Andrea Stephenson - Page 13

Alfred Uhry, the playwright most well-known for Driving Miss Daisy, penned The Last Night of Ballyhoo based on his own childhood memories. The Last Night of Ballyhoo is set in Atlanta, Georgia in December 1939. It was originally performed at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre as part of the Summer Olympics Arts Festival. In 1997 it made its way to the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway. The play explores questions of prejudice and identity through the eyes of a Jewish family in Georgia, who have assimilated to the culture around them-even displaying a Christmas tree in their house, and Joe Farkas, an Eastern European Jew whose presence forces the family to examine their inter-Jewish racism. The term Ballyhoo in the title refers to a cotillion ball being held at the country club to which the family belongs. The Last Night of Ballyhoo takes on these questions of identity with a healthy dose of southern humor and can be seen now at Oyster Mill Playhouse under the direction of Aliza Bardfield and Michael Hosler through May 12th.

Add together a foggy night, dead body, clues that point in different directions, twists and turns, and what do you get? Agatha Christie's The Unexpected Guest. The Unexpected Guest opened in 1958 in the West End and was turned into a novel by Charles Osborne in 1999. Test out your detective skills at Little Theatre Mechanicsburg where The Unexpected Guest will take the stage April 26-May 12. I had the opportunity to take a sneak peak of the first act and to speak with two of the actors-Kaitlyn Booth, portraying Laura Warwick, and Nova Lorraine, playing Inspector Thomas.

'For time is the longest distance between places' but in the case of an iconic play like The Glass Menagerie, time seems to melt away. Tennessee Williams based the play on his 1943 short story 'Portrait of a Girl in Glass.' The Glass Menagerie premiered in 1944 in Chicago where it caught the attention of critics Ashton Stevens and Claudia Cassidy. With their help, the producers were able to move the play to Broadway, where it opened at the Playhouse Theatre in 1945. In The Glass Menagerie, the character Tom serves as both narrator and character in a play that is memory and yet somehow very real and present. The Glass Menagerie runs April 4-April 14 at Hershey Area Playhouse.

In 1970, John-Michael Tebelak's master's thesis, Godspell, was first performed at Carnegie Mellon. Then in 1971, after a run at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Stephen Schwartz was hired to re-score the show before being produced off-Broadway. Godspell, which is primarily based on parables from the Gospel of Matthew (with a few from the Gospel of Luke and one from John), has had several revivals and numerous tours. Audiences can enjoy a unique interpretation of Godspell at Prima opening April 5th. To find out more about this upcoming production, I spoke with director J. Scott Lapp and Tayler Harris, the actor portraying Jesus.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the first publicly performed collaboration between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, first appeared on Broadway in 1982. The musical actually began its life as a short pop cantata in London, and it was modified and expanded a number of times before it appeared on Broadway. The musical is based on the story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis. In the musical, the story about Joseph is told by the Narrator, a character who exists outside the time and place in which the story takes place. It's the Narrator's job to engage the audience and draw them into the story of Joseph. Broadway World recently spoke to Erica Clare, who portrays the Narrator in the upcoming production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre.

British author Roald Dahl is well known for his dark humor, quirky characters, and unexpected twists and turns. Among his most popular works are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. In 1961 he wrote James and the Giant Peach. James and the Giant Peach was adapted for television, film, and the stage. Among the stage versions is the dramatization by Richard R. George, which can be enjoyed at DreamWrights Center for Community Arts.

The 2007 play Every Christmas Story Ever Told (and Then Some!) by Michael Carleton, John K. Alvarez, and James FitzGerald takes the audience on a high energy romp through a variety of Christmas traditions, beloved holiday classics (BHCs as they're referred to in the show), and holiday songs. In the midst of this Christmas chaos, one character tries desperately to get the rest of the cast on board to perform A Christmas Carol (which they've been rehearsing for weeks) because everyone always does A Christmas Carol at Christmas. Not only is Every Christmas Story Ever Told (and Then Some!) a fun reminder of some holiday traditions, but it's also an exploration of tradition in general and how traditions come to be repeated year after year and generation after generation.

If you love humor and the holidays, Every Christmas Story Ever Told (and Then Some) just may be the perfect show for you. This show by Michael Carleton, James Fitzgerald, and John K. Alvarez features three actors-one of whom is set on performing A Christmas Carol, while the other two try to derail all efforts to do A Christmas Carol. The result is a fun romp through numerous Christmas tales, carols, and songs from the past and the present with various references to pop culture and holiday traditions.