Up Against It 1989 - Articles Page 5

Currently docked at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through July 28 is Musical Theater West's wonderfully vibrant new regional production of THE LITTLE MERMAID, Disney's Broadway stage adaptation of their hit 1989 animated classic, which itself was adapted from the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. The resulting show achieves a cheerful, pleasant, and often charming hybrid that honors the original Disney-esque qualities of the film, but also shows what one may call a 'director's cut'---wherein the new 'extras' expand the musical even further in size, elements, and thematic mood. MTW's production is a visual treat.

Jennifer Lopez, Kelly Clarkson, Thomas Rhett, Julianne Hough and Hoda Kotb join the growing list of supporters that have participated in United Cancer Front's (UCF) Dance or Donate Challenge, an awareness and urgently needed fundraising campaign. It was created to help UCF continue their mission of finding a cure for cancer using immunotherapy and targeted treatments.

The Marsh San Francisco announces an extension of Not a Genuine Black Man, the longest running solo show in San Francisco theater history. This funny, honest, and harrowing piece by award-winning actor, playwright, and talk show host Brian Copeland recounts the struggles Copeland faced growing up in what was declared one of the most racist suburbs in America

La Monnaie opens the 2019-20 season not by one, but by two world premieres. In September 2019, at the same time as Pascal Dusapin's Macbeth Underworld at La Monnaie, Le Silence des ombres premieres at KVS. It is an opera adaptation of Maurice Maeterlinck's Trois Petits Drames pour Marionnettes, commissioned to the young French composer Benjamin Attahir and produced in close collaboration with the author and director Olivier Lexa, a team of novice creators of the National School of Visual Arts of La Cambre and a cast of young singers supported by ENOA, the European Network of Opera Academies.

The French Institute Alliance Fran aise (FIAF), New York's premier French cultural and language center, today announced the 2019 Crossing the Line Festival, featuring 11 performances and a gallery exhibition from a geographically, generationally, and artistically diverse group of artists whose work transcends genres and boundaries. All performances are world, US, or New York premieres; they are united by their convention-breaking fearlessness as they confront topics from social injustice to personal demons. Many of the performances pay homage to legendary artists of our time and previous eras, while the theme of migration and its transformational effects on identity informs several others. The festival runs from September 12 to October 12. Ticket are available at crossingtheline.org.

Driving Miss Daisy, Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer-winning 1987 play made famous by a 1989 film adaptation starring Morgan Freeman, is brought back to the stage in a new production by York Theatre Royal.

Celebrating its 37th anniversary, Outfest - the Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization promoting equality by creating, sharing, and protecting LGBTQ stories on the screen - today announced the complete programming lineup for the 2019 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival, presented by HBO. The nation's leading LGBTQ festival will be held July 18-28, 2019.

"It's like a first date, " says Christopher Schario, Executive/artistic Director of Lewiston's Public Theatre. "It's a total cross population between our institutions and our audiences," he adds. Maine State Music Director Curt Dale Clark concurs: "This co-production is helping the arts in both our communities. It's upping the ante and providing more opportunities for people to enjoy live theatre," The two artistic heads , together with the leads of the production Tanner Callicutt and Katie Brnjac are chatting with Broadway World about the first-ever collaboration between the two theatres, a new staging of the musical GREASE, performed at The Public Theatre June 18-30, 2019.

It's a new season full of new experiences at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts. The 2019 20 seaon is jam-packed with legends of world music, acclaimed dance companies, renowned classical musicians, returning favorites and more.

IFC Center today announced an impressive and wide-ranging lineup for the third annual Split Screens Festival (www.splitscreensfestival.com) taking place Wednesday, May 29 through Monday, June 3, 2019, at the IFC Center in New York City. The festival consists of special events offering a variety of looks at history, identity and the mystery of existence itself, including panels on series that explore dystopian realities and alternate timelines, and screenings that transport us into any number of time periods and places, be it a late-1800s South Dakota town or the height of 1980s ballroom culture in New York City.

The Grammy Museum will be hosting NOTES ON LIVING: ALL-STAR JAZZ WITH TALES BY BRIAN DOYLE May 14, 2019 as a joint benefit for WordTheatre in the Schools (WITS) and the Grammy Museum. WordTheatre's artistic director Cedering Fox will be producing and directing this evening of selected stories by award-winning author Brian Doyle, read by a star-studded cast, and accompanied by an all-star jazz band led by Starr Parodi. Cedering opened up some of her early evening time to speak to me.

