Mary Ellen News

More than 150 people gathered at Nashville's venerable Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre Monday night for the announcement of honorees and award winners for the 2015 First Night Honors. Preview Party celebrants were treated to a bountiful buffet of entertainment as cast members from several musicals currently on the boards or upcoming on Middle Tennessee stages performed numbers from their shows

More than 150 people gathered at Nashville's venerable Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre Monday night for the announcement of honorees and award winners for the 2015 First Night Honors. Preview Party celebrants were treated to a bountiful buffet of entertainment as cast members from several musicals currently on the boards or upcoming on Middle Tennessee stages performed numbers from their shows.

Nine individuals who have taken leading roles in making live theater in Tennessee better and more magical have been named as members of the Class of 2015 Honorees for The First Night Honors, the annual celebration of all things theatrical held in Nashville every September.

Nine individuals who have taken leading roles in making live theater in Tennessee better and more magical have been named as members of the Class of 2015 Honorees for The First Night Honors, the annual celebration of all things theatrical held in Nashville every September.

Third Space is thrilled to announce the New York premiere of Marius von Mayenburg's Fireface this August at The Brick.

On 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.

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 August 7-9. All proceeds from A Waltons Weekend will benefit Theatricum, a critically acclaimed Topanga-based non-profit organization that is renowned for its summer seasons of outdoor theater and music as well as for its educational programming.

Manchester International Festival launches the programme for the 2015 event (today 2 - Sunday 19 July), which celebrates a decade of the world's only festival of original new work. The programme includes world premieres, unique concerts and one-off events, including a number of free events across the festival.

An encore telecast of 'Saturday Night Live,' with host Martin Freeman and musical guest Charli XCX, averaged a 2.5 rating, 7 share in household results in Nielsen's 56 metered markets and a 1.0/5 in adults 18-49 in the 25 markets with Local People Meters.

The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, the Frederick area's only year-round producing theatre, continues its 2015 Mainstage Season this summer with the singing and dancing musical favorite West Side Story. The musical which was conceived and originally directed and choreographed by the legendary Jerome Robbins, will run from tonight, June 12th - August 29th.

I confess to being very confused by the production. In this modern twist on Shakespeare's classic Romeo and Juliet, women play men and men play women. Or rather, women play male characters as men and men play female characters as women…I think.

As part of the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival, Mine is Yours Theatre Company will remount their adventurous 90-minute production of R&J, a gender-reversed Romeo and Juliet, which had a successful preview run last November at Theatre of NOTE. While remaining faithful to Shakespeare's language, R&J transforms Romeo into Romea, Juliet into Julian, Friar Laurence into Sister Laurence, etc., in an extravaganza of gender-swapping that makes this classic love story resonate in an electrifying new way. 

The Collegiate Chorale raised more than $300,000 at its annual Spring Benefit featuring the U.S. premiere of Kurt Weill and Franz Werfel's The Road of Promise at Carnegie Hall on May 7, 2015. Proceeds will go toward The Chorale's artistic and education initiatives.

The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, the Frederick area's only year-round producing theatre, continues its 2015 Mainstage Season this summer with the singing and dancing musical favorite West Side Story. The musical which was conceived and originally directed and choreographed by the legendary Jerome Robbins, will run from June 12th - August 29th.

But not all of our best-known teen actors are studying in the traditional secondary school manner. Today, we focus on Shane Kopischke, a 17-year-old rising high school senior who is home-schooled and currently celebrating his 11th year of doing stage productions.

