Beau Higgins - Page 85

In February, the Lake Worth Playhouse presents two one-of-a-kind shows with budget-friendly pricing: the live improv comedy show, Night of a Gazillion Laughs on Monday, February 1, 2010 at 8:00 p.m and the Playhouse semi-annual variety show, Take the Stage: Spring 2010 on Saturday, February 13 at 8:00 p.m.

Broward Cultural Division and ArtServe invite artists, gallery owners and creative entrepreneurs to a half-day workshop with well-known artist Jackie Battenfield. Creating Your Own Success: An Investment for Artists, a career development program for the creative community, will be held on Saturday, February 20, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at ArtServe Inc., 1350 East Sunrise Blvd in Fort Lauderdale. This workshop will be the first in a series of seven technical workshops for artists to be held throughout the year.

While dazzling Key West audiences with her portrayal of Mrs. Muller in'Doubt' last season, Lela fell in love with Key West, and Key West took her into their collective hearts. After hearing of Lela's triumphant appearance at Gable Stage in 'No Child...,' Danny Weathers, artistic director for the Waterfront, scheduled the play for the '09/10 season and is thrilled to have Lela return in this amazing performance. A member of Actors Equity, Lela has won South Florida's prestigious Carbonell Award, and has appeared in such productions as 'In the Continuum,' 'Just A Kiss,' 'Intimate Apparel,' Seven Guitars,' 'Radio Golf' and the recent 'Naked Women Fully Clothed.'

Electrifying and interactive, Rhythms of Africa features guest musicians and 60 local Miramar children ages 8 -13, including a seven-year-old master drummer. Using percussion instruments and techniques, the show matches African rhythms to the Diaspora, tracing the voyage of sounds from Nigeria and the Ivory Coast to Trinidad, Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica, and New Orleans. It's a journey of African rhythms around the world, heard in contemporary musical influences such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley and Santana, whose music is celebrated at the show's conclusion.

Carbonell Award winning Actor (The Normal Heart) Barbara Bradshaw, Marckenson Charles, Carbonell Award nominated Actor (Summer Shorts) Andy Quiroga, Gladys Ramirez, The State Theatre Project company member Jackie Rivera, Carbonell Award winning Producer and Actor (Two Sisters and a Piano, The Promethean Theatre) Deborah Sherman, The State Theatre Project resident playwright and company member David Sirois, Carbonell Award nominated Actor (Tom Walker) Robert Strain andCarbonell Award winning Actor (The Seafarer) Gregg Weiner.

New Theatre presents South Florida playwright and historian Sandra Riley's World Premiere of The Hour of the Tiger, where two women from different worlds struggle against tradition to find personal and artistic freedom. This production marks Sandra Riley's first play produced at New Theatre. Sandra Riley began her career fifty years ago as a drama teacher in Miami and director of plays at the Barn Theater in Miami Lakes, and Player's Theater in Coconut Grove. In 1972, she worked on an Army Base in Japan teaching and directing at the Base Theater.

The Cameron Mackintosh/Really Useful Theatre Company, Inc. production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Harold Prince, will make a return to South Florida as a major presentation of the 2009-2010 theatrical season when it opens Wednesday, December 23, brings in New Year 2010, and runs through Sunday, January 17. Well remembered by local theater goers for its phenomenal run when it opened on February 26, 1991 as the premiere presentation of the newly built theater, this 4-week run will mark another landmark presentation as a major 'special' of Broadway Across America-Ft. Lauderdale presented by Florida theatrical Association at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

JEAN-CLAUDE BAKER, ADOPTED SON OF FAMED INTERNATIONAL ICON, JOSEPHINE BAKER, TO BE GUEST SPEAKER AT THE WORLD EROTIC ART MUSEUM, FEBRUARY 8, AT A MAJOR EXHIBIT HONORING BLACK HISTORY MONTH AND THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF THE LEGENDARY AMERICAN-BORN ENTERTAINER WHO DANCED AT THE 'FOLIES BERGERE' AND BECAME THE 'TOAST OF PARIS'

With music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, Academy Award-winner for Pocahontas and The Prince of Egypt) and book by Winnie Holzman ('My So Called Life,' 'Once And Again' and 'thirtysomething'), WICKED, the untold story of the witches of Oz, is directed by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Mantello (Take Me Out, Love! Valour! Compassion!, The Vagina Monologues, 9 to 5) and features musical staging by Tony Award winner Wayne Cilento (Aida, The Who's Tommy, How To Succeed...).

