Maggie Roop Buckles Up for Interview 'bout "Becky's" etc.

Maggie Roop has been earning admiration and loyal fans for a while now at Barksdale, Theatre IV, and other theatres around town. She contributed mightily to the musical merriment of Honk!, Seussical, Annie and Guys and Dolls, played a conflicted nun in Doubt (see photo below and to the left, with Irene Ziegler), and a recalcitrant organist in First Baptist of Ivy Gap. Now, in Becky's New Car, she's the young heiress who longs for a life more real. The Buzz caught up with Maggie to ask her a few questions about her flourishing career.

Q - Thanks, Maggie, for agreeing to take a test drive in our new interview series on the Barksdale blog. Billy Christopher Maupin, the director of Becky's New Car, made me promise not to ask anything that might give away plot points, so forgive me in advance if any of my questions sound cryptic.

A - No problem. I like cryptic.

Q - Before we all fell in love with you on our three stages, you must have come from somewhere. Where?

A - That wasn't cryptic at all.

Q - I haven't gotten to the cryptic part yet.

A - I grew up in Herndon, VA which is in the D.C. area near Dulles airport. My first show was a production of Oklahoma! with a children's theatre company in Northern Virginia in which I played one of a herd of gingham-clad square dancing children and I loved it. Then in High School I was cast as Essie in You Can't Take It With You and I was completely hooked. That was when I really knew that I needed to be in theatre. I originally went to the Boston Conservatory as a musical theatre major. It was an excellent program but it didn't focus enough on the theatre side of things for me. I liked the productions I saw at VCU prior to attending and my friends who went there had great things to say about the instructors. So I applied and ... that's how I wound up in Richmond.

Q - Were there any professors who influenced you significantly?

A - Joe Sampson was my acting professor for one semester my first year at VCU and he really taught be to be fearless. He pushed us to make strong choices and I learned from him how to compose a character in terms of the intensity of that character's needs within a play and a scene. My junior year I had Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates as an acting instructor for Shakespeare. Her instruction, in conjunction with the work I was doing that year with Janet Rogers in Voice and Speech, helped me make a huge step forward in my actor training.

Q - You married a fellow VCU theatre grad, the talented scenic artist, Adam Dorland (see picture to right). How did you and Adam meet?

A - Actually, Adam and I met in middle school. We both grew up in Herndon and became close friends in high school. At first we went separate ways for college but we both wound up transferring to VCU (ok, it wasn't exactly a coincidence). We've basically been together since I first moved to Richmond and then we got married last year!

Q - Like a lot of actors, you made the move to NYC following graduation. What was that experience like? What brought you back to Richmond?

A - I moved to New York for one year after I graduated from VCU. Adam graduated two years prior and had been in "the city" during all that time, so I wanted to be with him and give New York a whirl. I had some really wonderful experiences that year teaching theatre to kids. I loved that opportunity. But the city itself wasn't right for me. The culture was thrilling and it is a dynamic and wonderful place, but we all know how expensive it is. I missed a more intimate city with a more laid back pace, like RVA. Someplace that made sense financially. My experience living in NYC and RVA has created in me a great passion for the smaller theatre community. I am a strong believer in this town and the ability we have as a cohesive and tightly involved theatre community to keep growing and maturing and making theatre that is at the caliber of the larger cities and beyond. So, Adam and I decided to make the move back. And we're glad we did.

(to be continued)

Keeping Up with Brian and Court; Revisiting "Arcadia"

Posted by Bruce Miller
Despite its size, whenever I go to New York I bump into old friends as if the streets of the Broadway theatre district were little more than the aisles of my neighborhood Ukrop's. (Saying "my neighborhood Martin's" just isn't the same.) I can't think of a single Big Apple excursion in decades when this hasn't been the case.

This trip, the first reconnection was with Brian Kalin (pictured to the left) who hollered out my name as we passed each other on 47th between Broadway and 8th. Brian was my manly scenic designer for The Little Dog Laughed, who not only delivered a terrific, stylish set, but also brought his fair share of testosterone into every production meeting. It was great to see him again.

Brian's career has been progressing nicely since his move to NYC in 2008. For the last few years, Brian has been assisting Court Watson (pictured below and to the right), a fellow VCU alum who also designed at Barksdale (The 1940's Radio Hour, 2002). A lot of their work is in Germany and Austria, such as:

Jekyll and Hyde & West Side Story
Theater Magdeburg - Magdeburg was one of the most important medieval cities in Europe; today it is the capital of the German "state" of Saxony-Anhalt

Frau Luna & Der Himmel über Berlin
Salzburger Landestheater - the best known and oldest theatre in the Mozart town of Saltzburg, where much of The Sound of Music film was shot

