Children of a Lesser God Article & Photos

Photos by Jay Paul

The last tech rehearsals are underway for Children of a Lesser God this evening. Earlier in the week, actress Erica Siegel talked with Celia Wren at the Richmond Times-Dispatch about her hearing loss, about acting and about her experience performing in the lead role in Children.

"I'm not going to let things stop me because I'm losing my hearing," actress Erica Siegel said as she sits in the Barksdale Theatre, where she has been spending many hours of late. "It's just not worth it. So many people tell you that you can't do something, and when you hear that enough, you do it, just to spite them!"

Humor tinges her words, but the 31-year-old performer's resolution is real enough -- and she will need every ounce of it as she gears up for her turn in "Children of a Lesser God," running at the Barksdale Friday through March 22.

You can read the full article at the Times-Dispatch.

Actress, Erica Siegel

Children of a Lesser God
opens this Friday, Feb. 6
at Barksdale at Willow Lawn
Tickets are available online and by calling (804) 282-2620

DOUBT interview in Sunday's RTD!

Posted by Sara Marsden

Doubt interview in Sunday's RTD!

Check out this great interview with Irene Ziegler and Duke Lafoon. The performance today at 2pm, as well as next Friday at 8pm and Saturday at 2pm & 8pm are sold out, so don't delay if you want to see this show.

There is also an article about the upcoming special event at the Empire Theatre, Virginia Arts and Letters Live.

The Reviews are in for RD

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

What some are saying about Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter at Theatre IV:

Mary Burruss (a regular theatre critic for STYLE Weekly) writes on the RichmondVATheater Blog:

"[My seven-year-old daughter and I] both walked out with big smiles on our faces."

"Engaging for kids of a variety of ages and the adults who escort them, funny, enlightening with it's message, politically correct for our time, colorful and just the right length"

"new, well directed, well acted, well designed and crafted set, sound, and lighting, appropriate, fun, well thought out costumes, excellent make-up, choreography that is appropriate for the show and its actors, and wonderfully talented cast who's abilities are utilized properly to make a show that flows seemingly flawlessly across the stage"

"hilariously wicked duo of Jackie Jones and Matt James"

"fell in love with Richard Koch as the King"

"really great theatre"

Susan Haubenstock writes in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch review:

"Dawn A. Westbrook is the director/choreographer, and she brings lots of fun to the show, aided especially by Elizabeth Weiss Hopper's witty costumes and Greig Leach's brightly colored scenic design. Westbrook's dance numbers are especially amusing, and she gives her villains--the hilarious Jacqueline Jones as the Queen Mother and Matthew James as the Duke of Bonfire--loads of funny business to do."

"Richard Koch, who gives a hysterical performance as the King. He's greedy, he's vain, he dresses funny, and he talks silly -- he's a perfect buffoon."

YAY! Congrats to Theatre IV!!! Get your tickets! It closes in only two weeks on February 10.

Also be sure to be on the look out for another free ticket contest and the "An Actor Prepares" blog at http://www.theatreiv.blogspot.com/.

Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the box office at 344-8040. (Or you can purchase tickets through the Barksdale Theatre box office with the same phone call, while you're purchasing tickets for Doubt: A Parable [Starring Duke Lafoon, Irene Ziegler, Maggie Roop, and Katherine Louis]).

RTD Takes a Peek at RD

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

Sunday's Richmond Times-Dispatch featured a fantastic feature about Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter with a HUGE picture of Gigi!

You can check it out at InRich.com. The piece is by Celia Wren, who does a lot of really great coverage of theatre here in Richmond, as well as in several other publications, including American Theatre magazine.

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-01-20-0081.html

365 Days/365 Plays gets Shoutouts from STYLE Weekly and Richmond Times-Dispatch

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

Thanks to our incredibly awesome publicist, Judi Crenshaw, I have done three phone interviews this past week with three different publications (Richmond.com, STYLE Weekly, and Richmond Times-Dispatch). I constantly feared saying something incredibly ridiculous and then reading the article saying to myself "Wow[or some other word that I shouldn't publish here], did I really say that?" But these fantastic writers, Karri Peifer, David Timberline, and Celia Wren, respectively, have written articles that illuminate the project in such an exciting, beautiful, intriguing (how I could go on) way! The Richmond.com link I posted last week, so here lie the links to the article that appeared in STYLE Weekly yesterday and the article that appears in the weekend section of the Times-Dispatch today.

David Timberline's piece in STYLE can be read here.

Celia Wren (who was so absolutely incredible to speak with) 's article in today's Times-Dispatch can be read here.

And just so you don't have to hunt back to last week, here is the link to Karri Peifer's feature on Richmond.com.

I also want to give a shoutout to the two other directors in our 365, Darius T. Epps and Kaye Weinstein Gary, who have two of the most unique, refreshing visions that I have encountered.

(Darius is pictured to the left. Kaye is pictured to the right.)