Monthly Archives: May 2015

LCT Review of MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS

LCT_VThis review has been reposted courtesy of the League of Cincinnati Theatres. For more LCT reviews click here to visit their reviews page.

Prepare to have the “Theme from Tara” playing in your head for a few days after you see Moonlight and Magnolias, the latest production of Mad Anthony Theatre Company at the Fitton Center in Hamilton. Director Patricia Ganz uses the familiar music to good effect in the play, which provides a true back story to the making of the movie Gone with the Wind.

The play’s setup is that famed producer David O. Selznick has started shooting Gone with the Wind when he realizes the script is terrible and he fires the director. He takes director Victor Fleming off the almost-finished Wizard of Oz and cajoles screenwriter Ben Hecht to rewrite the script.

MATC_Moonlight and Magnolias logoThe three movie men have five days, locked in an office, to produce a new script so filming can start again.

The play’s humor starts immediately with screenwriter Hecht’s admission that he has not read the famous novel. So Selznick and Fleming “act out” scenes from the book while Hecht furiously types.

Moonlight and Magnolias is mostly fun, and Mad Anthony’s production is in the capable hands of veteran director Ganz and the small cast led by Henry Cepluch as Hecht. Playwright Ron Hutchinson has given Hecht the best lines – “Does the movie have to be set in the Civil War?” and “Isn’t it obvious that tomorrow is another day?” Cepluch plays the role with an understated dry wit.

The role of Hecht here also has a social conscience that broadens his character. He is the one concerned about the portrayal of the slaves in “Gone with the Wind” and also about the current (1939) discrimination against Jews – Hecht and Selznick are both Jewish.

But the insertion of social issues into what is mostly a farce in some ways feels like “filler,” because the audience has been set up to laugh, and that’s what we wanted. And each of the actors are saddled with long monologues pontificating on the roles of the producer, director and writer of a movie. Appreciated are Selznick’s lines about everyday people, the audiences of movies, being the true determination of success.

Bob McClain as Selznick and Steve Tunning as Fleming are at their comedic best play-acting scenes from Gone with the Wind–Melanie giving birth and Scarlett fiddle-dee-deeing. A good laugh when Selznick finally comes up with the iconic line, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

There is good use of sound effects when McClain as Selznick gives a fast-track synopsis of the novel – a baby crying, the saw mill whirring.

It is great fun for the audience to know what these struggling movie men don’t yet know – that “Gone with the Wind” will win many Oscars and become the highest-grossing film of the 20th century. Meanwhile, thanks to this play, we now know the movie’s shaky start.

Moonlight and Magnolias runs through May 3.

For more information on the production, click here.

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Commonwealth Theatre Co. at NKU Announces Casts

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KY – Commonwealth Theatre Company at Northern Kentucky University is proud to announce the casts and production teams for their 2015 Summer Dinner Theatre season. Performances begin in June.

THE SUNSHINE BOYS | By Neil Simon
June 3 – 21, 2015 | NKU Robert and Rosemary Stauss Theatre

The legendary comedy team of Lewis and Clark are no longer speaking to each other on or off the stage.  But when these cranky comics are convinced to reunite for a TV special, who will get the last laugh? Can they get through their most famous sketch one last time without killing each other?  Don’t miss Neil Simon’s comic masterpiece about showbiz, aging, and the true meaning of friendship.

  • Joshua Steele as Ben Silverman
  • Dave Roth as Al Lewis
  • Herb Duval as Willie Clark
  • Burgess Byrd as Miss Mackintosh
  • Clayton Winstead as Floor Director
  • Ellie Chancellor as Show Nurse
  • Nate Netzley as Man in Sketch
  • Director: Greg Procaccino
  • Scenic Designer: Brett Bowling
  • Costume Designer: Caren Young
  • Lighting Designer: Terry Powell
  • Sound Designer: Kevin Havlin

CTC_Sunshine Boys cast promo

THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
By William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin, and Rebecca Feldman
July 8 – 26, 2015 | NKU Robert and Rosemary Stauss Theatre

An eclectic group of kids vie for the ultimate spelling trophy and along the way we learn their hopes and the humorous stories of their lives. As the contestants navigate their way through increasingly complex words, the adults (and a few audience members) help and hinder their progress. This hilarious and warmhearted tale of overachievers’ angst celebrates the triumph of doing the best you can.

