Palm Beach ArtsPaper News and reviews of the arts in and around Palm Beach County January 27, 2025 By Have you ever wondered what goes on in the minds of 16-year-old girls That is the exploration that Scottish playwright turned Florida resident Steve McMahon takes us on in his play Two of Us on the Run receiving its world premiere at Florida Atlantic University’s Theatre Lab beginning Saturday a free-form road trip for a pair of teenage runaways soon after the first election of Donald Trump “So I think it began as just sort of questioning where I was at as someone who’s chosen to live in America and kind of was wondering about the future and trying to imagine what America must be like for young people,” he says “And I think that was sort of a projection of my own hopes and fears.” McMahon’s ability to craft authentic-sounding dialogue for contemporary teenage girls is what drew director Margaret Ledford to the play which she first staged in Theatre Lab’s 2023 Festival of New Plays “I’m fascinated that he has been able to do that,” she says “And I love how it is written on the page because it almost looks like poetry But what it does for us in the rehearsal room is it gives us great playing ground so it allows us to find the truth in the words.” who plays J in this world premiere production says “I agree with Margaret that it’s a little bit scary how well he knows what teenage girls experience I think what it tells me as a young female is that he pays attention to what is happening in the country and how that could make someone else feel I think that’s what’s really powerful about this script but it shows his empathy and his ability to kind of put himself in a different situation and see how those things that are scary to him could be doubly scary for a young person particularly a young girl whose rights are being affected and I think that Steve captured how fear and feeling powerless can really affect a young girl,” Harvey said The playwright readily notes that he has no sisters or daughters so his depiction of the young girls is pure conjecture on his part so this is truly a leap of imagination and fiction,” McMahon says but being a teenage boy is far less complicated than being a teenage girl Then why did he write about girls instead of boys “I think I thought about the kind of Thelma and Louise thing of girls in a sort of road trip movie,” he responds referring to the iconic 1991 Susan Sarandon-Geena Davis film “And it’s more interesting to deal with the vulnerability of young women changing their lives completely by leaving the comfort of their homes and setting out on the road.” Harvey read the stage directions at the 2023 reading just absorbing everything that was happening in the rehearsal room and watching Margaret direct I remember just watching and observing and thinking like absolutely.’ When I found out that this would be part of the season I have to do everything that I can to be cast.” McMahon concedes that Two of Us on the Run is a Scotsman’s view of America are there things in here that sound a little off to you Because they might not be the way that people speak here And my point of view is definitely an outsider’s look this play is not supposed to be a real America Those who attended the reading two years ago will not encounter a drastically different script now “I think I’d gone through quite a few iterations and drafts with the play before it got to Matt (Stabile there hasn’t been any sort of structural changes maybe just nip and tuck sort of stuff here and there,” says McMahon “Some of the dialogue had become dated since 2017 some language that teenagers don’t use anymore so I had to sort of defer to our younger performers “I think this is one of the quickest plays I wrote in terms of getting it all on the page I think I sort of knew where I wanted to go with it quite quickly Some scenes moved around in a couple different drafts here there and there’s a couple of sort of interruptions almost in the play sort of interludes where the girls speak to the audience and they maybe moved around a couple times.” While he wrote Two of Us on the Run about a pair of teenage girls McMahon is aware that his audience at Theatre Lab will be considerably older than J and C “One thing the play is about is young people sort of wanting to accuse the older generations of the world that they’ve left for us So I would love to sort of see how different generations react and respond to the play and if younger people sort of feel that they are being misrepresented “So I do think that ideally the audience would be as diverse as possible because people should all be bringing their experience to watching the play,” McMahon said “I don’t think the audience would be passive because I think it’ll make you think about when you were young and what you knew your life would be like when you were young but also make you think about your position now.” Although there are no further productions of Two of Us on the Run planned McMahon has received encouragement from other National New Play Network companies And the fact that the play has only a cast of three and no scenic requirements works in its favor it’s something you could do with just the imagination of audience members watching actors in the space It doesn’t need to have anything to dress it up Two of Us on the Run plays out in a brisk 75 minutes with plenty of themes and messages to catch if you are looking for them “But I think with all the stuff in there that’s about politics they’re all viewed through the lens of a friendship,” he says “It’s about a friendship in the world and the story that is created by the two characters together informing who they are and who they are to each other And I think it really is about that friendship and experiencing life in the world together.” Copyright © 2025 · Palm Beach ArtsPaper December 31, 2024 By The audience is an integral part of the new play development process as two area stage companies — Palm Beach Dramaworks and Florida Atlantic University Theatre Lab — can attest Both have festivals of new work that consist of readings and talkbacks of evolving scripts some of which will graduate to be fully produced in subsequent seasons Coming up soon is Dramaworks’ Perlberg Festival of New Plays set for January 17-19 and named for executive producers Diane and Mark Perlberg longtime supporters of the West Palm Beach troupe This year’s festival — as in the past — will feature five new plays read by veteran actors followed by Q & A sessions with the audience Heading the staff support is literary manager and resident playwright Jenny Connell Davis whose drama The Messenger was part of the 2022 festival and then the 2023 mainstage season She and former festival director Bruce Linser read the more than 200 scripts that PBD gathered from its sources narrowing them down to the most promising 15 were read by a committee of knowledgeable volunteers who made recommendations to producing artistic director William Hayes “We don’t do an open submission process where anybody can apply,” Davis notes We’re going out to specific playwrights whose work we love to directors whose taste we really trust.” The exception is Florida playwrights who are invited to submit scripts “because we want to support local writers where we can.” And Davis prowls other festivals around the country looking for plays that were deemed worthy but did not make their final cuts “So we find scripts lots of different ways,” she says She is looking to showcase a specific type of Dramaworks play “theater to think about,” as the company’s mission statement puts it “Palm Beach Dramaworks really does so beautifully with character and relationship-driven classics,” explains Davis “And we’re looking for the classics of tomorrow.” Leading off this year’s Perlberg Festival (Friday one of the most produced playwrights in the country It is a two-character play which Davis describes as “sort of a twisty mystery… a great showcase for two really strong dramatic actors It’s less political than stuff we’ve done but I think we have other things in this festival that are definitely political.” the festival presents a reading of Class C by Chaz T who is the literary manager of Philadelphia’s Interact Theatre Company a writer whom Davis calls “a real up-and-comer.” Set in a dystropian near-future she considers Class C “our biggest capital P political play of the festival It is dramatic and tense and there is violence It is probably going to be one of our most divisive plays.” Uncharacteristically for a company with “drama” in its name a situation to which much of the audience should be able to relate but underneath the comedy it is about real things and there’s a lot of character work in it.” The bottom line which takes place in the world of vaudeville magic and focuses on the classic illusion of cutting a woman in half set initially in the 1920s and then in contemporary times “She’s interested in looking at these sort of niche communities and then digging in and getting under the surface with them,” Davis says of Marcantel an adaptation of Federico García Lorca’s classic tale of mourning and repression While the female-centric script has been developed and read at various theaters around the country a chance to really put it in front of the South Florida audience that was in his heart as he was writing it,” Davis notes “The goal this year is a little bit more to put in terrific plays that we feel like we might produce and we’re hoping that a couple of productions for the next couple of seasons come out of this but that is more explicitly the goal this year than in past years.” * * * After 10 years of new play readings in a conventional festival format Florida Atlantic University’s Theatre Lab is ready to expand its offerings with full productions of new “This year we are moving to the sort of destination event model,” says producing artistic director Matt Stabile patterned on the very successful but now defunct Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville and the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown To avoid conflict with Dramaworks’ festival and competition for actors FAU has moved its festival to a three-week period in the spring The FAU festival — dubbed the Owl New Play Festival — kicks off with a fully staged world premiere of Jeff Bower’s The Impossible Task of Today mental health and the dangers of social media that was read and acclaimed in the 2022 new play festival The second weekend of the festival will see the addition of a fully realized workshop production of The Frankenstein Project known to Theatre Lab audiences from Dorothy’s Dictionary Her new play juxtaposes Mary Shelley’s creation of her masterwork with a contemporary high schooler writing a paper on Shelley “And we’ll be collaborating on a third non-traditional theater event called ‘The Happiness Gym,’” says Stabile “which leads participants through scientifically proven exercises to boost their happiness and well-being All three events kind of talk to each other and communicate with each other So that’s basically a festival focusing on human connection and how we can use science and technology to our advantage Sounds like a festival we could really use now.” The main events will be presented concurrently each weekend “and then we will sprinkle in some additional readings of new plays over the course of the final two weekends,” explains Stabile “So the idea is that people can come to town for one or two days and see two full productions and and catch a reading or two while they’re here.” If all goes well in this test-the-waters year FAU hopes to expand further in future seasons “Next year we are already planning to have three full productions running and my goal is that within five years is that we’re moving to a model where the readings are free events,” says Stabile but there won’t be a ticket charge for those you can lower what audience expectations are and take the pressure off the artists involved And so that’s kind of like the model we’re moving toward because we’re offering the full production it’s sort of like that’s our showcase area and our reading area is more about the development of the pieces.” Already chosen for a free public reading this year is a new musical called Donner: An American Tragedy about the fatal trek of pioneers through California’s Donner Pass in 1846 and a selection from Theatre Lab’s LabRATS program where high school seniors are mentored to write their own short plays Stabile hopes to host the first public reading of a new Fair Play Initiative commission piece a program geared to developing work by LGBTQ+ playwrights made possible through the Our Fund Foundation because that script is still being written Regardless of the format changes to FAU’s new play festival I think it’s something like 70% of the plays that we’ve done full productions of have come out of either our new play festival or our playwrights’ forum readings,” says Stabile “So we’re very intentional about programming the work that we read PERLBERG FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAYS. Palm Beach Dramaworks. 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. January 17-19. $30, or $100 for all five readings. 