Johnna Leary - Page 8

BWW Interviews: BIRDS OF PARADISE to Premiere at Being Revived

This Friday, Rabbit Hole, the 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, will debut at the recently opened Black Box Arts Center in Shepherdstown, WV. Directed by Julie Bloomquist, Rabbit Hole tells the seemingly simple, yet emotionally complex story of individual family members all dealing with the death of a young child. Married couple Becca and Howie have lost their four year old son after he was accidentally hit by a car. The family struggles to cope with the loss as Becca's sister, Izzy, is currently pregnant and Becca's mother, Nat, attempts to comfort her daughters and hold the fragile family together.

Here on the Flight Path, a new romantic comedy by Norm Foster, flies into opening this Friday at the Old Opera House in Charles Town, WV. In Here on the Flight Path, John, a slightly nerdy man coming out of a failed relationship, lives on the edge of Toronto's Pearson Airport. The play focuses on John's different relationships with three women over the course of time. A unique factor for Here on the Flight Path lies in the intimate staging.

The students of the Shepherd University Music Department will premiere an Opera Double Feature, featuring one comedic romance and one tragic romance, just in time for Valentine's Day! Opening February 13, the Opera Double Feature will included Dido and Aeneas, directed by Dr. Robert Tudor, and La Serva Padrona, directed by Dr. Bobb Robinson. Both operas are musically directed by Dr. Erik Jones. Dido and Aeneas, a tragedy, tells the story of Dido, a queen and both her love for enemy soldier, Aeneas, and her despair when he leaves her. La Serva Padrona, a comedy, features a clever maid and manservant conspiring to trick the master of the house into marrying the maid so that she can become the wealthy mistress of the house.

With Valentines Day quickly approaching, a comedy about a romantic dinner sounds perfect. Add in mistaken identities, sexual humor and some surprise plot twists, and you find the perfect date night in the comedy Don't Dress for Dinner, premiering this Friday to open the 2015 season at the Old Opera House. Directed by Steven Brewer, Don't Dress for Dinner is fast-paced farce set in the charming French countryside. Bernard is planning a romantic weekend with his mistress while his wife, Jacqueline, is away. He invites his best friend, Robert, over for a fool-proof alibi. But, as it turns out, Robert is actually Jacqueline's lover, Jacqueline decides not to leave after all, Bernard's mistress must now pretend to be the cook and everyone's alibi is altered as Bernard and Robert try to talk their way out of a relationship mess!

For fans of popular TV crime series like NCIS or Criminal Minds, imagine how much more suspenseful a show about a kidnapping would be if it was actually happening, in real time, right in front of you..... onstage. The Abduction, opening on January 23 at the Apollo Civic Theater is a modern mystery-thriller sure to chase away the winter doldrums. Directed by Jeff Wine, The Abduction is a modern-day thriller featuring an average American family. After celebrating her parents' anniversary dinner, Cindy Grant is forced off the road while driving back to her college during a thunderstorm and abducted by a mysterious stranger. Her parents, Allen and Shelia, desperately struggle to raise the ransom by the criminal's deadline and Cindy's boyfriend goes off to search for her, all while they continue to receive chilling cell phone calls from Cindy and her abductor.

Santa Claus may be coming to town, but the Three Wise Men will be arriving sooner in a new production of Amahl and the Night Visitors. Hagerstown Hub Opera Ensemble will present a special one time only production, directed by Phillip Collister in conjunction with Towson University Music for the Stage Ensemble at the Maryland Theater for the holiday season on December 21.

"You'll shoot your eye out!" Instead of watching the nostalgic Christmas movie during another 24 hour movie marathon, see A Christmas Story: The Musical live on stage at the Old Opera House in Charles Town, WV, opening December 4.

