Arcadia Performing Arts Foundation presents Broadway star Susan Egan, who originated the role of 'Belle' in Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, as part of its first season at the Arcadia Performing Arts Center, tonight, March 1 at 8pm. Joining Egan on stage is the sixty-member Arcadia Stage, the theatre student program at Arcadia High School. They will sing four songs with Egan, and then two from their upcoming production of Curtains.
On Broadway, Egan starred in the title role of Thoroughly Modern Millie; won critical acclaim as Broadway's longest-running 'Sally Bowles' in Cabaret; originated the leading roles in Triumph of Love and State Fair; and most notably, received both Tony Award and Drama Desk nominations for "Best Actress" as the original 'Belle' in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Regionally, Egan starred alongside Carol Burnett in Sondheim's Putting It Together, Tommy Tune in the national tour of Bye, Bye Birdie, and created works at Yale Repertory, Baltimore Center Stage, South Coast Repertory, and the Mark Taper Forum.
Tickets, available online by visiting
www.Arcadiapaf.org, are $29.50, $39.50, and $59.50; senior, student, and family 4-pack pricing are also available. The theatre is at 188 Campus Drive at North Santa Anita Avenue, Arcadia CA 91007. For more information please call 626-821-1781.
Egan will work with the Arcadia Stage in a session that will act as both rehearsal for the concert and a master class on Tuesday, February 11, at the Arcadia Performing Arts Center, which is home to both the Arcadia Performing Arts Foundation presentations and the Arcadia Stage Company, and which was built complete with rehearsal space and production facilities. Teaching has become a large part of Egan's agenda in the past few years, having given master classes at universities and conservatories across the country, including UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, University of Miami, Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts, CSU Fullerton, Circle In the Square Acting Program and more than a dozen others.
Arcadia Stage members will perform with Egan "Seasons of Love" from Rent, "You Can't Stop the Beat" from Hairspray, and "I Won't Say I'm in Love," which Egan introduced in the Disney film Hercules. One of the stand-out members of the program, senior Alana DeBlase, will perform the duet "For Good" from the musical Wicked at the concert. DeBlase has already appeared in Annie, The Drowsy Chaperone, and will be featured in the upcoming Curtains. The Arcadia Stage Company will also preview Curtains (March 20-22) by singing two numbers from the show -- "Show People" and "Wide Open Spaces."
Susan Egan has traversed all four corners of the entertainment industry, making powerful impressions in theatre, film, television and music.
Susan's film credits include 13 Going on 30, Gotta Kick It Up for the Disney Channel, and countless independent features seen at the Seattle Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Slamdance, the HBO Comedy Festival and beyond. In animation, Egan gave voice to sultry 'Meg' in Disney's Hercules, sang as 'Angel' in Lady and the Tramp II, and translated two Japanese blockbusters into English for director Hayao Miyazaki: 'Gina' in Porco Rosso, and 'Lin' in Spirited Away, which won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. She has also spent the last 6 years recording the voice of 'Belle' for all those Disney Princess CDs and toys!
On television, Egan spent two seasons on the WB's Nikki, and has guest-starred on HOUSE, NUMB3RS, NYPD Blue, Arliss, Party of Five,
Drew Carey, Almost Perfect, Partners, All My Children, Loving, PBS Great Performances, and several movies of the week and specials for ABC, CBS, and the Disney Channel.
As a concert performer, Susan has taken her solo concert from coast to coast in over 300 appearances and even on the high seas with the Disney Cruise Line on several occasions. She has also headlined with some of the finest symphonies worldwide, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, the Philly Pops, Utah Symphony, and more than 40 others. She has taken the concert stage at Lincoln Center,
Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Hollywood Bowl just to name a few. Susan has over 40 recording credits from Broadway cast albums to film soundtracks, including her 6 solo CDs: All That and More, So Far, Winter Tracks, CoffeeHouse (Best Vocalist 2004 - TalkingBroadway.com),
Susan Egan LIVE, and her 2011 release, The Secret of Happiness, produced and music directed by composer and pal,
Georgia Stitt.
In the past several years, Ms. Egan has also been "taking stage" in the educational arena and now her teaching resume reads nearly as complete as her performance career, having given master classes at universities and conservatories across the country, including USC, Pepperdine, University of Miami, Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts, CSU Fullerton, Circle In the Square Acting Program and more than a dozen others. She has also been on faculty at UCLA (her alma mater) for their Summer Conservatory program, the Young Americans College of Performing Arts, and Cal Poly Pomona. In 2002-3 she dedicated an entire year away from performing to be the Interim Artistic Director of the Orange County High School of the Arts, which has been named one of the top high schools in the country by both Newsweek and US News & World Report.
Susan now spends her time with a full calendar of concerts, teaching, and penning the mom blog,
www.glamourandgoop.com with composer
Georgia Stitt. She makes her home in Southern California with her husband, Robert, and daughters, Nina and Isla.
Arcadia Performing Arts Center: The opening of the Arcadia Performing Arts Center, which anchors the northwest corner of the campus of Arcadia High School, on October 18, 2012, was the realization of a long-standing dream for the citizens of Arcadia to have a major center for arts and culture in the community. This 40,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility includes a main performance hall with seating for 1,150, a stage that holds 200 musicians, tunable acoustics and professional lighting and sound. In addition, the center boasts an orchestra room with practice rooms and music library, a dance studio with sprung wood floors, a professional stagecraft workshop and a Black Box theater with separate control room and flexible seating that can host 125 guests.
The realization of the Performing Arts Center clearly shows the commitment of the Arcadia community to the arts. With this realization comes the need for another commitment - to the future of the building, arts education and arts programming. The Arcadia Performing Arts Foundation is dedicated to maintaining the Performing Arts Center as a nucleus for the arts, education and engagement where the lives of students and the greater community are enriched.
The goal of the Arcadia Performing Arts Foundation is to create an endowment of $10 million that will result in an additional $50,000 or more per year for the Performing Arts Center and the district arts programs. The Arcadia Performing Arts Center is destined to be a world-class venue where lessons are learned, talent is fostered and an impressive array of arts is shared and cultivated.
Photo Credit: Kevyn Major Howard
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