Sage News

BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) announced today the selected participants for its 22nd annual Conducting Workshop for Visual Media Composers, led by BMI Classic Contribution Award winner, conductor and composer Lucas Richman. Beginning August 13, the elite group will spend two weeks sharpening their conducting skills to music selections by BMI film composing legends such as Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams. The workshop will be held at BMI's Los Angeles office and Blake Neely's Cow on the Wall Studio in North Hollywood culminating with the participants leading a 32-piece orchestra live to picture at Nathan Barr's Bandrika studio in Tarzana on August 24.

Penobscot Theatre Company's Dramatic Academy will stage the rock and roll classic, BYE BYE BIRDIE, July 18 at 7 pm, July 19 at 7pm, July 20 at 2pm and 7pm, and July 21 at 3pm. All four performances will be at the historic Bangor Opera House, 131 Main Street, Bangor.

Lakewood Theatre Company opens its 67th season with Roald Dahl's Matilda, the Musical. The music and lyrics for Matilda are by Tim Minchin and the book, adapted from Roald Dahl's Matilda, is by Dennis Kelly.

It's a funny and satisfying evening worth of validation for women and those who love them.

Award winning actor James Duke Walker will host the PHP (People Helping People) Agency's Independence Day Life Coaching and Networking event at The New Vibe Lounge on Friday, July 5.

In a unique collaboration, a wide-ranging group of arts organisations and human rights charities commissioned Ai Weiwei to design a new flag in response to the real and present dangers of a world changing at break-neck speed and a community that has forgotten why human rights are so important, to offer hope and to educate generations to come about the absolute importance of universal human rights. Everyone across the country is invited to Fly The Flag for Human Rights between 24 and 30 June 2019 in events around the UK, with over 150 organisations involved.

The 2ND ANNUAL ITHACA ONE-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL (#1MPF) returns to Ithaca for its second year, in partnership with the Kitchen Theatre Company. The 2nd Annual Ithaca One-Minute Play Festival runs for three performances only; July 13th at 8pm, and July 14th at 3pm & 7pm. All performances are at the Kitchen Theatre (417 W StateMLK, Jr. St). Tickets, priced at $20, are available at kitchentheatre.org.

Today, the Austin, TX-based country rock band Reckless Kelly are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their seminal album Bulletproof with the release of Bulletproof Live via Thirty Tigers. The album is a live recording of every song from Bulletproof captured in July and August of 2018 at multiple shows along the band's tour.

When Laura moves from Toronto to Syracuse, New York, she wasn't expecting to be residing in Trump's America. Gaining her first job as a Relay operator for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing causes her to question whether she can discover the hidden humanity of the American people. Destiny, USA weaves together three stories: Laura moving to the US for the first time and working as a relay operator for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, romantically meeting her husband, and dealing with her mother's illness in Canada while she has to live in America.

The critically-acclaimed hit Girl from the North Country, written and directed by Conor McPherson with music and lyrics by Bob Dylan, is to play at the Gielgud Theatre in the West End for a limited season from 10 December 2019 to 1 February 2020. Girl from the North Country opens in the West End following a run at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto, opening 28 September 2019, and prior to the Broadway production opening in March 2020 at The Belasco Theatre.

Although he was born by the sea, it wasn't until he moved to the desert that storyteller Nels Andrews began writing songs. He sang them alone in a house constructed of mud and tires on the sage-brushed mesas of Taos, New Mexico where he spent his 20's, airing them occasionally around campfires. It wasn't until a move 90 miles south to the dusty yet curiously eccentric city of Albuquerque that he began to play them in front of strangers, and from there, to start collaborating. He began to shape his desert-infused folk/rock sound, pairing literary narratives of curious high desert outsiders with the psych-rock palate and electro-fuzz of his then band,

Although he was born by the sea, it wasn't until he moved to the desert that storyteller Nels Andrews began writing songs. He sang them alone in a house constructed of mud and tires on the sage-brushed mesas of Taos, New Mexico where he spent his 20's, airing them occasionally around campfires. It wasn't until a move 90 miles south to the dusty yet curiously eccentric city of Albuquerque that he began to play them in front of strangers, and from there, to start collaborating. He began to shape his desert-infused folk/rock sound, pairing literary narratives of curious high desert outsiders with the psych-rock palate and electro-fuzz of his then band, The El Paso Eyepatch, and resulted in his debut album Sunday Shoes.

On June 21, the Austin, TX-based country rock band Reckless Kelly will release Bulletproof Live via Thirty Tigers. The album is a live recording of their seminal album Bulletproof captured in July and August of 2018 in celebration of the record's tenth anniversary. Today, Taste of Country premiered 'God Forsaken Town (Live),' the third and final single to be released from their forthcoming album.

Irrepressible singer-raconteur, Ira Lee Collings, has yielded to the will of the masses-and for a very good cause! His Naked - From The Neck Up is back by very popular demand during Gay Pride week as a fundraiser for SAGE, the country's largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of elder lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults. The show plays on Thursday, June 27 at 7pm, at Don't Tell Mama in New York City.

Facebook has always been a place to connect with friends and family, and more and more, a destination to find communities that share your interests. It's been particularly gratifying to see this play out so well in Facebook Watch - a platform that is quickly becoming a place where content and conversation organically come together.

Today the full programme of events has been announced around Fly The Flag, a major new project marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and brand new images of Ai Weiwei with young people have been released.

Salt and Sage Productions' Antony and Cleopatra and Troilus and Cressida will be performed in rotating repertory at Shaking the Tree.

The mystical land of BRIGADOON has emerged once again at Niagara on the Lake's Shaw Festival, and the now rarely produced musical still brings with it a sense of hope wrapped around Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's hauntingly beautiful lyrics and score. And while re-engaging with this Golden Age of Broadway classic brings with it a sense of familiarity, injecting new life into the work written in 1947 presents some obstacles.

River City Community Players presents 'Mama Won't Fly' by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten (the playwrights of 'Dixie Swim Club' and 'Doublewide, Texas'). Performances will be June 14 - 23 (Friday and Saturday nights at 8 pm and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 pm) at the Lynn Theatre at John Tyler Community College (Midlothian Campus), 800 Charter Colony Pkwy in Midlothian. Tickets at 804-554-0595 or www.rivercitycommunityplayers.com.

Raue Center For The Arts announces its newest fundraising initiative, the 6x6 Project, will culminate in a public reception on June 29, 2019. Artists and the community are invited to attend the event, which will feature all of the art submitted for the 6x6 Project.