Vanguard University’s highly acclaimed and award-winning Department of Theater Arts presents Peter and the Starcatcher, written by Rick Elice, music by Wayne Barker and an adaptation of the novel written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.

The production runs at the Lyceum Theater on the campus of Vanguard University, beginning September 16, 2022 and running for three weekends through October 2.

“It was a pleasure to get to work on this fun and whimsical show with such an incredibly talented group of students who are beyond professional level. Through this piece, we hope to give the audience a chance to stretch their imaginations and to remember the importance of finding the magic within us!” -Caitlin Harjes

Caitlin Harjes is a professional teaching artist working throughout Orange County. She has directed, choreographed and musically directed young people from 5 years old to high school. For 3 years she was part of the Disney Musicals in Schools program through the Segerstrom Center for the Performing Arts as a teaching artist. Caitlin has also worked at schools and conservatories in Orange County including the Orange County Children’s Theater, Arts and Learning Conservatory, Marina High School, and the Irvine School District. In 2021, she served as Director of Education for American Coast Children’s Theater and has been Director of Theater here at Vanguard University for the past year.

Peter and the Starcatcher synopsis: Based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, the prequel story to the beloved Peter Pan! A Tony award-winning play, based on the best-selling novels, turns the century-old story of how a wretched orphan becomes the legendary Peter Pan upside down! From marauding pirates and tyrants of the jungle to unwitting comrades and unlikely heroes, Peter and the Starcatcher playfully explores the depths of greed and despair…and the bonds of friendship, duty and love . Peter and the Starcatcher uses unlimited possibilities of imagination to bring the story to life.

This production is suitable for children aged 6 and over.

All shows are performed on the Vanguard University campus at the Lyceum Theater. Ticket prices are $17 for general admission and $15 for seniors, children, students and groups. Tickets can be purchased at www.vanguardtickets.com or by calling the Theater Department box office at 714-668-6145.

The dates and times of the performances are

September 16, 17, 23, 24, 30 and October 1 at 7:30 p.m.;

September 17, 18, 24, 25, October 1 and 2 at 2 p.m.

For more information about Vanguard University and the Theater Department, visit www.vanguard.edu.

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pa. — Christina Talley is an entrepreneur and owner of a thriving performing arts center in her hometown of Philadelphia. She is also a proud Penn State 2008 alumnus who began her college career at Penn State Schuylkill.

Preparing for college success

Talley had a choice of Commonwealth campuses, but chose Schuylkill because of the Nittany Apartment housing option and the convenience and opportunity of campus life. As an engaged and outgoing student, she wanted easy access to classes and participation in clubs and other student-centered activities. Talley found a welcoming college community in Schuylkill and benefited from small class sizes and approachable faculty.

“I wasn’t the best candidate,” admitted Talley. “Schuylkill gave me the opportunity to develop my academic skills and increase my GPA, so I felt much more prepared when I transferred to University Park after two years.”

Thanks to Penn State’s 2+2 plan, which allows students to begin their first two years of study on one campus and complete their studies on another, Talley completed her bachelor’s degree at University Park with an arts degree. theater with an emphasis on performance.

Although Talley has completed much of her foundational coursework at University Park, she credits Catherine Fiorillo, associate professor of drama and speech at Penn State Schuylkill, for encouraging her to pursue her passion. “Cathy’s love for the arts is unparalleled,” Talley explained. “She influenced me more than she will ever know, and I will be forever grateful to her.”

Investing in your community through the arts

After graduating in 2008, Talley returned to her hometown of Philadelphia with a desire to bring dance and the performing arts to inner-city youth. She helped introduce dance and dance history to the Police Athletic League Recreation Center of Philadelphia and taught theater arts from beginner to advanced level at the Dance Institute of Philadelphia.

When her students began asking for additional dance training, Talley was inspired to start her own youth dance company and the En L’Air Dance Academy was born. The company has performed across the United States, and Talley plans to expand her travel schedule with overseas opportunities in mind first.

She finds great satisfaction in her role as artistic director.

“Being with my dancers after a show and seeing the looks on their faces is pure joy and excitement!” exclaimed Talley. “It means the world to me to be able to provide these opportunities to my students.”

While teaching dance at the Dance Institute of Philadelphia, Talley was also working on her MBA in International Business and Marketing at the University of Philadelphia.

