Monthly Archives: March 2013

March 14, 2013 · 8:07 pm

PIP Presents THE BOOK CLUB PLAY March 23-April 28

A NEW PLAY SPRINKLED WITH WIT, JOY AND NOVELS GALORE

13068_detail(CINCINNATI) – THE BOOK CLUB PLAY, a comedy about books and the people who love them, continues the Playhouse’s Thompson Shelterhouse Theatre season. This engaging and hilarious play by Karen Zacarías begins previews March 23 and will continue through April 28.

When the members of a devoted book club become the subjects of a documentary filmmaker, their intimate discussions of life and literature take on new meaning with the camera rolling. Add in the unexpected arrival of a provocative new member and the sudden inclusion of some questionable titles, and long-standing group dynamics take a hilarious turn.

Zacarías’ award-winning plays also include Legacy of Light, Mariela in the Desert and The Sins of Sor Juana. This past February, Zacarías’ most recent play, Just Like Us, was featured at the eighth annual Colorado New Play Summit at the Denver Center Theatre Company. Based in Washington, D.C., she is the founder of Young Playwrights’ Theater, which teaches playwriting to high school students in the D.C. area, and is currently a resident playwright at Arena Stage.

THE BOOK CLUB PLAY made its world premiere at Round House Theatre in 2008 when Playhouse Artistic Director Blake Robison was the producing artistic director there. Although this will be the first time he has directed The Book Club Play, he directed Zacarías’ adaptation of Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents while at Round House.

According to Robison, “THE BOOK CLUB PLAY is one of the most successful new comedies of the American stage in years. Karen Zacarías used the experience of her own book club to imagine what might happen if personalities and reading lists collide on stage. Quite simply, it’s the funniest play I’ve seen in years. Watch with horror, glee and recognition as this book club implodes.”

The cast will all make their Playhouse debuts in THE BOOK CLUB PLAY. Appearing is Kate Cook as Ana, Toccarra Cash as Lily/Mrs. Simpson, Mike Ostroski as Rob/Sam, Lesley Gurule as Jen/Elsa, Jeffrey C. Hawkins as Will/Frank and Joel Reuben Ganz as Alex/Carl. The production team includes Set Designer Marion Williams, Costume Designer Gordon DeVinney, Lighting Designer Kenton Yeager, Sound Designer Matthew M. Nielson, Production Stage Manager Jenifer Morrow and Stage Manager Becky Merold.

Prices for THE BOOK CLUB PLAY range from $30 to $76, depending on day and seat location, and are subject to change. Tickets are just $30 for the preview performances at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 23; 7 p.m. Sunday, March 24; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 26 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 27. The official opening night is Thursday, March 28 at 8 p.m.

Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets to THE BOOK CLUB PLAY are on sale now. For more information, call the Playhouse box office at 513-421-3888 (toll-free in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana at 800-582-3208) or visit http://www.cincyplay.com. Call 513-345-2248 for TDD accessibility.

Audience members are invited to share the joy of reading during the run of THE BOOK CLUB PLAY by bringing a book to the Playhouse and taking a different one home. All remaining books at the end of the run will be donated to Tender Mercies, an agency that serves homeless people with histories of emotional and/or mental disabilities by providing them with housing and related services.

The Playhouse is fully accessible. Audio enhancement receivers, large print programs and complete wheelchair access are available.

The Playhouse is supported, in part, by the generosity of the tens of thousands of individuals and businesses that give to ArtsWave.

The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Playhouse with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.

The Playhouse also receives funding from the Shubert Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Special Performances

Meet the Artists
These free programs allow audiences to interact with cast members and others associated with the production following the show.

  • 2 p.m. Sunday, March 31
  • 2 p.m. Sunday, April 7
  • 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 10
  • 8 p.m. Thursday, April 18 

Dining Options
Karlo’s Bistro at the Playhouse offers full-service dining prior to most evening performances. Dinners include salad, entrée and dessert. Reservations are required by noon on the day of the show. The price is $27. Karlo’s Casual Fare offers busy theatre patrons an alternative light, quick bite prior to the show. Options include salads, sandwiches, soups, pasta and desserts. No reservations are required. Credit cards are now accepted.

