Take Five - 1957 - Off-Off-Broadway Articles Page 8

The Public Theater announced today that the Mobile Unit, originally founded by Joe Papp in 1957 and currently touring to the five boroughs biannually, will expand in September to launch MOBILE UNIT NATIONAL with a free, four-week tour of Lynn Nottage's powerful Pulitzer Prize-winning play, SWEAT, directed by Kate Whoriskey. SWEAT, staged in its entirety, will tour to 18 Midwest cities across Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Wisconsin beginning Thursday, September 27 through Tuesday, October 23, 2018.

For its 2018-19 season, the 200-voice Oratorio Society of New York, led by Music Director Kent Tritle, is expanding its annual Carnegie Hall season to four concerts.

“In the heyday of George Szell's tenure as its chief conductor,” declared Gramophone, “The Cleveland Orchestra had few if any peers among the world's great orchestras.” Coinciding with the orchestra's Centennial birthday in December 2018, Sony Classical is excited to announce one of the most ambitious reissue projects of recent times, a comprehensive collection of the Clevelanders' recordings made under the baton of their iconic fourth music director. These span the period between 1947 – a year after Szell inherited a rising national ensemble from Erich Leinsdorf and began transforming it into the elite ensemble it remains to this day – and 1969, a year before his sudden death shocked the musical world. Born in Budapest in 1897, Szell's dream was to create an ensemble that combined “the Americans' purity and beauty of sound and their virtuosity of execution with the European sense of tradition, warmth of expression and sense of style,” in the words of his biographer Michael Charry. That he fulfilled that dream is amply documented in the huge discography that fills Sony's new edition of 106 CDs, “recordings that are prized for their stylistic rightness, clarity of structure, rhythmic tension, and transparency of texture” (The New Yorker).

On stage the past weekend, Minneapolis's Guthrie Theater opened a production of of the iconic musical West Side Story in the Wurtlele Thrust Stage. The following Tuesday, June 26, the United States Supreme Court upheld the country's travel ban for seven countries, mainly located in the Middle East, on strict rules governing their admittance to the U.S. On Thursday, another shooting happened near Annapolis, Maryland, killing five people when a gunman opened fire through a glass door at a small newspaper office. In a powerful scene during this opening of West Side Story, the character of Doc addresses one of the two rival gangs named the Jets when they host a war council in his drug store: “Why do you live like there's a war on? Why do you kill?'

Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) announces new entertainment offerings that will arrive at the newly refurbished Emerson Colonial Theatre this fall following this summer's world premiere pre-Broadway engagement of Moulin Rouge! The Musical.

This June, Casio America, Inc., a leading innovator of electronic musical instruments, is excited to spotlight The Killer Dueling Pianos, as part of its Artist Program. Casio's Artist Program was created in an effort to assist both aspiring and established musicians by providing multiple levels of support including the best tools and technology available for them to create and perform with on the go or at home.

Rebel Theatrical Management, LLC (Harvey Butler, producer), in association with The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, have announced, today, the cast and the creative team for the New York premiere of the new play Little Rock, written and directed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj. Performances are set to begin Wednesday, May 30, 2018 for a limited run through September 8, 2018 at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street). Opening Night is set for Today, June 14, 2018 at 7:00PM.

The Gallery at The Sheen Center (18 Bleecker Street, NYC) presents 'LR9: 1957,' a multimedia group exhibition inspired by the Little Rock Nine. Curated by Ajamu Kojo, the exhibition includes oil painting, collage, sculture, found-object art and projected film works by artists including Patrick Earl Barnes, Kimberly Becoat, Paul Deo, Aimee Everett, Chet Gold, Aaqil Ka, Ajamu Kojo, Roni Nicoleand Valincy-Jean Patelli. The exhibition is open to the public through August 3. The Gallery is open daily from 9AM to 11PM. All works on exhibition are available for purchase.

Rebel Theatrical Management, LLC (Harvey Butler, producer), in association with The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, have announced, today, the cast and the creative team for the New York premiere of the new play Little Rock, written and directed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj. Performances are set to begin Today, May 30, 2018 for a limited run through September 8, 2018 at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street). Opening Night is set for Thursday, June 14, 2018 at 7:00PM.

Art lovers of all kinds gathered this evening at Montalvo Arts Center's historic Villa to hear the Silicon Valley venue announce its 2018-2019 Carriage House Theatre Concert Series launching in October. The offerings span from music to theatre to comedy and more; among the exciting headliners announced were Grammy Awards nominees and winners performing jazz, bluegrass, pop, rock, classical, new age, folk, and Hawaiian music, as well as top comedy productions, theatre events and others. For more information or to purchase tickets the public can visit montalvoarts.org or call 408-961-5858.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) officially opened the MOBILE UNIT's production of HENRY V on Friday, April 27. Check out the photos below!

