The World We Make - 1939 - Broadway Articles Page 10

The creative team has delivered a beautiful, inventive and masterful version of the classic 'The Wizard of Oz'. Visually it is pleasantly different to what we are used to, but it is very audibly familiar.

The 2019 season opens with THE GAME'S AFOOT by Ken Ludwig. It is December 1936 and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous. It is then up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears. The danger and hilarity are non-stop. - March 22 - April 7

Amilcare Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda (no link whatsoever with the painting in the Louvre) is one of those works too rarely represented despite its obvious qualities. Once the most successful opera between Verdi's Aida (1871) and Otello (1887), it is now considered a work stylistically so heterogeneous and both vocally and scenically so demanding that few opera houses try their hand at it. La Monnaie takes on the challenge and invites conductor Paolo Carignani and stage director Olivier Py to revive the whole grand opera behind 'The Dance of the Hours'.

The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture has announced its 2019 winter/spring season, a rich program of theater, film, music, poetry, art, and talk events featuring artists and thought leaders including Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter;Tony Award winner Lena Hall; Grammy Award-winning musician and recording artist Eileen Ivers; Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award nomineeAlexander Gemignani;and journalist and former Wall Street Journal columnist Sohrab Ahmari.

With a focus on Texas before expanding to national markets, Santa Rita Film Co. has announced that Ty Roberts' “THE IRON ORCHARD”, starring Lane Garrison, Ali Cobrin, and Austin Nichols, will open in theaters starting on February 22, 2019 in exclusive engagements in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and in the Midland-Odessa areas.  The drama, about ambitious oil magnate Jim McNeely that is based on Tom Pendleton's rousing 1966 novel of the same name, will then open in New York, Los Angeles, and additional markets across the state of Texas on March 1st as part of a theatrical platform release throughout March and April.  

Obie Award winner Metropolitan Playhouse brings Robert Ardrey's documentary play to the stage for its first New York revival.  The limited run, closing December 9, 2018, plays at the Playhouse home at 220 E 4th Street.  Alex Roe directs.

On opening night for the Minnesota Opera (MNOP), the audience in attendance became curiously quieter and quieter, silent, when the curtain rose at the Ordway Center on the company's contemporary award winning opera 'Silent Night.' Commissioned by MNOP in 2011, the music by Kevin Putts combined with a libretto by Mark Campbell transported the opera house to Christmas, 1914, the beginning of World War I, Based on Christian Carlson's screenplay for the film 'Joyeux Noel,' the opera travels to a small, bloodied war zone in a tiny Belgium village along the French boarder, which centers the attention while profoundly affecting those in the audience.

The Wizard of Oz has been delighting audiences since it first appeared as a 1939 movie starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. The story, first created by L. Frank Baum in 1900, has inspired a number of adaptations, and the most popular stage version frequently finds its way to the stage at high schools and community theatres. Even though many of you have probably seen The Wizard of Oz, you've likely never seen a production of it like the one that will open at The Eichelberger Performing Arts Center on November 16th. Why is this production so unique? Because it is being performed by actors from The Penguin Project of Gettysburg Community Theatre. This program gives youth with special needs an opportunity to perform with other youth, both with and without special needs, giving them a chance to focus on their abilities rather than their challenges. BroadwayWorld had an opportunity to hear from Gettysburg Community Theatre's Executive Director, Chad-Alan Carr, as well as from five of the actors who will be performing-Natalie Hurwitch and Maddie Greco, two of the peer mentors; Ella Scott, the actor playing Dorothy; Leah Watson, who portrays Glinda the Good Witch of the North; and TJ Williams, who plays the Wizard of Oz-about their experiences with this production of The Wizard of Oz.

The Pasadena Playhouse presents the largest holiday celebration in its history - the mainstage holiday production It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play for 15 performances only (December 12 to 23), performances of Bob Baker's Nutcracker in the Carrie Hamilton Theatre (November 24 to December 31); and the Playhouse District Association Tree Lighting Ceremony in the Playhouse Courtyard - an event that is free to the public on Friday, November 30 at 7:00pm. An additional free holiday concert will be held in the Playhouse Courtyard on December 14 at 6 p.m. in association with the Playhouse District Association.

Celebrated American pianist George Winston recently released a cancer research benefit album, Spring Carousel, on RCA Records on March 31, 2017 that debuted at #1 on Billboard's Jazz Chart. Spring Carousel features a collection of 15 solo piano compositions written by Winston while in recovery from a bone marrow transplant for Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) at City of Hope, in Duarte, California, near Los Angeles. His doctor, Stephen J. Forman, Chairman of the Hematology Department at City of Hope, is one of the world's four foremost authorities on hematology and bone marrow transplants. Proceeds from sales of Spring Carousel will directly benefit cancer research at City of Hope. George Winston is available for interviews upon request.

