Special Events, Mona's... closing 4/5, & WELL opening 4/17

Virginia Arts & Letters Live this Saturday, March 28 ONLY! 8 PM at the Empire Theatre
In the tradition of NYC's celebrated "Selected Shorts," an A-team of Virginia’s finest actors, authors, and musicians mixes it up in a lively and literate celebration of theatrical derring-do, all taped live for broadcast on WCVE-FM.
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Mona's Arrangements closes Sunday, April 5 at Hanover Tavern
so get your tickets and head over to the Tavern before you miss this world premiere musical comedy that's received 5 rave reviews! Jan Guarino, Scott Wichmann and Audra Honaker star in a musical comedy that’s as charming as it is funny. A successful business woman (Guarino) and a “wild and crazy guy” who is 20 years her junior (Wichmann) connect in this hilarious and tuneful love story set in a flower shop. When the free-spirited niece (Honaker) begins playing Cupid, opposites not only attract, they ignite!

WELL opens April 17 at Willow Lawn.

Lisa just wants to put on a nice, orderly play about growing up and how she was cured of her allergies. But her mother, watching from her La-Z-Boy, keeps offering snacks to the audience and interrupting with her version of events. Soon Lisa loses control of her autobiography when the actors she hired to help tell the tale begin siding with her mom, and a bully from elementary school crashes the narrative. “Wonderful and delirious. Well has warmth and accessibility that make you want to recommend it to everyone.” - The New York Times.
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Lots more coming up in April:
Theatre IV's Fairy Tale Ball at the Empire, Sat. April 4
Coffee & Conversations at Willow Lawn, Tue. April 14
Stretchin' Musicians at Willow Lawn, Sun. April 19
Bifocals Theatre Project for Seniors at Willow Lawn, Fri. April 24
(and Bifocals also meets this Friday, March 27 as well!)


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Virginia This (Tuesday) Morning

Audra Honaker and Jan Guarino. Photos by Jay Paul

This Tuesday, March 17, Jan Guarino and Audra Honaker, from the musical comedy Mona's Arrangements, will be chatting it up on WTVR Channel 6 – the only live morning program in Central Virginia, Virginia This Morning, which airs from 8:55 - 10 AM.

Interviewing them will be co-anchors Greg McQuade and Julie Bragg. Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV actors have become favorite guests for Greg and Julie, because they always seem to have a lot of witty things to say!! Jan and Audra won’t be in costume, but they will project the lively, spunky spirit of Mona’s Arrangements.

Mona's Arrangements Online Tickets
Or CALL (804) 282-2620

Many thanks to Vogue Flowers for the beautiful flowers used throughout the show.
Thanks also to our season and show sponsors - The Supply Room Companies, JetBlue, Weinstein Properties, Union Bank & Trust and our media sponsor, the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Mona's Arrangements on stage now!

Mona's Arrangements - our World Premiere Musical Comedy runs through April 5, 2009 at Hanover Tavern.
More information | Tickets | (804) 282-2620

Book by Bo Wilson
Music by Steve Liebman
Lyrics by Steve Liebman and Bo Wilson

Starring Jan Guarino, Scott Wichmann and Audra Honaker
Photos by Jay Paul








See the full photo album on our Facebook page.

Video Interview - Bo Wilson & Jan Guarino of Mona's Arrangements

Mona's Arrangements - our World Premiere Musical Comedy - opens this Friday, Feb. 27 at Hanover Tavern.
More information | Tickets

Visit the set of Mona as playwright Bo Wilson and actress Jan Guarino discuss the inspiration behind the show and the role the audience plays in tweaking a new production.

Wear Black for Broadway??

Posted by Bruce Miller
On Facebook—yes, as many of you know, I’ve ventured recklessly into that brave new world—a “global rally” is being promoted. On Jan 4, it is suggested, any and everyone who loves theatre should show their support by wearing “Black for Broadway.” A black show tee shirt is recommended, but any black garment will do.

My friend Lizzie Holland—no one loves Broadway more than my friend Lizzie—has signed up for the event. Facebook being the fervent social secretary that it is, I was informed immediately. That's Lizzie below and to the left with Raúl Esparza.

The well intentioned ideas behind this pro-Broadway, pro-theatre demonstration are these:

Sunday, Jan 4 will mark the closing of four Broadway musicals and one comedy: 13, Boeing Boeing, Grease, Hairspray and Young Frankenstein. Closing notices have also been posted later in January for Gypsy, Spamalot, Spring Awakening, Forbidden Broadway (Off Broadway), and “many others.”

The creator of the event, which was originally listed on Facebook as a “protest” and later changed to a “rally,” believes that the closings are premature and the result of our troubled economy. I doubt that this is actually the case, nonetheless ... “This event,” he or she writes, “is just a bunch of theatre fans showing our love and showing our support for something we care about during these difficult times. It’s a day of honor.”

I'm certainly in agreement with that sentiment, and so I'm getting my black Peter Pan tee washed and ready.

As of this writing, 7,548 theatre lovers on Facebook have signed up for the event, a figure that will no doubt increase exponentially over the next few days.

One cogent commenter, Chris Leavy of Orlando FL, added, “I'm actually going to a show on the 4th. Not on Broadway, but still—the best thing we can do to rally support is to keep seeing shows—any shows we can, as often as we can. Broadway is killing itself with $120 ticket prices. Hopefully some good will come of this recession and soon many more people will be able to afford to see live theatre.”

