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Pioneer Valley Theatre Newsletter

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October 18 - November 7, 2018

It's fall performance times at the colleges - you can see Frankenstein at GCC, Trifles at Mount Holyoke, and a world premiere musical Moonlight on the Miskatonic at Smith College this weekend - and I'm sure there are others!

If you haven't, take a moment to add yourself to the Pioneer Valley Theatre Makers List.

The next issue will include events through November 14. Submit upcoming events via the link below or by emailing me before Tuesday at midnight. Any questions, comments or feedback? Email me at pioneervalleytheatre@gmail.com

Submit Your Theatre Event

THIS WEEK IN THEATRE NEWS:

from American Theatre
High Tide of Heartbreak
by Quiara Alegria Hudes

From the article:

“A request for more diversity isn't really a plea to embrace stimulating heterogeneity. It's a plea to embrace minimal decency.”

I want to start with love. I suspect there is at least one love story in your life that blazed the trail to this very magazine page. Maybe you loved the way lights felt on your face, the blindness as you looked out at the invisible audience bank. Maybe you love backstage anonymity, the chaotic machinery and runaround that keeps a performance seamless. Maybe you were seven and loved the first play you saw. Back then you probably loved it more than you understood it. Remember how glorious that was—immersion in an experience you didn’t necessarily understand? Why do grownups cling to “getting it”? What a small, unadventurous parameter for experiencing art.

Have you read an interesting article about theatre recently? Send it to me! pioneervalleytheatre@gmail.com

Want to know even more about events in the Pioneer Valley and beyond,
including reviews, interviews, and previews?
In the Spotlight, Inc.
Berkshire on Stage

Click to Access: Pioneer Valley Theatre Personnel Spreadsheet

PERFORMANCES

Greenfield Community College presents
FRANKENSTEIN
Oct 18, 19, 20, 26, 27 at 7:30pm, Sunday Matinee Oct 28 at 2pm, Halloween Night Oct 31 at 7:30pm
GCC's Sloan Theater, Main Campus, One College Drive, Greenfield, MA

A new adaptation by Roddy Barnes, based on the novel by Mary Shelley. This version of FRANKENSTEIN has comedic and poignant dialogue, along with the ever-present eeriness that defines the best of FRANKENSTEIN. Directed by Tom Geha, this production has a cast of eleven characters and a combined cast and crew of over twenty students, alumni, and faculty. Please join us for the excitement.

Tickets

K and E Theater Group presents Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
October 18, 19 & 20 at 7:30 PM, October 21 at 2:00 PM
Gateway City Arts, 92 Race Street, Holyoke, MA

Western Massachusetts’ bold, new theater company, the K and E Theater Group presents Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – A Musical Thriller, one weekend only, Oct. 18-21 at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke.

Book by Hugh Wheeler and Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. This production of Sweeney features Emily Bloch, Paula Cortis, Paul DiProto, Melissa Dupont, Mimi Goodman, Zach Gray, Tomm Knightlee, Joshua Aaron Mason, Shaun O'Keefe, Christine Voytko, David Webber, and Mallory Wray. Musical Direction by Bill Martin and Direction by KETG President and Artistic Director, Eddie Zitka.

Visit www.KETG.org to learn more about our company and the production. We invite you to attend the tale!

Tickets $25

Mount Holyoke College Department of Theatre Arts
Trifles by Susan Glaspell
10/18, 10/19, 10/20 at 7:30 pm and 10/21 at 2:00 pm
Rooke Theatre

An important early feminist drama from 1916, the play explores the divide between men and women and poses the questions "What is justice?" and "Who gets to judge?"

Tickets: $8/$5

“JOHNNY GUITAR” TO RING IN MAJESTIC THEATER'S 22nd SEASON
October 18-21

The Majestic Theater celebrates the launch of its 22nd Season with the opening of “Johnny Guitar” on September 6. The madcap musical, by Nicholas Van Hoogstraten, Martin Silvestri and Joel Higgins, is based on the legendary Joan Crawford cult Western from the 1950s. The play is a send-up of fifties-style acting, melodramatic romance, and rough and tumble cowboy action, set to a doo-wop/country ballad musical score. The story follows what happens to a sultry saloon keeper and her jealous nemesis when a handsome stranger rides into town. Screwball comedy reminiscent of a Mel Brooks spoof is the result.