With her MBA in her pocket, Talley felt ready to open her own studio. With encouragement from friends and her motivation to create a creative space for young people in her Mt. Airy neighborhood, Talley established the Free to Be Performing Arts Center in 2015.

Building a community to build your community

In 2020, Talley combined programs with Leah Brown, who is now the center’s executive director. Free to Be offers a variety of classes, including traditional dance studio classes like ballet, tap, and jazz, as well as kickboxing and salsa. Students can start as young as two years old, and junior classes continue until the age of 18. Free to Be also offers performance art camps and adult classes. Originally a head instructor, Talley now employs a team of 15 dance and performing arts instructors.

Today, Talley continues to expand his entrepreneurial footprint, recently developing a small event planning company, The True Experience, and a sportswear and dancewear brand, ExitoFit.

Be a Penn State Land Grant Mission Agent

Penn State is a land-grant university with a mission to provide access to affordable, high-quality education; conduct and promote research that improves people’s lives; and engage with communities to make them better places to live. Graduates like Talley, with his community service, embody this mission as alumni and entrepreneurs whose values ​​reflect those of Penn State.

A collaboration between science and art has brought dreams to life in this one-of-a-kind location.

With its 50-foot dome and five surround sound speakers, the Culp Planetarium bring whoever sits down in a world as deep as the ocean to the Milky Way and beyond.

The images are breathtaking and the sound makes everything seen and felt feel inches away. Meanwhile, in a 125-seat auditorium where the headrest encourages everyone to look up and around, the room introduces any observer to a beauty rarely seen or imagined.

HPU professors call the Culp Planetarium the “Wow Room.” So, with software and space that make it the most immersive room on campus, the Culp Planetarium became HPU’s new live theater venue this spring.

The Culp Planetarium also became something else –– a story maker.

For the first time in 425 years of history, an opera has been created specifically to be performed in a planetarium. And the place chosen was the Culp Planetarium.

In April, High Point University unveiled the world premiere of “Galaxies in Her Eyes” at the Culp Planetarium, an opera about a young girl’s love of space and how three famous women scientists influenced her to reach Mars.

The five-performance run brought many opera experts to campus – an internationally acclaimed director; an acclaimed composer, librettist and graphic designer; four professional opera singers; and the assistant conductor and five musicians of the Winston-Salem Symphony.

How?

Because of the pandemic and Dr. Scott MacLeod of HPU.

A “beautiful marriage” of science and art

In March 2020, when it all came to a halt, MacLeod had his first artistic break in two decades. MacLeod, an associate professor of music, called a friend to discuss potential ideas and heard, “Let’s do something we’ve never done before.”

MacLeod brought up the planetarium, which led him to connect with veteran director Kristine McIntyre. She had conducted more than 100 operas and enjoyed creating productions in what she called “found spaces”.

When MacLeod told her about the HPU planetarium, she immediately thought of three female scientists: Annie Jump Cannon, Katherine Johnson, and Ada Lovelace. She always wanted to mount a production on their incredible discoveries, and she knew she could call on a cadre of talent.

Now she had a space to create an opera where it had never been done before.

In a planetarium.

MacLeod then approached Dr. Brad Barlow, associate professor of astrophysics at HPU and director of the Culp Planetarium. Barlow has been playing the piano for decades and he creates his own soundtracks to the videos he produces when he takes his students to study the stars at a mountaintop observatory in Chile.

“Boy, do I have anything for you,” MacLeod told him.

Barlow loved the idea. Barlow secured a $4,500 grant from the National Science Foundation and worked with opera experts to ensure the science depicted in “Galaxies” was accurate.

He teamed up with a graphic designer from Minnesota and a librettist from California. Then, like an artist with a paintbrush, he worked with planetarium software and helped create sets such as a space capsule landing on the actual NASA-photographed landscape of Mars.

Barlow calls this work a “labor of love” and the most important project he has ever done.

“It’s the most beautiful marriage of arts and science I’ve ever seen,” says Barlow. “I’ve always had a passion for telling a story around music, and it fulfills a childhood dream.”

But “Galaxies in Her Eyes” wasn’t Barlow’s first marriage of arts and science inside the Culp Planetarium. It was his second.

Enter Jay Putnam, associate professor of theater at HPU.

