Deborah Bostock-Kelley - Page 12

In a country wrought with divisiveness, Innovocative Theatre is bringing A Shayna Maidel by Barbara Lebow to stage at Stageworks on January 10 a?' 19. Directed by Staci Sabarsky, starring Larry Corwin, Kristina Kourkoulos, Kayla Witoshynsky, Thomas Brown, Michele McCarty, and Sunshine Hughes, A Shayna Maidel is a tale of a Jewish family picking up the pieces of their lives and coming together, despite each person having traveled a different life path to be reunited after World War II in 1946.

Coming to Straz Performing Arts Center, under the expert direction of Suzanne Livesay, Vice President of Education, 30 seventh through twelfth graders, Mackenzie Prince, Aaron Graham, Wren Livesay, Isabella Ferber, Will Wallace, Alondra Rios, Victoria Huerta, Quinten Hall, Ericca Leyva, Emily Patrick, Ryan Pope, Tristan Horta, Hathaway Miller, Dawson Snyder, Emma Oros, Emma Iannuzzi, Ben Avriett, Asia Folsch, Mara Gamson, Jazmine Jackson, Ben Avriett, Kennedie Clinton, Alexandra DeRousie, Asia Folsch, Mara Gamson, Brilee Gold, Emmerson Grabill, Quinten Hall, Tristan Horta, Jazmine Jackson, Ericca Leyva, Hathaway Miller, Jadon Milne, Samantha Money, Emma Oros, Sofia Oros, Emily Patrick, Ryan Pope, Zoe Priolo, Gabe Russe, Dawson Snyder, and Caroline Williamson star in the beloved classic story White Christmas on December 20.

Something magical is flying into the Straz Center. Disney's Aladdin is landing its magic carpet at Morsani Hall on December 19, 2019 a?' January 5, 2020. Based on the on the Academy Award-winning 1992 animated film, Aladdin combines adventure, comedy and romance, featuring a full score, with familiar songs and more written specifically for the stage adaption. Aladdin ensemble actress Carissa Fiorillo is especially excited to be returning to Tampa. Aladdin at the Straz means Christmas with the family that she hasn't seen since the beginning of the year.

On Thursday, December 19, for one night only, a beloved Christmas classic will call Oxford Exchange home. Performed in the thrust setting around the Oxford Exchange atrium fountain, A Dickens Courtyard Christmas is director Matthew Belopavlovich's second collaboration with the venue. He will bring the holiday tale to life using the venue's gorgeous backdrop as inspiration.

Actors Spencer Meyers and Derrick Phillips wear a lot of hats. And pants and shirts and even blouses with holiday vests in A Tuna Christmas, the second in a series of fun, comedic plays set in the fictional town of Tuna, Texas, the third-smallest town in the state and a two-man Christmas play at Straz Center, opening December 11. Spencer and Derrick play 22 different roles in this quirky trilogy filled with quick wit, southern charm, and bite.

Most people like or even love Christmas, but no one a?" I mean no one a?" LOVES (in 250 point font) Christmas like Buddy the Elf. On Tuesday afternoon, after a belly full of a delicious holiday buffet at Show Palace Dinner Theatre, we settled in for Santa's tale of a human infant baby that grew up in the North Pole only to discover in his 30s, he wasn't an elf after all. Buddy had a human father, a sort of Scrooge-like Walter Hobbs, a family-ignoring, work-obsessed children's book publisher residing in the Big Apple, who just happened to be on the naughty list.

A perfect gift to start the holidays, on December 5-8, Fluid Expressions Inc presents Single Black Female at Stageworks Theater. When director T.R. Butler first read Single Black Female, he immediately felt a sense of connection with the heart and humor in the script and hopes his audience will feel it too. Featuring India Davison as Single Black Female 1 (SBF1), Simone Farrell as Single Black Female 2 (SBF 2), the message of community, love, and wanting to belong is universal.

Previously at Straz' Jaeb and Shimberg theatre, and part of the Tampa Bay Theatre Festival, playing November 22 through 24 at Stage West Playhouse in Hernando, combining heart and humor, the original musical American Heartbeat tells the poignant story of a Marine facing PTSD and an undocumented immigrant competing for the same job.

During the holiday season, Lauren Gunderson's Silent Sky opens at American Stage. Sometimes described as the Hidden Figures of astronomy, like Katherine Johnson in the 2017 movie, Henrietta Leavitt received little credit for her discovery.

mad Theatre of Tampa did it again! Launching Thursday night was Disenchanted at Jaeb Theatre, a fabulous, bawdy, vaudevillian, royal cabaret featuring ten disillusioned princesses revealing what truly happens after happily-ever-after. The ladies from a?oeSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs,a?? a?oeCinderella,a?? a?oeSleeping Beauty,a?? a?oeBeauty and the Beast,a?? a?oeMulan,a?? a?oeThe Little Mermaid,a?? a?oePocahontas,a?? a?oeThe Princess Who Kissed the Frog,a?? a?oeRapunzel,a?? and a?oeAladdin,a?? took on the man who commercialized and exploited their characters. These were no damsels in distress!

