Van Lee News

Musicals galore fill the schedule of the annual Summer Festival of Shows, August 10-19th, at the Centenary Stage Company Young Performers Workshop (YPW), with a cast of talented young thespians from Morris, Warren, Hunterdon and Sussex counties. The festival will feature the musicals "Over The Moon" by fiction writer Jodi Picoult, Jake Van Leer, and Ellen Wilber; Bob Fosse's "Pippin", Neil Simon's "They're Playing our Song" (with music by the late Marvin Hamlish), "The Roundabout Inn", and The One Act Playhouse. Performances will be held in Little Theatre on the campus of Centenary College at 400 Jefferson Street, Hackettstown, NJ. The YPW is led and directed by Broadway, film and television veteran, Michael Blevins.

Musicals galore fill the schedule of the annual Summer Festival of Shows August 10-19th at the Centenary Young Performers Workshop with a cast of talented young thespians from Morris, Warren, Hunterdon and Sussex counties.

Musicals galore fill the schedule of the annual Summer Festival of Shows August 10-19th at the Centenary Young Performers Workshop with a cast of talented young thespians from Morris, Warren, Hunterdon and Sussex counties.

Evidence, A Dance Company will host its 9th Annual "On Our Toes"… In The Hamptons Summer Benefit -- one of the premier cultural events of the Hamptons social season -- on Saturday, August 18, 2012, from 4 pm to 8 pm at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton. The contemporary dance company's mission is to promote understanding of the African Diaspora through music, movement and spoken word.

Ein Musical über Friedrich den Großen zu schreiben und zu produzieren lässt mutmassen das im Jubiläumsjahr des deutschen Kaisers ein mini bisschen wirtschaftliches Kalkül hinter diesem Projekt steckt. Nun wurde in der Vergangenheit über die verschiedensten Persönlichkeiten ein Musical geschrieben, das mal sehr gut ('Elisabeth', 'Evita', 'Rudolf'), mal weniger gut ('Bernadette', 'JFK: The Rock Opera', 'Marilyn: An American Fable') funktioniert hat. Leider beweist diese Adaption, dass man nicht mit jedem Material einen musikalischen Geniestreich zaubern kann. Christoph Jilo's Dramaturgie geleitet immer wieder ins klischeehafte ab und bedient sich der bis zum erbrechen reproduzierten Idee einen bereits verschiedenen Protagonisten als Erzähler oder in diesem Fall, als Gewissen einzusetzen.

National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Inc. (NBLCA) will host its 25th Anniversary Choose Life Awards Hall of Hope and Remembrance Benefit Reception on Thursday, June 7, 2012, at 583 Park Avenue in New York City.

Granted, most of my research can be credited to two plays by J. Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler (known professionally as the eponymously named Osborne and Eppler, in the spirit of Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Kaufman and Hart and George and Ira…Gershwin…which sorta ruins the sound of my sentence, but what can you do?), an impressive and noteworthy Nashville playwriting team, who seemingly have cornered the theatrical market on such Dixiefied ceremonies and celebrations in their comedies Southern Fried Funeral (which was debuted by Franklin's Bethlehem Players in 2010) and Southern Fried Nuptials (now onstage at Bethlehem Methodist Church in its world premiere production). I'll be sure to include them in the footnotes when my findings are published.

Daniel Kirk, author/illustrator of the Library Mouse series, will join Alyssa Capucilli, author of the Biscuit series, and dozens more children's book authors and illustrators at Celebrate Children's Book Day, a one-day gala devoted to children's literature and filled with readings, demonstrations, magic, music, and book signings at Washington Irving's Sunnyside on Sunday, Sept. 25.

Daniel Kirk, author/illustrator of the Library Mouse series, will join Alyssa Capucilli, author of the Biscuit series, and dozens more children's book authors and illustrators at Celebrate Children's Book Day, a one-day gala devoted to children's literature and filled with readings, demonstrations, magic, music, and book signings at Washington Irving's Sunnyside on Sunday, Sept. 25.

Ronald K. Brown and his acclaimed Evidence, A Dance Company held its 8th Annual On Our Toes in the Hamptons on the sprawling grounds of the Hayground School in Bridgehampton. Always one of summer's most eagerly anticipated events, the party draws supporters from all across the country for a festive afternoon benefitting Brown's much loved dance troupe.

