Parade 1998 - Articles Page 5.8

Irish Arts Center Announces Spring 2018 Season

The 70th anniversary season of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence will present six full-scale opera productions and an international roster of exceptional artistry from July 4 through 24, 2018. The anniversary season also marks a milestone, as it celebrates the conclusion of Bernard Foccroulle's eleven-year tenure as general manager of the Festival. His legacy will be demonstrated in the coming season with commissions, new productions, major participatory events, and significant outreach to Arab, Mediterranean, and local audiences. Foccroulle will be succeeded by Park Avenue Armory artistic director and Dutch National Opera director Pierre Audi in September, 2018.

David Marshall Grant's 1998 hit play Snakebit has been reimagined thanks to a collaboration with the Bachelor of Fine Arts Acting students at the School of Performing Arts of the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences at Pace University.

Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown's 1998 Tony Award-winning musical PARADE, based on the infamous trial and lynching of Leo Frank, is set to be professionally staged at the world's oldest working paper factory this month.

How do you take hundreds of kids (ages 7 to 17) and put up over a dozen shows (mostly musicals, plus a few plays) in as little as three weeks, with rehearsals limited to maybe just 12 or 13 days, with all or most of the cast rehearsing just slightly more than two hours each day, and many campers working on multiple shows at once? And I'm talking about completely staged shows with full production values, including sets, lighting, sound, costumes and live orchestras. Not only that, imagine repeating this same frenzied process four times over the course of a single summer.

Music Theater Works (formerly Light Opera Works) presents GYPSY, the tale of an ambitious stage mother fighting for her daughters' success, at Cahn Auditorium in Evanston, August 19 through 27. A 25-piece orchestra accompanies such well-known songs as 'Everything's Coming Up Roses,' 'Let Me Entertain You' and 'Some People.'

WaterTower Theatre is excited to be continuing one of our most talked about and anticipated traditions, the Community Cast Party!  CCP Co-Chairs Stan Graner, Corky Pledger, Deborah Staggs and Maureen Anderson today announced details for the 4th Annual Community Cast Party.  The party will be held on Saturday, September 9th, 2017 at WaterTower 's home, the Addison Theatre Centre from 7 pm to 10 pm.  The Community Cast Party is designed to attract a wide audience of patrons, partiers, and food lovers who are interested in supporting WaterTower Theatre while enjoying an evening of entertainment with cuisine offered from many fine local restaurants.  Attendees will have a unique opportunity to mix and mingle with artists from the DFW theatre community at the "open house" style event, where everyone is welcome.

It is nearly impossible not to be emotionally affected by the events depicted in PARADE, the stirring, Tony Award-winning 1998 musical inspired by shocking actual events surrounding the trial of a man accused of raping and murdering a 13-year-old girl. It's certainly a heavy, morose subject to wrap an entire musical around, which is probably why PARADE is so rarely produced, despite its high-caliber book by Alfred Uhry and gorgeous music by Jason Robert Brown. But when the material is executed with emotional heft and interesting staging---as it mostly is in Chance Theater's latest production---the results can be powerful, gut-wrenching, and, most importantly, thought-provoking.

Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown's 1998 Tony Award-winning musical PARADE, based on the infamous trial and lynching of Leo Frank, is set to be professionally staged at the world's oldest working paper factory this September.

Music Theater Works (formerly Light Opera Works) presents GYPSY, the tale of an ambitious stage mother fighting for her daughters' success, at Cahn Auditorium in Evanston, August 19 through 27. A 25-piece orchestra accompanies such well-known songs as "Everything's Coming Up Roses," "Let Me Entertain You" and "Some People."

PARADE is now in a blistering and beautifully minimalist production from director Gary Griffin. Though it is based off the real-life 1913 trial of Jewish pencil factory worker Leo Frank and was written by Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry in 1998, this musical feels entirely of this moment. Set in Atlanta, Georgia, the musical follows Leo as he is imprisoned and put on trial after being falsely accused of the murder of Mary Phagan, a pre-teen girl found dead in the basement of the pencil factory. Georgia governor Hugh Dorsey wants to rapidly resolve the case and pins the blame on Leo-and coerces factory janitor Jim Conley to serve as an eye witness. The residents of Atlanta buy into Dorsey's false narrative, as they're distrustful of Frank and also want to see Mary's death avenged.  

