Curt Dale Clark News

'Fame/I'm gonna live forever/I'm gonna learn how to fly. . . .'So sings the company of young aspiring actors in the Steve Margoshes/Jacques Levy 1984 musical, FAME, and, indeed, one finds the description appropriate for the talented cast which Maine State Music Theatre has assembled for its annual intern production, presented at Brunswick's Pickard Theatre on Monday, June 15th. Each year some two dozen young artists, who also perform in the main stage shows and work behind the scenes come together to present their own show, and in this year's FAME they outdo themselves! The 1988 musical based on the earlier movie is an excellent choice for the company, offering age-appropriate characters with which the actors can identify and challenging them to turn out colorful, individual performances while creating an esprit de corps. Moreover, it is a theatre story, filled with laughter, pathos, and heart.

In a lively, funny, often piquant conversation cast and creative team members from Maine State Music Theatre's The Full Monty convened on June 10 to talk with Broadway World in the first of this summer's highly successful talkback series, A Peek Behind the Curtain. The audience was delighted to have the opportunity to meet director, Donna Drake, stars Peter Matthew Smith, Amanda Rose, MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark and Outreach Sales Manager Katie White. The discussion focused on the show's appeal, its message, and, of course, on the show stopping strip finale.

Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) is proud to be one of the first regional theatres to present the feel-amazing musical comedy smash SISTER ACT, running June 24 - July 11, 2015.

?Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) kicks off the 2015 season with the heartwarming upbeat comedy THE FULL MONTY. This 10-time Tony Award-nominee is filled with honest affection, engaging melodies and a raucous mix of razor-sharp humor and toe-tapping pizazz, not to mention the most highly anticipated closing number in Broadway history! THE FULL MONTY runs tonight, June 3 - June 20, 2015.

Maine State Music Theatre presents FAME for one night only on June 15, 2015 at 7:30pm.

?Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) kicks off the 2015 season with the heartwarming upbeat comedy THE FULL MONTY. This 10-time Tony Award-nominee is filled with honest affection, engaging melodies and a raucous mix of razor-sharp humor and toe-tapping pizazz, not to mention the most highly anticipated closing number in Broadway history! THE FULL MONTY runs June 3 - June 20, 2015.

Maine State Music Theatre Finds Its Talent for Summer 2015 When the audience thinks of casting for a Broadway musical, they conjure up the image of a darkened auditorium, an artist onstage peering into the glare and hearing Zach's voice from out of the void with its curt dismissal, 'Thank you.' Since its smash opening on Broadway in 1975 A Chorus Line has come to embody in poetic terms the uphill struggles of countless artists who toil every day on stage and off in pursuit of the metier they love. The rituals of auditioning and casting calls are integral to the life of an actor or theatre director, and each year they are played out in countless theatres large and small across the country, a crucial part of the puzzle that goes into shaping a successful season.

'All our stories this year will be about families or individuals who are broken, but they come back to make the best of it - to survive. That is our job as human beings, and if our shows can give somebody the strength and courage to do just that, then we in the theatre are doing our jobs.' Curt Dale Clark, Artistic Director of Maine State Music Theatre, is waxing eloquent about the company's plans for the 2015 summer season, the fifty-seventh for the company, and his second in the leadership position. Together with his partner, Managing Director, Stephanie Dupal, Clark outlines their plans for what they hope will be a worthy encore to last year's spectacularly successful season.

Today, Sister Act has been announced as the second show of the much-anticipated 57th season at Maine State Music Theatre. Sister Act will run from June 24 to July 11 at Pickard Theater, located at 1 Bath Road on the Bowdoin College campus.

Director/Choreographer Marc Robin brings home a dance extravaganza of the Irving Berlin holiday musical

Once again 2014 was a year to revel in the diversity and accomplishments of the theatrical scene in Maine. The summer and winter seasons yielded a nice balance between adventurous programming and classics. Here is my personal list for 2014, grouped by theatre company and show. 1. MAINE STATE MUSIC THEATRE once again receives my vote for the finest company in the region. Their 2014 season offered four dazzling main stage productions, including the remarkable revival of Chamberlain: A Civil War Romance, a daring and moving music theatre piece, beautifully realized by director-choreographer Marc Robin together with stars James Patterson and Kathy Voytko.

In the last of its 'Peek Behind the Curtain' series, Maine State Music Theatre presented a lively talkback which highlighted the company's final production of Footloose, as well as touching on the intern program, a review of the 2014 season and a preview of the coming 2015 lineup. Broadway World local editor Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold interviewed Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, Audience Services Manager Susie Sharp, Resident Sound Designer Colin Whitely, Footloose principal David Ruprecht, and MSMT 'Angels' Judie Lemons and Bill Heaphy.

Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT)'s 2014 season is 'still rockin' with their remarkable season closing production of the high-energy dance musical, FOOTLOOSE, running today, August 6 - 23.

Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT)'s 2014 season is 'still rockin' with their remarkable season closing production of the high-energy dance musical, FOOTLOOSE, beginning tonight, August 6, and continuing through August 23.

Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT)'s 2014 season is 'still rockin' with their remarkable season closing production of the high-energy dance musical, FOOTLOOSE, running August 6 - 23.

The intern program at Maine State Music Theatre is one of the company's finest features, and what better way to showcase these talented 2014 performers than as the youthful, energetic ensemble in the Steven Schwartz/John-Michael Tebelak rock musical, GODSPELL. Billed as a concert performance, this production directed by Curt Dale Clark, is actually fairly elaborate in terms of choreography and musical-dramatic staging. Clark sets a compelling pace - ninety minutes of sheer joie de vivre - and he draws from these young actors highly individualized and detailed characterizations, at the same time that he inspires the kind of ensemble dynamic so crucial to this show: the sense of love and sharing that resonates with the play's message and communicates to the audience.

'It's the heart that makes it fun! The adrenalin gets going; we are all so engrossed in each other with different stories developing every night. There are always discoveries being made. This show is an adventure every single night!' The speaker is actor-dancer Carson Twitchell, who is talking about Maine State Music Theatre's latest hit, the Patti Colombo staging of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which opened July 17th at the Pickard Theatre in Brunswick, Maine. Twitchell is part of a six-person panel assembled at the Curtis Memorial Library on July 23 for the third Peek Behind the Curtain talkback. Joined by Barbara Whidden, MSMT's Director of Development, Kristen Thomas, House Manager, Leo Stagg, Technical Director, and fellow actors (Ruth) and Merill West (Dorcas), the panelists spoke with BWW's Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold about the thrill of this exuberant musical.

'I definitely have a choreographic style - much of what I do is ballet-based and athletic, but I was trained in the Jack Cole manner. My mentors, Ron Lewis, Ron Fields, were all Jack Cole people. I have a strong sense of jazz, true American jazz based in ballet.' The speaker is a petite, svelte, red-haired dynamo of energy and bubbly enthusiasm. Seated opposite me a few days before the opening of her latest theatrical endeavor, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at Maine State Music Theatre, director-choreographer Patti Colombo talks about her Maine debut and her other award-winning theatrical projects - among them, On the Town, West Side Story, Mask, L'il Abner, Peter Pan, Seussical, which have taken her to Broadway and around the world.