Heartbeat Opera is a new company intent upon re-imagining opera in intimate spaces for a new generation. Employing a minimalism that allows the emotional integrity of the music to shine through, the company's work focuses on the body of the singer and the visceral power of the music. Co-Artistic Directors Louisa Proske and Ethan Heard, who trained together in the Directing program at the Yale School of Drama, are committed to nurturing the actor in every singer they work with. The company creates productions of classics and new pieces that are daring and visceral—productions that manifest the emotional grandeur and theatrical power of opera with minimal means. Heartbeat's one-act festival presentation of György Kurtág's Kafka-Fragments, directed by Heard, and the New York premiere of Jacques Offenbach's Daphnis & Chloé, in a new English translation directed by Proske, marks this young company's debut. Heartbeat Opera's resident music ensemble Cantata Profana, described by The New York Times as “a stylish early music ensemble,” will provide musical accompaniment.
Hitting perhaps too close to home for some and harkening back to memories best left unrecalled, while challenging audiences to examine their own lives, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman remains an emotional, visceral theatrical masterpiece. Now, through March 28, it is vividly recaptured, like so much lightening in a bottle, in a deeply affecting production from Nashville Rep, directed with finesse by Rene D. Copeland and acted by an all-star cast of Nashville performers who together create a stunningly specific place in time that somehow is timeless and universal.
Writers Theatre Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma announce the Inaugural Season in the company's new theatre center, to include a season kick-off at Books on Vernon with Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison, directed by Kimberly Senior, followed by the Grand Opening of the state-of-the-art facility, designed by Jeanne Gang and Studio Gang Architects. Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, directed by Artistic Director Michael Halberstam will be the inaugural production in the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre. A new collaboration with Chicago's The Second City entitled Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf-A Parody, by Tim Sniffen, with additional material by Tim Ryder, directed by Artistic Director Michael Halberstam and Stuart Carden, will open the Gillian Theatre. Company, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth, directed by William Brown with musical direction by Tom Vendafreddo, will follow Arcadia in the Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre.
Strindberg's 'Kristina' (1903) is the unacknowledged basis for the Garbo film 'Queen Christina.' In this skillful study of a neurotic and complex woman, Strindberg reveals the power of his dramatic conceptions and the mastery he had acquired of his craft. The play was the last of a series of Strindberg's later historical dramas that are among the most powerful plays of the kind produced in modern times. August Strindberg Repertory Theatre will present the masterpiece at the Gene Frankel Theatre tonight, March 13 to 29 translated from the Swedish by Wendy Weckwerth, directed by Whitney Aronson.
Nashville Repertory Theatre will present its newest production Death of a Salesman, the classic, Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. Death of a Salesman runs tonight, March 12-28, 2015 at Andrew Johnson Theater at Tennessee Performing Arts Center.
The John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton presents Arthur Miller's award-winning American classic All My Sons starring Alec Baldwin and Laurie Metcalf and directed by Stephen Hamilton. The play will run Tuesdays through Sundays, June 9-28 and is produced by Guild Hall in association with Roy Furman and Ellen Myers.
Heartbeat Opera is a new company intent upon re-imagining opera in intimate spaces for a new generation. Employing a minimalism that allows the emotional integrity of the music to shine through, the company's work focuses on the body of the singer and the visceral power of the music. Co-Artistic Directors Louisa Proske and Ethan Heard, who trained together in the Directing program at the Yale School of Drama, are committed to nurturing the actor in every singer they work with. The company creates productions of classics and new pieces that are daring and visceral—productions that manifest the emotional grandeur and theatrical power of opera with minimal means. Heartbeat's one-act festival presentation of György Kurtág's Kafka-Fragments, directed by Heard, and the New York premiere of Jacques Offenbach's Daphnis & Chloé, in a new English translation directed by Proske, marks this young company's debut. Heartbeat Opera's resident music ensemble Cantata Profana, described by The New York Times as “a stylish early music ensemble,” will provide musical accompaniment.