The Potomac Playmaker's production of Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, directed by Charles Kopack, will open December 5 at the Hagerstown Women's Club in Hagerstown, MD. The show tells the story of A Christmas Carol, but from Jacob Marley, Scrooge's best friend and business partner's, point of view

Spring Awakening, a modern rock musical featuring teenage student discoveries, will premiere this Friday at the Shepherdstown Train Station, produced by Shepherd University's student-run musical theater group, Scene Stealers.

You've heard of the eternal struggle to win back your ex, to find"Mr. Right" or that a man and woman can never be "just friends". But, what if all the relationship advice you've ever heard...... is totally wrong? I Love You Because, a new Off-Broadway musical about modern relationships, will debut this Saturday at the Washington County Playhouse in Hagerstown, MD as the area premiere of the production.

In a mystery show featuring the murder and intrigue of Sherlock Holmes, normally actors would expect a theatrical death onstage......but not the murder of an actual cast member! Directed by Susan Thornton, Postmortem premieres this Friday, Oct. 17 at the Old Opera House in Charles Town, WV.

Just in time for Halloween, Hagerstown Hub Opera will present the classic children's fairy tale Hansel and Gretel on October 4 and 5, featuring an enchanted forest, magical creatures and, of course, a wicked witch!

How can you prove to the people you love that your work is your own, when you can't even be sure of your own sanity? This is one of the key dramatic issues in the Potomac Playmaker's production of David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize winning drama, Proof, directed by Barb McCormick and premiering Friday, September 26 at the Hagerstown Women's Club.

"Do You Hear the People Sing?" Then come join the revolution as Les Miserables opens at the Apollo Civic Theater in Martinsburg, WV this Friday. Co-directed by Bob LeBlanc and Jennifer Noll and musically directed by Jeff Poland, this epic musical about one man's quest for redemption during the July student revolution of 1832 will premiere live on stage.

Come spend a delightful "Weekend in the Country" when A Little Night Music opens at the Old Opera House in Charles Town, WV this Friday, September 5. Directed by David Porterfield and musically directed by Alison Shafer, Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music portrays various relationships between amorous actress Desiree Armfeldt, her old flame Frrederick and her current lover, the Count Carl-Magnus. Both men are married, one to an innocent child-bride and the other to a witty wife. Desiree also has a child, currently being raised by her sharp-tongued grandmother, while Desiree is occupied touring in a traveling play. Relationships are renewed and old flames spark when all of the characters are invited to the Armfeldt estate for the weekend.

Everyone usually enjoys a nice evening of food, wine..... and solving a murder case! Vintage Murder, an interactive and improvisational murder mystery, will premiere September 6 at the Knob Hall Winery. Produced by the Potomac Playmakers organization of Hagerstown, MD, Vintage Murder will provide many new occasions for the theatrical organization, such as a new location and new type of production.

Even though the language and settings may have changed over centuries, one situation remains true: romantic relationships are often complicated over simple matters. In the Robinwood Players production of the Shakespearean comedy Much Ado About Nothing, directed by David Dull and running through August 3 at Hagerstown Community College, actors were introduced to the universal themes of love and relationships.

Written by Bruce Graham and directed by Ed Herendeen, North of the Boulevard is an enjoyable modern-day comedy with enough undertones of familial dysfunction and economic inequality to make the humor hit a little too close to home for many viewers. North of the Boulevard focuses on one evening near Christmas in a small time auto mechanic garage. Trip, Bear and Larry all work at typical middle-class jobs while Larry's father, Zee, is retired and generally acts as the elderly pain-in-the-ass around the shop. The four male friends get together, as usual, to discuss day-to-day lives and jobs and dream about easier lives with more money, where they could move to a nice neighborhood north of the boulevard. When tragedy strikes, the characters are faced with a gigantic moral dilemma, pushing each man to his ethical limit and showing how much greed, corruption and the prospect of one hundred grand can change both a friendship and a life.

Written by Christina Anderson and directed by Lucie Tiberghien, the World Premiere production of The Ashes Under Gait City displays an age-old conflict through the modern lens of our reliance on social media technology.