Justin Arnold of Scarsdale, Brielle-Monet Lipstein of New City and Michael Herwitz of Irvington spent summers at Stagedoor Manor, an immersive theater camp that once hosted actors Zach Braff, Natalie Portman and Robert Downey Jr.

When Tony Carlin takes to the stage in “Rabbit Hole” at Hudson Stage Company this weekend, he’ll be doing what Carlins do.

It’s what his father, Tom Carlin, did.

And it’s what his mother — Tony-winner Frances Sternhagen, of “Sex and the City” and “E.R.” fame — and his five siblings continue to do.

The Carlins of New Rochelle are performers.

“Rabbit Hole,” David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, centers on Becca and Howie, a suburban couple grappling with the death of their child. Carlin is Howie; Susannah Schulman is Becca. Also featured are Lucy Martin (seen in Hudson Stage’s “Murderers”),  Theo Allyn and newcomer Brandon Gill, a recent graduate of Juilliard School.

When the White Plains Performing Arts Center scrapped “Hello, Dolly!” last year, it spelled the end of a great experiment, a home to classic but rarely performed Broadway musicals.

Today, the WPPAC and the Westchester Philharmonic announced a series of chamber concerts at the City Center mall venue next to the multiplex.

The concerts will be Sunday matinees and feature musicians from the orchestra, which has Itzhak Perlman as its artistic director.

On Dec. 6, a brass quintet — Wayne duMaine and Sycil Mathai on trumpet and Lawrence DiBello on horn, Michael Seltzer on trombone, and Ray Stewart on tuba — will perform works that the announcement says will range “from baroque to pops to holiday favorites.”

On Feb 28, the Philharmonic’s string quartet — concertmaster Robert Chausow and Michael Roth on violins; Jessica Troy on viola; and Eugene Moye on cello — will play Mendelssohn and Haydn.

On March 28,  Philharmonic percussionist Jim Saporito, pianist Ken Ascher and bassist Dick Sarpola play from The Great American Songbook and jazz originals from their new CD.

All concerts begin at 2 p.m. and WPPAC is exploring a brunch-menu arrangements with local restaurants. Single ticket are $35.  Discounts are available. Call 914-328-1600 or visit www.wppac.com.

As “Dad” in “Billy Elliot: The Musical” on Broadway, Greg Jbara is a bear of a man, a gruff miner who can’t understand what would make his son want to dance.

Greg Jbara, the actor, understands the impulse to move, to dance, to sing. He has it and he builds on it, continuing rehearsals long after taking home the Tony Award last June for best performance by a featured actor in a musical.

Jbara brought that impulse — and that Tony award — with him to Scarsdale High School last week to meet with a group of students with whom he shares a life experience: Like the Tony-winner, the cast of Scarsdale’s upcoming “Beauty and the Beast” knows what it’s like to be directed by Adrienne Meyer.

Meyer taught a young Jbara at Wayne Memorial High School in Michigan in the ’70s and here she was, 30 years later, getting a visit from her Tony-winning former student.

For the better part of three hours, Jbara talked shop with the student actors, covering diverse topics.

• On auditions. (Always go in knowing every line, he told the students, because there will be other actors who will know every line.)

• On taking his wife up on the stage to accept his Tony. (“I had no agenda, other than honoring my wife, because I wouldn’t have seen her the rest of the night. So she went everywhere with me right after I won the award. I got to spend the night with her and share the experience with her.”)

• On being a New York actor with an L.A. family. (He relies heavily on his laptop — fitted with iChat and Skype — to read to his boys and watch them go to sleep each night.)

• On networking. (“The friends you make when you’re starting out are the people who are going to help you down the road.”)

• On his big break. (“Getting into Juilliard. I wouldn’t have had the courage to come to New York without it.”)

Jbara said that when he conducts master classes at programs like Scarsdale’s, he sees himself back in school in Michigan.

