'It's a warhorse and has been a guaranteed sellout since 1950, but that doesn't mean a production doesn't need a little spark. DJ [Salisbury] did exactly what I asked him to do,' says Maine State Music Theatre's Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark. 'I asked him not to reinvent the wheel, but to tweak the show with some new nuances.' Clark is talking about MSMT's new production of Guys and Dolls which opened last week to glowing reviews.
Clark was part of the popular MSMT community series, PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN panel that also featured Guys and Dolls stars, James Beaman (Nathan Detroit), Kristen Hahn (Sarah Brown), and Stephen Mark Lukas (Sky Masterson), as well as Props Master Elizabeth Frino. Moderated by Broadway World's Maine editor Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold, the participants at the capacity-crowd event discussed the making of this exciting new production in Midcoast Maine.
'There's this line in the show that I think is key to understanding Sky and Sarah's romance. 'Chemistry?' she asks, and he says, 'Yeah, chemistry.' The message is that when that connection between two people happens, it doesn't really matter what you've predicted for yourself. What's real is the chemistry, not the intellectual idea. Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown each have qualities the other is lacking, and together they fill in the gaps.'
The speaker is the charismatic young actor, Stephen Mark Lukas, who will be making his Maine State Music Theatre debut in his first ever performances as the suave gambler Sky Masterson in Frank Loesser Guys and Dolls, which runs at the Pickard Theater from June 28-July 15.
'We wanted to go big and grand. We knew we had Christine [Mild] with her powerhouse performance and Charis [Leos] so we wanted to play it large and create an environment that would support them. The production concept we came up with turned out to be a wonderful envelope to wrap around the show and the entire staging fell into place.'
Co-director/choreographer Marc Robin was talking about his and Curt Dale Clark's vision for their new staging of Always, Patsy Cline, which opened Maine State Music Theatre's 2017 season on June 7th. Robin was part of a panel that also featured Patsy star Christine Mild and stand-by Heidi Kettenring, MSMT Charge Scenic Artist Sean Cox, and MSMT Board Vice President Kristine Ganong. The discussion on June 14th, moderated by Broadway World Maine editor Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold was the first in the now four-year-old summer series of free public forums, A Peek Behind the Curtain, held at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. The series, designed to give theatre-goers insight into the creative processes of producing each of the summer main stage shows, featured a lively and far-reaching conversation about Patsy Cline, MSMT's Theatre for Young Audiences program, and the theatre's burgeoning role in the community.
MSMT opens its Theatre for Young Audiences with three performances of Marc Robin and Curt Dale Clark's musical retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairytale, Sleeping Beauty, in a striking visual production, performed with energy, conviction, and style by a company of young actors. The hour-long musical version puts a contemporary spin on the familiar story and subtly raises issues and values which seem remarkably current, despite the fact that the show was written more than twenty years ago.
About half way through the musical, Always, Patsy Cline, Louise says of the legendary singer, 'She blew the roof off that old honky tonk!' And much the same could be said for the electric atmosphere at the Brunswick's Pickard Theater, where MSMT opened its 59th season with a dazzling production of the musical that includes twenty-seven songs made famous by the singer, who remains to this day - fifty-four years after her untimely death - a towering presence in the world of country and pop music.
With true betes de scene, Christine Mild as Patsy and Charis Leos as Louise, accompanied by a virtuoso band, performing an unforgettable songbook, this production delivers not only powerhouse vocal-dramatic values, but also offers the audience a vibrant and poignant journey to another time and place that magically come alive through in the charismatic story of its protagonists. The Ted Swindley musical which focuses on the last six years of Patsy Cline's life and on her friendship with a Texas divorcee and fan, Louise Seger, is so much more than a catalog of songs strung together by a chronological narrative. Indeed, the book is touching well-constructed - funny, sad, warm and human by turns - and the songs are integrated into the story with a seamlessness that lets the play move from reality to memory.
'It's all in the way she placed her voice. I like to call it the Kermit the Frog place - the soft palate at the back of the throat, and that's what activates the yodel, the catch, the cry, the growl which are the iconic hallmarks of her singing. Patsy Cline wasn't really a technical singer; this all just came naturally to her, but for me as an actress and technical singer who has to do the show eight times a week, I have to make sure I am singing in a healthy, safe way and understand how to make that happen. So if I place the voice right - if I place it in the 'Patsy place'- it all happens without trying.'
Maine State Music Theatre provides Theatre for Young Audiences performances each season but this summer, thanks to a generous grant from the Anna-Maria Moggio Foundation, the theatre is also creating sensory-friendly performances of its children's shows.
