a perfectly brewed cup of coffee to her Manhattan bedroom.

Once in New York (well represented by Catherine Frye’s scenic design), Borat finds refuge in the basement of a fellow immigrant, for whom he participates in an illegal cab-driving operation, and Nadia plants herself on Lupita’s couch, suggesting they could be like “sisters.” Enter Bob, six-pack in hand, who is slow to let go of his claim on Lupita’s couch and slower still to let go of the notion that he’s God’s gift to women.

From the first few scenes, one is inclined to feel smug in the feeling that the storyline is an express train to predictability.

But what might seem to be another made-for-TV plot featuring a bumpy romance sprinkled with mild laughs and even milder conflict, actually develops into a charming, heartfelt play that’s more amusing, moving and surprising than typical Hallmark Channel fare.

Credit director Buck Busfield’s well-balanced cast, and Altholz and Lamb in particular, for extending both the highs and lows of Stanescu’s script.

Altholz, who, like Lamb, is a graduate of the B Street’s apprenticeship program, and a current company member, is both sweetly funny and sad as the fresh-faced, rainbow sock-wearing naïf whose innocent desire to make others laugh is shaken by the harsh brutality of New York’s flip side.

In handling Nadia’s accent, Altholz’s expert vocal modulations – which are showcased during her squirrel-and-dog balloon animal playlets – simply make one laugh. Call them guilty pleasures, but they’re just goofy bits that serve to leaven more serious moments and they’re welcome.

Borat, too, transitions from what looks to be a static “clown,” into a more fully developed character with a clearer set of priorities. The leather jacket-wearing, cell phone-snapping Borat is revealed to be a much more sensitive and family-oriented than his initial wild-and-crazy, vodka-swilling, Green Card-hungry persona might suggest, making the show’s longest (and most satisfying) journey.

During the course of Lamb’s time on stage, one can almost see the Lupita-chasing Borat’s heart grow three sizes larger. This is an impressive achievement considering the organ Borat spends most of the play working to triple in size.

As Lupita, Apostol offers a more serious performance from start to finish, providing a no-nonsense center for the dreamers who enter her orbit. She, too, has her dreams, and in one the play’s poignant moments, psychs herself up for another “performance” at the club where she dances by repeating the mantra that it’s simply a role she’s playing. Lupita also is changed by her association with Nadia and Borat, realizing that what she needs may not have been what she wanted.

In the larger sense, we see that the word “aliens” in the title is more than a reference to citizenship, but to a sense of belonging.

Not only are Nadia, Borat and Lupita “aliens” in the legal sense, but are alienated from their dreams, emotions and – most importantly – from real, human connections.

Beer-guzzling Bob, though an American by birth, is also alone amidst the bright lights of the big city. Despite his bravado and easy-going (though sometimes obnoxious) personality, Bob’s over-eager attempts to jump back into the saddle are merely avenues to escape loneliness.

Kudos to Rife for being able to transform Bob from irritating has-been musician to hero – a Dudley Do-Right who is actually as sweet and loyal as the wide-eyed Nadia.

B Street acting interns Katie Rose Krueger and Stephen Rowland, who play the INS agents in pursuit of Nadia and Borat, are a Greek chorus of sorts, popping up to provide a bit of narrative and wardrobe-changing help here and there.

They provide the perfect support for leads Altholz, Lamb, Rife and Apostol, who easily move the audience from giggles to gasps. One might even want to change the title from “Aliens With Extraordinary Skills” to “Actors With Extraordinary Skills.”

JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: The B Street Theatre's production of Saviana Stanescu's "Aliens With Extraordinary Skills"
WHEN: Jan. 15-Feb. 26, with performances at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 2 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays
WHERE: B Street Theatre Mainstage, 2727 B St., Sacramento
CAST: Stephanie Altholz (Nadia); John Lamb (Borat); Rinabeth Apostol (Lupita); Bob (Brian Rife); Katie Rose Krueger (INS agent 1); Stephen Rowland (INS agent 2)
DIRECTOR: Buck Busfield
HOW MUCH: $18-$30; $5 student rush
INFORMATION: (916) 443-5300, www.bstreettheatre.org

B Street's Stephanie Altholz: 'There's no other place I'd rather be'

2012-01-15T13:22:57Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom

People around the world may burn the Stars and Stripes, hang our leaders in effigy and protest the U.S. government’s involvement in everything from the assassination of foreign leaders to the selection of Miss Universe finalists, but the United States remains a top destination for those seeking a better life.

And whether one is an illegal immigrant from Moldava or Russia, a Green Card holder from the Dominican Republic, or even a divorced good ol’ boy from the Deep South, nothing embodies the American Dream like New York City.

It’s a story old as time, a song as old as rhyme, but given a fresh chorus by playwright Saviana Stanescu, herself a Romanian immigrant, whose quartet of struggling dreamers find their paths crossing in her 2008 dramedy “Aliens With Extraordinary Skills.”

Stephanie Altholz, who plays Nadia, a classically trained clown (her “extraordinary skill”) from Moldava in the B Street Theatre’s Mainstage production of “Aliens” (opening Jan. 15), said it’s easy for her to relate to the young woman’s cockeyed optimism and unabashed desire to succeed at her craft while taking a bite out of the Big Apple.

“Nadia has this line: ‘I feel like it’s impossible to die here.’ She’s so naïve,” said the 25-year-old Altholz, accentuating and stretching out the word “naïve” like an articulated Gray Line tour bus. “She’s obsessed with ‘Sex and the City,’ and even when she discovers it’s not what she’s seen in movies or on TV, and she finds it’s still a very, very tough city, she still loves it. Her romantic side is unstoppable.”

“I love her – I do.”

Like Nadia, Altholz set her sights on NYC as the epicenter of creative fulfillment.

“I was always interested in acting,” said the Illinois native, whose family – guided by her airline pilot stepfather – landed in Sacramento midway through her high school career. “I just knew that was what I wanted to do. I remember being in the seventh grade (in Arizona) and being told I couldn’t take drama until the eighth grade, and being furious about it. That was my first memory of desperately wanting to do it.”

“I was the youngest in the family, and I’m sure there’s some sort of psychological reason for my wanting to be the entertainer in the family,” said Altholz. “When people were fighting I made them laugh – or wanted to – at all costs. I always felt appreciated for it, never vilified for it. I never felt I should shut my mouth. I’m lucky. I know a lot of people aren’t.”

Following graduation from Sacramento’s Rio Americano High School, and a string of classes taught by local theater guru Ed Claudio, Altholz enrolled in the two-year program at New York’s New Actors Workshop.

While at the lauded New York school co-founded by director Mike Nichols, she was immersed in a mix of Stanislavski-based “Method” training and improvisational theater skills – as well as a myriad of New York-centric life experiences understandably absent from the school’s catalog and the Time Out guide.

