Mary Ellen News

Actress/singer/director Judy Norton began her cabaret act at Sterling's Upstairs at Vitello's in January of 2010 and in my review, I called it 'a stellar show with a true night club star. Norton, best known for her 9 years as daughter Mary Ellen and sister of John Boy on TV's The Waltons, is a versatile singer with a terrific range...and a warm and engaging performer. Gifted and experienced, she is not nervous or phrenetic, making excuses for herself or forgetting her words...no, none of that; Norton is a consummate artist whose selection of songs were guaranteed to entertain her appreciative theatrical audience, which they did in spades. No big ego here; Norton makes you feel right at home.'

This fall, En Garde Arts, the company founded and recently resurrected by pioneering theater producer Anne Hamburger, launches BOSSS (Big Outdoor Site-Specific Stuff), a new site-specific performance festival featuring new works by some of New York City's most promising emerging theatre artists. Hamburger has established BOSSS to give a rising generation of spirited artists a chance to 'think big' when creating new work, and to help them cultivate an audience spanning frequent theatergoers and people who rarely seek out live arts deliberately. Under her mentorship and guidance, teams of playwrights, directors, devisers, choreographers and designers are creating nine innovative works that En Garde will present throughout Hudson River Park, October 2 - 4. All performances are free of charge. (Tickets for the opening night gala, on board the Frying Pan at Pier 66, are $250 - $500.) Please see below for the lineup of artists and works.

Producing Artistic Director Carolyn Griffin is pleased to announce that MetroStage will open the 2015-16 season with the Rolling World Premiere of UPRISING by Atlanta playwright Gabrielle Fulton as part of the Women's Voices Theater Festival, Sept 17- Oct 25. Thomas W. Jones II will direct and choreograph, and William Knowles will music direct.  

Geoff Davin, Stephanie Jones-Benton and Erica Patterson will serve as co-hosts as the leading lights of Tennessee theater are heralded with the presentation of the 2015 First Night Honors Gala, to be held Sunday, September 20, at Nashville's iconic and historic Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. The event will feature musical numbers by more than 150 performers in tribute to the Class of 2015 Honorees.

Check out the first official promotional photo of Jordan B. Stocksdale as Gomez, Mary Ellen Cameron as Wednesday, and Jessica Billones as Morticia in Way Off Broadway's production of the musical comedy THE ADDAMS FAMILY, opening September 11th.

Primrose Productions presents a new adaptation of the Medusa myth by Brooke M. Haney, from the poetry of Sheryl St. Germain, and directed by Tracy Bersley (choreographer for On the Levee at Lincoln Center, LCT3). Theatre intersects with visual art and poetry in this haunting and galvanizing perspective of the Medusa myth. Kiss Me or Cut Off My Head will play a three week limited engagement at the Soho Photo Gallery (15 White Street, New York, NY 10013). Performances begin Thursday, August 20th and continue through Today, September 5th, 2015 . Opening Night is Thursday, August 20th at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $30.00 with 35% of ticket sales going to Margaret's Safe Place. Tickets are available at  www.kissmetheplay.com

The reimagining and recycling of Hollywood movie iconography in contemporary art, and the way that movies live on in our personal and cultural memories, are explored in the exhibition Walkers: Hollywood Afterlives in Art and Artifact, opening on November 7, 2015 at the Museum of the Moving Image. Organized by independent curator and scholar Robert M. Rubin, the exhibition includes 120 works of 40 artists and directors that dissect, appropriate, and redefine some of the past century's most iconic films through photography, drawing, sculpture, print, and video. They are joined by a selection of rare film ephemera re-positioned as artworks ranging from costume designs for Rosemary's Baby to the complete original key book stills from The 39 Steps. With a nod to the “walkers,” or zombies, from the TV series The Walking Dead, the exhibition's title references the lingering power of film detritus on the imagination of the living.

Members of the 'Pro99' movement of Actors' Equity Association have issued an open letter to AEA's newly elected president, Kate Shindle, in response to her victory and to her inaugural address as president of the national union for actors and stage managers. The open letter is signed by over 400 Equity members (listed below), including such notable names as Ed Asner, Francis Fisher, Sally Kirkland and Alfred Molina. The 'Pro99' movement formed in late 2014 in opposition to AEA's rollout of a new plan that will effectively force 'intimate theaters' in Los Angeles to pay Equity actors minimum wage, go 'non-union' or even close - despite an overwhelming vote against the plan by 66% of the Los Angeles membership on an advisory referendum. 'Pro99' members around the nation, who take their name from the current AEA '99 Seat Plan' that allows members to volunteer in smaller venues, oppose AEA's new promulgated plan. They are requesting that Equity leadership put a moratorium on the plan until local members' voices can be heard, and that the union work with its members to develop an alternative plan that will more realistically address the needs of the Los Angeles theater community.

Los Angeles-based actress Rachel Keller is making her New York premiere as 'Olga' in the production of Marius von Mayenburg's FIREFACE this month at The Brick. The production runs tonight, August 26, through September 5, 2015, directed by Benjamin Viertel. 

Primrose Productions presents a new adaptation of the Medusa myth by Brooke M. Haney, from the poetry of Sheryl St. Germain, and directed by Tracy Bersley (choreographer for On the Levee at Lincoln Center, LCT3). Theatre intersects with visual art and poetry in this haunting and galvanizing perspective of the Medusa myth. Kiss Me or Cut Off My Head will play a three week limited engagement at the Soho Photo Gallery (15 White Street, New York, NY 10013).

2015 First Night Honoree Kaul Bluestone claimed her place in the First Night record books in the 20th Century: She was the 1996 Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play for her role in Circle Players' production of Dancing at Lughnasa...and she has starred in two critically acclaimed plays directed by First Night founder and executive producer Jeffrey Ellis in the 21st Century: The Last Night of Ballyhoo and Picnic, both for Circle Players.

 Primrose Productions presents photos of Brooke M. Haney in rehearsals for Kiss Me or Cut Off Me Head, a new adaptation of the Medusa myth from the poetry of Sheryl St. Germain, and directed by Tracy Bersley (choreographer for On the Levee at Lincoln Center, LCT3). Theatre intersects with visual art and poetry in this haunting and galvanizing perspective of the Medusa myth. Kiss Me or Cut Off My Head will play a three week limited engagement at the Soho Photo Gallery (15 White Street, New York, NY 10013). Performances begin Thursday, August 20th and continue through Saturday, September 5th, 2015 . Opening Night is Thursday, August 20th at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $30.00 with 35% of ticket sales going to Margaret's Safe Place. Tickets are available at  www.kissmetheplay.com

Hosted by 2014 MPA Emily Eytchison (a graduate of Nashville's David Lipscomb University) and 2013 MPA Cade Smith (an alumnus of Trevecca Nazarene University), the 90-minute show will feature members of this year's class of promising young actors performing a wide variety of musical numbers and dramatic/comedic monologues for their audience.

Composer Paola Prestini, the Creative and Executive Director of National Sawdust (NS), today announced programming for the non-profit's inaugural fall season in its new home-a $16 million, 13,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art chamber hall in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The performance and recording venue, designed by Brooklyn-based architecture firm Bureau V in the shell of century-old former sawdust factory, will provide composers and musicians a setting in which they can flourish, and a place where they are given commissioning support, mentoring and other critical resources essential to create, and then share, their work. For audiences-serious fans and casual listeners alike-the venue will be a place to discover genre-spanning music at accessible ticket prices.

Due to a scheduling conflict, Michelle Veintimilla will be replaced as 'Olga' by Los Angeles-based actress Rachel Keller, who is making her New York premiere with the production of Marius von Mayenburg's FIREFACE this August at The Brick. Additionally, Tony Award-winning actor Billy Porter of KINKY BOOTS has signed on to the team as Executive Producer. 

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum will host a gathering of cast members from the long-running TV series The Waltons - in which Theatricum founder Will Geer starred as Grandpa Walton from 1972 until his death in 1978 - for a three-day weekend of tribute and reminiscence this weekend, August 7-9.

The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, the Frederick area's only year-round producing theatre, will present a 10th Anniversary special presentation of A Rock-n-Roll Golden Oldies Mystery, which was the show that helped launch Way Off Broadway's interactive murder mystery series, Marquee Mysteries. So popular was the show, that eleven more interactive mysteries have appeared at Way Off Broadway since, while even more are now produced outside of the theatre, including regularly on the Walkersville Southern Railroad.

2015 First Night Honoree Martha Wilkinson holds the record for the most First Night Awards with nine. A frequent performer on the First Night stage -- including particularly show-stopping numbers such as her rendition of 'You'll Never Walk Alone,' while clad in a white ballgown and backed up by a chorus of Nashville theater's leading men -- she's one of Tennessee's favorites for certain. She was first recognized by the First Night Awards in 1989, when she won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical for her role in Circle Players' production of Pippin.

This weekend, August 1st & 2nd, The Vagrancy invites you to staged readings of five brand spanking new plays written by The Vagrancy's diverse and talented Writer's Group. Come be inspired, drink wine, and jump into the process by participating in the invaluable audience talk-balks.

Primrose Productions presents a new adaptation of the Medusa myth by Brooke M. Haney, from the poetry of Sheryl St. Germain, and directed by Tracy Bersley (choreographer for On the Levee at Lincoln Center, LCT3). Theatre intersects with visual art and poetry in this haunting and galvanizing perspective of the Medusa myth. Kiss Me or Cut Off My Head will play a three week limited engagement at the Soho Photo Gallery (15 White Street, New York, NY 10013). Performances begin Thursday, August 20th and continue through Saturday, September 5th, 2015 . Opening Night is Thursday, August 20th at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $30.00 with 35% of ticket sales going to Margaret's Safe Place. Tickets are available at  www.kissmetheplay.com