I Have Been Here Before Photos - Off-Broadway

Here is my interview with Jessica Litwak, the playwright and director of THE FEAR PROJECT and Artistic Director of the H.E.A.T. Collective, who shares information about the group, the show, and the actors/collaborators who worked with her on its creation. Then register and tune in on October 25th and/or 30th.

On Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26, CVLT will be streaming the archival video of Visiting Mr. Green for a pay-as-you-can admission. For details and advance reservation, visit https://cvlt.org/events/visiting-mr-green

There is tremendous support in our audience for bringing younger people into the theatre, and we're having some success in that regard. I'm positive, but I'm also unsure of where we are headed with digital technologies and what they mean for our industry and the larger culture. Our challenge, I suppose, is to be adaptive to what comes along without giving up the wisdom and glories of the past.

Playwright/director Elia Schneider--born in Israel, raised in Venezuela and now an American citizen--is known for hauntingly visual productions that transcend language with strong imagery and a dreamlike fresco of movement and design. Her newest work, 'Citizens of the Gray or the Dark Thing that Sleeps Inside Me,' deals with the war of the sexes in the age of the #MeToo Movement. Hitherto, her theatrical productions have mostly emerged from ideas derived from Kafka. Now she is channeling Strindberg for a new work of ensemble creation with her Teatro Dramma. Theater for the New City will present the world premiere of the piece November 9 to 25.  It will be Schneider's Theater for the New City debut.

First of all, kudos to director James Esposito for discovering the musical DESSA ROSE, based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Sherley Anne Williams. This awe-inspiring musical received its New York premiere at Lincoln Center in 2005 and it's a wonder no other theater group has decided to produce this timely exploration about the universal need for freedom and equality. With book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty, it tells the story of a young black woman (a runaway slave) and a young white woman (an abandoned mother) beginning in the years just prior to the Civil War and continuing through their journey to acceptance in the antebellum South. The audience has the role of playing their grandchildren, to whom the elderly pair tell their story as it is presented to us.

Musical theatre actress Amanda Rose has been living her dream since her graduation from Charleston College over a decade ago; she has been performing steadily on Broadway, on tour, and in regional theatres across the country. Now based in New York City, she, nonetheless, understands that an actress' life is peripatetic and unpredictable, and she relishes the new experiences that come with her journey.

So when David decides to write a blog for Broadwayworld while living in Vienna for a month, he doesn't anticipate that finding a library will be difficult, because it is, or finding wifi that matter. Thus here he sits in Westbahnof, pretending to wait for a connection, eating a croissant, and typing his blog post on his airplane mode iPhone (to avoid roaming). That's right, there is no laptop when RyanAir (a cheap European airline) had the strictest weight restrictions imaginable.

Tonight's the night: The brain trust behind The Nutty Professor, The New Musical will officially roll out the red carpet for the new musical's opening night at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's James K. Polk Theatre. Directed by "the king of comedy" himself, Jerry Lewis, upon whose classic 1963 film comedy the brand new musical is based upon, The Nutty Professor company has already delivered a week of preview performances, garnering rave reviews from audience members. Nashville photographer Rick Malkin has captured some of the show's best moments in a collection of photographs we're happy to share with you today, only hours before the opening night curtain.

In April of 2012, Peter Lockyer joined the U.S. Tour cast taking over the role of Jean Valjean. Peter Lockyer played Marius on Broadway many years ago and now has this new opportunity to play Jean Valjean. I recently interviewed Peter and learned a lot about his career and how he feels about being part of musical history.