561-514-4042 or visit palmbeachdramaworks.org FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY OWL NEW PLAY FESTIVAL, FAU campus, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton. April 5-20. $35-$45. Readings free of charge, with donations requested. Call 561-297-4784 or visit www.fau.edu/artsandletters/theatrelab/ Ruby Erstein of Schechter School of LI chases down the ball during a PSAA boys soccer semifinal playoff game against Kew Forest in Hicksville on Monday Jonah Erstein had the ball at his feet on Kew-Forest’s side of the Cantiague Park turf when his coach yelled out three simple words of instruction: In the middle of this boys varsity soccer semifinal Monday for the Private Schools Athletic Association Metro Conference the junior’s teammate ahead at left wing for Schechter School of Long Island She was the only girl on that Hicksville field The 5-2 forward’s blond ponytail hung over the back of her blue No the Jewish K-12 day school in Williston Park But she started and fit right in with a high school team that ultimately fell to Waldorf in Wednesday’s championship game "She proved out there that she was very capable of hanging with kids that are four to five years older than her," Schechter coach Jordan Abrahamson said there’s no amount of muscle or skill that outmatched her She’s not afraid to get at defenders and take them one v Ruby Erstein of Schechter School keeps ahead of Kew-Forest's Avik Pradhan during a PSAA boys soccer semifinal playoff game in Hicksville on Monday A few girls have been on the team previously because there’s no separate team for them But there had never been an eighth-grade girl on it before Erstein was selected this month for the 2021-22 Eastern New York Youth Soccer Association Olympic Development Program after three tryouts The program provides professional coaching and is meant to improve her development and chances to be noticed and picked for regional and national pools and teams "I want to be in the Olympics one day," Ruby said It would mean the hard work I put in came through." who also plays on a Long Island Soccer Club travel team is practically attached to a soccer ball at home have a soccer goal in the backyard that’s used by Jonah who plays for Schechter’s fifth/sixth-grade team and the Long Island Soccer Club Now she also practices for at least an hour on her own each day "In the backyard; in the living room; in the den; in the kitchen; in the basement," Sivan said "Always a soccer ball at her feet." Ruby Erstein of Schechter School of LI goes up against Kew Forest's Gjon Bicaj during a PSAA boys soccer semifinal playoff game in Hicksville on Monday Schechter athletic director Courtney Athenas had known of her athletic ability since Erstein was in sixth grade It was Athenas’ idea to put her on the team "I thought it was pretty cool," Erstein said I was a little apprehensive," Sivan said "But the athletic director assured me that the league was going to be safe." Athenas gave Erstein a league-mandated fitness assessment The AD had received one other thing to go forward — Jonah’s blessing "Would you be uncomfortable having her on the team?" Athenas asked him She’ll run circles around most of these boys,’ " Athenas said "I didn’t think they were going to let her," he said ‘She had to play.’ I thought she was vital." said the other boys were fine with her being on the team and respect her talent Ruby Erstein and Jonah Erstein of Schechter School of LI pose before a PSAA boys soccer semifinal playoff game against Kew Forest in Hicksville on Monday he kind of stood up for me," she said Athenas said she played a key role keeping the ball in position for potential goals "I have my brother on the team and I know some of his friends," she said Erstein said she was "really excited" when she was chosen for the Olympic Development Program "I could definitely see the potential in it," Abrahamson said "She has the attitude and the ability to keep progressing in the sport." She plans to go out for JV girls basketball "Wherever it takes her," her mother said Erstein could even see playing professionally one day "I like to be able to score," she said The Newsday app makes it easier to access content without having to log in Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months a community located amidst the Samarian hills Batya has produced some of the fine ceramic products that have been sent in Lev Haolam’s Surprise Monthly Packages We went to Itamar to interview Batya and to hear about her journey to and in Israel The history of Samaria is also something that Batya apreciate very much “Sometimes we take walks and we find old shards of pottery pieces and it really centers me and I know that what I’m doing here is reconnecting to Jews who thousands of years ago who were living here in this area and who were working with a pottery wheel and who were working with the same simple medium; working with clay and developing it into beautiful pots and that’s very special.” Batya hasn’t always worked as a ceramics artist “Originally I studied midwifery and it’s interesting because in the Torah it is written that the place that a woman gives birth is called ?ovnaim? which is actually the same word for a pottery wheel and so the two are very connected,” she told us Although one day her dream is to become a full time midwife Batyah is happy with the success that she has seen so far from her work with ceramics “It’s just been developing more and more through the years And my things are in some galleries and shops around Israel and all over the world And it’s very exciting to know that I am making things out of clay and they are from here from Israel… and they’re going all over the world.” Batya is happy to be working with Lev Haolam and she tells us I really feel like I’m doing something important now that these things are going out and it [helps] to support this area And people are seeing us as a light to the world… and it’s important that my products go to people that appreciate them I hope you love them and think of me when you use them.” With the COVID-19 pandemic sickening many thousands of people it's also wise to be aware of key differences in symptoms between seasonal allergies and the coronavirus The two conditions may share several overlapping symptoms but only COVID-19 can potentially produce body aches Spring allergies won't lead to those effects According to the American College of Asthma allergies are the 6th leading cause of chronic illness in the United States Billions of tiny pollen grains – produced by flowers weeds and grasses as they grow and bloom – blow in the breeze Some people's immune systems identify the pollen as a foreign substance – an "invader" to be fought off by unleashing chemicals into the bloodstream called histamines Spring allergies begin as early as February in many parts of the United States and can last through the summer That means it’s already time to kick allergy coping strategies into high gear as the thermometer rises and chilly days give way to spring weather "This cascade of events can also lead to stuffy nose and an itchy roof of the mouth," explains Dr "Spring allergies begin as early as February in many parts of the United States and can last through the summer That means it's already time to kick allergy coping strategies into high gear as the thermometer rises and chilly days give way to spring weather." "Spring allergies won't lead to those effects signs point more toward possible COVID-19," he says Getting Relief Perhaps the best way to tackle spring allergy symptoms is to visit a board-certified allergist a doctor whose training centers on precisely this area This recommendation is even stronger for those who aren't sure what they're allergic to since allergists can identify your particular allergen(s) and optimize treatment choices tests that may include a simple blood test or skin prick can screen for dozens of common offenders "Being proactive on many levels often pays off Some with seasonal allergies find their symptoms don't become as severe if they start taking medications at least a week before their typical allergy season begins or by March 1 an accumulation of medication already in your system can buffer your immune system's response when pollen levels spike." David Erstein, M.D. is board certified and fellowship-trained in allergy and immunology He has successfully managed & treated thousands of allergy sufferers in the New York area over the past decade http://www.advanceddermatologypc.com Do not sell or share my personal information: February 10, 2025 By Since moving to the Broward Center 10 years ago Slow Burn Theatre has been featuring more family-friendly mainstream fare more offbeat menu that first earned the company its devoted following So it was heartening to see the troupe return to form with its current production of Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade as darkly dramatic and yet exhilarating as musicals get where — typical of Slow Burn’s early choices — it only lasted a few months despite winning Tony Awards for Brown’s stirring score and Uhry’s gritty the show has been embraced by adventuresome companies around the country — like Slow Burn in 2014 – then a return to Broadway in the 2020 Tony-winning revival the first repeated selection in its 15 years of existence Parade is Uhry’s third Jewish-themed stage show set in Atlanta after Driving Miss Daisy and The Last Night of Ballyhoo a Brooklyn Jew who relocates with his wife But he finds himself mistrusted as an embodiment of The Other Brown demonstrated how to fashion a varied score brimming with anthems (“The Old Red Hills of Home”) satirical comic relief (“A Rumblin’ and a Rollin’”) ironic duets of optimism (“This Is Not Over Yet”) and most especially an 11 o’clock love song between Leo and Lucille (“All the Wasted Time”) these songs made a stirring introduction to the promise of Brown’s composing skills on which he has more than delivered over the years since director Patrick Fitzwater has the voices to do the score justice Making his debut with the company is Justin Albinder as Leo Frank but Albinder draws us to his side and forces us to care He is well-paired by Mikayla Cohen (veteran of Slow Burn’s Anastasia and Sister Act) as persistent Lucille who brings Leo meals daily during his two years of incarceration and who badgers the Georgia governor to commute Leo’s sentence from death to life Albinder and Cohen carry much of the narrative but there is strength throughout the nearly two dozen cast members The townfolk of Atlanta are an important group character and Fitzwater keeps them in near-constant motion Among the supporting players that manage to stand out are Chaz Rose and Kareema Khouri as Black servants who rise above servitude Michael Materdomini as the politically savvy governor and Michael Hunsaker as the dogged newspaper reporter Nikolas Serrano’s unit set is dominated by a stage-high tree whose significance to the story — and to Leo’s ultimate fate — becomes gradually and starkly clear Credit sound designer Dan Donato with the expert balance between the full-throated cast and Travis Smith’s pitch-perfect eight-piece orchestra Parade was not ahead of its time when it premiered 27 years ago the power of mob rule and the contemporary rise of anti-semitism make the show all the more timely today Director Fitzwater and his talented company seize on this moment in time and deftly deliver a message through the vehicle of a mere musical PARADE, Broward Center’s Amaturo Theater, 201 SW 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Through Sun., Feb. 23. $72.50-$77. Call 954-462-0222 or visit browardcenter.org a theater company’s debut sets an expectation level for its subsequent productions And with the Wick Theatre’s impressive first offering “The Sound of Music,” it seemed reasonable to expect more of the same with its follow-up That prospect fell short Friday night when the Irving Berlin musical based on the 1954 Bing Crosby-Danny Kaye movie opened without spreading much holiday cheer Even if you accept the opinion that the stage adaptation is several qualitative cuts below the popular film what director Stacey Stephens and his charisma-challenged cast deliver is still decidedly lackluster the Berlin score — full of old favorites inserted into the show from other sources — is melodic and nostalgic or at least the overamplification makes it sound that way But the sketchy script (by David Ives and Paul Blake) rambles about without making the case for why we should care about these folks As you probably recall from the movie — which pops up on television a lot this time of year — Bob Wallace and Phil Davis are a couple of singing-and-dancing GIs who entertain the troops during World War II then rise to fame in nightclubs and on Broadway during peacetime they head to a Vermont inn that happens to be owned and run by their former commanding officer which is excuse enough to perform such plot-irrelevant imported numbers as “Blue Skies” and “I Love a Piano.” As Bob — the Crosby role — James Cichewicz croons smoothly enough but rarely radiates much personality Cannon Starnes assumes the part Kaye created but Kelly Shook (Betty) has a pleasant singing voice and Julie Kleiner (Judy) shows off some fancy footwork maybe they are well matched with the male leads All of them are upstaged by the Mermanesque Missy McArdle as Martha She stops the slow-moving show by belting “Let Me Sing and I’m Happy” for no particular reason but proves to be a much better costume designer than a director with the production sorely in need of tightening and a faster pace Wendy Hall handles the many dance numbers by often settling for generic steps the choreographic equivalent of empty calories Although Christmas has relatively little to do with the show’s story the Berlin title song begins and ends the show The latter rendition is accompanied by artificial snowfall — onstage and over the audience — every bit as uneven as the production November 2, 2024 By Theatrical tastes and gender sensibilities can change drastically in 86 years So while a play like Gaslight thrilled audiences in 1938 – as did its more famous movie version six years later – it would be unlikely to captivate theatergoers today a pair of Canadian actresses-turned-writers who were on the right track with their rewrite of Patrick Hamilton’s Victorian psychological mystery now dubbed Deceived and currently getting its United States premiere at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre Where Jamieson and Wright go wrong is not deciding whether they were writing a melodrama or a comedy At least that’s the impression that director Marcia Milgrom Dodge and her four-member cast leave in a production that elicited lots of unwanted laughs on opening night prompted by heavy-handed music riffs and odd lighting cues If you have ever seen Gaslight in any version you probably recall that the question of who