“God on high, hear my prayer. In my need you have always been there.” [lyrics from Les Misérables] There is an innate goodness in actors of the Les Mis caliber. It is a rare quality in all walks of life, but especially so when egos are in check and everyone is working together to support, […]
Theatre 101
Once before have I experienced that rarest of pleasures, joining a cast onstage after a brilliant performance for champagne and comestibles. My first was at the Theatre Royal Windsor following a performance of the traditional English panto Dick Whittington and His Cat. The Windsor audience was invited to come up onstage to mingle and imbibe […]
The George and Sharon Mabry Concert Hall was almost full for A Mabry Songbook, a fundraiser for the new center for arts and education, organized by George and Sharon and featuring them alongside their current and/or past students. As Dr. Tim Hall said recently at the Ovation Awards ceremony at the Customs House Museum, “All […]
I took that drive up the high winding road to High Meadow. My blood pressure lowered and my heart lightened to see my ol’ friends and enjoy their warm hospitality. This, of course, had been impossible during the week of snow. God is good, for we had no field trips scheduled that week; and, due […]
I began Much Ado About Nothing in abject fear. I’ve never started anything new without that night-before terror. I’ve had it since childhood. I’m not sure if it comes from having parents who never finished grade school. They couldn’t — The Great Depression — everyone had to work at something. My mom coped with alcohol. […]
“To love another person is to see the face of God.” [Victor Hugo] That sentiment from Les Misérables about says it all for me. It’s hard to wrap my head around our opening of Les Misérables coinciding with the Broadway revival … but it is a very pleasant wrap. Broadway tickets are $137; ours are […]
We have, in the past, proudly presented many new works from the pens of local writers: Dr. Richard Gildrie’s Ben and the Virtues, which happily was turned into a musical by Richard and Dr. George Mabry; Dr. Steven Ryan’s The Strange Children, based on local author Caroline Gordon’s novel of the same name; Barry Kitterman’s […]
The actors sat around a long table, scripts in hand, well-prepared to read Much Ado About Nothing with cuts already provided, thankfully, by Jim Ryan (Colin’s father). Back in the day, one would stop and start as actors marked out in their individual paperback copies of the Signet Classics what text was not being used. […]
A few Saturdays ago I jumped the gun, canceling our School of the Arts class, the matinee of Hans Christian Andersen and the second performance of My Way. Excuses notwithstanding, when I dug out of my cul-de-sac in the early hours of Saturday morning, I barely made it up the hill to find North Second […]
With Frank Sinatra and Fred Landiss, how can you go wrong? Landiss brought his coterie of friends and guests here last Friday to see My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra. Location is everything. They walked a few doors down from F&M Bank’s Franklin Room to make up a large part of the full […]
