The Challenge - 1992 - London Fringe Articles Page 10

Paul Rush is the artistic director of Sixty-six Theater Co. located inside the Strasberg Institute in Hollywood. This past weekend April 26 - 28 he opened a new play in the Marilyn Monroe Theater of the Institute entitled My Thing of Love. In our chat Rush talks about the play, the Sixty-six Theater Co. and why he started it three years ago. Tell us about Sixty-six Theater Co. and its mission. It was founded by myself and two of my friends (Maggie Cleary and Coleman Kelly) while we, new to LA, were in that typical Hollywood routine of asking people to look at us, and we got kind of tired of just humbly asking to be looked at. We thought we weren't giving to the community. We wanted to really create thought-provoking theatre with an intention of giving to our audience. Do you always do first-run shows?

Disney, Will Smith and Make-A-Wish® launched the #FriendLikeMe Challenge today pegged to the upcoming release of 'Aladdin.' Will Smith, who stars in the film as the wish-granting Genie, is encouraging fans and celebrities to participate in the challenge and help show the world: Where there's a wish, there's a way. Part of a global cause marketing campaign, the challenge poses the question: 'If you were the Genie in Disney's 'Aladdin' and had the chance to grant three heartfelt wishes for someone, who would you share them with? Tag a friend on Twitter and/or Instagram. For every public post with #FriendLikeMe from April 29 through May 24, 2019, Disney will donate $5 up to $1 million to Make-A-Wish to help grant life-changing wishes to children battling critical illnesses all over the world. For more information, go to FriendLikeMe.org' or see the official release below.

Remarkably glitzy and broadly amusing, the delightful stage version of Disney's ALADDIN is a fun, lively, and entertaining repackaging of the originally fun, lively, and entertaining animated film classic, which will please both fans of the original and those in the mood for a great big dazzling (and bedazzled) Broadway musical. While this Casey Nicholaw-helmed big-budget extravaganza of dazzling sights and sounds is quite a faithful adaptation in terms of storyline and tone, the stage version abandons the impossible things it couldn't remotely replicate from the animated movie, but instead smartly utilizes the limitations of---and the unique qualities of---musical theater to produce a show that is, astonishingly, still an overall satisfying sensory treat. The show's national tour continues its three-week engagement at OC's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA through March 23, 2019.

Executive and Artistic Director, Keith Gerth and Associate Artistic Director, Stephen Smith of the Oil Lamp Theater in Glenview announce their next production, the uproarious comedy Play On! by Rick Abbot. This production is directed by Keith Gerth and will be performed from March 21st through May 5th 2019 at 1723 Glenview Road in Glenview.

On Tuesday, April 9, cartoonist Cathy Guisewite will visit The Music Hall as part of its Innovation + Leadership series to share FIFTY THINGS THAT AREN'T MY FAULT: Essays from the Grown-up Years, her humorous and poignant observations of caring for both growing children and aging parents. The book features nearly one hundred of her spot illustrations.

This past Saturday an impromptu performance at the Huntington Mall began with a shout known to all musical lovers: 'Pulitzer and Hearst, they think we're nothing' Are we nothing'?' To which an excited mob of newsies replied tenaciously, 'No!' Audiences were then treated to an impressive flash mob rendition of 'The World Will Know' during a lull in the Macy's Prom Fashion Event. After this commanding performance, there's no doubt in anybody's mind just how great First Stage Theatre Company's production of Newsies will be.

Okay, this week, I only have to throw out two CDs, but it hurts! I'll never forget May 31, 1992--the 46th Annual Tony Awards. I had just turned 16 and was eagerly tuning in to absorb the Broadway of it all. I didn't really know much about any of the shows, other than that friends and family in New York had flipped for Guys And Dolls and that my parents had loved an earlier incarnation of Jelly's Last Jam when it played the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Glenn Close was hosting and Patti LuPone was presenting and I was not moving from my seat on the couch until I had a ranked list of the shows I wanted to see when I got to New York to visit my grandparents for Thanksgiving.

Incoming Artistic Director Simon Godwin today announces Shakespeare Theatre Company's 2019-2020 Season. Godwin's debut season highlights his artistic aspirations for the company to create high quality, exciting, inclusive theatre. Godwin states, This is not my season, but ours, everybody's season.

Open Space, SFMOMA's contemporary arts and culture interdisciplinary platform, is pleased to announce de(composition), a four-week workshop led by the artist and activist Keith Hennessy with an opening ceremony and talk by Kanyon CoyoteWoman Sayers-Roods (Mutsun-Ohlone, California Native). Free of charge and open to all bodies, the program will focus on experiences, histories, and ideas to inspire composition; activities will include an unpredictable mix of embodied studio practice, lecture, and discussion for artists of all kinds.