“It Makes You Gasp”

Two years ago, with Barlow at his side, Putnam walked into the planetarium and exclaimed, “There’s storytelling in this space!”

But Putnam had to figure out what story he wanted to tell. Putnam conducts plays; he does not write plays. But in March 2020, when learning went virtual after his students had to leave campus due to the pandemic, Putnam began spending a lot of time with his young daughter, Maggie.

At the time, she was 4 years old. He took her to the park, he played with her at home and they walked together in their neighborhood with Greta, their golden retriever. He began to think about the relationship between a father and a daughter and the aspect of time.

Weather. Past and present. A room with that kind of theme, he thought, would work well at Planetarium Culp. That’s when he pulled out his laptop and spent months creating “Time Like Water.”

He explained why a woman in college initially avoided getting married because of her fear of loss after her father’s death. He was writing on his couch. He wrote in parking lots. He revised and revised again until his pile of drafts was six inches high.

He collaborated with his students, giving them new scripts on rehearsal day and telling them, “Be nice, please. He collaborated with Barlow and Emily Crofford, HPU’s assistant dance instructor, and fused science with movement.

He collaborated with Erin Brady, the manager of the planetarium. Brady, an HPU alumnus who majored in physics and studio art, worked with Putnam and the cast and spent many nights and weekends making sure the footage on the dome matched the script. and working on stage.

But that was not all. Putnam also collaborated with the planetarium itself.

Putnam staged scenes with student actors and student dancers behind the second level of the dome to illustrate the past. He perched the student playing the father behind the third floor of the dome to illustrate the memory. He used planetarium software to breathe images of the solar system into the room to illustrate the wow of an astronomy class where the student first fell in love.

“You walk in there and you have toys to play with,” Putnam says. “It makes you gasp.”

This was the case for audiences and cast when the show aired in February.

“The planetarium made it a better show,” says Hannah Hutter, the junior double major in broadcast journalism and criminal justice who played Nina, the play’s title character. “If we were doing this show on stage, it wouldn’t have the emotional depth. But having produced it in the planetarium, you were truly transformed as an audience member.

“You were there with us,” she said. “I know it sounds totally cliché, but it brings to mind that phrase, ‘Oh, the places you’ll go.’ The potential of this space is limitless.

MacLeod believes it too.

“With what we are able to do in our planetarium, I see it as so personally and artistically rewarding.” McLeod said. “Our students gain a real perspective of the arts, and through the arts we have a rare, opaque window into the human soul that we otherwise don’t have.”

The life lessons of the “galaxies”

Other opera companies around the country are interested in performing “Galaxies in Her Eyes” in a planetarium. Meanwhile, the opera has won support from the National Science Foundation and NASA because they see the production as the spark needed to get young people interested in STEM, the well-known acronym for science and technology. , engineering and mathematics.

And by telling the story of women scientists of color in such a compelling way, Barlow sees the opera as a production that could encourage young girls and students of color to pursue their curiosity in STEM.

“It shows you the importance of being able to see yourself in this role and being able to interact with other people who look like you,” says Barlow, a married father of two girls under 4.

Reyna Alston, a young music student from Durham, North Carolina, understands this. She’s one of the voice students MacLeod recruited for a class to help with the “Galaxies” screenplay and score workshop last semester. She played Eden, the main character of the opera.

“His story stuck with me,” says Alston, who hopes to one day pursue a doctorate and head a music department at a university. “I don’t see a lot of people who look like me who want to do what I want to do. I have big goals. Her too.

MacLeod also brought in Steph Stone, a senior vocal performance specialist from Short Hills, New Jersey. Stone played scientist Ada Lovelace last semester.

“We wanted to do him justice,” she says. “And for me, it was more than a musical performance. It’s about women overcoming obstacles to be part of history, and we were all women working together during COVID, when other arts ceased to create.

“It made him special, it made him powerful. We were telling about the lives of these isolated women in their industry, and we were isolated in the world.

Culp’s Life Lessons

At HPU, the premier life skills university, timeless lessons about the importance of resilience stay with students. But ironically for students majoring in drama, those lessons were learned in a place they almost never entered.

The Wanek School of Natural Sciences. And his Culp planetarium.

Becca Korn, a senior from Potomac, Maryland, double majored in theater performance and computer science, recalls. In February, she played the teacher and celebrant in “Time Like Water.”

