“When I was 10 years old, I thought it was so awesome that there was a musical called ‘Urinetown,’ ” says Noah Sterling.
Four years later, Sterling is a sophomore at The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry where, next weekend, he’ll play the villainous Caldwell B. Cladwell in “Urinetown.”
“I play him as your stereotypical bad guy, the guy you love to hate,” says Sterling, who lives in New Rochelle and is perfecting his sneer.
Cladwell is the boss at UGC, the company that forces people to pay to … well … you know the title.
If you’ve never been in “Les Miz,” how do you learn the musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel?
You can pore over the script and music books and wear out the cast album.
YouTube makes dozens of clips – of varying quality – available at the click of a mouse, including four minutes of “Les Miz” performed by stop-action Lego figures.
Those were not the words director Paul Romanello wanted to hear when he arrived at a recent rehearsal of “Jesus Christ Superstar” at Salesian High School in New Rochelle.
The hits just kept on coming.
One of the apostles was hungry. Not one to wait for loaves and fishes, he headed for McDonald’s.
Pilate had volleyball.
Herod, on a break, is texting his friends.
Romanello, in his first year directing at the Catholic boys school, rolls with every punch.
“Grease,” a rock and roll comedy set in 1959 about a group of fun-loving and restless high school students, will be presented at SUNY Rockland Community College by the Performing Arts Department and Campus Players. Tickets are available at the door.
We are pleased to tell you about a very special series sponsored by The Armonk Players’ benefactor, Friends of the North Castle Public Libarry, Inc., and taking place at the North Castle Public Library in conjunction with the Aquila Theatre Company as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Page+Stage is a four-part program examining the process of bringing a classic work (“The Iliad”) to performance. Actors should take special note that on April 26, Aquila will hold an acting workshop that will be followed by a performance of “The Iliad.” There is also a lecture and reading group sessions with NYU scholar Peter Meineck.
Studio Theatre Project—a brand-new theater group in Larchmont—is holding auditions for its spring production: “Durang!” one-ct plays by Christopher Durang.
Auditions will be held March 1 from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m., at the studio (4 Gilder St., Larchmont), and adults of any age are invited to audition. Callbacks, if necessary, will be held on March 2 at 8:30 p.m. Check studiofmt.com for more details or contact the studio with any questions, at 914-630-7108.
It’s just nine miles from Purchase College to Mamaroneck’s Emelin Theatre.
But for the Purchase Repertory Theatre’s junior company, this weekend’s trip to the Emelin will take them a lot farther than down the Hutch to Mamaroneck Avenue and Library Lane. It will teach them a useful skill: How to create a show in one place and take it elsewhere.
Tomorrow, the company — which has always performed in Purchase’s Abbott Kaplan theater — opens a weekend run of David Ives’ “All in the Timing,” eight one-act plays.
Auditions will be held tomorrow from 11 to noon for “The Wizard of Oz” at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden March 26 – April 5.
The National Tour of The Wizard of Oz will be holding auditions for 12 local children to perform the roles of “munchkins” when it comes to New York City next month. Participants will learn a choreographed song and dance routine of “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” and the announcement of the winning group will be made for this once in a lifetime opportunity to perform onstage at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden.
News came yesterday that Tom Kitt’s “Next to Normal” will come to Broadway, with much of the same cast as its Off-Broadway run, minus Brian d’Arcy James, who’s now playing Shrek on Broadway.
That means a trip back to the Great White Way for Jennifer Damiano of White Plains (she was the youngest original member of the cast of “Spring Awakening”) — and a Broadway debut for Clarkstown South graduate Adam Chanler-Berat of New City.
Here’s my story from the show’s Off-Broadway run, almost exactly one year ago.
“Next to Normal” will begin previews March 27 for a Broadway opening April 15 at the Longacre Theater, 220 W. 48th St.
There are a couple of interesting aspects to this Broadway opening.
First, the show went from Off-Broadway’s Second Stage to the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., before being tapped for Broadway. Typically, shows start away from New York, come to Off-Broadway and transfer to Broadway.
If you’re not familiar with “Runaways,” Elizabeth Swados’ musical about city kids and the street – on stage this week at School of the Holy Child in Harrison – you’re not alone.
“Schooling Giacomo,” Edwin Knipe Jr.’s memory play that had its world premiere at Garrison’s Depot Theater, will give Off-Broadway a try, when it begins previews March 6 before its official press opening March 15 at the American Theatre of Actors, 314 W. 54th St., between Eighth and Ninth avenues.
Catch Wednesday’s “In the Wings Live” chat about the technical side of high school musicals with Catherine Gmoser of Tuckahoe High School, Andrew Gmoser, technical coordinator at Nyack and Tuckahoe (and lighting designer at Westchester Broadway Theatre) and Ed Steele, director at Fox Lane High School. The live Webcast runs from 3:30 to 4. Go to www.lohud.com/inthewingslive and you can ask questions of the panel or share stories of technical hits and misses. You can check out past installments of the ongoing series—on choosing the musical, auditions and rehearsal— here.
Here’s yesterday’s In the Wings Live chat with Nyack’s Joe Egan and Greg Baccarini and Pelham’s John Orefice and Tom Beck.
Watch this and you’ll learn some of the tricks and tools that directors use to help students get ready for opening night. These directors also perform at times. Find out how performing changes their perspective as directors. And what do they do if, with one week to go, the show is still a shambles?
To play the chat, click TURN ME ON below and, when the player shows up, press the ON DEMAND BUTTON at the bottom of the screen. Then choose the top item in the list. (Also available are chats about how musicals are chosen and about auditions.)
Posted by Peter D. Kramer on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 10:04 am | Print
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If it involves theater in any way -- from grade-schoolers learning
Shakespeare to high school musicals to Broadway veterans getting into
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Peter D. Kramer has loved theater his whole life. A Rockland County native and 19-year employee of The Journal News, Pete relishes his current role, alerting theater lovers to the possibilities and talking to artists young and old about their craft. A former actor, director, technical director, ticket-taker and bon vivant, Pete has put a theater life behind him, living vicariously through those he interviews.