High Society - 1996 - Articles Page 8

Steppenwolf Theatre's Ms. Blakk for President is now on stage! What did the critics think? Read all the reviews!

Playwright, librettist, scriptwriter and outspoken LGBTQ activist Terrence McNally has long believed in the power of the arts to transform society and make a difference. The new documentary American Masters - Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life, premiering nationwide Friday, June 14 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings),pbs.org/americanmasters and the PBS Video app in honor of LGBT Pride Month, lifts the curtain on the life, career and inspirations of the complicated and brilliant Emmy- and four-time Tony Award-winning writer.

Effie Marie Sojak Rosene passed away early Mother's Day morning, May 12, 2019. She was born November 10, 1932 to Frank Sojak and Christine Lezak Sojak, Czech immigrant farmers, in the Frydek/Simonton area of Texas. She grew up in the Rio Grande Valley with 15 brothers and sisters and graduated from Rio Hondo High School. She attended St. Joseph Hospital School of Nursing in Houston. She was working as a nurse at St. Joseph Hospital when she met the love of her life, Willard George (Bill) Rosene.

The annual Broadway League Awards, honoring excellence and achievement for Touring Broadway, were announced today during the Broadway League's 2019 Spring Road Conference. First presented in 1992, the Broadway League Awards recognize the contributions of those who have displayed exemplary service to the Broadway industry and are considered innovators of their craft.

Moscow 1938. Not the best place to have a sense of humour, let alone a yearning for freedom.

Maria Friedman and Anita Dobson join the company of Trevor Nunn's critically acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof, which is currently running at the reconfigured Playhouse Theatre until 28 September. Friedman plays Golde, and Dobson plays Yente from 18 June, taking over from Judy Kuhn and Louise Gold respectively. They join Andy Nyman (Tevye), Nicola Brown (Chava), Harriet Bunton (Hodel), Dermot Canavan (Lazar Wolf), Stewart Clarke (Perchik), Joshua Gannon (Motel), Matthew Hawksley (Fyedka), and Molly Osborne (Tzeitel), as well as Miles Barrow, Sofia Bennett, Philip Bertioli, Lottie Casserley, Elena Cervesi, Lia Cohen, Talia Etherington, Shoshana Ezequiel, Isabella Foat, Fenton Gray, James Hameed, Adam Linstead, Adam Margilewski, Robert Maskell, Benny Maslov, Robyn McIntyre, Gaynor Miles, Ellie Mullane, Tania Newton, Craig Pinder, Valentina Theodoulou and Ed Wade.

The 29th annual Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival (Inside Out), championing innovative LGBTQ filmmakers from across the globe, revealed its full feature and short film lineup. The announcement was made today by Inside Out's Executive Director Andria Wilson and the festival's Director of Programming Andrew Murphy. Inside Out, which launched the first ever annual LGBTQ Film Finance Forum, has established itself as an international home and incubator for LGBTQ emerging and established filmmakers. This year's festival will take place May 23 to June 2, 2019.

Denver Arts & Venues' annual Five Points Jazz Festival returns 11 a.m. Saturday, May 18 to 1 a.m. Sunday, May 19, celebrating the music, culture and roots of Denver's historic Five Points neighborhood.

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas today announced complete details for Festival 2019, which opens on June 8 and continues for two weeks through June 22 in New Haven, Connecticut.

Theatre Royal Bath Productions today announces the UK premiere of Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike as part of its 2019 Summer Season, directed by the Tony Award-winning US director Walter Bobbie. The comedy, produced by special arrangement with Joey Parnes, Larry Hirschhorn, Sue Wagner and John Johnson, will open at the Ustinov Studio where it runs from 6 June to 6 July with press night on 12 June.