Sponsors
Production Sponsor:
An Anonymous Donor

Design Sponsor:
Evelo/Singer/Sullivan Group at Merrill Lynch

Artist Sponsor:
Jim and Jo Ann Weber

Honorary Producer:
Lee Meyer

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March 14, 2013 · 7:53 pm

LCT Awards S.L.U.T. Top Prize in CCM’s TRANSMIGRATION Series

CCM_SLUTPanelists for the League of Cincinnati Theatres (LCT) have recognized S.L.U.T. as the best production at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music’s TRANSMIGRATION series, the Drama department’s annual presentation of student written and produced work. Panelists awarded second place to Sentenced, and honorable mentions to 2122 Michigan Avenue and The Sherwin Williams Effect.

The fifth-annual festival allows the audience to experience half-hour works produced by small groups of Drama majors, who create and design all aspects of their productions from start to finish. The festival is an exciting event for both guests and the presenters, as audiences get the opportunity to see up to four very different pieces of new theatre in a single night and the students premiere works that are entirely their own. This year, six shows were presented. “TRANSMIGRATION teaches our actors to be entrepreneurs,” says Richard Hess, chair of CCM’s Drama Department and director of the TRANSMIGRATION Festival. “There are absolutely no holds barred, with the exception of the thirty-minute time limit, allowing our students to learn to express from within.”

S.L.U.T. was praised for its imaginative and engaging plot, while Sentenced was noted to be strong on acting and overall storytelling. 2122 Michigan Avenue and The Sherwin Williams Effect were both described as “original, creative, and hilarious”. Overall, the panelists were “impressed by the tight ensemble nature of each one” of the TRANSMIGRATION presentations. “Trust and commitment shone with each cast.”

The League of Cincinnati Theatres was founded in 1999 to strengthen, nurture and promote Cincinnati’s theatre community. LCT provides its member companies and individual members with education, resources and services to enhance the quality and exposure of the theatre community in Cincinnati and increase community awareness, attendance and involvement. More information about the League can be found at www.leagueofcincytheatres.com.

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March 14, 2013 · 7:35 pm

CP’s A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE Earns Five LCT Nominations

Behanding022-200x150Panelists for the League of Cincinnati Theatres (LCT) have recognized the Clifton Players’ production of A Behanding in Spokane with 5 LCT nominations, for director Kevin Crowley, lead actors Reggie Willis and Buz Davis, featured actor Michael Bath, and for Ensemble acting, as well as distinguishing it as a recommended production.

Martin McDonagh wrote a half-dozen plays that established his international reputation in one fell swoop back in the 1990s.. In 2010 he brought a new stage script to Broadway, A Behanding in Spokane, and it’s set not in Ireland but in the United States.The piece fulfills the expectation that a McDonagh script is going to be full of plot twists and at the same time hilarious. The main character, Carmichael, is on a quest to find something he has lost and to get revenge on the person who took it from him. The lost item is an actual bodily appendage, which proves to makes the story quirkier.

Panelists praised Kevin Crowley’s direction: he “handled this crazy play with precision”; “a nice balance between the real and the fantastic.” Buz Davis “inhabited the role as one-handed Carmichael. His heart came through the freakiness”; Reggie Willis as Toby was “over the top”. Featured actor Michael Bath as Mervyn was “frenetic, funny, and deeply affecting”. The ensemble as a whole “sparkled like a gem and played off each other marvelously well.” Overall, the show was “beautifully bawdy and wonderfully crass, absurd and excellently conceived…the actors hold nothing back to bring this play to surrealistic life. The Clifton Players are an impressive group and would be that way in any sized house….anywhere.”

A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE continues through March 23rd. Tickets can be purchased at http://cliftonperformancetheatre.com.

Final LCT awards will be determined at the end of the season and announced at the LCT gala in the spring.

