Faetra Petillo - Page 59

Composer and Lyricist Scott Alan is currently back in the recording studio recording his follow up CD to his successful debut, 'Dreaming Wide Awake.'

school with The Parent Teacher Conference Plays. Three of the brightest lights in American drama - Ann Marie Healy (Have You Seen Steve Steven), Clay McLeod Chapman (rest area, Hostage Song) and Zayd Dohrn (Haymarket)-will take audience members inside actual classrooms for a trip down memory lane... to a time when backpacks, hall passes, and spelling tests ruled the world.

Variety is reporting that the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences has tapped Laurence Mark and writer/director Bill Condon to produce and run the 81st Annual Academy Award Ceremony

The Bay Area's ground-breaking Danse Lumiere (formerly Anima Mundi) presents THE FIFTH BOOK OF PEACE, an innovative dance theater program inspired by award-winning California author and activist Maxine Hong Kingston's extraordinary book of the same name.

Celebrated stage and screen actor Colm Feore will return to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 2009 to play two leading roles on the Festival stage, Macbeth and Cyrano de Bergerac. 'William Shakespeare's Macbeth involves a journey for the theatre artist that may well be the darkest ride of them all. It leads into a black hole of terror and meaninglessness, and it is not for the faint of heart,' says artistic director Des McAnuff, who will be directing the play.

Today Tony Taccone, artistic director of Berkeley Repertory Theatre, announced additional dates for two solo shows that he staged in Berkeley before launching them on tours across the continent. Danny Hoch's Taking Over had its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in January and hit it big in Montreal this July; next week it starts an All City Tour featuring free performances in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx in addition to previously announced dates in Manhattan and Los Angeles. Moreover, after a record-breaking run in Berkeley last winter, Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking careened through Hartford, San Jose, Santa Fe, and Washington, DC this summer; now it adds Seattle to a list of upcoming destinations that also includes Boston.

As a result of ticket demand, Berkley Repertory Theatre has announced an extension for Yellowjackets. Yellowjackets will now play through October 19 on the intimate Thrust Stage. This is only the first sting in a potent theatre season at Berkeley Rep, which continues this fall with an alluring adaptation of The Arabian Nights from Tony Award-winner Mary Zimmerman and Delroy Lindo's powerful staging of Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

In honor of WorkShop Theater Company's 15th Anniversary Season, Tony Award winner Bill Irwin, two-time Tony Award nominee André De Shields, Heather MacRae, members of both the Original and Broadway-Bound casts of HAIR, along with New York's finest new vaudeville and burlesque acts and WorkShop Company artists, will perform live to benefit WorkShop Theater on Monday, October 27, 7:00 PM at the Zipper Factory.

West Los Angeles: 'Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Helen Gahagan Douglas' was written by Wendy Kout and Michele Willens and is based Helen Gahagan Douglas' life. 'Don't Blame Me…' follows Helen from an entitled Republican and successful stage actress to an incorruptible liberal congresswoman who stood for education, internationalism, feminism and integration and finally to the 1950 Senate race where Nixon's anti-Communist/ anti-Semitic smear campaign ended her political career.

Bristol Riverside Theatre is thrilled to kick off its America Rising: Voices of Today reading series with Bridget Carpenter's Up. This first reading in the series will take place Sunday, September 28 at 5 p.m. at St. James Parish Hall, 225 Walnut Street in Bristol. Individual tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, and subscriptions are $45, $40 for BRT members. Tickets include dinner.

The Huntington Theatre Company opens its season at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA with Academy Award-nominated Jose Rivera's Boleros for the Disenchanted. Directed by OBIE Award-winning Chay Yew, the production runs October 10 - November 15, 2008.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) will present the New York premiere of TAKING OVER, the first new solo play by OBIE Award winner Danny Hoch in 10 years. Prior to its run at The Public in November, the Hip-Hop Theater Festival and The Public will join forces to present free performances of TAKING OVER in neighborhoods most affected by the play's explosive topic of gentrification: the South Bronx, Long Island City, and Williamsburg.

