Sunday, November 30, 2008

Max is singin' backup in the Big Apple


As Jim Kershner reported in today's Spokesman-Review, p. D5, Max Kumangai-McGee has made the jump from North Central High, the Civic, and CdA Summer Theatre to off-Broadway. A Nov. 9 Playbill article places Max as one of the backup singers in a spoof musical entitled "What's That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling." David Pittu (*Is He Dead?*) plays a musical composer who's not nearly as good as he thinks he is -- and who's inflicting all the songs that never made it into any of his musicals upon us -- and David Bartlett (The Drowsy Chaperone) plays his biggest fan. Kumangai and two other singers get to perform these "memorable" nuggets of song.

The musical's Website is here.
Read the letter (and sample lyrics) under "Jacob Sterling Fan Club" -- they're a hoot.
[photo: Max Kumangai in Big River at the Univ. of Michigan, Oct. 2007)
SEE ALSO (added Dec. 3): this article with photos.

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Friday, November 28, 2008

Dec. 1-2 auditions at Civic


for *The Women of Lockerbie* by Deborah Brevoort
Directed by Sara Edlin-Marlowe
auditions: Monday-Tuesday, Dec. 1-2, at 6:30 pm
at the Civic's Studio Theater
5 women (appearing ages 40-70)
2 men (appearing ages 40-60)
Cold readings
Performances: Jan. 30-Feb. 22, 2009 (Thursdays through Sundays)
Call: 325-1413
Visit: www.Spokane
CivicTheatre.com

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

(Not) "Alas, poor Yorick"

... but "Break a leg, Andre."
If only he still had one.

As a child, Andre Tchaikowsky lived through the Holocaust. In 1982, he died at age 46 from cancer.
Recently, he appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

That's because, in his will, he specified that he wanted his skull used onstage during a performance of a particular scene in *Hamlet."
He got his wish, reports Simon de Bruxelles in the Times of London. But not any longer.

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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

auditions at Ignite


Because of some difficulty in securing rights that were beyond Ignite's control, the January show has been changed from *12 Angry Jurors* to *The Cemetery Club* by Ivan Menchell — a comedy about a group of widows.

Director Theresa Kappus needs 1 M and 5 W for this readers theater presentation.
Auditions on Thursday, Dec. 4, at 7 pm at the Blue Door Theater, 815 W. Garland Ave.
Cold readings.
Performances: Jan. 9-11
Visit www.ignitetheatre.org
E-mail: info@ignitetheatre.org
Call: Rebecca Cook (509) 993-6540

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Monday, November 24, 2008

Parody of *Godot* (for waiting until March at Interplayers)



Your lucky taxicab is on the way!
(Courtesy of Dylan Reid and the Modern Times Stage Company in Toronto.)

For information on other *Godot* productions, see the Oct. 16 Stage Thrust post with the picture of Nathan Lane.
Seattle Rep will also be doing *Godot* in January.

[ photo: from a production of *Godot* in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2000 ]

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Scrooge and Three Spirits

*A Christmas Carol: The Musical* (partial review)

We’ve all heard the Scrooge story, so you’d better do it up right, give it some added value.
Director Troy Nickerson’s production at Spokane Civic Theatre (through Dec. 20) chooses the whiz-bang route for dressing up A Christmas Carol: unexpected entrances, surprises with lighting and sound, an emphasis on spectacle throughout.
Lynn Ahrens and Alan Menken’s musical Christmas Carol is less Scrooge-centric than special-effects-centric. The oohs and ahhs aren’t about the injustice of the Cratchits’ plight; they’re about the sound and lights. Some of the social-justice theme drains away, but there’s compensation in all the wonderful and unexpected things that are happening onstage. We keep getting reminded, in other words, about how things could be — but only if we conquer the selfish Scrooge inside us all and open our hearts instead. It’s a pretty vision of what Christmas should be.
The set, costumes, special effects, choreography and direction in Nickerson’s show are all exceptional.
Patrick McHenry-Kroetch may be the tallest Scrooge on record, which makes him all the more menacing to the ragamuffin boys who extend their tin cups toward him, asking politely for handouts. McHenry-Kroetch shuffles his feet like a codger and cringes comically behind bedposts, but he’s an observer on the periphery for much of the night.
As for the final tableau, with Tiny Tim hoisted aloft, waving his cap and wishing blessings on us all, and with Scrooge’s upturned face, radiant with the zeal of a man newly converted to compassion — it gets me every time.

