College Center

A chill in the air in Ohio State's Mershon Auditorium Friday evening was not entirely due to the unseasonable snowflakes that fell from the sky outside. Rather, a hair-raising performance of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" by the Ohio State University Opera and Lyric Theatre greatly contributed to the spooky atmosphere, sending shivers up the spines of those who dared to delve into the world of this dark musical thriller.

The Rollins College theater season comes to a close with DETROIT. This play's plot and theme seems all too real for many Americans as it highlights life as an adult and the challenges we face. Playwright Lisa D'Amour came to Rollins College to speak about the play and see the first performances. Show director Kathleen Capdesuñer chatted with BroadwayWorld Orlando about her experience directing and learning from the show's playwright.

Terryl Hallquist directs Moliere's The Misanthrope, with a setting in modern-day Nashville, as Vanderbilt University Theatre takes a creative leap with its April 7-10 production.

ARB presents world premier of Mary Barton's work in MASTERS OF DANCE AND MUSIC!

Tech week is under way for Lipscomb University's theatre students as they find themselves coming down to the wire for Friday night's opening of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and there is perhaps no cast member more anxious to perform the popular musical in front of a living, breathing audience than Scott Patrick Wilson, one of the most notable LDoT students on campus.

Racing headlong toward graduation from Belmont University's acclaimed musical theater program, Zachary Waters (scion of the Calhoun, Georgia, Waterses) has a jam-packed week ahead even before he can take a breath and consider the gravity of his impending college commencement. This weekend, he opens in the role of Uncle Fester in BUMT's production of The Addams Family (running April 1-10 at The Troutt Theatre, with Waters' cast performing April 2, 8 and 10).

This past weekend, Bethel College put on a fantastic rendition of the classic musical, Mary Poppins. The music and lyrics are written by the Sherman Brothers while the script is written by Julian Fellowes. The show is based on children's books by P. L. Travers and the consequent famous Disney film. The degree to which Bethel College went above and beyond to make such a monumental show come to life speaks volumes to their abilities as a theatre department.

The UM School of Theatre & Dance celebrates an evening of sophisticated and cutting-edge original choreography in its production of DANCE IN CONCERT, March 23-26 at 7:30 pm at Montana Theatre, PARTV Center, UM campus.

Like so many other college students before her, Emily Meinerding is back from an adventuresome spring break, all set to plunge headlong into the rest of her semester at Nashville's David Lipscomb University. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Lipscomb sophomore has already made a name of herself onstage with her critically acclaimed role in The Crucible, a joint production of Blackbird Theater Company and LU Department of Theatre, and as Sleeping Beauty in last fall's campus musical, Into the Woods.

A perfect example is Chantal Nchako, a native of Douala, Cameroon, and a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C. On her burgeoning resume, you will find such projects as The Vagina Monologues at New World Stages; All American Girls at the Actor's Temple; and Henry V at the Classical Theatre of Harlem. In addition, she starred as Agent Cooper in the feature film Raltat, which was nominated in the Pan African Film Festival.

Marx Brothers, line dancing and drag add spice to Palmetto production of The Tempest

Whew! We need a vacation already, so you can only imagine how Cody, the guy with the enormous heart and brilliant imagination must feel! So, here's some quick and sage advice for you: Buy yourself some Cody Rutledge stock and watch its value increase, even as his reputation as both an actor and as a scenic designer continues to grow.

In many ways, the Ohio State Department of Theatre's latest production, "Stupid F---ing Bird," resembles the stage on which it is presented - an intimate performance space bordered by jagged-edged support beams, backed by planks of overlapping wooden boards and strewn with overturned paint buckets, plastic sheeting and stacked chairs. Indeed, this "lovingly deconstructed" version of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" has the feeling of a work in progress, like something built right before one's very eyes.

Valencia College will hold its Annual Spring Dance Concert on March 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. in Valencia's East Campus Performing Arts Center.

Audiences expecting a historic, telling musical of our seventh president of these United States, Andrew Jackson, are in for quite a surprise. The show, which prefaces that it is not historically accurate, is an emo and rock filled tale of Jackson, the formation of the Democratic Party, and his torture and removal of Native Americans. The musical uses extreme irony to expose the faults of our nation's history and leaders, a topic that is very relevant in the today's news.

In this time of physical proximity of different cultures, Fadi J. Khoury, Artistic Director and Choreographer of FJK Dance, believes in the unique fusion of culture and dance, with the endless possibilities of experimenting with the fundamentals of various dance forms, including classical ballet, ballroom, Middle Eastern, and jazz, creating their own language to bridge the gap, demonstrating a shared capacity to create. Using atmosphere created by music, lighting, costumes, and movement, Khoury takes us on a journey, via his and his dancers' fusion, in a singular performance at the Kaye Playhouse, February 27, 2016, which I was glad to attend.

'Into the Woods' reframes well-known fairy tales into a single narrative that brings characters from beloved stories together in an inclusive universe for a re-envisioned adventure.

Ashley Eskew – a native of Irvine, California, who did her undergraduate work at Northwestern University, where she earned a BS in Theater, with a certificate in Music Theater – is one such member of the rather rarefied group of aspiring actors earning advanced degrees from USC this year.

The lecture auditorium in Hitchcock Hall, normally the venue in which engineering presentations are given, was transformed into a brightly colored, wildly patterned scene straight out of the '60s when Ohio State's Off the Lake Productions took to the stage Friday to perform "Hairspray." From the opening number that brought a taste of morning in Baltimore to the campus of OSU to the cast's final bows, "Hairspray" created an atmosphere bursting with energy and exuding undeniable passion.

Off the Lake Productions, the only student-run musical theatre group on Ohio State's campus, is bringing its 20th production, HAIRSPRAY, to you this spring!

Chae Chaput - a native of Manchester, New Hampshire, who did her undergraduate work at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey, where she earned her BA in Theater Arts with a double concentration in Acting and Technical Theater with a minor in film - is one such member of the group.

Grand opera--lavish in scale, setting and voices--certainly has its place, but, oh, the joys of hearing Cavalli and Faustini's bawdy, early baroque charmer LA CALISTO in a theatre with fewer than 100 seats! The Juilliard Opera production not only proved a great showcase for the singers, dancers and instrumentalists involved but for the opera itself, which is still infrequently heard and should be better known.

It's a shame that Bellini wasn't Donizetti--because the story of LA SONNAMBULA seems to be begging for the full comic treatment and could have been a great companion to L'ELISIR D'AMORE. (I'm not sure how Maria Callas would have felt about changes in one of her great roles.) As it stands, performing the semi-serious work in a concert format--as The Juilliard Opera did last week--is the next best thing, putting the emphasis on the music and the virtuoso singing it calls for and less on the absurd storyline.

Chris Ramirez is an excellent example of the talented, driven and committed individuals honing their craft at USC. A native of Kansas City, Kansas - "aka Wyandotte County, aka The Dotte!" - he earned his B.A. in theatre performance at the University of Kansas before heading westward to USC.

Love was in the air this weekend at the Lincoln Theatre in Columbus when the Ohio State Department of Theatre presented its reimagined version of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." A sense of magic and unpredictable mischief, paired with energetic performances from the student actors in the production, defined OSU's take on this romantic classic.