CHARM CITY STAGE DOOR 01/23/2007

BROADWAYWORLD DISCOUNTS:

• Spotlighters: Mary, Mary tickets 33% off!  Mention "BroadwayWorld" at the box office or when ordering by phone and get your tickets for just $10.00 each, instead of $15.00!
• Fells Point Corner Theatre: LIFE X3 tickets 33% off!  Mention "BroadwayWorld" at the box office or when ordering by phone and get your tickets for just $10.00 each, instead of $15.00!
• Rude Mechanicals: Much Ado About Nothing Use their online ticketing at www.rudemechanicals.com and use code BWW001, they'll get $2 off the ticket price. See below for details about this exciting theatre company, new to BWW!

NEW THEATRE COMPANY JOINS THE BWW FAMILY & ANNOUNCES MINI TOUR OF ALL-FEMALE MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!

I got this very interesting press release today from The Rude Mechanicals, a local company who likes to do fun things with Shakespeare!  The Washington Post calls them "un-gimmicky but unconventional".  Sounds like fun!  Here's what they have to say: 

GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!  An all-female production of Much Ado About Nothing!  Alright, so it's a cheap gimmick. But what better way to bring out the theatergoers during the dark of winter than a show with girls kissing? And if anyone can pull it off with style, it's Laurel, Maryland's "witty and avant-gardish" Rude Mechanicals Shakespeare troupe.

Still, it's a tricky business to walk the tightrope of the gender-bending divide. It wasn't part of director (and Rude Mechanicals founder) Joshua Engel's original plan. "There are only four female roles in the play," Engel laments, "but there were so many wonderful actresses who came to audition. I just didn't want to have to call that many women back and tell them 'no'," he jokes.

Jokes aside, Engel threads the minefield of clichés with panache, and his lively Much Ado manages to be both timely and touching, despite a weighty premise. The year is 1943, in the thick of World War II. A troupe of actresses, bereft of their male counterparts (who've all joined up), decide to put on a play by themselves. With thousands of American troops in harm's way in the Middle East right now, it strikes a familiar chord.

But Engel reserves the ponderous explanation for his program notes. In his sprightly interpretation, the funny takes center stage and his actresses make bales of hay with Shakespeare's slapstick and sexual innuendoes. The drama is judicious, and the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny.

The Rude Mechanicals established early-on a reputation for innovative, enjoyable stagings; their goal is to enable the modern theater-goer access to Shakespeare's stories without sacrificing his carefully chosen words.
While adapting the structure, period and characters, the "Rudes," as they are called by their fans, remain faithful to Shakespeare's text.

Their most recent production, Antony and Cleopatra, was set in a theater's prop room, and each of the actors on stage performed a dual role. One was Shakespeare's character; the other was the actor playing that character. A gripping study in lust and politics, the show received rave reviews and played to full houses throughout its tour of Baltimore, Greenbelt and Washington DC.

Last season's flagship, King John, one of Shakespeare's least-performed works, also broke previous attendance records. In classic Rude Mechanicals form, Shakespeare's melodramatic snoozer was transformed into a lighthearted, Monty Python-esque romp through the tenure of England's least popular monarch.

Much Ado About Nothing directed by Joshua Engel plays January 26, 27 2007 @ 8PM Sellers Theater in Laurel.  Tickets are $10.  February 2, 3 2007 @ 8PM; February 4, 2007 @ 4PM at the Mobtown Theater at Meadow Mill in Baltimore.  Tickets are $15.  February 9, 10 2007 @ 8PM at the DC Arts Center in Washington.  Tickets are $15.
For more information visit http://www.rudemechanicals.com .

BPF STAGED READING OF NEW PLAY BY LOCAL PLAYWRIGHT

Local playwright/actor Mark Scharf's new full-length play Last Night at the Owl Bar will have a staged reading on Saturday, January 27th at 11 a.m. at Fells Point Corner Theatre.   This reading, directed by Jayme Kilburn, is part of a Baltimore Playwrights Festival marathon of three staged readings that day.

Last Night at the Owl Bar employs direct audience address, actors playing multiple characters and even stand-up comedy to tell the story of Jonathan Caldwell, a theatre director who is having trouble directing his own life.  In an effort to gain control, Jonathan takes "side trips" in his mind to Afghanistan, Mayberry RFD, Paris and Alaska, relying on the audience's imagination to create each location via projected images and sound and light cues – and acting….

CENTERSTAGE IS LOOKING FOR YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS!

          CenterStage invites Maryland students in grades 1 through 12 to submit original plays to the annual Young Playwrights Festival. Presented by the Department of Community Programs & Education with the support of Provident Bank, Washington Gas, and Comcast, the Young Playwrights Festival will celebrate its 21st anniversary with productions of selected plays on April 17th, 2007. 

          Each play must be the original, previously unpublished work of one or two students (one play per author, please!); all submissions must be either hand-delivered to CenterStage or postmarked by February 9th. CenterStage receives about 300 scripts per year, and the staff looks forward to reading them all. Prior to the festival on April 17th, chosen playwrights will participate in a day-long workshop with professional theater artists on March 31st. Guidelines and entry forms are available at YPF.CenterStage.org, where you can also view the YPF public service announcement currently airing on Comcast channels.

          For more information, contact the Department of Community Programs & Education at either 410.986.4050 or education@CenterStage.org.

BEST BET OF THE WEEK: Going to St. Ives at Everyman

• This two-actress play has phenomenal acting by two of the area's brightest talents, Lynn Chavis and Kimberly Schraf, both of whom are sure to be awards winners!  See below for details.