“When Jay told us about the planetarium, I was like, ‘Oh shit, the science building?'” she says. “We were all theater kids, and we don’t walk into this building, and we thought we wouldn’t feel like we belonged.”

They did not do it. Like Alston and Stone, Korn discovered a life lesson inside the Culp Planetarium that she would use for the rest of her life.

“It’s adaptability,” she says. “It’s huge in the theater world. You sometimes have jobs where you go on stage at different times without rehearsal and make things work with a new script. So when you get that experience in college – and not for the first time in the job market – it really helps.

Two innovative BC theater companies will be performing at the Shadbolt Center for the Arts over the next two weeks.

This week – from Wednesday April 27 to Saturday April 30 – the public can catch country of peacethe latest offering from the Rice and Beans Theatre.

Pedro Chamale’s new play follows the relationship of five friends who grew up in a small town in British Columbia in the Peace region. It is based on Chamale’s own experiences growing up in Chetwynd as a first-generation Guatemalan child separated from any type of Latinx culture, other than what his family brought with them.

“I was inspired to write this piece as a love letter to the people I grew up with, who all came together and became friends across cultural differences – which came with a whole hodgepodge of good things and bad things,” Chamale said in a press release. .

“I don’t often see small-town or small-town people portrayed in a way that rings true to me. It’s either that it’s a throwback experience, or that we’re this wise noble bugger there to provide sound advice for the development of an urban character.”

Chamale said he was also inspired by the climate crisis and imagining how areas such as the Peace Region will be affected – “and how we can include them in the change that needs to happen, not just condemn them for their work, not just focus on calling for real change in the coastal city of Vancouver.”

Then, from May 3-7, audiences are treated to a new sci-fi mystery by A wake of vulturesa Vancouver-based interdisciplinary performance collective led by Conor Wylie.

K Body and mind blends “90s supercharged anime and cyberpunk aesthetics with a quirky, mesmerizing style of performance,” as one press release put it, into a two-performer sci-fi epic.

Tickets for both live productions are $35, $30 for seniors/students and $15 for youth 12 and under. Live stream tickets are available for $15. You can call the box office at 604-205-3000 or buy tickets online.

What’s happening on stage in May at the Shadbolt Center

Wednesday May 4: OKAN

OKAN is a JUNO award-winning contemporary Afro-Cuban roots and jazz ensemble. Taking its name from the word “heart” in the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria, this female-led ensemble fuses Afro-Cuban roots with jazz, folk and global beats in songs about immigration, courage and love.

From Wednesday May 25 to Saturday May 28: spooky action

Inverso Productions’ spooky action is inspired by Einstein’s famous phrase referring to particles so closely linked that they share the same existence. A collaboration with poet/performer Barbara Adler, this new interdisciplinary work weaves together contemporary dance, poetic storytelling and original composition to extend theory to human relationships.

Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
Email Julie, [email protected].

BY ALAN SHERROD

IIn case you weren’t paying attention, jukebox musicals are real crowd pleasers. For example, Ain’t too proudthe story of the Temptations, just finished a long tour on Broadway and started filming productions. Boys jerseya Tony winning dramatization of the success of the Four Seasons, certainly comes to mind as well as notable vehicles like Magnificent: Carole King’s Musical, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, and probably dozens more. Engaging popular music is the essential attraction of the genre, but ultimately the long-term success of a musical depends, as with all theater, on its storytelling.

Storytelling is at the heart of Always…Patsy Cline, a production of which opened last weekend at the Clarence Brown Theater. The two-character musical, created by Ted Swindley, first appeared off-Broadway in 1997 and has enjoyed a steady stream of regional productions ever since.

Thanks to movies like Sweet Dreams with Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline, theatergoers probably know a little about the background. Cline, born in Winchester, Virginia, in 1932, rose to prominence when she won a talent contest in 1957 and appeared on the Arthur Godfrey television show. Her success came relatively quickly, appearing on the Grand Ole Opry and pairing with classic country hits like “Crazy,” “Back in Baby’s Arms,” ​​”I Fall to Pieces,” and “Sweet Dreams,” among many. others. In 1963, at just 30, she was killed in a minor plane crash while returning home to Nashville from an engagement. Swindley based his two-character story on letters sent by Cline to Louise Seger, an older woman from Houston whom Cline had met at a local club and bonded with, and who became one of the most big Cline fans.