“I see how fortunate these kids are to have someone like Adrienne, creating this opportunity, because all over the place the arts are gone. The funding is gone. I feel so fortunate to have grown up in a time when people were having babies and people were willing to pay the taxes to support arts in the public schools. It doesn’t exist anymore.”

School sports are important, Jbara said, but so are other arts-related skills, such as being in the choir, the band or building sets for a play.

“I get excited when I see there are still places where kids can go to school and have life experiences in the arts and figure out who they are.

“When those programs don’t exist, I can’t imagine the missed opportunities for young people,” he said.

“Our men’s chorus had 65 members — and half of them were the football team,” he says. “There was a passion and appreciation for the arts.”

After chatting with the students, Jbara watched as Meyer put them through their paces, with musical numbers “Be Our Guest,” “Kill the Beast,” “If I Can’t Love Her,” “Home,” and the title song. The musical runs Nov. 20, 21 and 22.

The actor stood in the aisle, arms behind his back, taking it all in and applauding after each number.

When it was over, Jbara sounded impressed. And Meyer beamed.

“I can’t believe you guys still have three weeks,” he told the cast. “You are amazing singers. I’m blown away.”

He complimented them on their diction and offered a bit of staging advice, suggesting that actors face the audience even though they’re talking to someone else on stage.

“We know you’re talking to each other because you’re both up there,” he told them.

At Juilliard, when actors would visit to talk with classes, Jbara would ask them why they act.

Some would give high-falutin’ answers — to change the world or some such reason — but Kevin Kline’s answer was refreshingly honest, Jbara said.

“He said, ‘Come on, if I didn’t like the sound of applause and the fact that everybody’s looking at me, I don’t know that I’d be in this business,’” Jbara recalled with a laugh.

Jbara said he is looking forward to a three-month break from “Billy Elliot” when he can be an L.A. father again and reconnect with his family without an Internet connection as the conduit.

In February, he’ll be on the big screen, in the film “Remember Me,” in which he plays Lena Olin’s husband and Robert Pattinson’s stepfather. The film, he predicted, will mark the emergence of a new star, the child actress Ruby Jerins, whom he compared to a young Dakota Fanning.

Jbara told the students to appreciate their moment.

“After working in the business,” he told them, “I still miss the professionalism of our productions in high school.”

The students peppered Jbara with questions.

About smoking on stage: (He smokes herbal cigarettes and inhales only six times per performance.)

About working with the Billy Elliot boys: (“They constantly raise the bar — and we can’t swear backstage.”)

About preparing to audition: (“The work of acting is the job of auditioning.”)

About nerves: (“I’d only get nervous if I wasn’t prepared, so I made sure to be prepared.”)

“I feel lucky to have seen you,” Jbara told the clearly pleased teens. “I’m sad I won’t be able to see you guys do this because I’ll be doing my show.”

Yes, that show. With the man who comes to understand why a boy would feel the need to dance.

If you go
What: “Beauty and the Beast”
When: Nov. 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 22 at 2 p.m.
Where: Scarsdale High School, 1057 Post Road, Scarsdale.
Tickets: $20, $10 for students and seniors. Available from cast members or at the door.

Photo by Carucha Meuse/The Journal News: Broadway star Greg Jbara chats with the cast of “Beauty and the Beast” at Scarsdale High School. At Jbara’s right is Scarsdale teacher Adrienne Meyer, who taught Jbara in Michigan in the 1970’s.

Fort Hill Players’ Joan Charischak sent the following

“SEEKING TALENT FOR JANUARY SHOWCASE

How often have you thought,  I was perfect for that role.  I hate auditions!
I have a monologue I’ve always wanted to do.  I’m just dying to sing a solo.
There’s this scene I’d do in a heartbeat.  I’m a dancing fool without a stage.