is driving emotionally frail Bella Manningham bonkers is solved by an Inspector Rough who arrives on the scene and ferrets out the villain Jamieson and Wright eliminate the inspector completely Bella must take matters into her own hands in a nice demonstration of female empowerment a slight move forward from Gaslight into the new century and the beginning of the Edwardian period Bella and her art dealer hubby Jack live in a well-appointed London home albeit one that might be haunted by the ghost of a woman who was murdered there followed by odd movements of a pearl necklace and a gold bracelet Either Bella is going crazy or she is a kleptomaniac what’s with those creaking noises coming from the attic and why does Bella only hear them when Jack goes out at night to allegedly meet with clients And why are they usually accompanied by the flickering of the house’s gas lights Presumably Jamieson and Wright wanted to throw suspicion away from Jack but the only other characters are the longtime housekeeper Elizabeth and the saucy new Although the whodunit element fails to be persuasive director Dodge does get worthy performances from her quartet of actors selling a vivid character arc from a wounded bird to a woman pushed to full-blown hysterics and Kevin Earley (Jack) has a similar challenge of opposites simultaneously oozing charm and sending out sinister vibes Jan Neuberger (Elizabeth) and Megan Elyse Fulmer (Nancy) both lend the production crucial support The former radiates an awareness of events in the house’s history that could prove crucial to Bella while the latter seems peculiarly entitled from her very first entrance Lex Liang’s costumes are on-target with upstairs/downstairs accuracy and Amanda Zieve handles the crucial gas light fixtures impressively Deceived is unlikely to have audiences on the edge of their seats Nor does it compare to such recent stage thrillers as Sleuth or Deathtrap you can get more thrills any night on television Filed Under: Theater Tagged With: , , Few show titles are as accurate as “Old Jews Telling Jokes,” the off-Broadway hit comedy revue that was bound to tour through South Florida sooner or later. As it turns out, the time is now and the place is the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse Not only should you attend this class in Ethnic Humor 101 but bring along a pad and pen so you can scribble down some choice set-ups and punch lines to become the life of your next dinner party A cast of five recites and occasionally acts out a steady stream of comic anecdotes with a Hebraic spin More often than not a more fitting title would be “Old Jews Telling Old Jokes,” because you will often be able to come up with the punch line before you hear it from the stage But as the quintet of performers that director Andy Ferrara has gathered demonstrates the comic delivery and narrative embellishments are at least as important as the payoff The jokes are roughly grouped into subject categories — birth retirement and old age — like chapters in a book on the seven stages of stand-up each of the performers gets a personal monologue like Michael Naishtut’s recollection of the bond of wisecracks he had with his father These segments slow the show’s staccato pace a bit but they give the show a slight semblance of substance Other tangents include the occasional musical number most notably a celebration of Jewish holidays “I’m Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica,” written wrily by that collegiate satirist Tom Lehrer we get a few audio clips from the nightclub act of Alan King one of four comic legends — along with Groucho Marx Phyllis Diller and George Burns — whose caricatures hover over the proceedings The cast is a mixed bag of young and less young Naishtut and Shiloh Klein take all the junior assignments Saige Spinney and Milt Oberman have no trouble playing oldsters they each have spot-on comic timing and a variety of inflections If you were looking for a plot that spanned more than a few minutes the Rinker this month would be the wrong place If you just wanted to laugh or to increase your humor repertoire consider an encounter with “Old Jews Telling Jokes.” November 3, 2024 By if I said “Neil Simon,” chances are you would respond “comedy.” there has been no more commercially successful purveyor of comedies in American history Yet some of his best plays came in the latter half of his career when Simon learned to hold back on punch lines and wade into deeper the tale of a tough-minded German-American grandmother her emotionally damaged adult offspring and the two young teen grandchildren forced by dire circumstances to live with her in the title New York suburb during World War II There are plenty of laughs in the first-rate Palm Beach Dramaworks production that jump-starts the company’s 25th anniversary season this saga of family and family dysfunction is certainly — as the organization’s name suggests — a drama No sooner have we taken in the visual pleasures of Bert Scott’s sizeable though austere apartment set that we notice Jay and Arty Kurnitz sweltering from the heat and fidgeting from their imminent encounter with their humorless Their challenge will be to persuade her to take them in while their weak-willed father travels through the South hawking scrap iron to pay the medical debts of his late wife Will the boys survive the ordeal unscathed or will they become damaged like their father their psychologically speech-impaired aunt Gert and Jay and Arty should be the focus of Lost in Yonkers or perhaps steely Grandma Kurnitz But thanks in no small part to a beautifully modulated performance by Fig Chilcott as Bella she steals the play away from the others and as she learns to stand up for herself and reach for some personal happiness Simon had been churning out comedy hits for 30 years by the time he also garnered critical and institutional acclaim with Yonkers winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the best play Tony Award He had long felt under the shadow of such “serious” playwrights as Eugene O’Neill and there are echoes of The Glass Menagerie in Grandma Kurnitz’s manipulation of her crippled daughter This Dramaworks production is helmed by Julianne Boyd the recently retired founding artistic director of (Massachusetts’) Barrington Stage Company who stresses the reality in these stressed-out characters The result is a touching truthfulness that also yields lump-in-the-throat laughter Most of the seven cast members are making their Dramaworks debut with the standout exception being Laura Turnbull (Grandma) and her first entrance is preceded by the ominous thumping of her cane Although her face will be frozen in a perpetual scowl she manages to express wordlessly the tough love beneath the surface Much of the play’s narrative rests on the shoulders of the two boys and Will Ehren (Jay) and Victor de Paula Rocha (Arty) handle those chores with charm and ease but it is Chilcott’s Bella — a woman whose mind may to “closed for repairs,” whose yearning for love you are likely to find irresistible Dramaworks has forged a reputation for savvy play selection and first-rate design Both are evident in its embrace of Lost in Yonkers as the West Palm company heads into its next 25 years October 29, 2024 By When the incomparable Groucho Marx passed away in 1977 at the age of 86 he left behind a dozen classic movie comedies kinescopes of 11 seasons of his TV game show and countless well-crafted or ad-libbed one-liners Frank Ferrante’s one-man celebration of his comedy idol Of course there are plenty of performers who have taken on the mantle of Marx — often imitated All it takes is a black grease pencil for drawing on a moustache and eyebrows a jaunty cigar and enough internet access to research Groucho’s career Having gotten inside Groucho’s skin for more than 40 years — and some 3,000 performances — Ferrante’s vocal visual and kinetic impression is indeed remarkable we hear snippets of Groucho’s timeless song hits such anarchic tunes and lyrics as “Lydia The Tattooed Lady,” “Hooray for Captain Spaulding,” “Hello Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Titwillow,” from The Mikado And we get such rimshot worthy punch lines as “One morning I’ll never know,” his irascible insults (“I never forget a face but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.”) and such deliciously groaning puns as (“Time wounds all heels.”) But Ferrante has chosen to wear two too many hats with his show writing and directing it himself as well as playing the central character His script gets the facts right and it is stuffed with the familiar jokes and songs so closely associated with Groucho gags crop up unmotivated and out of context but have a lot less impact than they might have if a more experienced adaptor had built the 75-minute intermissionless evening with dramaturgical impact in mind I saw the show two weeks into its run at Boca Raton’s Wick Theatre And what was specified in the program as a two-act production with a 15-minute intermission had shrunk considerably since its opening night here but is all but unheard of in a show performed for the past four decades Ferrante appeared to be hurrying his delivery as if he were intent on finishing by 9 o’clock and catching the last train home a mandate that Ferrante seems to have forgotten Perhaps there was a time when Ferrante was sharper and his Evening With Groucho was a more satisfying experience it appears that he got negative feedback from his early performance at the Wick and he decided to cut the show short and avoided losing much of his audience at an intermission Only diehard fans of Marx need bother with An Evening With Groucho Others should keep an eye on their cable schedules for sightings of And there is always YouTube for an occasional episode of You Bet Your Life While you can admire Ferrante’s life-long dedication to Marxist tribute his current efforts fall short of spending time with the real thing Filed Under: Theater Tagged With: , , February 23, 2025 By The day I saw the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s extraordinary production of The Lehman Trilogy the stock market plummeted nearly 750 points The rags-to-riches-to-bankruptcy history of three ambitious Jewish immigrant brothers looked like it was threatening to repeat itself as we fasten our seatbelts in preparation for what might be another sustained economic crisis we might as well look back over this epic play’s 164 year-span to see what lessons the Lehmans can impart to us though it seems well-earned by this towering three-and-a-half-hour already acclaimed on Broadway and in London’s West End as well as playing in two dozen other nations and yet it was written by Italian actor-turned-playwright Stefano Massini and adapted by Ben Power a staff director of Great Britain’s National Theatre The Maltz’s production of the work is enormously entertaining and brimming with theatricality though its running time and its word count make it tailored for those willing to embrace a serious stage experience And since the Maltz produces mainly musicals and lightweight plays it is understandable that many audience members could be observed slinking away at the two intermissions Noah Keyishian and Jeremy Rishe — put on a marathon display of versatility becoming not only the titular siblings but dozens of supporting characters of varying ages they often stand outside the action narrating events then effortlessly jump back into the scene Studwell plays a metaphorical tightrope walker — who never loses his balance until the stock market crash of 1929 But you could say that all three actors deftly walk a tightrope throughout the evening and remain surefooted at all times impoverished arrival from Bavaria to our shores in 1844 of young Heyum Lehmann (Studwell) — recently renamed Henry Lehman by a harbor official with no patience for Yiddish monikers while trying to coax Henry into resettling in New York the center of commerce in their adopted country they morph from merchants of cotton and textiles to brokers of money — Lehman Brothers The firm’s growth and setbacks are charted against the nation’s milestones — The Civil War the housing bust of 2008 and the demise of Lehman Brothers To the credit of the writing and of the cast it is not these events that linger in our memory but the effects on the three generations of the family Nor does Massini entangle us in the details of subprime mortgages or other fiduciary minutiae preferring instead to keep his focus on the personal history of this clan as this very human tale cycles through time Bearded Studwell sets the evening’s tone as eldest brother Henry with as solid though short-lived a portrait of a patriarch who sets the family fortune in motion arguably the only female character who gives sufficient pushback to her male counterpart Diminutive Rishe is first seen as Mayer Lehman but most memorably plays loose cannon Bobbie who pulls the company — kicking and screaming — into the 21st century And Keyishian excels as middle brother Emanuel Lehman understated yet destined to have the longest reign on the firm’s reins The physical production is up to the Maltz’s high standards led by Shawn Duan’s video projections that transport us from the antebellum South to a Wall Street of imposing The projections form the backdrop to the scenic design by Milagros Ponce De Leon perhaps foreshadowing the Lehmans’ downfall an original cinematic music score by Ian Weinberger and often ominous lighting by Alberto Segarra The Lehman Trilogy is the most compelling new play of the century so far though it does so with a cast of only three And the Maltz production sets a new high-water mark for the company It just might be enough to take our minds off the latest bad news from Wall Street THE LEHMAN TRILOGY, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter. Through Sunday, March 2. $74-$99. Call 561-575-2223 or visit jupitertheatre.org Filed Under: Theater Tagged With: , , , February 23, 2017 By Say the name Karen Allen and chances are the role that comes to mind is Marion Ravenwood