This is Our Youth - 1996 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 13

As his production of Richard Hawley and Chris Bush's Standing at the Sky's Edge opens in the Crucible, Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, Robert Hastie, announces programming for 2019.

Cara Mia Theatre continues its tradition of creating new and experimental plays that reflect the Latinx experience through Teatro En Fuga: A Festival of New Works (April 12- April 28, 2019).  This one-of-a-kind festival in North Texas features new plays by members of Cara Mia's resident artistic ensemble. All plays are works in progress and allow audience members to experience the development of new work for potential world premiere productions in future seasons.

Ensemble for the Romantic Century (Eve Wolf, Executive Artistic Director) continues the 2018 - '19 season, ERC's 18th, with its final offering of the season, Hans Christian Andersen: Tales Real & Imagined by Eve Wolf. 

TexARTS Musical Theatre Academy is pleased to present Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, Jr. with words and music by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and book by Timothy Allen McDonald. The production will run April 6-7 & 13-14 at the Kam & James Morris Theatre at TexARTS. 

Bay Area connections abound in Connections, the California Symphony's 33rd season and its seventh under the baton of Music Director Donato Cabrera in a newly expanded season which Cabrera says is a step up artistically compared with previous seasons.

The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts celebrates the circle of life and numerous other entertainment pleasures with an audience-pleasing assortment of stellar concerts, shows and special events throughout April and May

Chicago Opera Theater's Orli and Bill Staley Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya and Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson General Director Ashley Magnus today announced the plans for the company's 47th season, to include productions of two exciting contemporary operas, a Chicago premiere by Rachmaninov, and the company's second world premiere commission. Yankovskaya will conduct each of these Chicago Opera Theater (COT) productions.

Tony Award-winner Anna D. Shapiro will direct the upcoming musical The Devil Wears Prada, with music by Sir Elton John, lyrics by Shaina Taub, and book by Paul Rudnick.

It's time to strike up the band for the 7th annual concert by the McCallum Theatre Concert Band, with conductor and McCallum Theatre President & CEO Mitch Gershenfeld, on Sunday, March 24, at 3:00pm. Highlights of this year's concert will be a performance of the beloved "Carnival of the Animals" by Saint-Saens featuring pianist Jeffrey Siegel and a new text written and performed by David Gonzalez, and special guest appearances by Gavin MacLeod (narrator) and former TEN Tenor Chad Hilligus (guest vocalist). And, after the concert, there is free ice cream for everyone!

It's always a joy to take a stroll down 'Avenue Q,' Broadway's Tony Award winning musical soon to be ending a fifteen year run in New York City and currently being presented at the Cultural Arts Playhouse in Syosset. Audiences are still flocking to the numerous productions of this crowd-pleasing sensation popping up all over the globe. The Cultural Arts Playhouse admirably delivers the hysterical 'Sesame Street for adults' musical, faithfully sticking to the original concept and adding it's own special touches here and there keeping it fresh and exciting.

As part of its Dance-mopolitan Featured Artist Series, DANCE NOW is pleased to present acclaimed choreographer Zvi Gotheiner's 2016 work On the Road, a multimedia dance piece inspired by Jack Kerouac's famed novel of the same name. Performances are Thursday through Saturday, April 25-27, at 7pm, at Joe's Pub.

Musical Theatre Guild, the winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle Margaret Harford Award for sustained excellence in the theatre, will present MTG REWIND, a special benefit to support Musical Theatre Guild's extensive youth outreach programs. The event, an intimate celebration of over 20 years of Musical Theatre Guild's best musical moments, will take place at Rockwell Table and Stage on Monday, March 25, 2019 at 8:00 pm.

Four symphonic orchestras, a major heritage museum and one of Los Angeles' leading performing arts centers will join forces in 2020 for an ambitious collaborative initiative that will bring to life the sounds of music once lost. 

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's CSC 2 Series for Young Audiences is pleased to announce that it received a grant from the Youth in Philanthropy at Foundation for MetroWest to support its Stage2 production of Romeo & Juliet. CSC2 presents an annual production of Shakespeare's plays for students from over 20 local schools, as well as a Community Performance, taking place this spring from May 23-31 at the Carling-Sorenson Theater at Babson College, 231 Forest Street, Wellesley, MA.

General Director Ken McConnell and Artistic Director Tobias Picker today announced Tulsa Opera's 72nd season comprising classics such as Bizet's Carmen and Puccini's Madama Butterfly, and a new production of Mr. Picker's 1996 opera Emmeline, to be performed in Oklahoma for the first time, and led by Mr. Picker in his opera-conducting debut.

Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education, in partnership with Pregones Theater, is proud to present 'We Have Ire,' a free excerpt performance of the multi-disciplinary theater project, on March 9, 2019, 2 - 2:45 p.m. The performance combines spoken word and theater produced by Cuban-American writer, performer, Doris Duke; Artist and San Francisco resident Paul S. Flores; with live jazz music from artist Yosvany Terry; modern dance from Ramon Ramos Alayo; video projection by Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi; and hip-hop beats from DJ Leydis. Directed by Rosalba Rolon.

The McCallum Theatre presents the 20th Anniversary Tour of Rent for five performances, Friday, February 8, through Sunday, February 10. In 1996, an original rock musical by a little-known composer opened on Broadway and forever changed the landscape of American theatre. Two decades later, Jonathan Larson's Rent continues to speak loudly and defiantly to audiences across generations and all over the world. I had the chance to chat with Lencia Kebede who plays Joanne in this current production, as the tour is making its way to The McCallum, about her personal journey and her journey with Rent. Here are a few excerpts from that conversation.

The personal becomes the political when passionately-opinionated African American women speak their minds on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Black Lives Matter, missing black women and girls, black-on-black crime, and male/female relationships in a soul-stirring mix of song, dance, poetry, and prose. The interrelated dramatic monologues range from tragedy to comedy in a 'newsical' revue that examines pressing social issues from an African-American female perspective. Sistas on Fire! A Newsical uses theatre to provoke thought, encourage social activism, and build bridges that cross race, class, gender and culture. In short, it's For Colored Girls for the New Millennium.

Legendary Los Angeles reggae-rock outfit Long Beach Dub Allstars have announced the dates for their impending summer tour with The Aggrolites, Tomorrows Bad Seeds and Mike Pinto. The tour kicks off late May and runs through August, hitting all major cities across the United States and Canada

Paper Mill Playhouse (Mark S. Hoebee-Producing Artistic Director), recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award, is proud to announce student auditions for the theater's prestigious Summer Musical Theater Conservatory and August Musical Theater Intensive on Saturdays, February 2 and 9, at Montclair State University, College of the Arts/Life Hall, 1 Normal Ave., Montclair, NJ. Students who earn coveted spots in the July Conservatory in the Senior (ages 15-18), Junior Plus (ages 13-14), and Junior Companies (ages 10-12) are directed and choreographed by Paper Mill's professional artistic staff in a fully produced, original concert at Paper Mill Playhouse on August 2 and 3, 2019, titled New Voices of 2019: Learn Your Lessons Well.

In what is believed to be one of the largest awards made to support poetry in the United States by a philanthropic institution, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has made two grants to the Academy of American Poets totaling $2.2 million. The funds will enable the work of several poets serving in civic Poets Laureate positions, and of more than 20 poetry organizations who comprise a national Poetry Coalition.

Spring activities for the Centennial, which continues through all of 2019, include a wide range of performances, film screenings, discussions, education initiatives, community programming, and new works by other artists in conversation with Merce Cunningham's work.

The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival's spring series is turning five. BCMF Spring 2019, three 5:00 pm concerts - Saturdays in March and May, a Sunday in April - is marking this first milestone on the heels of the 35th anniversary this past summer of BCMF, the longest-running classical music festival on Long Island.

Jo-Ann Ragosta, Chairperson of the ARTS Scholarships 2019 program, along with the members of the Community Outreach Committee of the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC), are pleased to announce that applications for the ARTS Scholarships 2019 program will be available on Wednesday, January 2, 2019; applications will then be accepted until Friday, March 1, 2019 at 3P.

A fun, new musical adaptation of an audience favorite comes to First Stage this holiday season. Created by the talented husband/wife team of Jahnna Beecham (Playwright/Lyricist) and Malcolm Hillgartner (Composer/Lyricist) and based on the play by Barbara Robinson, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER: THE MUSICAL is filled with catchy,'60s-inspired original music and a delightful story that both young and old will enjoy. The horrible Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. The entire town panics when these rowdy six siblings are cast in the church's annual Christmas pageant. It's up to good-hearted Mrs. Bradley to help the Herdmans - and the rest of the town - discover the true meaning of Christmas before it's too late. Silent night? Not a chance, but sometimes a little joyful noise is just right for Christmas. Sponsored by Associated Bank and Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren.