Andrea Stephenson - Page 13

Towards Zero is based on the 1944 Agatha Christie novel by the same name. The play by Agatha Christie and Gerald Verner was first published in 1956 and premiered in the West End at the St. James's Theatre. In typical Christie fashion, Towards Zero employs humor, red herrings, and many twists and turns to keep the audience guessing. See if you can solve the crime by joining the cast and crew of Towards Zero directed by Aliza Bardfield at Oyster Mill Playhouse January 17-February 2.

Three Tall Women first appeared on stage in Vienna in 1991. Considered a revitalization of playwright Edward Albee's work, Three Tall Women won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1994. Three Tall Women was inspired by Albee's experiences with his own adoptive mother. In Stretching My Mind, Albee states, 'I knew I did not want to write a revenge piece-could not honestly do so, for I felt no need for revenge. We had managed to make each other very unhappy over the years, but I was past all that, though I think she was not. I harbor no ill will toward her; it is true I did not like her much, could not abide her prejudices, her loathings, her paranoias, but I did admire her pride, her sense of self. As she moved toward ninety, began rapidly failing both physically and mentally, I was touched by the survivor, the figure clinging to the wreckage only partly of her own making, refusing to go under.'

DreamWrights Center for Community Arts welcomed new Artistic Director Lori Koenig on December 2nd. In the midst of the holiday season and jumping right in with both feet at DreamWrights, Lori took some time out to let us get to know her a bit.

Prancer began as a 1989 film written by Greg Taylor and directed by John Hancock. The story of a young girl's courage, love, and belief is just the tale we need this holiday season. The play, first produced by The Rose Theatre in 2016, is taking the stage at DreamWrights Center for Community Arts. Prancer introduces us to Jessica Riggs, a young girl who finds an injured reindeer. She believes the reindeer is one of Santa's reindeer, Prancer, and she is determined to nurse him back to health in time to take his rightful place in Santa's sleigh-pulling team.

Once on this Island is a beautiful and heart-wrenching story of love, loss, belief, and sacrifice. With music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Once on this Island won the 1995 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical. Director Michael Arden describes their process of working on the revival, explaining, 'Once On This Island is the story of how one seemingly insignificant girl becomes myth and legend for survivors of a wounded and healing island and how the good we do can echo and reverberate long after our lives are over.' As part of the North America tour, Once on this Island is playing at Hershey Theatre through December 8th.

The production really comes together as a whole-from the lights to the sound to the costumes to the set and even the set changes, everything has been carefully designed and choreographed to give the audience the sense of wonder and magic that should accompany any telling of Narnia.

Who's ready for some great holiday entertainment? There are so many great shows to see during the holiday season. If you need a break from all the holiday craziness and a chance to laugh until your cheeks hurt, hop on over to Open Stage for Who's Holiday. Who's Holiday, by Matthew Lombardo, is not your typical Christmas play. It is a show with only one actor. It answers the age-old question of what happens to characters after the original story ends. Told by Cindy Lou Who, it is the story of what happened to her after the Grinch's famous redemption in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The story is told in typical Seussian rhyme. Rachel Landon will be taking on the role of Cindy Lou at Open Stage, and she took some time to talk to us about Who's Holiday, directed by Stuart Landon, opening on November 16th.

These Shining Lives, by Melanie Marnich, first took the stage in Baltimore in 2008. The story follows the lives of four women working in a watch factory in Illinois in the 1920s and is narrated by one of the women, Catherine. These Shining Lives is based on the true story of the Radium Girls-women who were sickened and died from radium poisoning because of their work with self-luminous paint that they used to paint watch dials.

Many will know the story of Oliver from the classic Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. The musical Oliver! by Lionel Bart, first opened in the West End in 1960 and on Broadway in 1962. The show has been revived numerous times and, in 1968, it was adapted for the screen. For the sake of the stage version, the original story by Dickens was dramatically simplified and provides a rather different interpretation of the character of Fagin. The musical is particularly true to Dickens in its emphasis on class differences and prejudices related to class, while presenting the subject matter with a healthy dose of comedy. Oliver! can be seen on stage at Oyster Mill Playhouse from November 8-24. I was given a rare opportunity to have a sneak preview of the show during one of their dress rehearsals, and it is a show that you will want to make time for this month.

The musical A Little Princess by Andrew Lippa and Brian Crawley, is based on the 1905 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It first appeared on stage in Mountain View, California in 2004 and premiered in London in 2018. The story opens with Sara Crewe in her room at her school in London. She tells Becky, a maid at the school, about her life growing up in Africa and how she came to be in London. The musical takes the audience on a journey filled with memories, wild flights of imagination, magic, heartbreak, friendship, and love.

Anyone who has undertaken a show by Stephen Sondheim knows that the music is seriously difficult, often including dissonant cords, tricky intervals, and overlapping lines. Assassins is no exception. Written by John Weidman and Sondheim, it was first produced at Playwrights Horizons in 1990 and hit Broadway in 2004. It was originally scheduled to play on Broadway in 2001, but was postponed due to the events of September 11, 2001. The story of those who assassinated or attempted to assassinate various Presidents throughout US history, Assassins combines quirky characters such as the Proprietor and Balladeer with historical characters such as Emma Goldman and John Wilkes Booth. It covers complex themes ranging from broken dreams to corruption to classism with dark humor. The show approaches these themes and the overarching theme of disillusionment with the American dream in a way that may make audiences feel uncomfortable as they are confronted with truths that are all too real about our country, our history, and human nature. Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg takes on Assassins now through November 3rd.

Brilliant Traces, by Cindy Lou Johnson, was first performed in New York by the Circle Repertory Company. In the right hands it can be a beautifully absurd play with a mixture of humor and heart-wrenching revelations. Featuring just two actors, it relies heavily on intelligent directing and talented acting-it can easily become melodramatic and ridiculous or inane and boring. Thankfully, the production of Brilliant Traces at DreamWrights Center for Community Arts, directed by Andrea Unger and featuring Kirk Wisler and Catie Dinneen as Henry Harry and Rosannah Deluce, is both well-directed and well-acted.