Laya Rajan has a busy fall ahead.

The Yorktown High School senior runs a not-for-profit company—doesn’t EVERY high-school senior have a not-for-profit dance company?—called Dance Against Drugs (DAD, www.danceagainstdrugs.org).

State Sen. Jeffrey Klein will host the 15th Annual Senior Appreciation Days at Westchester Broadway Theatre, welcoming the winners of his Senior Appreciation Days Raffle. The raffle, open to everyone over age 65 in the 34th Senate District, drew more than 2,000 entries for a chance to win an all-expenses-paid afternoon at the dinner theater, along with a three course hot lunch, and a very special senior resource fair. Klein and 1,000  winners will gather at the theater on Sept. 3 and 4 to see “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!”

It is a holiday tradition across the Lower Hudson Valley: Purchase College’s “Nutcracker.” Open auditions are coming up soon for children. Here’s a link to a story I wrote a few winters ago.

If you and yours are so inclined, here’s the information on auditions.

Boys and girls ages 5-13 are invited to audition on Saturday, Sept. 12 to perform in the Purchase College Conservatory of Dance production of Nutcracker ’09. Last year more than 200 area children participated in this popular ballet which showcases exciting choreography by the Conservatory faculty.

Yorktown Stage’s November production of “The Wizard of Oz” will be holding auditions by appointment only at the theater at 1974 Commerce Street on Sept. 13 and 14, with callbacks on the 15th.

My LoHud colleague, D. Scott Faubel, has been able to carve out a nice little gig for himself: journalist by day, actor by night. I’m only slightly envious of his ability to merge both, but, hey, I have the best job on the planet, so no complaining here.

The latest of D. Scott’s efforts is “Twelve Angry Men” at Curtain Call at the Dressing Room Theater in Stamford, opening Sept. 11 at 8 and closing after the October 4 show at 2 p.m., a nice run. Tickets are $26 ($18 for seniors; $13 for students) and the theater is at 1349 Newfield Ave., Stamford, Conn.

Call 203-461-6358.

Howard Meyer is a busy guy. Besides leading Axial Theatre in Pleasantville, he teaches acting and playwrighting, he acts and he writes. Oh, and he’s a newlywed.

OK, I know this is a THEATER blog, but there’s plenty of drama involved in choral music, so here’s an audition notice I thought you might want to check out. And the “Messiah Sing” happens to take place on my birthday this year. Read more of this entry »

Their choice of material couldn’t be more different — one an edgy, issue-driven rock score; the other a bouncy sendup of classic Broadway — but two new groups are filling the same unexploited niche on the theatrical landscape in the Lower Hudson Valley.

Over the Moon Productions, which presents Jonathan Larson’s “Rent” tomorrow at Peekskill’s Paramount Center for the Arts, and Little Radical Theatrics, staging “Urinetown: The Musical” next week at the Schoolhouse in Croton Falls, are both creating theatrical homes for actors and singers in their last year of high school, in college or just out of college.

Their casts find themselves too old for youth theater and not ready or disposed to try their hand at professional work in New York City.

Catie Davis, a newly minted graduate of Peekskill High School who heads to NYU’s Tisch School in a week, started Over the Moon as a senior project with classmate Lauren Contard.

One of my happiest what-took-me-so-long discoveries last season was the excellent work being done on Anderson Hill Road in Purchase, by aspiring actors and actresses at Purchase College.

I’m heading to Elmsford tonight to check in on a new theater troupe—Little Radical Theatrics—which aims to fill a specific niche in the LoHud theater universe.

Axial Theatre not only develops new contemporary plays in a spirit of collaboration—it develops actors under Howard Meyer’s Acting Program.

I’ve been on Twitter for a while now. I use it to keep whoever’s interested up to date with where I’m going and what I’m seeing. Today, for example, I’m heading to White Plains to talk to Catie Davis and Devon James about Over the Moon Productions and their production of “RENT” this weekend. You can see the post below. But if you were following me on Twitter, you’d know I was headed there today! Just another way to keep in touch. Follow me at www.twitter.com/peterkramer.

When Mamaroneck’s Emelin Theater announced its dance series last month, I wrote something snarky here, like “I wish they’d do theater there again.”

Wish granted.

Most kids take the summer to recharge.

Peekskill’s Catie Davis and her friends are not like most kids.

This weekend, they kick off Over The Moon Productions, a not-for-profit theatre company, with the full Broadway version of Jonathan Larson’s “RENT” at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill.

It’s one night only, Saturday, Aug. 22 at 8 p.m.
Read more of this entry »

Sometimes, reading a play requires getting up and giving it a try.

Members of Brewster Theater Company’s play-reading group — The Armchair Actors — will be doing just that at their next meeting, Aug. 26, as they read and sing “Kiss Me, Kate,” Cole Porter’s musical take on “The Taming of the Shrew.”