Exposure is a play written by Brandon Ruckdashel about a young actor who breaks up with his girlfriend to pursue his dreams in Hollywood. Along the way he lives with a stripper and takes a boyfriend all while under the guiding hand of his agent. Exposure is both about the entertainment business and what an actor is willing to do as he lives his dreams. Cast includesaward winning Portugese actress of Ela é Ela, Benedita Pereira, Leslie Nicole Phillips, Michael Paul Carr (Barrow Group's A Few Good Men), Timothy Ryan, and Marc Sinoway.
Think about it: What if you were watching The King and I and when Anna and the King of Siam started to sing 'Shall We Dance' and they just stood there, it just wouldn't have much of an impact, would it? Or if all those budding chorus members in A Chorus Line just stood around and talked about dancing but never did even the most basic shuffle-ball-change...sounds pretty bleak, doesn't it? That's where choreographers come into the picture; they collaborate with the director, the music director and the cast members to create movement that elevates every musical comedy. Without them, the action remains stagebound and static. A choreographer allows your heart to soar along with the performers onstage, making musical comedy all the more compelling and transformative. These talented men and women created remarkable and memorable work in 2010 as First Night's Top Choreographers...
If you find yourself venturing outside of New York, and you want to see some really good musical theater, what should you do? Allow me to suggest a visit to my neck o' the woods: A trip to Nashville might provide you with exactly what you seek. After all, in a city perhaps best known throughout the world as Music City USA, what else could you expect but some exceedingly well-cast, well-produced, well-played and well-sung musical theater? We're lousy with exceptional singers and musicians and, as a result, musical theater is alive and well - and thriving - in Nashville. And here's my list of the Best Musicals of 2010...
Directed with his customary flair and oh-so-obvious affection for the material by NCT producing artistic director Scot Copeland, it's one of the sweetest shows you'll ever witness. But Seussical's sweetness isn't of the cloying variety that sets your teeth on edge; rather, NCT's Seussical is slightly satirical and wonderfully warped (just as you would expect from a show based upon the writings of the time-honored Dr. Seuss) and is brought to life by an ensemble of performers at the top of their game.
Clearly, Bud, Not Buddy is a promising opening to NCT's 2010-11 season and it sets the bar high for what is to follow in the coming year. It is a superbly acted production, featuring a number of Nashville actors making notable NCT debuts, and it is augmented by the tremendous design capabilities of NCT's imaginative artisans.
Nashville theater audiences owe a huge debt of gratitude to Tennessee Repertory Theatre's creative team - led by producing artistic director Rene Dunshee Copeland, scenic and properties designer Gary Hoff, costume designer Trish Clark, lighting designer Phillip Franck and technical director Tyler Axt - for the exceptional production of To Kill A Mockingbird, now onstage at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre, extended through October 30.
But three other individuals are perhaps most responsible for the overall delight that is Tennessee Rep's 25th Anniversary season production: director Rene Dunshee Copeland, whose imaginative work helps to re-invent this musical on a basis that is at once more intimate while, somehow, is on a grander scale; music director Paul Carrol Binkley, whose concept for performing the work's music gives it the ideal down-home feel that only a band of expert Nashville players can give it; and design genius Gary Hoff, who transforms Johnson's black box space into something we've never seen in that venue before - the proscenium theatre you've only seen in your mind's eye - and who, in so doing, elevates Nashville theatrical design beyond its previous limits, fashioning it into something of opulently epic proportions.
You know you have a hit musical on your hands when audience members leave the theatre humming the songs they just heard. But you know you have a mega-hit musical onstage when those audience members are of the six-, seven-, or eight-year-old variety and they are singing the show's songs and dancing their way out the door. Well, that's exactly what Nashville Children's Theatre is experiencing with their current production of Miss Nelson Is Missing, the high-spirited adaptation of the 1977 book by Harry Allard, updated to 2010 and featuring terrific performances by six talented actors.
Bret Primack, aka the Jazz Video Guy, makes his performance debut at the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival this weekend with two screenings of his popular documentary and performance films.