Vicki has starred at the Waterfront in numerous productions, including 'Olympus On My Mind,' 'Lookin' Up,' 'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum,' and many others. She has also appeared in the Waterfront's Sondheim concert, 'Encore!' and this year's 'Broadway With A Twist.' In 1991, she had a sold-out concert at TWFAC called 'Diva By The Sea.' She has also performed in 'Falsettoland,' 'Cole' and the various incarnations of 'Nunsense,' as well as appearing in 'Follies' with the Key West Pops. She was recently the featured singer for the annual NetRoots Nation conference, attended by President Bill Clinton.

Conundrum Stages welcomes South Florida talent including Kenyatta 'Xodus' Browne, Anastasia Clark, Manny Ortega, Gus St. Anthony, Rebecca 'Butterfly' Vaughns, Matthew 'Write Now' Medonia, Giselle Valdes, spoken word ensemble The Chaos Theory, and more. R&B vocalist CriStyle Renae will entertain audiences with her musical expertise between poetry selections.

Broadway veteran Allen Fitzpatrick ('Les Miserables', 'Sweet Smell of Success', 'Damn Yankees', 'Passion', 'The Scarlet Pimpernel', '42nd Street') will star as Gus. Broadway, Off-Broadway and television actress Elizabeth Hess ('M Butterfly', 'Beggars in the House of Plenty' and television's 'Law and Order' and 'Clarissa Explains it All') will portray Honor, the central character of this drama. Jessica Rothert, who will appear as Sophie and Heidi-Marie Ferren, who portrays Claudia, will round out the cast.

CIRQUE DREAMS HOLIDAZE appeared in 12 theatres in the states of Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. At Detroit's world famous Fox Theatre, 8 performances in 1 week grossed $1,002,981.00 with 22,267 single show ticket sales. At Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, NY, 8 shows in 1 week sold 21,049 tickets with gross sales of $984,829.00.

Conceived by Paul Kelly, SWING! is a high-energy song-and-dance revue that celebrates the music of the Swing era of jazz (1930s-1946) and includes well-known tunes by legendary artists, such as Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, William 'Count' Basie and others. Songs from the original SWING! score include: It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got that Swing), Throw That Girl Around, Hit Me With a Hot Note and Watch Me Bounce, Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree, In the Mood, Blues in the Night, Cry Me a River and All of Me.

In 1960, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act that established federal investigation of local voter registration polls. In 1961, our country went to war in Vietnam. In 1962, the Berlin Wall was erected. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Throughout these heavy flames of change and adversity, the beat went on. Music rose out of the flames into a lively, catchy, vocal sound that united a nation during turmoil.

Caldwell Theatre Company presents Lauren Wilson's Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll and Hyde Play. Embodying Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde is South Florida's premiere physical comedian, Tom Wahl. After years of perfecting his comedic skills with multiple productions nationwide of Sheer Madness, Mr. Wahl steps into the role of the strange doctor with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Nominated for over thirty awards, Sordid Lives won 14 Dramalogue Awards during its long run in Los Angeles. It then became a cult movie hit amongst southerners and the Gay and Lesbian Community. Most recently, it was a hit TV series on Logo starring Rue McClanahan.

A 'W-I-N-N-E-R' (Sarasota Magazine) with audiences and critics alike, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, is a hilarious musical comedy of six young people in the throes of puberty and are overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves. Together they learn that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't necessarily make you a loser. The 2005 Tony Award-Winner for Best Book of a Musical, it played for over 1,000 performances on Broadway and continued to have success across the nation in both touring and regional performances. 'We are thrilled that Florida Studio Theatre's production speaks to Sarasota audiences as it has world-wide. A lovable and humorous insight to the trials and tribulations of growing up...it is the quintessential American story,' stated Artistic Director and Show Director Richard Hopkins.

Based on the beloved book by Dodie Smith, THE 101 DALMATIANS MUSICAL is a one-of-a-kind adventure for the entire family about what it means to be family, canine, and courageous. The musical is led by an award-winning creative team including four-time Tony Award winning director Jerry Zaks (A Bronx Tale, Smokey Joe's Café, Guys and Dolls), acclaimed bookwriter and co-lyricist BT McNicholl (Billy Elliot, Spamalot, The IT Girl), and Dennis DeYoung, founding member of the legendary rock band STYX, as composer and co-lyricist.

The Cameron Mackintosh/Really Useful Theatre Company, Inc. production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Harold Prince, will make a return to South Florida as a major presentation of the 2009-2010 theatrical season when it opens Wednesday, December 23, brings in New Year 2010, and runs through Sunday, January 17. Well remembered by local theater goers for its phenomenal run when it opened on February 26, 1991 as the premiere presentation of the newly built theater, this 4-week run will mark another landmark presentation as a major 'special' of Broadway Across America-Ft. Lauderdale presented by Florida theatrical Association at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.