Critical Mass Performance Group's AMERYKA has been chosen as the next production of this year's Center Theatre Group's second annual BLOCK PARTY running April 19 through April 29, 2018 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. We had the opportunity to talk to Nancy Keystone, CMPG's founding artistic director, and director and co-writer of AMERYKA, as she rhapsodizes on all things cultural, critical and collaborative.

MY FAIR LADY is a 1956 musical based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The musical is the story of Eliza Doolittle (Martina Ohlhauser) a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins (Damon Brown), a phoneticist, in order to improve her station in life by passing as a lady. The original Broadway production was both a critical and popular success, setting the record for the longest run of any show up to that time. It has been revived multiple times, including the current production on Broadway and has been turned into a popular film. It won the 1957 Tony Award for Best Musical. MY FAIR LADY features one of musical theatre's greatest scores, including 'Wouldn't It Be Loverly?' 'The Rain in Spain,' 'I Could Have Danced All Night,' 'On the Street Where You Live,' and 'Get Me to the Church on Time.'

Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GET), North Fulton's only professional theatre company, will cap its 25th Silver Anniversary Season sponsored by The Thoresen Foundation, with what's been dubbed as the world's most successful rock & roll musical, Buddy - the Buddy Holly Story.

Rebel Theatrical Management, LLC (Harvey Butler, producer), in association with The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture, have announced, today, the cast and the creative team for the New York premiere of the new play Little Rock, written and directed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj. Performances are set to begin Wednesday, May 30, 2018 for a limited run through September 8, 2018 at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street). Opening Night is set for Thursday, June 14, 2018 at 7:00PM.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) will begin previews for the MOBILE UNIT's production of HENRY V on Monday, April 23.  Directed by Robert O'Hara, the free sit-down run of HENRY V follows a three-week tour to five boroughs bringing Shakespeare to audiences who have limited or no access to the arts.

Rehearsals are in full swing for The 5th Avenue Theatre's production of Kiss Me, Kate, which begins performances next Friday, April 6.

This spring Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT) joins in international centennial celebrations for choreographer Jerome Robbins and composer Leonard Bernstein with an all-Robbins program featuring three company premieres. "UPMC Presents West Side Story Suite + In the Night + Fancy Free" with the PBT Orchestra takes the stage May 4-6, at the Benedum Center.

Edward Gardner will make his New York Philharmonic debut conducting Debussy's Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra, featuring The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Leif Ove Andsnes in his final appearances with the Orchestra in that role. The program will also include Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra and Sibelius's Pohjola's Daughter. The performances will take place on Thursday, April 26, 2018, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 28 at 8:00 p.m.; they will perform the same program at Long Island University's Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, April 27 at 8:00 p.m.

Continuing its commitment to bringing free Shakespeare to the community and strengthening audience engagement with the arts, The Public Theater will mount its MOBILE UNIT again this spring with a free three-week tour to the five boroughs of Shakespeare's HENRY V, directed by Robert O'Hara.Now in its eighth year, the Mobile Unit's free tour (March 29 - April 21) brings Shakespeare and other works to audiences who have limited or no access to the arts by visiting correctional facilities, homeless shelters, social service organizations, and other community venues.

Wagner College Theatre's Stanley Drama Award, now celebrating its 60th Anniversary, has awarded this year's honor to B.V. Marshall for his play, Incident at Willow Creek.

The Coral Springs Center for the Arts today announced the addition of the legendary "fathers of folk" The Kingston Trio to its upcoming performance schedule.

The Atlanta Opera presents its most exciting season to date in 2018-19. The mainstage season will be bookended by two of the greatest blockbusters in the repertoire, as well as the most performed American opera of the 21st century, and Tchaikovsky's timeless masterpiece. The Discoveries series features two distinct styles in a jazz-infused 'Be-Bopera' and a tango opera presented at beloved local venue, the red velvet cabaret Le Maison Rouge.

PITTSBURGH CLO is pleased to welcome a collection of writing teams from across the country to Pittsburgh for the inaugural SPARK festival in March. These teams were chosen from a highly-selective submissions process and will have the opportunity to rehearse and revise their work in residencies ranging from two days to three weeks. SPARK will provide dramaturgy and production resources to 10 new musicals at all stages of development, in addition to the world premiere of UP AND AWAY. As a part of the development period, eight of the musicals will receive public presentations through which the writing teams can gather audience insights and focus their intentions for the next phase of development. A major initiative of Pittsburgh CLO's recently completed Next Generation Capital Campaign, SPARK is designed to cultivate new and innovative work from emerging and established musical theater artists.