Completing its 2016 - 2017 professional season, Orlando Repertory Theatre (The REP) presents Nancy Drew and Her Biggest Case Ever (April 10 - May 14, 2017). This production is presented by OUC and supporting sponsor Massey Services.
Enjoy an adventurous trip with First Stage and their singing Troubadour through the 14th century Sherwood Forest. In a collaboration with playwrights Joe Foust and John Maclay, Jeff Frank directs the world premiere Robin Hood--- complete with thrilling stage combat from the legendary anti-hero. This courageous Robin Hood 'asked for donations' from the English Elite at the point of his sword, collected and then contributed to the poor surrounding him in England. Among Robin's following where those, merry men and women who wanted to participate in as Maclay says, 'a rebellion against greed and corruption' in an attempt to right the wrongs in their world. Frank, Foust and Maclay turn the stage into Robin Hood's playground through Jody Sekas' stage design and Melissa Torchia's costume design, which allows an extremely fluid and fast paced production. Geoffrey, a young performer Jeff Burns from the Sherwood Forest cast, sings and strums Musical Director Jeff Schaetzke's original ballads playing the roving troubadour. His idiosyncratic lyrics make the audience laugh, as does the often contemporary, tongue in cheek humor throughout the play-often hilarious. While actor Dominique Worsley embodies a fierce, yet sympathetic Robin, Maclay's Sheriff of Nottingham and Foust's incomparable Archbishop of York stir their own brand of extraordinary humor and strength trying to capture 'the Hood.'
Jeff Frank, a Navy Veteran, husband, father, previous engineer and technology support specialist, devoted writer and author, has completed his new book 'De Evolution': a gripping and potent work of science, war, intelligence, survival and extinction. This work will keep the reader intrigued through the twists and turns of an out-of-this-world plot.
The 'most famous reindeer of all' from the longest running and highest rated holiday television special returns to First Stage with the critically acclaimed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical at the Marcus Center's Todd Wehr Theater from November 25 - December 31, 2016. Rudolph is suggested for families with young people ages 4 - 14 and up.
The 'most famous reindeer of all' from the longest running and highest rated holiday television special will be live on stage with the critically acclaimed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical (www.rudolphthemusical.com) at Stages Theatre Company from Today, November 18 through Wednesday, December 28, 2016 for 48 performances.
The 'most famous reindeer of all' from the longest running and highest rated holiday television special returns to First Stage with the critically acclaimed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical at the Marcus Center's Todd Wehr Theater from November 25 - December 31, 2016. Rudolph is suggested for families with young people ages 4 - 14 and up.
The 'most famous reindeer of all' from the longest running and highest rated holiday television special will be live on stage with the critically acclaimed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical (www.rudolphthemusical.com) at Stages Theatre Company from Friday, November 18 through Wednesday, December 28, 2016 for 48 performances.
What other regional or national theater company can be credited with producing 61 total world premieres? Professional children's theater company First Stage began a legacy 30 years ago, and continues in their new season under the theme 'Theater You Never Outgrow.' Artistic Director Jeff Frank believes the company creates the strongest theater, at home, in Milwaukee, which eventually reverberates around the country. Now authors and producers nationally recognize First Stage and knock on the company's door, approaching them with opportunities, so the company can envision new legacies in Theater for Young Audiences.
Repertory Dance Theatre is proud to announce that Executive/Artistic Director, Linda C. Smith is being awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by the College of Fine Arts and the University of Utah for the discipline of Dance.
As Stages Theatre Company (STC) unveils our 33nd season, we continue our commitment providing high-quality, accessible theatre for young audiences. Welcome to what promises to be an inspiring season at Stages Theatre Company! A season built to inspire the young as well as the young at heart. A season that invites the question-what inspires you?
The popular Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse returns to First Stage for Kevin Kling's theatrical adaptation of Kevin Henkes best selling children's book beginning this May. A picture book written in 1996, Henkes' story features a tiny little girl mouse struggling to be who she is, wearing glitter sunglasses and mismatched outfits--as Lilly called herself, 'The Queen of the World' who liked everything' and in 2016, celebrates 20 years still tucked firmly in children's hearts.
