Larisa Mount - Page 4

The much-loved story of Beauty and the Beast has made its way to Durham this week. The national touring company has taken up residence at the Durham Performing Arts Center. Get out your ball gowns and dust off your princess crowns, and settle in for a memorable evening of theater.

Raleigh Little Theatre is proving that it's not afraid to take a risk, and it's paying off in a big way. Their current production is the 2007 Tony Winner Spring Awakening, and RLT is out to prove that it can rock with the best of them.

Spring Awakening opens this weekend at Raleigh Little Theater. I recently sat down with the director, Glen Matthews, and cast members Kate Brittain (Thea), Adam Keller (Melchior), Nicholas Polonio (Moritz), and Brishelle Miller (Wendla), to talk about the show. They shared with me about how the cast bonded, their favorite moments in the show, and the message they hope audiences take away from the performance.

Beauty and the Beast may have first appeared on Broadway almost 20 years ago, in 1994, but the show is alive and well. Newly re-imagined, the current US national touring company will be making its way to Durham for an engagement from October 8 - 13. In preparation for the show's arrival in the triangle, I had the honor of speaking with Matt West, the show's Tony-nominated choreographer, about the show's beginnings, its new life, and the message at its heart.

Hall mixes historical reality with playful conjecture to create a piece which is heartwarming and thought-provokingA rainy Saturday evening in Chapel Hill was fitting for the opening night of PlayMakers Repertory Company's production of The Mountaintop, produced in partnership with Greensboro's Triad Stage. The play, written by Katori Hall, also takes place on a rainy evening - a fateful one: April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. It was the night before Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot, and it follows the man through his final evening, which was spent in his hotel room. Hall mixes historical reality with playful conjecture to create a piece which is heartwarming and thought-provoking.

Currently playing at Raleigh Little Theatre, Art, by Yasmina Reza, is making audiences laugh while asking important philosophical questions about the very nature of art.

The Blue Man Group has come to Durham! The group, which features three literally blue men on stage, backed up by a percussion-oriented rock band, includes everything from zany percussion instruments to hilarious sketches in their jam-packed evening of entertainment. Their style of performance is audience-inclusive and constantly moving.

Durham is about to get Blue! The Blue Man Group comes to town this Thursday. In anticipation of their arrival, I chatted with Blue Man Mike Brown about exactly what Blue Men do, what it takes to be a Blue Man, and what audiences can expect when they see a Blue Man Group show.

This weekend, dinosaurs were spotted in Chapel Hill. Wagon Wheel Arts' production of Triassic Parq played the Kenan Theatre from Thursday through Sunday. The show follows the same dinosaurs made famous by the film Jurassic Park, but explores the lives of those dinosaurs in a whole new way. These dinosaurs deal with religion, hormones, and the very notion of freedom itself - through song and dance, naturally.

This weekend, dinosaurs are taking over Chapel Hill. Presented by Wagon Wheel Arts, catch Triassic Parq at the Kenan Theatre at the Center for Dramatic Art in Chapel Hill. I had the chance to peek in on a rehearsal and talk to a few cast members to get a glimpse of what audiences will see this coming weekend.

Hot Summer Nights | Theatre Raleigh's Urinetown is the latest resident of Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts's A. J. Fletcher Opera Theater. The 2001 musical comedy, written by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis, takes place during a decades-long drought which has caused water to be a precious commodity. The strain on resources leads to a world in which private toilets are no more, and the public must pay to use the restroom. Narrated by a policeman named Officer Lockstock, along with pigtailed Little Sally, Urinetown follows Bobby Strong, a public amenity employee who dares to ask, 'what if the law is wrong?' Seeing the plight of those around him as they struggle to come up with the funds to use the pay-per-pee toilets, Bobby starts a revolution by letting customers in for free and standing up to greedy businessman Caldwell B. Cladwell. During his journey, he meets the woman of his dreams, who happens to be Cladwell's daughter, Hope. Filled with playful musical theater references, political schemes, and plenty of heart, Urinetown is a success for Hot Summer Nights | Theatre Raleigh.

