On Stage Dayton

Good versus Evil, a beautiful Princess, a fearless Prince, fairies, roses and incredible dancing… What more could you ask for?

Gem City Ballet (GCB), Dayton’s premiere pre-professional ballet company, will bring all this and more to the Victoria Theater on March 6th and 7th in The Sleeping Beauty, a full length classical ballet.

With gorgeous costumes, an imaginative set designed and built by GCB Production Stage Manager David Shough and painted by Master Scenic Designer Chris Harmon, and, of course, brilliant dancing by the talented young members of Gem City Ballet, this promises to be a fantastic weekend of dance. Topping it off are Kristi Capps, principal ballerina of the Cincinnati Ballet, and her real life fiancé Dmitri Trubchanov of Colorado Ballet, performing the leading roles of Princess Aurora and Prince Desiree.

The beloved fairy tale opens with the christening of the baby Aurora. Six fairies offer the gifts of beauty, energy, grace, song, precision and wisdom. Then the evil fairy Carabosse, angry at not being invited to the celebration, offers a curse: on her sixteenth birthday, Aurora will prick her finger on a spindle and die. The Lilac Fairy, the most powerful fairy in the world, offers hope, promising that Aurora will not die, but will sleep until awakened by the kiss of a handsome prince.

Aurora’s sixteenth birthday arrives, and the Princess tests the devotion of four suitors in the virtuosic and famous “Rose Adagio.” Then tragedy strikes as Carabosse tricks Aurora into pricking her finger, and she collapses. The Lilac Fairy is true to her word, though, and Aurora only sleeps, as the castle is engulfed in vines to protect her until her Prince appears.

One hundred years later, Prince Desiree comes to the forest and the Lilac Fairy shows him a vision of the beautiful Aurora. Determined to find her, Desiree battles the evil Carabosse, discovers the hidden castle, ascends the staircase and, with a kiss, brings Aurora back to life.

Aurora’s wedding is attended by many of the fairy tale characters from long ago, Puss ‘n Boots and the White Cat, Princess Florine and the Blue Bird, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, and Cinderella and her Prince. Capps and Trubchanov end the evening with a stately and loving pas de deux, a special dance for the wedding couple.

There will be two chances for you to see The Sleeping Beauty. On Saturday night, March 6, the evening gala performance at 8 p.m. will be an especially festive night as GCB premieres this fantastic ballet. The Sunday, March 7, afternoon matinee at 2 p.m. will be family-friendly with reduced children’s tickets and a chance to meet the Act Three wedding characters in the lobby of the Victoria following the performance. Bring the entire family; it will be a magical weekend! Tickets are available at Ticket Center Stage at (937) 228-3630 or ticketcenterstage.com and from Gem City Ballet at (937) 222-6880.

Also, be sure not to miss the Sleeping Beauty Birthday Bash, a family fundraising party, on February 27th at the Dayton Women’s Club.  AND if parents call the studio to order tickets by February 18th, they will pay $30 per child and only $20 per adult (for Birthday Bash).  Call Gem City Ballet for more details.

Dayton Theatre Guild presents “Precious Heart“, a one-woman play about Fleeta Mae Bryte, a 60-something country southerner living in a small town in southwest Texas.

This simple, yet engaging, performance has a bit of a twist: In the tradition of Tyler Perry’s Madea character, the role of Bryte will be played by a man.

Guild veteran Greg Smith portrays the lovable, funny and endearing Fleeta Mae Bryte to life for this wonderful play, a part of the guild’s “Very Special Performance” Series.

Tickets for the Feb. 5 through Feb. 7 performances are on sale now, priced at $17 for adults, $15 for seniors and $10 for students with valid identification.

For additional information, please call (937) 278-5993.

It’s a light-hearted original musical written and composed by Dayton resident J. Todd Anderson.  If that name sounds familiar, J Todd may be better known as a story board artist who often works with the Coen brothers or for his radio show, Filmically Perfect, heard on WYSO-FM Fridays at 12:30PM.

Nativity The Pop Opera commemorates the birth of Christ as seen through the eyes of the angels and is meant to be performed during the Christmas season. The music and the lyrics are contemporary, witty and entertaining and will appeal to audiences of all ages. All actors and musicians have volunteered their time and talent to this production.

Nativity The Pop Opera is performed as a benefit for The Children’s Medical Center of Dayton. 100% of ticket sales will be donated to the “Needy Patient Fund”. The fund provides financial support to in-need patients and families who cannot afford the basic necessities of life. It is a “last resort” after all other community resources and options have been exhausted and families have no other alternatives.

Attend an evening of fun while supporting a good cause:

VENUE
Miamisburg Christian Church
1146 E. Central Avenue
Miamisburg, OH 45342

TICKETS / BOX OFFICE – $10 each or group option-6 tix for $30
Monday – Friday, 10 am – 4 pm
Saturday, Noon – 2 pm
937-866-4893

PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE
Order 24 hours a day, seven days a week with your credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express & Discover are accepted), at exploremcc.org.