Marquis Publishing, an affiliate of the Marquis Gallery announces the release of the edition 'The Topography of Evil: Notorious Northern California Murder Sites.' The paperback and eBook is California author and photographer Marques Vickers' visual return to 43 infamous crime scenes detailing the shocking narratives behind each tragedy. Over 95 visual images amplify the experience by escorting the reader to the precise physical location, offering a critical context and perspective for understanding. 'Obscured by time and collective memory,' notes Vickers' preface, 'revisiting a dormant crime scene is a process of comprehending the convergence of evil absorbed into a physical space. Crime scenes typically revert back into unremarkable landscape or unassuming buildings over the ensuing years and decades. Many are passed daily by pedestrian and vehicular traffic unaware of a location's unique significance. The captured snapshots portray searing testimonies of extinguished lives removed by acts of violence.' Northern California has been the residence for many notorious individual and serial killers including the Zodiac, Ted 'Unabomber' Kaczynski, Dan White, Edmund Kemper III, Jim Jones, Richard Allen Davis, David Carpenter, Juan Corona and Scott Peterson. The media has renamed some such as the Trailside Killer, Co-ed Killer, Children of Thunder, Vampire of Sacramento, Zebra Killers and the Death House Landlady. Over 40+ convicted or deceased murderers are profiled including 24 who remain incarcerated and 5 awaiting execution at San Quentin Prison. The region has also buried notables among the profiled victims including San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, Supervisor Harvey Milk, Black Panther Huey P. Newton, Journalist Chauncey Bailey, Oscar Grant III, Polly Klaas, Lacy Peterson and 412 unclaimed bodies from the People's Temple Massacre in Jonestown, Guyana. "The Topography of Evil" edition is segmented into seven categories including assassinations, abductions, historical legacies, reckless homicides, unsolved murders, rampage and serial killers. Within the context of each profile, crucial issues and questions are raised regarding capital punishment, American racial perceptions, parental influences, media reporting, public bias, self-incrimination protections and the fairness of judicial sentencing. A controversial alternative of voluntary euthanasia for the condemned is raised following the observation of California's hopelessly backlogged number of inmates awaiting execution. Currently 743 inmates are sentenced to Death Row. Florida is second with 403 and Texas third at 276. The last California execution was in 2006. An extensive listing of fatality victims is included along with convicted and deceased killers. Each living convict still registered in the California penal system is identified by their respective current penitentiary, verdict and length of original jury sentencing. Vickers' own introduction to the consequences of murder commenced with the 1968 killings of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jenson by the Zodiac killer in the author's hometown. Faraday was an acquaintance of the author through Boy Scouts and his older sister knew both victims. His reflections on the trauma inflicted on his intimate suburban community correspond with the realization that a single homicide affects far more individuals than simply the victim. Hundreds and ultimately thousands may be touched by the arbitrariness and unfairness of life being terminated abruptly and prematurely. The 294-page paperback edition is available through Amazon.com and in electronic format via the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook stores. Supplementary promotional videos on numerous chapter including Huey Newton, Brooke Hart, Fishhead Beach Killings and the Marin County Courthouse Massacre are available on YouTube.com and Vimeo.com. A southern California version is current in the production stages. For further information regarding Marquis Publishing, visit TopographyofEvil.com and InsiderSeriesBooks.com. Cases Profiled (By Sequential Order and Category) Assassinations: Oakland School Superintendent Dr. Marcus Foster, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, Oakland Times Journalist Chauncey Bailey, The Marin County Courthouse Shootout Massacre and The Contract Killing of Joseph 'The Animal' Barboza. Abductions: San Francisco's Kevin Collins, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Student Kristin Smart, Brooke Hart and the Resulting 1933 San Jose Public Lynching, Heiress Patty Hearst, Petaluma's Polly Klaas and San Luis Obispo's Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford. Historical Legacies: Dashiell Hammett's Miles Archer, Chinatown Gangster Fung 'Little Pete' Jing Toy and Mysterious Rumors involving Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Mary Ellen Pleasant and American President Warren Harding Reckless Homicides: Oscar Grant III, O'Farrell Theatre's Artie Mitchell, Diane Whipple Dog Mauling, Black Panther Huey P. Newton, Laci Peterson and Multiple Police Officer Killer Lovelle Mixon Unsolved Murders: Ashkenaz Performance Owner David Nadel, The Santa Rosa Hitchhiking Murders, Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen on Fish Head Beach. Rampage Mass Murders: Reverend Jim Jones and the People's Temple Massacre, The Helzer Brothers and the Children of Thunder, The 101 California Building Rampage, Dr. Victor Ohta mansion burning and mass slaying, The 1977 Golden Dragon Bloodbath, Carmel Valley's Mel and Elizabeth Grimes, The Oikos University Shootings, Eastside Salinas Gang Killings and Morro Bay's Lynwood 'Jim' Drake rampage. Serial Killers: 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski, 'Co-ed Killer' Edmund Kemper III, 'Sacramento Vampire' Richard Trenton Chase, Juan Corona, Herbert Mullin, 'Death House Landlady' Dorothea Puente, 'Trailside Killer' David Carpenter, The San Francisco Zebra Killings and Zodiac Killer.

BroadwayWorld brings you event photos and highlights from Marymount Manhattan College's (MMC) annual scholarship fundraising event, The President's Medal Dinner. The event took place at Guastavino's on Thursday, April 16 and was attended by over 250 supporters, raising an impressive $2 Million for student scholarships.

ODC Theater's fourth annual smorgasbord of dance, the Walking Distance Dance Festival-SF, returns for a fourth year with samplings of dance from around the Bay Area and the nation. Over two days, Friday, June 5 to Saturday, June 6, ODC will present three programs of paired artists and a free, site-adaptive performance. Featured artists include Amy Seiwert/Imagery, Gerald Casel Dance, Jess Curtis/Gravity, Namita Kapoor, ODC/Dance, RAWdance and Gallim Dance in its Bay Area debut.

Young People's Theatre presents the World Premiere of Emily's Piano. Adapted for the stage by Mark Cassidy from the novel by Charlotte Gingras, this honest portrayal of a young girl's emotional journey amid family upheavals will be presented on the Mainstage now through May 2. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

The Community Players, Rhode Island's oldest community theatre, proudly presents one of Broadway's best loved musicals, Guys and Dolls, directed & choreographed by Timothy Reid from April 10th through April 26th. This high-spirited production captures the romance and humor of Damon Runyon's big city fables of fancy-talking gamblers and the "dolls" that fall for them. Written by composer/lyricist Frank Loesser, with a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, the Tony Award-winning show features such classic songs as Luck Be A Lady, Sit Down You're Rocking The Boat, Adelaide's Lament and A Bushel and a Peck. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students (with a valid student ID) and may be purchased at the door or online at www.thecommunityplayers.org, or reserved by phone at (401) 726-6860.