Elton John's Aida & Rockville: A New Musical
Musical Sommer - a summer theatre located in Amstetten, a town on the western edge of Lower Austria. For reasons unknown by me, Lower Austria is a "state" actually located in Upper Austria, the Northeast corner, surrounding the city of Vienna

In between all these European gigs, Court and Brian have managed to fit in a healthy dose of stateside work as well:

2011 - the recently closed Liberty Smith at Ford's Theatre in D. C.
2011 - Annie Get Your Gun at the Glimmerglass Festival, with hot young director Francesca Zambello
2010 - Off Broadway, It Must Be Him
2010 - Off Broadway, Dear Edwina
2010 - The Shakespeare Theatre in D. C., All's Well That Ends Well, directed by Michael Kahn
2010 - Engeman Theatre, Run for Your Wife and Fiddler on the Roof, both directed by B. T. McNicholl

Court also posts earlier credits as Assistant Scenic Designer for the recent Broadway runs of High Fidelity, Lestat and Little Women, and Assistant Costume Designer for Broadway's Cry-Baby, South Pacific and Mauritius.

It was great to learn that Brian and Court are doing so well. One of a regional theatre's institutional responsibilities is to give work experience to its most talented hometown theatre artists, so that if and when they make their move to NYC or other larger markets, they have the professional resume credit(s) needed to get their foot in the door. Barksdale is proud to be an early credit on the resumes of both Brian and Court.

In between bumping into old friends, Hannah and I also saw a few shows while visiting the Great White Way. On the second evening of our trip (Friday), we purchased half price TKTS tickets to the show that wound up being the favorite of both of us--the brilliant revival of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

Arcadia has been among my favorite plays since I saw the American premiere at Lincoln Center in 1995. We've never produced it at Theatre IV or Barksdale because I believe a successful production of the play requires resources that we simply don't have. More than most plays, Arcadia must be performed with the utmost artistry in acting, design and construction if it is to effective. In my opinion, this play that deals brilliantly with the sheer wonder of chaos theory must have a pristine acuity in its presentation if the audience is to fully engage with the mystery and the magic. I've never had any desire to produce a partially-realized Arcadia. To do so would do a disservice to one of favorite plays by a living playwright.

Thankfully, the current Broadway revival offers all that one could want from what many regard as Stoppard's masterpiece. I loved it even more than the original. David Leveaux's direction is invisible and seems to make the play more accessible than I remember it being in '95. Lia Williams (pictured above and to the left), Billy Crudup, Tom Riley, and especially Raul Esparza (also pictured) tear into their roles with zest, humor, charm, and equal measures of erudition and emotion. Margaret Colin, Noah Robbins and David Turner are perfectly suited to their supporting roles. Only Bel Powley as young Thomasina Coverly seemed heavy-handed--too brassy and brash for her upper-crust British surroundings.

The design work of Hildegard Bechtler (sets) and Gregory Gale (costumes) was sumptuous and, where appropriate, understated--right on target.

Watching the play, we sat about four rows behind Victor Garber, who originally played the role of the literary scholar wannabe, Bernard Nightingale. In this production, Nightingale was played by Billy Crudup, who took Broadway by storm as Septimus Hodge in the 1995 production. After the show, Hannah and I waited with a small handful of theatre lovers at the stage door (with no Hollywood stars, the hangers on were few). After a few minutes, Garber and Crudup emerged together, and we had the chance to talk with both of them for two or three minutes. They were gracious, and it was very fun.

If you've never seen Arcadia in a first-class production, and if you love great theatre, I recommend the play and this production heartily.

--Bruce Miller

The Play That Dares Not Speak Its Name

Posted by Bruce Miller
My daughter, Hannah, and I went to New York last week. She just completed her sophomore year at W & M, and this was our annual father/daughter bonding trip. Other dads and daughts do Indian Princesses and the like, with camping trips and wilderness excursions. We've always tended to seek our adventures in Shubert Alley, up and down the aisles of The Drama Book Shop, and all around Central Park.

We Amtraked up on Thursday morning--all aboard at 6:50 a.m.--arriving at Penn Station sometime around two. In the glory days of Jet Blue's non-stop flights from Richmond into Kennedy, we usually flew. Now flying costs about $300 more for the two of us than training, so ... Amtrak it is.

Since we planned in advance, we were able to book a room at the Edison, which is our favorite hotel in the theatre district. Nothing fancy, but affordable, quiet, clean, and--if you're drunk on the schmell of the theatre--ideally situated. The only downside is that you have to connect a month or more in advance to find a vacancy.

We saw six shows in four days: one on Thursday evening, one on Friday evening, two on Saturday and two on Sunday. We traveled home on Monday. The only show we bought in advance (paying full price, no less) was The Book of Mormon. We bought those "hot" tickets for Sunday evening, because time is tight between Sunday's 3 p.m. matinee and 7 p.m. evening performance--often too tight to return to the ticket line.