The League of Cincinnati Theatres was founded in 1999 to strengthen, nurture and promote Cincinnati’s theatre community. LCT provides its member companies and individual members with education, resources and services to enhance the quality and exposure of the theatre community in Cincinnati and increase community awareness, attendance and involvement. More information about the League can be found at www.leagueofcincytheatres.com.

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March 14, 2013 · 7:06 pm

BPI Announces MURDERED TO DEATH

BPI_logo12Beechmont Players, Inc. is proud to announce its spring show, MURDERED TO DEATH.

This hilarious spoof of the best of Agatha Christie traditions is set in a country manor house in the 1930s, with an assembled cast of characters guaranteed to delight – Bunting, the butler; an English Colonel with the prerequisite stiff upper lip; a shady French art dealer and his moll; the bumbling local inspector and a well-meaning local sleuth who seems to attract murder wherever she goes – they’re all here, and all caught up in the side-splitting antics which follow the mysterious death of the house’s owner. It soon becomes clear that the murderer isn’t finished yet, but will the murderer be unmasked before everyone else has met their doom, or will audiences die laughing first?

Cast List

  • Bunting ………………………………………… Steve Phelan
  • Colonel Charles Craddock ………………………………………… Mark Metzner
  • Constable Thompkins ………………………………………… Nik Pajic
  • Dorothy ………………………………………… Stephanie Mooney
  • Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington ……………………………… Merritt Beischel
  • Inspector Pratt ………………………………………… Chuck Haungs
  • Joan Maple ………………………………………… Jan Costello
  • Margaret Craddock ………………………………………… Linnea Bond
  • Mildred ………………………………………… Cathy Roesener
  • Pierre Marceau ………………………………………… Matt Schnuth

Performance dates are April 12-20, 2013, at the Anderson Center Theatre (7850 Five Mile Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45230). Tickets are $15 general admission and $13 for students, seniors and active military. Tickets can be purchased online at www.beechmontplayers.org, by calling 513.233.2468 or at the door.

Specific performance times/dates are:

  • 8 p.m. Friday, April 12, 2013
  • 8 p.m. Saturday, April 13, 2013
  • 3 p.m. Sunday, April 14, 2013
  • 8 p.m. Friday, April 19, 2013
  • 3 p.m. Saturday, April 20, 2013
  • 8 p.m. Saturday, April 20, 2013

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March 14, 2013 · 6:41 pm

ArtsPulse: Lunch Chat with Arts Executives | April 17, 2013 | Taft Museum of Art

Cincy Emerging Arts Leaders hosts
ArtsPulse
Lunch Chat with Arts Executives 

April 17, 2013 • 12:00-1:00 PM
Taft Museum of Art

CAA_ELNFor the third year, the Cincy Emerging Arts Leaders is offering an opportunity to join arts executives in an informal lunch discussion on April 17 from 12:00 noon to 1:00pm at the Taft Museum of Art. The discussion will cover the current and future state of the arts and how this impacts the role of arts administrators. Arts administration students, as well as those new to the field and current entry and mid-level arts professionals, artists, and young professionals interested in the arts, are encourage to participate. However, space is limited and registration is required (see below).

Participating Arts Executives:

  • J.R. Cassidy, Music & Executive Director, Kentucky Symphony Orchestra
  • Deborah Emont Scott, Director/CEO, Taft Museum of Art
  • Eric Vosmeier, Producing Artistic Director, Know Theatre of Cincinnati 

Cost: $15.00 (includes lunch & parking)

  • Make check payable to Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) or pay by Credit Card (American Express, Discover, MasterCard, Visa).

To Participate:

Information:

  • Contact Kathleen Riemenschneider, Cincinnati Arts Association at (513) 977-4119 or kriemenschneider@cincinnatiarts.org. 

The Cincy Emerging Arts Leaders is an extension of the Emerging Leaders Network of the Americans for the Arts, affiliated with the Greater Cincinnati Alliance for Arts Education, and administered by the Cincinnati Arts Association. It supports the professional development needs of arts administrators and artists in the Greater Cincinnati area. The group first met in October 2006 as part of the Creative Conversations series that Americans for the Arts sponsors annually. http://www.facebook.com/CincyEAL.

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