Where Are They Now? - The Asian Adventures of GnG

Posted by Garrett Weeda
Just a little background information, my name is Garrett Weeda and I toured with Theatre IV from September 2006 until May 2009. My wife, Grace Abele, also toured with Theatre IV from September 2008 until May 2009. After finishing our tours, we both ended up working at Busch Gardens Williamsburg (I was a Stage Manager while Grace was a singer in several of their shows).

Enough of the history lesson, now onto the good stuff!

Last September Grace and I accepted jobs in South Korea, working as “edutainers" at Gyeonggi English Village. An “edutainer” here means that we are responsible for the park’s educational entertainment. Along with performing, our department is in charge of creating shows and activities to help Koreans learn English following our central parkwide theme, which we decide on every three months. We have never had a job that has allowed us to be so creative. Grace and I are performing in our fourth show. Grace is currently writing our next show, which is a take on Robin Hood, and so far she has gotten to compose the music for our past two shows. Currently, I am in charge of props for our next two shows and was fortunate enough to direct our winter production, called The Nanny. We love our jobs so much we decided to extend our contracts another year, but hopefully we will be returning to the U.S. sometime next May.

*Sidenote – We were able to bring our beautiful pup, Zuri, and so many of our friends here have dogs that she always has someone to play with.

Now onto the GREAT stuff!

On March 21, 2011, Grace and I got married in Seoul! And you know what that means…it was time for a honeymoon! One huge perk of our job is that we are given twenty vacation days each year (and five extra because we got married). We took twenty of them in one big chunk and spent an entire month traveling Southeast Asia. In all we visited six major cities in four different countries: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Bali.

The best part by far was while we were in Chiang Mai, Thailand during Songkran. That was an unforgettable adventure; anyone who has the chance must experience it. Songkran is the annual water festival during the hottest days of summer in Thailand. AKA city-wide water fight! Everyone parties and splashes each other with water in the streets. With music blaring, there are people of all ages, genders, and races dancing, singing, and spraying water everywhere. There is so much genuine good will that it was an absolutely amazing experience.

Our travelling didn’t stop there. We went to Hong Kong to celebrate the Chinese New Year and what a city! Amazing architecture, beautiful sights, wonderful food, and probably the best public transportation in the world. One day we hope to return to try living there for a year or two. But our travels will continue. We took a week to explore different areas of Korea in July, will follow that with a week in China in October, and to cap it all off, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Songkran in Chiang Mai again in April.

All-in-all life is good, even though we miss our friends and family in the States. We wish everyone could have an experience like this. We do have one favor to ask of Theatre IV and Barksdale. Can you guys stop putting on these amazing shows until we get back? We are totally jealous that we can’t see you all in these terrific productions.

--Garrett Weeda

Bradley Belongs on Broadway

Posted by Bruce Miller
Corey Bradley made his Broadway debut in the recent revival of Ragtime. But he made his stage debut 18 years earlier playing a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz at Theatre IV. I think I'm right about that. Corey was in a lot of Theatre IV shows during his formative years in Richmond. I'm not completely sure which one came first. I'll have to do some checking.

Hannah and I had the chance to visit Corey at the stage door of Ragtime last weekend, after enjoying his terrific performance at the Neil Simon Theatre. Ragtime was on our list of shows to see because:
* it was scheduled to close on Sunday, our final day in town,
* neither Hannah nor I had ever seen Ragtime on Broadway before, and
* Chase had let us know, after his earlier trip north to catch this revival, that Corey was in the cast.

After curtain call, we went to the stage door as soon as we could clear the crowds. We figured Corey would probably be leaving early, as ensemble members often do. I didn't want to miss him.

The stage door was jammed, so I almost didn't see Corey as he made his exit onto the sidewalk and then turned right, slipping past the crowd-control barricades into the open air rather than turning left to run the gauntlet of autograph hounds.

As soon as I saw him break away from the pack, I grabbed Hannah and we dashed out onto 52nd Street to avoid the crowds, chasing Corey as he walked down the sidewalk. When we were close enough, I hollered out his name, and he turned and saw us.