Other than Mormon, we bought all our tickets 50% off at the TKTS booth in Times Square. At this time of year, when tickets are selling pretty well, the TKTS booth is cheaper than the web discounts we could have obtained in advance at BroadwayBox.com. With Broadway prices hovering around $120 for a non-musical, who can afford to pay full price?

The show we saw on Thursday night was The Motherf**ker with the Hat, by Stephen Adly Guirgis. I list the title here the way it is listed on the marquee of the Schoenfeld Theatre and the cover of Playbill. Guirgis is the playwright who penned The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (co-produced in Richmond earlier this season by Henley Street and Triangle) and Jesus Hopped the "A" Train (produced a few years back in the Theatre Gym at Theatre IV). I wanted to see Hat because I'd read good reviews, and because Guirgis is among my favorite contemporary American playwrights.

Even after summoning all my NYC sophistication, I felt a little funny saying the title out loud at the TKTS booth. I also felt nervous encouraging my 20-year-old daughter to come see this play with me. But once we were seated in the theatre and the lights came up, any and all discomfort went away.

Don't get me wrong--the language spoken and shouted from onstage is just as pungent as the title would lead one to expect. Guirgis writes, beautifully, in the vernacular of the bottom-of-the-food-chain working class poor whom we too often dismiss as having little of importance to say. What becomes immediately obvious in the theatre is that we dismiss their (his) wisdom at our own peril.

Hat tells the story of five striving, 20- and 30-something individuals, each of whom tackles his or her own loves and demons with varying success. No character has the one right answer; there are no heroes or villains. Front and center, Guirgis places the higher powers, the memories, the intoxicants, the instincts, the will power, the sense of family, the health foods and, most importantly, the commitments (or lack thereof) we rely on when everything else lets us down.

Hat is about the healing and destructive powers of language. It is about the presence and absence of soul.

Of the six plays we saw, Hat is one of the two I LOVED. Bobby Cannavale, Elizabeth Rodriguez and Yul Vazquez (three actors from Off Broadway's Labyrinth Theater Company) are brilliant, and well deserve their Tony nominations. Chris Rock and Annabella Sciorra add the TV star appeal that Broadway requires, and they're good--just not great when viewed side-by-side with their theatre-savvy co-stars.

The set by Todd Rosenthal is a Rubik's cube wonder that rotates, twists, turns and pops to create three different interiors that are all interconnected even when we can't figure out how.

The play is howlingly funny and, even more to my taste, genuinely filled with scorching emotion and hard-earned truth. Hat enables us to see the dignity in "broken," marginalized individuals who otherwise may never "earn" our attention. It gives the lie to that American platitude that "all men are created equal," shining a revealing light on the inequalities that define our nation's "non-existent" class structure.

Hannah liked Hat a lot, but with somewhat less enthusiasm than I did. The following night we saw the play that both of us deemed "best in show." More soon.

--Bruce Miller

NYC Auditions - "Boleros for the Disenchanted"

Posted by Bruce Miller
Last Thursday and Friday, Phil and I conducted two days of auditions in NYC for our upcoming production of Boleros for the Disenchanted, the wonderful new play by Oscar-nominated writer Jose Rivera (pictured to the left). We will be producing Boleros this fall in association with the Latin Ballet of Virginia.

We flew up on Wednesday on our much-loved JetBlue—the Official Airline of Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV. If you haven’t flown JetBlue to New York’s JFK lately, you really should consider giving it a try. With roundtrip tickets for only $64, more legroom than any other US carrier, 36 channels of DIRECTV (still free), 100 channels of XM Satellite Radio (also still free), no baggage charge on your first piece of luggage, and delicious beverage and snack service (again, still free) … what’s holding you back?

All right, enough with the commercial.

We saw a total of 92 actors (mostly Latino) for the six actor cast. We auditioned AEA actors at the Equity Studios on Thursday (see sign above and to the right), and non-AEA actors at Ripley-Grier Studios on Friday (pictured in photos to the left). Many thanks to Scott and Lisa, our wonderful audition monitors.

Boleros kicks off our three-year Hispanic Theatre Project. We will be producing one play during each of the next three seasons that directly relates to Hispanic culture. Act I of Boleros takes place in Rivera's homeland, Puerto Rico. I’m eager to find Latino actors who effectively connect with the characters in the play.

Federal employment law forbids asking a potential employee about his or her ethnicity. The statement I was allowed to make, according to our attorney, was this: “Discuss with me any connections you may have with Latino culture.”

Responses varied from “I spent the first 18 years of my life in Puerto Rico” to “I haven’t missed a Cinco de Mayo celebration since I was 13” to “I sent out my famous paella recipe with last year’s Christmas cards.”

Phil and I saw some terrific actors. I am hoping to complete reference checks tomorrow and begin making offers. My goal is to assemble the most talented and authentically Latino cast that Richmond has ever seen. If luck is with us, I believe I’ll do just that.