  • Alysun Mellick as Rona Lisa Piretti
  • Dain Paige as Vice Principal Douglas Panch
  • Christopher Richardson as Mitch Mahoney
  • Spenser Smith as Chip Tolentino
  • Haley Jones as Marcy Park
  • Korey Harlow as Leaf Coneybear
  • Madeleine Drees as Logainne Schwartzandgrubenniere
  • Brandon Bentley as William Barfee
  • Hannah Gregory as Olive Ostrovsky
  • Director: Roderick Justice
  • Music Director: Jamey Strawn
  • Scenic Designer: Tyler Gabbard
  • Costume Designer: Jeff Shearer
  • Lighting Designer: Larry Csernik
  • Sound Designer: Kevin Havlin

CTC_Spelling Bee cast promo

For more information call the NKU Fine Arts Box Office at 859.572.5464 or go to commonwealth.nku.edu

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MythBusters Jamie & Adam UNLEASHED! | Fri., Nov. 20 | Aronoff Center

ONE NIGHT ONLY!

MISC_Mythbusters logo

Jamie Hyneman’s final performances on tour!

Aronoff Center | Friday, November 20 – 8:00 PM

TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY, MAY 8 AT 10:00 am

CINCINNATI, OH  – The Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) is thrilled to announce that the all-new live show MythBusters Jamie & Adam UNLEASHED!, starring Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, co-hosts of the Emmy-nominated Discovery series “MythBusters,” debuts at the Aronoff Center’s Procter & Gamble Hall for one night only on Friday, November 20 at 8:00 PM. Tickets go on sale to the public on Friday, May 8 at 10:00 AM. The much-anticipated show is part of CAA’S 2015-16 Season, celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Aronoff Center; the full season will be announced at a later date.

PRICES:
$110 VIP* (limited to 50 tickets) • $68 • $58 • $45
*VIP ticket includes a meet-and-greet with Jamie & Adam, an autographed 8 x 10 photograph, and priority seating

INFO:
MythBusters Jamie & Adam UNLEASHED! presents a fantastical evening of on-stage experiments, audience participation, exciting videos, and behind-the-scenes stories.   With this show, fans join Jamie and Adam onstage to assist in their mind-blowing and mind-twisting approaches to science.  MythBusters Jamie & Adam UNLEASHED! brings you face-to-face with the curious world of Jamie and Adam as the duo matches wits on stage with each other and members of the audience. Jamie Hyneman has announced that he will end touring with the live show this year.

TICKET INFORMATION – on sale Friday, May 8 at 10:00 AM        

  • www.CincinnatiArts.org
  • 513.621.ARTS [2787]
  • Aronoff Center Ticket Office
  • Group sales (10 or more): 513.977.4157

MythBusters Jamie & Adam UNLEASHED! presents a fantastical evening of on-stage experiments, audience participation, exciting videos, and behind-the-scenes stories.  With this show, fans join Jamie and Adam onstage to assist in their mind-blowing and mind-twisting approaches to science.  MythBusters Jamie & Adam UNLEASHED! brings you face-to-face with the curious world of Jamie and Adam as the duo matches wits on stage with each other and members of the audience. Jamie Hyneman has announced that he will end touring with the live show this year.

Since 2012, Jamie and Adam have toured North America, Australia and New Zealand with their live show.  To date, they have performed in 108 cities, given 119 performances, over 200,000 people have seen them onstage and the tour has grossed over $12 million. This fall, the tour will perform 31 dates across the US and Canada.

One of the most highly-regarded and watched series on the Discovery Channel, “MythBusters” is now in its thirteenth season. Co-hosted by Hyneman and Savage, the show mixes scientific method with gleeful curiosity and plain old-fashioned ingenuity to create its own signature style of explosive  experimentation – and the supporting or de-bunking of urban myths that we live with day to day.

Jamie and Adam have become spokespersons at large for applying science to real life – most recently as hosts of the Discovery Channel special “iGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World,” and have appeared on numerous shows including “Late Show with David Letterman,” “Good Morning America,” “The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” “The Colbert Report,” NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition,” “Countdown with Keith Olberman,” and many more.  They were invited to participate in Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Fear And/Or Sanity and have received the Young Artist Award for inspiring young people in the interest of science. The MythBusters have been invited to participate on a panel at Comic-Con, where their appearances have sold-out four years running.

Jamie and Adam serve as guest editors for Popular Mechanics and were featured on the cover of the September 2009 issue. That same year, they were inducted as honorary members into Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. They are Honorary Lifetime Members of the California Science Teachers Association and were named Honorary Engineers and Honorary Members of the Francis Crowe Society at the University of Maine. Both Hyneman and Savage were given honorary Doctorates at the University of Twente in the Netherlands for their efforts at popularization of science.

Jamie and Adam produced and starred in an H1N1 Public Service Announcement for the White House, and were chosen by the President to retest the Archimedes legend using five-hundred schoolchildren as surrogate soldiers.

They appeared as themselves in the movie Darwin Awards and have made several cameos on other TV shows, including CSI.  And In 2010, Hyneman and Savage received the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism from the Harvard Secular Society.

About Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage
Jamie Hyneman is the owner of M5 Industries, an effects company specializing in problematic custom builds. Besides serving as headquarters of “MythBusters,” M5 continues to work on various research and development projects for private clients.

After trying his hand at careers as various as librarian at the United Nations in Geneva to running a diving and sailing charter business in the Caribbean, Hyneman began his career in show business as special effects shop assistant in New York and later in San Francisco as a crew member on films including “Robocop,” “Arachnophobia,” and “Naked Lunch.”

While managing Colossal Pictures’ model shop in San Francisco, Hyneman was given the opportunity to take over – and M5 Industries was born.

Hyneman graduated from Indiana University with a degree in Russian. He has received an honorary engineering degree from the University of Maine as well as an honorary doctorate of engineering from Villanova University, with whom he has an ongoing collaborative relationship to help develop new safety concepts for the military. He is the holder of several patents and the winner of numerous industry awards.

Hyneman currently resides the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife.

Adam Savage received a call from Jamie Hyneman in 2002 to participate in a demo for a TV show, which turned into the wildly popular Discovery Channel & SBS series “MythBusters.”

Savage immersed himself in the NYC arts scene before moving to San Francisco in 1990 to parlay his skills into the thriving theater scene. There he worked for dozens of companies as set designer, prop master, art director, and producer before falling into the machine art community where he learned welding, pneumatics, hydraulics, electronics, and robot-building.

After exhibiting his work in over fifty art shows nationwide, Savage caught the eye of the special effects industry and began working as a prop builder and art director for major commercials for Sega, Coca-Cola, Nike, Burger King, and Chevrolet. His work on a Coca-Cola commercial earned him a Clio Award nomination.

After an eighteen-month stint as head of research and development for startup toy company ZOOB, Savage joined George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, where he worked on “Star Wars: Episodes 1 and 2,” “Galaxy Quest,” “Space Cowboys,” “A.I.,” “Terminator 3,” “The Mummy,” and dozens of commercials. During this time, he also worked as model-shop supervisor for the two “Matrix” sequels as well as taught at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

Savage continues to dabble in his multiple hobbies, including passionately restoring his vintage four-wheel drive vehicle and accruing new pieces for his movie prop collection. He currently lives in San Francisco with his wife, twin boys, and two dogs.

About MagicSpace Entertainment
Principals Lee D. Marshall, Joe Marsh, John Ballard, Steve Boulay, and Bruce Granath have been producing and presenting shows worldwide for over thirty years.