Tickets will not be mailed. The number of tickets and the name of the person who purchased tickets via Pay Pal will be held at the door.

Please print a copy of your PayPal receipt as proof of tickets purchased.

DIRECTIONS
I-75 to EXIT 44 (SR-725)
TURN WEST towards Miamisburg
GO approximately 2.1 miles
TURN LEFT into parking lot at MCC marquis (1/2 block after Shell gas station.)

There aren’t many women who can make polyester pants, a paisley shirt, cat eye glasses and a kerchief look sexy, but Etta May does it.
She’s even got a fan club of “Etta Heads” that show up at her gigs dressed like her. A 17 year veteran of the comedy clubs, she did all the comedy tv shows- Comedy Central, Comic Strip Live and more, appeared on Oprah and won the American Comedy Awards Stand Up Comic of the Year Award. She was always a crowd favorite in my old Jokers days, for those of you who remember!

She’s a story teller and frequently pokes fun at her husband and four children in her routines. “I’m not necessarily a writer, just more of a tattletale,” said May. She says “I named my kids after my favorite TV show, ‘My Three Sons.’ Rob, Chip, Ernie, and Tramp.” “My teenage daughter thinks wearing a three-hook bra is playing hard get.” “Her whole vocabulary consists of one word ‘WHATEVER!!” “My kids are little monsters…lucky for me the doctor gave me Valium. What a wonderful drug! Then I realized the prescription was for me and not the kids!”

Etta May has teamed up with 2 other comedians to form the Southern Fried Chicks, often touted as the female equivalent of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. They’ll be at the Victoria Theatre on Fri, Oct 9th and I highly suggest you check out this show. And unlike at the comedy clubs, this one is guaranteed to be tame and clean enough to bring your mom!

Southern Fried Chicks official site

Fairies and Athenians are enjoying the late summer weather in South Park Green, a cozy hillside park with an impressive vista of the Dayton skyline at dusk. These Shakespearean characters are diligently rehearsing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, opening Friday, September 18 at 8PM. The play is sponsored by Historic South Park. Last year they staged Much Ado About Nothing.

The delightful romantic comedy of mismatched lovers, enchanted forests and Puck, the famously mischievous sprite, will play out against the natural background of lush trees strung with twinkling lights at sunset, a perfect stage for the magic-comic misadventures of the king and queen of the fairies, human lovers and bumbling rustic folk.

First-time play producers Phyllis Tonne and Galen Wilson cannot believe their good fortune in director, cast and crew. And of the 22 players, 11 are from their own neighborhood of South Park. Director Daniel Wilson, a resident of Riverside, is an experienced director and founder of Wichita’s Shakespeare in the Park program. His wife Jennifer Wilson, a military professional working at Wright Patterson Airforce Base, is also an actress and costume designer of long experience. Two alums of Dayton’s renowned Muse Machine, Michael Wadam and Natalie Houliston bring talent and leadership to the troupe, which is a healthy mix of accomplished and neophyte actors.

The University of Dayton contributed some of its alumni to the cast, including Paul Browning, now working at the Airforce Base and Alexandra Robinson of The Kettering Foundation. Chris Rowley, ex-military currently at Woolpert, takes the stage for the first time since seventh grade.

Shakespeare requires men and in the need to cast more of them, the producers walked through the neighborhood in search of good-looking fellows of a certain age, just like talent scouts of old. They found Nick Moye, who’s turning out to be something of a natural. The South Park neighborhood offered up another crucial talent, the all-important stage manager, in the form of Elizabeth Blackwell, a Wright State theatre graduate. Alex Pitcairn joined the cast having recently graduated from the University of Cincinnati theatre program.

Rounding out the stage with young people are Kaitlyn Paeg, 15, of Trotwood and Lydia Diabate-Tonne, a fifth grader at Valley Forge in Huber Heights. The director is highly pleased with his actors. Even after many years of professional directing and the founding of other theater companies, Daniel Wilson gently mocked himself saying, “I have a better cast than I deserve.”

The troupe is in high spirits and rising to the play’s challenge, which bodes well for a lively engaging performance. “Dream” includes a lot of physicality, fighting, chases and dances as well as delicate moments and broad humor, even a song or two. It promises to be great family fare. Audiences are asked to bring a blanket or lawn chairs. The Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances are free but donations will be accepted to defray the play’s production costs.

“There is a surprisingly strong affinity for the work of William Shakespeare that has drawn us together again this year, and has us looking forward to the next,” says Tonne. Indeed, the Bard of Avon seems to have found a home in South Park.

Check it out on the DMM Event Calendar!