Hope to see you at the theatre when Boleros opens on Sept 18. We're very excited about having the opportunity to introduce you to this wonderful and important new play.

--Bruce Miller

Lounging in the Middle of Broadway

Posted by Bruce Miller
Phil and I flew up to NYC for auditions last week, and my family joined me for a too short weekend vacation. It was my first trip to the City in several months, and my first chance to experience firsthand Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to transition Broadway from a street of crowded taxis to a more relaxed pedestrian mall.

Since mid-May, Broadway has been closed to traffic from 42nd Street to 47th Street, and the five blocks of vehicle-free asphalt are now crowded with lawn chairs, work tables, benches etc., enabling both natives and tourists to move around freely, or sit and eat, work, relax and/or people watch.

Personally, I loved it. The sidewalks were getting so crowded that the extra elbow room made everything feel much more relaxed. People of all ages, shapes and sizes were spread out doing whatever they chose. Even the Naked Cowboy had more room to share his gifts with the masses.

It seems counterintuitive, but the main reason for the Mayor’s plan is to reduce traffic congestion in Midtown. Officials believe that this new design will actually improve overall traffic flow. Broadway slashes diagonally through the otherwise organized grid of rectangles made by 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Avenues and 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 45th and 46th Streets (etc). Traffic engineers believe that traffic will actually become more manageable once the diagonal slash is removed from the mix.

The one cabbie I encountered HATED it, and insisted that the engineers didn’t know their T-squares from telephone poles. Since the new traffic pattern has been in place since mid-May, his opinion must be informed. But from a pedestrian perspective, the new design felt very user friendly.

Have you been to the City this summer? What did you think?

--Bruce Miller

Been to the City for a Show with No Name

Posted by Bruce Miller
I don’t know why I’m waxing at such length about our Columbus Day Weekend excursion to the Big Apple. I hope it’s not boring.

The trip itself wasn’t boring at all. We flew out of Richmond on JetBlue on Saturday morning, departing RIC at 10:05 am and disembarking at JFK at 11:18. JetBlue is the Official Airline of Barksdale / Theatre IV. This, however, was a family trip and so my family paid for the tickets in full. They were a good deal at $59 each, one way, before taxes and fees.

To get from the airport to mid-town, we took the AirTrain to Jamaica Station, and then the E train subway into Manhattan. It’s about a 45-minute commute between the jet and Broadway; it’s comfortable; it costs less than $4.50 per person if you buy the right MetroCards.

Even though we were staying at the Milford, we left the subway at 53rd and 7th. I much prefer walking down Broadway and through Times Square to get to the Milford (45th and 8th) rather than walking up 8th from the 42nd St Port Authority subway stop.

Honoring the request of our late friend, we all shouted “Martha Newell” as our feet hit Broadway for the first time this trip.

On the way to the Milford, we stopped to eat lunch at Café Edison on 47th Street between Broadway and 8th—good, cheap, fast and very NYC. From Café Edison, Terrie and Curt schlepped the bags to the Milford while Hannah and I went to the TKTS Booth for half-price matinee tickets. Hannah and I are theatre junkies who enjoy seeing two shows in a day. Terrie and Curt like to relax and walk around the city in the afternoon and only see one show a day. Different strokes.

One of the shows Hannah and I most wanted to see was [title of show]. No, I didn’t forget to fill in the title; that is the title. Our friend and fellow theatre junkie, Lizzie Holland, had been raving about this small new musical since she saw it last summer. She and her parents think it would be a perfect show for Barksdale, and since it was closing this weekend, [title of show] was next to South Pacific on the top of our “must see” list.

As we ventured toward the end of the 45-minute TKTS line, we passed a half-price ticket promoter calling out the name of [title of show]. We told her we were interested, and she gave us a flyer that allowed us to purchase half-price tickets at the box office rather than waiting in the TKTS line for three quarters of an hour. [title of show] was playing at the Lyceum on 45th between Broadway and 6th, so we walked to the theatre in about 5 minutes. Using the flyer at the box office, we not only bagged half-price tickets, we also avoided the $4 per ticket service charge that one incurs at the TKTS Booth. And we were able to put it on my credit card—something that until this week was verboten on the TKTS line.

By avoiding the wait in line, we wound up with an hour to kill, so we rejoined Terrie and Curt at the Milford. I’ve stayed at the Milford a hundred times, and always found it satisfactory. It’s the cheapest of the decent hotels in the theatre district, or the most decent of the cheap hotels. And it has lots of rooms, so when the Edison (my favorite affordable hotel) books up early, which it always seems to do, I often can still find a room at the Milford.