First Stage World Premiere The Snow arrived this winter to the Todd Wehr Theater, while famed playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer traveled from half way across the world to appear on March 6 for the play's production debut. Commissioned by Oregon Children's Theatre and Magik Theatre in collaboration with First Stage, Kruckemeyer's The Snow told a tale of two towns both named after Margareta 'Mama' Kishka and the huge snow walls surrounding the towns in isolation, cut off from sun and supplies. A tiny boy Theodore together with a gentle giant named Oliver try to solve this never-ending winter through their courageous adventure written in the tradition of Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson.
In the First Stage fictional village of Kishka, 'the wall of snow did not melt, the knitted scarves grew to long to use, and the fires eventually burned out,' described the town's never ending winter....This sets the story for the company's World Premiere production The Snow. Commissioned in collaboration with Oregon Children's Theatre and Magik Theatre, internationally acclaimed author and playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer conjures a modern folk tale adventure where the villagers in Kishka rely on a tiny child named Theodore when he seeks a solution to their never ending prison of frozen snow.
As Stages Theatre Company (STC) unveils our 33nd season, we continue our commitment providing high-quality, accessible theatre for young audiences. Welcome to what promises to be an inspiring season at Stages Theatre Company! A season built to inspire the young as well as the young at heart. A season that invites the question-what inspires you?
During February, snow falls lightly in Wisconsin this year, the powdery flakes covering the frosty earth--cold and icy white. With winter weather at the heart of the First Stage world premiere, the company introduces their 6th Wisconsin Cycle production in a play simply titled: The Snow. Internationally acclaimed playwright Finegan Kruckmeyer- who has garnered more than 30 awards from around the world during his continuing illustrious career-worked with Artistic Director Jeff Frank, Oregon Children's Theatre, and Magik Theatre when collaborating on a fantasy adventure conjuring winter white magic while honoring Wisconsin's Germanic heritage akin to the Brothers Grimm legendary fairytales.
Dig, dig, dig--Digging five foot deep holes, five feet wide, in a barren desert is what the teenage boys at Camp Green Lake, Texas, do every day from sunrise to sunset. Louis Sachar's award-winning, beloved novel of two boys who learn to be friends in a detention camp comes to life at First Stage's entertaining production Holes in the Todd Wehr Theater through February 14. Directed by Jeff Frank on Rick Rasmussen's desolate stage territory, a place where rain has not touched the ground for over 100 years, Lyndsey Kuhlmann's orange detention suits provide the only color while Mary MacDonald Kerr's slick Warden suits often shine with rhinestones, a spark of the dark side at what will be a historic site for several camp members.
To begin the new year, First Stage reprises Holes, a 1998 National Book Award Winner (for Young People's Literature) and 1999 Newbery Medal Award novel. Author Louis Sachar eventually transformed his novel into a Theater for Young Audience script, which retains much of the impressive language of the original text. Company Artistic Director Jeff Frank delights in returning the fantasy/mystery story to the Todd Wehr stage while also directing this new production. Originally produced by the company in 2004, HOLES captures themes resonating 11 years later as Frank believes, 'This compelling mystery story, a myth, reverberates over generations.'
RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER THE MUSICAL is based on the Rankin/Bass animated television special. The stage production directed and conceived by Jeff Frank, script adaptation by Robert Penola, arrangements and orchestrations by Timothy Splain, made a stop at The Long Center. There can be no more delightful way to celebrate the Christmas season with the whole family.
In the 50th anniversary year of the award winning, animated television special, the live production A Charlie Brown Christmas captured the imagination of Milwaukee audiences this past weekend. First Stage presents a theatrical interpretation of the beloved holiday classic, adapted by Eric Schaeffer and overflowing with young voices, which continues to light up the hearts and laughter in Peanuts' fans since 1965.
Happiness and cheer come calling at First Stage with the debut of A Charlie Brown Christmas. The company's Artistic Director Jeff Frank had been writing this produciton on his own Christmas to-be-produced list in a continual effort to bring the1965 award-winning television special to the theater since he arrived in 1999. Only recently have the copyrights been released through Eric Schaeffer's stage adaptation, and Frank immediately seized the opportunity to warm Milwaukee's hearts and introduce a new generation to the world created by Charles Schulz. Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the Peanuts gang take over the Todd Wehr Theater beginning on Friday, November 27 for a superb holiday celebration.
Videos