Well, here’s your chance to get your act together and perform it.  Fort Hill Players is seeking performers for their annual showcase production: FROM THE WINGS, to take place Jan. 29 & 30, 2010, at Rochambeau School Theater in White Plains.  Short monologues, one acts, poetry, scenes, etc. (readings or fully produced) Original works are welcome, as are singers, dancers, musicians, and possibly variety acts.

Send a description of your piece to: FHP@FortHillPlayers.com.   Deadline:  Nov.30, 2009.  Questions, Info: 914-946-5143 or FortHillPlayers.com

Children’s Shakespeare Theater in Palisades has added box-office hours for its fall production of “Much Ado About Nothing.”
The box-office hours at Palisades Presbyterian Church will clear the lines at the door. The box office will be open Nov. 2 from 5 to 9 p.m., Nov. 3 from 5 to 8:30 p.m., Nov. 4 from 4 to 7 p.m. and Nov. 5 from 4 to 7:30 p.m. Performances are Nov. 6, 7, 13 and 14 at 8 and Nov. 14 at 2.

Tickets are $12, $10 for seniors and $8 for children. With pre-purchase only, buy 5 and get the 6th one FREE!

The box office and performances are at Palisades Presbyterian Church is at 117 Washington Spring Road, Palisades. Details at www.childrensshakespeare.org.

If you’re looking for something to do with the kiddos today and tomorrow, Little Village Playhouse presents a haunted house today from 4 to 8 and tomorrow from 3 to 7 at 42 Memorial Plaza in Pleasantville. The suggested donation is $5 and a two-story haunted edible gingerbread house will be raffled off “by Willoughby S. Bumblewitch.” That’s a lot of gingerbread. Go to LittleVillagePlayhouse.com or call 914-747-6206

We live in a vampire moment: The “Twilight” book series is all the rage; “True Blood” vamps it up on cable; and “Cirque du Freak” is now in theaters.

But Antrim Playhouse director Randy Accardi says they are all branches of the same tree planted by Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, “Dracula.”

This weekend, just in time for Halloween, Antrim opens a three-weekend run of “Dracula” at the playhouse in Wesley Hills, in a faithful adaptation of Stoker by Steven Dietz.

Douglas J. Aguirre, a retired NYPD officer from Middletown, N.Y., plays the title role. To get into role – which presents Dracula growing younger as he tastes new blood – Aguirre has let his fingernails grow long. When he is old, he strokes his fingernails absentmindedly; when he is young, the nails are weapons.

Accardi has directed some of Antrim’s most successful musicals of late – “West Side Story” and last season’s “Miss Saigon” – but never a drama.

Merman’s in; Minnelli’s not.

Fanny’s in; Barbra’s not.

In decades writing about theater for Playbill magazine and in nearly a dozen books, Robert Viagas has interviewed many stars.

The founder of Playbill.com and host of Playbill Radio, the Mamaroneck resident has had a seat on the aisle to every Broadway show for years, seeing those stars firsthand.

So when Applause Books wanted a book about stars of Broadway musicals, Viagas was their man.

The result is “I’m the Greatest Star” (Applause, $29.99).

Tom Kitt, a graduate of Byram Hills High School, has been busy with several projects, including writing a musical with Green Day. But he hasn’t put “Next to Normal” behind him.

On Wednesday, Kitt and fellow Tony-winner Brian Yorkey will premiere a new song — “Something I Can’t See — which they wrote with input from the show’s Twitter followers. Of the more than 850,000 followers on Twitter, Kitt and Yorkey sifted through more than 4,000 suggestions posted 140 characters at a time and eventually settled on “Something I Can’t See,” which  will be performed by cast members Louis Hobson (Dr. Madden) and Aaron Tveit (Gabe) at 92Y Tribeca (200 Hudson Street) on Wednesday, October 28 at 7:00pm.

The one-night-only event will include a panel discussion featuring Kitt, Yorkey, director Michael Greif and producer David Stone.

Tickets and information are available at www.92YTribeca.org.

