Harmony Wheeler - Page 64

Fifteen students from Henry J. Kaiser High School, Walnut High School, Fullerton Union High School, Los Angeles County High School for the Performing Arts, Notre Dame Academy and other high schools across southern California performed monologues from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson's 10-play “Century Cycle' on Monday, March 26 at Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum's August Wilson Monologue Competition Regional Finals.

A record breaking 12,000* people visited LaCenterra at Cinco Ranch this past Saturday for the 8th Annual KVPAC ARTS for ALL! Family Festival. Spring weather brought families out, then art displays, craft projects, fun games, a giant slide, princesses, prizes, and professional entertainment kept them there for hours - admission, activities, and performances were all free-of-charge, courtesy of Katy Visual & Performing Arts Center and their 2012 festival sponsors: LaCenterra at Cinco Ranch, Heroes Delivery & Moving LLC, Katy Parent Magazine, Camp Katy Technology Camps, Pump It Up, Primrose Schools, Waggin' Tails Pet Ranch and Grand Vision.

FREUD'S LAST SESSION, the runaway hit play by Mark St. Germain now in its second successful year in New York, is coming "for a session" at the Mercury Theater (3745 N. Southport, Chicago), making its Midwest Premiere previewing March 21, opening March 28 with tickets on sale through June 3. FREUD'S LAST SESSION won the 2011 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play.

Fresh off of its Season 14 launch, Dancing with the Stars, ABC's leading entertainment show, produced by BBC Worldwide Productions, is bringing a production exclusively to the New Tropicana Las Vegas. The live show, directed by Amy Tinkham and choreographed by Australian sensation Jason Gilkison, kicks off a 12-week run beginning Saturday, April 14.

Set to perform at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts on April 20 at 7:30 p.m., the revolutionary dance company MOMIX presents Botanica, combining a world of vibrant imagery revealing nature's four seasons. With a diverse score ranging from Birdsong to Vivaldi, Botanica shows off the endlessly renewable energy of the MOMIX entertainers, with costumes, projections and custom-made props and puppetry.

Quintessence Theatre Group's production of Jean Anouilh's 1943 adaptation of Sophocles' ANTIGONE, in a translation by Jeremy Sams, directed by Alexander Burns has been extended to April 1st. ANTIGONE has added performances on Friday, March 30th at 8pm, Saturday, March 31st at 8pm and will now close on Sunday, April 1st at 3pm at the Sedgwick Theate. To purchase tickets, visit www.QuintessenceTheatre.org or call 1.877.238.5596.

Big Noise Theatre Company closes its 2011-12 season with the musical biography, LEADER OF THE PACK: THE ELLIE GREENWICH MUSICAL, opening April 27 and playing weekends through May 13, 2012. Performances will be held at the Prairie Lake Theatre in Des Plaines, IL. The company is celebrating its 10th year. LEADER OF THE PACK is directed by Nancy Flaster, with choreography by Flaster and Ann Fink, the team who brought the smash hit BEEHIVE to Prairie Lakes audiences in 2009. Robert Deason, music director of Big Noise's fall production of HOW TO SUCCEED… returns as music director.

Multiple Grammy Award-winning and platinum recording icon, Stevie Nicks will bring her solo tour to the historic Fox Theatre on Friday, July 6 at 7:30 p.m. The tour is in support of Nicks' first studio CD in ten years, In Your Dreams, that was released to critical raves and debuted in the Top Ten on Billboard's Top 200 Chart.

Gotham Dance Festival returns for two weeks, presenting five programs that feature the work of more than ten choreographers, including a program celebrating the choreographic work of American women, both established and emerging talents. May 30-June 10, 2012 at The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue. Tickets are $10-$39 and are available at 212-242-0800 or joyce.org.

Parsons Dance and Gala Chair Linda Stocknoff announce the company's 2012 Annual spring Gala, Paint it Red, honoring Nancy Browne, Parsons Dance friend and co-commissioner of 2011 premiere work Portinari, on Monday, April 16, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at Espace. The evening will begin with cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and silent auction at 7:30 p.m., followed by a dinner, live auction, and performance by Parsons Dance at 8:30 p.m., then a full night of social dancing. Festive cocktail attire with a splash of red requested. Tickets begin at $700 and are available by calling 212-869-9275, by emailing sandy@parsonsdance.org, or online at www.parsonsdance.org/gala.

The House Theatre of Chicago announces that the sold-out hit show, Death and Harry Houdini, will add performances in July and August at The Chopin Theatre.

Grammy Award-winning artist and Las Vegas native NE-YO is scheduled to give an intimate, private performance at ARIA Resort & Casino at CityCenter during the 11th Annual Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational (MJCI), Friday, March 30. NE-YO will take the stage at the MJCI Celebration, an annual gala for the tournament's celebrities and VIP invited guests.

On April 23 and 24, 2012, at 7:30pm, at GALA Hispanic Theatre (3333 14th St. NW), Young Playwrights' Theater (YPT) will premiere twelve new plays written by DC area youth over two nights of free performances.

Catalyst Collaborative@MIT, a science-theater collaboration between Underground Railway Theater and MIT, presents the World Premiere of Yesterday Happened: Remembering H.M., written and directed by Wesley Savick, running April 12 through May 13, 2012

Dance, shout and shake your booty over to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall when CIRQUE DREAMS newest stage spectacle, Pop Goes The Rock makes its debut in Sarasota by presenting Cirque Dreams variety acts and acrobatic feats to popular songs and chart topping hits spanning the decades Mon. April 16 at 7:30 PM.

Tyrol Hills Music is presenting the world premiere of the original production of Deal! The Musical, which will debut April 20 and run through May 6 at the Ritz Theater in Minneapolis.

Amra-Faye Wright, who is currently starring as Velma Kelly in the Broadway musical Chicago, is returning to Feinstein's at Loews Regency April 03 and 05 to perform her celebrated cabaret act.

Music Director Jacques Lacombe and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) present a special concert program at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, May 9, at 7:30 p.m. as part of the second-annual Spring for Music Festival. The performance marks Lacombe's Carnegie Hall debut. Pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin performs Busoni's Piano Concerto. The NJSO gives the Carnegie Hall premiere of Weill's Symphony No. 1, "Berliner," and soprano Hila Plitmann joins the Orchestra for Varese's Nocturnal. Both the Busoni and Varese works feature the men of the Westminster Symphonic Choir.

Longtime country music hitmaker Diamond Rio will perform a Friday Night Concert at Crown Center on August 10. The show starts at 8 p.m. and is held rain or shine. Admission is $5 and all seating is general admission.

FEINSTEIN'S AT LOEWS REGENCY will continue its Spring 2012 season with the debut of Broadway and Hollywood star, JANIS PAIGE for two nights only on May 20 and May 21. For her one-woman show, Paige shares favorite songs and recounts tales from her lifetime in show business -- from achieving a dream of Hollywood stardom to her leading roles on Broadway, the famous people who influenced her life and career, her personal and professional triumphs, and the losses and laughs of a long and highly-successful career. Ms. Paige will appear for two shows only at the Loews Regency Hotel.