“I worked in restaurants, went on auditions, lived in ‘interesting’ places,” said Altholz. “You get hard when you live in New York – things stop fazing you so much. I lived in the Bushwick neighborhood in Brooklyn, right on the border of Queens. It was terrifying, it was unsafe. Once, somebody got shot on my stoop.”

“I was home and I heard the gunshots and there was a dead body,” Altholz remembers. “There was a break-in when I was home, my roommate almost got attacked. Then there was the time my brother was visiting and taking a shower, and the bathroom wall crumbled into the bathroom. I look back at it now and it sounds awful, but at the time it was just another story. I adapted pretty quickly.”

Altholz said she would keep such tales of the city from her mother as long as possible (“No need to make her worry.”), but there were many. While perfect fodder for a late-night chat show visit with David, Craig or the Jimmys, she knew some of her acting school anecdotes might not elicit foot-stomping laughs or thunderous applause from mom and dad.

“My mom, who has a PhD, always emphasized education,” said Altholz, whose older siblings are both doctoral candidates. “But she understood very early on I wasn’t a dilettante, that I wasn’t dabbling in acting. She knew it was something I wanted to do the rest of my life. My parents were always supportive and were 100 percent behind my decision to pursue theater.”

But also like Nadia, Altholz herself occasionally had cause to rethink her choices.

“I think it’s the greatest city in the world, but sometimes I hated it,” admitted Altholz. “Like when you forget to pick up your prescription and you have to get back on the subway at 10:30 p.m. when you’re sick with a cold, and someone shows you his penis on the way to the pharmacy.”

Despite the hardships, Altholz embraced Gotham and piled on as many or more positive experiences as negative ones, including working with the Dutch West sketch comedy/web video troupe, and performing at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater in Chelsea where she had the opportunity to rub elbows with the likes of Bobby Moynihan, who went on to NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”

Nadia’s naivety extends beyond her New York state of mind, and her desire to satisfy artistic desires, said Altholz.

“She feels the same way about love,” said Altholz. “She wants to fall in love, live in the city and meet her Mr. Big. And New York, more so than any other city, can take so many shapes and provide so many things. It’s a character of its own. It really is a magical city – as cheesy as that sounds.”

The spell cast by New York City lasted two years beyond her 2006 graduation, but by the end of those 24 months Altholz was feeling restless.

“I moved back to California because I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do,” she said. “I wanted to act. And I defined being a successful actress as someone who made their living doing it.”

Like Dorothy Gale, who discovered all her heart’s desires could be found in her own backyard, Altholz found her own scarecrow, tin woodsman and lion in the personages of the B Street Theatre’s Buck Busfield, Jerry Montoya and Dave Pierini, who auditioned Altholz for the company’s internship program while she was still in New York.

Her internship, which included stints with the B Street’s traveling children’s troupe, a Mainstage debut in 2008’s “A Christmas Carol,” and occasional trips up very tall ladders for tech work, led to her selection as a full-fledged company member and the title role in “Extraordinary Things: Through the Eyes of Anne Frank.”

Last year, she put her New York-forged improv skills to good use as part of the B Street’s “B on K” improvisation performance at the Cosmopolitan Cabaret.

Altholz solidifies the connection between her and Nadia a bit further.

“I think we both have been through a lot and both in the end have a sort of unswerving feeling of what we want and what’s going to get in our way. But it doesn’t change the prize that we have our eye on.”

“I am in my definition of success, so I’m very happy and blessed to have found the B Street Theatre,” she continued. “I love every person here. There’s no other place I’d rather be.”

JUST THE FACTS
WHAT: The B Street Theatre's Mainstage production of Saviana Stanescu's "Aliens With Extraordinary Skills"
WHEN: Previews 5 p.m. Jan. 14 and 2 p.m. Jan. 15; opens 7 p.m. Jan. 15; continues through Feb. 26 with performances at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays; 2 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays
WHERE: B Street Theatre Mainstage, 2727 B St., Sacramento
DIRECTOR: Buck Busfield
CAST: Stephanie Altholz (Nadia); John Lamb (Borat); Rinabeth Apostel (Lupita); Bob (Brian Rise); Katie Rose Krueger (INS agent 1); Stephen Rowland (INS agent 2)
TICKETS: $18-$30; $5 student rush; $10 preview performances
INFORMATION: (916) 443-5300, www.bstreettheatre.org

'The Giver' to open on B Street Family Series stage

2012-01-14T13:46:48Z

“Imagine there's no countries ... It isn't hard to do ... Nothing to kill or die for ... And no religion, too ... Imagine all the people living life in peace.”

In “The Giver,” playwright Eric Coble’s adaptation of Lois Lowry’s 1993 Newberry Medal award-winning novel, John Lennon’s concept of a Utopia free of conflict where all the people share all the world has come to pass.

There have been a few compromises on the way to this “same” new world, however. Yes, war and want are things of the past. But there is also no passion, no feverish love — and no choices.

Genetic engineers have even rendered all people colorblind as a means to further homogenize a once-disparate (and desperate) society.

Opening Saturday, Jan. 14, as part of the B Street Theatre’s Family Series, “The Giver” looks at the flipside of such a reality – a view of the emotional turmoil facing children who have been taught to conform since birth, and who are then faced at the dawn of adolescence with integrating their emerging gifts as individuals.

“This is a coming-of-age story about a boy deciding his own fate, and the consequences that come with it,” said director Laura Baker. “This is also a show about censorship, about choice. If we take away the ability to choose, we take away what it means to be human.”

“We follow Jonas (Grant Jordan), who has just reached the age of 12, and is assigned the coveted position of ‘Receiver of Memories.’ Through this knowledge that he receives from the previous receiver, who’s now called ‘The Giver’ (Gary S. Martinez), it changes his life and society entirely.”

“He’s absolutely frightened by it,” continued Baker, 23, a B Street artistic associate who graduated from the company’s internship program for directors in 2011. “His society doesn’t understand what it means. It’s a position of honor, but not of power. It sets you apart, so it’s something to fear.

“They spend their childhoods being part of a group. They don’t know how to be individuals.”

A change of pace from previous B Street Family Series offerings that have been heavy on laughs and history lessons, “The Giver” has been called controversial due to its comparatively mature subject matter.

It’s a label that Baker doesn’t completely agree with.

“We don’t give kids the credit they deserve,” said Baker, who recommends the play for ages 10 and older. “It’s a story that they can fully relate to.”