In this thoroughly entertaining CBT production directed by Terry D. Alford, the narration belongs to Deanna Surber as narrator, Louise Seger, an optimistic, energetic, dedicated and determined fan. Laura Beth Wells sings the role of Patsy Cline, capturing with stunning precision in the show’s 27 musical numbers the essence, cutting edge and depth of Cline’s voice and character – an incredible achievement and reason enough to catch this show.

Alford crafted a wonderfully tight and engaging production with the help of musical director and pianist Rhonda Mayfield, who leads a six-member band onstage: J Miller (drums), Greg Horne (steel guitar), Barry Hannah (guitar ), Dave Peeples (bass) and Bethany Hankins (violin). Set designer Libby StadStad, along with lighting designer Helen Garcia-Alton, created a simple and versatile, yet beautifully colorful and eye-catching stage space that is obviously comfortable and functional for the performers. Costume designer Lauren T. Roark gave Wells plenty of surprising costume changes, ranging from western attire to ordinary plain to country elegance, all in a beautiful ’60s vibe.

The structure of Swindley’s story allows for some “local” adaptation of Surber’s character as narrator to step off stage and address the audience directly – an attempt to break the fourth wall with a “home” rebuke ” of the public to encourage participation. For some members of the public, this familiarity and participation will undeniably be free, enjoyable and fun; for others, maybe not so much. Knowing how far to go with such improvisation with the public is a difficult task.

This CBT production of Always… Patsy Cline continues Tuesday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.; until May 15. Tickets and information

Related

Blinn College District’s Music and Theater Arts Programs invites incoming and prospective students to audition for its upcoming performances at Brenham and Bryan.

Based at the Brenham campus, the music program offers a variety of performance opportunities with the Buccaneer Band, brass band, wind band, jazz band, percussion band, steel drum band, a color guard, a chamber choir, a concert choir and a women’s choir.

Blinn offers a variety of scholarships for students who wish to participate, regardless of their major. Scholarships are awarded based on musical ability and the recommendation of a high school ensemble director and the audition for the music program also serves as the audition for the student’s scholarship.

Blinn’s music department offers small class sizes, individual attention, hands-on learning, and accessible faculty so students are actively engaged in a superior learning environment. Students can pursue an Associate of Arts degree in music that provides a solid foundation in the creative and technical aspects of music, including music theory, history, composition, and performance.

For more information on Blinn’s musical ensembles as well as scholarship and audition information, visit www.blinn.edu/music.

On the Brenham campus, the Theater Arts Program hosts at least four student performances each year at the 500-seat Dr. W. W. O’Donnell Performing Arts Center, providing attendees with technical and stage theater experience. In 2021-22, Blinn-Brenham hosted productions of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, improv troupe Slaphappy, ‘Wiley and the Hairy Man’, ‘Golden Boy’ and ‘The 25^and Putnam County Annual Spelling Bee.

In February, Blinn-Brenham students won more than 20 individual awards at the Texas Community College Speech and Theater Association Play Festival for its production of Golden Boy.

On the Bryan campus, students can participate in the Blinn-Bryan Theater Troupe, partnering with Bryan-College Station community organizations to showcase their skills in high-energy community performances. This season, the troupe performed “The Second Shepherd’s Play” on the Bryan campus and at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Bryan, “The Revolutionists” in Blinn-Bryan, “Tigers Be Still” on the Blinn-Bryan campuses. Bryan and Texas A&M University. , and will perform “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Blinn-Bryan on April 27 and 28 and at the Lick Creek Park Amphitheater in College Station on April 29 and 30.

In addition to performing opportunities, Blin offers a 60-credit Associate of Arts degree in theater that provides students with a foundation in classical, modern, contemporary, and multicultural theater. Student performances and auditions are open to majors and non-majors.

Scholarships are available and students can apply for more than 300 endowed scholarships at www.blinn.edu/scholarships.

To learn more about the program and schedule an audition, visit www.blinn.edu/theatre.

(Story courtesy of Richard Bray, Blinn Information)

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) -They say life begins at 50, and now that MSC OPAS is fifty and fabulous, let the party begin.

MSC OPAS has a lot to celebrate as it announces its 50th anniversary season on Wednesday night at a special event at MSC’s TAMU Bethancourt Ballroom.