(For the full review, check out Wednesday's *Inlander.* Photo: Heidi Gnos Kuban, David Gigler and Ryan Patterson as Spirits Past, Present and Future; in foreground, as Scrooge, Patrick McHenry-Kroetch)

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Interplayers has got it *Together Again*


Interplayers is alive again -- the nearly full house, Joan Welch herself up there in the top row, the lively opening scene of Reed McColm's old/new Christmas play, the Spokane-obligatory but still nice-to-see standing ovation ... it felt like the turning of a corner, a rejuvenation.
It remains to be seen if playgoers will similarly turn out in droves for, say, the bleakness of Beckett when it's still gray and slushy (*Godot* in March at this same theater), but for one night at least, it felt like the Interplayers of old: a solid comedy, buzz in the lobby, people enjoying themselves.
Casual playgoers like their festive comedies for the holidays, and McColm delivers with *Together Again for the First Time*: a blended family that doesn't really get along, a bunch of wise-crackers who are hiding problems like bossiness and disappointment in love, being controlling and being in denial.
Two actors middle-aged, seven in their late teens or 20s: This show has done well in schools, as McColm acknowledges, because it has lots of age-appropriate roles for the college crowd. Better yet, it should appeal to twenty-something playgoers, because this isn't syrupy-sweet Christmas fare mired in long-ago nostalgic cultural assumptions of their grandparents. (*Star Wars* had only been out for nine years when McColm wrote this play, and it's used as Meaningful Analogy by the outsider-psychologist character [Damon Abdallah, likable and self-assertive]. The two brothers in the play treat *Star Trek* as almost current, but the mind-meld wrestling was amusing and not too dated.)
McColm knows his tricks: referring to outside events and characters in order to make a unit-set show feel as if it's part of a larger world; characters ignored by a swirl of characters, acting out their own little dramas and crying out for attention; episodes punctuated by out-of-left-field stingers from over there by the Christmas tree; throwaway jokes and gestures that round out characterizations without being underscored heavily (look at this! significant action over here!).
Bobo's away from his copy of the script just now, but despite having read and reread it and seen the movie (and now this first-ever professional production), he wants to go back over it, pore over the lines, recapture the zingers that brought delighted chuckles.
It was inevitable that, for a cast of nine that's heavy on the young'uns, a few would be making their professional stage debuts. But despite some missteps and mis-timings (oddly under-emphasized lines, slight bobbles with delivery or the logistics of props), this is a strong ensemble.

Karen Kalensky, fine as the Martha Stewart wanna-be, was convincing in all her domestic fussiness. But where she really shone was in confrontations with her sons: hitting them on the shoulder and calling them "lumps," blaming them for their flaws in ways that made it plain for all to see that actually, she was still venting her anger at the man she'd divorced eight (or more) years ago.
McColm himself, as the addled patriarch, nicely blends an Archie Bunker mentality with an ability to forbid further conversation when feelings are getting hurt too much: He's both obtuse and kindly, and it's an interesting combination to watch.
But the play, more than the movie, focuses on Roger -- the older of the matriarch's two sons, too much like his irresponsible father -- and Thomas Stewart pulls off the resentment and the compassion, the wise-ass self-loathing. Stewart took command of the stage as the architect (and other roles) in the season-opening *Dining Room." Stewart bites off hurtful one-liners, joshes around like a little boy, vents his anger, opens up his own wounds, and somehow also ends up making the play's most compassionate gesture. With humor and pain, he hits all the notes of a complex role.

All the other "kids" have their moments, and one virtue of McColm's script is that it achieves character revelation without resorting often to the predictable technique of the isolated, self-revealing monologue.

The movie has different scenes (bickering at Christmas dinner, the taping of a TV special that disintegrates because of smoldering family tensions) and less chaos (there are more two-shots and three-shots in the DVD, more F2F confrontations). McColm says that he deliberately upended his college professor's advice to write a comedy that starts slowly and has a chaotic final scene -- he and director Jack Bannon deserve much credit for an opening 20 minutes that builds and cross-cuts in dizzying ways, so well that it'd be well worth a second visit just to catch all the nuances.

At intermission, Dannie, Wife of Bobo (woman of long-suffering), made the often-heard comment that McColm's characters "act just like my family."
Bobo muttered something about how the play's universal like that -- a lot of people see their own family in this show.
To which, Kylie, Daughter of Bobo (wise at age 12), rejoined:
"I didn't think that many people knew our family."

