From the Big Apple to the Wild West
By:
Scottie Campbell
Mark Your Calendars
Watching actors make stuff up right before you very eyes is fun. Sometimes improv is funny; sometimes it just tells a story. Then there’s out entertainer Mark Baratelli, who manages to do both. The structure of Mark’s show, Improv Cabaret, is simple; he makes up songs working with a pianist—but what he does is truly nothing short of amazing.
This month, Baratelli is taking his special extemporaneous brew up north to FringeNYC. As the creative team behind Ladies of Eola Heights has learned, being invited to FringeNYC is an honor, but not an inexpensive proposition. To that end, Baratelli’s friends are putting together a special show to raise funds to get him to the Big Apple.
A Night with The Girls…to benefit a boy is a cabaret evening featuring the vocal talents of Laura Hodos, Luerne Herraera, Meghan Moroney, Summer Aiello and Robyn Pedretti (currently starring in the hilarious Linwood Sassy’s Screw You Review at Theatre Downtown). This one-night-only show will happen August 13 at the tony Mad Cow Theatre in downtown Orlando. For more info, visit ImprovCabaret.com.
Mouths of Babes
Speaking of fundraising, here’s a story that will warm your jaded cockles. Acting students at Lakeland’s Harrison Center for the Visual Arts and Performing Arts read The Laramie Project in a class focusing on contemporary drama. “Individually, we were deeply moved and recognized the importance and power of the play's message,” said Katelyn Schmidt, a 17-year-old theater student. “Cultivating intolerance and hate for those who are ‘different’ from what is considered ‘normal’ can lead to terrible consequences in the lives of ordinary people.”
The students so moved by the play about the death of Matthew Shepard that they decided they would like to stage a production. “The administration was seriously concerned with the controversial nature of the play: homosexuality and the extensive use of profanity,” Scmidt wrote in an e-mail now circulating in the community. “They concluded it was not appropriate for a Harrison stage production.”
Undaunted, the young people have decided to stage The Laramie Project on their own, with Schmidt at the helm as a director and theater teacher Ilene Fins offering a helpful eye. At press time, a decision had not been made regarding the space to mount the show. The group is turning to the community and soliciting donations to help raise funds to produce the show. To learn more about how you can help, write Katelyn Schmidt at KatelynMaryFrances@Yahoo.com.
Surely You Jest
I recently heard a funny quip about why there has been never been a sequel to Singing in the Rain. Supposedly, back then they had a little thing called…ideas. On stage, sequels are kind of rare, but they do occur from time to time. One such anomaly, the sequel to Beau Jest by James Sherman, is being presented, in a staged reading format, by Stageworks Theater and the Backporch Players of Tampa.
Jest a Second begins right where Beau Jest left off. If you had a chance to see Stageworks’ successful production of Beau Jest last season, you’ll be ahead of the curve. Sarah and Bob from the first part are married and expecting their first baby! This time, it is Sarah’s brother Joel who is bringing someone home for dinner for his parents to meet. Joel's date, Randy, is not the nice-Jewish-girl pediatrician Joel led his family to believe, but a nice Jewish-boy-pediatrician. It’s kind of like Fiddler on the Roof and La Cage Aux Folles had a love child!
Jest a Second runs August 24-25 at Friday Morning Musicale. Call 813-251-8984 or visit www.StageworksTheater.com to find out more. Tickets are $25, and the proceeds benefit Stageworks Rainbow Tribe Outreach programs for at-risk youth.
Joan-sing
Has it come to this? Joan Crawford doing dinner theater? Well, not really. Now through September 2, Sarasota’s Golden Apple Dinner Theatre presents Johnny Guitar, the hit off-Broadway musical based on Miss Crawford’s 1954 Western of the same name. It’s the tale of a feud between saloon-keeper Vienna and her nemesis, town tycoon Emma. The tuneful and laugh-filled musical at once embraces and sends up the ’50s. It sounds like fun to me, too!
Here’s the perfect way to get your Joan on: Suncoast Pride is hosting “OUT!...A Gay night at the Golden Apple” on Friday, August 31. For the amazing group-rate-price of $36, you get a buffet, a ticket to the show, and dancing until midnight. Plus, if you wear your Western garb, you’ll get a free glass of house wine.
To book your tickets, call 1-800-652-0920 and say the magic words: “Suncoast Pride.” Visit www.SuncoastPride.com further information.
