Charm City Call Board: September 2 - 8

By: Sep. 03, 2008
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Welcome to Charm City Call Board for the week of September 2 - 8, keeping you up to date each week with all that is theater in Baltimore and the region.             

Discounts and contest notices are listed first.  "On Stage" listings follow in this order: opening this week, in previews, current running productions, closing this week and upcoming productions.  Audition and help wanted notices will be next (arranged by date), followed by "Backstage Babble" - news bites, your letters and book/CD recommendations and "Theatre Events" are at the end. 

Please feel free to send me suggestions/comments at jameshoward@broadwayworld.com.   

 

NEW THIS WEEK!:

  • New Artistic Director at BSF!
  • Benefit for Children's Playhouse of Maryland!
  • New Theatre Company Opens Show at Theatre Project!
  • One Act Play Festival at Laurel Mill Playhouse!

   

BROADWAYWORLD.BALTIMORE DISCOUNTS! 

  • Elegies: For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens at Spotlighters: ONLINE discount ONLY!  Get $5.00 off each ticket!  Go to www.spotlighters.org, click on "Tickets" and enter code: BWW-EPAQ. Offer good for all performances, 09.26 - 10.05 (Thursday - Sunday)!

 

CONTESTS

Win Opening Night tickets to Legally Blonde: The Musical at the Hippodrome!  Contest to post later this week!

 

ONSTAGE THIS WEEK!

A five star system will be utilized in order to differentiate between the various levels of success: artistry and entertainment value.  This system is not directly numeric, however.  That is, a 4 rated show isn't necessarily twice as good as a 2 rated show; neither is a 4 rated show a "B" or an 80%.

◊◊◊◊◊ - The absolute best theatre has to offer!  Missing this should not be an option!
◊◊◊◊ - This is excellent theatre!  Do not miss this show!
◊◊◊ - This is a good production.  Try to get to this one!
◊◊ - This is a fair production.
◊ - Save your money.

Be sure to contact the theatre directly for show times, dates and prices.  All shows subject to change.  

 

IN PREVIEWS!:

 The Phantom of the Opera at Toby's Dinner Theatre of Baltimore

 

CURTAIN UP!  Shows opening this week.

ACE at Signature Theatre

  • ◊◊◊ ACE (Musical) : Signature Theatre.  Through 09.28.  2 hours, 25 minutes including intermission.  Review posted 09.04.  703.573.7328 or www.signature-theatre.org. 
  • What's a Little Death?: A Play with Songs (Play with Music): 3 Hands Clapping at The Baltimore Theatre Project.  Opens 09.04.  Through 09.14.  www.theatreproject.org or 410.435.4279.  See related article below!
  • Lend Me a Tenor (Play): JHU Barnstormers.  Opens 09.05.  Through 09.07.  www.thejhubarnstormers.org

 

NOW PLAYING!  Shows currently open.     

Trumbo at RepStage

  • Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespearean Comedy): Hannah More School and Park.  08.22 - 09.06.
  • ◊◊◊◊Trumbo (Play): RepStage.   Through 9.28.  95 minutes, no intermission.  Adult themes. Review to be posted 09/06.  www.repstage.org or 410.772.4900.
  • Doubt: A Parable (Play): Everyman Theatre.   Through 10.05.  Review to be posted 09/07.  www.everymantheatre.org or 410.752.2208. 

 

COMING SOON!  Opening later this month!

 

CLOSING THIS WEEK! Your last chance...  

  •  There are no shows currently scheduled to close!

 

AUDITIONS: 

  • Have an audition coming up?  Send your info to jameshoward@broadwayworld.com

 

BACKSTAGE BABBLE!  News, Best Bets, etc. (New items in RED.)   

NEWS: Children's Playhouse of Maryland to Hold Benefit Peformance  

The Children's Playhouse of Maryland in residence at CCBC - Essex, will present a benefit performance entitled "The Ladies Who Lunch" at the theatre on that campus.  The performance will be on Saturday, September 13.  A silent auction will held at 7PM, the show will begin at 8PM, and a reception will immediately follow. 