A Brush With Georgia O'Keeffe, the acclaimed new play written by and starring Natalie Mosco as Georgia O'Keeffe, will play its final two performances this weekend with Saturday and Sunday matinees, September 27/28 at 2:00 PM at St. Luke's Theatre. The play, which opened on June 21, will have played 44 performances. Ms. Mosco is presently looking for a new home for the play. In the meantime, on November 1, Natalie Mosco and cast will present a special performance of A Brush With Georgia O'Keeffe at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC in conjunction with the exhibit 'Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities,' which will feature 42 of O'Keeffe's paintings. The exhibition, the first to pair these artists, runs from September 26, 2008 through January 4, 2009. Directed by Broadway veteran Robert Kalfin with Scenic Design by Kevin Judge, Costume Design by Gail Cooper Hecht, Lighting Design by Paul Hudson, Projections Design by Marilys Ernst and Original Composition and Sound Design by Margaret Pine also features Virginia Roncetti and David Lloyd Walters in multiple roles. Mosco's play follows the remarkable life of the celebrated American painter Georgia O'Keeffe. O'Keeffe, who was once torn between a career as an artist or musician, seemed to strike a balance between the two by infusing her painting with what she termed 'visual music'. As Alfred Stieglitz's model, muse and lover, she became the widely known subject for a long series of photographs that were part of his artistic legacy. But it was only after Stieglitz's death that O'Keeffe was finally free immerse herself in nature once again, the source that had truly defined her paintings and offered her 98 year old life its greatest meaning. Natalie Mosco has been a performer, writer, choreographer, director and teacher on three continents. She played leading roles on Broadway (The Magic Show), in London (Grand Hotel) and was a member of the original Broadway production of HAIR. She recently appeared in the Paper Mill Playhouse's acclaimed revival of Follies. As a performer living in Australia, she became a well-known personality on television as well as on stage and is a founding member of Shakespeare Globe (Sydney) where she played Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra. Her own artwork has been exhibited at MOMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has just completed her Doctorate for the University of Western Sydney. A Brush with Georgia O'Keeffe at St. Luke's Theatre (308 W 46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues) plays its final two performances this Saturday and Sunday, September 27/28, matinees only at 2:00 PM. Tickets are $56.50 and $31.50. Student tickets are $26.50. To order tickets call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200 or telecharge.com.

The Actors Fund has announced that they will present a special performance of In The Heights on Sunday November 2nd at 7PM.

Brenda McNab will now be playing the role of Bud and Austin Ku will now be playing the role of Doug in GUTENBERG! THE MUSICAL.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that theater stars Jesse L. Martin, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Griffiths will be joining Tony Sirico (The Sopranos) and Uma Thurman in the NBC special 'Letters to Santa- A Muppets Christmas.'

The New School for Drama is pleased to present FIRST LOOK, a performance series featuring workshop presentations of classical and contemporary works. This year's FIRST LOOK performances will be directed by 3 Drama League Directing Fellows and include The Pillars of Society (October 15-18), written by Henrik Ibsen, Stage Door (November 5-8), written by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman and All's Well that End's Well (December 10-13) written by William Shakespeare. All are free and open to the public.

Pasadena Playhouse will present Mimi Kennedy as Ann Landers in the the premiere of The Lady With All The Answers by David Rambo. Drawn from the life and letters of Ann Landers with the cooperation of Margo Howard the play will be directed by Brendon Fox and run from October 17 - November 23. Full casting will be announced soon.

Variety is reporting that due to the unexpected early closing of Xanadu this coming Sunday, a limited holiday run of Slava's Snowshow is likely to take place at the Helen Hayes Theater.

Abingdon Theatre Company will present the world premiere of BEACHWOOD DRIVE, a gripping new drama exploring contemporary themes of human trafficking, October 17 - November 16, 2008 at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex's June Havoc Theatre. The official opening will be on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at 7 PM.