Friday, June 14, 2019

What's new at the Rocky Mountain Theatre webzine

Here are the latest articles at the Rocky Mountain Theatre webzine:

Book Reviews
Shakespeare's Ear, by Tim Rayborn

Documentary Reviews
The National Theatre's Introduction to Ancient Greek Theatre

Theater Review
Twelfth Night at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival

Free downloads
The Play Collector's Checklist (Shakespeare) and Performance Diary


At our sister site, Wyoming in Motion, are musical review is from the Candlelight Dinner Theatre and their production of Tarzan: The Stage Musical.

Friday, May 31, 2019

What's on in June, 2019?

What's happening with the Rocky Mountain theatre scene in the month of June, 2019?  (Don't see your production here? Contact us and we'll add it! If your theatre is in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah or Idaho, we want to know about it!)

WYOMING

Cheyenne

Cheyenne Little Theatre
 is presenting Camp Out, a LGBTQ2 Pride game show at the Atlas Theatre on June 7, 2019.

The next production of the Cheyenne Little Theatre will be its 63rd Old Fashioned Melodrama, taking place during Cheyenne Frontier Days, in July 2019.

The CLTPs 90th season has been announced. It will start  September 20 with Beauty and the Beast, then continue with The Sunshine Boys, A Christmas Carol, The Glass Menagerie, Wind in the Willows and Cabaret.

The True Troupe
 will be presenting the Greek play Lysistrata beginning June 27 through the 30th, at McIlvaine Plaza on the grounds of Laramie County Community College.


COLORADO

Boulder

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival 
is presenting four Shakespeare plays this summer.


Twelfth Night begins at the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre, on the Boulder University Campus, on June 8, and runs on the weekends.

As You Like It is indoors, on the University Theatre stage, beginning June 21. July will see the addition of Romeo and Juliet to the mix, as well as King Charles III, a play about what might have been if Charles had obtained the throne, written in Shakespearean verse.

Denver 

Denver Center for the Performing Arts presents
Wicked until June 9, 2019. (It's been running since May.)   Fiddler on the Roof will run from June 11 to the 16th.


Fort Collins

OpenStage's Shakespeare in the Park
 is showcasing Much Ado About Nothing on Fridays through Saturdays from June 1 to the 8th, and with Sunday performances added from June 14 onward.. Performances outdoors at 7 pm, bring your own lawn chairs. The show is at: The Park at Columbine Health Systems- Centre Ave. & Worthington Circle.  (947 Worthington Circle, Fort Collins, CO 80526).

Bas Bleu Theatre
 will be finishing up its run of Harvey (which has been on since May 18) on June 9, 2019.

Their Readers' Theatre production of Lost Lake takes place on Monday, June 3 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, June 8 at 2:30 pm.

Johnstown

Candlelight Dinner Playhouse presents
Disney's Tarzan, opening  June 6 and running until August 25th. The Candlelight's Season 12 opens in September, with The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Holiday Inn, Jekyll & Hyde, Curtains, and Peter Pan.

Loveland

Jesters Dinner Theatre's production of The Wizard of Oz continues to run on weekends throughout the month of June, and closes July 7. Their final musical of the season, Nunsense, will open July 12.





Friday, May 10, 2019

The Secret Garden, May 3-19, 2019 at Cheyenne Little Theatre

The Rocky Mountain Theatre webzine provides in-depth reviews and articles on theatre in the Rocky Mountain region. This blog provides more 'informal' coverage of productions and activities.

The Cheyenne Little Theatre is staging The Secret Garden: An Award-Winning Musical  on weekends from May 3 to May 19, 2019.

David Hall as Archibald Craven and Rachel West as Mary Lennox. Photo courtesy Cheyenne Little Theatre
Thursday special ticket price

I went to see The Secret Garden on Thursday, May 9, 2019. Every CLTP production, currently, costs $22 for adults. On a certain Thursday during the run, they have a $10 special - and that's the evening I choose to go see their productions!

Whenever I go see a play that I'm not familiar with, I always check the synopsis at Wikipedia. I do this even if it's a mystery (my plays of choice, actually). Although the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a classic (written in 1911!),  I've never read it, so of course I checked it out.

The musical version of the book has book (i.e., script) and lyrics by Marsha Norman, and music by Lucy Simon. It was first produced in 1989 in Norfolk, VA and went on to Broadway in 1999, where it played for two years (709 performances.)

The Set

According to the write-up on the Broadway production of The Secret Garden in Wikipedia, "the set resembled a an enormous Victorian toy theatre with pop-out figures, large paper dolls, and Joseph Cornell-like collage elements."

Other critics/theatre writers saw the set differently.

According to Mark Robinson Writes, for example, the set [had] "Valentine decoupage-inspired scenery by Heidi Landesman (now Ettinger) that dreamily evoked mystical environs while keeping the action suggestively planted in a gloomy Yorkshire mansion."

I bring that up just because I found it interesting, not because the Little Theatre set could compare in any way to that production's. 

YOUTUBE

For a few years now, the CLTP has been putting video 'trailers' up on YouTube for each of its productions - only about 30 seconds long. This is the first time I've seen a 'Behind the Scenes' video. It's eight minutes long. Their are interviews with the child actors, with some footage of Mary Hall directing.

Behind the Scenes:



The Trailer:




The Company

A couple of the men in the ensemble cast - as the play opened in India, were a little flat in delivering dialog, but when they reappeared as ghosts for the rest of the play and sang, they improved.

Brad Goodman as Mary Lennox's father, Albert, delivered a touching performance in dialog as well as song. 