This time, even booking more than two months in advance and using on-line rates, the Milford cost $309 before taxes for Saturday night and $279 before taxes for Sunday. That seems really expensive to me, but it’s the best rate I could find. And the only way to get that rate was to reserve for three nights and then call back and cancel one of the three. When I tried to book for two nights, the computer indicated that the Milford was sold out.

There was a street market on 8th Avenue last Saturday, so Hannah and I checked out a few of the booths before heading back to the Lyceum for our 3 o’clock curtain. She bought her second pashmina—a real deal at only $5.

We absolutely LOVED [title of show]. With music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen and a book by Hunter Bell, [title of show] documents its own creation, telling the story of two Broadway theatre junkies who attempt over a three-week period to create a new script and score to enter into the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Bowen and Bell, who not only wrote but also play themselves in the show, determined to write an original musical rather than adapt a play or movie into a musical. They discovered almost immediately that their conversations about what to write were more interesting than the ideas they were coming up with for an original show. And so the idea to document the creation of the creation of the show itself became clearer (or as the show states, "a musical about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical"). After the show was accepted into the festival, Bell and Bowen expanded the script based on their writing experiences with friends Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff, who also play themselves in the Broadway production.

[title of show] is a classic post-modern work-in-progress, with updates reflecting the circumstances the cast and the show have experienced added to the show as it progressed from Off-Off-Broadway to Off-Broadway to Broadway. Now that it will be moving on to regional productions, it will be interesting to see if the rewriting continues.

Since I love the show, I’m asking myself the following questions:
1. Will it work as well with actors other than the original creators playing themselves?
2. Does it include too much Broadway insider information and perspective to appeal to a Richmond subscription audience?
3. Will the original creators trust the work to a small regional theatre, and if so, when?

After I answer these questions to my satisfaction, I’ll decide whether or not to pursue a Barksdale production. Right now, I can only say that the show was GREAT on Broadway. It spoke to me. I’d love to be involved in some way with a future production.

More coming soon about the other shows we saw. Till then, see you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

Photo note: In the show photos from [title of show], Hunter Bell (author of the book, actor playing the character "Hunter") is in the green shirt; Jeff Bowen (composer and lyricist, actor playing the character "Jeff") is in the navy or purple polo shirt, with a rolled up long-sleeved t-shirt underneath; Heidi Blickenstaff (actress playing "Heidi") has the long blond hair; Susan Blackwell (actress playing "Susan") has the pulled back dark hair.

It's True, the New TKTS Booth is Open

Posted by Bruce Miller
The Theatre Development Fund guy who spoke to me last weekend was right on all counts. The newly designed TKTS Booth opened yesterday in Times Square. You can find the NY Times article about this long awaited step forward at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/nyregion/17tkts.html?ref=nyregion.

Best of all, the TKTS Booth will now be accepting credit cards for the first time, meaning you no longer have to wait in line for an hour on an NYC sidewalk with hundreds of strangers pressing in from all directions, trying to safeguard the $300 you just withdrew from the ATM.

See you in line!

--Bruce Miller

Our Journey to "South Pacific"

Posted by Bruce Miller
As I mentioned earlier, Terrie, Hannah, Curt and I ventured to NYC for Columbus Day Weekend. I love New York, and not just cause the slogan tells me so. My mother is an NYC native, and I’ve spent my entire life visiting the homeland at least once or twice a year, often more. I’ve always felt comfortable there, and it’s important to Terrie and me that Hannah and Curt feel comfortable there too.

So we don’t really need a reason to visit the Big Apple. New York is New York, with all that that entails. For us, that’s reason enough. But if we had needed additional motivation, seeing the smash hit revival of South Pacific would have been it.

The Tony Award-winning, Lincoln Center production stars the luminous Kelli O’Hara and features Richmond’s own super-talent, Jerold Solomon. Ever since seeing Light in the Piazza, Kelli O’Hara has been Hannah’s favorite leading lady under 40. I greatly admire her as well. (I have to include the “under 40” caveat out of respect for Kristin Chenoweth, Victoria Clark and Bernadette Peters, who also head Hannah’s short list of beloved musical theatre actresses.)

When we saw Piazza (also at Lincoln Center), Hannah LOVED the show, and wanted to meet the cast at the stage door following curtain call. (I loved being able to use Hannah as my excuse for wanting to do the same thing.) For reasons I don’t know, there’s usually a much smaller crowd at the stage door at Lincoln Center than at the stage doors of other Broadway musicals. So, when Victoria Clark and Kelli O’Hara exited, there was no mob, and both of them were very gracious in talking with Hannah and me. They made a terrific impression.

When Hannah saw Kelli O’Hara in South Pacific on the Tony Awards, that Rodgers and Hammerstein classic immediately became her #1 choice of shows to see. (She’s never quite forgiven me for seeing Pajama Game, which also starred Ms O’Hara, on a business trip without her.)