Fifty years is a long time when you produce the best in theatre, music and dance. Since 1972, Texas A&M University’s MSC OPAS has provided programs that enlighten, entertain, and inspire audiences in the Brazos Valley and Lonely State.

Anne Black, Managing Director of MSC OPAS has been part of the good times for 38 years. She says she is proud of the past and looks forward to the next 50 years.

” It was wonderful. I mean being in College Station, Texas and having the kind of entertainment that we have in that community is really pretty amazing,” Black said. “We are very excited about the programs we offer. “My vision is that we continue to grow. There are plans to build a new performing arts center and I think it will give us opportunities that we haven’t had. I imagine OPAS and all the arts in this community exploding over the next fifty years.

For the past fifty years, MSC OPAS has brought the best in entertainment to the Texas A&M campus. Hit performances like Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Bandstand and Chicago.

OPAS Board President-Elect Tracy Corrier says she is excited about the future and the lineup of shows being presented in the Brazos Valley.

“With everything that’s happened over the past two years, we’ve had to take a break and now we have an exciting new roster,” Corrier said.

A full list of upcoming shows is below.

To buy tickets or more information, click here.

Programming for the 50th season

Ann Cobb Wiatt Main Stage Series

Neil Berg’s 50 years of rock’n’roll

September 27 and 28, 2022 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Auditorium

crush

November 15 and 16, 2022 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Auditorium

MY FAIR LADY The Lincoln Center Production

December 6 and 7, 2022 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Auditorium

THE SIMON & GARFUNKEL STORY

January 31 and February 1, 2023 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Auditorium

WAITRESS

February 21 and 22, 2023 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Auditorium

ANASTASIA

March 28 and 29, 2023 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Auditorium

Intimate Encounter Series

THE OTHER MOZART

October 13, 2022 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Theater

SWINGLE SINGERS HOLIDAY

December 1, 2022 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Theater

LUCY LOVES DESI: A funny thing happened on the way to the sitcom

January 25, 2023 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Theater

Singular Sensations Series

BACK HOME: A TRIBUTE TO JOHN DENVER

October 25, 2022 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Auditorium

DUBLIN IRISH DANCE

February 16, 2023 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Auditorium

OUR PLANET: LIVE IN CONCERT

March 8, 2023 • 7:30 p.m. • Rudder Auditorium

Special family event

WINNIE THE POOH

October 1, 2022 • 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. • Rudder Theater

October 2, 2022 • 2:00 p.m. • Rudder Theater

The OPAS programs are made possible in part by hotel tax revenue funded by the City of College Station through the Brazos Valley Arts Council.

Copyright 2022 KBTX. All rights reserved.

Photo credits: Mack Butler

EAST GREENSBORO, NC (April 20, 2022) – North Carolina A&T State University’s Theater Arts Program will present “My Rainey’s Black Bottom” by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson beginning Thursday, April 28. Directed by Miller Lucky Jr., the production is a gripping account of what racism does to its victims. It’s funny, salty, raw and lyrical showcasing all the complicated emotions of the blues music it celebrates. Jayne Trinette, an alumnus of A&T’s theater program, will play the role of Ma Rainey.

Trinette is a powerful singer/actress with a three octave range and has an impressive career as a performer, educator and consultant. His credits include Broadway Tour of Disney’s The Lion King, Caroline Or Change, Ain’t Misbehavin, Smokey Joe’s Café and The Buddy Holly Story. Jayne has written, directed and produced a series of cabarets with tributes to Lena Horne and Aretha Franklin. You’ve also seen her on Live with Kelly and Michael singing with the cast of Walt Disney World’s Lion King Festival.

Inspired by the true mother of the blues, Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, the setting is set in 1927 Chicago in a single day of music, jokes and dealings. An ambitious young horn player named Levee arrives with new group arrangements, including one for a popular dance called “The Black Bottom”. But Ma insists on singing it in the “familiar” way. The other band members – Cutler, Toledo and Slow Drag – follow suit, warning Levee to butt heads with Ma. The defiant Mother of the Blues knows she’s the star of the show and won’t be pushed around. . After all, it’s what Ma says that counts! As the day progresses and Ma’s demands are met, Levee cracks up. He succumbs to the harsh realities of unjustly thwarted aspirations, revealing self-destructive consequences.

