"West Side Story" Showcases Great Young Talent

Posted by Bruce Miller
My daughter and I went to see SPARC’s production of West Side Story this evening, and were once again blown away by the young talent. Standouts in the large cast include:

Jeanna Daniels who plays Maria, making her SPARC debut. Jeanna is a college student at AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) in NYC. She sings like an angel, with one of the clearest and most effortless sopranos I’ve heard in a long time. She's perfect for this role.

Chris Adams who plays Tony, returning to SPARC after playing the title role in Pippin and Munkustrap in Cats. Chris attends college at VCU and J. Sargeant Reynolds, and I continue to be completely impressed by his beautiful voice and charm.

Gianna Barone who plays Anita, returning to SPARC after appearing as Ronette in last summer’s Little Shop of Horrors. Gianna is also a student at VCU, and has the powerhouse voice and great dancing abilities to prove it.

Kate Belleman, playing Margarita, whose face and dancing light up the America number. Kate is a student at UNC-Greensboro and returns to SPARC after 2005’s Pippin (and many previous productions as well).

Christian Griggs-Drane who plays Baby John, making his first appearance with SPARC. Christian, a junior at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School, has Baby John’s wide-eyed innocence down just right.

Anna Maples who plays Anybody’s and sings the Somewhere solo. Seriously. Until I read the playbill to write this post, I had NO IDEA that the spunky, fun actress playing Anybody’s was the same magnificent singer who raised the roof with Somewhere. Anna is a junior vocal performance major at VCU, and definitely a talent I need to know.

Calvin McCullough who plays Bernardo in his SPARC debut. Calvin is in the theatre program at VCU, where he appeared in Smokey Joe’s Café and Volume of Smoke. He’s also an alum of Sycamore Rouge in Petersburg.

Robert McKenna who plays Action and is making his SPARC debut. Robert is a musical star at Benedictine High School, with a bright future ahead of him. He’s a believable tough guy who can sing and dance, and they’re hard to find. Trust me. Really hard to find.

Andrew Schappacher who plays Riff and is an outstanding alum of Barksdale’s summer musicals at Steward School. It’s hard to believe that Andrew is only a sophomore at Clover Hill High School. He’s such a talented dancer, constantly improving singer, and committed actor. You can't take your eyes off him. I’ll go see Andrew in anything and consider myself blessed.

Michael Willoughby who plays A-rab and is making his SPARC debut. Like Andrew, Michael has a lot more maturity than one would expect from a high school sophomore. He attends Powhatan H. S., and like Robert McKenna, he’s nailing the talented tough guy thing.

Grace Adams, Jason Campbell, T J Ellis, Michael Hawke, Michael Hoke, Amanda O’Toole, Zack Rogers, Andrea Ross, Liz van’t Riet and Chris Withers are all honored members of the Barksdale and Theatre IV families, and they all do us proud in West Side Story.

The show closes tomorrow, so if you haven’t seen it, please do. West Side is one of the greatest American musicals of all time, and the talented young actors in the SPARC production deserve all our support.

--Bruce Miller

Theatre IV on Tour - Meet the Company, Part I

Posted by Bruce Miller
The first Theatre IV show to hit the touring circuit this season is The True Story of Pocahontas, and it opened today in Chesterfield County Public Schools. Tomorrow, Tales as Tall as the Sky will meet its first student audiences in Henrico, followed by Hugs and Kisses, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The Song of Mulan, all of which will open in Virginia schools sometime in the next week and a half, before spreading out on their national tours across 32 states and the District of Columbia.

Now would be a good time to introduce 13 of the 28 talented touring actors who are working with us fulltime this fall in our six touring companies. Many of them are new to Richmond, but if tradition holds, several of these newcomers will stay in town for years to come.

Our first actor is T. J. Ellis. T. J. gets to be first because he had to leave last week's Tourmite Party early, and in so doing missed the group photo. Here he is, flying solo.

T. J. played the voice of Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors with SPARC last summer. We thank Jamie and Rick Brindle for connecting us with T. J.

Jamie Brindle was a Theatre IV All-Star as a child (playing Alexander in Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Really Bad Day, Christopher Robin in The House at Pooh Corner, etc.). He and T. J. were great pals in high school, and Jamie’s dad (TIV Board member Rick Brindle), gave us a heads up that T. J. was a young talent to keep our eye on.