The most controversial and talked about play of 1998 begins: “We are going to tell you an old and familiar story.” It parallels the New Testament. Its subject; the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. But McNally’s Christ is the character Joshua, a young man born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. Joshua is homosexual and grows up in isolation and torment, an object of scorn. He flees Corpus Christi in search of a more accepting environment, gathering a group of disciples who are bound to him by his message of love and tolerance. Will his plea, that we look upon all souls as equal, fall unattended?

Casting Call for-

Joshua
John-a writer, younger brother to James
James- a high school teacher
Peter- a young man who sells fish
Andrew- a masseur
Philip-a hustler (early 30’s)
Bartholomew- a doctor and James’ lover
Judas Iscariot- a restauranteur
Matthew- a lawyer ( 30’s)
Thomas- an actor (25)
James The Less- an architect
Simon- a singer* preferably actually can sing
Thaddeus- a hairdresser
*one actor who plays the violin or fiddle is called for.
We are looking for 13 Men around the ages of 18-35
Auditions have been set for the last week of September Monday the 28th and Tuesday the 29th, with times TBA.
The show runs November 13-22 and is through the Dayton Playhouse.

Director -Michael Boyd
Assistant Director- Nicklaus Moberg

Feel free to contact either Michael or Nicklaus for more information.
Michael Boyd- [email protected]
Nicklaus Moberg- [email protected]
or see The Dayton Playhouse page at http://www.daytonplayhouse.org/shows09-10/03Cor.html

Feel free to invite others and we hope to see you come out and audition!

Join Victoria Theatre Association and the National Conference on Community and Justice of Greater Dayton as they present actor, psychologist and poet, Mykee Fowlin in a seriously fun presentation that takes a look a what Dayton is and can be,.

With a dangerous combination of professional acting ability and psychological training, Mykee Fowlin has made it his mission to “shake things up” while creating an atmosphere of inclusion, not just tolerance, for all people.

In a gripping, fast-paced performance, Dr. Fowlin slips in and out of multiple characters who share their stories in a way that can change the audiences perspective.

The result? Dayton business people will leave this event with a renewed optimism for Dayton’s future—and a keen sense of the way Daytonians are the same and the ways we are different.

HOW TO GO:

Thurs, Sept 25th @ The Schuster Center

5:00pm networking, including a cash bar and free hors d’oeuvres

5:45pm  Dr. Fowlin’s performance begins

FREE, seating is by reservation only and is limited. Reserve your seats by Spetember 21, 2009

Call  228-7591 x 3018 or email  ryan.pasco@victoriatheatre.com

“20something:  The Songs of Kerrigan & Lowdermilk,” a new experiment in musical theater by Dayton, Ohio’s Encore Theater Company will make it’s American premiere on the roof of The Firefly Building in downtown Dayton, Ohio, September 10-12, 2009.

Facebook. Blogs. YouTube. Text Messages. This is the language of a new generation and no one captures what it means to be twenty-something in 2009 quite like exciting songwriters Kait Kerrigan & Brian Lowdermilk. In 20something, Kait and Brian’s powerful, edgy, funny, and honest songs are performed raw and uncut by some of the Dayton area’s most talented twenty-somethings.

The show is personal and dynamic.  Don’t expect to see the same show twice if you catch multiple performances.  The cast has no script to memorize, each performance is their own, and each performer has their own story, centered on insightful songs such as “Run Away With Me,” “Pretty Girl Blues,” and “How to Return Home.”

“It’s fascinating to me,” says director Corinne Derusha, “the cast has figured out a way to relate to everyone…whether you’re in your twenty-somethings, or just remembering them.”

Beth Ann Wipprecht, who portrays “27” (cast members refer to themselves by the age of their on-stage alter-ego) has described the creative process of 20something as “…one of the most artistically gratifying productions I’ve been a part of.”  Brandon Michael Fleming, “28”, states “I’ve been a fan of Kerrigan and Lowdermilk for four years and getting the opportunity to perform their work is very rewarding.  I hope the audience appreciates this new form of musical theater that’s being produced.”

Don’t miss this “reality” musical experience where every performance tells a whole new story and every song explores a new truth.

“20something” is directed by Corinne Derusha, with assistance by David Brush.  Musical direction is by Alex Horton. Cast members include Beth Ann Wipprecht, Brandon Michael Fleming, Katelyn Yeager, Madeline Casto, Tim Singleton, Valerie Reaper & Zachary Justus. The production opens September 10th for four performances on the rooftop terrace atop The Firefly Building at 123 Webster Street in downtown Dayton, Ohio. Tickets ($15, $10 & $5) are available through www.encoretheatercompany.com or by calling 1 (866) 967-8167.  Adult Content.  In conjunction with Dayton’s Urban Night’s event, Friday night’s 10pm performance will feature special $5 pricing for all guests aged 20-29.

Check it out on the DaytonMostMetro.com Event Calendar!