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is also one of the productions featured at Greater Greensboro’s Amplify Black Voices Festival. Building on Greensboro’s rich heritage of social justice and engagement in the civil rights movement, Amplify Black Voices Festival of Greater Greensboro brings together seven local college theater departments to collaboratively produce four theater performances focused on life and history of African Americans.

Staged in four different university theaters in the spring of 2022, the cast and crew for each will be drawn from all seven departments. After each performance, the cast and director will return to the stage to reflect on the importance of Black lives and stories and racial inequality. Our target audience includes university/college communities, the greater Greensboro community, and Guilford County public schools.

The Theater Arts Program and Paul Robeson Theater adhere to all COVID-19 protocols and procedures. Places will be limited to practice social distancing. Everyone is encouraged to follow safe hygiene practices to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Location:
Paul Robeson Theater on the campus of NC A&T State University

Performance dates and times:

Thursday April 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday April 30 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Sunday May 1 at 3 p.m.

Cost:

Adults – $17
Non-A&T Seniors and Students – $11
Children 12 and under – $6

A&T Students – Free with Aggie One Card

For tickets, call the Brown Hall box office at (336) 334-7749. For group tickets, call (336) 334-7519.

WALDOBORO – The Waldo Theater (916 Main St.) currently operates a school program, InterAct, for local elementary schools with plans to expand through the fall of 2022. The goal is to provide theater arts education from quality that reinforces academic learning goals such as reading comprehension and oral language skills while also addressing vital social-emotional skills such as confidence, communication and community connection.

The program was designed by Mia Branco, who has worked as a teaching artist for over 12 years, specializing in the development of dramatic programs for autistic and emotionally traumatized students in independent settings as well as within schools. In the fall of 2021, along with Kate Fletcher, executive director of The Waldo, Branco began running the program in two local third-grade classrooms, at Warren Community School and Miller School in Waldoboro.

The 2021 education program was made possible by an initial grant of $3,500 from the Onion Foundation. The Waldo has since won two competitive grants to be able to offer the program to several other schools in the RSU40 district that have expressed interest. A grant of $9,650 from the Nellie Leaman Taft Foundation and $10,000 from the Maine Community Foundation Maine Expansion Arts Program will fund school programming through fall 2022.

Branco and Fletcher hope to build a sustainable program to reach more students.

“This is such an important opportunity to focus on critical thinking, communication, and connecting with the community,” Branco says, in a Waldo Theater press release. “The Waldo already has such incredible ripple, after just seven months of opening, and these kids have a place in this theater as part of a family.”

A climactic presentation by third graders from Miller and Warren School at The Waldo was scheduled for February, but due to current COVID conditions, a film version of their stories is now taking shape. The final film will be shared with students’ families and teachers.

“We hope we will be able to come together safely this spring for a community screening of student work,” says Fletcher. “They put a lot of creativity and imagination into their stories and we want to share them and celebrate them.”

The program Branco designed for the once-a-week school curriculum emphasizes storytelling and allows young actors to tell their own story as an ensemble using the “four tools you have with you at all times. – body, voice, mind and imagination”. .”

Waldo board member Christa Thorpe said the board’s commitment to inclusivity and youth programming was what drew her to the theater’s mission, which had been closed for more than five years. years when she joined the board.

“I want people to know that when you support The Waldo, you’re doing so much more than keeping the lights on in a historic building,” she said. “It’s about supporting incredibly talented people like Mia who are helping Kate rebuild the community around The Waldo. It’s about the kids and also the rest of us, lifelong learners. is what excites me about this education program and the possibility of more things like this in the future.

For more information about Waldo’s programs, including live theater, live music, films and education, and to make a contribution, visit www.waldotheatre.org.

ABOUT THE WALDO THEATER:

The Waldo Theater is a non-profit, community-driven performing arts center in Waldoboro, Maine. Once a popular and thriving venue for live community theater, concerts, and other forms of entertainment that contributed to the cultural and economic vitality of downtown Waldoboro, the theater closed in 2014. The building is fallen into disrepair and, in 2017, was placed on the list of Maine’s Most Endangered Historic Places. Area residents have come together to create a new council and chart a new course forward. After several years of fundraising and renovations, The Waldo reopened virtually in November 2020 with live music played in the community and to the public in person in June 2021 with a community theater production of “Almost, Maine”. More music, drama, films and educational programs are planned for the theater in this first fully operational year.