Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold - Page 16

Filmed before the pandemic and just now offered for online streaming, Lauren Gunderson’s two-character play, I AND YOU, is a dense, poetic, and profoundly intense drama about two teenagers whom illness and fate bring together in an unexpected and inseparable way. The beautifully crafted script and the energetic and committed pair of actors make this fast-paced, ninety-minute story unfold with humor, pathos, and ultimately – in its surprise ending - with a deep emotional punch.

There is nothing like Celtic music to bring a lift to the step and a smile to the heart, and SONGS OF IRELAND, a new benefit concert streaming on the Fulton Theatre’s virtual platform, Fulton HD, delivers an hour of irresistible tunes performed with impeccable style, charm, and emotional depth by a stellar ensemble, who have a strong bond with Maine theatre. Directed and choreographed by Marc Robin, this beautifully crafted musical revue brings together Curt Dale Clark, Charis Leos, David Girolmo, Cary Michele Miller, Jay Poff, and Gillian Hassert, all of whom are favorites at Maine State Music and most veterans of either the 2016 THE IRISH AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY co-production with Portland Stage or Robin’s restaging at the Fulton Theatre in 2018.

“Cooking is theatre,” says MUMBAI TO MAINE culinary celebrity Cherie Scott. “Creative cooking is like doing live improv – engaging, exciting, something that keeps you on the tips of your toes. The common goal of the actor and the cook is to take the audience on an unpredictable journey with a rewarding outcome a delicious meal with diverse flavors and a dynamic, nuanced performance to talk about for days.” Scott, together with Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, recently served up this heady, delightful combination of culinary prowess and theatrical performance in an online benefit for Maine State Music Theatre, as the organization continues to battle the challenges of being shuttered by the pandemic. Scott, raised in Mumbai India, has created a very successful business, MUMBAI TO MAINE, with her blog, website, cooking classes, and delectable line of products for home cooking. Clark says the idea for the fundraiser came from Scott. “It was a pretty special offer on her part. She donated her talents to create this show, and all the proceeds from the sold out event have gone to benefit MSMT’s Lifeline Fund.”

Portland’s Mad Horse Theatre continues its commitment to new plays by company members during the pandemic. THIS IS JUST INTERMISSION by Jared Mongeau is a one-character absurdist musing on the isolation of the pandemic.

Maine playwrights - and those from across the United States – will have an opportunity to submit their work to the Fulton Theatre’s first National Festival of New Plays, which will debut May 21-23, 2021 in Lancaster, PA. Entitled “Stories of Diversity: Reflections of Community,’ the festival is dedicated to works – comedies, dramas, or musical, that “celebrate perspectives from the spectrum of diversity, including voices from Black, Indigenous, and other peoples of color, LGBTQ communities as well as voices from different religious and economic viewpoints. The initiative was launched this year as part of the theatre’s commitment to what Director of Community Engagement, Steph Jo Wise calls “theatre’s commitment to be an agent of change though the stories we tell” and to make a positive difference in the ongoing struggle for equity and inclusion.

The last time Mainers got to enjoy the work of actor Matt Gibson was last summer when he starred in Maine State Music Theatre’s Hello, Dolly! as Cornelius Hackl. The New York based actor with a string of Broadway and off-Broadway credits has spent the last year, writing and acting in film and sweeping the Film Festival circuit awards for DOGMATE, a short that Gibson has written and in which he stars together with Ken Jennings, Cadden Jones, and Monica L. Jones. The short, produced by Patrick Bishop of Bishops Gate Entertainment and co-directed by Mollie Vogt-Welch and Amanda Thickpenny has received thirteen honors at nine festivals so far, including three wins and one nomination for “Best Comedic Short,” one win and two nominations for “Best Acting Ensemble,” two nominations for “Best Actor “ for Gibson and one win and two nominations for “Best Supporting Actress” for Cadden Jones. DOGMATE, which has received a non-exclusive distribution deal, makes its next debut at The Cutting Room International Short Film Festival on December 5-6, 2020.

“At Good Theater we have put ourselves in mothballs, declares Executive/Artistic Director Brian P. Allen. Maine State Music Theatre’s Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark concurs, “ For me the hardest part is the feeling of treading water.” “My Grandfather taught me that life was a staircase,” Clark recounts. “He would say,’ Always make sure you are moving forward; if you have to stay on a step for a while, no big deal. Try not to take a step backwards, but if you have to, figure out why, fix it, and keep moving forward.’ Right now,” Clark says sadly, “it does not feel possible to keep climbing. Everything is stacked against us and all the people we need to help us.”” On a brisk fall day nine months into the pandemic the two are taking a moment to share their experiences in this unprecedented time of crisis – a crisis that has shuttered their theatres and forced them to engage all their energies in survival of the institutions and the art form they love.

In joining a small group of Equity theatres given permission to produce live, Portland Stage already has achieved an artistic milestone during the pandemic. But with their well-crafted, emotionally satisfying production of Lanford Wilson’s TALLEY’S FOLLY, they bring a dose of hope to theatre-starved audiences – not only in practical terms but in artistic ones as well.