The cast includes Billy Clark Taylor (Johnny), Myka Plunkett (Vienna), Bethany Fitzgerald (Emma), Michael Morales (Dancin' Kid), Walter Mantani (McIvers), Joe Duda (Turkey), Michael King (Bart), Steven Sands (Eddie) and Michael Garcia (Sam). The play is being directed by Producing Director Danny Eaton, and Mitch Chakour is the music director. Greg Trochlil is set designer, Dawn McKay is costume designer and stage manager is Gary Lamagna.

Tickets for these shows range from $24-$33 and are now available by calling or visiting the box office during its hours of operation, which are Monday through Friday 10am – 5pm and Saturday 10am – 1pm. Subscriptions are still being accepted for the five Season shows.For additional information, visit www.majestictheater.com.

Smith College Department of Theatre presents WORLD PREMIERE performance of MOONLIGHT ON THE MISKATONIC

Music & Lyrics by Clifton J. Noble, Book by Samantha Noble, and Directed by Ellen W. Kaplan

October 19, 20, 25, 26, 27 at 7:30 PM in Theatre 14

The campus of Miskatonic U is decked out for Illumination Night. Four alums have arrived for their five-year reunion, only to find creepy goings-on hidden behind the ivy-covered walls, and the terrifying disappearances of students keep happening. There’s a snake in Paradise….or something much, much worse. Based on the super-scary stories of HP Lovecraft, this new musical is about love, friendship, and growing up – and about horrors that lurk very near.

Tickets $10 General, $5 Students and Seniors, Free for Smith Students.

Tickets online or call 413-585-3220.

Double Edge Theatre presents
Leonora's World: An Autumn Spectacle
October 19, 20, and 21 at 6:00 PM
Double Edge Theatre

Performed rain or shine

We are excited to announce that this October Double Edge will present our first Fall Outdoor Spectacle, inspired by the world of Leonora Carrington. This Spectacle will take place in the autumnal landscape of the Farm, traveling across multiple sites.

For tickets: doubleedgetheatre.org/tickets

Pilgrim Theatre presents Moon Over Dark Street
October 19 & 20 at 7:30 PM, October 21 at 2:00 PM
Shea Theater Arts Center, Turners Falls, MA

Moon Over Dark Street, a cabaret of Theatre and Song by Bertolt Brecht gears up with the jazz-hot tunes of Kurt Weill from such theatre classics as “Threepenny Opera” and “Happy End” and the wrenching ballads of Hanns Eisler. The production tracks the devastation of the Second World War and the McCarthy Era. Moon Over Dark Street travels from Berlin to Hollywood, offering songs of love, sex and agitation-with great resonance to today’s political scene!

https://sheatheater.org/calendar
Tickets: $25 /$18 for students and seniors.
To Purchase Tickets today - call 413-648-7432

“’Moon Over Dark Street’ aims for the moon and hits its mark. The show is a kick-ass mix of songs that pair Brecht’s dark lyrics with the twisted tunes of Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler. Like a top-shelf sipping whiskey, ‘Moon Over Dark Street’ starts off with a teasing bite and kicks in smooth and strong…Belle Linda Halpern and Kermit Dunkelberg, in their solo turns, both perform with subtlety and panache. And
together they’re downright intoxicating.”
- Anne Marie Donahue, Boston Phoenix

Exit 7 Players presents Sweeney Todd
Oct 19-Nov 2 (Fridays/Saturday’s at 8pm, Sunday’s at 2pm)
Exit 7 Theater, 37 Chestnut Street, Ludlow, MA

An infamous tale, Sweeney Todd, an unjustly exiled barber, returns to nineteenth century London, seeking vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The road to revenge leads Todd to Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop, above which, he opens a new barber practice. Mrs. Lovett's luck sharply shifts when Todd's thirst for blood inspires the integration of an ingredient into her meat pies that has the people of London lining up... and the carnage has only just begun!