T. J. is doing a terrific job as legendary folk hero John Henry in Tales as Tall as the Sky. As fate would have it, we have two characters named John Henry on stage right now. T J plays the "steel-drivin' man" of tall tale fame, and Eric Evans plays a more diminutive, ironically named John Henry in Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding at Barksdale Willow Lawn.

The quartet of talented young women in the photo to the left includes (left to right) Alia Bisharat, Winter Bailey, Ellie Atwood, and Jamie Sprovach. Alia, Winter and Ellie are in the 25th Anniversary Tour of Hugs and Kisses, Theatre IV’s internationally acclaimed child sexual abuse prevention program, co-produced with Prevent Child Abuse Virginia and the Virginia Department of Social Services. Jamie is in The Song of Mulan.

Alia returns to our employ after starring as Dorothy in last spring’s mainstage production of The Wizard of Oz. Winter (who has been Alia’s best friend since they both appeared in Disney's Beauty and the Beast at Theatre IV in the spring of 06) is a "military brat" who's lived all over the U. S., most recently in Petersburg. This is Winter's second year touring with Theatre IV.

Ellie was hired in our Memphis auditions. She graduated from Southern Illinois University and toured nationally with the California Theatre Center before joining us at Theatre IV. Jamie was hired in our St. Louis auditions. She graduated from Western Illinois University and performed with Bard in the Barn and the Western Illinois Summer Music Theatre before moving to Richmond to join Theatre IV.

The two men in Hugs and Kisses are Jonah Bowles and Christopher Schoen, pictured left to right in the cell phone photo to the right. Jonah was cast out of our Atlanta auditions. He graduated from Coastal Carolina University, and appeared in The Lost Colony before returning to Richmond, his home town. Chris is also a native son of our fair city, and the son of the chair of U of R's Theatre Dept., Walter Schoen. Chris is returning for his second year of touring with Theatre IV. At Barksdale, Chris has served as an assistant stage manager and appeared as the bear who chased a character across the stage in Melissa Arctic.

Another man who was unable to make it to the Tourmite Party and therefore missed the group photos is Beau Forbes, pictured in another cell phone pic to the left. Beau will be touring with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and will be in his second year with our company. He graduated from Southern Illinois University, and is an alum of The Johnny Appleseed Outdoor Drama in Ashland, Ohio.

There is one final group of five actors featured in this Part I post. Remember, I can’t include more than 20 names in the labels for any given post, so I frequently have to subdivide larger groups so as to be able to index everyone.

In the photo to the right, you will find (left to right) Amy Wolf, Nicholas Jimenez, Jeremy Howard, Jordan Barwick and Jermise Bailey, all of whom are working with Theatre IV and Barksdale for the first time. Amy and Nicholas are both appearing in Tales as Tall as the Sky. Amy graduated from the University of Richmond, and has performance experience at Sycamore Rouge in Petersburg and with the Fredericksburg Theatre Company and Riverside Theatre, both in Fredericksburg. Nicholas graduated from Appalachian State University, and was referred to us by his college professor (and former Theatre IV touring actor) Gordon Hensley. Nicholas's previous credits include the prestigious Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Jeremy, Jordan and Jermise are all touring in The Song of Mulan, and were all cast out of Atlanta. Jeremy graduated from Chattanooga State where he particularly enjoyed performing for young audiences in Cinderella and Once Upon a Mattress. Jordan hails from Kinston, N C. He and his wife Aubrey are the proud parents of twin daughters, Alana and Alexis. Jermise graduated Cum Laude from North Carolina Central University, after attending Henrico High School right here in Metro Richmond.

Tomorrow I'll introduce our remaining 15 actors. We're proud and privileged to be working with each and every one of these talented theatre pros, and looking forward to a terrific year.

--Bruce Miller

SPARC's "Little Shop" Ignites Firehouse

With Little Shop of Horrors, SPARC is trying something different—a small, Off Broadway style musical performed by actors identical in age and experience to those actors used by many of Richmond’s other producing theatres. Watching this fun production of Little Shop is like watching Austin’s Bridge, Bat Boy or any of the other terrific Off Broadway musicals that the Firehouse has produced. It’s like watching Little Shop at the Mill, or Olympus on My Mind at Barksdale.

