James Miller News

A very special Valentines-themed Southern Songbook concert, Desire and Death: Love songs on yearning and loss, will be hosted by Honeydogs frontman Adam Levy and the Local Show's Dave Campbell on Monday, February 14 at 7:30pm. Guest musicians include John Munson, Aby Wolf, Darren Jackson, Alicia Wiley, Holly Newsom, Alexei Casselle, Chastity Brown, Minor Kingdom (Kristian Melom), Grant Cutler and Ryan Paul.

The Seattle Center Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration and Youth Awards will be presented on Saturday, January 15 at the Center House's Main Stage from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. This event is a co-production of Seattle Center and the Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative and Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas. Mayor Mike McGinn will participate in the award presentation.

Saint Peter's Church will host the 2011 Prez Fest, honoring composer, arranger and pianist Gil Evans, on Sunday, March 13. Prez Fest is one of The Jazz Ministry at Saint Peter's Church's annual events. This year's festival will include a concert and a discussion of Evans' music.

Auditions for the Conejo Players' production of Twelve Angry Men will begin on Sunday, January 23 and continue through Tuesday, January 25 at 7:30 pm each night. The production will be directed by Deidre Parmenter and produced by Heather Lease & Mike Moffat.

Lucy Black, Timothy Carlton, Simon Chandler, Richard Clifford, Oliver Coopersmith, Niamh Cusack, Rory Fleck-Byrne, Freddie Fox, Jenny Galloway, Patrick Godfrey, Nicholas Jones, Tommy McDonnell, Lucy Robinson, Tristan Shepherd, Richard Teverson, Sarah Waddell, Michael Webber and Tristram Wymark will join the previously announced Anne-Marie Duff in Terence Rattigan's final play, Cause Celebre, opening for previews on 17 March with a press night on 29 March 2011.

Bay Street Theatre continues THE JAM SESSION free concerts every Thursday in February and March from 7-9 pm. Please note there is no concert on Thursday, January 27. THE JAM SESSION plays in the Bay Street Theatre lobby.

The Dallas Opera is pleased to announce the five darkly dazzling operas that comprise the company's 2011-12 season in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. With opening night on Friday, October 21, 2011, the 55th international season - "Tragic Obsessions" - will showcase compelling works by Donizetti, Janacek, Wagner, Verdi and Mozart, and will include an outstanding Dallas opera-in-concert, important debuts and some of the company's most renowned productions. Each opera will feature the superbly talented Dallas Opera Orchestra and Dallas Opera Chorus and will be performed in its original language, with English translations projected above the stage at every performance. Exclusive subscriber extras include "A Cabaret Evening with Patricia Racette" and a fun-filled family concert starring soprano Ava Pine and the Dallas Opera Orchestra.

Hush the Musical Review, a production of the Frizzi & Lazzi Musical Theatre Company, will take part in the Midwinter Madness Festival, presented by John Chatterton. It will play three performances next month at the Payan Theatre in the Times Square Arts Center.

The Pull-Tight Players Theatre of Franklin, Tennessee, will host a talk-back following the Friday, Feb. 4 performance of John Patrick Shanley's DOUBT. Patrons are invited and encouraged to stay to explore DOUBT further with director Heather Bottoms and the cast. This will substitute for the Players' traditional Prelude event Sunday, Jan. 16, which has been cancelled due to unpredictable weather.

INTERVIEWING THE AUDIENCE - a new work by the playwright and filmmaker Zach Helm and created spontaneously each night by Mr. Helm from on stage interviews with willing members of the audience - will begin previews February 3 prior to its official opening night on February 10 as the next production in the Vineyard Theatre (108 E. 15 St.) season. Tickets are on sale now to this limited engagement, which runs through February 27.

The Abreact Performance Space presents the controversial La Ronde, by Arthur Schnitzler, directed by Frannie Shepherd-Bates. The show runs from February 4-26, Friday and Saturdays nights with one Sunday matinee. Admission is by donation. Tickets may be reserved by calling 313-285-0217 or at reservations@theabreact.com.

Shakespeare returns to Theatre In The Park with the production of one of The Bard's most famous tragedies, Macbeth, February 5th - 16th. 'Fair is foul, foul is fair.' Power. Greed. Madness. A masterpiece of tragedy, amid the violence and war torn locales and characters, Shakespeare offers frightening and astonishing insights into the passion for political and military power, and the consequences of corrupting power and ambition unchecked by morality or conscience. Ira David Wood III directs a modern spin on this tale of unchecked ambition, setting the play in a post-apocalyptic world and utilizing multimedia as well as embracing the theatre's oldest tradition of performing in masks. Featuring Ira David Wood III as Macbeth and Lynda Clark as the conniving Lady Macbeth, this Theatre In The Park production will excite and frighten Shakespeare lovers and laymen alike. Also featuring: Kurt Benrud, Jackson Bloom, Paul Brown, Rita Coby, Janis Coville, Meg Dietrich, John T. 'Jack' Hall, James Miller, Michael Murray, Thomas Porter, Harvey Sage, Antione Stanley, Randall Stanton, Jason Weeks, Samuel Whisnant, Ira David Wood IV.

Shakespeare returns to Theatre In The Park with the production of one of The Bard's most famous tragedies, Macbeth, February 5th - 16th. 'Fair is foul, foul is fair.' Power. Greed. Madness. A masterpiece of tragedy, amid the violence and war torn locales and characters, Shakespeare offers frightening and astonishing insights into the passion for political and military power, and the consequences of corrupting power and ambition unchecked by morality or conscience. Ira David Wood III directs a modern spin on this tale of unchecked ambition, setting the play in a post-apocalyptic world and utilizing multimedia as well as embracing the theatre's oldest tradition of performing in masks. Featuring Ira David Wood III as Macbeth and Lynda Clark as the conniving Lady Macbeth, this Theatre In The Park production will excite and frighten Shakespeare lovers and laymen alike. Also featuring: Kurt Benrud, Jackson Bloom, Paul Brown, Rita Coby, Janis Coville, Meg Dietrich, John T. 'Jack' Hall, James Miller, Michael Murray, Thomas Porter, Harvey Sage, Antione Stanley, Randall Stanton, Jason Weeks, Samuel Whisnant, Ira David Wood IV.

It's five days until I fly to New York for the first time in my life. As a keen lover of theatre- this is how it felt as a kid to see pictures of Disneyland (which, incidentally, I have never been to either!)