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Check the CityBeat blog on Saturday for a first glance at the list of 30 productions that will have 150 performances onstage during the 2007 CINCINNATI FRINGE FESTIVAL (May 30-June 9). The Fringe, now wholly organized by Know Theatre of Cincinnati, has taken a big, positive step toward involving the entire theater community: Productions have been selected by a committee of six local arts leaders whose fingers are on the pulse of what's likely to be cutting-edge material: MICHAEL HANEY (Cincinnati Playhouse), JEFFERSON JAMES (Contemporary Dance Theater), D. LYNN MEYERS (Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati), VICTORIA MORGAN (Cincinnati Ballet), BRIAN ISAAC PHILLIPS (Cincinnati Shakespeare Company) and Know's artistic director, JASON BRUFFY. The selections, according to Bruffy, will be the most multidisciplinary since the Fringe began in 2004 — featuring works of theater, music and dance and forms that are solo, multimedia and interdisciplinary. Gay issues and women's issues will have more representation, too.
One Fringe production has previously been announced: New Stage Collective will present ALONE, TOGETHER, the creation of several current and past drama students from UC's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), including senior Adam Standley (a 2006 Cincinnati Entertainment Award nominee for a New Stage's one-man show, All We Can Handle). I heard more about Alone from RICHARD HESS, who chairs CCM's drama program. He directed two of last year's best-received Fringe shows — The Catholic Girl's Guide to Losing Your Virginity (Critics' Pick) and (Un)Natural Disaster (Producers' Pick). It's great to see his students involved across Cincinnati's local theater scene: Standley and senior ANTHONY DARNELL are in the current production of Hamlet at Know Theatre, and KYLE NUNN is performing in New Edgecliff's staging of Master Harold and the Boys, which winds up this weekend.
A concert staging of Stephen Sondheim's Follies was all the rage in New York City earlier this month, and it might be re-mounted for a limited Broadway run. City Center's Encores!
Check the CityBeat blog on Saturday for a first glance at the list of 30 productions that will have 150 performances onstage during the 2007 CINCINNATI FRINGE FESTIVAL (May 30-June 9). The Fringe, now wholly organized by Know Theatre of Cincinnati, has taken a big, positive step toward involving the entire theater community: Productions have been selected by a committee of six local arts leaders whose fingers are on the pulse of what's likely to be cutting-edge material: MICHAEL HANEY (Cincinnati Playhouse), JEFFERSON JAMES (Contemporary Dance Theater), D. LYNN MEYERS (Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati), VICTORIA MORGAN (Cincinnati Ballet), BRIAN ISAAC PHILLIPS (Cincinnati Shakespeare Company) and Know's artistic director, JASON BRUFFY. The selections, according to Bruffy, will be the most multidisciplinary since the Fringe began in 2004 — featuring works of theater, music and dance and forms that are solo, multimedia and interdisciplinary. Gay issues and women's issues will have more representation, too. ...
One Fringe production has previously been announced: New Stage Collective will present ALONE, TOGETHER, the creation of several current and past drama students from UC's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), including senior Adam Standley (a 2006 Cincinnati Entertainment Award nominee for a New Stage's one-man show, All We Can Handle). I heard more about Alone from RICHARD HESS, who chairs CCM's drama program. He directed two of last year's best-received Fringe shows — The Catholic Girl's Guide to Losing Your Virginity (Critics' Pick) and (Un)Natural Disaster (Producers' Pick). It's great to see his students involved across Cincinnati's local theater scene: Standley and senior ANTHONY DARNELL are in the current production of Hamlet at Know Theatre, and KYLE NUNN is performing in New Edgecliff's staging of Master Harold and the Boys, which winds up this weekend. ...
A concert staging of Stephen Sondheim's Follies was all the rage in New York City earlier this month, and it might be re-mounted for a limited Broadway run. City Center's Encores! series has a good track record: Chicago, which started the same way, is still running on Broadway after 10 years. This would be a special treat for 2006 CCM musical theater grad KATIE KLAUS: She played young Sally, a "ghost" of one of the central characters performed by Tony Award winner Victoria Clark. ...
' uncanny ability to pick great scripts before they're on other theaters' radar strikes again: ETC's staging of Michael Hollinger's OPUS (March 14-April 1) will wrap up just as the announcement is made whether the show is a winner of the American Theatre Critics Association's Steinberg New Play Award. Opus, about strife within a string quartet, was recently named one of six finalists for the $25,000 prize. The awards will be handed out on March 31 at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville. ...
Actors Theatre's annual festival (now in its 31st year) is under way with Craig Wright's The Unseen already running and Carlos Murillo's dark plays or stories for boys opening Friday. Four more full-length plays will be on view by early April. Also of interest are two free panel discussions: On March 17 at 11 a.m. a session will explore what goes on backstage to present six plays on three stages during an intense six weeks. On March 30, Pulitzer Prize winner SUZAN-LORI PARKS stops by at 1 p.m. to discuss her year-long, multi-city festival of brief plays, 365 Days/365 Plays. Her remarks will be preceded by a performance of eight of the short plays. Info: 502-584-1205. ...
Don't go picking a fight with K. JENNY JONES, an associate professor of drama at CCM: She's the first woman to be named a Fight Master by the American Society of Fight Directors, one of only 14 people in the United States to hold this rank. The award is made to people who achieve the "highest level of professional experience as teachers and directors of physical violence in the entertainment industry."
contact rick Pender: rpender(at)citybeat.com