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The B Street Theatre's Family Series production of "The Giver," Eric Coble's stage adaptation of Lois Lowry's 1993 novel
WHEN: Previews 1 p.m. Jan. 14; opens 4 p.m. Jan. 14; continues through Feb. 19 with performances at 1 and 4 p.m. Saturdays, and 1 and 4 p.m. Sundays
WHERE: B Street Theatre B3 Stage, 2727 B St., Sacramento
DIRECTOR: Laura Baker
CAST: Grant Jordan (Jonas); Gary S. Martinez (The Giver); Brittni Barger (Lily); Erika Lecaj (Fiona/Rosemary); Brandon Alexander (Asher); Jason Kuykendall (Father); Elisabeth Nunziato (Mother/Elder)
TICKETS: $13-$22 ($7-$10 preview)
INFORMATION: (916) 443-5300, www.bstreettheatre.org

photographs by Barry WIsdom

Al Stewart presents pre-Christmas treat to fans at Harlow's

2011-12-27T09:03:36Z

Photographs by Barry Wisdom

There's a wee bit more gray in the thinning hair of Scottish singer-songwriter Al Stewart, but the 66-year-old performer best known for such hits as "Year of the Cat" and "Time Passages" presented a note-perfect pre-holiday show to a packed crowd at Sacramento's Harlow's Dec. 18.

His wry sense of humor was on full display – as was his guitar virtuosity – as he shared the stage with fellow guitarist David Nachmanoff.

The long hair from the mid- to late-'70s may be gone, but his voice and nimble fingers seemed to have been frozen in time.

Here are some shots from the Dec. 18 show – frozen in time.

Crest to host holiday film fests for fans of camp, Capra and corpuscles

2011-12-15T12:20:26Z

For those whose Christmas season isn't complete without watching Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed stroll through Bedford Falls warbling "Buffalo Gals," Sacramento's Crest Theatre is bringing director-screenwriter Frank Capra's 1946 Liberty Films classic, "It's a Wonderful Life," back to the big screen for nine holiday screenings Dec. 22-24.

It's just one of three yuletide-themed events scheduled for the 975-seat art deco movie palace during the week leading up to Christmas.

Also on tap: the G-rated "Santa's Cool Holiday Film Festival" (Dec. 17 and 18), a syndicated package of "Greetings from the Theater Management" trailers, vintage TV segments, cartoons and the so-bad-it's-good 1964 theatrical feature "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians."

And for those who prefer strychnine to egg nog, an adults-only (18 and older) holiday movie edition of the Crest's long-running Trash Film Orgy series will showcase the 1984 UK slasher flick "Don't Open Till Christmas," along with live pre-show entertainment, including a "Trash Santa" accompanied by a posse of scantily clad elves, games, prizes and a full bar (Dec. 17).

While the Crest has established a successful tradition of showing a much-beloved, classic Christmas title each holiday season, general manager Sid Garcia-Heberger said slotting a quirky, retro festival featuring a lesser-known cinematic centerpiece like "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," or scheduling a decidedly edgy attempt at counter-programming such as TFO's holiday show, is "a roll of the dice."

"We've been showing 'It's a Wonderful Life' for the last 20 years, and in the early years business was OK, but not fantastic," said Garcia-Heberger. "But in the past five or six years, when we've been alternating 'It's a Wonderful Life' with 'White Christmas,' they seemed to really catch on."

Helping ticket sales along has been the Crest's recent partnership with social media outlets, whose heavily discounted offers like Groupon's recent 50 percent-off deal for "a movie outing to 'It's a Wonderful Life' with large popcorn and large drink" resulted in more than 1,000 $9 admission/concessions package purchases.

"But this year's festival shows are new for us," Garcia-Heberger said. "It's hard for us to gauge at this point."

But Garcia-Heberger, an admitted Christmas fan whose family's own holiday traditions include listening to the 1947 Lux Radio Theatre production of "It's a Wonderful Life" while on local road trips, said she's hopeful that the nostalgia factor and innocence of Santa's Cool Holiday Film Festival, and the "irreverent Christmas fun" of the TFO holiday show, will capture the attention of both the unapologetically sappy fans of Dec. 25 like herself, as well as those whose take on the holiday season is more "snarkly" than sparkly.

Among that latter group – who are unlikely to queue up for a chance to tearfully watch Zuzu's dad "paste" her precious flower's petals back into place, but are eager to embrace a humor-laced '80s film featuring a serial killer out to off anyone donning red velvet and fur ("Fur is murder," after all) – is TFO Productions co-founder Christy Savage.

"I'm pretty damn excited about our TFO show this month," said Savage, who formed TFO Productions with fellow artists/filmmakers Darin Wood and Amy Slockbower in 2001. "I think it'll be a fun TFO show, it's pretty ridiculous. I'm more excited about Christmas than I have been for ages."

Though the six to 10 annual TFO shows have consistently proven popular – especially those featuring films by Russ Meyers, Roger Corman, and anything with a zombie – Garcia-Heberger is guardedly optimistic about the TFO show.

"The TFO audience is definitely not your general John Q. Public," she said. "They are seeking out unusual, different things for their entertainment."

In the beginning, she said the Crest had expected TFO audiences to be primarily 20-somethings. But as the series continued, they saw that TFO ticket buyers were generally in their late-30s or early-40s.

Garcia-Heberger said she and her TFO partners thinks the Crest finally has the perfect mix of salty-and-sweet holiday treats this year, and that there really is something for everyone.

The shows in detail

Described as "the funkiest, silliest and least emotional movie experience you'll have this holiday season," Santa's Cool Holiday Film Festival is a cornucopia of Christmas hors d'oeuvres ranging from such tasty tidbits as the Fleischer Studio's original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer animated short, to a main course that rockets a kidnapped St. Nicholas to the Red Planet where he must outwit the Martian high command in order to return to Earth and save Christmas.

With its cardboard robots and television-antenna Martian headgear, "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" is ripe for mockery, and one of the best jibes was delivered by orbiting space janitor Joel Hodgson and his robot pals (and fellow Satellite of Love castaways), Crow and Tom Servo, in a nonstop stream of sarcastic comments during their screening of the film on a December 1991 episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

That episode was later included on Rhino Theatricals' 1988 DVD release "The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection – The Essentials."

In 2010, Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark) added her own twisted take on "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" when her "Elvira's Movie Macabre" series put the bite on the what has been called one of the worst movies ever made. Like "MST3K's" mock-fest, Peterson's television "roast" is now available on DVD.

In 2005 – more than four decades after the film's theatrical release – Roadside Amusements published Lou Harry's novelization of Glenville Mareth's screenplay – proof, of a sort, that "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" (and its peppy theme song, "Hooray for Santa Claus") will live forever as successive generations discover what can be best described as Flash Gordon meets Kris Kringle. As a special treat, Roadside Amusements' hardcover book also includes a stocking stuffer: a DVD copy of the movie.

Also on the Santa's Cool Holiday Film Festival bill: two of Max Fleischer's classic pre-War theatrical cartoons, 1936's "Christmas Comes But Once a Year," in which "whimsical inventor Grampy creates a whole Santa’s workshop worth of toys for some poor orphans," and 1944's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," a charming adventure that should not be confused with the 1964 Rankin/Bass TV classic.

