From Girls in Green to the Great White Way

Posted by Bruce Miller
Those who may wonder why Barksdale and Theatre IV are so pleased to partner with the Girl Scouts (see Curtain Up, Lights Out, Fun’s ON! [Sat Oct 31, 2009] and How We Help … Girl Scouts [Wed June 18, 2008] should consider the case of Toni-Leslie James (pictured to the right).

Who? Toni-Leslie James. Start getting used to hearing that name, even here in little old Richmond. In fact, especially here in Richmond. Toni-Leslie James, you see, is beginning her third year as Director of Costume for Theatre VCU. Simultaneously, she is earning rave reviews as the Costume Designer of Finian’s Rainbow (pictured below), which opened on Broadway last week to some of the most glowing reviews I've read in years.
VCU Communications and Public Relations issued a press release about Ms James last spring that reads as follows: “The seed for (her) illustrious career was planted years ago on a fateful field trip to see Jack and the Bean Stalk with her Girl Scout troop. From that moment, she was hooked.”

So as our historic Empire filled last weekend with a hundred or so young ladies in green, who knows what super-star of the future was in our midst.

If you’d like to catch a videotaped interview with Toni-Leslie James, you can watch her in a 1992 edition of American Theatre Wing Seminar - Working in the Theatre: Design. Before taping this show, she had just won the American Theatre Wing Design Award for the costumes she created for her Broadway debut, Jelly's Last Jam. She was also nominated for a Tony for the same show. http://americantheatrewing.org/wit/detail/design_09_92

Since that auspicious beginning, Ms James has won great acclaim for her costumes for 14 Broadway productions, including both parts of Tony Kushner’s landmark drama, Angels in America (1993), and Michael John LaChiusa’s two Broadway musicals, Marie Christine (1999) and The Wild Party (2000). Ms James has also dressed many of Off-Broadway’s most memorable plays and musicals.

All told, in addition to her Tony nomination, she has earned three Drama Desk nominations and an Obie Award for Sustained Design Excellence last spring.

Ms James lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Australian lighting designer David Higham, and divides her time between NYC and Richmond. After the opening of Finian’s last week, she may once again be the toast of Broadway, but she’s also a Richmond treasure!

And it all started with a Girl Scout field trip to a local children’s theatre.

That’s the kind of story I LOVE to tell.

I hope to see YOU at the theatre, real soon! And when you come, look around. Maybe you’ll be sitting down the row from Richmond’s newest Tony nominee—Toni-Leslie James.

--Bruce Miller

The Real Transylvania Mania

Posted by Bruce Miller

Very quickly (it's past my bedtime), I attended TheatreVCU's production of Dracula this evening, written by Steven Dietz, directed by Barry Bell, and produced by David Leong. It was an exciting, impressive and creepy ride.

I especially appreciated the five leading men: Brandon Crowder as Dracula, Joe Carlson as Renfield, Joseph Sultani as Seward, Landon Nagel as Van Helsing, and Andrew Donnelly as Harker. All five inhabited their characters with distinct personalities and histrionic expertise, creating some heart-pounding suspense.

Of the five, Landon Nagel is the Barksdale vet, having played the minister and other roles in The Full Monty a couple summers ago.

Ron Keller's set, Toni-Leslie James's costumes, Mike Mauren's lights, and especially Thomas Vecchione's sound were all chill inducing. Ron Keller is another Barksdale and Theatre IV vet, having designed The Laramie Project and supervised the designs of countless other shows at Willow Lawn, including our upcoming productions of Doubt and The Little Dog Laughed.

The two leading ladies, Jaci Camden and Marie Weigle, spent most of the show as young lovelies, but became more interesting after becoming "unclean." Barry Bell staged it all with style, classical titillation, and a fun sense of the unexpected.

More than half the seats were empty this evening, which is a terrible shame. Students can attend for only $7 (adults are something like $18). This evening was further proof that even when exciting theatre is presented super-cheap in their own backyard, it's really difficult to convince the majority of university students to come to the theatre.

The last two performances will be tomorrow evening (Friday) at 7:30, and, if you want to be really creepy, Saturday evening at MMIIDDNNIIGGHHTT - AHH HHAA HHAA!! (That's me using my deep Transylvania voice with lots of reverb.)

Anyway, for an eerie good time, you won't go wrong with this new edition of Dracula. The VCU theatre department is full of talent. And you can't beat the price.

--Bruce Miller