And then there’s Jerold. Hannah was very fortunate to have played the Oomiak in King Island Christmas years ago at Theatre IV, under Steve Perigard’s wonderful direction. Hannah won the role fair and square, and did a terrific job. Among her costars in that production was Jerold Solomon, who played Ooloranna, the Inuit leader who conceives of the plan to carry the oomiak (a walrus-skin boat) over the mountain that divides one half of King Island from the other, rescuing the island’s priest who had been stranded in an ice-bound ship offshore.

Every week, show after show, Jerold, Jake Mosser and the other men of King Island hoisted Hannah up high and carried her all around the stage. When you’re a little girl, and it’s your first starring role in a show, and a handsome and able 22-year old man is carrying you around stage for 90 minutes, it’s got to make an impression. Suffice it to say that Jerold will always hold a special place in Hannah’s heart.

Our only problem was this. We decided to take this trip sometime in August, and by the time the decision had been made, South Pacific was already sold out for the entire month of October. You can always go through a broker to buy tickets in advance to sold-out shows, but it winds up costing an extra $35 to $150 or more per ticket. And that's money we don't have. So I decided to take a chance, and try to buy a last minute ticket from a broker on the street. This is a risky venture, to be sure, but the two times I’ve tried it, it’s worked.

Coming tomorrow – Buying Last Minute Tickets from the Stranger on the Sidewalk … and LOVING South Pacific!

--Bruce Miller

TKTS Booth Set to Re-Open This Week

Posted by Bruce Miller
My family made it up to NYC last weekend for a fall visit to Broadway. Hannah and I saw In the Heights, South Pacific, [title of show] and The Marvelous Wonderettes. Curt and Terrie joined us for In the Heights, and saw Spring Awakening on their own. More on all that later.

While in the Big Apple, I visited the old TKTS Booth—the real one in Duffy Square that’s been closed for renovations for what seems like forever. A model of the re-design is pictured above.

Work on the remodeling seemed to be nearing completion, so I snapped these clandestine pictures, foisting my cheap trinket of a camera through rips in the black plastic and gaps in the chain link fence that has been installed to keep the new booth under wraps. I felt like Maxwell Smart, and kept waiting for my shoe phone to ring.

I asked the guys working the substitute booth located behind the Marriott Marquis when the newly remodeled old booth would reopen. The guy who seemed to know the most said, and I quote, “We’re supposed to open it for credit card sales”—yes, my friends, credit card sales—“on Tuesday and Wednesday”—that would be Oct 14 and 15—“and then transfer all operations back over there on Thursday.”

Maybe he was crazy or misinformed, but from what he said the real TKTS Booth may be re-opening tomorrow, and may begin accepting credit cards for the first time.

I don’t know how many half-price Broadway and Off-Broadway tickets I’ve purchased at the Times Square TKTS Booth since it first opened in 1973, housed in an old construction trailer. It’s certainly been in the hundreds. Some quick calculations indicate that I’ve probably saved about $14,800 and spent about 300 hours waiting in line.

I’ve loved every minute of it—well, almost every minute. And I seriously prefer the old booth in the open air of Duffy Square to the substitute booth crowded into that crossover space that's carved beneath the Marriott between 46th and 45th. I’m genuinely excited that the old booth will be re-opening soon.

It’s going to take me a while to get used to the new look. It’s very red, and looks like a huge bleacher plopped on top of the tkts booth, which appears now to be more of a lean-to than a booth. The bleacher faces downtown, and those sitting on it will have a great view of the back of the large stone cross behind the statue of Father Duffy, the beloved priest of Times Square.

I don't remember what the back of that cross looks like, and I don’t care. On my next trip up, I’ll stand in line with bells on.

Till then, I hope to see you at a theatre in Richmond!

--Bruce Miller

Update: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Debate

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

Last week, I wrote about an episode of Theater Talk with Elizabeth Ashley and John Lahr debating the relevance of the Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof featuring an all African-American cast.

In response to an email I sent, Theater Talk replied:

We are scheduled to have several of the cast members a couple of weeks from now who we'll ask about this, but I didn't want to "jinx" that by putting it in the press release. The show was supposed to be about the BACKGROUND of the play, but then Lahr started talking about how the play was really about people tainted by the legacy of being slaveholders (I trivialize his point), so a Black cast didn't make sense ("like an all-white August Wilson wouldn't make sense"). Ashley strongly disagreed, so it turned into this interesting debate. [sic]

--Billy Christopher Maupin

Panel to Debate Relevance of the All African-American Cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin
There has been quite a bit of buzz surrounding the revival of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Tin Roof, which opens tonight at the Broadhurst Theatre. Why? It's been seen on Broadway in four different productions before:

1955- Director Elia Kazaan, Starring Burl Ives and Ben Gazzara

1974- Director Michael Kahn, Starring Elizabeth Ashley

1990- Director Howard Davies, Starring Polly Holliday, Charles Durning, and Kathleen Turner

2003- Director Anthony Page, Starring Ashley Judd

This is the first of these five productions to feature an all African-American cast. However, in many of the articles about the show, TheatreVirginia is mentioned as having produced what is considered to be the ONLY all African-American production prior to this revival.