“We have had the pleasure and privilege of producing and presenting many great shows and tours over the years,” says Lee Marshall, MagicSpace CEO. “Our strength has always been the ability to find great opportunities that do not fit into any pre-conceived template. We get excited about projects, which have the potential to find an audience. It doesn’t matter to us if the show is a concert tour, an exhibition, an arena spectacle, or a Broadway musical. Our strength is finding new opportunities and then paying a great deal of attention to how they are managed. We feel we are uniquely positioned to thrive in the current marketplace where traditional formulas and business models are thrown out and new ones need to be invented daily.”

CINCINNATI ARTS ASSOCIATION SPONSORS

SEASON SPONSORS:  AMERITAS (Founding Season Sponsor), FIFTH THIRD BANK (Lifetime Endowment Partner), FURNITURE FAIR, LOCAL12 WKRC, The P&G FUND of The Greater Cincinnati Foundation

SEASON PRESENTING SPONSORS:  21C Museum Hotel, Cincinnati Herald, CityBeat, Garfield Suites Hotel, Heidelberg Distributing, Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza, Pepsi, Skyline Chili

MYTHBUSTERS JAMIE & ADAM UNLEASHED! MEDIA PARTNER:   WARM98-FM

Founded in 1992, the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) is a not-for-profit organization that oversees the programming and management of the Tri-state’s finest performing arts venues – the Aronoff Center for the Arts and Music Hall – and is dedicated to supporting performing and visual arts. Each year, CAA presents a diverse schedule of events; serves upwards of 600,000 people in its venues; features the work of talented local, regional, and national artists in the Weston Art Gallery (located in the Aronoff Center); and supports the work of more than one dozen resident companies. Since the inception of its acclaimed arts education programs in 1995, CAA has reached more than 1.3 million students. For more information, visit www.CincinnatiArts.org.

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Auditions Announced for THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE at SSCC Theatre

SSCC_logoSSCC Theatre is pleased to announce their upcoming auditions for the summer production of THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE.

An eclectic group of six mid-pubescents vie for the spelling championship of a lifetime. While candidly disclosing hilarious and touching stories from their home life, the tweens spell their way through a series of [potentially made-up] words hoping to never hear the soul crushing, pout inducing, life un-affirming “ding” of the bell that signals a spelling mistake. Six spellers enter; one speller leaves! At least the losers get a juice box. (The roles of the children are played by adults.)

Auditions, open to community members and students, will be held on Friday, June 5 at 6:30 p.m. in The Edward K. Daniels Auditorium at the Central Campus of Southern State Community College, in Hillsboro, OH. Those interested in auditioning should prepare and memorize a comedic one to two-minute monologue, as well as a short musical comedy song. Those interested on working in available crew positions will be asked to complete an interview the night of auditions. If you’re interested in auditioning, but unavailable to attend the audition date, please contact Rainee Angles (rangles@sscc.edu) to schedule an alternate audition date prior to June 5.

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, directed by Rainee Angles and musically directed by David White, will be performed July 24 – 26.

For more information about THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, available roles, and a rehearsal schedule, please visit http://sscctheatre.com/site/auditions/.

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MUHT Seeks Stage Manager for A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

MISC_Casting callMiami University Hamilton Theatre and Pollen Productions seek a stage manager for Shakespeare’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. The show will be performed the weekend of July 23-26th with tech week commencing July 19th.

Please submit your resume and/or information to info.pollenproductions@gmail.com if interested.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM hopes to create an immersive experience for the audience and the cast alike. So if you fancy some fun in the woods of Athens please join us.

The show will be directed by Miami University Alum Kaleigh-Brooke Dillingham and is produced by Pollen Productions. Pollen Productions is a new company that hopes to bring new work and reimagined classics to Butler County and the surrounding communities. The company was started and is managed by Polly L. Heinkel who is currently studying Theatre Directing in London, England.

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