Which is a nice compliment for McColm and the Interplayers cast to receive. *Together Again* shows us facets of ourselves - the pettiness and gratutious vengefulness, but also the cleverness and capacity to forgive and regenerate. It's a pleasant, fun, well-acted, sobering, crack-you-up kind of Christmas comedy. And it doesn't hurt that one of our own wrote it and tussled with it for about as long as many of the cast members have been alive, and that it has graduated to Lifetime and is serving in the meantime as a nice diversion in Spokane's downtown living room.
You have until Dec. 6 to see it. Afterwards, you'll be surprised at how well Reed McColm knows your family.

[photo: Reed McColm, at BooksInMotion.com]

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Friday, November 21, 2008

*Spelling Bee* cancelled


The three performances of *The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,* scheduled for Nov. 29-30 at the INB Center, have been cancelled.

According to Lerria Schuh, marketing director for WestCoast Entertainment: "In 21 years of presenting national tours, we have never had to cancel an engagement.
"The national tour of *Spelling Bee* has been derailed by the effects of the recent California wildfires and is in the process of re-organizing their engagements in southern California. As a result, the tour will be unable to route back to Spokane for their planned performances on Thanksgiving weekend. There is a slight possibility for a re-date in 2009, but at this time, the producer's office was unable to confirm that."

If you bought tickets online or if you are a Best of Broadway subscriber, you'll automatically be refunded. If, however, you purchased at a TicketsWest outlet, you have to return there within 30 days or else mail to TicketsWest, 720 W Mallon Ave, Spokane WA 99201.

[photo: from Michael Unger at www.ungerware.net/prodlistfr.htm ]

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Visit inlander.com today!


Bobo has finally been hired by *The Inlander*!

Three and a half years after beginning his attempt to present an alternative to the alternative to the *Spokesman-Review,* the powers that be at *The Inlander* have finally condescended to admit Bobo into the hallowed halls of their official Website. They've put him on their fancy-schmancy-but-still-in-beta homepage.

So — to return to the blog that you're already at (?!) — steer your browser to
inlander.com and click on the start page's "Arts & Culture" link. Then just scroll down a bit and click on the "Stage Thrust" icon in the left-hand column.
You will be right back where you started, and you will know the place for the first time.

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Being fair to Christmas fare

Andy Field in *The Guardian* complains that everything in theater at Christmastime is boring and sentimental.

But Bobo rather likes everything "from *A Christmas Carol* through to *It's a Wonderful Life* [and] *Love Actually.* He'll even admit to having repeatedly and unashamedly "succumbed to the pull of the Capra/Dickens tendency."
It's possible to be too jaded, Andy. Beware the Scrooge who lies within us all.

Anyway, as a prod to those programming alternative Christmas productions for December '09 (and Bobo thinks that local theaters have done a good job in recent years of not simply programming the same old same old), here's a link to an RSC Yule-themed production, Anthony Neilson 's *God in Ruins.*

Added on Dec. 13: A review by Christopher Isherwood in the N.Y. Times of Paula Vogel's new (historica) Yuletide play, "A Civil War Christmas," at the Long Wharf.

[photo: "Drunk Santa" from getoutdoors.com]

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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

*A Christmas Carol: The Musical*

Nov. 21-Dec. 20, 2008
at Spokane Civic Theatre
with Gavin Smith as Jacob Marley and Patrick McHenry-Kroetch as Scrooge

Tiny Tim at Spokane Civic Theatre

*A Christmas Carol: The Musical*
by Lynn Ahrens, Alan Menken and Mike Ockrent
at Spokane Civic Theatre
Nov. 21-Dec. 20, 2008
directed by Troy Nickerson
choreographed by Troy Nickerson and Cameron Lewis
musical direction by Trudy Harris
executive artistic director: Yvonne A.K. Johnson

*Together Again for the First Time* at Interplayers

Reed McColm's play
at Spokane Interplayers Ensemble, Nov. 20-Dec. 7, 2008
directed by Jack Bannon
Karen Kalensky, consulting artistic director

with (from left, and with apologies for any misattributions), on couch: Jimmy-James Pendleton as Jason, Karen Kalensky as Audrey, Reed McColm as Max and Maggie Wicken as Kaye; standing, from left: Bethany Hart as Sandra, Micah Hansen as Brenda, Thomas Stewart as Roger, Christine Creswell as Chinelle, and Damon Abdallah as Carey