Directed by Kim Overtree, Musically Directed by Dan Monte.

Cast List:
Sweeney Todd - Ryan Bird
Mrs. Lovett - Stephanie Gilbert
Anthony - Jeff Baum
Johanna - McKenna Troy
Beggar Woman - Marguerite Durant
Tobias Ragg - Johnny Gordon
Aldolpho Pirelli - Erik Gladwin
Judge Turpin - Brian Cipoletta
The Beadle - Drew Gilbert
Jonas Fogg - Jim Brennan

Ensemble
Jim Brennan
Phoebe Blaisdell
Angie Bourdeau
Regina Diemand
Monique DuBois
Leon Jerfita
Craig Judicki
Peter Kochanek
Mary Marcil-Labbe
Andy Price
Krista Stoops
Kerry Turok
Lucy Tew
Bridget Venezia
Amelia Weatherbee
Emily Yesu

SWEENEY TODD
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
A Musical Thriller

Music and Lyrics by
STEPHEN SONDHEIM

Book by
HUGH WHEELER
From an Adaptation by
CHRISTOPHER BOND

Originally Directed On Broadway by HAROLD PRINCE

Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick

Originally Produced on Broadway by Richard Barr,
Charles Woodward, Robert Fryer, Mary Lea Johnson, Martin Richards
in Association with Dean and Judy Manos

Sweeney Todd

Is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
www.MTIShows.com

exit7players.org

Happier Valley Comedy
Happier FAMILY Comedy Show
October 20 at 3:00 PM
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (125 W Bay Rd., Amherst)

Monthly family-friendly improv comedy show, great for 5-12 year olds and their adults. It's funny for the whole family! Saturday, October 20th at 3pm at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (125 W Bay Rd., Amherst). Tickets at the door: $10/Adults, $5/Kids, Free/4 yrs and under (Reduced admission for museum members). For more info: www.happiervalley.com.

Happier Valley Comedy
Happier Valley Comedy Presents: Not In Charge
October 20 at 7:00 PM
Happier Valley Comedy Theater, 1 Mill Rd, Hadley, MA

Join the talented new group Not In Charge for a fast-paced, high-energy short form improv show! For a limited run on the third Saturday of each month. Saturday, October 20th at 7pm at the new Happier Valley Comedy Theater (1 Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, on rte.9). And stick around after for the 9pm showcase and open improv jam! Tickets: $10 online and at the door. For more info:www.happiervalley.com.

UMass Theater presents Snowflakes, or Rare White People
Oct. 25, 26, 27, Nov. 1, 2, 3 at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 3 at 2 p.m. School Matinee Oct. 31 at 10 a.m.
The Rand Theater, Fine Arts Center, UMass

Directed by Gabriel Harrell
Tickets: $15 general admission, $5 students and seniors. Purchase online
If you purchase an individual ticket to Snowflakes and decide to subscribe, you can apply your Snowflakes ticket price toward the cost of your subscription! (Contact the box office by Nov. 10 with proof of purchase; some restrictions may apply.)

We start our season funny, with Dustin Chinn's pointed, futuristic comedy Snowflakes, or Rare White People. In Nueva New York in the 23rd Century, a cadre of nearly-extinct white hipsters escape the museum exhibit in which they live, bringing a perilous level of Caucasity to the rest of society. We’re thrilled for a second opportunity to engage with Chinn's sly, hysterical commentary, which we first encountered in last year’s Play Lab.

https://fac.umass.edu/Online/article/TheaterDepartment

Adrienne Truscott’s Asking For It mixes humor, dance, and video while undoing the rules and rhetoric surrounding rape and comedy. Adrienne straddles the world of stand-up and performance art in this one woman show dressed only from the waist up and ankles down. With commentary from George Carlin, Louis C. K. and Robert De Niro, she takes on ducks, mini-skirts, rape whistles, Daniel Tosh, and Rick Ross all while drinking enough gin & tonics to get a girl in trouble. Heavy at its core but light on its feet, Adrienne makes jokes about rape all night long…even if you ask her to stop.