Tickets are $20.00 per person and available by calling 410.780.6369. 

Scheduled performers include: Eileen Aubele, Liz Boyer Hunnicutt, Kim Hopcraft, Holly Pasciullo, Tiffany Porta, Beth Weber, Marguerite Willbanks, Shannon Wollman and the Children of The Children's Playhouse of Maryland.

  

NEWS: Baltimore Shakespeare Festival Welcomes New Artistic Director

The Board of Trustees of Baltimore Shakespeare Festival has announced the appointment of Michael Carleton as the theater's new Producing Artistic Director.  He will begin his work in October with Managing Director Dana Whipkey and the BSF staff. 

Mr. Carleton has been acting and directing for 24 years and has more than 120 professional productions to his credit.  He has worked extensively with the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and other regional and New York theaters. 

He served 8 seasons as the Artistic Director of the Cape May Stage, where he recently completed a $1.4 million capital campaign for renovation and restoration of its theater. 

While at Cape May he worked on original projects with playwrights Israel Horovitz, Theresa Rebeck, Anne Nelson, and Lee Blessing. 

Commenting on his new role, Mr. Carleton said, "The Arts are on a roll in Baltimore, there's energy and an incredible talent pool here, and Baltimore Shakespeare Festival is a vital, growing part of that - I'm looking forward to being a part of that growth." 

Mr. Carleton has published several original plays including "Michelangelo's Ladder," "Anais Nin, an Unprofessional Study," and "Hyde, in The Shadows," a Barrymore Award nominee for outstanding new play.  He is a lifetime member of the Actor's Studio in New York.  He is married to theatre educator Jessica Carleton. 

BSF President, Nicole Epp, speaking on behalf of the Board of Trustees said, "Michael Carleton is a great addition to the BSF family.  His experience with Orlando Shakespeare Theater combined with the great work he did at Cape May Stage will be a tremendous asset as we grow, helping us continue to deliver quality classical theatre to the Baltimore Community, and becoming a nationally recognized regional theatre." 

For performance schedules, education programs, and audition information, please contact the BSF administrative offices at 410-366-8594. 

 

September 4 - 14:  3 Hands Clapping Makes Baltimore Debut with Original Play with Music!

A long time ago, or maybe a hundred years from now: Something is rotten in the State...

A gravedigger's working overtime, thanks to an endless war, and the earth is so stuffed with bodies that it's spitting them back out - including a ragged pack of the formerly living who bear a striking resemblance to those littering the stage at the end of Hamlet. 

What's a Little Death is 3 Hands Clapping's first production, premiering at Baltimore Theatre Project. After a workshop production as part of the Washington DC Source Festival on July 5 & 6, the company continued to develop the piece over the summer, with a sneak preview at Baltimore's Artscape on July 20. 

The 3 Hands Clapping Core Ensemble (Co-Directors Leslie Felbain, Charles Marsh and Juanita Rockwell) are working with Associate Artists from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and DC: Daniel Ettinger (Set), AnaMarie A. Salamat (Costumes), Rebecca Wolf (Lights) and performers Colleen Harris & Jomar Tagatac (members of Actors Equity Association), Natalie Handel, Caroline Reck, and Joseph W. Ritsch.  

Director Leslie Felbain brings her hallmark physical precision and expressive characterization to an all-new script and lyrics by Juanita Rockwell with original music and sound design by Chas Marsh. Felbain is building on the two years of her own work on Shakespeare's Hamlet that led to her collaged red-nose clown adaptation, Hamlet? That is the Question, performed at the DC Capital and New York Fringe Festivals in 2007 with her company, Infinite Stage. 

Playwright and Lyricist Juanita Rockwell combines some of Shakespeare's language with her own blank verse, drawing on stylistic influences as diverse as Samuel Beckett and Bertolt Brecht.