Let me amend that, slightly. The only difference I can see is that those other shows used a live band, or at least a live acoustic piano, and SPARC hasn't chosen to go that route. But Blanton Bradley is a great music director, and his “accompaniment track” adds real energy to this production. The accompaniment sounds very much like the original cast album.

SPARC’s current production of Little Shop is very different from Cats, Pippin, Grease or Disney’s High School Musical. I’m not sure why I wasn’t expecting that difference, but I wasn’t.

So welcome, Jenny and Larry, to the relatively small circle of Richmond theatrical producers. A lot is being written and said about Henley Street being the new theatre on the block. But with Little Shop, SPARC is clearly staking its claim to being a new, adult-audience producer, which is somewhat different from being the educational theatre producer that SPARC has been in the past.

Welcome, welcome, welcome!

If you haven’t seen Little Shop, by all means race down to the Firehouse to catch this production. The cast is great, and SPARC’s powerhouse team of Width, Bradley and Turner are at the top of their form.

And Jason Marks! Good grief, Jason. You get better and better with every show. Jason is simply one of the best Mr. Mushnik’s I’ve ever seen, and I’m old enough to have seen the original Off Broadway production—twice.

And then there’s Audrey. Lovely Audrey. Hayley Roberts is dynamite in this hilarious and heart-breaking role. She has a wonderful singing voice and great acting chops. You never know whether to laugh or cry. I loved her.

David Watson as Seymour and Elliott Lau as Orin (he of the rusting drill) are two young men to watch. Hayley, David and Elliott are all students at VCU, but they’re apparently not theatre majors. Who would know? All three have vocal and acting talent to spare, and I hope they continue to swim in the Richmond talent pool for years to come.

Word has it that Hayley's even married to a dentist in real life.

The three doo wop girls have big voices—I particularly liked the two with Meadowbrook H S connections. And T. J. Ellis as the Voice of Audrey II is ready for his recording contract. He has a wonderful and expressive voice—look out American Idol. Eric Stallings as the Audrey II manipulator also does a great job.

Mercedes Schaum makes the most of Firehouse’s tiny stage; Kym Mincks creates a real environment with her evocative costumes; Joe Doran continues to be a master of lights—and about the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.

So, for a little summertime fun, why not dive in to the Firehouse for Little Shop from SPARC.

Congratulations one and all. I hope you have the most successful run ever.

--Bruce Miller

"Little Shop" Promises Big Fun

Disney's High School Musical is not the only show in town this summer to feature young talent.

* SPARC will be opening their high school / college / young adult production of Little Shop of Horrors this week, the day before we open.

* The Godwin High School theatre program, under the direction of Mac Damron, will be opening their Scotland-bound production of Chicago next week.

* Dogwood Dell's production of Bye Bye Birdie is in the pipeline, featuring at least one alumnus of last summer's production of Grease.

More on the second two later. As for this week, be sure to reserve your seats for Little Shop of Horrors soon. SPARC’s summer musical opens this Thursday at the Firehouse.

Little Shop is coming together under the expert leadership of SPARC’s returning creative masterminds: Tom Width – Director, Blanton Bradley – Music Director, Pam Turner – Choreographer, Joe Doran – Light Design and Stage Management, Kym Mincks – Costume Design, and Mercedes Schaum – Set Design. It should be a great production!

The cast includes Hayley Roberts as Audrey; David Watson as Seymore; Richmond favorite Jason Marks as Mr. Mushnik, Elliot Lau as sadistic dentist Orin; Erika Thomas, Justine Ryan and Gianna Barone as Chrystal, Chiffon and Ronnette; Eric Stallings as the puppet operator for Audrey II; and T. J. Ellis as the voice of Audrey II.

The show runs July 19 through 29, and the ten performances are all expected to sell-out quickly. You can buy your tickets by calling SPARC at 788-6457.

Everyone from Disney’s High School Musical sends a big “Break a Leg” to SPARC and the entire Little Shop crew!

--Bruce Miller