“Brutal, brilliant and brave…if you miss it you will miss the moment in the history of stand-up comedy wherein a woman actually took the genre and did something with it that no man could do. This is without doubt the most powerful hour of comedy.” – The Scotsman (UK)

“Truscott is always a step ahead… with firecracker wit, sophistication and luminous humanity.” (Guardian, UK)

“I’d heard rumors of the audacity and excellence of Ms. Truscott’s ‘Asking for It’ in the midst of the performance festivals that crowd New York each January…Those rumors are true” (Alexis Soloski – The New York Times)

*This show contains nudity and strong language.

Show Date/ Time:
Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 8:00 pm
Doors at 7:30 pm

Ticket Prices:
$20.00 (plus applicable fees)

Where/ How Tickets Can be Purchased:
Academy of Music Box Office Open Tuesday- Friday 3:00PM-6:00PM
Call: 413-584-9032 ext.105 (Service fees will apply with purchase)

Online Tickets

Sunderland Public Library presents Sunderland Short Stories
October 30, 6:30 PM
Sunderland Public Library, 20 School Street, Sunderland, MA

Actors Ellen Morbyrne and Linda Putnam usher in Halloween by performing some really spooky ghost stories, written by Rosemary Timperley and Cynthia Asquith. For more info, call 413-665-2642.

This event is free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Friends of the Sunderland Public Library.

Website.

Valley Light Opera presents Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers
November 2, 3,9,10 7:30PM and November 4,11 at 2:30PM
Academy of Music Theater, Northampton

Set in Venice and Spain, this lively and colorful comic opera includes some of Sullivan’s most beautiful and soaring tunes along with extravagant dancing and ensemble numbers. The Gondoliers is the most popular and often-performed of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operettas after the “Big Three”- Mikado, Pirates and Pinafore. True to form, the operetta is also full of Gilbert’s most biting satire and hilariously clever wit. No one is safe and the society and government targets are still relevant to modern times. Valley Light Opera will be performing The Gondoliers as a complete, elaborately staged production with a full orchestra and choral ensemble, splendid sets and the sumptuous costuming for which the company is renowned. Performed with supertitles.

Music Director: Aldo Fabrizi
Artistic Director: Michael Budnick
Choreographers: Sue Dresser and Nicole Newell

http://aom.ticketfly.com

Company website http://vlo.org

AUDITIONS & OPPORTUNITIES

UMass Theater Auditions: Actors and singers needed for English-language premiere of Wild Thing

Oct. 29 & 30, 6:30-10:30 p.m.
RAND Theater
Fine Arts Center
Callbacks Oct. 31, 6-10:30 p.m.

UMass Theater seeks a diverse cast of actors and singers with a facility with heightened language and full-body physical commitment for our production of Wild Thing, an English world-premiere of a play written in 1613 that tackles gender in an astonishingly modern way.

Auditions are Oct. 29 and 30 in the Rand Theater, and students and community members of any age, race, ethnic origin, ability, sexual orientation or gender identification are welcome! We encourage trans or nonbinary actors as well as cis-gender women to audition for the lead role of Gila.

Actors are asked to please prepare any heightened language monologue. This includes the option of choosing a monologue from Wild Thing. We are also open to Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Moliere, Mac Wellman, Suzan-Lori Parks, etc.

If you are a singer, please also prepare a section from "Serrana" (a recording and sheet music are in our audition folder). You will have the opportunity to go over the music with the composer, Eric Sawyer, before you sing. Half the roles in Wild Thing include singing and half do not. It is completely fine to audition without singing.

Please read the entire script before the audition. (It is also accessible in the audition folder.)

Visit our AUDITIONS page for updated audition details, links to the script, and sign-up information.

