Christopher Castanho News

In October of 1998 Matthew Shepard, a twenty-one-year-old University student was kidnapped, beaten, and left to die on a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. The reason for his killing: he was gay. One of the first murders to be labeled a hate crime, it brought attention the lack of 'hate crime protection' several states possessed. Five weeks after his death, Moises Kaufman and other members of the Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie and interviewed its citizens for a whole year after the event. This is the true story of how residents in Laramie, Wyoming reacted to the murder of Matthew Shepard.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to attend a pre-screening audition at the Virginia Theatre Association (VTA) in Norfolk, VA. The audition determinates your eligibility to take part in the South Eastern Theatre Conference (SETC), where you are able to audition for hundreds of theatre companies. I'm tryna #book summer stock theatre this summer, so here's hoping I get passed through to SETC.

Shenandoah Conservatory students have been creating a lot of their own art and content, one of the most successful projects is a web series called The Dream Team. Created by two theatre students, the original series tells the story of a class of theatre majors, living out their first year of college at the fictional Betsey Bell Conservatory. Founded in October of 2015, the show has garnered more than 8,000 views on YouTube, over 150 subscribers, and upwards of 300 FaceBook likes. I was lucky enough to connect with the show's co-creator and star Emma Benson, a third year Musical Theatre student at Shenandoah and hear about what's in store for Season 2.

Shenandoah Conservatory's production of Spring Awakening runs this weekend only, from Friday, September 30th through Sunday, October 2nd in the Ohrstrom-Bryant Theatre on the campus of Shenandoah University. Stephen Sater and Duncan Sheik's Tony award-winning musical led by two Broadway veterans and now Shenandoah educators: Kevin Covert (Direction and Choreography) and Rick Edinger (Music Direction).

This production is a perfect example of why I am enamored with Theatre and Art, and why I am proud to be part of this community. The show not only shared a historical event but gifted us with sharing the power of empathy. The love and selflessness the citizens of Gander and Newfoundland had for all of the foreign travelers is astonishing. The locals 'took in' and fed 6,579 stranded passengers, which was half the size of the town's population.

Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia will be mounting the award-winning rock musical: SPRING AWAKENING this September, directed by Broadway veteran and new musical theatre program coordinator Kevin Covert. I was lucky enough to sit down with Kevin, hear about his experience at Shenandoah so far and learn about his process working on the rock musical with current theatre students.

The resonance of an orchestra warming up before a performance is a very comforting sound for me: reminiscent of the nights at the theatre with my Meme. But there is something very special regarding the cadence of my first Broadway orchestra in preparation, that sound I will never forget.

Every artist has a way of working, whether it's using 'counts' in choreography, or being an auditory learner, the list goes on and on. We all have ways that we learn and function as a creative individual, and I have discovered, as you probably have, that we don't all work the same way.

Striving to be a Musical Theatre performer often means striving to be a triple threat. (For definition of triple threat see: Sutton Foster) As I have been training to be a performer since I was young, there is one particular...threat...that I would feel threatened by

This week, we go around our Broadway World to feature stories in South Bend, Austin, Sacramento and more. Check out our top 10 stories around our Broadway World below, which include THE TEMPEST at The Shakespeare Festival at Notre Dame, the regional premiere of HAND TO GOD in Austin, and THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME in Sacramento, just to name a few.

I think that as actors, who are so eager to work, we tend to tend to disassociate a 'performance' with 'an audition' because there's no microphones, lights, or contract. But by singing your 32 bars you are PERFORMING. Fill that minute with everything you've got: that is your time to shine.

It's Saturday, and that means it's time for BroadwayWorld's 'Saturday Intermission Pics' roundup. Today's photos come from the casts of Goodspeed's THE MOST HAPPY FELLA, The Flea's FAMILY FURNITURE, NEWSIES, KINKY BOOTS, THE BOOK OF MORMON in the West End, ANNIE, THE WINSLOW BOY, HELLO, DOLLY!, EVITA, WE WILL ROCK YOU, SHOW BOAT at Asolo Rep, PETER AND THE STARCATCHER, GREASE in Manila and more!