It's been a few years, and I have the extra pounds and gray hair to prove it. Also the last time Corey saw Hannah, she was probably in first grade. So as we walked up, I held out my hand and said, "Bruce Miller, Theatre IV."

Corey's face lit up, he knocked my hand out of the way and gave me a big hug. "I'm so proud of you," I said. "You cast me in my first show," he beamed. "It's so good to see you. How's everything at Theatre IV?"

I know this is the exact conversation that takes place somewhere on Broadway every night, as proud teachers and directors unexpectedly visit former students and actors who've now made it to the big time. No matter how many times I have this conversation, it always tears me up (feel free to pronounce the word "tears" whichever way you choose). I'm a sentimental slob, I know, but there's something endlessly affirming about seeing kids you've enjoyed working with turn out so well.

I think Corey's last role with us was playing Tommy Djilas in The Music Man during one of our summer seasons at Collegiate. After graduating from high school, Corey earned his BFA in Musical Theatre / Dance at Elon University in North Carolina. Since then, he's achieved non-stop success, appearing in the national tours of Mamma Mia!, Fosse, Chicago, and West Side Story. In Las Vegas, he appeared in We Will Rock You and with Hugh Jackman in Hugh Jackman: In Time, directed by George C. Wolfe and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall.

In addition to The Music Man (Theatre IV), Corey's regional credits include Hot Mikado (Westchester Broadway Theatre), Showboat (North Show Music Theatre), La Cage aux Folles (North Carolina Theatre), Joseph... (Downtown Cabaret Theatre), and Ragtime (Kennedy Center).

Film and television credits include being a principal dancer in Disney's Enchanted, Sex and the City, and Spike Lee's He Got Game.

Corey asked me to send greetings to all his friends in Richmond, which I'm more than happy to do. I assured him that all of us at Barksdale and Theatre IV send all best wishes right back to him.

So many talented actors make their way through Richmond each year, and a great many of them (I'm thinking now of Matts Polson and Shofner, who close in Putnam County Spelling Bee this afternoon) return to appear in subsequent shows even as they build careers in major markets. Few theatre communities can claim this degree of success. With all the talk on other blogs of what's professional and what isn't, we should all be very proud to be exactly what we are.

I hope to see you soon at a Richmond theatre, as we all catch the current performance, perhaps, of one of Broadway's future stars!

--Bruce Miller

If They Can Make It There

Posted by Bruce Miller
Hannah and I had the chance to visit with four actor friends--three old and one new--on our recent trip to New York. We caught up with the first two, Zak Resnick and Mark Ludden (below and to the right), at lunchtime on a frigid Saturday morning.

As many of you will remember, Zak recently starred at Barksdale in Into the Woods (Rapunzel's Prince, Second Wolf--above and to the left) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (Jimmy--below and to the left). Mark is a veteran of one of Barksdale's several productions of Joseph/Dreamcoat, which preceded my tenure as artistic director. Both Zak and Mark are doing Richmond proud as they put their amazing talents to good work in the Big Apple.

If you've been keeping an eye on Zak's career, you know he's very quickly becoming someone to watch on the Great White Way. There's definitely no moss growing on this boy.

Just before beginning Millie rehearsals last spring, Zak graduated from the professional theatre program at Carnegie Mellon University. In August, he took his final bows in Millie and moved to New York almost before the applause had stopped. Just a few weeks later, he made his Off Off Broadway debut with the New York Musical Theatre Festival playing a leading role in The Cure, a new vampire musical that generated a significant buzz (see my earlier blog post, Zak Zooms in on Vampire Zeitgeist, Friday, Sept 25, 2009).