Next to Normal sought ideas from the Twitter followers on all aspects of the new song, from which characters are performing it and where it takes place in the musical’s storyline, to song structure and lyric suggestions.

The song will not be incorporated into the Tony-winning musical.

Fans around the world are encouraged to follow the event live via the show’s Twitter (www.Twitter.com/n2nbroadway) or by searching #n2nevent on Twitter.

At several points in “Rose” — Martin Sherman’s one-woman show on stage through Nov. 1 at the Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls — the title character, in the middle of recalling a memory that is becoming painful, disavows it.

“I don’t remember,” she says. “Perhaps I imagined it.”

She might have lived through a pogrom in her tiny shtetl in Ukraine. Or it might just be a memory borrowed from “Fiddler on the Roof.”

She might have survived a brutal crackdown in the Warsaw Ghetto. Then again, who knows?

I’ve got some things taped to my rarely visited cubicle that bring me joy when I see them: Pictures of my kids when they were tiny, my daughter Bridget’s charcoal rendering of a tree, and this quote from the NYT obit of Mel Gussow, a theater critic who was a playwright’s champion.

It never fails to make me smile and the observation is so keen:

“In a lecture, called “The Role of the Critic,” Mr. Gussow told an anecdote about an actor who played the doctor who appears only very briefly in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Mr. Gussow said the actor described the play this way: “It’s about this doctor who takes this crazy lady off to an asylum.”

“It taught him much, he said, about what it means to be a player, of any sort, in the theater. “For an actor or a playwright, even a critic,” Mr. Gussow concluded, “one must always believe that what one does is important.”

Last night’s gala benefit at the Beach Point Club in Mamaroneck was a great affair, with support coming from all quarters.

The raffle, toward buying a new film projector, pulled in nearly $20,000, thanks in no small part to the cajoling of Debbie Chapin, who also ran the non-silent portion of the evening’s festivities, auctioning off vacations to those who came ready to spend.

Mark Ettenger, the theater’s president, delivered a tribute to Seth Kaplan, who was co-president until his unexpected death this summer. Then it was on to a checklist of achievements: a firmer financial footing, partnerships with groups like Purchase Rep and Anna Becker, grants and help from state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, who was on hand.

Executive director Lisa Reilly was upbeat, praising her staff and the work that went into this season on all fronts: music, bluegrass, children’s programming, film and theater.

She then introduced the Emelin’s Bravo Award winner, Westchester native Rita Houston of WFUV radio, who spoke eloquently about the vital and long-range benefits of exposure to the arts.

The evening closed with the Todd Londagin Five, a tight little band that played some great numbers. Londagin plays a mean trombone and even did a little tap dance.

Great stuff that bodes well for the little theater on Library Lane.

When some singers rehearse, they need an accompanist, a vocal coach and plenty of quiet.

Singer Liz Callaway just needs a CD and a full tank of gas.

“I do most of my rehearsing in the car so I drive and practice along to piano tracks,” says Callaway, a Broadway veteran of “Miss Saigon” and “Cats.” “People have no idea what I’m doing.”

All that practice — in a silver Toyota Camry while running errands near her Croton-on-Hudson home or on the Taconic — is paying dividends: Callaway is out with first CD in eight years, “Passage of Time,” on the Bronxville-based PS Classics label.

She’ll be singing songs from the album next week at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Room, a cozy venue where Callaway says you can “get dressed up or wear jeans.”

When Suzanne Ochs of Dobbs Ferry trekked north to audition for Brewster Theater Company’s “Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” she didn’t know a lot about the show.

“I had the 6,000-foot view of what it was about: a group of women getting together, anniversary of James Dean, and they talk about stuff in the past,” she says.

What that “stuff” was, she wasn’t entirely sure.

Now she has an up-close view. This weekend and next, Ochs will play Mona, a West Texas woman whose life was forever changed when James Dean came to town to film “Giant.” (Sandy Dennis played Mona on Broadway and in the 1982 film.)