Last September, veteran downtown playwright Tony Stinkmetal foisted upon a Trump-weary New York City a frantic fever dream of a theater show: SlashR was a tongue-in-cheek satire that tackled issues as diverse as immigration, political correctness, dating apps, Benghazi, Big Pharma and bedbugs - all wrapped up in a cuddly tale of serial killers and Russians destroying American democracy.

Last September, veteran downtown playwright Tony Stinkmetal foisted upon a Trump-weary New York City a frantic fever dream of a theater show: SlashR was a tongue-in-cheek satire that tackled issues as diverse as immigration, political correctness, dating apps, Benghazi, Big Pharma and bedbugs - all wrapped up in a cuddly tale of serial killers and Russians destroying American democracy.

Stephen Daldry ('The Crown,' Billy Elliot, The Inheritance) directs his National Theatre of Great Britain's landmark production of J.B. Priestley's classic thriller An Inspector Calls, hailed as the theatrical event of its generation and winner of an unprecedented number of awards, including three Olivier's, four Tony's and seven Drama Desk Awards, with an exclusive West Coast engagement at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts from Tuesday, January 22 to Sunday, February 10, 2019.

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and Founding Artistic Director Steven Maler announced the cast of the second production of its 2018-19 Season: Birdy, adapted by Naomi Wallace from the novel by William Wharton, and directed by Steven Maler. The production runs February 27 through March 10 at the Carling-Sorenson Theater at Babson College in Wellesley.

The Canadian Opera Company announced today a new mainstage commission: The Old Fools by celebrated Montreal-based composer Ana Sokolovi? and seasoned British librettist Paul Bentley. La Reine-Garcon, first announced in 2015, is moving forward as a co-commission with the Opera de Montreal; it's the first mainstage collaboration of its kind between the two major Canadian opera companies and at its helm are two exceptional Canadian artists: Julien Bilodeau as composer and Michel Marc Bouchard as librettist.

Australia's iconic Deni Ute Muster turns 21 next year and organisers are thrilled to announce that international country superstar, Tim McGraw, will headline the event to be held on 4 and 5 October 2019.

If the thing you love about musical theatre is its ability to express a character's emotions and inner struggles in song, BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY is the show for you...

Berkeley Repertory Theatre today announced the full cast and creative team for Paradise Square: An American Musical. The world premiere is helmed by acclaimed director Moises Kaufman, with choreography by the legendary Bill T. Jones and a book by Marcus Gardley, Craig Lucas, and Larry Kirwan. Music by Jason Howland and Larry Kirwan, with lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and based on the songs of Stephen Foster. Paradise Square is produced by special arrangement with Garth H. Drabinsky in association with Peter LeDonne and Teatro Proscenium Limited Partnership.

While the 1992 movie Newsies received mixed reviews and did not perform well in movie theaters, it developed quite a following as a home movie. The inspirational movie, based loosely on the historical newsboys' strike of 1899, starred Christian Bale as Jack Kelly and David Moscow as David Jacobs. In 2011 Disney Theatrical Productions adapted Newsies for the stage, and it opened on Broadway in 2012, earning eight Tony Award nominations. Disney's Newsies: The Broadway Musical, with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman, and book by Harvey Fierstein, has found its way onto stages in many schools and community theatres, building up a new generation of Newsies fans. With its rousing musical numbers and high-energy dancing, Newsies is sure to bring audiences to their feet. Under the direction of Adam Gustafson and Kyle Weary, Theatre Harrisburg's Newsies opened at the Whitaker Center on November 2nd, when I had the opportunity to view this delightful show.

The Anchoress, a new monodrama by composer David Ludwig, "a composer with something urgent to say" (Philadelphia Inquirer), will have its world premiere today, October 17, 2018 at 7:30 PM at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia under the auspices of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. The next evening, Thursday, October 18, the New York premiere will take place at DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Set to texts by Katie Ford, whose poetry "possess[es] the veiled brilliance of stained glass windows seen at night" (The New York Times Book Review), The Anchoress is based on the medieval mystic tradition called anchorism and its relationship to contemporary society. It will be performed by soprano Hyunah Yu, the early music ensemble Piffaro: The Renaissance Wind Band, and all-saxophone PRISM Quartet.

On Saturday, November 10, Flushing Town Hall will celebrate the Festival of Lights with its fourth annual Diwali Festival, this time as a Diwali Dance Party, featuring DJ Rekha and Abha Roy in a mash-up of Bhangra and Kathak music and dance styles, with cooking workshops, dance lessons, traditional foods, and family-friendly activities such as a jewelry workshop and henna painting. The event will provide a rare opportunity to see DJ Rekha perform in New York City.

D'Arcy Drollinger presents: Buffy the Vampire Slayer LIVE! October 11th - November 3rd, 2018 Thursdays at 8PM - Fridays & Saturdays at 7PM With a special Wednesday night performance on Halloween!

SpeakEasy Stage Company is proud to announce that is been selected to participate in the Barr-Klarman Massachusetts Arts Initiative, as announced earlier today on the Barr Foundation's blog.