Director Drew Eberhard's presentation of Suzan Lori-Parks a?oeIn the Blood,a?? a modernized loose telling of a?oeThe Scarlett Letter,a?? holds up a mirror to society and dares us to look away at the injustice and sexual abuse Hester faces from everyone she encounters. But this is just a parable. When we shake the hands of the talented actors, leave the theatre, get into our cars, the safety of our homes, fill our bellies, destress to our Hulus and Netflixes, we can shake off that feeling of helplessness, hopelessness because it's not real.

Coming to Straz Center on Saturday, November 9, for one night only is the critically-acclaimed concert style theatre show The Simon & Garfunkel Story starring George Clements as Paul and Andrew Wade as Art. Using state-of-the-art video projection, incredible lighting and a full live band, the show is a journey through the life and musical creativity of two young boys from Queens, New York who go one to become the world's most successful duo, starting from their modest beginnings as a?oeTom and Jerry,a?? through their massive success and ultimate split; culminating in the famous Central Park concert.

Broadway World sits down with director Drew Eberhard, stage manager Athena Romanski, and the six-member cast of In the Blood, D'Devah Simpson, Jason Abreu, Sonali Balan, Keith Batchelor Jr., Jeffrey Holmes, and Lena Morrisseau to discuss the importance of this hard-hitting drama written by Suzan-Lori Parks. In the Blood tells the story of a mother, Hester, raising her five children, with the father not around. Living in poverty, she is trying to make her children's lives better. It is a tale of exploitation. Each person who interacts with Hester abuses her in their own way.

As a way to celebrate diversity in Tampa Bay, The Straz Center created The Straz Arts Legacy REMIX Project, where writers, actors, musicians, singers, and dancers join together on the Riverwalk to perform for a free event highlighting the beauty of a particular culture. On November 8, The Straz Arts Legacy REMIX Project is stepping away from culture to honor our heroes. Arts Legacy REMIX From Sea to Shining Sea celebrates the men and women who defend and protect our country through the centuries.

Mix the talent from Patel Conservatory's local arts program chorale and musical theatre students' group Ovation, Opera Tampa's upcoming shows of a?oeCarmena?? and a?oeAida,a?? and guest performers from the Broadway of Mean Girls, Alladin, Jersey Boys, and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, with food trucks, chalk artists, a table-decorating contest, and pets and you have the makings for a fantastic Sunday afternoon.

GETTING SARA MARRIED features a workaholic, an engaged financial advisor with short-term memory loss, and frightening food allergies. Mix in a loving, albeit busybody aunt, a frustrated fiancé, and a teddy bear of a sort-of-shady delivery guy, and you have yourself an incredibly funny farce. In the real world, the script would make no sense, but somehow the talent of the five actors makes a storyline where you have to suspend belief, plausible.

Helmed by Tony-winning director Barlett Sher, coming to the Straz Center for the Performing Arts on November 5 through 10 is Fiddler on the Roof. The musical offers a fresh take of the beloved classic tale. With familiar songs like a?oeTradition,a?? a?oeMatchmaker, Matchmaker,a?? and a?oeSunrise, Sunset,a?? the production is a heartwarming story of fathers and daughters, husbands and wives, the perfect start to the holiday season.

On Thursday night, director Aaron Washington took us to church. Nunsense Jamboree, the third in the series, combined the comedic influences of Laugh-In, silly jokes, a puppet nun, and crafty innuendos, five outstanding voices with an adorable set created by Paul Berge at Carrollwood Cultural Center. MAS Theatre captured the authentic charm of a country-western jamboree a?" like the kind you'd see set up at the fairgrounds. All that was missing was a hand raised, waving in praise and meat on a stick. I also had flashbacks of Sunday sermons with my grandma, with much better music provided by Mary Jo Hahn, Rusty Wirt, Wink Warren, and Valerie Frege.

Wild Party is loosely based on a poem from 1928 about a couple who host a party. The description doesn't sound terribly appealing, does it? But this party was not your average dinner party. Often the cast interacted with the VIP audience members and the bartender, making us feel like we were all attending this party. While the guests wore their most elegant attire (superbly dressed by costume designer Rachael Dugas-Murray), this soiree degenerated into debauchery with sex, infidelity, a snort of cocaine, and a gun.