But the Crest's cool yule lineup doesn't end there, fans of Christmases past will get to set their Wayback Machine dials for additional stops in the 1950s and '60s to visit such cathode-ray icons as Ozzie and Harriet Nelson and their sons David and Ricky, ventriloquist Shari Lewis and her sock-puppet pal Lamb Chop, and marionette Howdy Doody and his comrade, Buffalo Bob Smith.

Rounding out the roster of retro shorts are a series of "Greetings From The Theater Management" trailers that were made for cinema audiences in the days when filmgoers came dressed in suits and dresses, and looked forward (literally and figuratively) to take in a widescreen VistaVision spectacular, and not straight down to focus on a 2-inch cell phone text.

Like Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," the premise of Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" has seemingly been adapted a million or so times, with each retelling focusing on how the suicidal protagonist has positively touched the lives of those in his orbit - and how his life has truly been wonderful. Among the latest TV shows receiving the "IWL" treatment was the Syfy network's "Warehouse 13."

And also like "A Christmas Carol," the sentimental "It's a Wonderful Life" has spawned its own roster of parodies, including "Saturday Night Live's" uproarious "lost ending" sketch featuring Dana Carvey as a revenge-minded George Bailey, Jon Lovitz as the evil Mr. Potter, and Jan Hooks as a club-wielding Mary Bailey.

The Trash Film Orgy's holiday show may feature an honest-to-badness movie ("Don't Open Till Christmas"), but it may be the "extras" like the "Trash Santa" and his bevy of comely elves that may turn out to be the real stars of the show.

"There will be a Santa's workshop where you can make crafts, have your picture taken with the sexy elves, and have a drink at the bar," said Christy Savage, co-founder of TFO. "And if you come in costume, you can save a dollar on admission."

Savage said audience members are encouraged to "play along," and embrace the interactive nature of the event.

"It's all about fun," she said. "It's an adult, interactive type of fun, in which we encourage audience participation – even heckling."

Just the facts

Santa's Cool Holiday Film Festival | 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 17 and 18 | Featuring "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians," Max Fleischer's theatrical cartoons "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1944) and "Christmas Comes But Once a Year" (1936), plus additional shorts. | Regular admission prices apply ($6 for first show of the day – all seats; $9.50 for afternoon and evening shows – $6 for children, seniors and students)

Trash Film Orgy Xmas | 10:30 p.m. (doors open for pre-show festivities at 10 p.m.) Dec. 17) | 18 and older only | Featuring the movie "Don't Open Till Christmas," plus art-and-crafts, "Trash Santa" and his sexy elves, and more. | $10 admission ($9 if in costume)

"It's a Wonderful Life" | 1:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Dec. 22-24 | Starring Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, Thomas Mitchell | Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes | $9.50 general admission; $6 seniors/students/matinees (Groupon alert: everyone who purchased a Groupon deal for this film may exchange their Groupon certificate for a specific show time and a concession coupon in person at the Crest during regular operating hours.) | Advance tickets available online at www.tickets.com.

Directions to the Crest

For more info: (916) 44-CREST

Marching bands, sports cars and beauty queens featured in Sacramento's annual Santa Parade

2011-12-11T21:34:47Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom

It wasn't the glitziest parade on the block, and more ads passed by than during a Talladega Superspeedway Nascar event, but the smiles that beamed from the shoulder-to-shoulder spectators at Sacramento's 2011 Santa Parade are the stuff that Christmas dreams are made of.

Presented Dec. 9 by D&H Special Event Management, the capital city's 29th annual holiday tradition once again delighted young and old with an eclectic lineup of merry marching bands, a spate of sports cars, a bunch of Boy Scouts, a gaggle of Girl Scouts and a Santa in a pear tree. (OK – a Santa in a horse-drawn carriage.)

Horses aside, chances are if it had an internal-combustion engine, it traversed the parade route. A two-story grocery cart, sponsored by Save Mart Supermarkets, provided an impressive visual and provided a distinct counterpoint to the mini CHiPs cart that also "roared" past. Along with the novelty vehicles, there were ample examples of high-powered parade staples, including a volley of vintage Chevrolet Corvettes (many of which squired local pageant winners) and siren-blasting police cruisers.

In addition, equestrians mounted up, beauty queens charmed, the Sacramento River Cats' mascot Dinger waved, and KCRA news anchor/reporter Walt Gray donned his motocycle leathers to enliven the Saturday-morning event which launched at the corner of Ninth and I streets, and completed its rectangular route at the Westfield Downtown Plaza Ice Rink at Seventh and K streets.

KCRA and the now-defunct Weinstock's department store founded the parade in 1983, with D&H taking the reins in 1991.

Today, some 16 "presenting partners" sponsor the event, including Westfield Downtown Plaza, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Macy's and Sactown magazine.

Iceland celebrates North Sacramento's 21st tree lighting with free skating

2011-12-09T06:59:44Z

The North Sacramento Chamber of Commerce may have thrown its annual holiday tree lighting a 21st birthday party Dec. 8, but even the adults who donned skates, munched cookies and quaffed hot chocolate eschewed the slightest trace of yuletide cynicism in favor of youthful Christmas-morning smiles.

Hosted by Iceland, the men and women, boys and girls who laced up courtesy of the venerable Del Paso Boulevard ice rink, barely noticed when the switch was thrown, and pumped current through the strings of multicolored lights that formed the "tree."

Those who didn't hit the ice themselves, found plenty of pre-Christmas cheer in picking out rinkside vantage points to watch singles, couples and entire families merrily go 'round and 'round covered by nothing but a starry, starry night.

Faith-based community joins forces with nonprofits to offer 'Winter Sanctuary' to homeless

2011-12-07T00:55:24Z

In spite of a $75,000 funding shortfall, Volunteers of America, Sacramento Steps Forward and Sacramento’s interfaith community are going forward with plans to offer nightly shelter and meals to Sacramento-area homeless men and women.

The second season of the collaborative “Winter Sanctuary” program began Dec. 1, and is once again offering people in need safe and comfortable shelter in the dining halls, community rooms and gyms of faith-based centers throughout Greater Sacramento.

While funding has only been secured to guarantee operation through January 2012, Volunteers of America Greater Sacramento & Northern Nevada and Sacramento Steps Forward have decided to open the doors now to provide at least two months of shelter for as many as 100 people each night – 100 people who might otherwise be forced to sleep outside in the cold.

“The other shelters in town are at capacity with long waiting lists,” said Leo McFarland, president and CEO of Volunteers of America Greater Sacramento & Northern Nevada. “With the temperature dropping, we couldn’t wait until all of the funding is secured. We are prayerful that the rest of the money will come in and we won’t have to close after only 60 days, but that’s a possibility.”

Over the course of the inaugural Winter Sanctuary season, which ran from Dec. 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011, dedicated volunteers from 24 host congregations provided shelter nightly.