Then on October 1, Zak and his amazing tenor made it into the studio to record the new CD from the Broadway Boys, a vocal group comprised of 26 of the most accomplished male voices in New York. He was in illustrious company. Also singing on the Boys CD were Jesse Nager from the Broadway cast of Mary Poppins, Danny Calvert and Landon Beard (Altar Boyz), Telly Leung (Rent), Michael James Scott (Hair), Maurice Murphy (Putnam County Spelling Bee), Daniel Torres (Wicked), Gabe Violett (Spring Awakening), Marty Thomas (Xanadu), and Peter Matthew Smith (Hairspray).

Later in October, Zak made his debut at Joe's Pub, one of the hottest vocal venues in town. He shared his talents with the Public Theater's Music Theater Initiative Songwriters Showcase, singing songs from Dogfight, a new musical by rising composer / lyricist stars Pasek and Paul. Dogfight has just been commissioned by Lincoln Center, and Zak was among those vocalists recruited to showcase the amazing new score in its first public performance.

As a sure sign of his expanding New York profile, Zak was photographed by BroadwayWorld.com in November simply for attending the 6th Annual Broadway Unplugged concert at Town Hall. Bedecked in a golden scarf (see above), Zak stood with one of the evening's star performers, Daniel Reichard (Jersey Boys). Coincidentally, also performing that night at Town Hall was another of Richmond's vocal wunderkinds, Emily Skinner (below and to the left).

This past Monday, Zak joined an All-Star cast at the Canal Room for a one-night-only event celebrating the talents of one of Broadway's most exciting young composers/actors/ vocalists, Jonathan Reid-Gealt. Joining Zak at the mic--or perhaps protocol requires that I say that Zak was joining them--were several of Broadway's most amazing voices, including Jeremy Jordan (currently standing by as Tony in West Side Story--and formerly starring at Firehouse Theatre in Austin's Bridge), Tituss Burgess (recent star of The Little Mermaid and Guys and Dolls), Lauren Kennedy (knocking 'em dead in Vanities and Les Mis--also a former Ashland resident who graciously met with our 2007 Barksdale NYC tour group three years ago when we went to see her in Broadway's Spamalot), plus Quentin Earl Darrington and Bobby Steggert (a personal favorite of mine), both from the cast of the just-closed Ragtime revival.

Zak's career could not hold more promise.

Also making his Mark on American theatre is our other friend, Mr. Ludden. For the last few seasons he has alternated national tours of Les Mis (to the left) and Evita with summer gigs at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn, New York. Last year at about this time, Mark was one of the Barksdale alum who graciously agreed to talk with our 2009 NYC tour group during brunch in The Rainbow Room.

Hannah and I caught up with Zak and Mark in their current day jobs as singing waiters at Ellen's Stardust Diner--one of the coolest (and hardest to land) gigs going for up-and-coming Broadway singers. If you've never been to Ellen's, you really should give it a try. The great performances come with the price of lunch--and the singers are phenomenal.

Zak sang a couple songs during our time in the diner, easily outdoing Michael Bublé with his cover of the Leonard Cohen classic I'm Your Man. Mark's power baritone shook Ellen's rafters, providing beautiful counterpoint to Zak's pop tenor.

I suppose all the great theatre singers in New York don't come from Richmond, but what we heard on Saturday was proof positive that at least two of them do.

It was great to catch up with both Zak and Mark last weekend, even if the visits were all too short. All we Richmonders owe them our support as they chart their careers in New York New York. I'll try my best to keep all of you apprised of their successes as they achieve them.

And very soon, I'll write about the other two actor friends who graciously greeted us in the Big Apple.

--Bruce Miller

FastForward to Zach Making It Big

Posted by Bruce Miller
The Richmond Times-Dispatch lists Star Birthdays every morning. It appears to be a column they purchase from some news service. Today Zach Knighton is listed as one of the “celebrities” born on Oct 25.

Zach stars in the new hit TV series FlashForward. I don’t think anyone at the T-D knew or noticed that Zach is a native of Virginia Beach, and a favorite son of VCU and the Richmond theatre community. At Theatre IV, he starred as the younger of the two Hardy Boys in the play by that name at the historic Empire Theatre, about 10 to 12 years ago.

