YOUNGSTOWN – The lights in the Jewish Community Center’s multipurpose room are dimmed as the audience waits for the show to begin. About six meters in front of the stage, about 150 children, many of them participants in the ten-week JCC summer camp, sit cross-legged in rows of ten or twelve and talk quietly. Behind … Read more
From music to theater to dance, Penn State has produced a variety of successful graduates in the arts. Natalie Weiss, a Broadway singer and pop vocal coach, graduated from Penn State’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program in Musical Theater in 2007. Weiss is known for appearing in the vocal ensemble for the film The Greatest … Read more
“I was always taught (in the theatre) that it has to be a joyful process and if it’s not, we have to do something else,” said Josh Ruben, director of drama at Northwest Whitfield High School. “I encourage children to find that joy.” “I try to tailor all my teaching to each student’s needs and … Read more
LLast week my dear college roommate Robert S. (aka Bobby) called to check in, as he and I have done for over 50 years. I’ll never know why we became roommates. I was the first hippie at St. Lawrence University in 1965. Shoulder-length hair, faded jeans with holes, protested the Vietnam War, and listened to … Read more
TEd Lange went from class clown to portraying Romeo in Romeo and Juliet right out of high school and later starred in the TV series The Love Boat as bartender Isaac. Director Ted Lange watches ‘Twelfth Night, or What You Will, Mon’ perform at Winston Square Park on August 1, 2019 in downtown Winston-Salem. Allison … Read more
Playwright Lee Blessing has been a prolific pillar of American regional theater for much of his long career. Although his most famous piece A walk in the forestabout a pair of Russian and American nuclear weapons negotiators, was his only work to be performed on Broadway. Blessings’ many other plays have had high profile productions … Read more
The past year has been quite a celebration for Julia Reilly. In addition to graduating from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in film studies and theater as a minor in May 2022, Reilly made her Netflix debut this summer in Stranger Things 4 as Tammy Thompson, a flamboyant but entertaining aspiring singer, … Read more
WESTPORT – RED. Rothko. Depot. That’s enough to get audiences hooked on what director Elliot Wasserman and actors Jeff Williams (Mark Rothko) and Michael Glavan (Ken, studio assistant) were up to in Westport. The Depot Theater’s production of playwright John Logan’s award-winning 2010 play “RED” transcends the depths of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko (1903-1970), art … Read more
NEW YORK (AP) — Phillipa Soo says she immediately noticed a change in the audience. News of the leaked draft Supreme Court Opinion had just broken that would Roe v. Wade, and a different vibe emanated from the audience on “Suffs,” in which the former “Hamilton” star plays an early 20th-century suffragist. Some viewers at … Read more
In Classic Stage Company’s new production of the musical “Assassins” by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman, I play Lynette Fromme, one of nine characters based on people who have killed or attempted to kill US Presidents. Working on the show, I experienced what my more experienced castmates call “that Sondheim thing”: the frantic feeling of … Read more