Natalie Weiss To Perform Music Box Concert and Teach in Cleveland Musical Theatre Intensive Educational Program

Roy Berko

Cleveland Music Theatre (CMT), the brainchild of native Clevelanders Miles Sternfeld and Sean Patrick, was created to provide Northeast Ohio with high quality, engaging, locally produced musical theater by uniting Cleveland's most talented artists with Broadway/national talent, while creating educational opportunities for rising professional actors.

Housed in New York, but producing locally, the organization has presented the critically praised shows The Who's Tommy (2013) and Aida, in July (2015).

To date, CMT's major thrust has been to present well-attended intensive training by providing opportunities for local students to explore the realities of what it means to be a modern working theater professional. The intensive classes are taught by working Broadway professionals, including Tony Award winners, and cover every aspect of the business including the role of the performer, casting directors, agents, directors, music directors, choreographers, conductors, producers, and composers.

Intensive presenters have included Alice Ripley (Tony Award winner for Next to Normal), Shoshana Bean (Broadway: Wicked and Hairspray), Christina DeCicco (Broadway: Evita, Sister Act), Paige Faure (Broadway, Cinderella), Morgan James (Broadway: Godspell, Wonderland, Motown), John Leggio (Broadway: Cats, My Fair Lady, Showboat), Kathleen Marshall (Three-time Tony Winning Director/Choreographer), Patina Miller (Tony Award winner for Pippin), and Jared Zirilli (Broadway: Lysistrata Jones, Wicked).

Local theatre professional instructors have included: Victoria Bussert (Director of Musical Theatre, Baldwin Wallace University), Martín Céspedes (award winning choreographer), Jacqui Loewy (Director of Theatre, Notre Dame College), Fabio Polanco, (Professor of Acting, Kent State University), and Brian Zoldessy (Cleveland Critic Circle and Times Theatre Tributes award-winning actor).

CMT's next offering will find Broadway performer, Natalie Weiss, doing double duty, teaching in the Cleveland Musical Theatre's "Pop/Rock Intensive," as well as starring in the organization's Music Box Supper Club concert. The venue is located at 1148 Main Avenue, on the West Bank of the flats.

Weiss, who graduated from Pennsylvania State University, was a season 4 semi-finalist on "American Idol," was the understudy for Elphaba in Wicked, and spent two-and-a-half-years with Les Miserables. She was also an understudy in Sherie Rene Scott's Everyday Rapture. Her videos, "A New World" and "Spark of Creation," preceded her breakaway YouTube hit "Breaking Down the Riffs." She is noted for her impressions of Celine Dion and Britney Spears. For more information on Weiss go to http://www.natalieweiss.net/

CMT alums Christina Ciofani, Dani Apple and Grace Hunt will also appear on December 18 at the 7:30 concert.

The "Pop/Rock Musical Theatre Intensive" runs from December 16-18, 2016 at Cuyahoga Community College-East. It will not only have Weiss on the faculty, but also features Martin Céspedes (choreographer) and Rob Kovacs (composer and music director). The curriculum will include breaking down riffs, singing coaching, teaching auditioning techniques, and demonstrating original Broadway choreography. Participants will also sing live in Natalie's concert.

For information for both the intensive and the concert go to http://www.clevelandmusicaltheatre.com/

Photo Credit: @kathennessey