Young People's Theatre closes their season with the world premiere of Jeff Ho's ANTIGONE, which stands as an impressive contemporary take on Sophocles' classic play. The story begins with the title character's brother Neikes (Jeff Yung) leading a breakout from the re-education facility he's held in alongside his friend Haemon (Simon Gagnon). Before he can escape and lead the demonstration against the facility in the city's sacred square, he is met by the headmistress Tiresia (Soo Garay) who allows him to leave relatively easily, swayed by the memory of his mother who's been left as a "ghost in a shell" after heavy re-education. Yung offers an intense yet endearing depiction of the rebel, and regardless of his placement within the in-the-round theatre commands attention.

The Marsh San Francisco announces additional performances of Not a Genuine Black Man, the longest running solo show in San Francisco theater history by award-winning actor, playwright, and talk show host Brian Copeland. This funny, honest, and harrowing piece recounts the struggles Copeland faced growing up in what was declared one of the most racist suburbs in America.

As I'm going through all my Gypsy CDs (yes, to ensure I have them all either on my hard drive or accessible in the cloud, before throwing them out), I'm finding myself weirdly most drawn to Tyne Daly's recording, from her Tony-winning performance in the 1989 revival. The thing is I know Tyne Daly, I mean I know her work. She's been a familiar and distinctive presence on stage and screen for as long as I can remember and I even have a few musical theater recordings featuring her singing, but hers is not a singing voice I live with on a LITERALLY daily basis like, say, Ethel Merman's, Angela Lansbury's, Bette Midler's, Bernadette Peters's or Patti LuPone's. So to me, Tyne Daly's Rose is a unique sound that I can only identify with Tyne Daly's Rose and, therefore, a character. For today, that's the Gypsy I most feel like listening to.

Was the pairing of Iain Bell and Mark Campbell--respectively, composer and librettist of New York City Opera's (NYCO) world premiere STONEWALL--'love at first sight”? I asked them. We were at the workshop in New York earlier this month that allowed them and director Leonard Foglia to cross the t's and dot the i's (and hear their new work performed).

Asolo Repertory Theatre and the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training have announced their 2019-20 seasons on March 25.

The Marsh San Francisco announces the return of Not a Genuine Black Man, the longest running solo show in San Francisco theater history by award-winning actor, playwright, and talk show host Brian Copeland. This funny, honest, and harrowing piece recounts the struggles Copeland faced growing up in what was declared one of the most racist suburbs in America.

Executive and Artistic Director, Keith Gerth and Associate Artistic Director, Stephen Smith of the Oil Lamp Theater in Glenview announce their next production, the uproarious comedy Play On! by Rick Abbot. This production is directed by Keith Gerth and will be performed from March 21st through May 5th 2019 at 1723 Glenview Road in Glenview.

Young People's Theatre (YPT) is thrilled to present Antigone: by Jeff Ho. An urgently contemporary adaptation of the classic Greek story, inspired by the 2014 Umbrella Movement student protests in Hong Kong and the 1989 uprising in Tiananmen Square, Antigone: will be presented 'in the round' on YPT's Mainstage April 29 to May 16.

Katharine Farmer directs Lin Blakely (Eastenders/ Silent Witness) as Bea, Michael Brandon (Episodes/Jerry Springer the Opera) as Jorgy, Amy Burke (Serial Thriller) as Kate, Rob Locke (NCIS, General Hospital) as Larry and Mark Rose (True West) as Coles in a timely revival of Jerry Sterner's darkly comic Off-Broadway hit, Other People's Money at Southwark Playhouse. Written in 1989, Other People's Money is a funny, fast-paced and provocative comment on the greed and excess of the 1980s.

The Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) and Festival 2019 has announced that the META 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award will be conferred on one of India's most progressive playwrights, Mahesh Elkunchwar. He is critically-acclaimed and widely-known for having experimented with a wide range of drama and is a powerful force in both Indian and Marathi theatre for over three decades.

PEN America presents the 2019 PEN World Voices Festival: Open Secrets (May 6-12), focusing on the dissolving boundary between the public and the private in the literary, cultural, social, and political realms.  A flowering of the genres of literary memoir and personal testimony has been accompanied by increased digital avenues for story-telling, revelation, and expose before both designated and public audiences.

Helga Davis, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's Visiting Curator of Performing Arts, has announced a daring series of performances in music, theater, dance, and other art forms this spring, using the Museum's collection as a catalyst to spark contemporary discussions through multidisciplinary expressions.

The Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA) annual conference came to Prague this year. It has an extensive performance program, crafted by host Guy Roberts and Prague Shakespeare Company, that was open to the public as well as conference attendees. The conference was all about bringing the focus back to the artistic sides of things, as theatre tries to compete in a world filled with on-demand entertainment.

Long Beach Opera believes that discussions inspired by art should extend beyond the lobby of the theater. For this reason, LBO is using its 40th anniversary season theme, Justice, as a catalyst to present its brand new five-event series called Community Conversations February 9 through June 6.