Roger vs. Max: Together (and at it) Again

Reed McColm's 1985 comedy, *Together Again for the First Time,* in its 51st (but first professional) production
Spokane Interplayers Ensemble
Spokane, Wash.
Nov. 20-Dec. 7,2008
directed by Jack Bannon

with, from left: Thomas Stewart, Karen Kalensky, Jimmy-James Pendleton, Damon Abdallah, Bethany Hart and Reed McColm

Roger and Brenda

Thomas Stewart and Micah Hansen in *Together Again for the First Time*
at Interplayers, Nov.-Dec. '08

Monday, November 17, 2008

(Not) Making it as an actor in Seattle


Laurence Ballard has been a very talented actor in Seattle for many years — and he still can't make a living there, so he has left town.
An examination of how actors don't get paid much -- and of how theater boards just don't get it at all.

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Saturday, November 15, 2008

Civic's one-acts: Buy your tickets now



You have until Nov. 23 to catch some of Spokane's best recent stage performances in the double bill playing in the Studio Theater.
Infrequent theater-goers especially should go.
{See previous posts here on Oct. 28.]
Whichever your gender, you'll profit from the entertaining study of male one-upmanship that is Daniel MacIvor's "Never Swim Alone." Even better, it achieves most of its effects in ways that are particular to live performance. If you want to see what theater can do and movies can't, get into the "Swim."
In the opener, "Graceland" by Ellen Byron, two distinct women face off three days before the opening of Elvis' Graceland mansion. They bicker, they reconcile, they reveal secrets. Kathie Doyle-Lipe discards her comic mannerisms to turn in a serious performance that's convincing about her character's devotion to the memory of Elvis in the face of a less-than-ideal marriage. But the revelation here is Ashley Cooper's affecting, Southern-drawl eccentricities as Rootie, the too-young Bayou wife who has put up with too much from her husband and who's now determined to put everything she has into Elvis-worship. Director George Green wisely chooses to keep Cooper remote, isolated and motionless during Rootie's big self-revelation monologue near the end. Nothing innovative here, but both actors are good enough to make us feel the joy they feel over sharing a Mallomar or three. The rockin'-out-Elvis-medley dancin' was infectious, too.
Bobo's just gotta rave about "Never Swim Alone": Sure, this show's exaggerated to make a point, but if you want to know the silly/destructive kind of alpha-dog thoughts that go through straight men's minds all the time (without necessarily acting on them), this is your show.
In a show that requires lots of split-second timing, there was very little that was mistimed. As the eye-candy referee in the red one-piece bathing suit, Lauren Waterbury was fetching and mischievous; the stylized swimming sequence brought stature to her character, but she was also flirty and fun in the way she judged all the rounds of competition between the two men.
It can be off-putting, how much MacIvor uses repetition and doubled, simultaneous lines -- in performance, as opposed to on the page, it seemed over the line, excessive. But bear with him, because it's stylization that pays off later.
Yvonne A.K. Johnson took over directing this macho-dog production from a man who had to step out because of other commitments, but the show retains a cutthroat masculine tone. Much praise to her for varying the rounds, shifting the tone from comic to shocking, and for the show's haunting final image.
George Green and Luke Barats make a great, funny, fuck-you-too pair. Their performances, always angling for the upper hand, are full of insincere "compliments," one-liner put-downs, and grasping at any advantage (whether physical or intellectual, sexual or imagined, refashioned from shared memories or just made up). They've choreographed a fight sequence that drew audible gasps from playgoers (and not just the guy getting pummeled onstage).
There's so much going on in MacIvor's scripts, and so many insightful moments created by Barats and Green, that this show easily would reward a second viewing. But at least, make a point of at least seeing it once.
These two shows have been playing to two-thirds-full houses in the Civic's black box. Spokane should bust down the doors between now and next Sunday.