During this period, some 2,000 of these interfaith volunteers not only purchased, prepared and served dinner and breakfast to more than 545 of their neighbors in need, but gave haircuts, offered assistance with résumés, showed movies and engaged their often-isolated guests in conversation.

“Winter Sanctuary was one of the very best outreach events that we have been involved with in years,” said Arcade Church Pastor Dann Bryant. “We didn’t know what to expect, and we were pleasantly surprised. It truly far exceeded my expectations. It was just a great blessing for the volunteers who participated, and for the people it was administered to.”

Through the generosity of the participating congregations, the Winter Sanctuary program was able to operate at just 25 percent of the cost of a dedicated winter “overflow” shelter.

Further, more than 80 individuals, and 25 business and civic associations made financial contributions and gave in-kind donations in support of the program’s inaugural year.

Those houses of worship scheduled to provide shelter and meals during the 2011-12 Winter Sanctuary program are:

Arcade Church
Capital Christian Center
First Baptist Church of Elk Grove
First Covenant Church of Sacramento
Mars Hill Church
New Life Community Church
Restoration Life
The Rock of Roseville
Sacramento Central Seventh-day Adventist Church
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church
St. Mark’s United Methodist Church
St. Paul Baptist Church
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
Sun River Church
This Is Pentecost Fellowship Ministries
Trinity Life Center
Westminster Presbyterian Church

Those interested in making a contribution toward the 2011-12 Winter Sanctuary program may do so online at sacramentostepsforward.org, volunteersofamerica-sac.org, or by calling (916) 557-9772.

Established locally in 1911, the Greater Sacramento & Northern Nevada affiliate of Volunteers of America is one of the largest providers of social services in the region, operating more than 40 programs dedicated to ending homelessness, supporting the most vulnerable populations and transforming communities for the better.

Its ministry of service supports and empowers America’s most vulnerable groups, including at-risk youth, seniors, homeless individuals and families, people with disabilities, and those recovering from addictions.

Sacramento Steps Forward is an initiative to rally the community towards a shared and collective effort to end homelessness.

Members include business and faith community leaders, foundations, service providers, homeless and community representatives, law enforcement and elected officials from local cities and Sacramento County.

Watch an animated slideshow from the inaugural Winter Sanctuary season.

Disclosure: Barry Wisdom is the public relations and marketing officer for Volunteers of America Greater Sacramento & Northern Nevada.

Natomas tree lighting suffers gusts, but boasts gusto

2011-12-02T03:22:34Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom

Wednesday's Grinchy wind storm may have turned the centerpiece of the South Natomas Community Center's holiday tree lighting into a slightly bent, Whoville caricature, but the shiny bright ornaments, entertainment, refreshments and neighborhood fellowship were straight-up festive.

Emceed by Sacramento Councilmember Steve Cohn, the ceremony featured music by the drummer boys and girls of the Natomas High School Drum Corps, as well as the Natomas Middle School Choir and the Heritage Park Chorale.

"Santa Claus" also made an appearance to lend an ear to the whispered wishes of the children during the event's post-lighting reception in the community center.

Waterford Crystal's O'Leary returns to Sacramento for sparkling introduction

2011-11-18T14:33:07Z

As a child in Waterford, Ireland, a breezy, often cold yet verdant town where time seems to move at a slower pace, Jim O’Leary often escaped to more exciting locales via movies — especially documentaries.

“I always loved the sound of foreign places, I loved geography,” said O’Leary, design director for Waterford Crystal. “I’d even collect the (overseas) stamps that came in the mail.”

In 1960, just barely into his teens, he found another escape, however, in the form of a job at the town’s most famous employer, Waterford Crystal.

“We had this wonderful factory that gave employment to the local community,” he said. “At 14, I was good at drawing and was attracted to the company in a very special way — I loved the glamor and knew that they exported to Japan, Australia, the U.S., Europe, Singapore, Bangkok. These were magical names for a 14-year-old kid in a small town. I knew if I got involved with the company I’d be in a position to be a part of that.”

Beginning as an apprentice in 1960, he qualified to become a cutter after five years. In 1968, he earned the title of “master cutter.”

But it was his next step in raising up the company ranks that would truly open the door to exotic lands for the soft-spoken O’Leary. That came in 1983 when he decided to pursue a job in Waterford’s vaunted design studio.

“I was lucky the company afforded me that opportunity,” said O’Leary.

Joining the ranks of the design team provided O’Leary the opportunity to combine his passion for design with his long-festering wanderlust, and began traveling across the globe as a Waterford Crystal brand ambassador.

O’Leary, who was named head of design in 1988, has contributed a host of memorable pieces and series.

According to Waterford, among his most significant designs are: the Araglin, Carina and Castlemaine patterns; The Romance of Ireland collection; and the Star of Peace, which were the first Waterford Crystal panels to be placed on the famous Millenium Ball in Times Square in 1999.

A regular visitor to NBC’s “Today Show,” O’Leary travels some five months out of the year. He is currently celebrating 27 years of personal appearances with Macy’s.

His current tour of Macy’s West stores includes a signing session at 5 p.m. today, Nov. 18, at Macy’s Westfield Downtown Plaza, where he will introduce Waterford’s new “Snowflake Wishes” collection – a 10-year series of holiday ornaments, champagne flutes, barware and giftware packaged in satin-lined silver gift boxes.

“Each edition presents a theme of global inspiration,” said Noelle Malone, Waterford’s West Coast regional merchandise manager, “a ‘wish’ adorned with a colorful ribbon and collectible silver snowflake charm. This year’s premiere edition is 'Wishes for Joy.'”

O’Leary recalled his first few years of personal appearances as thrilling.

“I sat behind a beautiful desk with flowers, dressed myself up, and talked of how we romanced the crystal and Waterford’s history and culture,” he said. “And if they bought a piece, I’d sign it.”

But the novelty of those early days of international travel was soon replaced by something more substantial and meaningful to O’Leary.

“After three or four years, we realized they were coming back. They were collectors in a very serious way, and we began to do special products that you could only buy from Macy’s.”

The connection with the consumer was something O’Leary had never really known before, cloistered as he was for years within the Waterford factory.

“Here you are, doing something wonderful, something lovely and beautiful and then you get the opportunity to travel with it, and see the joy and pleasure that it brings to people,” he said. “I’ve seen men and women moved to tears. It’s a very emotional experience, buying these pieces. It’s not like buying tires for your car. It’s not a need, it’s a want. It’s such a compliment that they’d buy something of mine and give it to a family or friend. It’s very gratifying, it really is.”

During his 51 years at Waterford, O’Leary has seen a multitude of changes, including a technological revolution that integrates computer-aided design in the creative process.

And while Waterford is all about tradition, O’Leary says the advent of the computer age was met with enthusiasm.

“We embraced it from the very start,” said O’Leary. “We saw too many companies across Europe who lost their way. We’re very strong on technology. We’ve actually been at the forefront of developing our own technology so that we develop the finest crystal in the world.”