Chas Marsh's eclectic original score is woven into his textured sound design, bringing Elizabethan harmonies together with the spiky dissonance of neo-cabaret. 

Three Co-Directors form the Core Ensemble of 3 Hands Clapping, with nearly a century of combined artistic work:

Leslie Felbain is a DC-based director, performer, movement coach, Alexander Technique Teacher and Cranio-Sacral Therapist working professionally in dance, circus and theatre. She currently serves on the faculty of the University of Maryland, College Park. (infinitestage.com)

Chas Marsh is a Baltimore-based composer, musician, videographer, documentarian, sound designer and video designer working in theatre, film and music. He is Resident Sound Designer at Everyman Theatre and plays bass for Anne Watts and Boister (boister.net).

Juanita Rockwell is a Baltimore-based director, writer and dramaturge developing new works for theatre, opera, radio, multi-media and site specific performance. She was Founding Director of Towson University's MFA in Theatre Program, where she now teaches. (juanitarockwell.com)

 

September 5 - 14: Laurel Mill Playhouse Presents One Act Play Festival  

September 5, 6, 7:

Board Meeting by Jacy  D'Aiutolo and directed by Mark T. Allen
If God Had Meant for Man to Fly...    by Scott D. Morrow and directed
by Jenna Jones
Role of Della -  by John Wooten and directed by Jocelyn Knazik
Brunch by Zachary Goldbaum and directed by Tricia Schwaab

September 12, 13, 14:

To Burn a Witch by  James L. Bray directed by Jeaneo Binney and Patti Knazik
After Thoughts  by Scott D. Morrow and  Sarah Morrow directed by Tricia Schwaab
It's About Forgiveness by Albi Gorn and directed by Maureen Rogers and
Larry Simmons

 Performances: Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm

You will see some of your favorite actors from past productions at LMP
as well as actors new to the stage at LMP that will become your
favorites! Appearing are Randy Adler, Brian Binney, Kathryn Binney,
Jeanette Brown, Mary Curry, Melainie Eifert, Juliana Ejedoghaobi, Mark
Fulco, Michael Hartsfield, Ebony Jones, Larry Levinson, Brenda Mack,
Irene Patton, James Raymond, Elisa Rodero, Maureen Rogers,Diana
Simmons, Larry Simmons, Dan Staicer and  Tom Tomlinson.

General admission tickets are $10 each or to see all three weekends,
special price of $25. For reservations, please call 301-617-9906 and
press 2. For more information about shows, visit
www.laurelmillplayhouse.org or call Maureen Rogers at 301-452-2557.
Laurel Mill Playhouse is located at 508 Main Street in historic Laurel.

 

September 5 - October 4: Scandal at the Monestary!  MET Offers New Play 

Lies!  Robbery!  Sex!  Mistaken identities! Juggling! It's all part of Maryland Ensemble Theatre's 2008-2009 season-opening production, Incorruptible: A Dark Comedy for the Dark Ages, by Michael Hollinger. 

The year is 1250 A.D. and times are pretty tough for the monks at Priseaux.  Their resident saintly relic - Saint Foy - hasn't produced a miracle in 13 years.  Worse, a neighboring monastery is claiming to possess the real Saint Foy!  With the help of a larcenous minstrel, the monks devise a plan to save the monastery and its members from economic ruin and eternal damnation. 

Incorruptible features the talents of MET Ensemble Members Mark Barnhart, Julie Herber, Tad Janes, Karen Paone and Reiner Prochaska and is directed by MET Associate Artistic Director Gené Fouché. 

Incorruptible opens September 5th and runs through October 4th.  Tickets are $22 for adults and $19 for students and seniors.  For tickets or more information call 301-694-4744 or visit www.marylandensemble.org

PHOTO CREDITS: Phantom by Kirstine Chistiansen; ACE by Stan Barouh; Trumbo by Stan Barouh; Michael Carleton courtesy of Baltimore Shakespeare Festival; and What's a Little Death? courtesy of 3 Hands Clapping.



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