OPENING THIS WEEK:

• All week:  Wicked finally lands in Baltimore at the Hippodrome now through February 18!  If you don't have your tickets, you might have a hard time getting seats.  But there is a lottery held for each performance for the best available seats that are left.  Arrive at the theatre 2 and half hours prior to curtain, and enter your name.  Two hours prior to curtain, names will be drawn and lucky winners can buy up to two tickets each for just $25.00 (cash only, ID required).  (Review to be posted 01/29/2007)
• Friday: CenterStage announces a special, four-week presentation of Josh Lefkowitz's Help Wanted: A Personal Search for Meaningful Employment at the Start of the 21st Century. This wry, thoughtful, and utterly charming solo piece was previously featured as part of CenterStage's First Look workshop series during the 2004–05 Season, and was the hit of this summer's Capital Fringe Festival.  Sitting behind a desk in the manner of his "last great hero," famed monologist Spalding Gray, Josh chats with the audience about everything from video games and long-distance relationships to the struggles of the artist as a young man—like working as a parking attendant with only hallucinated talking frogs for company, or salvaging shreds of dignity while posing for photos in an astronaut suit. Through it all, Josh's fascination with the idea that "everything comes from something" fuels his passion to tell his story—and meet Spalding Gray, if he can.  Josh Lefkowitz is an actor, writer, and solo performer. In 2005, he received a Young Artist grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Before the First Look reading of Help Wanted, he appeared at CenterStage in Sweeney Todd. He has also performed at Signature Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and others. Mr. Lefkowitz has collaborated with artists such as Holly Hughes and Eric Bogosian, who describes him as "smart [and] funny, with a gentle streak of hell-fire anger. My kind of guy." He has performed Help Wanted at DC's Capital Fringe Festival, Woolly Mammoth (where the run was extended for two additional weeks), and Chicago's Single File Festival. Help Wanted received its New York premiere at Access Theater in early 2006.
• Friday: Fells Point Corner Theatre:  LIFE X 3 by Yasmina Reza is as witty and acerbic as ART as it examines the contrasting worlds of the scientist's search for the mysteries of the universe, while being incapable of dealing with the domestic realities of everyday life.   LIFE X 3 is directed by Richard Dean Stover, a twenty year veteran of Baltimore theatre and long time member of the FPCT Board of Directors.  In addition to LIFE X 3, Rick has also directed The Boys Next Door, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Eyes for Consuela, Black Snow, Vast Difference and Cosi, all at FPCT.  Featured in the cast are Vic Cheswick, Shannon Miller, Adele Russell and Mike Ware.  The show runs January 26 – February 18, 2007, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 2:00 p.m.  Call 410-276-7837 for reservations.  Tickets are $15, Seniors/Students $12.  See BWW Discount above! (Review to be posted TBA)

CONTINUING THIS WEEK:

• Everyman Theatre presents the Baltimore/DC premiere of Lee Blessing's play Going to St. Ives, running through February 25.  The play stars Lynn Chavis and Kimberly Schraf, and is directed by Juanita Rockwell.  Tickets are $17 - $30, and may be purchased online at www.everymantheatre.org. (Review posted 01/20/2007)
• Spotlighters brings the classic comedy Mary, Mary to its space through February 4.  Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM, Sundays at 3PM, with a special Thursday performance at 8PM on February 1.  The show, directed by Sherrionne Brown, features Steve Avelleyra, Christina Enoch, Roy Hammond, Denis L. Latkowski, and Vicki Margolis.  Avelleyra, Enoch and Latkowski were featured in last year's And Then There Were None, and Margolis was featured in Mobtown's The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?  For tickets and information, go to www.spotlighters.org. (Review posted 01/09/2007)
• Toby's Dinner Theatre of Columbia presents a return of its summer smash hit musical, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Musical.  It stars award-winning actor Matthew Schleigh as Buddy Holly.  The show runs through February 18.  For more information, go to www.tobysdinnertheatre.com.
• Vagabond Players presents the musical review, Listen to My Heart: The Songs of David Friedman through February 11 at its Fells Point space.  The show, directed by Tom Wyatt, features a cast of 9 that includes Jeff Burch, Ken Ewing, Chuck Graham, Dan Johnson, Holly Pasciullo, Elizabeth Ruddy,Alyson Shirk, Beth Weber, Dennis Wood, and Shannon Wollman.  Mr. Wood and Mr. Burch alternate in their roles.  Performances are Fri & Sat at 8PM, Sun at 2PM.  Tickets are $20.00.  Call 410-563-9135 for information and reservations.  (Review posted 01/16/2007)

CLOSING THIS WEEK:

• Baltimore Shakespeare Festival presents Paula Vogel's Desdemona, A Play About a Handkerchief through January 28th at the Elizabethan stage at St. Mary's.  Performances run Thursday – Saturdays at 8PM and Sundays at 5PM.  Thursday performances are $15.00, and $25.00 regular Friday – Sunday, with $20.00 tickets for teachers, students, seniors and artists of any genre with ID.  See www.baltimoreshakespeare.org  or call 410-366-8596 for details and to order advanced tickets.  (Review posted 01/13/2007)

COMING SOON TO BALTIMORE.BROADWAY WORLD.COM:

• Unsung heroes for January!
• Plus reviews of new shows at CenterStage and the long awaited Wicked!
• An interview with Mamma Mia and CenterStage star E. Faye Butler!
• An interview with CenterStage's Josh Lefkowitz!

Thank you for reading!  James