O’Leary stressed that Waterford still does “more handwork than we need to have.” While embellishment remains largely a chore left to the human touch, the process has become much more of a fusion between man and machine.

“There are things you can do better with computers and technology,” he said.

Today, O’Leary’s original sketches are scanned and input into a computer and then fed through to the manufacturing facility, “so everything’s perfect.”

Waterford’s acceptance of technology doesn’t mean there aren’t struggles within its ranks between the traditional and the new, the old guard versus the young turks.

“It’s great, there’s nothing like new blood and brashness,” laughed O’Leary. “Because we’re Irish, we love a fight. But when it comes to the good of the common goal, we go forward – we don’t dilly dally, we debate the issue and go on.”

The goal, which every one of Waterford’s employees holds to, is giving the consumer what they want.

“We’re very in tune with people’s needs,” he said. “We’re not making crystal for our own edification.”

“I’ve been very, very lucky,” O’Leary said of his career. “I’ve literally been all over the world. And I’m lucky to have a hand in a product that so many people are moved by. We have a little motto: ‘We make beautiful gifts to delight the world.’”

The best things happen while they're dancing (and singing): Runaway Stage opens 'White Christmas'

2011-11-13T00:12:51Z

photographs by Barry WIsdom

There's no bigger fan of the 1954 Paramount Picture production of "White Christmas" than yours truly. Frankly, I do not trust anyone who doesn't want to eat up this all-dancing, all-singing holiday confection with a great big spoon ("Yum! Yum!").

The Technicolor/VistaVision musical offers a solid score by Irving Berlin, and a host of cinematic triple-threats including Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen. (OK - the women are really just double threats: the diminutive Vera-Ellen's singing voice was dubbed and Clooney is pretty much stiff as an overcooked gingerbread woman).

The film also features a batch of wonderful supporting performances. These include turns by Dean Jagger, Mary Wickes and, if you look quick, George Chakiris (Sharks leader Bernardo in 1961's "West Side Story") as a chorus boy who backs Clooney in her solo nightclub performance.

It took 50 years, but a stage version of "White Christmas" was finally unwrapped for überfans such as myself, opening in San Francisco in 2004. I still have my program.

The plot is basically the same as the story conceived by screenwriters Norman Krasna, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank: a pair of World War II veterans become a successful song-and-dance team, get roped into reviewing a sister act as a favor to "an old pal in the Army," then head to Vermont, where the sisters are booked at a ski lodge/resort for the holidays.

There, they mount an impossibly lavish show to save the "Tyrolean haunted house"-turned-lodge that just happens to be owned by their former commanding officer. Romance, hilarity and sparkling production numbers ensue.

There are a few alterations for the stage show, including the addition of songs from Berlin's deep catalog ("I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," "I Love a Piano," "Falling Out of Love Can Be Fun" the expansion of intimate numbers into full-blown spectaculars ("Snow"), and a reworking of a few characters. Emma, the nosy housekeeper in the film, is now a retired Broadway vet who wants to be in the show, and granddaughter Susan is an aspiring performer. Both characters enjoy featured solos.

Today, this stage adaptation of "White Christmas" is becoming an annual yuletide treat for repertory and regional theaters throughout the United States.

On Nov. 11, Runaway Stage Productions opened the "Sacramento community premiere" of the musical (which features the company's 18-member resident orchestra and an immensely talented cast). Directed by Bob Baxter, "White Christmas" continues through Dec. 4 at Sacramento's 24th Street Theatre (at the Sierra 2 Center), 2791 24th St. (For tickets, call (916) 207-1226.)

I was lucky enough to shoot dress-rehearsal shots of the show a day earlier.

Enjoy!

STC's Miller enjoying double-duty as 'Brighton Beach Memoirs' director-actor

2011-03-05T02:02:23Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom

It’s been a year of firsts for Matt K. Miller, artistic director of the Sacramento Theatre Company. For one thing, there’s that title, which was bestowed late last year in the wake of longtime STC leader Peggy Shannon’s exit.

A busy stage, film and television actor, voice artist and playwright, Miller began his tenure with STC as a resident company member. In 2005, he stretched his theatrical muscles and took on the role of assistant director for the Shannon-helmed “The Syringa Tree.”

Today he’s not only flying solo in the director’s chair, but he’s adding another first in taking that next step: directing himself.

“Yes, I’ve been busy,” said Miller, whose directorial-acting turn in “Brighton Beach Memoirs” opens March 5 and continues through March 27 on the STC Mainstage. “But it’s a good kind of busy – doing a lot of what I love.”

Miller, 51, said directing was not an early career goal but a direction that “came naturally.”

“I never had any real conscious inclination for it,” he said. “But it feels right, and I’ve had a good time, and the results have been pretty satisfying, I have to say.”

“Memoirs,” which comes on the heels of his well-received “The Owl and the Pussycat,” is his ninth directorial effort for STC, including three productions for the company’s Young Professionals Conservatory.

“For me, there’s only one way to do it,” Miller said of his approach to drawing out great performances. “Get at the heart of the play and bring out the most interesting human truth.”

While acknowledging that great directors don’t have to have acting backgrounds, Miller did say, “In my experience, directors who have been actors – even for a short time – make for the best directors. There’s a vocabulary, a rapport that I think you can only get from being an actor yourself.”

In “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” the first part of Neil Simon’s autobiographical “Eugene Trilogy” – which also includes “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound” – Miller’s rapport with his cast extends beyond sharing an acting background.

“Some of these actors I’ve worked with before as fellow actors,” said Miller, who plays Jack Jerome, the overworked patriarch of an extended Brooklyn family circa 1937.

“There’s Jamie Jones, who’s playing (Jack’s wife) Kate. She and I have done a few shows together, including ‘Dirty Blonde,’ ‘Private Lives,’ and ‘Noises Off’ at STC. She’s great – a total pro and has worked all over … New York, San Francisco … she just has that great foundation and ability.

“She’s fearless as well – something I always admire in an actor,” he said. “She’s fun to direct but even more fun to act with. It’s great I get to do both in this show.”

Julie Anchor, who plays Kate’s widowed sister Blanche, has also shared a stage with Miller.

“She’s just a hoot,” Miller laughed. “She’s got a great sense of humor and a wonderful laugh. She laughs at my jokes before I finish them. She’s got a great spirit.”

While the rise of fascism in Europe and impending world war adds a layer of seriousness to the play, there are jokes aplenty in Simon’s script, with gag lines well distributed among Miller, Jones, Anchor, Craig Piaget (as the Jeromes’ son Eugene), Eason Donner (as Eugene’s older brother Stanley), Abbey Williams-Campbell/Raelyn Torngren (as Blanche’s older daughter Nora) and Lauren Metzinger/Rachel Finerman (sharing the role of Blanche’s daughter Laurie).

