Chris Gibson - Page 37

Stray Dog Theatre presents MASTER CLASS by Terrence McNally 9/16-10/2/2010. Join Maria Callas, one of the most renowned opera divas of the 20th century, as she teaches a master class. Glamorous, commanding, and larger than life, Callas glories in her illustrious career, dabbles in opera dish, and flat-out seduces the audience. Memories of artistic triumphs and scandalous love affairs consume her. Humorous, titillating and poignant - this is a play (with music) to remember and savor long after the curtain falls.

A force on the Austin , TX blues scene, Carolyn Wonderland has been called a combination of between Janis Joplin and Stevie Ray Vaughan, mixing soulful vocals and acclaimed guitar skill for legendary live concerts. Wonderland and her band will perform music from her latest album, Miss Understood, in a performance benefitting the St. Louis Blues Society Mission Fund.

On the heels of its most successful season ever, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis' Executive Director Rick Dildine announced today that award-winning Chicago director and playwright Sean Graney will direct its 2011 production of The Taming of the Shrew. Named 'Chicagoan of the Year (Theater)' by the Chicago Tribune in 2004, Graney is Founder and Artistic Director of The Hypocrites and has directed most of its productions since 1997, including Equus and Machinal, for which he received Joseph Jefferson Citations in 2005 and 2003 respectively.

HotCity Theatre, a professional theatre company with a focus on contemporary programming and new play development announces the presentation of HOTSTOCK, an evening of live music and karaoke to raise money for HotCity's 2011 season.

n 2002, celebrated violinist Robert McDuffie approached Philip Glass, arguably the most acclaimed composer working today, about writing a companion piece for composer Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The result is Glass' Violin Concerto No. 2, The American Four Seasons, which McDuffie debuted last year.

St. Louis Actors' Studio opens its fourth season, themed Angels and Demons, with David Mamet's oval office hit NOVEMBER. It's a Presidential election year, and incumbent Charles Smith's chances for reelection are looking grim. Approval ratings are down, his money's running out, and nuclear war might be imminent. Though his staff has thrown in the towel and his wife has begun to prepare for her post-White House life, Chuck isn't ready to give up just yet. Amidst the biggest fight of his political career, the President has to find time to pardon a couple of turkeys - saving them from the slaughter before Thanksgiving - and this simple PR event inspires Smith to risk it all in attempt to win back public support.

The Cornet Chop Suey Jazz Band has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity since its arrival on the jazz scene in 2001 with their exciting style of traditional jazz, swing, and blues music. The band's unique front line with Brian Casserly on trumpet, Tom Tucker on cornet, Jerry Epperson on reeds and Brett Stamps on trombone is driven by a powerful rhythm section consisting of Paul Reid on piano, Al Sherman on bass and John Gillick on drums. Best known for a wide variety of styles, Cornet Chop Suey applies its own exciting style to traditional jazz, swing, blues and 'big production' numbers. Every performance by Cornet Chop Suey is a high-energy presentation and a memorable experience for the audience.

Created by New York-based composer and new music impresario Robert Voisey, 60x60 Dance is a masterfully coordinated multimedia collaboration that features a surprising diversity of aesthetics. The work pairs 60 unique 60-second music compositions-each by a different composer-with 60 St. Louis choreographers for a continuous one-hour concert of music and live dance.

During its fifteen years together, the Tierney Sutton Band has received two Grammy Nominations for Best Vocal Jazz Album, a JazzWeek Award for Vocalist of the Year, consecutive nominations for Jazz Journalist Association Awards, recorded numerous CDs that made the #1 spot on jazz radio playlists, and received critical praise throughout the world.

The Sheldon presents The Sheldon Chorale: An American Tapestry, Monday, October 11 at 8 p.m.in the perfect acoustics of the Sheldon Concert Hall. The 25-person chorale, directed by Allen Carl Larson, will be accompanied by flutist Jennifer Toro Mazzoni and cellist Bjorn Ranheim. This concert is part of the American Arts Experience-St. Louis.

