Sharon Smith News

Exciting news as CENTERSTAGE gears up for its annual auction-just two weeks away: The online fundraising site, BiddingForGood, has just released their listing of "10 Auctions That Rocked 2012," and in 2012 The Baltimore Sun Auction for CENTERSTAGE made the list.

Jerry Smith was only 25 years old when he was hired in 1959 to develop a choral program at Livonia's Bentley High School. But over the course of his 25 years at the school, the Bentley Concert Choir (BCC) developed a widespread reputation for excellence, and its members traveled worldwide sharing their musical abilities. When Bentley closed in 1985, Smith went on to develop the CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts Program) at Churchill High School. Smith, along with members of his musical family, will perform a concert to benefit Paul's Players, a local community theater group, on February 9, 2013.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced Wednesday that CENTERSTAGE is one of 832 non-profit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant for its Spring 2013 Raisin Cycle. The announcement comes on the heels of CENTERSTAGE Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah's own Beneatha's Place, penned for the Cycle, receiving the Edgerton New American Play Award.

Forest Fringe has announced Paper Stages, a beautifully designed free book co-authored by over twenty Forest Fringe artists, each page of which will be a different instruction-based performance for the reader or readers to perform themselves. Paper Stages will be launches today, 11th of August with a raucus party at an as-yet secret location. Featured writers include Kieran Hurley, writer-performer of the CATS Award-winning Beats.

Forest Fringe has announced Paper Stages, a beautifully designed free book co-authored by over twenty Forest Fringe artists, each page of which will be a different instruction-based performance for the reader or readers to perform themselves. Paper Stages will be launches on the 11th of August with a raucus party at an as-yet secret location. Featured writers include Kieran Hurley, writer-performer of the CATS Award-winning Beats.

Is it possible to recreate someone else's authenticity seven times a week doing the same Off-Broadway show?  If last Saturday night's performance of Gob Squad's Kitchen (You've Never Had It So Good) is any indication, the answer is a resounding... I'm not sure.  But in any case, the lighthearted madness inhabiting The Public Theater's Newman space, devised by the German/British theatrical squad named in the title, makes for a rollicking good time.

There's a beautiful softness that bathes every artistic aspect of director Gordon Edelstein's graceful and endearing production of Athol Fugard's meditation on independence through creativity, The Road To Mecca.

The weekend of August 19,20,21, 2011 brought members of the original cast of TV's Dark Shadows to The Marriott at The Brooklyn Bridge, in Brooklyn, NY.

Fort Wayne Civic Theatre presented the annual Anthony Awards on Sunday, July 10th. Luke Holliger received an Anthony Award for Excellence in Technical Theatre and Cyndy Elick won an Anthony Award for Excellence in Volunteerism.