“But there’s poignancy as well,” Miller said. “You can’t go wrong with a Neil Simon play. The construction is like a Swiss watch.”

Coming relatively late to his job of artistic director, Miller had no input on the current season’s lineup, but he said the company’s theme of a “return to the classics” is a concept he endorses.

“Personally I would like to continue that idea,” he said. “It’s my personal aesthetic as well.”

Asked if he had to choose between acting and serving as STC’s artistic director, Miller said he would keep the big chair.

“It’s a nice fit,” he said. “The timing’s been great.”

With a comparatively large cast to direct, construction of an extensive two-story set to oversee and his own part to master, Miller has been on task for weeks, but he said he tries to keep the mood light on set.

“I definitely get the work, but but I do like a fun atmosphere – when it’s appropriate,” Miller said. “People work better when they’re enjoying themselves and are at ease with laughter.

“And if you’re not enjoying it, what the heck are you doing here?”

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KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

WHAT: The Sacramento Theatre Company production of Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs"
WHERE: Sacramento Theatre Company (Mainstage), 1419 H St., Sacramento, Calif.
WHEN: previews March 2-4; opens March 5 (8 p.m.) and continues through March 27 (6:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 12:30 and 6:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays)
WHO: Written by Neil Simon; directed by Matt K. Miller; set design by Jarrod Bodensteiner; lighting design by Jessica Bertine; sound design by William Myers; costume design by Jessica Minihan; featuring Craig Piaget, Jamie Jones, Eason Donner, Matt K. Miller, Julie Anchor, Abbey Williams-Campbell, Raelyn Torngren, Lauren Metzinger, Rachel Finerman
TICKETS: $38 (discounts for students, seniors and groups); half-price "rush" tickets released 30 minutes prior to each performance (subject to availability)
INFO: (916) 443-6722; www.sactheatre.org

B Street intern Zitter takes next step with Mainstage debut in 'Circle Mirror Transformation'

2011-03-01T20:44:28Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom

In the B Street Theatre’s current Mainstage production, Annie Baker’s “Circle Mirror Transformation,” Cynthia Zitter plays Lauren, a rebellious 16-year-old seeking an outlet for her ambitions in the footlights.

Lauren’s drive to one day nab a Tony lands her in a local community center’s “creative drama” class amidst a ragtag group of once-were and would-be thespians.

While the teenager imagined she’d be taking on the role of Maria in a staging of “West Side Story,” or essaying Emily in a mounting of “Our Town,” she finds herself frustratingly forced to participate in a never-ending series of theater “games” designed to reveal hidden truths.

Zitter, a 24-year-old Ohio native, never had to endure that kind of theatrical boot camp, but said she knows only too well what it feels like to be a small-town girl who heard the roar of the greasepaint at an early age.

“I grew up in a little farm town called Fort Recovery,” said Zitter, a member of B Street’s 2010-11 acting internship program now enjoying her first turn on a B Street stage. “We didn’t have any acting classes, and we had to travel 40 miles to reach the nearest community theater in Van Wert.”

Fort Recovery, Van Wert … one half expects to hear Zitter talk about taking a local rec class in nearby Indiana (think Pawnee in NBC’s “Parks and Recreation”).

In reality, Zitter found early tutelage in a series of summertime drama camps close to her grandmother’s home in Delaware.

“At first, my parents thought it was a phase,” she said. “But I was gung ho about what I wanted to do, and they sent me to camps, and I received a lot of support from my grandparents as well. I was pretty single-minded about theater.”

That wasn’t easy in Fort Recovery, where her high school of 400 students only put on a show every other year.

“I was pretty much the theater girl,” she admitted. “I was the artsy one.”

But rather than being mocked for her love of opening nights over barn raisings, Zitter was encouraged by her classmates’ support (“Everyone was pretty cool about it.”), as well as by the praise of her summer camp instructors.

“I remember being told early on, ‘You could do this professionally,’ ” she said.

But a full-on pro career would have to wait as she beefed up her academic training as a drama major at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, taking on featured roles in a mix of classic and contemporary theater such as “The Crucible,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Translations” by Irish playwright Brian Friel.

After a final summer stock season at upstate New York’s Hangar Theatre, Zitter headed west for a two-year stint with Sunnyvale’s California Theatre Center, where she toured with the company’s children’s theater troupe. Among the stops on its 2009 Pacific Northwest tour was Sacramento, where a friend of a friend was interning at B Street.

“I loved it – I thought it was really good,” said Zitter, who tried on the life of a fledgling New York actress (auditions, classes, callbacks, small films and making espresso at Starbucks) before auditioning for a place in B Street’s 2010-11 acting internship program.

Before getting the call that she’d been accepted, Zitter had added an understudy role for the lead in “One Kiss Cafe” at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame.

“I did come into this internship with a good amount of experience,” Zitter said, “but I feel there is always more to learn, and I am learning a lot here at B Street. One huge lesson I have been learning is to let go and keep my stress level down. We interns work long, hard hours cleaning, rehearsing, pulling props, organizing, building sets, etc. The ability to manage your time and to take care of yourself is essential. Also, as someone who has pretty strong artistic convictions, I've had to learn to really trust the artists around me and participate 100 percent in helping them to achieve their vision. This is invaluable, as I have a ton to learn from these experienced professionals.”

Among the B Street veterans with whom Zitter currently shares the Mainstage are Elisabeth Nunziato as class instructor Marty, and David Pierini and Phil Cowan as fellow students Schultz and James.

“The cast of ‘Circle Mirror Transformation’ are, indeed, B Street and/or theater veterans, and I am so proud to be able to work alongside them,” said Zitter, who proudly proclaimed that her role as Lauren marks her regional theater debut. “I was fortunate to have met them and gotten to know them through other shows in my internship, and they are all so nice. Any intimidation I might have felt walking into such a group was alleviated by their welcoming attitudes. They've always treated me not as a ‘lowly intern,’ but as a professional actor, and that has made all the difference in my experience.”

Another difference Zitter credits for her continued development as an actress has been the coaching of B Street Producing Artistic Director Buck Busfield.

“I couldn't ask for a better mentor on this part of my professional journey,” Zitter said. “He is incredibly honest about the things we need to work on while also being extremely supportive. He hand-picks each intern and seems to really care about us. He’s always stopping us around the theater to check in or give advice on our latest project. As a director, he has been a lot of fun and has really turned out a good production.

“I feel like I’m taking the next step in my career,” she added. “And that feeling is pretty amazing.”