Indiana Jones’ hard-drinking girlfriend in Raiders of the Lost Ark But that was 36 years ago and the perky ingénue you are picturing turned 65 last year when you weren’t looking she starred opposite Jeff Bridges in Starman (1984) and Bill Murray in Scrooged (1986) appeared on Broadway as Annie Sullivan in a sequel to The Miracle Worker called Monday After the Miracle (1982) and has performed and directed often at the Berkshire Theatre Group and Williamstown Theater Festival Still, she cemented her image as Ravenwood when she returned to Hollywood to play the character in 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Since then, she has appeared in a few independent films including Year by the Sea a long-married woman who takes a year off from her marriage to live by herself on Cape Cod It opens Friday in several venues in Florida Hap Erstein reached her by phone while she was traveling from Atlanta to Columbus, Ga., the hometown of renowned author Carson McCullers. There she screened her film directing debut, A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud, based on a short story by McCullers Erstein: Aren’t you known for turning down many of the film scripts you are offered I don’t have a hard time saying no to things that I don’t think are very interesting or very good when I read them I really feel it’s a story I feel compelled to be a part of Erstein: Why did you say yes to Year by the Sea I read the script and then I went running out the door to get the book I felt it was a story that was universal in a lot of ways for women of a certain age That after raising children and after being the kind of person who ran the household putting their own interests on the back burner And I just felt it was a beautiful story to tell and one that hasn’t been — I don’t feel — really developed very much in the film world About a woman going through that life phase Erstein: This film seems likely to appeal to a very different demographic than the Indiana Jones movies I did the very first Indiana Jones film and now all of those people who watched those films are Joan’s age This film was in around 18 film festivals — I went to maybe five or six — and we found it had a pretty broad-based audience You would think this would appeal to women of a certain age But we found that men quite often were responding to the film equally enthusiastically We also discovered that there were a lot of people in their 30s and 40s who were very vocal about the film because they felt they were looking at their parents’ dilemmas I think the audience for this film is going to continue to surprise us Erstein: Do you feel a responsibility to make films that attract those Indiana Jones fans because I of course have no idea what that would be I think that that’s a pretty broad base of people who have a lot of different interests I just stick with the things that sort of fascinate me at a particular moment in my life or a particular tale that I think is worth exploring or telling Or a character that I find fascinating or a relationship that I think is interesting to explore I tend to just love good writing and I love to work with directors who I think are going to be interesting to work with as an actor and who are trying to tell a really good story Erstein: You’ve been doing some film directing yourself in fact I’m on my way now to the world premiere of a film I directed called A Tree that is adapted from a Carson McCullers short story This coming Sunday is Carson McCullers’s 100th birthday so there’s sort of a worldwide celebration that’s happening in 2017 where they’re having an international Carson McCullers conference and we’re going to show it in New York City in a couple of weeks where they’re going to release a new leather-bound version of her collected stories but I’ve been directing in the theater for about the last 10 years Erstein: Is directing where your career is headed now Allen: I kind of like going back and forth a much larger scope of things that I could do when you look at a story or a film script or a novel it doesn’t have to have a role for me in it That opens up a world of plays and a world of films Erstein: Do you sense the industry being more open to female directors or are there still roadblocks based on gender Allen: I think that there’s a growing number of women directors I think women need to be writing more and more scripts and talking more about their own experiences but the film world still tends to be a man’s world in a lot of ways Wouldn’t you call your film career an accident in the sense that I started out working in the theater when I was in my early 20s and never in my entire life had I ever met a single person who had anything to do with anything in the film world I came to New York to work in the theater and I’d never met an actor who had been in a film I’d never met a director who worked in the film world I just didn’t imagine it was anything that I could possibly do Whereas the theater was something that I had a good strong base which was 3,000 miles away and my imaginings didn’t really go in that direction you keep coming back to work in the theater I directed a play two summers ago at the Berkshire Theatre Festival I have a play that I’m going to act in in New York It’s a new play that I’ve been working on with the playwright and a director for maybe a year and a half except I’ve gotten so busy with all of the aspects of supporting my film (A Tree so I had to actually bow out of directing a play it’s still an ongoing part of my interests Erstein: Your career is not an easy thing to chart That must have cost you some work in the movies I wouldn’t have missed being such a major part of my son’s growing up Very focused on films and theater and stuff I was actually quite delighted to take some time away from it and experience raising my son That might sound like every mother talking about her son Erstein: You and the cast of Year by the Sea have been promoting the film at various film festivals Allen: Everybody’s diving in as much as they can Independent films have a lot going for them but they need as much support in all quarters as they can get I’ve sat now in probably 15 different screening rooms with audiences I know how much an audience responds to this film People come up to me — and I feel this is genuine — they really feel that this is an unusual film the kind of film that speaks to them in a way that they haven’t felt included by films in a long time Erstein: Getting distribution for an independent film is a challenge Allen: I know the last two independent films that I did beautiful films and got a lot of attention at film festivals they ended up with what I would call “typical” distribution deal for independent films They will release you in six cities for a week and then they make their money when they pull you out of the theaters and sell you to all the auxiliary outlets And they say they can’t afford to do any advertising when the film is actually in the theaters so the films die on the vine I think there’s a level of frustration in indie filmmaking about that and Xandy (director Alexander Janko) is trying something new we are self-distributing with a new distribution format He really wants to get it out into the theaters the film’s producer) very much believe that they can make this a hit film or at least a film that reaches a wide audience And I’m going to help them as much as I can I believe they’re starting in Florida and then moving across the southern part of the United States And they’ll approach each area in some sort of unique way looking for the audiences they feel will really be moved by this I think if we can gather enough momentum from either reviews or box office I have another film script that I wrote some time ago I worked with him on it for a period of years actually Then it went to George Armitage for a while then James Ivory was interested in doing it Then I just got distracted with other things in my life a fantastic story that I’ve been in love with for a long time I think that it is a very uplifting story about people making a transition in their lives and trying to do it Joan didn’t leave her marriage and then blithely get involved with somebody else or whatever I think this is a beautiful film about renegotiating life taking the chance to make a leap of faith and see what happens I think they should come and see it because there’s not enough films like this out there If people are tired of seeing a lot of special effects and cars slamming into each other and bullets flying across the street and people being blown to pieces If instead you want to see what it’s like to be a human being Filed Under: Film Tagged With: , , July 27, 2016 By where his studies are interrupted by an unstable they can be excused for being unfamiliar with Goodbye Columbus — another coming-of-age tale between a Jewish boy and a shiksa goddess — but they are well aware that the earlier film rocketed Richard Benjamin and Ali McGraw to stardom Stopping in Miami Beach to promote Indignation Lerman and Gadon spoke with The ArtsPaper’s Hap Erstein about the film director James Schamus and Roth’s characters Erstein: On your résumé are supporting roles in Noah and Fury as well as the title role in the two Percy Jackson movies nothing even close to your part in Indignation Lerman: I think that if I was the obvious choice If this was something I’d ever done before But there are similar themes as characters I’ve portrayed in the past Young men trying to figure out who they are I read it and I just has a visceral reaction to the material I met with James Schamus the next day and just started working on it about six months before we started filming Gadon: I auditioned for the part and James said it was a real struggle to get me cast but had to convince a lot of people that I would be the right person I think I’ve had a history of doing a lot of kind of indie think films (Belle Erstein: What spoke to you two personally about these roles Gadon: I think what I really liked most about Olivia is that she kind of appears to be this perfect but then underneath she’s quite broken and very complex And so she is kind of playing against type many times to focus in on my own character I was focused on what the movie could be and I was caught up in this fantastic dialogue there aren’t many opportunities like this for me where you can have such delicious dialogue and complicated obstacles for actors like me to execute Erstein: What was the main challenge for you but there’s a specific scene that was the most challenging the between the dean (Tony Award-winning actor and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts) and Marcus It’s a crazy scene and when you’re reading it This is insane.”And I don’t come from a theater background where you have to memorize pages and pages of dialogue I’ve never had that much dialogue to have to work through It seemed like a challenge and I wanted to be challenged it was the pressure of just wanting to do right by the novel and Philip Roth and James I think that was probably the major obstacle for me Just wanting to really embody the character Erstein: Did you find similarities between yourself and your character Gadon: I think that a lot of women probably go through a lot of shame and embarrassment especially surrounding their sexual burgeoning I think that’s a very common thing that a lot of women can relate to I feel that is depicted very honestly in the novel and in the film And her thirst for literature and knowledge and poetry is something I really related to as somebody who studied and wanted to go to university and those kinds of things But there’s a lot that I couldn’t relate to I think it mostly had to do with what was socially acceptable in the 1950s compared to today just to try to understand the perspective of what it was like at that age and that period of time because James felt that Olivia was kind of inspired by Sylvia Plath especially when she’s in her college years There’s just so much about her everyday life that she was so meticulous about recording that was really helpful I think he was comfortable with James Schamus adapting his book I haven’t seen all the adaptations of his work He was curious to see what James was going to do and he just let James do his thing “Just let me know when I can see it,” when James asked him if he wanted any involvement Supposedly he really loves the film and is really happy with this adaptation of one of his works So I don’t know exactly what the wording was Lerman: He’s the most experienced first-time director There was such mutual respect and trust on the set he didn’t play games and he knew when he got what he wanted and he knew how to convey when he wasn’t getting what he wanted Erstein: Tell me about the first time you saw the film the first time I saw the film alone — completely alone — was in a screening room I watched it in an edit suite and James was like goodbye,” and he closed the door and I realized no one was going to watch this with me awful experience that you don’t want to go through alone I think I was really pleased with all the interactions that Olivia and Marcus had My response to the viewing was extremely emotional Lerman: James told me he’d bring the movie but he took me into an office where there was this little screen — a little TV – that’s what I watched it on Erstein: Have you seen it with an audience Gadon: Seeing it at Sundance is kind of a wonderful way to see a film like this with someone like James It felt like we were watching it in a room full of friends Lerman: It would really have sucked if people didn’t like it but people seemed to Filed Under: Film Tagged With: , , , March 12, 2025 By Kaufman once observed that “satire is what closes on Saturday night.” But then he never met Matt Stone and Trey Parker the two wags behind the comic boundary-pushing cable television show they brought their satirical and scatological sensibilities to Broadway with the latter a brash send-up of the loopy contemporary religion and its army of globe-trotting young missionaries Many industry