At the time, he was definitely one of those actors who come through town and you just know, just by the vibe he brings into a room, that he’s going to find success in places a lot more upscale than the Empire.

Zach has plenty of talent, of course. And good looks. But it’s something more than that. Blair Underwood and Emily Skinner both had it too. It’s some sort of energy, but I don’t know how to explain it anymore than that.

Then, when these actors make it, it’s hard to describe the vicarious thrill you get as you watch their careers take off. All at once that talented kid who used to show such promise as a rising star in your theatre is vying for the attentions of the world. It’s a mix of pride and embarrassment, an odd combination of wanting to shout out “Hey, I knew him when,” and not wanting to seem like you’re desperately clinging to coattails.

When you build your career in a city like Richmond, you soon realize that your role is not to be a star, or make someone a star. Please. In national terms, your role is to build and sustain one tiny but vital stepping stone, so that those fortunate few who are destined for greater renown have a secure place to build their craft, even if just for a moment, on their way up.

And if you’re blessed, they still remember you after they’ve begun to hit their marks in New York or L. A.

Over the holidays last year, I wrote to Zach to tell him I was keeping up with his success. He had made a really strong impression starring in The Hitcher, a film I didn’t see. (I can’t do horror and suspense films anymore or else I’ll never go to sleep.) But I had TiVo’ed and faithfully watched every episode of a fairly mindless TV series Zach had starred in called Life on a Stick. I wrote to tell him I was proud of his success.

And he wrote back: “Hey there Bruce.....good to hear from you. Thanks for watching my silly tv show....I've got a new one coming soon on abc called 'flashforward.' It’s written by the same guy who wrote 'The Dark Knight'.....anyway, I'm pretty excited about it so spread the word. I hope all is well with Theatre IV. I'm always passing through town (being that my family is still in VA). I would love to come talk to the kids sometime! Keep in touch.....zaCh…"

Well. As all the world now knows, Zach had good reason to be excited about FlashForward. On Oct 12, it was announced by the Hollywood people who keep track of these things that FlashForward is the #1 dramatic series of the new season, and the cast was notified that a full season has been ordered by the network. As Zach wrote on his facebook status, “This one’s gonna stick, folks.”

If you haven’t seen FlashForward yet, I hardily recommend it. I’m hooked. I can’t wait for each Thursday to roll around so I can see what’s going to happen next. Best of all, Zach is GREAT in the series. It plays to all of his strengths.

Even if Zach hadn’t written me about the show, I still would have had to watch. Zach’s aunt, Spring Kirby, has been a friend of mine since college, when I cast her in her first and only role as a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. Spring would have made sure I tuned in, or I never would have heard the end of it.

So Happy Birthday, Zachary. It’s not yet midnight in L. A. All of us in Richmond theatre are really proud of your success. We wish you the best, and know that you will continue to stay the genuinely nice guy we remember.

And when you come back to VA, please let me know. I’m gonna take you up on that offer to have a talk back with some of Richmond’s kids.

All the best, man.

--Bruce Miller

The Solomon Islands

Posted by Bruce Miller
So did you see Jerold Solomon on the Tony Awards last Sunday? He was there, singing and dancing his heart out as one of the Navy SeaBees in South Pacific, which won a whopping seven Tony Awards including Best Revival. Jerold has been in South Pacific since it began previews on March 1 and opened to rave reviews on April 3. South Pacific is playing on Broadway at Lincoln Center. Jerold plays the role of Seaman James Hayes.

In the last few years, Barksdale and Theatre IV were privileged to feature Jerold’s talents in several casts. At Barksdale he appeared in Gross Indecency and starred in Olympus on My Mind (pictured below and to the right with Richard Travis). With Theatre IV, he starred in King Island Christmas and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (pictured above and to the left with his cousin-in-law Susan Sanford).

Best of all, God bless him, Jerold lists all of his Richmond credits in his Broadway bio.

Since moving to NYC, Jerold’s credits have included the national tours of Big River, Ragtime and Annie. South Pacific is his Broadway debut.