Combining complex rhythms, tones and key signatures with a West Coast Cool sound, Dave Brubeck has long been proof that creative and popular jazz can be synonymous. A favorite with critics and fans alike, Brubeck has been redefining jazz music for over 50 years, since his days with General Patton's Army Band during WWII. He is credited as a force in rebirth of jazz in the 1950s and '60s, taking the popular Dave Brubeck Quartet on tour with greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz, and composing standards such as 'Take Five,' now featured in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and 'Blue Rondo A La Turk.'

Playwright Terrence McNally's MASTER CLASS is a fascinating peek at the life and legend of famed soprano Maria Callas, capturing the former opera star at a time when her talent was beginning to fade. The play is loosely based on events that occurred during actual classes that Callas taught in the early 1970's at the Juilliard School at Lincoln Center, and often reflects the passionate love of music that Callas possessed, as well as the bitterness she harbored at how she was treated prior to undergoing a dramatic weight loss. Stray Dog Theatre's current production of MASTER CLASS neatly conveys the complexities at work within this iconic figure.

Since 2007, many of Erik Spehn's paintings have involved applying strips of masking tape to the surface of his canvases; then painting over them, peeling them off, and taping and repainting again and again. Over time, Spehn recognized that the discarded tape might offer a new avenue of formal investigation, so he began to make works on paper by applying the used tape to matboard. Each piece echoed the specific paintings on which he was working, but visually these 'drawings' became a distinct and separate body of work.

One of St. Louis' most delightful duos, BLUSH makes their cabaret debut with a fresh look at pop, rock, and standards. With original arrangements, their signature vocal blend, and a dash of girl talk you're in for a relaxed, entertaining evening. Tim Schall directs, with arrangements by Lisa Tuttle.

The New Jewish Theatre will join forces with Mustard Seed Theatre in October to produce a 'Mini-Potok Festival' with each company producing a dramatic adaptation of one of the novels of Chaim Potok. NJT will open the Festival on October 6 with MY NAME IS ASHER LEV and Mustard Seed will open THE CHOSEN on October 22.

Upstream Theater presents OEDIPUS KING (Oedipus Tyrannos) by Sophocles, in an English version by David Slavitt, directed by Philip Boehm. Our production of this iconic work about a man fated to kill his father and marry his mother features J. Samuel Davis* as Oedipus and Amy Loui* as Jocasta, along with John Bratkowski*, Christopher Harris*, Dennis Lebby*, Laurie McConnell*, Peter Mayer*, & Emily Piro (*indicates member, Actors' Equity Association).

The original animated film SHREK was a kind of adult fairytale, though it was obviously aimed squarely at the youth market as well, successfully spawning a franchise with sequels and merchandising galore. So, it should come as no surprise that Dreamworks would opt to try their luck on stage with a musical version of their blockbuster hit. Happily, like the original, it's a cute and amusing production that will play equally well to children and their parents, who will certainly appreciate some of the more grown-up humor the book and lyrics provide. The current production of SHREK THE MUSICAL, which is playing at the Fox Theatre, is a cleverly mounted show with fine performances and dazzling displays of technical wizardry.

If you only know about HotCity Theatre because of their dedication to producing new and original works by some of the most talented and unknown playwrights around, then you should also know how adept they are at staging revivals of edgy and provocative modern classics. This season they've chosen Peter Shaffer's taut masterpiece from 1973, EQUUS. And, they've delivered an intense, disturbing and brilliant production that's powered by sharp direction and exceptional performances.

George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's classic play, YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, has been given a wonderfully performed and staged presentation by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. This venerable favorite is brought to life in splendid fashion, with a superb cast proving that Kaufman and Hart's punchlines still hold up over 70 after the fact, and that some of the them, especially those regarding the ways in which our government spends our tax dollars, still ring resoundingly true and clear today.

STATE FAIR was the only musical that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote specifically for Hollywood and two versions were filmed, one in 1945 and the other in 1962. The one that's probably most familiar to audiences today is the rather forgettable 1962 version which features Pat Boone serenading a pig. Hammerstein's son, James, revived the musical in 1995, plucking tunes from ME AND JULIET, PIPE DREAM and ALLEGRO! to round out the score. While the results are certainly a mixed bag musically, the latest presentation by Stages St. Louis is splendidly mounted, and provides a lively and engaging look back at a simpler time in our history.