watchers doubted the show would find a receptive audience on Broadway but it is still playing in New York almost 15 years later and is about to claim a spot among the 10 longest-running shows in Broadway history And as the current booking at the Kravis Center’s Dreyfoos Hall proves it would be R-rated for its potty-mouthed dialogue and lyrics Yet there is an underlying sweetness to its story of faith and friendship the Church of Latter Day Saints is a little crazy The Mormon church girded itself for the skewering it expected when the show premiered but by now it uses the musical as a recruiting tool but self-centered Kevin Price (Dylan Weaver) and pudgy prevaricating Arnold Cunningham (Diego Enrico) with hardly any similarity to The Lion King Aiding Stone and Parker in their first foray onto Broadway are veterans Robert Lopez (composer of Avenue Q and Frozen) and Casey Nicholaw (director of The Drowsy Chaperone and Disney’s Aladdin) they demonstrate their musical theater acumen with their version of the saga of Mormon founder Joseph Smith as a parody of The King and I’s “Small House of Uncle Thomas” and an anthem of faith (“I Believe”) that is pure Rodgers and Hammerstein They also tip their hats to The Lion King’s “Hakune Matata” with a similarly bouncy “Hasa Diga Eebowai,” which seems benign enough until we learn its profane translation The Ugandans are understandably uninterested in becoming Mormons but Arnold ultimately closes the deal with his truth-stretching interpretation of the title book And since any good musical comedy needs a love interest Arnold becomes smitten with Nabulungi (Keke Nesbitt) a comely Ugandan local who is eager to convert and visit the Mormon promised land The Book of Mormon is that rare musical comedy that is laugh-out-loud funny And such is Stone and Parker’s willingness to go to great lengths for comic effect that they insert an elaborate tangent Elder Price’s “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream,” populated with such icons of evil as Adolf Hitler Tour director and choreographer Jennifer Werner replicates the original staging by Nicholaw and Parker delivering a surprisingly fresh production worth its weight in giggles led by the endearingly unkempt Enrico and the full-voiced The very appealing Nesbitt — a Dreyfoos School graduate — has laser-sharp comic timing and Craig Franke is an ensemble standout as a gay tap dancer doing what he can to deny his sexual orientation This is the third visit of The Book of Mormon to the Kravis Center and since comedy is so dependent on the element of surprise the show should be wearing out its welcome by now Maybe the show has lost a little of its ability to outrage us but it remains as hysterically funny as ever June 24, 2023 By Broadway’s golden era of the 1960s just lost one of its greats the lyricist of Fiddler on the Roof – the final survivor of that classic musical’s creative team – has died at the age of 99 Harnick’s place among the top tier of musical wordsmiths would be secure (Has there ever been a Jewish wedding in the past half a century that did not feature “Sunrise including such other collaborations with his most successful songwriting partner Jerry Bock as She Loves Me I interviewed Harnick on several occasions, most recently in his Upper West Side apartment as he was turning 90 a year that coincided with the 50th anniversary of Fiddler Although he was invariably upbeat and soft-spoken those milestones did have him thinking of his own mortality then I realize that within 5 or 10 years I will no longer be here,” he told me “So it’s a reminder that whatever I want to do I damn well better discipline myself to do it energetic and compos mentis right up until the end.” whose lyrics were precise without ever sounding forced To Be a Mooovie Star” from The Apple Tree) heartfelt (“When Did I Fall in Love?” from Fiorello!) stream-of-consciousness conversational (“Ice Cream” from She Loves Me) and specific yet universal (“Miracle of Miracles” from Fiddler on the Roof) based on folk tales by Sholom Aleichem set in a Russian shtetl at the turn of the 20th century There is an oft-told tale about the original Japanese production that Harnick has since insisted is apocryphal the Japanese producer contacted Harnick asking whether the show were really popular in the United States “why do you ask?” “Because it’s such a Japanese show How did American audiences understand it?” Having many years to analyze the success of Fiddler Harnick told me he felt it came down to one word not “tradition,” but “family.” “Almost every family has to face the problem that the parents have certain values which may not be shared by the children And for the children to break away and go sometimes in directions that are anathema to the parents parent-children relationships can be difficult and so there’s a lot to identify with in this.” but was advised by the legendary Yip Harburg (Finian’s Rainbow) to concentrate solely on lyrics there are more capable theater composers than there are theater lyricists So if the opportunity comes to work with different composers Harnick was enlisted to go out of town to help assist on the lyrics to a show called Shangri-La There he was introduced to composer Jerry Bock The two of them hit it off quickly and a significant collaboration began Harnick explained that it was an attraction of opposites I find that I tend to be apprehensive when I work So I love to work with composers who are very outgoing and confident and ebullient But also we had the same sense of humor.” Harnick and Bock wrote together for more than a dozen years breaking up abruptly after The Rothschilds in 1970 Harnick has written with many different composers – Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) Mary Rodgers (Pinocchio) and Richard Rodgers (Rex) – as well as returning to composing by himself Harnick’s passing will undoubtedly trigger revivals of his less well-known shows which seems to be perpetually produced in South Florida Filed Under: News & Commentary, Theater Tagged With: , February 7, 2019 By There is a breed of theatergoers who are prejudiced against – and will eager tell you they cannot abide – musicals they gravitate to stage companies like Palm Beach Dramaworks which built its considerable reputation on the production of classic American plays But through some calculation that summertime is more fitting for lighter fare the West Palm Beach troupe has mounted a string of compact musical and musical revues outside of its subscription season Most of them have proven so popular that it was probably inevitable that one day Dramaworks would include a musical amid its thought-provoking dramas That time is now as it produces the small-scale but big-hearted The Spitfire Grill the tale of an atrophying Wisconsin town and an ex-convict who arrives and becomes the catalyst for the neglected village’s turnaround and the redemption of its residents It is taking nothing away from the evocative countrified score by James Valcq and the late Fred Alley to say that The Spitfire Grill feels more like a play with music than a full-blown musical Unlike so many shows whose highlights are its production numbers but merely a series of solos and interior arias which grab us on the gut level without even insulting our brains a first-rate example of a musical for those who do not like musicals yet it is both smart and emotional enough to possibly convert them to the genre directed with a vigilance against sentimentality by Bruce Linser twangy singers and a string-heavy band of Lubbens – the group that so effectively accompanied last summer’s Woody Guthrie’s American Song – artistic success was all but inevitable So join the journey of Percy Talbott (Ashley Rose) presumably before it fell onto bad times with the closing of the local quarry and the rerouting of the highway that now bypasses Gilead entirely youthful Sheriff Joe (Blake Price) – Percy’s parole officer – takes a shine to her and helps her get a job assisting feisty-but-aging Hannah Ferguson (Elizabeth Dimon) the owner-operator of the tiny hamlet’s only restaurant The locals – Hannah’s nephew Caleb (Johnbarry Green) still embittered about losing his quarry job his mousy wife Shelby (Amy Miller Brennan) town busybody and postmistress Effy (Patti Gardner) – do not take easily to strangers but gradually Percy endears herself to most of them Based on a little-seen independent film from 1996 but lightened considerably in tone and incident The Spitfire Grill is character-driven with souls brimming with yearnings and secrets the plot is consumed by a scheme hatched by Percy to help Hannah sell her long-on-the-market restaurant with a nationwide raffle filled with letters explaining why the applicant would want to move to Gilead and run a grill Somewhat less convincing is a subplot involving a mysterious prowler in the nearby woods that Hannah provides with loaves of bread but swallowing the tidy resolution of his story takes a bit more effort Area newcomer Rose anchors the production as Percy a genuine empathy magnet for the audience who delineates the character’s arc from wounded bird to a woman who takes control of her fate “Shine,” a statement of unexpected optimism Brennan goes through a similar transformation from abused-but-taking-it Shelby to an assertive woman unafraid to put her husband in his place While we have come to expect performance strength from Dimon notably on such soulful songs as “Forgotten Lullaby” and the score’s penultimate number multi-level scenic design for the grill and its environs which first brought it to South Florida in 2002 The Spitfire Grill has been a fixture on the regional theater circuit and around the world But it is hard to imagine it being done much better than it is currently at Dramaworks or how one could see it and remain resistant to musicals THE SPITFIRE GRILL, Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Through Sunday, Feb. 24. $75, 561-514-4042 or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org founder and chief executive officer of Costume World a premier supplier of theatrical wardrobe to clients ranging from the White House to high school drama clubs recalls driving by the shuttered Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton earlier this year It’s such a beautiful building.” Then it hit her who that somebody should be Wick had been looking to move her Broadway costume museum out of her corporate headquarters in a Pompano Beach warehouse park for months The museum had grown into a tidy profit center for her but city officials were hassling her over zoning and assembly issues The Caldwell — which she will be leasing with an option to purchase — would be ideal for displaying her world-class costume collection The company owns some 1.2 million wardrobe pieces including costumes designed by Cecil Beaton and outfits worn on Broadway by everybody from Judy Garland and Yul Brynner to Sarah Jessica Parker who built her multimillion dollar company from a home project she taught her two daughters to sew by assembling five Santa suits on their dining table then renting the costumes out at holiday time we do not intend to screw things up with a theater Don’t you be thinking that for one minute,” she scolds Nor is she troubled by the fact that she has never run a theater before “I know this business like the back of my hand for almost 10 years I was on the road (clothing) all these national tours,” says Wick firmly And she knows to surround herself with theater pros a veteran of over 50 stage productions across the country CEO of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council “Hire smart people and get to know the arts community well The nonprofit arts community really wants to help support her All that networking will make a huge difference.” a friend of Wick’s and an off-and-on employee of hers for the past 35 years feels confident she will succeed with the theater/museum “I’ve never really seen her so excited about something,” McArdle said A museum and a theater working together will make it a very unique thing that we’ve never seen here before It’s like an entertainment center almost.” Minimizing her inexperience at producing theater Wick emphasizes that it and renting costumes have plenty in common “You have to know your market and you have to know what people want,” she says “It’s just like being in the costume business and that’s what you put in the stores to sell “Running a theater is not for the faint of heart,” notes Blades “It is a lot of work and there’s risk involved But to be able to connect the general public to the process of theater is very exciting to me The connection to the costume process is really fun and a new twist I don’t know many communities that can boast such a large public presence for a business like that.” Wick has already announced five musicals and one comic drama for her first season scheduled to open in the final days of summer at a $50 top ticket She leads off with “The Sound of Music” (Sept “Steel Magnolias” (April 2 - May 4) and “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” While her choices are hardly “hot and current,” they are mainstream and commercial exactly what Wick feels was missing from the Caldwell’s menu “The Caldwell Theatre went out of business Hundreds of thousands of dollars in substantial renovation work is happening at The Wick Theatre & Costume Museum The backstage rehearsal space is being turned into the costume museum and major kitchen facilities are being installed groups can book guided tours of the museum the Wick is scheduling five matinees a week “The theater and the museum will go hand in hand,” says Wick “This is kind of a perfect little dream for me.” While Wick says she intends to have “some” Actors Equity performers in each production she emphasizes an interest in showcasing young there will be more chances that they’ll be great in the end.” Wick also hopes to bring in some nationally known celebrities to headline on occasion She name-drops Tony winner Donna McKechnie Shirley Jones and Loretta Swit as possible performers