Jerold’s a good man and a very talented actor, singer and dancer. If you’re planning a trip to NYC this summer or next fall, why not order your tickets for South Pacific NOW. The show is a mega-hit, selling out every performance. And if you go, after curtain call, hurry down to the stage door and give Jerold Richmond’s fondest regards.

--Bruce Miller

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

Money Woes Convince Ambush to Step Down from ACTC Appointment

Posted by Phil Whiteway

We were sorry to learn this week from the Washington Post that Benny Sato Ambush, former artistic director of TheatreVirginia, has resigned his new position as artistic director of the African Continuum Theatre Company in Washington, D. C.

In Where Are They Now – Benny Sato Ambush (Sunday, Nov 4 2007), I wrote in this blog about Benny’s excitement for his new appointment, and about our excitement to welcome him back to the region. On Nov 14, Jane Horwitz reported in the Post that Benny now has decided to step down as acting artistic director and will not be accepting the fulltime position.

“The theater had announced a season it couldn’t afford to launch,” Benny is quoted as saying. “It was a cash flow crisis, you bet.” Stating that his relationship with the African Continuum was always amicable, Benny commended the ACTC Board for “some really good and hard work” in determining the extent of their financial challenges. He acknowledged that if he had known earlier about the theatre’s cash troubles, “I would have stayed clear of the job.”

In earlier articles in the national press, Benny has lamented that he had not been adequately informed about TheatreVirginia’s money woes until after arriving in Richmond.

As always, we wish Benny the best, and remain confident that his freelance career will continue to flourish, as it has since he left Virginia in 2002.

--Phil Whiteway

Where Are They Now - Benny Sato Ambush

Posted by Phil Whiteway

When TheatreVirginia closed its doors unexpectedly in 2002, Barksdale and Theatre IV launched five major initiatives to help Greater Richmond deal with the loss.

We produced TheatreVirginia’s cancelled production of The Laramie Project, fulfilling seven actor, director and designer contracts that had been promised to some of Greater Richmond's most talented theatre artists. We brought six of TheatreVirginia’s full time employees onto our staff, allowing them to stay in Richmond and remain employed. We honored, at no additional cost to ROSMY, a fundraiser for which ROSMY had purchased and paid for 500 tickets from TheatreVirginia and received nothing when the theatre closed. We purchased the remnants of the TheatreVirginia costume collection for $10,000, ensuring that this Richmond asset stayed in town and in tact. And we honored approximately 5,400 tickets held by TheatreVirginia subscribers for the three shows that were cancelled.

We did all this out of respect – respect for the cherished institution that had meant so much to so many for over four decades; respect for the board leaders, artists, volunteers and audience members who were most directly effected by the closure; and respect for Benny Sato Ambush, the nationally acclaimed director who had come to Richmond to try his mightiest to save TheatreVirginia during its final year-and-a-half.

On July 27, The Washington Post reported that Benny had been named Artistic Director of the African Continuum Theatre Company in D. C. All his friends were thrilled for him. “I’m ready for the adventure,” said Benny. “I’m ready to get busy.”

He was to begin work fulltime last month, replacing company founder Jennifer L. Nelson who left on August 31 after 11 years at the helm. Last week, The Post reported that the African Continuum’s board had decided to postpone its fall and winter shows and present a shortened season in the spring, citing a severe “cash-flow crunch.” The board also decided to delay, perhaps until February, a full-time commitment to Benny, who has been commuting from his home in Winston-Salem to Washington for the last several months.

Quoting from The Washington Post: “’I’m clearing the deck, so to speak, of my prior commitments as a freelancer, directing and teaching,’ Ambush said. ‘But even when out of town, I still work on behalf of the African Continuum Theatre Company.’ Board Chairman Rubie G. Coles said Ambush was working on the company’s spring season ‘and we’re hoping that in the next two or three weeks, we’ll be able to announce what we’re doing,’ an expectation seconded by Ambush.”

