Jackson Theatre Presents VIKINGS RAID BROADWAY, 12/27

Alumni actors, musicians and other stage professionals of Montgomery High School are bringing Broadway and beyond back to Sonoma County for one special evening benefit performance, 6-9:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 27.
 
"Vikings Raid Broadway: A Musical Theatre Gala" takes place at Jackson Theater at 4400 Day School Place, Santa Rosa.
 
The event is a fundraiser for Montgomery High School Drama, which was chosen to perform at the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival August 2011 in Scotland, and will include pre-show hors d'oeuvres, silent and live auctions. A cast of Montgomery Vikings musical theater alumni will perform Broadway musical numbers.
 
The star-studded program features Paul Staroba, Associate Conductor for Broadway's "A Little Night Music" and "Next to Normal," currently playing on Broadway. He is also the orchestra pianist for Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular and was music director for Broadway Backwards IV, starring Whoopi Goldberg and Florence Henderson.
 
He will be joined by Tyler Reilly, founder of Boston's Spontaneous Theater Project, who was a 2009 Best Actor nominee by the Independent Reviewers of New England for Prior Walter in Angels in America: Millennium Approaches; and Seth Clayton, a member of Pipeline Theatre Company, a non-profit Production Company in New York City. Clayton's local acting credits include the 6th Street Playhouse and Hoochi-Doo Productions.
 
Other celebrated alumni talent includes New York City's Circle in the Square Theatre School senior Cecilia Senocak, recipient of Sacramento State's Lenaea Festival Silver Award for Musical Theater; Kelly Brandeburg, who has appeared in many East and West Coast productions and recently received her BFA in Musical Theatre from The New School University; and Patrick Varner, a Boston University  sophomore acting major who won Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards at the Lenaea Festival for musical theater and acting, and was also the recipient of the prestigious 2009 Scholarship for the Arts Award from Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco.
 
"In this gala the alumni pass on the theatrical torch to the aspiring actors and stage technicians who will be going to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next year," said Susane Byrne, Montgomery High School drama teacher. 
 
This opportunity is a first for Montgomery Drama who will spend two weeks in Scotland. The Santa Rosa school was one of only 48 selected out of more than 2000 nominated high school Drama Departments which applied for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
 
Since 1947 thousands of performers annually take to a multitude of stages all over Edinburgh to present a variety of shows. Montgomery High School will perform
a comedy. The troupe of nine actors and stage technicians will be joined by Drama Department Chairpersons Susane Byrne and Elke Matzen.
 
IF YOU GO:WHAT:     Montgomery High School Drama Department presents
 
VIKINGS RAID BROADWAY: A Musical Theatre Gala
An Extravaganza of Alumni on Broadway and Beyond
To raise funds for sending Montgomery High School Students to Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011
WHEN:     6 to 9:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 27, 2010
 
TICKETS: $20 to $60
$20 (student), $35/$50 (advance/door), $60 (includes reception w/stars)
 
LOCATION: Jackson Theater
4400 Day School Place, Santa Rosa          
 
PHONE:   707-528-5395 or 707-535-4615    
 
WEB SITE:   www.montgomerydrama.com