“I am happy to be able to provide a safe environment for cast, crew, and patrons. I am thrilled to have a way to keep my staff employed For the staff and our artists to be able to work while we are still being responsible and keeping everyone safe feels like a good thing…” Portland Stage’s Executive/Artistic Director Anita Stewart enthuses about the company’s bold new project: producing live professional theatre in the midst of a pandemic! From October 29-November 15, Portland Stage is presenting Lanford Wilson’s two-character play, TALLEY’S FOLLY, at their Forest Avenue theatre venue. Stewart’s company is among a very few nationally to receive approval from Actors Equity Association to produce a live performance indoors with an audience in attendance. The permission comes with a long – even daunting and costly - list of safety protocols, rules and regulations, that Portland Stage has been negotiating, planning, and implementing since the pandemic shuttered theatres across the globe.

Ogunquit Playhouse’s virtual benefit reading of the new musical, A VERY BRADY MUSICAL, offered theatre-starved Mainers (and online audiences beyond) the opportunity to enjoy a fresh, charming, nostalgic piece featuring the beloved Brady Bunch characters in a delightful ninety minutes of family fun. The work with book by Lloyd J. Schwartz and Hope Juber and music and lyrics by Hope and Laurence Juber references the original 1970s television series, while adding a contemporary spin using an ethnically diverse cast and slightly comic edgier predicaments.

On July 18, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. the Kingston Collection Parking lot in Kingston, Massachusetts, will be transformed into an outdoor concert venue to showcase a live cabaret performance by top-tier New York City based actors, who will perform a repertoire of magical songs from beloved fantasy and fairytale classics. The gala evening, which also includes music by live bands, projections and sound and light effects, as well as food trucks and wine-beer beverage carts, offers fun for the entire family. The proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to The Actors Fund, which assists unemployed actors, and Inclusion Media Group, which promotes diversity in the arts through social media.

Last night, June 26th, HARMONIZE AGAINST HUNGER launched on YouTube. Tax-deductible contributions were made to Feeding America and Project Broadway. Some highlights included Gaten Matarazzo's rendition of a?oeMichael In the Bathrooma?? from BE MORE CHILL, Michael William Nigro's adaption of a?oeSomeone You Loveda?? by Lewis Capaldi, and Meg Donnelly's performance of a?oeOn My Minda?? by Jorja Smith.

Executive Producers Michael William Nigro and Zach Kessel, alongside Concierge Content, have announced their virtual benefit concert, a?oeHarmonize Against Hunger,a?? to benefit Feeding America and Project Broadway.The concert will air on YouTube on June 26, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. EST. The YouTube channel can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGwJ-4UTlZ-wRPKXmyNxUPw/featured.

In the midst of a dark and anxious time for all theatres, Portland Stage has managed to navigate the rights issues to live stream its production of Karen Zacarias' NATIVE GARDENS, which had begun its run when the pandemic closed everything down. The resulting performance proves a welcome ray of light for Maine's theatre goers: a comedy that uses laser-sharp wit, colorfully contrasting characters, and a measured look at a number of topical issues which are provoked by a timeless conflict.

The tautly paced, compactly plotted 1983 psychological spy thriller, PACK OF LIES by Hugh Whitemore, proves to be a cliff hanger for audiences at the Good Theater, where its recent revival, expertly directed by Brian P. Allen with a finely tuned ensemble cast, demonstrates the relevance of its message in the chaotic political context in which we currently live.

Portland Stage's revival of John Cariani's ALMOST, MAINE, a play which premiered with the company in 2004, represents some of the very best work this theatre can produce. The exquisitely poetic series of vignettes about love and loss framed within the uniqueness of the Maine context, offers an evening of virtually pure perfection and unlimited delight.

In the Good Theater's delightful winter comedy, the play is the thing to rescue the moribund town of Popcorn Falls from the clutches of a greedy, self-serving villain who would turn its main street into a sewage plant. The citizens, led by their mayor, hatch the improbable solution of creating a theatre company and a play to win grant money needed to revitalize the town. James Hindman's multi-character drama, played by two actors, seizes on this premise and imbues the situation with breathless comedic wit and zany antics, punctuated by moments of touching poignancy.

In remounting playwright Joe Landry's live radio play version of the beloved classic IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, Portland Stage serves up a family friendly show filled with all the sweetness and nostalgia that make the holidays memorable. The production, directed and designed by Anita Stewart, tells the tale of George Bailey with warmth and humor, underscoring effectively the messages of kindness, gratitude, and integrity without ever becoming saccharine.

Each year Portland's Good Theater presents a holiday musical revue, written and directed by Brian P. Allen, and dedicated to celebrating a decade in American musical theatre history. Allen's show this year is devoted to the 1940s when so many of the geniuses of the a?oelegitimatea?? musical theatre style reigned supreme. The revue he has created is ambitious and comprehensive featuring twenty-five performers, including several Broadway actors, and covering the likes of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, and the Gershwins, together with many lesser-known writers. Performed with the intimacy and informality of a cabaret setting, Broadway at the Good Theater offers a nostalgic and delightful musical evening.

As evidenced by the breadth of nominations for Broadway World's Annual Audience Choice Awards, Maine's theatrical landscape seems to grow and flourish with each new season. For a state as remote as we are, we boast two prestigious regional theatres now in their second half centuries a?" Maine State Music Theatre and Ogunquit Playhouse a?" which are leaders on the national regional scene and which have become destinations for travellers from far flung places. Add to these an array of countless other companies of every size and philosophic bent, and you have a colorful, rich artistic arena that grows more interesting each year. I am privileged to get to sample these performances as Broadway World's Maine editor and to be able to compare many of them favorably with shows I see across the country, in New York and London. These are my personal choices of the best in Maine for 2019, grouped by theatre company and show.