Ronald K. Brown's internationally acclaimed Evidence, A Dance Company returns once again to the East End for the company's 8th Annual On Our Toes in the Hamptons Summer Benefit, the premiere African-American cultural event of the Hamptons social season on August 20, 2011 at the Hayground School, 151 Mitchell Lane, Bridgehampton, New York 11932.

Ronald K. Brown's internationally acclaimed Evidence, A Dance Company returns once again to the East End for the company's 8th Annual On Our Toes in the Hamptons Summer Benefit, the premiere African-American cultural event of the Hamptons social season on August 20, 2011 at the Hayground School, 151 Mitchell Lane, Bridgehampton, New York 11932.

InFusion Theatre Company proudly announces the Midwest premiere of Qui Nguyen's Soul Samurai directed by InFusion Theatre Company Artistic Director Mitch Golob, April 25 - June 5, 2011 at Theater Wit, 1229 W Belmont Ave.

InFusion Theatre Company proudly announces the Midwest premiere of Qui Nguyen's Soul Samurai directed by InFusion Theatre Company Artistic Director Mitch Golob, April 25 - June 5, 2011 at Theater Wit, 1229 W Belmont Ave.

Ronald K. Brown's acclaimed Evidence, A Dance Company held its 7th Annual Evidence Gala...A Breath of Spring on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 in The Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center. Once again it was one of the season's most glamorous, star studded affairs.

Evidence, A Dance Company will present the 7th Annual Evidence Gala...A Breath of Spring on Tuesday, April 12, 2011, The Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center hosted by actor, producer, director and star of Law & Order SVU Tamara Tunie and Jazz Vocalist Gregory Generet.

The SUNY New Paltz Department of Theatre will present a New Play Festival on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 8, 9 and 10th in Parker Theatre on the SUNY New Paltz campus. The festival is part of the Mainstage season and will continue the theatre department's commitment to developing and producing new works for the stage. Over seventy one-act scripts from forty Hudson Valley playwrights, SUNY Alumni and SUNY students were submitted, with eleven short plays chosen for presentation ranging from the realistic to the surreal, from outrageous comedy to the highly dramatic. The New Play Festival was created by SUNY theatre faculty director Nancy Saklad, designer Ken Goldstein, playwright John Patrick Bray, and Laurence Carr, who teaches Dramatic Writing in the English Department and heads the SUNY Playwrights' Project. Robert Miller, a member of the faculty of the SUNY New Paltz Communications Department and Producing Director of Mohonk Mountain Stage Company, serves as Artistic Director. "Nothing in theatre is more exciting or rewarding than working with new scripts. It's where the action," Miller noted. The plays, running 10 to 25 minutes in length, were written by Hudson Valley playwrights Mary Gallagher, James Farrell, Lew Gardner and Sybil Rosen; SUNY New Paltz alumni Julie Demers, J. Holtham, Bruce Pileggi, Craig Sarich and Evan Leed; SUNY student Annette Storkman; and SUNY Theatre Faculty Emeritus Beverly Brumm. SUNY New Paltz theatre students will direct and act in the pieces and create designs, both as lobby displays and as production elements. 'What the Festival offers our students is the opportunity to work with texts that are not 'established.' Many of our students will continue to work with new plays when they are in the profession," explained John Patrick Bray one of the Festival's co-founders. Some of the plays will be presented as readings while others will be more fully realized and contain more complete production values. "The main idea is to focus on the scripts, to illuminate the words. We want each script to reach its next stage of development, and to have our audiences help shape these plays," said Laurence Carr, playwright coordinator. The SUNY New Play Festival will be presented as two separate series. Series A, made up of seven 10-minute plays will be presented Friday, April 8 at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, April 9 at 2:00 p.m. Series B, presenting three longer one act plays, will be produced Saturday, April 9, at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday afternoon, April 10 at 2:00 p.m. Admission is five dollars for each series, and an audience feedback session will follow.

Evidence, A Dance Company will present the 7th Annual Evidence Gala...A Breath of Spring on Tuesday, April 12, 2011, The Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center hosted by actor, producer, director and star of Law & Order SVU Tamara Tunie and Jazz Vocalist Gregory Generet.

The world premiere of renowned choreographer Ronald K. Brown's 'On Earth Together' inspired by the music of Stevie Wonder at the Joyce Theater was met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation for the electrifying performance of Brown's acclaimed troupe.

InFusion Theatre Company proudly announces the Midwest premiere of Qui Nguyen's Soul Samurai directed by InFusion Theatre Company Artistic Director Mitch Golob, April 25 - June 5, 2011 at Theater Wit, 1229 W Belmont Ave.