To sign up for an audition slot visit SignUpGenius.

Request for Proposals
Eggtooth Productions Radical Interconnectedness Festival
Turners Falls, MA
April 26, 27, 2019

We are seeking proposals from artists to address the concerns of marginalized communities.

We invite stories that engage issues of race, age, gender, religion, economic class, and those aspects of cultural identity that have been suppressed.

We seek a wide range of artistic expression: music, dance, theatrical, visual, immersive, installation.

Commission fee will be $500 and Eggtooth will provide the venue, the audience, and promotions for the work.

Email proposals to: lmciner@gmail.com
Deadline is October 31, 2018

Smith College Department of Theatre presents
Auditions for THE MOORS by Jen Silverman
directed by Isabelle Brown '19

Sunday, November 4 and Tuesday, November 6, 7-10 PM in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre

Callbacks: Wednesday, November 7, 7-10 PM in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre

Two sisters and a dog live out their lives on the bleak English moors, dreaming of love and power. The arrival of a hapless governess and a moor-hen set all three on a strange and dangerous path. The Moors is a dark comedy about love, desperation, and visibility.

Roles for 6 Actors.

Performances are February 22, 23, 28, March 1, 2 at 7:30 PM in Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre

No appointment or preparation necessary. Sides from the script will be provided. Perusal scripts are available in Josten Library.

Questions? Email artsinfo@smith.edu

Request for Proposals to Performing Artists!

O come all ye faithful be part of Eggtooth Productions’ 3rd Holiday Spectacular!
Submissions due by November 15, 2018 to lmciner@gmail.com

Eggtooth Productions & Mr Drag and Karl are now taking submissions for participation in the Third Holiday Spectacular on Dec. 14 and 15, 2018. Performances must be holiday themed. This can be from any holiday which happens at the end of December including Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, etc. In fact, we encourage diversity! Performances will be limited to 5 minutes (1 song) for a musical/dance number and 3-4 minutes for a spoken word/other performance. Try to keep submissions upbeat (remember we are trying to keep it light and entertaining and holiday feeling for the audience), but we will accept some sentimental holiday numbers.

The concept is simple. Mr Drag and Karl will be hosting. The set will look like Mr Drag’s living room. Everyone will be coming on as guests of Mr Drag and Karl and will be performing at their home just like an old TV holiday special. He may invite the guests to sit on his couch and chat before or after their number. There is an opening number being performed by Mr Drag, Karl and the Karl-a-like dancers. Lori Holmes-Clark will be choreographing. There will be a finale. Anyone interested in the finale, will have to agree to two rehearsals prior to tech.

If interested, please include your name, contact info a brief description of your performance, limited to 3-5 sentences. Also, if you are interested in being a part of the finale, being interviewed by Mr Drag or being one of the Karl-a-like dancers please mention that in your submission.

WORKSHOPS & CLASSES

Phantom Sheep Productions in association with J-ART
Comedy Improv Classes Fall Session
Mondays for 6 weeks, beginning October 22 at 7:00 PM
Springfield Jewish Community Center

Comedy Improv classes return to the JCC for our next 6 week session! Open to the general public!
Adults & Teens 15+

Sharpen quick thinking!
Unleash creativity and characters!
Build confidence!
Enjoy the power of collaboration!
Improve acting and stage presence!
Relax and laugh! (a lot)!
Taught in a very fun, encouraging, and constructive atmosphere.

This session will focus on the usual blend of creating characters, exploring the game, quick thinking drills, and living in the present moment finding the funny. All levels welcome and challenged at own pace.

Lead instructor: Eric Boucher assisted by other Phantom Sheep troupe members.

Tuition for entire session:
$86, General Public
$68, JCC members and employees
10% additional discount for previous students

Sign up Today!
413-739-4715
improv@phantomsheep.com

Facebook event.

Phantom Sheep is also offering a Youth Puppetry class for grades K-4 that begins October 15th. Contact the JCC for more info: 413-739-4715