at the Wick “Lots of these people I’ve dressed and they know me personally,” she says Wick had mentioned previously an annual operating budget of $1 million for the theater but that seems low for the sort of large-cast multiple-set shows she envisions — with or without star salaries “I am ready to spend what it takes to do it right And of course Costume World will be there to support it when needed Wick speaks of having the synergy of five separate income streams — the museum a special event speaker series and a post-show cabaret in the lobby We’re starting to have some revenue come in We have put enough money aside to make this really work.” eager to take on a new challenge and give a little payback “This community has been wonderful to me for 37 years I started my business career here and it has meant a lot to me,” she says “I’ve had fabulous support from Fort Lauderdale all the way to West Palm Beach in my costume business Now it is time to do something for this community.” December 11, 2017 By long before movies became the source of most stage musicals the puckish songwriting team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken took as their inspiration a schlocky sci-fi flick from the low-budget factory of Roger Corman the tale of a man-eating plant from outer space that changes the life of a nebbishy flower shop clerk The fact that the show played more than 2,200 performances off-Broadway generated a cult favorite movie version and continues to be revived by theaters across the country seems to validate their opinion currently running at the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse through Dec While the show does have an alarmingly high body count and ultimately the fate of the world is jeopardized Little Shop of Horrors is a family-friendly comic entertainment whose tongue is planted firmly in its cheek From the opening Greek chorus of three nimble-stepping Menken’s faux-’60s sound and Ashman’s period-specific lyrics speed the show along to its apocalyptic conclusion klutzy Seymour Krelbourn (Mike Westrich) discovers an extraterrestrial plant a customer magnet that changes the fortunes of Mushnik’s Skid Row flower shop wealth and the love of his co-worker Audrey (Mallory Newbrough) a dumb blonde with severe self-esteem issues The catch is that the plant – dubbed Audrey II in honor of that co-worker – craves human blood that Seymour must provide a Faustian bargain with serial homicidal repercussions Director Bruce Linser does nothing unconventional with the material gets first-rate work from his performers and dials back a bit of the cartoonishness often associated with the characters Westrich played Seymour previously at Slow Burn and he again slips into the character’s nerdy relating easily to the bloodthirsty plant puppets and handling the light rock score with gusto He is well-matched by Newbrough who warbles the show’s two best numbers – “Somewhere That’s Green” and “Suddenly In a year that has seen her also play Janis Joplin and Beauty and the Beast’s Belle Newbrough has quickly risen to the top of the area’s musical performers Jim Ballard lends protean support as Audrey’s doomed boy friend And Peter Librach has some good moments as old man Mushnik notably with his Fiddler-esque ethnic moves on the song-and-dance duet MNM emphasizes its commitment to live musical accompaniment represented here by keyboardist Paul Reekie and his four-piece band The dean of South Florida scenic designers completes his 40th year on the job with an aptly grungy Skid Row urban view that swivels to reveal the increasingly upscale flower shop Ashman and Menken would go on to Oscar-winning glory writing film scores for Disney (The Little Mermaid but for it’s more playful and sophisticated humor Little Shop of Horrors is the pinnacle of their partnership April 16, 2025 By Suppositional history is a specialty of playwright Mark St as he demonstrated in Freud’s Last Session The Best of Enemies and Camping with Henry and Tom plays of fiction that bring together notable real-life characters unconstrained by any knowledge of what actually occurred at their meetings A case in point is Camping With Henry and Tom in 1921 in the Blue Ridge Mountains of rural Maryland Harding drove into the woods near Licking Creek intent on escaping — at least briefly — from the watchful eyes of the Secret Service and the press This imaginative collision of the innovator of mass production the brilliant prolific inventor and the reluctant 29th president of the United States begins inauspiciously when Ford’s car — a Model T they have nothing to do while waiting to be rescued but expound on their personal philosophies and get on each other’s nerves injecting into the play familiar quotes from his three articulate as well as dialogue from his own fertile brain perhaps you saw Camping With Henry and Tom the first time Palm Beach Dramaworks produced it in 2001 when the West Palm Beach company was in its infancy artistic producing director William Hayes now revives the talky but involving work as part of its 25th anniversary season That earlier production was in cramped quarters a couple of blocks west of Dramaworks’ current roomy playhouse where the emphasis was on the text rather than the design elements the current show boasts a breathtaking sylvan landscape by Bert Scott with towering tree trunks and copious vegetation We first meet the cast in an amusing faux-vintage black-and-white credits sequence filmed by Adam J but it underscores how much the company has grown in its two-and-a-half decades now known for its stunning production elements as well as its thought-provoking play selections The crux of the play is the conflict between the politically ambitious Ford eager to parlay his affordable mass-produced cars into a run for the presidency and the man he would probably have to beat for the job which convince Harding that he will have to run for a second term if only to prevent Ford from ascending to the office prefers to remain as neutral as Switzerland while his compatriots wage their war of words though he can be relied upon to lob the occasional pointed punchline into the conversation Camping with Henry and Tom has resonances to current events whenever it is performed I noted that the Ford character brought to mind a cross between Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan it is hard to listen to his unfettered hate-mongering and not think of today’s feisty commander-in-chief If this three-way portrait of prominent icons between the world wars becomes Ford’s play that is certainly due in part to the standout pugnacious performance by John Leonard Thompson Considerably cooler but no less compelling is Tom Wahl’s Harding yet without the taste for the blood sport of politics And although Edison is the least well-drawn of the three characters Rob Donohoe leaves a vivid if understated impression in the role Germain’s script calls for a balancing act between historical drama and lightweight entertainment That he and his veteran cast achieve that seeming effortless state of equilibrium is reason enough to accept PBD’s invitation to go camping Actor-singer-activist Theodore Bikel died today in Los Angeles at the age of 91 he is perhaps best known as Teyve the Milkman in “Fiddler On The Roof.” When Palm Beach Post theater critic Hap Erstein talked to him in 1995 he was still happily playing the signature role at the age of 70 Teyve is the quintessential Jewish character within a framework of a world where the odds were against survival,” Bikel said Tevye’s plight strikes a chord that parallels the history of the Jewish people As Sholom Aleichem said in one of his books And Bikel was not the type of actor who considered retirement “I’d have to look it up in the dictionary.” I don’t picture myself as being 70 years old,” he said in the 1995 interview Read more of Erstein’s interview with Bikel here. February 22, 2022 By Cue the arrival of the new Kravis Center chief executive officer When the longtime head of the West Palm Beach performing arts center it triggered a nationwide search for her successor a veteran southern California arts manager but he lasted a mere five months during the time that the center was closed by COVID the search committee was reactivated and this time the net was cast internationally who has been associated with the global circus organization Cirque du Soleil for nearly 20 years most recently as its chief creative officer Quinn officially began at the Kravis Center on Jan and less than two weeks on the job she sat down with Palm Beach ArtsPaper and discussed how she feels about her new position here “I’m very happy with my decision,” she says “I was looking out my window yesterday and I thought ‘I’m the luckiest person in the world.’ I think for the first time in my life I feel content She calls the decision to seek a new challenge at least as much personal as it was professional “I was on the road so much and my husband was living in another country,” says Quinn her arts manager husband was working in South Florida on a new project with the original creator of Cirque du Soleil Taking the Kravis job “was an opportunity to get back and live in the same country Asked to name her initial priorities at the Kravis Center The way that I described it at my first board meeting was that Week One is all about the staff Week Three is to understand more of our guests And then the other circles in the larger community.” The tireless Quinn is already putting in long hours on the job I’m literally walking through the lobby and introducing myself to people “Last night I met a couple from Sweden who were here on vacation I feel you get one really good shot at people being completely honest with you and they don’t know you and you don’t know them.” As chief creative officer with Cirque du Soleil “The main duty was mainly to build our new shows and to make sure that our existing shows were of the highest quality,” she says “So my goal was to make great shows for Cirque,” and such acquired subsidiaries as Blue Man Group a family entertainment company called VStar and The Works which does primarily magic and illusion shows Her responsibilities were both hands-on creative and managerial “So to take the most recent Cirque show that just opened in Orlando ‘Drawn to Life,’ which is a partnership with Disney it was a matter of putting the entire creative team together and then leading that creative team as we got ready to open the show.” she expects the main input she will have on the creativity onstage is by challenging the staff we have a programming team and so I’ve been sitting with them ‘Do you feel that you have programming for every aspect of the community If the answer is ‘Yes,’ then I ask them to show me And if the answer is ‘No,’ then we have to question ourselves why is it that we don’t have programming for everyone?” Quinn researched the Kravis’s past programming “I would say that we have first-rate musical programming We would like to continue to be known for our classical and music programming I think the Broadway series is something that definitely has huge reach and we’ve been successful in terms of having great Broadway programming,” she says “So now I think it’s other areas that we need to be looking at So that will be something we’re going to focus on for the upcoming seasons “And then when we look at our PEAK series,” of provocative “I think there’s a lot of room for growth in our PEAK series to make sure that we’re really affecting change.” Quinn says she is pleased with the programming here “And I really want us to follow the changes in the community so that we’re not lagging behind As part of her research on her prospective position Quinn sought the counsel of Judith Mitchell I asked her how some of the internal workings of the organization have come to be because the culture within the organization is the one thing that is extremely important to me,” she notes in terms of where we might want to get to in the future She’s been very helpful in terms of talking to me about the history of the place the length of service that a lot of these staff members have “I have to say that was probably the most gratifying part of coming here but a lot of the staff have been here a long time And that’s a testament to the fact that the organization has been loyal to them and that they’re loyal to the organization.” In addition to her work with Cirque du Soleil Quinn started three resident theater companies and served as executive director of the acclaimed American Repertory Theater at Harvard University she is not sure if creating a stage company is advisable at the Kravis if that’s a place that the organization would want to go then that would require a whole strategic initiative It takes a skill set or a muscle that we’d need to build I don’t see that happening in the very near future There are other groups in the community that are doing that.” Quinn is already familiar with Palm Beach County having had a home in Delray Beach for several years “My husband was here a lot and I was mostly in Montreal It’s been such an amazing place to be able to kind of retreat to I’ve been coming down probably for seven years There was this amazing fitness boot camp in Delray Beach I wanted to go on a vacation that required me to work out and get all my stress out The decision was I could either lie on the beach and drink tequila or go and work out But now that she will be working at the Kravis she is shopping for a house closer to the performing arts center I don’t want anything more than a 15-minute walk.” Asked how she believes her board of directors will measure her success as CEO I’ve asked them what my 90-day success looks like One of the big goals is to put together a strategic plan We’re looking at instituting some new ticketing software And we’re also looking at our digital footprint But it will start with the strategic plan.” she wants the Kravis Center to be a place where patrons can come and feel safe I want this to be a place where you can sit in a darkened space and be transformed What we do is