6-22-07
Developing Musicals in Iowa
Two new regional theatres are in the works, both named after towering legendary—even mythological—figures in theatre. Next December, the good burghers of Fairfield, Iowa will open the 520-seat Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts with a Sondheim gala, followed in January by an opening production of Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along. Thereafter, a summer season of musicals is to be produced, with concert musical presentations filling in the schedule for the cooler months. The Sondheim Center will be headed by artistic director Randall K. West, who enticed Sondheim to lend his name by dedicating the Center to the development of new works of musical theatre. Still in the process of building its programs and programming for the first year of operation, the center is accepting submissions of new musical theatre work, resumes from creative staff and talent and contacting well known Broadway talent and trying to convince them to journey to the Midwest. Info is available at www.sondheimcenter.com, or e-mail Randall West at rwest@sondheimcenter.com. Sondheim has given naming rights to only one other theatre, and that’s in England. FYI: Fairfield is a town of 12,000 in southeast Iowa, about 60 miles due west of Galesburg, IL.
If Sondheim is legendary, the great actress Margo Channing is both legendary and mythological. “Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy night.” Nonetheless, the good folks of Michigan City, Ind. have created the Margo Channing Theater Project, a summer festival of music (mostly) and some drama to be held outdoors in the International Friendship Gardens of Michigan City. The June 28-Aug. 11 inaugural season includes jazz, pop, singer/songwriters, stuff for kids, and a 50-minute Hamlet. Further info at www.margochanningtheater.com. Along with the year-round Acorn Theatre in nearby Three Oaks, MI, there now are two performing arts venues in Harbor Country (as the tourism boards call it), that stretch of lakeshore where Indiana meets Michigan.*
After reading our June 8 column, playwright and director Tanya Saracho e-mailed that she, too, now is represented by Bret Adams, Ltd. Saracho, of course, is co-artistic director of Teatro Luna.
Also in our last column, we wrote about HER-RAH 2007, the June 21-24 “Festival of the World’s Best Women Playwrights,” as it’s subtitled. Well, hot on those high heels comes word of Fresh Produce! A Celebration of New Plays by Women, the second annual summer series of four new projects presented June 11-July 8 by Rivendell Theatre Ensemble at the American Theatre Company. Fortunately for all concerned, Rivendell describes its authors as “cutting edge women writers,” and not as “the world’s best women playwrights.” We’d hate to see a cat fight between the two troupes over bragging rights. One does wonder, however, why they can’t work together, thereby achieving greater critical mass all around.
We heard from an old friend, Sherman Shoemaker, the long-time marketing director for Lifeline Theatre, whose separation from Lifeline under unpleasant circumstances in 2005 triggered several articles in PerformInk on the issue of healthcare for staff members of Chicago theatres. Sherman reported that he’s supervising a benefit for the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, Illinois Chapter. Huntington’s Disease, with which Shoemaker himself lives, also is called Huntington’s Chorea. It’s a fairly rare central nervous system disorder which can be debilitating, and which affects both physical movement and speech. Folk balladeer Woodie Guthrie may have been the most famous Huntington’s Disease patient. The Aug. 26 benefit is a day of thoroughbred racing at Arlington Park Race Track. FYI: chorea and choreography come from the same Greek root word, meaning “dance.”
Bailiwick’s Barenaked Lads set box office records in Dublin, Ireland recently in an appearance at the Fourth International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. Now the troupe has split in two (and added some new naked boys) so that Barenaked Lads Take Off-Broadway can resume Chicago performances at least through Aug. 26, while a second Naked unit heads to the gay Mecca of Provincetown, Mass. for a June 22-Sept. 15 run at the Post Office Cabaret Theater.
Black Sheep Productions now officially is a theatre company. The troupe scored a hit with its calling card production of Steve Spencer’s Another Day in the Empire upstairs at the Royal George, and so has decided to create an artistic ensemble under the leadership of Vance Smith. The inaugural crew is Chris Cantelmi, Katie McLean, Lori Myers, Steve Spencer and Alice Wedoff. The company also is seeking submissions of scripts for consideration. Mail to: Black Sheep Production, 5853 N. Kenmore, 2N, Chicago, IL 60660 or e-mail to black.sheep.theater@gmail.com. The company’s Web site will launch by the end of this month, www.black-sheep-productions.com .
John Zimmer sent us a few thoughts and remarks on the closure of Uma Productions, as reported in our June 8 column. The main reason for folding their tents, he said, is that “we can no longer produce at the level that we set for ourselves, and did not want to lower those levels to something that was not Uma.” Also, as we suspected, day gigs are requiring larger commitments. Said Zimmer, “many of us are doing pretty well and have demanding theatre day jobs—-this led to a LOT of support from the places where we work, but also more of our time and input called for at those places. In the end, we made the very difficult decision to end this chapter of Uma. Is it done for now? Yep. Is it over forever? I don’t know. We still love working with each other. This was not a company that ended because of in-fighting. We have some art left to do together, and I, personally, hope we get to do it.” Zimmer noted that the company will shutter with its debts paid off.
Even more, Zimmer noted the tremendous support company members have received. “I have heard messages/condolences from everyone from Broadway In Chicago to the smallest storefronts to many members of the press about the Fall of the House of Uma and have been truly moved by a lot of the response,” Zimmer said. “I am infused with a great deal of hope for what a small theatre company can do, simply thinking about the scope and curve of our achievement. And to speak to the question recently raised in connection to Uma, about if we can still have faith in a storefront company’s ability to produce soul-affecting, kick ass art, I say yep, and we can do that on a budget. I REALLY do believe there is a future for this art and a new way of thinking about it in a global and societal context, and I think there is a BIG possibility that that way of thinking could come out of the Chicago storefront community.”
*Margo Channing is the fictional Broadway star played by Bette Davis in the film, All About Eve.