This One Man - 1930 - Broadway Articles Page 15

On Tuesday, June 5th, the United Palace of Cultural Arts will host 'Rhapsody in Black,' the autobiographical one-man play written and performed by LeLand Gantt (best known for his roles in the Oscar-nominated Requiem for a Dream, Law and Order, and more). Developed at NYC's Actors Studio with Academy Award-winning actress Estelle Parsons as Directorial Consultant, 'Rhapsody in Black' is a searing portrait of Gantt's personal journey to understand and eventually transcend racism in America - following him from his underprivileged childhood in the ghettos of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, to teenage experiments with drugs, to his eventual rise in acting and a bittersweet success that often finds him as the only African-American in the room.

A cabaret tale exploring one the most colourful times in Australian history, the arrival of the Greeks!

Six-Time Tony Award Winning Costume Designer William Ivey Long is a busy man. He's not only working on five shows simultaneously, including the movie-to-Broadway musicals of 'Beetlejuice' and 'Tootsie' but he is also celebrating the publication of two books. books. The first accompanies The Mint Museum exhibition, William Ivey Long: Costume Designs 2007-2016, which runs through June 3rd in Charlotte, North Carolina. The second, The Designs of William Ivey Long, is a monograph by Bobbi Owen, chronicling Long's career over 350 shows. Next week, Long and Owen will be stopping by The North Carolina Museum of History to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The North Carolina Arts Council. They spoke to me to discuss Owen's book, Long's North Carolina roots and designing with improbable fabrics.

The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University (CBA), the first international institute devoted to the creation and academic study of ballet, today announced the 27 artists and scholars who will serve as CBA Fellows in the 2018-19 academic year. The group - which represents The Center's largest and most far-reaching cohort yet - features distinguished individuals in a range of disciplines, including scholar Cecile Feza Bushidi, lighting designer Brandon Stirling Baker, choreographer Chase Brock, choreographer, filmmaker, and dancer Pontus Lidberg, and scholar Janice Ross, among others.

Austin Playhouse recently produced staged readings of the three winning plays from their Festival of New Texas Plays. EIDOPHUSIKON by Reina Hardy kicked off the festival on Friday, April 27, NUTSHELL by C. Denby Swanson was on Saturday, April 28, and MONROE by Lisa B. Thompson concluded the lineup on Sunday, April 29. Along with the professional staged reading, which featured Austin Playhouse directors and company members, each of the winning playwrights received a $500 prize.

Whatever your artistic quest may be, from unearthing gem stones or archeological ruins to discovering a lost manuscript of music, there is always an element of nostalgia and new found glee when the item arises. Stage director Fortunato Pezzimenti discovered Arthur Richman's unpublished 1922 script THE AWFUL TRUTH in the New York Public Library for The Performing Arts in 2011. Only briefly produced on Broadway in 1935, the story has been told on 3 occasions on the silver screen.

Highlighting the old time blues and soul style of Bessie Smith AKA The Empress of The Blues, MOAN THEM BLUES provides a different style of theatrical entertainment. Essentially a one woman show starring Toni Ringgold, with her piano man sidekick Jawbone (played by Ke'Aier Mufasa Denson), the reminiscent blues of Bessie Smith is performed, while revealing deeper emotional connection to the material sung for the eager audience. Missing only cigarette smoke in the lounge, Frank Benge directs this show simply with a piano, a flask and tumbler and of course the traditional crowd work vintage vaudeville performances were known for. With a career beginning with a traveling vaudevillian performance troupe, Bessie Smith began to rise as a star in the early 1920's. Gaining a following in the Southern United States along with the east coast, Bessie quickly climbed monetarily to be the highest paid performer of her time and genre. With the show set towards the end of Bessie's career in the early 1930's, the rise of 'talkies' and the the great depression completely devastated performers and the music industry alike. Remembering the 'good ole days' of rising fame, men and the love of gin, Toni Ringgold performs Bessie's more memorable songs. The storytelling (written by Robert King Jr) in between the songs reveals more and more about her tumultuous life that has led her to the dim stage in The Sahara Lounge.

New York's beloved Dance Theatre of Harlem, under the artistic direction of Virginia Johnson, returns to NY City Center for its annual homecoming season tonight, April 4, the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with the annual Vision Gala, honoring dance legend Carmen de Lavallade and civil rights icon Xernona Clayton.

Today's Events; Sunday, March 25

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, O'Neill's classic is a surprisingly contemporary play that crackles with fierce physicality, humor, and drama. After a 20-year separation, a coal barge captain (Lyric Stage favorite Johnny Lee Davenport) is reunited with the daughter he unknowingly abandoned to a life of hardship. When Anna falls in love with a shipwrecked sailor, her father and her suitor come to recognize their own culpability in her plight, and all three struggle in their own way for salvation. Following his acclaimed production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Scott Edmiston takes a fresh look at one of America's greatest playwrights.

