Mid/Late November California Central Coast Theatre Offerings

As we put the middle of November in our rear view mirror, a number of new shows have just opened, and a few others are getting ready to open here on the California Central Coast - so get your calendars out and make plans to take in some live theatre over the next few weeks!

The God Is Still Speaking Players is proud to present a staged reading of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, directed by Chrys Barnes in collaboration with Bent Angel Productions, with 2 PM matinee performances on Saturday and Sunday, November 20 & 21.  Admission is $10 at the door, or presale tickets can be obtained at Boo Boo Records (SLO), Volumes of Pleasure (Los Osos), Coalesce Bookstore (Morro Bay), online at www.brownpapertickets.com, or by calling the SLO UCC office at (805) 544-1373.

In the words of our fearless director (yes - I'm IN this production!), "Thomas wrote Under Milk Wood as a play for voices.  It's about the people (and their fantasies) who inhabit the small mythical Welsh seaside town of Llareggub (which is "bugger all" backwards!) circa 1950.  It's a beautiful lyric poem characterized by 'startling imagery and driving rhythms.'  The characters are funny, sad, irreverent, lustful, pompous, delusional, humble.  It will remind you a little of Our Town or Spoon River Anthology, albeit much funnier.  The words cheeky and irreverent keep coming to mind.  There is almost no way to describe the way in which the language itself is a character in this play.  It's almost like a 90 minute piece of music.  NOBODY writes like Dylan Thomas!  This was the last thing Thomas wrote.  In fact he had finished this piece scarcely a few weeks before his death in 1953." [photo by Chrys Barnes] 

SLO Little Theatre (www.slolittletheatre.org) will present their next mainstage production, Nuncrackers: the Christmas Musical, November 19 - December 19.  On December 11, the theatre will host a NO SHAME theatre event at 11:30 PM.

Upcoming performances at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center (www.pacslo.org) include Cal Poly Theatre & Dance Department's Antigone and Letters to Soldiers Lost November 18-19, Bandfest 2010! on November 20, Cal Poly Symphony's Fall Concert on November 21, Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano on November 26, an evening with General Stanley McChrystal on December 2, Cal Poly's Fall Jazz Concert on December 3, and GilBert Reed's ballet presentation of the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol December 4 & 5.

The Pewter Plough Playhouse (www.pewterploughplayhouse.org) in Cambria has announced that their next production will be The Glass Menagerie, directed by Nehemiah Persoff, with rehearsals beginning in November and performances in January and February.  Contact Mr Persoff at (805) 927-3877 (leave a message) or email the theatre at audition@pewterploughplayhouse.org to schedule an audition.

The Theatre at the Old Grammar School (TOGS), also located in Cambria, closed Rosann Balbontin's Bridging the Gap in September.  Contact Theatre Director, Jeff Mar, at KRKJFRZ@aol.com to find out what their next project will be.

The North County Dance & Performing Arts Foundation (http://classactdance.com/nutcracker) will present The Nutcracker Ballet at the Templeton Performing Arts Center December 4-6 & 11-13.

The Pioneer Players (www.pioneerplayers.org) presented a "special project."  Always ... Patsy Cline, at Centennial Park in Paso Robles for 2 performances in September.  Stay tuned for what they'll be doing next! 

The Houselights Theatre (www.houselightstheatre.org) is looking for a new place to call home ... got any suggestions?  Details concerning their next show are TBD (and where it will be held).

Murder in Mind Productions (http://murderinmind.com) will present Golden Girls: Meet Blanche's Niece, at the Spyglass Inn, located at 2703 Spyglass Dr in Shell Beach, December 5 - January 30.

Upcoming performances at the Clark Center (www.clarkcenter.org) in Arroyo Grande include Everybody Can Dance Ballet's Nutcracker November 27 & 28, Nipomo High School's Wizard of Oz December 2-4, SLO Youth Symphony's Holiday Concert December 5, Arroyo Grande High School's Almost Maine December 9-12, Coastal Chamber Youth Ballet's Babes in Toyland December 11, and A Rita Coolidge Christmas on December 12.

Ryan Cordero (rccor385@gmail.com) and Sorcerer Productions (check them out on Facebook) recently closed their very successful production of Forever Plaid, at the Clark Center (www.clarkcenter.org) in Arroyo Grande as part of their inaugural season of shows.  Next up is Drowsy Chaperone - auditions December 13-15, performances April 1-24.

The Great American Melodrama (www.americanmelodrama.com) in Oceano is proud to present their annual Holiday Extravaganza production of A Christmas Carol, along with an original fractured fairy tale and Holiday Vaudeville Revue, through December 31.

The Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts (www.pcpa.org), the Central Coast's Resident Professional Theatre Company, located on the Allan Hancock College Campus in Santa Maria, has opened its 2010/11 season with a production of Peter Pan that runs through December 23 in the Marian Theatre.

The Santa Maria Civic Theatre (www.smct.org) will present Wait Until Dark November 19 - December 11.  Auditions for their next production, Doubt, will be November 22 & 23, with performances February 4-26.

Whatever else you have going on as we move ever closer to the Thanksgiving and December Holiday season - I hope you will help give thanks for the wealth of performing arts here on the California Central Coast by giving yourself, or someone you know, the gift of live theatre!

Curt Miner ... your BroadwayWorld.com guy on the ground with the California Central Coast theatre "news & views"