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Friday, November 14, 2008

*The Government Inspector* at SFCC



through Nov. 16 at the Spartan Theater, Bldg. 5, SFCC
directed by William Marlowe
Friday-Saturday at 7:30 pm; Sunday at 2 pm (get in for $2 and two cans of food)
A play about political corruption is always timely. For this particular version of Maxim Gogol's 1836 play director William Marlowe has the assistance of Daniel Varavin, who was born in Uzbekistan, has lived in Moscow and acted in two Russian-language productions of this same play.
Marlowe has devised a wonderful pile-out-of-the-trunk, clowns-in-a-compact-car kind of opening to create a commedia dell-arte, improvisational feel to this farcical play. Sometimes the farce feels overdone and strained, but the cast also gets a great deal right.
Marlowe has borrowed a large revolve, intended for the never-was ARt production of *Doubt,* for this show, allowing him to parade characters along the front edge of the stage while interior and exterior scenes are being swapped.
As with many college productions, the talent is concentrated in the lead roles. As the Mayor, Brandon Montang showed great range: hysteria, deviousness, hauteur, befuddlement. He needed to be over-the-top in his final tantrum and was. As the wisecracking servant, Joe Pekala (a North Central product) was an unsightly beanpole (tall and in a comically delightful, godawful plaid suit); he captured the comedy by not overdoing it and by keeping a modicum of wisdom underneath the smart-ass exterior. And as Khlestakov, the tatterdemalion joy-boy who lucks into a situation where everyone seems deluded into thinking that he's an important and influential government official (and then greedily capitalizes on it), Chad Herrmann has great energy and ne'er-do-well spirit. He's exasperated but thinking ahead, at first unsure of himself but then quickly evolves into a con man without conscience.
Put it this way: Bobo would love to see any of these three guys onstage again. They're good.
In general, the cast does too much comic mugging. Better to treat the absurd situations as serious.
The twins (Jeremiah Hatch as Bobchinsky, Andrew Parish as Dobchinsky), both disguised in Groucho Marx glasses and schnozzes, accomplished some clever physical comedy. Even better, they blended timidity and arrogance -- they showed us the real people underneath the manic exteriors.
*Govt. Inspector* is too much a one-joke play: We get one over-awed citizen after another (ooh, be nice to the big, bad bureaucrat -- be sure to bribe him, too), and the joke can get tiring. Some visual gags are overdone (sneezing into an ear-trumpet, comic double-takes milked to the max and then beyond).
Bobo learned from watching this how voice is even more important than appearance in the theater: Several cast members slurred phrases and had poor diction. In contrast, others had distinctive, even booming voices. If you can't be heard, the play falls apart ...
Tonally, this is a difficult play: jokey setups with serious consequences. The SFCC cast didn't always attain this difficult balance. Gogol was after govt. corruption, but also the ways in which we live in denial about ourselves.
The long Russian names are a stumbling block. Bobo kept thinking, this has a lawless, Wild West feel to it -- why not produce it among the tumbleweeds and give everyone names like Marshall Dillon and Miss Kitty, just to plug into recognizable types?
SFCC's *Govt. Inspector* has its dry spells and many tedious jokes, but it also has a boffo opener, a great (and justly famous) freeze-frame at the very end, and several strong performances, all augmented by better-than-average (for comm. college) costumes and sets.
You have three chances left to see this show; it closes Sunday afternoon, Nov. 16, at 2 pm.

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*Othello* auditions, Nov. 24-25


at SFCC with director William Marlowe
auditions are Mon-Tues, Nov. 24-25, at 1 pm in Bldg. 5, Spartan Theatre, SFCC, 3410 W. Fort George Wright Dr. in Spokane
Prepare a two- to three-minute monologue "that is consistent with the theme of the production."
Call 533-3592
The beast with two backs will make an appearance on March 5-15, 2009 (during the actual performances).

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Financial gloom

Chris Gray in the Houston Press reports on declining arts funding nationwide. A snip:

"Inevitably, the worsening financial situation has begun to spread to the arts. The New York Times reported last Tuesday that venerable companies such as New York's Metropolitan Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have already been forced to cut back in areas like number of rehearsals and even health insurance. Upcoming performances have already been canceled in Detroit and Pasadena, California.

Fine-arts organizations find themselves in an especially sticky set of crosshairs. Besides the obvious fact that leaner times generally make grants and donations harder to come by — from individuals, foundations and corporate patrons alike — the endowments that safeguard these groups' financial security are often tied up in investment portfolios, not exactly the most stable sector of the market lately. The Times reported the Philadelphia Orchestra's endowment, for example, shed $60 million in a few short months."

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Artistic director resigns over Calif.'s Prop. 8

KCRA in Sacramento reports that the artistic director of California Musical Theater, "the state's largest nonprofit musical theater company," has resigned because he supported Prop. 8 and even contributed $1,000 to it, even though he has a sister who's gay and in a committed domestic relationship. He's LDS.
What Bobo infers from Scott Eckern's statement (which doesn't specify the grounds of his opposition) is that he voted his religious beliefs on a civic issue. But Bobo also thinks that piling on like this doesn't help the cause of gay-marriage supporters, who may well appear too intolerant in this particular instance. Your thoughts?
See also this New York Times article.