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KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

WHAT: The B Street Theatre's production of the Annie Baker comedy "CIrcle Mirror Transformation"
WHERE: B Street Theatre Mainstage, 2711 B St., Sacramento, Calif.
WHEN: Feb. 27-April 10, 2011; 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 2 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays/Fridays, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays
WHO: Directed by Buck Busfield, featuring Elisabeth Nunziato, Phil Cowan, Lyndsy Kail, David Pierini, Cynthia Zitter
HOW MUCH: $18-$30, $5 student rush
INFO: (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org

B Street's 'Shining City' cast and crew click onstage and off

2011-01-11T08:26:24Z

Photographs by Barry Wisdom

“I can’t image anyone working harder,” actor Phil Cowan said of director Elisabeth Nunziato during a break in rehearsals for “Shining City,” the Conor McPherson dramedy that opened on the B Street Theatre’s B3 stage Sunday.

“She’s very passionate about her work,” echoed Kevin Karrick, who plays Ian, a Dublin-based priest-turned-therapist whose first patients include Cowan’s character, John, a widower haunted (perhaps literally) by memories of his recently deceased wife. But Ian’s troubles extend beyond his patients’ problems, as he deals with his own commitment issues with girlfriend Neasa (Holly Dale).

Nunziato, a B Street company member whose own B Street history spans numerous star turns on the midtown company’s main stage and B3 boards, as well as appearances in its Fantasy Theatre youth outreach troupe, has also proven herself a go-to gal behind the scenes.

Nunziato’s very hectic tech week for “Shining City,” B Street’s follow-up to its 2008 staging of the McPherson-penned “The Seafarer” (also featuring Cowan and Karrick), included a variety of sound-design issues, dress rehearsals and an on-screen appearance for screenwriter friend Jim Meyers (“Her Minor Thing”) shooting in Cameron Park.

“Multitasker” isn’t the prettiest of middle names, but it seems to fit her well.

The B3 house, still firmly in work mode, is littered with reminders that Nunziato’s attention is in demand by many, including her cast and crew, as well as her stomach (an uneaten hard-boiled egg sits untouched on a back-row seat) and her visiting labradoodle, whose well-gnawed rawhide bone peeks from beneath her chair.

She finds time to talk “Shining City” only through the miracle of cell phones, the slow, foggy drive to Cameron Park, and the glamorous process of applying makeup for the camera (in a Starbucks restroom).

But for someone so used to being center stage, Nunziato admits that one-on-one-attention – whether it’s for a publicity shoot or press interview – is nerve-wracking, and she deftly shifts attention to her actors.

“He’s a trippy guy,” Nunziato said affectionately of Cowan, best known as the comically cynical half of the longtime morning-show radio team of (Paul) Robins and Cowan. “He’s been this personality his whole career, and now he’s turning into an actor’s actor now, which is interesting to watch. Phil’s role is just beautifully written – there’s this key moment, when he just has me crying every time.”

Cowan, whose comparative lack of experience as a stage actor belies his intuitive ability to cut to the heart of highly charged scenes and deliver the emotional goods, is a natural, said Nunziato, who credits him with being “one of the most emotionally available actors I’ve worked with.”

“Here’s something Phil says in the middle of rehearsal during the first week,” Nunziato said. “So, he makes you cry and we do some notes and he doesn’t want to talk about it. He says, ‘Don’t talk to me about the process – I don’t have a process!’ I’m thinking, ‘You’re kidding me! You just ripped my soul out and you’re telling me you don’t have a process?’ He’s some sort of a savant in that department.”

Cowan, who also acted in the B Street productions of “A Couple of Blaguards,” “The Melville Boys,” “Mending Fences” and “The Good Guy,” said that while he enjoys his current incarnation as an independent video producer of corporate web spots, he would toss it all to act full time. But he is aware he might be spoiled by the cooperative work atmosphere created by B Street Producing Director Buck Busfield.

“One thing I’ve always enjoyed working here is that there are no gigantic egos,” Cowan said. “I’ve never run into a diva. And maybe I like it here so much because they’re the only ones that ever call me to do this shit."

But Cowan’s take on B Street’s exceptionally friendly environment is quickly supported by the Fremont-based Karrick, who recalls a story from his New York stage debut, which was punctuated by a fellow actor who “saluted” him with a double middle-finger flip as he exited into the wings after garnering what he supposes was too many laughs. (This coming soon after she had “opened” the show with an offstage, profanity-laced rant heard deep in the house about needing more time to dress.)

Cowan and Karrick’s camaraderie, which gelled on the set of “The Seafarers,” was a welcome component in beginning rehearsals for “Shining City,” said Nunziato, who was called by Busfield to direct the show when rights for the planned January staging of Bill Cain’s “Equivocation” became unavailable.

Nunziato quickly became a fan of Karrick, a familiar face on Bay Area stages, whose day job is running a family-owned road-construction company.

“Kevin has been doing a beautiful job, and I’ve definitely benefited from how smart Kevin is and how easy it is to communicate with him,” Nunziato said.

The B Street world of unwavering mutual support, which has been hand-tailored by Busfield, is tightly embraced by Nunziato as well, with its focus on talent instead of résumés.

“I support everyone doing whatever they want to do,” Nunziato said. “The distinction between professional and nonprofessional theater, of whether something’s moving or not moving, funny or not funny, is up to the people in the seats.”

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WHAT: "Shining City" by Conor McPherson
WHEN: previews 4 and 8 p.m. Jan. 8, runs Jan. 9 through Feb. 5 (7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Thursdays, 7 p.m. Fridays, 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 p.m. Sundays); matinees on select Thursdays and Sundays only
WHERE: B Street Theatre B3 stage, 2727 B St., Sacramento
WHO: Featuring Phil Cowan, Kevin Karrick, Holly Dale and Chris Page; directed by Elisabeth Nunziato
TICKETS: $5-$30
FOR MORE INFO: (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org

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photo captions:

1. Director Elisabeth Nunziato

2. Elisabeth Nunziato confers with Phil Cowan (John)

3. Director Elisabeth Nunziato

4. Director Elisabeth Nunziato

5. Director Elisabeth Nunziato

6. Kevin Karrick as Ian in "Shining City"

7. Phil Cowan as John, and Kevin Karrick as Ian in "Shining City"

8. Phil Cowan as John, and Kevin Karrick as Ian in "Shining City"

9. Kevin Karrick as Ian in "Shining City"

10. Holly Dale as Neasa, and Kevin Karrick as Ian in "Shining City"

11. Kevin Karrick as Ian, and Holly Dale as Neasa in "Shining City"

12. Phil Cowan as John, and Kevin Karrick as Ian in "Shining City"

13. Kevin Karrick as Ian, and Phil Cowan as John in "Shining City"

14. Kevin Karrick as Ian, and Phil Cowan as John in "Shining City"

15. Kevin Karrick as Ian, and Phil Cowan as John in "Shining City"

16. Kevin Karrick as Ian, and Phil Cowan as John in "Shining City"

17. Kevin Karrick as Ian, and Phil Cowan as John in "Shining City"

18. Chris Page as Laurence, and Kevin Karrick as Ian in "Shining City"

19. Chris Page as Laurence, and Kevin Karrick as Ian in "Shining City"

20. Phil Cowan as John in "Shining City"