Cheryl News

Voting has opened for the 2015 BroadwayWorld Dallas Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of November 27th. Nominations were reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors. Voting runs through December 31.

One of the most explosive movie musicals in recent memory bursts onto the live stage with exhilarating results.

KasheDance presents the Toronto premiere of FACING Home: Love & Redemption, choreographed by Christopher Walker & Kevin Ormsby, this weekend, November 26 to November 29, 2015 at Aki Studio Theatre at Daniels Spectrum, 585 Dundas St East, Toronto, ON, M5A 2B7. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the dancers in action below!

Southern Delaware branches of WSFS Bank presented Clear Space Theatre Company a donation of $1,000.00 to help underwrite the programmatic costs of Clear Space's Arts Institute, which provides arts education programming to students of all ages.

Broadway Rose Theatre Company concludes its 2015 Season of Bright Beginnings with Rick Lewis' 1950s holiday revue, 'A Taffeta Christmas,' playing at the Broadway Rose New Stage. Preview performance is tonight, November 25 with opening night on Friday, November 27, and performances continuing through December 20, 2015.

Fresh off its world-premiere run in Minneapolis, Children's Theatre Company's new production about an 11-year-old spelling prodigy comes to Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. The show is adapted for the stage by veteran playwright Cheryl L. West (Arena's Pullman Porter Blues, Jar the Floor), who partners with celebrated director Charles Randolph-Wright (director of Broadway's Motown and an inaugural resident playwright with Arena Stage, where he premiered his play Love in Afghanistan). AKEELAH AND THE BEE runs now through December 27, 2015 in the Kreeger Theater, and BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivites at Arena Stage below!

THE DUMBWAITER, by Harold Pinter, is a one act play written in 1957. Almost 60 years on, it still has a lot to say about our need to assert our individuality while seeking meaning. It still manages to make a profound statement about the human condition. The title refers not only to the food lift that delivers orders to the two hit-men, Ben (Ken Webster) and Gus (Jason Phelps), but also refers to Gus, who doesn't know that he is waiting to be the victim, and possibly even to Ben, whose blind obedience to higher authority eventually causes him to be confronted with having to eliminate his partner.

All in all, this is a thoroughly enjoyable production and one that I would highly recommend.

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) announces the three winning shows in the TRU Voices Musicals Series, which will have readings on Mondays January 18 and 25, and February 1, 2016 at 7pm at the Engelman Recital Hall in the Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Ave, NYC.

At Midnight, 'Mr. Winchester Goes to Washington' - Forest creatures accuse a princess of being a dick tease, Animal Hitman carries out more hits, and the TripTank staff are forced to testify in front of Congress.

Mr. Burns, a post-electric play asks us to imagine what will happen to humanity after the apocalypse. This imaginative dark comedy follows a new civilization of survivors as they band together to build a community from the rubble of the world we now know. Jump into a wild future where The Simpsonsand the pop culture of today becomes the mythology of tomorrow in this unexpected, musical love-letter to the power of live theatre.

MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY by Anne Washburn, featuring a score by Michael Friedman with lyrics by Anne Washburn, will be directed by Theodore Swetz and co-produced with UMKC Theatre at Unicorn Theatre this December.

In most work-spaces over the last five years, business has undergone serious changes. From new technology, to different approaches in the staffing and marketing world, and everything in between, expectations and duties have been radically transformed. It's an exciting and often challenging time to be an insider, and especially a team leader. Fortunately, Future of Work and Leadership Change Expert Cheryl Cran has announced the release of her new book which presents powerful and innovative solutions in these areas, 'The Art of Change Leadership - Driving Transformation In A Fast Paced World'. Excitement surrounding the release is high.

The Franklin Performing Arts Company (FPAC) proudly presents The Nutcracker, bringing special guest artists, world-class musicians and more than 100 area dancers to one suburban stage. FPAC invites audiences to fall under Drosselmeyer's dreamy spell and join Clara and her Nutcracker Prince on a journey full of surprises and wonder. A popular holiday tradition for more than two decades, The Nutcracker remains a highly anticipated and treasured part of the FPAC season. Set to Tchaikovsky's beloved score, the timeless ballet delights the imaginations of audiences young and old with festive magic and colorful splendor. FPAC presents The Nutcracker on Saturday, December 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 6 at 2 p.m. at the Franklin High School auditorium, 218 Oak Street, in Franklin. 

Shining a spotlight on human struggles, tragedies and triumphs, and bearing witness to the atrocities against black bodies in America is the mission of Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, A Dance Company, illustrated soulfully, urgently and purposefully through a fusion of traditional African dance and modern dance.

'People are complex,' muses Aimee K. Grant, who plays Akeelah's mom, Gail, in AKEELAH AND THE BEE, the new musical at Arena Stage when I sat down with her and her on-stage daughter, 17-year old Johannah Easley (Akeelah) to talk about their experiences with the show. Increasing understanding within and among people is the power of theater, we agree, and Akeelah definitely offers up a story of complex people, young and old. Based on the wildly popular 2006 film of the same name, it's the story of a determined young girl from a difficult situation, competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Akeelah's life is filled with challenges, as are many people's, and that's where this story resonates. Although a tale of triumph over adversity may not seem a new one, each person's story is different, and Akeelah's has layers that will be relatable to many in the audience.

The latest art exhibit coming to the Mercer County Community College (MCCC) Gallery shows that artistic expression can be a beautiful thing at any age. 'Passing the Palette: Arts Educators and Their Students' showcases the generation of artists who are still in high school or are recent graduates, along with the teachers who are inspiring them to pursue their artistic passions.

The McCarter Theatre Center's production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol has become a welcome holiday treat for families across the region. This heartwarming and powerfully honest musical adaptation of Dickens' classic novel is a wonderful way to honor tradition while experiencing the joys and warmth of a holiday favorite. A Christmas Carol runs from Dec. 4 through Dec. 27 on the Matthews Stage.

Foundlings Theatre presents THE EIGHT REINDEER MONOLOGUES by Jeff Goode, directed by Cheryl Snodgrass, running Dec. 9 through Dec. 27th, with an opening slated for Wednesday, Dec 9th at 8pm.

“Anri Sala: Answer Me” February 3–April 10, 2016 Second, Third, and Fourth Floors In February 2016, the New Museum will present a major exhibition of the work of Anri Sala (b. 1974, Tirana, Albania), whose innovative and rigorous work has garnered critical acclaim. Highlighting Sala's poetic and conceptual approaches to music, sound, and architecture, the exhibition will feature elaborate multichannel audio and video installations that will unfold on three of the Museum's floors, composing an experience specific to the New Museum. The artist's video works often depict fragments of everyday life that double as portraits of society, and in his instal­lations, Sala exposes how communication can occur outside the limits of language as well as how sounds can affect our perception of time and space. In recent works, Sala has focused on forms of classical music, and the exhibition at the New Museum will include his striking two-film installation Ravel, Ravel, which debuted in his solo presentation for the French Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. Though Sala has exhibited internationally since the late 1990s, the exhibition at the New Museum will mark his first solo presentation at a New York museum. The exhibition is curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director, Margot Norton, Associate Curator, and Natalie Bell, Assistant Curator. More