David Hall played Mary Lennox's hunchback uncle, Archibald. Jason Gilbert was excellent as his brother and Mary's other, villainous uncle, Neville. (I'm still not sure if Neville actually was deliberately a villain or if he was just deceiving himself that Colin - Archie's son - did have some kind of illness. But he certainly was not nice to Mary!)

A Staging Note

The duet of Lily's Eyes, where it is revealed that both Archie and Neville loved the same woman (the dead Lily - who is a ghost in the house and who, tellingly, never appears to Neville) is staged with each actor at the opposite end of the stage. This was annoying as you had to take your eyes off one to look at the other.

This staging was not unique to the CLTP's production - I've watched a few videos today at YouTube and it's apparently always done like that.

The question I asked myself at the time was, Why not just have them stand back to back (slightly turned to convey the illusion that they don't see or hear each other) so the audience could see both tortured men emote and sing at the same time!

It was quite powerful and I heard a couple of people behind me whisper that reaction to each other as well.

The ghosts from India, and Lily (Karen Hinkle) surround Archibald (Dave Hall), Mary Lennox (Rebecca West) and Dickon (Conner Fertig), Martha (Katherine Reidl) and gardener Ben Weatherstaff (Jeff Tish)
The Voices

Jason Gilbert had the best [male] voice in the company. David Hall sang well but was not at the same level. That's not a criticism of Hall - he too gave a very touching performance as the hunchbacked Archie. Gilbert does good "smugness."

Of the women in the cast, the voices of Karen Hinkle as Lily and Katherine Reidl as Martha were excellent. (Not surprisingly, the best singers, male and female, have the principle roles!)

There were two child actors alternating roles for Mary Lennox.

In the production I saw, Mary Lennox was played by young Rachel West, who did an excellent job. But from one standpoint, the actor I was most impressed with was the even younger Michael Weisbrook, who played Colin. Although a few of his bursts of anger were good, most of the time he was just reciting his lines with a single inflection - but the kid couldn't have been more than 8 years old (according to his bio he's in the 2nd grade) and to have all those lines memorized and to appear on stage in front of a hundred people and say 'em when required was extreeeeeemely impressive.

CLTP productions rarely disappoint - The Secret Garden, directed by Mary Hall - was no exception.

Trivia  Time

As a side note...why are maids always named Martha? Because there was a Martha in the Bible who always had to do all the work and was foolish enough to complain to Jesus that her sister should have been helping her! Jesus was not sympathetic. (Guess what, people - if there'd been no Marthas you wouldn't have been fed and would have been housed in squalor. Marthas get a bad rap! (Yes, I'm talking to you, Agatha Christie!))


Final shows of 2018-2019 Season

The 2018-2019 theatre season is not yet over.

Audiences still have a chance to see:

Wyoming

Cheyenne 

The Secret Garden, books and lyrics by Marsha Norman, Music by Lucy Simon, directed by Mary Hall.

Cheyenne Little Theatre Players, at the Mary Godfrey Playhouse

There's one more weekend left of this final production in the CLTP's 2018-2019 season. They have already announced their 2019-2020 season.

Colorado

Fort Collins

 Bas Bleu in Fort Collins has not yet announced its 2019-2020 season.

It's final production of its current season is Harvey, running from May 18 - June 9.

Johnstown


Oliver! continues to run at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown, Colorado on weekends until May 26.

The Candelight's final production of this season is Tarzan: The Stage Musical, which will run from June 6 - August 25.

The Candlelight has already announced its 2019-20120 season.

Loveland

The Jesters' Dinner Theatre in Loveland, Colorado has yet to announce their 2019-2020 season, but here's the final two shows of their 2018-2019 season.

The Wizard of Oz, which began on April 19, continues to run on weekends until July 7.

The final production of their current season is Nunsense, which will run from July 12 to September 29.

 The Jesters also does summer classes for children. Plays they will perform are:

The Hobbit - July 16 - August 1

Aladdin- July 22 - August 7
You Can't Take it With You - July 13 - August 4
Les Miserables - August 10 - September 15






2019-2020 Season for Candelight Dinner Playhouse, Johnstown, CO

The Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, in Johnstown, Colorado (an hour's drive north of Denver or an hour's drive south of Cheyenne on I-25) has announced its 2019-2020 season:

Season tickets are available at their website: www.coloradocandlelight.com/

2019

Sep 5 - Nov 17, 2019: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Nov 29, 2019  - Jan 19, 2020: Holiday Inn

2020

Jan 30 - Mar 29: Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical
Apr 9 - May 31: Curtains
Jun 11 - Aug 23: Peter Pan

2019-2020 Season for Cheyenne Little Theatre

Each year, the Cheyenne Little Theatre in Cheyenne, Wyoming has a special gathering for media and members of the community to announce their next season.

The Cheyenne Little Theatre announced their new season in March. It'll be a special season, because it's their 90th anniversary.

Season tickets are available at: cheyennelittletheatre.org

Here's the upcoming season:

2019

Jul 11 - Aug 4: Old Fashioned Melodrama (63rd year) - The Reluctant Heiress or The Crow Creek Catastrophe or Wild for the Wild Life
Sept 20-Oct 6:  Disney's Beauty and the Beast
Nov 8 - 24:  The Sunshine Boys -
Dec 6 - 2: A Christmas Carol

2020

Feb 7 - 16: The Glass Menagerie
Mar 13 - 29: The Wind in the Willows
May 1 - 17: Cabaret 


_____
Articles on past productions of each of these plays will be uploaded to our website, The Rocky Mountain Theatre magazine, in due time.

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What's new at the Rocky Mountain Theatre webzine

Here are the latest articles at the Rocky Mountain Theatre webzine: Book Reviews Shakespeare's Ear, by Tim Rayborn Documentary Revi...