we offer transformation for people,” Quinn said I think people feel comfortable and confident coming here and I want to make sure that they continue to feel that way.” Filed Under: News & Commentary, Theater Tagged With: , January 31, 2025 By at the tail end of the musical theater’s so-called golden age it took the Fanny Brice biographical show Funny Girl almost 60 years to be revived on Broadway that is because it has been under the shadow of its original star But it was revived — and revised — three years ago successfully enough that it spawned a subsequent national tour which plays this week at the Kravis Center While the production does not live up to whatever memories you may have of Babs’ performance — still much in evidence in her Oscar-winning movie debut — there is enough to like here including a remarkable star turn by Hannah Shankman as Ziegfeld Follies headliner Brice belting out her many vocals and clowning when required The show takes Brice from her humble Brooklyn roots where she meets smooth-talking lothario and gambler Nick Arnstein he falls in love with this self-described “bagel on a plate full of onion rolls.” She is willingly seduced by him and they marry but his easily bruised male ego cannot stand the fame and wealth she earns from the Follies while he loses fortunes on gambling and bad investments while the second chronicles Arnstein’s downward spiral (and imprisonment for embezzling) which puts fatal stress on their relationship The two halves of the show were always lopsided so for this revival Harvey Fierstein (La Cage aux Folles Kinky Boots) was brought in to bolster the original book by Isobel Lennart but his changes are rarely significant improvements A musical number for Arnstein cut from the show initially “Temporary Arrangement,” has been added back in the stage show imports the rueful title tune and inserts it late in the second act saved only by an incongruous reprise of the rousing “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” though it does contain two of the Jule Styne-Bob Merrill score’s best numbers “The Music That Makes Me Dance,” and the wistful “Who Are You Now?,” retrofitted as a duet for Fanny and Nick Among her standout solos in the first act are Fanny’s opening anthem “I’m The Greatest Star,” persuasively delivered by Shankman “People.” Add in a couple of Follies production numbers — “His Love Makes Me Beautiful” and “Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat” — and you have a memorable score like they rarely write anymore If only the script were up to the level of the songs Shankman does not stray far from Streisand’s line deliveries and vocal phrasing Stephen Mark Lukas elbows his way into a couple of Shankman’s numbers though his acting is often on the stiff side Izaiah Montaque Harris gets some standout time showing off his considerable tap skill Perhaps the biggest name in the cast is Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester though she is largely wasted as Fanny’s mother While the original production of Funny Girl was quite lavish the revival bows to today’s belt-tightened economics The ensemble is noticeably smaller and the scenic design by David Zinn relies chiefly on two-dimensional backdrops Shankman is reason enough to see this Funny Girl a flawed but entertaining musical with plenty of hummable songs FUNNY GIRL, Kravis Center, Dreyfoos Hall, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Through Sun., Feb. 2. $55-$181. Call 561-832-7469 or visit kravis.org February 13, 2017 By Of the many shows by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II that pushed the boundaries of the musical theater in the mid-20th century they often remarked that Carousel was their favorite You will get no argument from me about the score which is so rich in character-laden melodies and topped by their single best musical number the booming and delicate “Soliloquy,” sung by soon-to-be-father Billy Bigelow a textbook example of Hammerstein’s tenet that a song must move a character from one emotional state to another But it took me years to warm up to the show itself this tale of a swaggering carnival barker who finds himself in love with a New England millworker but cannot restrain himself from physically abusing her It was not the domestic violence that got in the way of my enjoyment of the material but the compensating sugar that was applied to so many stock and dinner theater productions It was not until the Royal National Theatre’s Nicholas Hytner stripped away the saccharine coating in the 1990s that I understood the theatrical power of what Rodgers and Hammerstein infused in the tale based on a dramatic work by Ferenc Molnar So the bar was set unfairly high for me as I approached the production at Actors Playhouse but not one known for plumbing the darker side of musical theater mainstays What is playing in Coral Gables through Feb 26 is an extremely well-sung production of the show though one that clings staunchly to the stage conventions of 1945 Much of the time the narrative takes a back seat to the music as such songs as “June is Bustin’ Out All Over,” “Blow High Blow Low” and “A Real Nice Clambake” are stretched with redundant choruses for the ensemble much of the dance – choreographed by Ron Hutchins in homage to Agnes de Mille – is empty steps for their own sake (though the 11 o’clock ballet for Alexandra van Hasselt is lovely and integral to the story) Perhaps it is just audience attention spans that have shrunk since the advent of television but as nice as the show at Actors’ Playhouse is it cries out for editing as it approaches a three-hour running time Yearnings for a more imaginative staging aside credit Arisco with getting sublime principal performances by South Florida-raised Broadway ringer Michael Hunsaker as Billy and by area favorite Julie Kleiner as his battered “If I Loved You,” a soaring number of conditional romance we sense that the show is in good hands or If you are a frequent reader of the ArtsPaper you probably already know that Billy – goaded by his no-goodnik buddy Jigger Craigin (Nick Duckart) – tries to rob a local banker at knifepoint an ill-planned scheme that does not go well Billy is refused admission to heaven until he returns to earth and redeems himself with the wife and daughter he left behind It is a heart-on-sleeve fable of the sort in which Hammerstein often trafficked but that does not prevent it from being affecting to a contemporary audience Hunsaker and Kleiner carry most of the show but in a signature Rodgers and Hammerstein touch there is a parallel secondary love match – between spunky Lauren Lukacek as Julie’s sidekick Lourelene Snedeker’s soprano was made for clambake organizer Nettie Fowler “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” just as she stood out several seasons back at the Wick as The Sound of Music’s Mother Superior with the musical directive to “Climb Every Mountain.” Peter Haig enters late in the evening but makes a wily impression as the Starkeeper and the town’s folksy Doc Seldon including an ensemble of two dozen — another vestige of the 1940s — fill out the coastal community capably More than 70 years since it first charmed audiences — yes domestic violence and all — Carousel still works It is both showing its age and proving itself to be timeless November 5, 2019 By To paraphrase that renowned philosopher Monty Python the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has commissioned a new spoofy take on Bram Stoker’s classic vampire tale since co-adaptors Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen gleefully concede that they never read the original novel – a confession that the hard-working five-member cast also admits to in the opening moments of the brisk Only Brit lit purists or maybe the Stoker estate would object to the many liberties taken If on the other hand you have a fondness for the broad humor of the 39 Steps take-off that the Maltz served up eight seasons ago or maybe the tongue-in-cheek mayhem of Charles Ludlum Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors may be just your cup of giggles The action is set in motion when the title caped Count (rock star-ish Jared Zirilli) becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck on the shores of Transylvania he flies in through a window and cozies up to big-boned Mina (Paul Carlin) and her more comely younger sister Lucy (Mallory Newbrough) hoping to nibble on their necks and turn them undead When they eventually catch on to his scheme it falls to Lucy’s timid fiancé Jonathan Harker (Peter Simon Hilton) her doctor father (Wayne LeGette) and female physician Jean Van Helsing (Carlin again) to halt Dracula’s bloodthirsty ways with a good ol’ wooden stake so put down the Stoker novel you were hoping to speed-read and head to the Maltz for the brief world premiere run through Sun. Greenberg and Rosen’s anything-goes script brims with pop culture references – from Abbey Road to Mamma Mia such as flying bats and a vertically levitating corpse as well as a classic magic trick of now-you-see-him But the production’s best special effect is the cast all of whom play at least two roles – except for Zirilli’s Dracula – and often execute low-tech yet amusing quick changes from character to character Particularly enjoyable are LeGette’s switches from Dr Westfeldt to his bug-loving insane patient Renfield eventually performed entirely onstage with whirling dervish skill Carlin’s female characters are anything but a drag Hilton is deliciously sniveling as Lucy’s unworthy fiancé and Newbrough first takes the reins as a Cockney carriage driver before settling in as prudish until bitten Lucy Sporting custom fangs by local dentist Gerard J Zirilli oils his way throughout the production The costumes by Tristan Raines are aptly period and apparently built for ease and speed of donning and doffing Rob Denton’s lighting facilitates scene transitions with explosive leading to the sudden appearance of Caite Hevner’s clever set pieces Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors is surely the least substantial show in the Maltz’s season but only a bloody curmudgeon would not have fun at it the Maltz dips its toes into the challenging pool of new work development which should become a regular part of its entertainment menu 561-575-2223 or visit www.jupitertheatre.org July 27, 2021 By Georgiana Young was perfectly content in her job as vice president of marketing and sales at Miami’s Arsht Center for the Performing Arts senior director of programming at the Kravis Center for the past 24 years so she felt she owed him a call or maybe lunch calling her and opening with a sentence that would change her life I have a little idea for you,’ And that’s how it started.” he felt she was the right person to fill his shoes and Young officially begins her new duties August 23 but she sat in a Cohen Pavilion board room in mid-July for a free-wheeling chat about the challenges before her After researching the West Palm Beach arts complex she was eager to take the position because “Well “You have this spectacular performing arts center here that has a very broad portfolio of programming but they’re also going to do (opera star) Renée Fleming I decided to diagram it out on an Excel spreadsheet and I realized (the breadth of programming) was mammoth To me it says we’re trying to serve the entire community.” has more than three decades of experience in arts management She served as chief programming and marketing officer at the Straz Center in Tampa has production experience in such diverse international locations as the United Kingdom But she speaks most passionately about her tenure leading the Paiz Foundation in Guatemala City whose mission is to make the arts accessible to marginalized and at-risk youth Music was a large part of her life growing up I was the vocalist for the jazz band at Rice (University in Houston),” where she graduated with a B.A in English literature and Spanish translation “But I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do when I graduated I didn’t even know that jobs like this existed.” Young worked as a production assistant at the Tower Theatre in Houston someone said the people who owned the theater were looking for someone in motor sports And I got hired in motor sports for a year until somebody quit in their new theatrical division,” and she switched over to it as the division kept growing “What’s really interesting is they wound up being the largest entertainment company in the world,” including renting the Kravis Center for Broadway shows That is how she happened to be at the Kravis’s grand opening gala in 1992 “I just remember there was just nothing around here.” Young says “What I think is really exciting is now the Kravis is no longer on an island by itself but in the middle of a neighborhood that is growing and vibrant how do you get the traffic to stop and linger a bit and get them to try something?” Almost 30 years after the Kravis first opened its doors Young feels the main challenge she faces is introducing the performing arts center to the many South Floridians who have never been inside “I’m not an expert on Palm Beach County,” she concedes “But I think what’s important is you’ve got people driving by the theater every single day and they probably look to their right and go ‘I wonder what they do in there.’ It happens all over the world ‘Am I going to see people like me in there In the effort to grow the Kravis’s audience “We’ve all been through 18 months of isolation,” Young says “So how do we get them to now step out of their homes and come back or even try the theater as an option?” but as with all arts centers of the Kravis’s size Bell has already booked most of next season and beyond Lee told me there are a few dates open in January and February so we’re still in the time that you’re filling in I think he’s probably done parts of ’22-’23 but there will definitely be some of me that season.” how will she measure her success at the Kravis “It’s not like the days in commercial theater where your success was based on how much money you make,” Young says it’s always going to be about artistic excellence but it’s also about growing the audience Filed Under: News & Commentary Tagged With: , , August 1, 2017 By It is rare that the name Michael McKeever comes up without the adjective “prolific” attached to it In the 21 years since the Davie playwright’s work was first produced in South Florida he has written 27 full-length plays and countless short plays McKeever often appears in his own plays (After Clark Gable Slept Here) or those of others (The Timekeepers And hearkening back to a former career as an art director he frequently designs his stage sets and posters If sleep has to be sacrificed to fit all this into the day come out here,” to his spacious home office soon after he won a best new work Carbonell Award – his seventh – for the school violence drama After opened to acclaim off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre at Actors’ Playhouse to the approval of reviewers and audiences alike a look at a Nazi concentration camp soon after World War II followed in the late spring by yet another new play at gay-themed Island City Stage in Wilton Manors McKeever is unfazed by such an exhaustive output Because that’s what I do — knock on wood — I’m blessed,” he says “I don’t have a full-time job outside of the theater having so many world premieres in such a short time is remarkable He manages it because he has gained the trust of area theaters by always delivering a quality script on deadline They commit to a slot in their season for him based on just a one- or two-sentence pitch of what he has in mind The now-defunct Caldwell Theatre debuted his 2011 history-based Stuff about the hoarding Collyer brothers of Harlem the first play by McKeever to be added to a season line-up before it was written the Caldwell’s artistic director) and he went It was maybe three weeks before rehearsals were to begin and Act Two wasn’t written but Clive was unbelievably patient and it all worked out.” McKeever has made more than a few directors and casts nervous about when a new script will arrive which he pitched to Zoetic Stage and its artistic director who happens to be McKeever’s partner of 14 years and – as of Monday – his husband “What happens to families after a school shooting what happens to those people after all the news cameras go home and everyone stops talking about it?” he wondered after an actual school shooting “and my heart just broke for these parents but six months down the road when everything’s calmed down and everyone’s stopped holding your hand.’ ” After is typical of McKeever’s later plays which have grown increasingly darker and more dramatic but still with some of his signature humor it began the day after the funeral of the students who were killed The mother of the shooter goes to the funeral and that starts the whole thing this is beyond “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” it’s just so sad.’ I said to earn getting to that place.’ And the only way to get to that levity is to go before “‘After’ was written in three parts – before during and after – three separate scenes,” explains McKeever the actors read it and it just wasn’t right I took two steps backwards and that was way wrong Then I took all the best elements of those versions put it in the final version and that was it “I think it showed that not only was I confident that we’d get to a solid ending but the cast and the director were as well ‘I’ll bring in new copy tomorrow.’ And every night I would send an email with a new pdf of that third scene to the stage manager She’d print them out in the morning and we’d go.” Success is a remarkable confidence builder “I’m not burdened by the insecurities that I had to carry when I was 30 years old and writing my first plays,” McKeever notes I know that I’ll be able to adjust things.” He points to Daniel’s Husband – yet another Carbonell-winning script – as the play that was the easiest to write perhaps because he considers it his most autobiographical “The central argument of ‘Daniel’s Husband’ is a fight that Stuart and I have been having in the 14 years we’ve been together,” McKeever says There was nothing that Stuart and I had that would be changed by marriage ‘Daniel’s Husband’ pretty much wrote itself.” It is also the play that could mean a quantum leap for McKeever’s career The visibility of its success in New York has already meant increased attention for the rest of his library of scripts and an added commercial run in New York looms as a possibility But don’t worry: South Florida is unlikely to lose McKeever to the Big Apple anytime soon where I made a lot of new friends and they said ‘Why aren’t you up here?’ If we could afford a second place up there “There’s a warmth and a comfort down here and a shorthand that I speak not only with Zoetic but with the other theater companies as well he knows exactly which area theater it is best suited “I know that Zoetic will take the darker work Stuart takes great pride in that,” he says “I just knew that plays like ‘Stuff’ or ‘After’ was just too dark for Actors Playhouse’s audience base its artistic director) agreed that ‘Finding Mona Lisa’ was a good fit but for the longest time I just didn’t think it was going to happen.” He has pegged Palm Beach Dramaworks as leaning towards more thoughtful plays with more conventional storytelling FAU Theatre Lab as drawn to more offbeat fare It concerns a May-December relationship and the changing face of contemporary dating but it occurred to me the world has changed so much since I was single,” says McKeever “I don’t know if I could be single anymore Parker is “this 52-year-old man whose partner died seven years ago He suddenly wakes up one day in a bed of a 28-year-old That morning becomes an hour-and-a-half discourse between being 28 and being 52 from the eyes of a millennial compared to someone who was there before the world became what it became just exploring things that are in my head.” (Translation: It is not written yet.) In addition to being South Florida’s premier playwright He was introduced over there early in his career with a comedy called 37 Postcards that first opened at Coral Gables’ New Theatre before being exported to Germany Sweden and Switzerland as well,” he says with a bemused laugh “That production of ‘37 Postcards’ was this enormous hit that got extended month after month And that led to (overseas productions of) ‘Suite Surrender,’ ‘Unreasonable Doubt’ and ‘Open Season,’ which just played in Poland Now that he is receiving more production across the country and the European royalties arrive regularly But don’t expect that to happen anytime soon I have a gig I love and I can keep doing it into my 80s or 90s,” he says And I’m comfortable putting them on paper,” he allows “I’m a better writer now than I was back then I look at the tricks that I played and the rhythms that I fell back on because I didn’t know how to get out of them And how I would skim over things that were a little too dark with witty banter The musical "Barnum," which was a sold-out hit at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in November and December is getting a warm welcome in its new run at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre on Florida's East Coast The show is a co-production of the two theaters It started in Sarasota and opened last week in Jupiter where critic Hap Erstein is singing its praises Erstein said that "Little seems to have been spared in this eye-popping celebration of shore biz lore and 'humbug,' the art of attracting those suckers born every minute." While praising various elements he concluded that "it is the entire production package that is the most memorable aspect of the evening the circus will have hard act to follow the next time it comes to town." Erstein also wrote that "those who suppressed their childlike dreams of joining the circus are likely to have that urge renewed by the lively thoroughly winning show now on view at the former dinner theater in north Palm Beach County." is the former Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre Flonase—even a neti pot—and still effective tool that’ll rid my bloodshot eyes and mucus-lined nose once and for all According to Dr. David Erstein, an allergist at Allergy and Asthma Wellness are struggling to find which allergy medicine works best for you all it takes is a combination of different drug types (and never leaving your home) to battle the nightmare of seasonal allergies you’ll need to know a little bit about the allergy medications you’re likely taking The two most common drug types you’ll find over the counter are antihistamines and steroidal nasal sprays a chemical which causes your immune system to overreact to “threats” like pollen Drugs like Claritin are considered “second-generation” antihistamines as they don’t result in side-effects like drowsiness you might find with “first-generation” meds like Benadryl (You might prefer the former for this reason.) it’s entirely possible to develop a tolerance to either medication so the Zyrtec you’ve been using daily may feel like it’s losing effectiveness over time Research into allergy medication tolerance is sparse but there are number of other explanations to consider so any number of these factors may result in a day full of sneezing the first-line in tackling seasonal allergies is using a steroidal nasal spray with an oral antihistamine If an antihistamine like Zyrtec suddenly feels as though it’s not working (like your eyes are red or mucus is everywhere) you’re okay to switch to another antihistamine like Allegra to try it out; switching back is okay You can also supplement both with a general saline nasal spray to rinse out your nose You could also use a decongestant nasal spray which shrinks blood vessels in the nose for short-term congestion relief though Erstein cautions against using these long-term too—especially in the case of the spray you can have something called ‘rebound rhinitis,’” he said your congestion comes back and quicker.” should come weeks in advance of allergy season “I typically tell people to use things like steroid sprays a couple of weeks before the season starts The issue with steroid nasal sprays is that they don’t work that quickly If you’re in the midst of [an allergy] season the problem with the [nose’s] anatomy is that it’s all inflamed with irritants Even if you’re using the nasal steroid spray there are still a few things you can do for relief Perhaps the most obvious—staying indoors—is pretty key especially if you have something like pollen allergies “Limiting your exposure to these things that you’re allergic to will help,” he said “These pollen travel for miles [and] will stick on you it’s important to change before you go to sleep.” If you can’t stay inside all day like a hermit when the pollen count is generally at its highest and changing your filter out in your air conditioner regularly so it’ll help trap some of your allergens Erstein also recommends allergy immunotherapy which involves several shots taken over years but still isn’t fool-proof—so consult with your doctor if it sounds like a gamble you’re willing to take For more from Lifehacker, be sure to follow us on Instagram @lifehackerdotcom but when it drips down the back of your throat Post-nasal drip is the secretions from mucus originating from the back of your nasal passages, David Erstein, MD a board-certified allergist and immunologist working with Advanced Dermatology PC in New York City feel mucus dripping in the back of your throat find yourself swallowing or clearing your throat often or have a sore throat While there are medications that can help, it's best to try non-drug treatments first, Dr. Erstein says. Over-the-counter meds are generally safe but they come with a risk of side effects and can interact with other meds you might be on Here's where to start to stop post-nasal drip: Nasal saline (salt water) sprays and saline rinse kits are effective non-medication treatments for post-nasal drip These are available as squeeze bottles and sprays and some people like to use neti pots (small containers usually shaped like a teapot that are designed to rinse out your nose) If you do use a neti pot, use distilled or sterile water; tap water is not safe to use in your nasal passages, per the U.S. Food & Drug Administration Filling your glass with more H2O is never a bad idea and it's even more important when you're dealing with too much mucus "Make sure you are hydrated to thin out the secretions," Dr mucus can collect at the back of your throat making you cough (and probably disturbing your sleep) To stop post-nasal drip from waking you up which will help gravity usher down the drip while you snooze Dry air irritates sinuses and can cause your body to ramp up mucus production upping the humidity in your room while you sleep can help clear your nasal passages If you use a humidifier, though, make sure to clean the filter as recommended by the manufacturer to prevent mold growth, something that can make breathing more difficult, especially if you have allergies, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology sleeping more upright and running a humidifier don't work then you can turn to a medication for short-term relief Talk to your doctor about what's right for you. For example, people who have high blood pressure are usually told to avoid decongestants (because these narrow blood vessels) And nasal decongestants like Afrin should not be used for more than three days because prolonged use can worsen congestion The 7 Best Natural Remedies for Allergies (and 5 to Skip) but it can also really affect how you feel during the day — especially if you have other symptoms that go along with it "Unrelenting symptoms affecting quality of life are a sign that it's time to see a doctor," Dr Post-nasal drip may be from a viral infection that will clear up after it's run its course your doctor may want to evaluate you for underlying reasons for the post-nasal drip and then come up with an appropriate treatment plan.