Elliot Lanes - Page 20

Today's subjects, Sherri Edelen and Thomas Adrian Simpson, are currently living their theatre lives in tech for Jesus Christ Superstar at Signature Theatre. Thomas is playing the high priest Caiaphas and Sheri, in a brilliant turn of non-traditional casting, will be playing King Herod. The production runs from May 9th to July 2nd.

Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book has seen no shortage of adaptations. In addition to its original print form, it's the source for two Disney movies, and a stage adaptation at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago a few years back. Would-be adaptors face as slight problem in that while there is lots of fun within Kipling's stories about a human child named Mowgli being raised by wolves, the story also has a dark side to it that might not work well for the youngest of theatregoers. Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Maryland is currently presenting a new adaptation by Greg Banks of Kipling's work, which will leave your little ones engaged from beginning to end without clawing you to go into the lobby. Older kids and adults are also likely to enjoy themselves, making it a theatergoing experience for the whole family.

Over the past week this column featured two remarkable ladies named Tina Ghandchilar and Julie Dixon. They are currently living their theatre lives as part of a production of Chess at The Theatre Lab School of the Performing Arts. The show opens this evening and runs through May 6th. Now it's time to feature one of the male leads.

Today's subject, Julie Dixon, is currently living her theatre life onstage at the Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts where she will be opening in the pop rock musical Chess. The production plays this weekend through May 6th.

Today's subjects, Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, are most commonly associated with one particular Broadway show – Rent. This Friday night, April 28th, you can see them join forces once again at the Music Center at Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland, and it promises to be a really good time. It may also introduce you other aspects of their theatre lives since that groundbreaking 1990s musical.

Today's subject Tina Ghandchilar is currently living her theatre life in the most stoked way possible. She is currently preparing to star as Florence in Chess at The Theatre Lab School for the Dramatic Arts, which, in my opinion, is the best arts in education institution in DC. The production runs from April 27th through May 6th.

Today's subject Lorene Chesley is currently living her theatre life as Valerie Johnston in Arena Stage's production of Smart People in the. The show marks Lorene's Arena Stage debut. It runs through May 21st in Arena Stage's Kreeger Theater space.

Today's subjects, Joy Zinoman and Logan Vaughn, are currently living their theatre lives over on H Street at Mosaic Theater Company. They are the directors for the company's current South Africa: Then & Now repertory, which is comprised of the Athol Fugard's classic Blood Knot and the newer A Human Being Died That Night by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela and adapted for the stage by Nicholas Wright. The rep represents the old and the new. It's appropriate that Mosaic's genius Artistic Director Ari Roth has enlisted a veteran director of over 50 years and a hot up-and-coming director to bring the plays to vivid life onstage at the Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Today's subjects, Kim Scharnberg and Christopher Youstra, are currently living their theatre lives as the orchestrator and musical director, respectively, for the Ford's Theatre production of Ragtime. The show continues through May 20th.

Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) companies have it more difficult than companies that present theatre for adults in some respects. If they set out to present a story that's already been adapted by a certain big entertainment company – you know, the one that all started with a mouse – audiences are likely to come into the theatre with that version in mind. They may also expect a big budget spectacular that few – if any – TYA companies are positioned to deliver.

John Kander and Fred Ebb's murderess musical Chicago is back in town at the Kennedy Center's Opera House. The score is still as good as it ever was, but overall this current tour is missing some of the spark it needs to be totally satisfying.

Today's subject George Caldwell is currently living his theatre life as one of the composers and the onstage pianist for the creative dance troupe Urban Bush Women. The company performs Walking with'Trane this Friday and Saturday in the Eisenhower Theater at Kennedy Center.

Most of us know the story of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid from the Disney animated feature and subsequent stage musical adaptation. What people forget is how dark the original story is and how a Caribbean crab and an absent-minded bird are not elements of the original story.

Sometimes a theatrical presentation doesn't need much to make its statement. In the case of world-renowned Director Peter Brook's Battlefield, all you need to make an impact is a strong acting company and some bamboo pieces placed strategically on the stage of the Kennedy Center's Family Theater as part of the center's Spotlight on Directors series.

Today's subject has been living her theatre life onstage and on screen for 40 years now. You might know Roz Ryan from the hit television show Amen, but for the past eighteen years she has been playing the keeper of the keys Matron “Mama” Morton in the hit musical Chicago either on Broadway or on tour. She is the longest running actress ever to play the role since joining the show in 1999. You can see Roz in action here in DC when Chicago heats up the Kennedy Center from April 4th to the 16th.

The National Symphony Orchestra's (NSO) Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke has always put together musical programs that are fun and classy. This Sophisticated Ladies: 100 Years of Ella and Company, which played this Kennedy Center's Concert Hall this past weekend, was no exception.

With the United States reopening its relations with Cuba, it only seems natural that the Kennedy Center would host a top Cuban theatre company, and its ambitious director, as part of its ongoing internationally-oriented Spotlight on Directors series.

Today's subject Colin Hovde is living his theatre life in two very different ways. He is currently in his fifth season as the Producing Artistic Director of Theater Alliance which performs at the Anacostia Playhouse. Their current production Mnemonic runs through April 9th. The show is directed by Hovde.

Today's subject Robert Carter has, for the past 21 years, been living his theatre life as a member of the world famous all-male comic ballet troupe known as Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. That makes him the longest running member of this internationally known troupe.

Kids are bombarded with big flashy images in pretty much every form of entertainment nowadays. Those of us that grew up with theatre for young audiences (TYA) companies such as New Jersey's Pushcart Players remember how storytelling used to drive the production as opposed to spectacle driving the story. For those of you that want to introduce your children to a kinder and gentler piece of theatre, get over to the Kennedy Center this weekend for Grug and the Rainbow as presented by Windmill Theatre Co from Adelaide, Australia.