“The All Night Strut has a songbook to die for! It may not be as riotously funny as The Irish and How They Got Way was,” says Maine State Music Theatre's Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, but I know from experience that the audience will leave the theatre exhilarated!” Clark, who will co-produce the show with Anita Stewart, Artistic Director of Portland Stage, describes the musical revue as “a collection of vignettes, each of which plays out before the next one begins. It is sort of like an evening of short stories that paints a colorful and poignant picture of 20th century America in the years of the Great Depression, World War II, and the post-war.”
Maine State Music Theatre hosted a special series of free FILM FRIDAYS events which previewed the summer shows, showed the original (or subsequent) movie and offered a talkback with Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, in interview with BWW's Maine Editor, Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold. Here is an sli8ghtly edited version of the talkback of May 17, 2017, which discussed the 1992 Kenny Ortega film version of NEWSIES and the 2012 Broadway staging, and gave some hints about what Midcoast Mine could expect this summer at MSMT! Have a look/ listen!
The nationally regarded Maine State Music Theatre celebrates music legend and cross-over sensation Patsy Cline, June 7 - 24. The touching true story, Always… Patsy Cline combines humor, heartache and 27 of Patsy's most unforgettable hits, such as "Crazy," "Walkin' After Midnight," "Sweet Dreams," and more.
The rain was pouring down outside and the aroma of fresh hot popcorn wafted through the Morrell Meeting Room as a sizeable crowd gathered on this gloomy Friday evening at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick to enjoy a new public film series, created by MSMT, hosted by Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark, and facilitated by Olivia Wenner, Group Sales and Outreach Manager. The project, part of MSMT's community outreach program, is entitled Film Fridays and offers free screenings in HD and surround sound of three movie musicals which will be produced in their stage versions this summer at MSMT. The movies are then followed by a talkback with Curt Dale Clark, moderated by Broadway World Maine Editor Carla Maria Verdino-Sullwold and - to add a little levity and spice - by a special trivia contest with prize of two complimentary tickets to MSMT's stage show for the winner.
The nationally regarded Fulton Theatre and Maine State Music Theatre celebrate music legend and cross-over sensation Patsy Cline, April 18 through May 21.
Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) in Brunswick and Portland Stage (PS) in Portland announce a second partnership and artistic collaboration that will continue to broaden the connection between the two communities and deepen the program offerings for both theatres' audiences.
'At the end of last summer I told myself that we were not going to try to top the 2016 season. I was going to think of 2017 as a completely separate and unique adventure, but the end result is that we are already topping our previous metrics in terms of ticket sales.' The speaker, Curt Dale Clark, Maine State Music Theatre's energetic and charismatic Artistic Director, is reflecting on the sold out 2016 season which garnered the company lavish critical and audience acclaim and made an MSMT ticket one of the hottest items in the region.
In preparation for their 2017 summer season at the Pickard Theatre, Maine State Music Theatre will host three Film Fridays at Brunswick's Curtis Memorial Library this May. Each screening will include a free showing of the movie versions of three of the theatre's summer main stage shows. Screenings will start at 6 PM and take place in the Morrell Meeting Room.
The hallways are jammed with bright, expectant, luminous faces wearing their most eye-catching outfits, laden with dance bags, juggling binders with music and resumes, scanning their ever present iPhones, and searching for a place to sit or stretch or warm-up as they await the call. The energy is palpable and the spirits high. Many have come together in groups and chat excitedly, while others search for a quiet corner to gather their thoughts. Some 300 actors ranging in age from children to seasoned adults have checked into Maine State Music Theatre's offices and rehearsal studios at 22 Elm Street on February 25, 2017, to try their luck at the company's annual open call local auditions for the 2017 season which opens June 7.
“Are you ready for some fun and fairytales? We're going to need you to use your imaginations to help us.” The preschoolers in the front rows giggle and squeal in anticipation.
Maine State Music Theatre's Artistic Director, Curt Dale Clark knows how to energize young audiences, and he clearly relishes the opportunity top perform for this morning crowd of over 160 ranging in age from several months to grandparents who have come to hear the special program of story and song, MAGIC TIME at Brunswick, Maine's Curtis Memorial Library. The two free forty-minute interactive programs, which featured readings, video, and live performances of the Robin and Clark musical versions of Sleeping Beauty and Alice in Wonderland, were created by MSMT in partnership with the Curtis Memorial Library with the help of a generous gift from the Maine Humanities Council and drew almost 300 people for both sessions. The idea, born of MSMT's desire to expand its outreach efforts, nurture young audiences, and draw a new diverse public to live theatre, began as a successful mini-grant proposal to Maine Humanities Council and by virtue of the enthusiasm of the MSMT and CML staffs and the community response mushroomed into something of a maxi event with lines cued up and out the library doors before the start of each show.
Maine State Music Theatre will present "Magic Time: A Program of Story and Song" - combining classic fairytale literature with contemporary musical adaptations - on Today, February 24, 2017, at 10 AM and 3 PM at the Morrell Reading Room at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick.