Benny is an exemplary theatre professional and will be a great asset to the Mid-Atlantic once he makes the move to D. C. His goals for African Continuum are still taking shape, but he hopes “to build the infrastructure of the theatre, to extend its reach in the region, strengthen its relevance and solidify its essentialness in the theatrical landscape of the District.”

Benny Ambush is the perfect man for the job, and we wish him tremendous success.

--Phil Whiteway

Where Are They Now - Steve Richardson

Posted by Bruce Miller

Steve Richardson is perhaps the only Barksdale/Theatre IV alum to step on stage to collect a Tony Award. I can think of at least three other Tony nominees (Pat Carroll, Emily Skinner and Elisabeth Welsh), but at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, he's the only one I can recall actually joining the "winners" circle. Please help me remember if I'm forgetting someone.

Steve's Tony encounter occurred when Theatre de la Jeune Lune of Minneapolis won the coveted 2005 Outstanding Regional Theatre Tony. Steve was Producing Director of Jeune Lune at the time, and a lot of his friends in Richmond watched the Tony broadcast closely that year to see Steve standing on the stage of Radio City Music Hall with his artistic coworkers to accept the award. The Regional Theatre Tony, regrettably, is one of the ones awarded before the TV broadcast begins, and so you see it only in those recaps that they flash across the screen.

But, if you didn't blink, there Steve was standing alongside Jeune Lune's designated speaker, winning a Tony for the theatre he had managed for the previous ten years. All of us in Richmond couldn't have been more proud. Jeune Lune is an artistically innovative, highly respected theatre that has earned international acclaim. Their current production of The Deception is pictured to the left.

Steve graduated with a BA in Philosophy from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1986, and came to Richmond after graduation to intern for a year at TheatreVirginia. For three years beginning in '87, Steve worked as Marketing Associate and then Marketing Director at Theatre IV. In 1990, he won his dream job when he was hired as Marketing Director of Theatre de la Jeune Lune, taking him back home to the frozen north. In 1995, he was promoted to the top management position of Producing Director.

This week, Steve left Jeune Lune after 17 years to accept his new position as Director of the Arts at his alma mater. He is charged with developing the arts at Carleton, promoting arts outreach to local schools, the Northfield arts community, and the Twin Cities area arts community and beyond. He is responsible for management of the new interdisciplinary arts center, coordinating major art events, and performance and exhibition series, along with managing curricular and co-curricular arts activities. He’s also in charge of arts publicity and work with Carleton’s career center to connect students with internship opportunities.

As if that weren't enough, Steve will serve as the liaison between the College’s faculty and building design team for the new arts center that will be located in the former Northfield Middle School. He will work with faculty and students to develop innovative collaborations in the arts, seeking ways to integrate the arts across the College’s curriculum.

Throughout his distinguished career, Steve has always included his Theatre IV affiliation in his resume--something we've greatly appreciated. The one aspect of his work here that he never claims is his brief foray into acting. During our Summer Lights Festival in the late 80s, Steve played the dashing young man opposite Jan Guarino and Tye Heckman in George Bernard Shaw's How He Lied to Her Husband.

We wish Steve the greatest success in his new position, and continue to be proud of his outstanding accomplishments.

--Bruce Miller

Everything's Coming Up Halenda

Posted by John Steils

Kathy Halenda, the wonderful Richmond-raised actress who starred in Barksdale’s recent productions of Mame and Disney’s High School Musical will be lighting up another stage about an hour down the road next week. Kathy is starring as Mama Rose in the national tour of Gypsy (see photo), stopping for one night at Charlottesville’s Paramount Theatre.