Leading Australian theatre producer John Frost and Opera Australia Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini today announced they will present a new version of the acclaimed musical thriller Jekyll and Hyde in Australia commencing in late 2015, directed by Christopher Renshaw (The King and I, Legends!) and designed by Gabriela Tylesova (Cosi Fan Tutte, Love Never Dies).
Palo Alto Players held its third annual Season Announcement party on January 31, unveiling the shows for its 2015-16 season - as well as a new logo! Managing Director Diana Lynn Wiley and Artistic Director Patrick Klein worked with Joey McDaniel to create the new public face of Palo Alto Players. "Joey is a great friend of Palo Alto Players," said Wiley. "Audience members would recognize him from his role as Igor in last season's Young Frankenstein, and he's also playing Uncle Fester in our upcoming production of The Addams Family. We're happy to share another dimension of his wonderful artistry, and are so excited to be able to keep our logo redesign in the family."
The intimate venue at Germantown Community Theatre provides a perfect setting for a drama like Arthur Miller's ALL MY SONS, an early-but-still timely demonstration of Miller's gifts as a playwright - and, as with all of Miller's major works, a veritable feast for actors. Like the later, legendary DEATH OF A SALESMAN and the McCarthy Era-inspired THE CRUCIBLE, Miller adopts and, when necessary, bends the rules of Classical tragedy to admit the likes of 'Willy Loman' and 'Joe Keller' into a realm dominated by OEDIPUS and ANTIGONE. While ALL MY SONS certainly stands on its own merits as an important play, it is tempting to see the similarities between it and Miller's most famous work.
MOUNTAIN MONSTERS: BIGFOOT EDITION premieres tonight, March 7 at 10/9c on Destination America with eight episodes pursuing Bigfoots across the mountain region. The second half of the 16-episode season will premiere later in 2015.
Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to announce a hot night of music with ALFREDO & EUROPA, MR. NO SHAME & MAMBO LOCO. The evening features Latin-Rock-Salsa-Dance with the three hottest Latin bands in the Hamptons tonight, March 7 at 8 pm.
James Rado, Gerome Ragni, and Galt MacDermot's Tony Award-winning musical, HAIR, will be presented by Big Noise Theatre at Prairie Lakes Community Center Theater, Des Plaines, April 24 through May 9.
FRAWLEY BECKER is a published book and short story author and a published and three-time prize-winning playwright. A man of many talents, he was a State Department Entertainment Director for military bases outside Paris during the Cold War, founded the first African-American theatre company within the U.S. military in 1959, formed Paris Playhouse in 1963 and was the first to professionally produce Edward Albee plays in France. For the next ten years he worked as a bilingual dialogue coach in films while living in Paris, coaching Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Rex Harrison, Omar Sharif, Jacqueline Bisset, Ann-Margret, Samantha Eggar, Robert Ryan, Gene Wilder and all the Oompa-Loompas of the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Back in the U.S., Becker worked as a location manager for features including Jerry Maguire, Steel Magnolias, and the original Footloose, and TV movies for Oprah Winfrey Presents; and was a production executive at The Disney Studios. His award-winning, searing drama 'Tiger by the Tail' has its west coast premiere March 6 through April 19 at the Lonny Chapman Theatre in the NoHo Arts District of North Hollywood, CA. For more information about the play please visit http://www.thegrouprep.com
The Group Rep presents the west coast premiere of Frawley Becker's searing drama 'Tiger by the Tail' directed by Jules Aaron, produced by Richard Alan Woody and Frawley Becker. The play runs today, March 6th through April 19th, Todays and Saturdays at 8PM, Sundays at 2PM, at the Lonny Chapman Theatre located at the edge of the NoHo Arts District in North Hollywood, CA.
Walden Media, producer of such hit films as 'The Chronicles of Narnia” series, “Bridge to Terabithia,” “Charlotte's Web,” and the 'Journey to the Center of the Earth” series, will co-finance and co-produce DreamWorks Studios' “The BFG.”
Justine Simmons and Rev Run kick off the month on Cooking Channel when they head back into the kitchen for more family, food and fun in a new season of Rev Run's Sunday Suppers on Wednesday, April 1st at 8:00pmET/5:00pmPT.