And have you YouTubed Keith Olbermann's impassioned Special Comment on MSNBC imploring those who voted in favor of the gay-marriage ban in Calif. to change their minds? Inspiring; well said.

added Nov. 18: Adam Feldman rightly says that pro-gay activists are, in effect, blacklisting people because they find their political or religious views objectionable. Bobo read somewhere (sorry, can't remember) that conservative campaigners were months ahead of the over-confident left in Calif. — spreading lies like "schools will indoctrinate your innocent children into the heinous ways of homosexuals" and other such nonsense -- but apparently liberals didn't organize on Prop. 8 until two weeks before the election, when it was too late. Gay people will win this debate eventually, but justice deferred is justice denied, etc. Still, browbeating people of conscience is no way to win support from moderates.


(Bobo is strongly opposed to Prop. 8; he placed the "Yes" logo here, ironically and for its shock value.)

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Pay What You Can at Lake City


Lake City Playhouse, 1320 E. Garden Ave. in Coeur d'Alene
*A Few Good Men* continues through Nov. 15. And on Saturday night — whereas tickets usually go for $16 ($13 for seniors, $10 for kids 12 and younger) — the closing night ticket price will be ... pay what you can. Just show up at 7 pm for the 7:30 show; tickets sold at the door.
(Compare the Oct. 27 post here, Free Theater Night.)
(Seating capacity at Lake City, a converted '60s-era Mormon church, is 172.)
Artistic Director Brian Doig reports that for every production, they offer 100 free tickets to at-risk kids in the area, thanks to the generous support of U.S. Bank and the Florence Wasmer Fund for Arts & Culture of the Inland Northwest.
Visit www.lakecityplayhouse.org.
(photo: Aaron Sorkin, author of *A Few Good Men*)

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

*Together Again for the First Time*


at Spokane Interplayers Ensemble, Nov. 20-Dec. 6
Tickets: $10-$21
by Reed McColm

Set in Spokane at Christmas; first written in 1985. Comic in-fighting ensues when two middle-aged newlyweds (McColm himself and Karen Kalensky), who have already been married for seven years, bring their young-adult children together (again, for the first time) for the holidays. "Matters only get worse with the unexpected arrival of an ex-boyfriend, an unannounced television broadcast, and the revelation of a dark family secret." The 85-minute straight-to-DVD movie version, filmed last year in Provo, Utah, was released on Oct. 28. McColm's 23-year-old play is receiving its first professional stage production here, at just about the same time as the movie's premiere -- which may be some kind of world record. Buy the DVD here. More info here. A review is here.

directed by Jack Bannon
The Interplayers cast includes:
Reed McColm, Karen Kalensky, Damon Abdallah, Thomas Stewart, Jimmy Pendleton, Christine Cresswell, Bethany Hart, Maggie Wicken, Micah Hanson

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Monday, November 10, 2008

*No, No, Nanette* auditions, Dec. 15-16


auditions at Spokane Civic Theatre on Monday-Tuesday, Dec. 15-16, at 6:30 pm; callbacks on Dec. 17

Book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel
Music by Vincent Youmans
Lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach

Direction and Choreography by Jean Hardie
Musical Direction by Carolyn Jess

Roles needed (both dancing and non-dancing): up to a dozen men and perhaps 15 women
Prepare a one-minute musical number from another show. Be ready for cold readings. Bring tap shoes (if you have them).

Director/Choreographer Jean Hardie will provide advance preparation in the form of free tap dance clinics on two Saturdays, Dec. 6 and Dec. 13 from 10 am-noon.

Rehearsals will begin after Christmas
Performances: Feb. 20-March 15, 2009

This swingin' tap-dancing musical comedy reveals one girl's mission to Atlantic City for a few kicks before heading down the aisle, featuring the timeless musical numbers "Tea for Two" and "I Want to Be Happy."

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Friday, November 07, 2008

Two musicals on the way


A Variety article indicates that Universal Pictures has acquired the movie rights for *In the Heights* and *Wicked.*
Lin-Manuel Miranda (pictured) created a musical story, with book by one-time Pulitzer finalist Quiara Alegria Hudes -- about a guy in a multiethnic neighborhood in Brooklyn's Washington Heights neighborhood who wins the lottery but then decides that staying home is more attractive than moving somewhere else to live large.

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