Her national reviews thus far have been unanimous raves:

“Gypsy has at least three things going for it -- the beautiful melodies of Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim's witty lyrics, and American stage veteran Kathy Halenda, a woman big-voiced enough to sing the U.S. national anthem at Fenway Park, and bold enough to make us care about the original stage mommie dearest.” – London Free Press

“Great sets, great costumes and a great Rose!” – Binghamton Sun-Bulletin

“Everything’s Coming Up Rose!” – New Haven Advocate

“Halenda—taking charge the moment she arrives onstage—brings exuberance, energy and physical bravado to her character, making Rose larger than life. The other actors rarely show as much depth as she does, and rarely command such attention.” – Yale Daily News

Also appearing in the national tour of Gypsy is another Barksdale all-star. Rachel Abrams plays Mazeepa (the stripper with the helmet to the right of the photo). Rachel starred with Barksdale during each of the last two summers. She played Janis Joplin, Connie Francis and others in Beehive in 06, and the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods in 07. In Gypsy, she’s also understudying Kathy as Mama Rose.

Called “the greatest of all American musicals” by the New York Times, Gypsy is the story of a quintessential stage mother, her dreams for her children, and the daughter who dared to live her own dream. From the first trumpet blast to the last hot spotlight, this classic Broadway show packs a powerful wallop, serving up one popular standard after another—songs like “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Let Me Entertain You,” “You Gotta Have a Gimmick,” and “Together Wherever We Go.”

The Paramount performance will be Wednesday, November 7 at 8 pm. A group from the cast of Mame is planning on going up, and we hope lots of Richmonders will drive to C’ville to welcome Kathy back to her home state.

Gypsy was written by three virtuosos of American musical theater: Arthur Laurents (book), Jule Styne (music), and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics). The original production starring Ethel Merman and directed by Jerome Robbins was an instant hit when it opened at the Broadway Theatre in 1959. Subsequent revivals have garnered a total of three Tony Awards and featured such talents as Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters in the role of Rose.

Tickets are $58.50, $61.50, $64.50, and $69.50. (Barksdale's prices are starting to look pretty good, aren't they?) Half-price student rush seats and group discounts are also available. Tickets are currently on sale online and through the Paramount's box office at 434-979-1933. Also, as of this writing, Chase Kniffen has a couple or three great seats that he needs to sell. You can reach Chase at C.Kniffen@BarksdaleRichmond.org.

--John Steils

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

Catching Up with Caroline

Posted by Bruce Miller

In a previous blog entry (When Off Broadway Began, Barksdale Was There [Aug 5]), I wrote about the late, great Josie Abady, mentioning her as one of the Richmond connections to the legendary Off Broadway company, Circle in the Square. A thoughtful anonymous commenter subsequently wrote: “I am so sorry to learn of Josie Abady’s death. I knew her in her youth, and had no idea that she had died. What a wonderful and inspirational family. Such strong women. What’s happening with her sister Caroline, do you know? I appeared with her years ago in a Dogwood Dell production of Winnie the Pooh.”

I’m going to try to get in touch with Caroline, pictured above and to the left with co-stars Kevin Spacey and William Ullrich at the NYC premiere of Beyond the Sea, to see if she’ll write a blog entry to bring her Richmond fans up to date. I'm afraid I don't know or remember anything about this particular production of Winnie the Pooh, but if it's true, and I have no reason to doubt that it is, then here's a GREAT example of a Dell alum moving onward and upward to become a NYC and Hollywood success.

Until I'm able to contact Caroline (if I'm able), here’s what I know (sorta).

Caroline Abady was born and spent her entire youth in Richmond. If memory serves, she went to Douglas Freeman High School. I think I met her maybe once or twice; she's a couple of years younger than me, but we were teen theatre enthusiasts in Richmond at the same time. Kind of like Chase Kniffen and Gray Crenshaw about five years ago. As I've mentioned earlier, I knew her mother Nina very well.

Caroline has had the kind of long term career success that most actors only dream of. She may not be a household name, but she works constantly in high profile projects with our nation's top tier of theatre artists. Her professional name is Caroline Aaron. If you go to http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000715/ , you can access a complete list of her film and TV credits. Or if you go to http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?id=74908 , you can access a complete list of her Broadway credits.

The great news is that Caroline is scheduled to be back on Broadway this fall for the first time in 16 or so years, opening in October at Studio 54 in Roundabout’s upcoming revival of The Ritz, written by Terrance McNally and directed by Joe Mantello (pictured to the right). You gotta be impressed by the company she keeps.

Here’s more information that I pulled from Caroline’s bio on the IMDb site:

Caroline Aaron “performed a one-woman, two-character play, Call Waiting, in 1994 and again in 2001. She later filmed it in 2004. The 87-minute film won the Best Comedy Jury Prize at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.”

Ms. Aaron is an “earthy, plump-figured stage actress of Broadway (Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean; Social Security; I Hate Hamlet) who appeared as a character actress on film and TV. She was a main ensemble player in several of Woody Allen's films during the late 80s and 90s, essaying many of his typical Jewish relatives, neighbors and/or friends in traditional New York settings.

Her late mother, Nina Friedman Abady, was a Selma, Alabama civil rights activist who walked with Martin Luther King in the 60s. She had to endure cross-burnings on her Virginia front lawn. More tragically, the family suffered the loss of their husband and father when he was 38.

Her older sister was Josephine R. Abady, a prominent artistic director of the Cleveland Playhouse (1988-1994) and Circle in the Square Theater (1994-1996). A noted stage producer, director and theater owner, Abady resisted employing her younger sister because they were related. This caused resentment and sibling friction for a period of time until Abady was diagnosed with breast cancer. Abady battled the disease for several years and died on May 25, 2002, at age 52. The Los Angeles-based Caroline returned to New York frequently to aid in her sister's illness.

Aaron did appear under her sister's stage direction in The Boys Next Door, co-starring David Strathairn and John Amos. Abady also cast Aaron in To Catch a Tiger, a 1994 AFI film which told the story of their mother's civil rights work. Caroline played their mother in the film and Abady's husband, Michael Krawitz, wrote the screenplay.”

For those who share my penchant for exploring connections, it's fun to note that not too long ago Caroline starred at George Street Playhouse in a reading of Spine, one of the new plays by Bill C. Davis (pictured to the right), playwright of Austin's Bridge.

I hope this helps inform Caroline’s childhood friends of her current success. As I mentioned, I’ll try to contact Caroline and see if she’ll give us more information. Along with Emily Skinner and Blair Underwood, she’s one of the Richmond theatre alum who has earned a lifetime of national success.

Thanks to our anonymous commenter for prompting this post.

--Bruce Miller

Summer on the Sand

Many of you may remember a previous post sent in from our own P. J. Whiteway, who is stationed in Iraq with the Virginia National Guard. Those of us who know and love him like hearing and seeing the latest. For those who fall into that category, here's P. J.'s most recent email to family and friends, including several new photos of life on the blazing sands.

"Here are a handfull of random pictures that I thought everyone might enjoy! I'm still the same old goofy hyperactive P. J. Just letting you guys know this place has not changed me one bit. Miss you all like you wouldn't believe!!!

The first pic is me chilling (well, burning my buns off actually) on a humvee at the weapons clearing barrels right after coming in from a mission. The second is me trying to look like the heat is not bothering me before we put on all of our gear and cram into a humvee to go out on mission. Enough said.

#3 - I'm putting the gunner's harness on to get ready to go out on a reconnisance patrol for the night! I'm usually the TC (truck commander), but sometimes I throw on the harness and give my gunner a break from standing up on his feet in a turret all night.

#4 - This is my truck crew... my gunner PFC Michael and my driver SPC Carpenter.

#5 - The ROBOT---and some of the guys! We always test our equipment before going out on a mission. This fella is becoming our new best friend. When we see things out there in the desert that look like they maybe shouldn't be out there, this is the gadget we send across the sands to check things out. He can flip it over, kick the tires, whatever ... and we don't have to get too close. He's one of our little toys. One day he may be the toy that saves our butt.
#6 - Someone's got to wash all that dirt and mud off the truck. Its a daily task that I just love doing! Kinda like washing dishes at home--well maybe not.

That's it for now. Keep those good thoughts coming. All of us over here hope you guys have a great summer on a different kind of sand. Some with water near by.

P. J. Whiteway"