A Noise Within (ANW) presents A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, the sixth production of its 26th season performing February 25 to April 8 (Press Opening March 3). Now added - three performances - Wednesday, March 14 at 7:30 pm, Wednesday March 29 at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, April 8 at 7 pm.

Arlekin Players Theatre is happy to announce a re-run of the stage version of Mikhail Bulgakov's unfinished novel Dead Man's Diary: A Theatrical Novel, a memoir that focuses on the author's inexplicable and comical love of the world of theatre. Due to success of the performances in May, June and September, the new show will run March 17, 18, 24, 25, 30, 31, and April 1 at the Emerson Paramount Center's Jackie Liebergott Black Box. Performances are in Russian with audio-translation in English.

Alumnae Theatre Company's 30th annual New Ideas Festival, a three-week, juried celebration of original writing and works-in-progress, takes place from March 7 to 25 in Alumnae's Studio Theatre (70 Berkeley St at Adelaide).

Proud Haddock's The Dog Beneath The Skin will star Pete Ashmore (Arms and the Man, Watford Palace Theatre; Private Lives, Mercury Theatre; Treasure Island, Birmingham Rep) as Alan Normanand Cressida Bonas (Mrs Orwell, Old Red Lion Theatre, Southwark Playhouse; An Evening With Lucian Freud, Leicester Square Theatre; The Great Gatsby, Leicester Square Theatre) as The Dog.

A Noise Within (ANW) presents A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Gregg T. Daniel, the sixth production of its 26th season performing February 25 to April 8 (Press Opening March 3).

Following its critically acclaimed, successful 2017 spring season, New York's beloved Dance Theatre of Harlem, under the artistic direction of Virginia Johnson, will return to NY City Center for its annual homecoming season from April 4-7, 2018.

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. 

This production of CHICAGO is enjoyable. I was expecting more of an energetic 'umph' from the leads. Without that, I felt the show's energy lacked cohesion from the beginning. It's opening weekend. If they can find that spark, this show will be one hot CHICAGO.

Casting has been announced for Rhinoceros, the first play in the Politics of the Absurd reading series presented by Christopher Maring/ CM Stage Productions. Joining the reading will be Blake DeLong (Illyria; Othello; Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), Larry Owens (Gigantic, FAT CAMP, Grease at the MUNY), Colby Minife (Six Degrees of Separation, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Jessica Jones ) Daniel K. Isaac ( Billions , Search Party , Underland), Brian D. Coats (Jitney, Boardwalk Empire , The Merry Wives of Windsor), Deirdre Madigan (Sweat, Daredevil , Exit Strategy), and Natalie Walker (Puffs, Search Party , Clockwork). Rhinoceros, written by Eugene Ionesco and directed by Srda Vesiljevic (Dust Can't Kill Me, When I Started Dating Men), will take place at the Baruch Performing Arts Center on February 5, 6, and 7.

Proud Haddock's The Dog Beneath The Skin will star Pete Ashmore (Arms and the Man, Watford Palace Theatre; Private Lives, Mercury Theatre; Treasure Island, Birmingham Rep) as Alan Norman and Cressida Bonas (Mrs Orwell, Old Red Lion Theatre, Southwark Playhouse; An Evening With Lucian Freud, Leicester Square Theatre; The Great Gatsby, Leicester Square Theatre) as The Dog.

Today Keen Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein announced that A.R. Gurney's play Later Life would star Liam Craig, Barbara Garrick, Laurence Lau, and Jodie Markell, directed by Mr. Silverstein.

A new reading series, Politics of the Absurd, set to launch in February, will feature three classic absurdist comedies that strikingly resonate in the current political environment.

This New Year's Eve, Live From Lincoln Center rings in 2018 with a celebration of the legendary Leonard Bernstein on the occasion of his centennial year.

Miles Richardson leads an 11-strong cast of J. M. Barrie's rarely performed play DEAR BRUTUS in its centenary year at Southwark Playhouse, presented by Troupe Theatre and directed by Jonathan O'Boyle.

Moonbox Productions requires you to use your imagination, but you will be duly rewarded thanks to the talents of Director Allison Olivia Choat, her crew, and the four-person cast of THE 39 STEPS. Kevin Cirone, Sarah Gazdowicz, Bob Mussett, and Matthew Zahnzinger are all top-notch, and the designers pull out all the stops to take you on a wild ride.