Apparently Phil and I are on the same wavelength with Chris. Hefty ticket prices are a problem not only in NYC, but also right here in River City. When the economy tightens, people look for bargains. At Barksdale and Theatre IV we’re trying to address these current realities by launching our Entertainment Stimulus Package, announced in a news story last week on Channel 12. Click here for more information and to view the YouTube coverage of the news broadcast: http://www.barksdalerichmond.org/stimulus.html#12

So what are we up to? The truth is this—thus far, ticket sales are doing really well. We’ve exceeded budgeted goals for Driving Miss Daisy and Sanders Family Christmas at Hanover Tavern, This Wonderful Life at Willow Lawn, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at the Empire.

But as we look to the future, we’ve come to believe that additional stimulus will be needed if we’re to match projections for Children of a Lesser God and Well at Willow Lawn, the World Premiere of Mona’s Arrangements and I Ought to Be in Pictures at the Tavern, and Sideways Stories from Wayside School and Annie at the Empire. With the exception of Annie, these shows have less name recognition that our recent hits. And if any of you are wondering if name recognition is a factor in ticket sales, I assure you in all caps, IT IS.

So we are continuing to sell our best seats at normal ticket prices (appromimately $38), reducing our second best seats to a very affordable $20 (you must purchase by Jan 31), continuing our $15 rush tickets for any and all theatre lovers who don’t mind waiting until 3-hours before curtain to purchase their seats, and providing Hanover County Students with $9 (same as a movie) tickets to all shows at Hanover Tavern.

And if these prices aren’t low enough, we welcome folks to write to me, tell me how much you can afford (on the honor system), and we’ll find a way to make tickets available to you for the price you name. This has always been our policy. We’ve never turned anyone away because of inability to pay.

It goes without saying that we need to continue to sell tickets at all price ranges in order to stay afloat. And we WILL stay afloat. I say this emphatically because literally every time we announce a new fundraising campaign or ticket sale initiative, friends and supporters suspect that we’re going under. Such is the legacy of the surprise closings of TheatreVirginia in 2001 and Broadway Under the Stars in 2006.

Friends. I promise. We are in no danger of closing. We’re merely trying to address strategically the economic challenges that ever business is facing.

So, you can wear your black show tee shirt on Jan 4, or you can pull out a $20 (or two tens and a five if you want to wait for Rush) and show your support by buying a ticket. This is a time for all of us who love theatre to stand shoulder to shoulder and rally behind the art form and the several nonprofit theatres that make our lives so much more fulfilling.

All of Richmond's nonprofit theatres need your support. I hope to see you soon at one of them!

--Bruce Miller

3 Cheers for Stage 1

Posted by Bruce Miller
Our good friend and colleague Chase Kniffen announced today in the Times-Dispatch the founding of Richmond’s newest theatrical endeavor—Stage 1 Theatre Company. Chase’s new nonprofit venture will be mounting local productions of the latest and most adventurous musicals—the type of shows that make it onto a Central Virginia stage too infrequently. Stage 1 will also fulfill Chase’s long-standing dream to be an artistic director of his own company.

Stage 1 will begin this fall with an advantage that most new theatres don’t have—its own home facility. The new company will be located at 9130 Dickey Drive in Hanover County, in facilities that it will share with the current tenant, Shuffles Dance Center, directed by Peggy Thibodeau. Chase and the Thibodeaus (Thibodeaux?) are building a 99-seat intimate theatre that will perfectly suit the small, sometimes edgy musicals that comprise the centerpiece of the company’s mission.

Brand new musicals are not unknown in Richmond. Firehouse, of course, has an admirable history bringing new tuners to town (Bat Boy, Austin’s Bridge, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the current Reefer Madness), and over the years the Mill has produced acclaimed productions of Urinetown, Floyd Collins and Songs for a New World when all of those shows were hot-off-the-presses and generating lots of theatrical buzz. The Mill also produced the World Premiere of Two Bits by Tom Width and Paul Deiss.

Richmond Triangle Players has a strong track record of producing regional premieres of Off or Off Off Broadway musicals, too numerous to mention here. Both Triangle and the Mill will be bringing Altar Boys to Richmond next season in two separate (and probably very different) productions.

One of Theatre IV’s biggest hits, Quilters, was new and unknown when it first opened in Richmond in ‘86, and Blackbirds of Broadway and Four Part Harmony were well received World Premieres at Theatre IV’s historic Empire Theatre. Barksdale created and produced Richmond’s most successful World Premiere musical, Red Hot and Cole, with book by Randy Strawderman, James Bianchi and Muriel McAuley. In 2009, Barksdale will stage the World Premiere of Mona’s Arrangements, a new musical by Bo Wilson and Steve Liebman.

Violet, Oil City Symphony, Falsettos, Das Barbecu, and Weird Romance were all new and hip when they regionally premiered at Barksdale in the 1990s.

But many new shows never make it here, and now, with Stage 1 devoting itself solely to new musicals, that’s about to change. Chase’s first season includes “tick, tick … BOOM!” by Jonathan Larson of Rent fame (Nov 7-22), Children’s Letters to God (a family offering from Feb 6-21), Normal (a show Chase has been dying to direct, Apr 3-18), and Summer of ’42 (Jun 19-Jul 11).

We wish Chase and his new company all the best, and can’t wait to buy our season tickets. For more info, call 427-7548 or visit http://www.stage1va.org/.

--Bruce Miller