Another tornado heads to Gainesville as GTA sells out "The Wizard of Oz" before its Nov. 6 opening

Santa Fe is known for its art. It is widely known that the City Different is home to world class visual and performing arts; it is also home to a school that educates high schoolers striving to be part of the next generation of world class artists. That school is the New Mexico School for the Arts, and I had the privilege recently to sit in on a rehearsal of their production of You Can't Take It With You, as well as chat with director and faculty member Barbara Hatch about the show and NMSA in general.

The Broadway musical phenomenon that is Wicked has become the very definition of defying gravity. Not only is it the 6th longest running Broadway musical of all times, it's been translated into 8 languages, performed in 15 countries, and seen by almost sixty million people worldwide.

The Gish Prize Trust today announced that the inspired Music and Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, has been selected to receive the 25th annual Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in recognition of his ongoing achievements as a conductor and an advocate for music education. Established in 1994 through the will of legendary stage and screen actress Lillian Gish, known as the First Lady of Cinema, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize is one of the most prestigious honors given to artists in the United States and bears one of the largest cash awards, currently valued at approximately $250,000.

Those who lived through the World War II years will certainly recognize the name of ambitious and charismatic J. Robert Oppenheimer, the Berkeley-trained scientist who found himself called upon to spearhead the largest scientific undertaking in all of human history: the Manhattan Project and the creation of the Atomic bomb which the United States government believed would bring about a swift end to World War II. And although it did that, what was the cost on those involved with the project or subjected to its first tests without proper protection from the released radiation, as well as those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the bombs were exploded over those cities. Was it even wise to develop the ability to split atoms given how the world has changed since then or the threat of total annihilation which hangs over us daily?

Obie Award winner Metropolitan Playhouse brings Robert Ardrey's documentary play to the stage for its first New York revival.  The limited run from November 9 to December 9, 2018, will be at the Playhouse home at 220 E 4th Street.  Alex Roe directs.

Bergen County Players (BCP), one of America's longest-running little theater companies, is proud to present in its 86th season the 1937 Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy, You Can't Take It With You. Written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, You Can't Take It With You will be performed at the Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell from October 20th through November 10th, 2018.

SAG-AFTRA announced that members Marsha Hunt, Norman Lloyd, June Lockhart and Barbara Perry will be recipients of the SAG-AFTRA Founders Award for their historic contributions to the union. The special tribute will be presented Saturday during the SAG-AFTRA National Board plenary and honors early members of SAG-AFTRA's predecessor unions, SAG and AFTRA, who have provided meritorious service to fellow members. 

Celebrated American pianist George Winston recently released a cancer research benefit album, Spring Carousel, on RCA Records on March 31, 2017 that debuted at #1 on Billboard's Jazz Chart. Spring Carousel features a collection of 15 solo piano compositions written by Winston while in recovery from a bone marrow transplant for Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) at City of Hope, in Duarte, California, near Los Angeles. His doctor, Stephen J. Forman, Chairman of the Hematology Department at City of Hope, is one of the world's four foremost authorities on hematology and bone marrow transplants. Proceeds from sales of Spring Carousel will directly benefit cancer research at City of Hope. George Winston is available for interviews upon request.

The world premiere of the new stage play By The Waters Of Liverpool opened at the Liverpool Empire on Wednesday night. The play is the long-awaited sequel to Helen Forrester's much-loved Twopence To Cross The Mersey - it is the first time the book has been brought to life on stage.

POV Shorts, American Documentary's newest broadcast series, launches this week on PBS and streaming on amdoc.org. The series is one of the first on public television dedicated to independent short-form documentaries. 

Bang on a Can and the Jewish Museum's 2018-2019 concert season, pairing innovative music with the Museum's exhibitions and showcasing leading female performers and composers, continues on Thursday, November 15, 2018 at 7:30pm.

The Actors' Gang Theater will begin previews of The Madwoman of Chaillot today, September 27th and run through Saturday, November 10th with an official press opening on Saturday, October 6th.

Folks Operetta is proud to announce its upcoming concert Forbidden Opera: Reclaiming the lost operas of the Second World War, directed by Folks Operetta Artistic Director Gerald Frantzen and written by Frantzen and Hersh Glagov, at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, 9603 Woods Dr. Skokie, IL.

Florida Repertory Theatre is pleased to announce an added performance of Refugee by Eric Coble, a world-premiere stage adaptation of Alan Gratz's bestselling novel on Sept. 29th at 6 PM in the Historic Arcade Theatre.