The festival, being held this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Hilton Hotel in Rockville, Maryland, is produced by Washington D.C.'s Jazz Academy and in addition to Bret's work, features such artists as Mulgrew Miller, Bobby Watson, Lewis Nash and Festival Director, saxman Paul Carr.
Bret Primack, aka the Jazz Video Guy, makes his performance debut at the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival this weekend with two screenings of his popular documentary and performance films.
The festival, being held this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Hilton Hotel in Rockville, Maryland, is produced by Washington D.C.'s Jazz Academy and in addition to Bret's work, features such artists as Mulgrew Miller, Bobby Watson, Lewis Nash and Festival Director, saxman Paul Carr.
Bret Primack, aka the Jazz Video Guy, makes his performance debut at the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival this weekend with two screenings of his popular documentary and performance films.
The festival, being held this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Hilton Hotel in Rockville, Maryland, is produced by Washington D.C.'s Jazz Academy and in addition to Bret's work, features such artists as Mulgrew Miller, Bobby Watson, Lewis Nash and Festival Director, saxman Paul Carr.
If, indeed, 'it takes a village,' and if, as the poets say, 'no man is an island,' then perhaps no art form is more collaborative than live theatre. With a village of artists backstage and offstage assuring that each production is mounted, then coming to life during each performance, the collaborative effort is renewed. And what audiences see onstage is the collaboration of artists, the people who comprise the acting ensemble, the folks who bring the stagebound script to life, sending it soaring into our imaginations.
David Alford, former artistic director of Tennessee Repertory Theatre, will emcee the event that will feature the entire roster of GrandVista's artists, including the 30-piece Orchestra Mastrangelo, Perry Danos, Marty Raybon, Shelean Newman and the GrandVista Kids. The Extravaganza will also feature the legendary Fisk Jubilee Singers in a special guest appearance, and the only Nashville performance this year of David Alford and Paul Carrol Binkley's nostalgic treatment of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory.
Patrick Waller plays the title role in the Nashville Children's Theatre production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, running September 22-October 11. Part of Twain and Twang , Nashville's Citywide Celebration of Mark Twain, a year-long salute to the work of writer Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer is a companion piece to the Tennessee Repertory Theatre production of Big River, slated for a run in spring, 2010.
ROYAL ALBERT HALL October 2009 Listings
Box Office: +44 (0)20 7589 8212 Open 7 days a week 9:00am - 9:00pm
Online booking is available for most events. Please visit the website: www.royalalberthall.com
Nashville Children's Theatre opens its 2009-2010 season in high style with its production of the Ken Ludwig-Don Schlitz musical, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. With the mischievously appealing Patrick Waller in the title role, backed up by an ensemble of some of the most talented actors to be found in Nashville, NCT's staging is far more successful than the Broadway version mounted in 2001, thanks in large part to the skillful editing that was necessary to create a more accessible work for younger audiences.
Patrick Waller plays the title role in the Nashville Children's Theatre production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, running September 22-October 11. Part of Twain and Twang , Nashville's Citywide Celebration of Mark Twain, a year-long salute to the work of writer Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer is a companion piece to the Tennessee Repertory Theatre production of Big River, slated for a run in spring, 2010.
ROYAL ALBERT HALL October 2009 Listings
Box Office: +44 (0)20 7589 8212 Open 7 days a week 9:00am - 9:00pm
Online booking is available for most events. Please visit the website: www.royalalberthall.com
Patrick Waller plays the title role in the Nashville Children's Theatre production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, running September 22-October 11. Part of Twain and Twang , Nashville's Citywide Celebration of Mark Twain, a year-long salute to the work of writer Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer is a companion piece to the Tennessee Repertory Theatre production of Big River, slated for a run in spring, 2010.
The great American songbook will get an injection of sass this summer when acclaimed musical theater actress and vocalist Shelean Newman reinterprets twelve classics on her new album ANYTHING GOES, out June 9 on GrandVista Music
