With college theatre program auditions just around the corner, we're highlighting some of the most prestigious theatre programs from all across the United States to give you insight into what to expect from their programs, from audition advice to real world experience and more. Today we're chatting with faculty from Eckerd College's theatre program about its Reflective Service Learning, partnership with Circle in the Square, and more.
San Francisco Opera announces Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman as the winner of the 2019 Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Emerging Stars Competition. Chuchman made her Company debut as Mary Hatch in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's It's a Wonderful Life last fall and was named a?oe2019 Emerging Star of the Yeara?? based on a popular vote conducted online at sfopera.com from July 9a?"July 31, 2019. As winner of the competition, now in its fourth year, Chuchman receives a $10,000 cash prize.
Marcus L. Overton, a passionate and colorful 54-year veteran of the performing arts management world as well as an actor, director, writer, teacher, scholar, linguist and Emmy-award winning radio and TV host, died at age 75 on June 9 in San Diego after a long battle with kidney failure. He is survived by his husband Raymond A. Fluta. Overton left instructions that his ashes were to be taken to Paris, a city he visited yearly, and scattered on the graves of Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Marcel Proust and Francois Poulenc.
The Flea Theater is proud to announce the addition of six new Resident Directors to its intensive practicum for early-career directors. Rebecca Aparicio, Jake Beckhard, Daniella Caggiano, Lauren DeLeon, Will Steinberger, and Raz Golden will join the current group of Resident Directors.
On the heels of a successful 2019 season, Spoleto Festival USA announces its commission of a new full-length opera by MacArthur Fellow and Grammy Award-winner Rhiannon Giddens, based on the life and autobiography of Omar Ibn Said.
On April 23rd, the New-York Historical Society's latest installment of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Distinguished Speakers Series showcased An American Soldier, a two-act opera composed by Huang Ruo, featuring a libretto by David Henry Hwang, in the Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024.
Boston Baroque presents Monteverdi's final opera, L'incoronazione di Poppea, on Friday, April 26th at 7:30pm and on Sunday, April 28th at 3pm at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. These will be the first performances of a new performing edition of the opera by Boston Baroque founder and Music Director Martin Pearlman. The all-star cast includes soprano Amanda Forsythe in the title role and countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo making his Boston Baroque debut as Nero.
This Spring marks the start of the 36th season of the Verdi Chorus, who will present their Spring Concert, L'Amore e la Vita (Love and Life) for two performances only at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica on April 6 and 7. Led by Founding Artistic Director Anne Marie Ketchum, the Verdi Chorus is the only choral group in Southern California that focuses primarily on the dramatic and diverse music for opera chorus. This program, which Ketchum humorously calls the Rom-Com of opera, will feature selections from two Verdi operas I vespri siciliani and Ernani, three Donizetti operas - Don Pasquale, La fille du r giment and L'elisir d'amore, as well as operatic sequences from Bizet's Les p cheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers), Delibes' Lakm , and Puccini's La rondine.
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces the full company for the world premiere of Tazewell Thompson's inspirational a cappella music infused play, Jubilee. Inspired by the world-renowned Fisk Jubilee Singers, this uplifting new work chronicles the bold African American ensemble as they travel the world, captivating kings, queens and audiences with hymns and spiritual songs supported by their rich voices. Written and directed by Thompson with vocal arrangements and music direction by Dianne Adams McDowell, Jubilee runs April 26 - June 2, 2019 in the Kreeger Theater.
Following performances at the Young Vic, in the West End, an extensive international tour and a broadcast on the BBC, award-winning theatre company 1927 is to stream a filmed version of its show Golem to coincide with World Theatre Day.
Registration is now open for the MRT Young Company summer program, a professional theatre training program for high school students, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for three weeks, July 15 to August 2, in downtown Lowell. Nationally recognized creative producer, director, and performer Will Rogers will return to lead the program.
Utah Opera Artistic Director Christopher McBeth has announced the programming, initial casting, and creative teams for the company's 2019-20 season, which comprises four opera productions at the newly renovated Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre. Featuring improved seating and sightlines on the orchestra level, the theatre reopens after a six-month closure for the company's season-opening production of Verdi's La traviata in October 2019. The season continues with composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell's Silent Night in January 2020, Rossini's The Barber of Seville in March 2020, and Massenet's Tha s in May 2020. Silent Night is presented as part of Utah Opera's American Opera Initiative, through which the company champions and commissions American contributions to the art form. Both Silent Night and Tha s are Utah Opera premieres.
Pittsburgh Festival Opera has announced the selection of Christopher M. Powell as its new Executive Director, effective March 12th, 2019. Mr. Powell comes to the organization after four years serving as Director of Artistic Initiatives for the world-renowned Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York, and will lead the Pittsburgh Festival Opera into its 42nd season alongside Artistic Director Jonathan Eaton.
The American Theatre Wing announced today that the 2019 Jonathan Larson Grants recipients are Julia Gytri & Avi Amon (book, music and lyrics), Emily Gardner Xu Hall (book, music and lyrics), Andy Roninson (music and lyrics), and Ben Wexler (music and lyrics). Four prestigious grants of $10,000 each, as well as additional support in the form of residencies, concerts, and recording grants, totaling over $50,000, will be presented on Monday, March 19, 2018 at a private event at the WNYC Greene Space. The event will feature special performances of the recipients' work.
Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) features prolific composer/conductor Matthias Pintscher leading his own work, Transir for Flute & Orchestra, with noted flutist Henrik Heide, on Saturday, March 2, 8 pm, at the Alex Theatre, and Sunday, March 3, 2019, 7 pm, at Royce Hall.
This Spring marks the start of the 36th season of the Verdi Chorus, who will present their Spring Concert, L'Amore e la Vita (Love and Life) for two performances only at the First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica on April 6 and 7. Led by Founding Artistic Director Anne Marie Ketchum, the Verdi Chorus is the only choral group in Southern California that focuses primarily on the dramatic and diverse music for opera chorus. This program, which Ketchum humorously calls the Rom-Com of opera, will feature selections from two Verdi operas I vespri siciliani and Ernani, three Donizetti operas - Don Pasquale, La fille du r giment and L'elisir d'amore, as well as operatic sequences from Bizet's Les p cheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers), Delibes' Lakm , and Puccini's La rondine.
Festival General Director Nigel Redden announces the program for the 43rd annual Spoleto Festival USA, taking place May 24 through June 9, 2019. For 17 days and nights, a variety of artists converge in Charleston, South Carolina, filling the city's theaters, churches, and outdoor spaces with wide-ranging performances and concerts.
Concertmaster Joanna Frankel makes her solo debut with the Columbus Symphony, performing Beethoven's spiritual Violin Concerto. The epic Eroica Symphony completes this program devoted to the great German composer.
Queens-based Rude Grooms (www.rudegrooms.com) announced details for their production of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, led by actor-manager Montgomery Sutton (Twelfth Night at Shakespeare's Globe; Much Ado About Nothing with Rude Grooms), produced in partnership with Long Island City Artists at the Plaxall Gallery and sponsored by Mikkeller Brewing NYC. The show runs January 4-6 at the Plaxall Gallery (5-25 46th Avenue, LIC) at 7:30pm, with a Twelfth Night Party beginning at 6:30pm each night for VIP ticket holders featuring a variety of musical guests to be announced in the coming days. Tickets are limited and on sale now at rudegrooms.com.
James Bundy, Dean of Yale School of Drama and Artistic Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, announced today the appointment of Narda E. Alcorn as Chair of the School's Stage Management Department and Stage Management Advisor at Yale Rep, for a five-year term beginning July 1, 2019.