The revival boasts a spectacularly talented cast with three Tony Award winners (Phylicia Rashad for A Raisin in the Sun, James Earl Jones for The Great White Hope and Fences, and Anika Noni Rose for Caroline, or Change, also recently seen in the motion picture adaptation of Dreamgirls), as well as the Oscar-nominated Terrence Howard. But the buzz doesn't center on all that prestige.

Today on Playbill.com a headline caught my eye: Ashley and Lahr Will Debate Cat Revival on March 8 "Theater Talk". They are to "debate the relevance and implications of doing Tennessee Williams' fifties Southern family drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with an all-Black cast."

There are four panelists in this discussion.

Elizabeth Ashley, star of the 1974 revival. (You may also remember her from Evening Shade or perhaps as the original Corrie in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.)

John Lahr, critic for The New Yorker

Susan Haskins, Executive Producer of Theatre Talk.

Michael Riedel, a writer for the New York Post.




These four people will be debating the relevance of an all African-American cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

What are your thoughts? The floor is open for comments!

(Oh, and if you would like to contact Theater Talk, you can click here. Their email address is theatertlk@aol.com.)

--Billy Christopher Maupin

Harris-Jones Scores at First NYC Audition

Posted by Bruce Miller

I received a Happy Thanksgiving email from Robin Harris-Jones, late of Richmond now of NYC, reporting some great news. After practically just arriving in the Big Apple, Robin has been cast in a leading role at her first audition. No huge surprise there. Here in River City, Robin was definitely a young woman whose star was on the rise.

The photo shows Robin as an Ozian, in case you're wondering.

“Good news on my end,” Robin writes. “I got a theatre job! Off my first audition! I'll be headed down to Ft. Myers, FL in a couple weeks to play Cathy in The Last Five Years for Synergy Productions of SW Florida. Unless something goes terribly awry, I'm supposed to leave NY around Dec 3 with a run, I believe, Dec 17 thru Jan 27 at the Foulds Theatre.

The artistic director, Andrew Kurtz, is a busy bee - artistic director of 2 orchestras in Florida, an opera company in Philly, and a little music theatre company to boot!I can't wait to get back to work … and have a role I've wanted to play for a long time on my resume!!!!”

That's Maestro Kurtz's photo to the right--obviously a man who knows an amazing voice when he hears one.

Robin sends her best wishes to one and all for a happy holiday season.

--Bruce Miller

Theatre Calendar - Oct 7 - 14, 2007

By Tuesday of this week, NINE of our TEN fall shows will have opened! Here are the highlights of the next seven days at Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV.

Sunday, Oct 7:
in performance –
The Member of the Wedding (Willow Lawn – 2 pm)
Deathtrap (Hanover Tavern - 2 pm)
Stuart Little (Empire Theatre – 2 pm)

Monday, Oct 8:
in performance -
Hugs and Kisses (Richmond schools)
Jack and the Beanstalk (Orange schools)
Tales as Tall as the Sky (Wake County NC schools)
The True Story of Pocahontas (York schools)
in rehearsal -
Dinner Plans (Bifocals Theatre Project)
The Song of Mulan
meeting -
Fairy Tale Ball Committee

Tuesday, Oct 9:
in performance -
The Member of the Wedding (Willow Lawn – 10 am)
Deathtrap (Hanover Tavern – 7 pm)
Hugs and Kisses (Richmond schools)
Jack and the Beanstalk (Chesterfield schools)
The Song of Mulan (Charles City schools)
Tales as Tall as the Sky (Dinwiddie schools)
The True Story of Pocahontas (Clarke schools)
in rehearsal -
Dinner Plans (Bifocals Theatre Project)
meeting -
Brochure and Poster Design - Acts of Faith
speech -
Whiteway at Rotary Club of Richmond

Wednesday, Oct 10:
in performance -
The Member of the Wedding (Willow Lawn – 8 pm)
Stuart Little (Empire Theatre – 10:30 am)
Hugs and Kisses (Richmond schools)
Jack and the Beanstalk (Accomack schools)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Ridgefield CT)
The Song of Mulan (Hanover schools)
Tales as Tall as the Sky (Nottoway schools)
The True Story of Pocahontas (Warrenton VA)
in rehearsal -
Dinner Plans (Bifocals Theatre Project)
meetings -
Set Design - The Little Dog Laughed
Alliance for the Performing Arts