The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents Inna Faliks, piano, one of the most "adventurous and passionate" (The New Yorker) artists of her generation, performing a world premiere by Richard Danielpour and works by Rodion Shchedrin, Schumann and Chopin in her Wallis debut on Sunday, May 12, 2019, 7 pm, in The Wallis' Bram Goldsmith Theater. The Ukrainian-born American pianist gives the world premiere of Iranian-American composer Danielpour's Eleven Bagatelles for Piano, Shchedrin's Basso Ostinato, Chopin's Polonaise-Fantasie, Op 61, and Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, Op 13, with posthumous variations. Faliks, Head of Piano at UCLA, performs on leading stages around the globe, garnering acclaim for her musical "poetry and panoramic vision" (The Washington Post) and "riveting passion" (The Baltimore Sun). Grammy winner Danielpour is "an outstanding composer" (New York Daily News) and one of the most recorded composers of his generation with a list of commissions from Yo-Yo Ma, Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw, Emanuel Ax, the New York Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets, among many others. Like Faliks, he also teaches at UCLA, as Co-Area Head, Composition.

Multiple Grammy and Oscar winning artist, musician and producer T Bone Burnett gave a thought provoking keynote speech at SXSW today, warning of the current dangers of the dominance of digital monopolies like Google and Facebook, while championing the value of the independence of artists. See below for the full text of the speech.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will present the 2019 Theatre Women Awards at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012) on Monday, March 25 at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm). For more information on the 2019 TheatreWomen Awards, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.theatrewomen.org.

 For its 5th edition, Toronto's premiere celebration of eccentric movies and media, WHAT THE FILM FESTIVAL, will take over the first weekend of March (1st - 3rd) at The Royal Cinema, hosting six eclectic feature films, including the Toronto Premiere of A BREAD FACTORY. The acclaimed two-part epic will screen as the festival's Opening Night presentation with writer/director Patrick Wang in attendance.

Sundance Institute will gather 20 celebrated and revered expert voices across film, art, culture and science to award feature-length and short films shown at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival with 12 prizes, announced at a ceremony February 2 that will be livestreamed at sundance.org and on YouTube. Short Film Awards will be announced at a separate ceremony on January 29 and will also be livestreamed. The Festival takes place January 24 through February 3 in Park City, Salt Lake City and Sundance, Utah.

For the first time in the 19-year history of Light of Day WinterFest, the "main event" of the 10-day, three-state festival, the star-studded "Bob's Birthday Bash," long SOLD OUT, will be broadcast LIVE via fiber optic cable during LIGHT OF DAY WINTERFEST '19.

Luke Wilson has joined the DC Universe series Stargirl, according to Deadline. Wilson is set to portray mechanic-turned-superhero Pat Dugan, who pilots Stripe, a hulking 15-foot robot of his own invention.

As 2018 comes to a close, we are reflecting on those we have lost in the Broadway and theatre communities throughout the year.

John Fischer, managing director of Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, has announced that he will retire in June following the organization's 2018-19 season. He will have served as the organization's managing director for 17 years

The Morris Choral Society under the baton of Music Director Jason Tramm will present the work of three contemporary composers - all New Jersey residents - in their annual Holiday Concert entitled "Songs Earthly and Divine" December 8 and 9 St. Virgil's Church in Morris Plains.  The concert will feature the New Jersey premiere of R. Wayne Walters, Magnificat and contemporary works which will include David Eddleman's Dai Diddle Dai and Michael John Trotta's Veni, Veni Emmanuel.

"What could be better than a play that asks you to shout? Well, one that asks you to sing. All this fun is part of an updated version of "The Brave Little Tailor"...My son also thought of another reason that Seven in One Blow is the greatest play ever: the actors pass out candy at the end."-The New York Times

Walnut Street Theatre continues its landmark 210th season with Roald Dahl's MATILDA THE MUSICAL. Directed by Linda Goodrich, with choreography by Michelle Gaudette, MATILDA THE MUSICAL begins previews on November 6th, opens on November 14th, and runs through January 6th on the Walnut's Mainstage.