Co-directed with precision by Christina A. Coakley and Susan Marie Rhea, Keegan's PARADE keeps the staging simple and imaginative, cutting away clutter and using only the barest of props and scenic elements to help the story unfold. No one who has seen previous Keegan musicals, such as HAIR, CABARET, or AMERICAN IDIOT could be surprised by the quality of this rendering of PARADE; I fully expect this production to be recognized multiple times when the next round of Helen Hayes Awards comes around.

Opening tonight on Broadway, Come From Away spotlights the town of Gander, Newfoundland, which became the temporary home of over 6,000 passengers whose planes were rerouted during the 9/11 attacks. In its dramatization of real-life figures such as Beverley Bass, a stranded pilot portrayed by Jenn Colella, and Claude Elliott, the Gander mayor brought to life by Joel Hatch, the musical provides a historical recount of the week following 9/11, heavily inspired by true stories of the compassion and camaraderie that came about in Gander.

Broadway In Chicago has announced Tony and Olivier Award-nominated Euan Morton will play the role of Hedwig, and Hannah Corneau will play Yitzhak in the National Tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the 2014 Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival. Hedwig and the Angry Inch will play Chicago's Oriental Theatre (24 W. Randolph) March 7-19, 2017.

When PARADE opened on Broadway in 1998, it was a historical musical drama based on a true story about anti-semitism and racism in the post Civil-War South. Nearly 20 years later, it has become a stark reminder of times we may not want to return to, but our front pages seem to be repeating.

Theatre for a New Audience has announced the performance schedule, cast and creative team for director Arin Arbus's new staging of Thornton Wilder's comic masterpiece The Skin of Our Teeth, the first major New York production since 1998.

Beginning February 18, the Orchestre National de Lyon, “probably the most refined ensemble of the world” (The Guardian),  tours the United States for the first time since 2003, playing concerts with music director Leonard Slatkin on a six-city tour.  The Orchestra performs in renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and at the University of Georgia, Wake Forest University, and others. Special guest artists at Carnegie Hall include two of classical music's most treasured American voices, soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson.  The New York program will feature debut performances of Guillaume Connesson's Celephaïs and a new Ravel arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov's Antar with text by Amin Maalouf.

Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) and the Humphreys School for Musical Theatre (HSMT) presented two special events with award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown on January 19th and 20th.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment present the third show of its 2016-2017 season, Jason Robert Brown's THE LAST FIVE YEARS, starring Devin Archer and Natalie Storrs, with musical direction by Brent Crayon and directed by Ovation Award-winner Nick DeGruccio.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment present the third show of its 2016-2017 season, Jason Robert Brown's THE LAST FIVE YEARS, starring Devin Archer and Natalie Storrs, with musical direction by Brent Crayon and directed by Ovation Award-winner Nick DeGruccio.

Theatre for a New Audience has announced the performance schedule, cast and creative team for director Arin Arbus's new staging of Thornton Wilder's comic masterpiece The Skin of Our Teeth, the first major New York production since 1998.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts & McCoy Rigby Entertainment present the third show of its 2016-2017 season, Jason Robert Brown's THE LAST FIVE YEARS, starring Devin Archer and Natalie Storrs, with musical direction by Brent Crayon and directed by Ovation Award-winner Nick DeGruccio.

Tony and Olivier Award-nominated Euan Morton will take over the role of Hedwig, and Hannah Corneau will play Yitzhak in the National Tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the 2014 Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival, starting November 29th at the Civic Theatre in San Diego.

In 1998, musical theatre masterminds William Finn, James Lapine and Jason Robert Brown premiered their mind-blowing 'brain'-child, A NEW BRAIN, off-Broadway. Closing out 2016, Houston's newest arts venue and production company, EaDo Playhouse, officially opens its doors with a brand new production of A NEW BRAIN for a limited engagement run from December 14 through 18.