Thursday, Oct 11:
in performance -
The Member of the Wedding (Willow Lawn – 8 pm)
Deathtrap (Hanover Tavern - 8 pm)
Stuart Little (Empire Theatre – 10:30 am)
Hugs and Kisses (Westmoreland schools)
Jack and the Beanstalk (Loudoun schools)
The Song of Mulan (Chesterfield schools)
Tales as Tall as the Sky (Isle of Wight schools)
The True Story of Pocahontas (Fairfax schools)
in rehearsal -
Dinner Plans (Bifocals Theatre Project)
meeting -
Virginians for the Arts

Friday, Oct 12:
in performance -
The Member of the Wedding (Willow Lawn – 8 pm)
Deathtrap (Hanover Tavern - 8 pm)
Stuart Little (Empire Theatre – 10:30 am and 7 pm)
Hugs and Kisses (Caroline schools)
Jack and the Beanstalk (York schools)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Elmira NY)
Tales as Tall as the Sky (Hanover schools)
The True Story of Pocahontas (Rocky Mount NC)
in rehearsal -
Dinner Plans (Bifocals Theatre Project)
meeting -
Virginians for the Arts - Board of Directors

Saturday, Oct 13:
in performance -
The Member of the Wedding (Willow Lawn – 2 pm and 8 pm)
Deathtrap (Hanover Tavern - 8 pm)
Stuart Little (Empire Theatre – 10 am and 3 pm)
Jack and the Beanstalk (Onancock VA)
travel -
TES Theatre Weekend in New York

Sunday, Oct 14:
in performance –
The Member of the Wedding (Willow Lawn – 2 pm)
Deathtrap (Hanover Tavern - 2 pm)
Stuart Little (Empire Theatre – 2 pm)
The Song of Mulan (Greenville OH)
travel -
TES Theatre Weekend in New York

See you at the theatre!

Where Are They Now - Tia James

Our great friend Tia James has landed in NYC—well, with Tia, “landed” never seems like the right word. Her spirits are always ten feet off the ground, which is one of the things I love about her. I asked her to write about her new life in the prestigious grad program at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. She started a couple of weeks ago--a stranger in a strange land. Here’s her first report.

Posted by Tia James (You can click on the label "T James" at the end of this post to read earlier info on Tia's journey.)

Dear Richmond Friends,

I feel like Ms Celie from The Color Purple. "Dear God, I'm here! I'm here!" And that I Am.

I live in New York, and I sleep in New Jersey, just a 15 min ride to the City. Everyday when I walk from the subway to the street, I can just feel the energy. It made me smile the other day as I got off the train and started walking with at least 70 other people, noticing how we all were keeping time with each other, as if we were each a different instrument in a huge orchestra, keeping time, never really getting in each other's way, adding to the song.

What makes me smile even more are the tourists who decide to walk right down the middle of the sidewalk at a snail's pace, definitely changing your 4/4 to 2/4.

Things are truly great! The first week of orientation was loads of fun; I don't know when I’ve laughed so much at myself. In one of the orientations Dean Campbell asked us to stand, say our name and department, and one thing about New York that we found interesting. It was my turn, and I said, "Hey guys, my name is Tia and I'm in Grad Acting, and the interesting thing about New York, well, every time I think about New York I can’t help but think about Broadway. I really want to BE on Broadway. You guys PRAY for me!"

Everyone started laughing at the giddy, naive woman from Virginia. And then from the back of the room, one of the faculty shouted out, "You ARE On Broadway!" (The Tisch Building is located at 721 Broadway.) This of course made us all laugh and prompted me do my Praise Dance! :)

I laughed again when I went to the International Student Welcome. I sat in the front row waiting for it to begin, and as the seats were being filled I noticed that I was the only American. I thought … ahh, it's okay, I'll just hang out ... listen ... until they announced that everyone should stand up and introduce themselves stating where they were from.

Well, it was soon my turn, so I stood and said, "Hey guys, I'm Tia, Grad Acting, and I'm actually from Virginia, but New York seems like another country to me, so I just thought I'd sit in with you guys!" Which of course had everyone including myself laughing some more. I was happy I stayed cause I met a great group of people.

I'm living my best dream! I've met my classmates, who are awesome—the faculty and staff, all the other grads, everyone has been so welcoming. And all of us can't wait to get started.

One thing that really touched me was when Zelda Fichandler (pictured to the right) explained the basis for Tisch Grad Acting ... ensemble ... being a company. That just thrills me! I have had "ensemble" ingrained in me since high school, York County School of the Arts, with my teacher Mrs. Dixon always saying "Ensemble! We're family. Learning together, pushing each other, helping each other. It isn't a competition, we're all good. Now it's about training our instruments so we will be better able to give."

Give to who? Give what? As Zelda asked and answered, "Who's this for? It's for us. But the connections we make for ourselves are all for something greater – what we can give to them, our audience."

I am extremely happy! Praise God! You guys please don't forget me!

LoveLoveLove,
Tia