Two sets of parents talking about an incident on the playground. On the surface, it doesn't seem like a particularly enticing plot for a play. However, the particular parents in Hot Summer Nights | Theatre Raleigh's God of Carnage turn this conversation into real drama. The plot starts out simple enough: on the playground, Henry won't let Benjamin join his gang, so Benjamin hits Henry with a stick, knocking out two of his teeth (incisors, as his mother would be quick to point out). When Benjamin's parents, Alan and Annette Raleigh (played by Derrick Ivey and Julie Fishell), arrive at the home of Henry's parents, Veronica and Michael Novak (played by Dana Marks and Michael Tourek), things get complicated. The conversation includes topics of culpability, reparation, and parenting philosophy. To further complicate the matter, Alan is constantly answering his cell phone to discuss business matters, Annette and Veronica both battle extreme nausea, Michael's mother keeps calling, the Novaks are dealing with the recent demise of their daughter's pet hamster, and ultimately, everyone turns to liquor to ameliorate their woes.

On June 2, the best and brightest from area high schools gathered together at the 2013 Triangle Rising Star Awards, honoring the best in high school musical theater. Each of the 20 finalists were nominated based on performances in their schools' productions, and represented a diverse array of shows including The King and I, Godspell, and Grease, among others.

Recently, the theater company called the TEAM did some work in Chapel Hill, as part of a residency program with PlayMakers Repertory Company. According to their website, 'the TEAM is a New York City-based theatre company dedicated to dissecting and celebrating the experience of living in America today.' Founded in 2004, the TEAM writes collectively as a unit, separately from their individual careers in the arts. They met collaborator Taylor Mac in 2008. Some members of the TEAM spent a week in residence with PlayMakers Repertory Company, developing new work by collaborating with each other and experts among the faculty at UNC. In the two-to-four-year process of writing a show, the week they spent in residence at PlayMakers is step one. Their current work focuses on the themes of drive and discipline, based on the idea that in America, perhaps we have an abundance of drive and a deficiency of discipline.

Currently showing at Hot Summer Nights | Theatre Raleigh, the 1966 Musical I Do! I Do! Follows a married couple throughout the journey of their marriage, from their wedding night in their new home, to the day they move out of that home fifty years later. The couple, who comprise the entire cast, Agnes and Michael Snow, is played by real-life married couple Annie Floor and Erik Floor.

The lauded film-turned-hit-Broadway-musical Sister Act has come to town and is playing at the Durham Performing Arts Center. The show has everything from crime drama to nun choreography. It's fun for the whole family.

It's an old-fashioned musical - with a twist. NC Theatre's current production is the 2006 Broadway musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, subtitled, 'A Musical Within a Comedy.' The show's premise is that the narrator, named simply Man in Chair, guides the audience through his favorite show album (on vinyl, of course), the fictitious 1928 The Drowsy Chaperone. In a tongue-in-cheek look at the musical comedies of Broadway in the 1920s, the Man in Chair provides modern-day commentary on the things that make such shows at once laughable and wonderful. The show-within-the-show tells of a star, Janet Van Der Graaff, about to give up life on stage for marriage. Of course, no classic musical would be complete without its own off-the-wall subplots. The Drowsy Chaperone includes everything from a spit-take obsessed butler/hostess pair to pun-loving gangsters disguised as bakers, as well as Van Der Graaff's chaperone who has her own romantic entanglements with the hopelessly clumsy Adolfo. The premise is what makes this show work - the modern-day lens creates a show which is accessible without sacrificing on humor.

Durham just got a whole lot more glittery!

Get out your most sparkly shoes, because Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is headed for Durham. This glitzy show follows drag queens through the Australian outback on a bus named, of course, Priscilla. The big production numbers are paralleled only by the heart of the storyline. Ultimately, it's a show about accepting yourself and others for their own brand of fabulous. I recently had the chance to speak with Wade McCollum, who plays Tick/Mitzi. I got the scoop on what it's like to perform in such a demanding show, how he prepared, and the ins and outs of his complex character.

The current production at Hot Summer Nights | Theatre Raleigh, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee follows a group of kids (played by adults) as they navigate the fiercely competitive pre-teen spelling circuit. As the young characters compete for the top prize (a trip to Washington, DC to compete in nationals), they deal with social pressures, family tension, rampant hormones, and more. Don't let the plaid jumpers and pink overalls fool you - though this show is about kids, it's certainly for adults. The writing provides a grown-up's perspective on the chaos of pre-adolescence as the contestants proclaim that life is 'Pandemonium.' Audience members get in on the action as well, as several volunteers become contestants in the bee. Folks who are game for anything and don't mind some good-natured humor aimed their way should absolutely try their hand at the bee.