The Tony nominee (for the original Company) was most recently on a local stage as the seen-it-all, done-it-all piano gal in The Full Monty at CCM. Now you can find her on the cast album of Hats!, the new musical inspired by the Red Hat Society.

Myers liked her numbers, and the composing team includes Gretchen Cryer, Henry Krieger, Melissa Manchester and more, including Kathie Lee Gifford(?!) You can order your own copy at www.hatsthemusical.com/music.html.

 
Call New Edgecliff's first Cincinnati Directors Competition a success. Northern Kentucky University did VERY well, with first place going to Stephanie Brockman, who directed a scene from Parallel Lives. NKU playwriting major Chris Karr took second, directing his original very short play Precious. I was at the theater that evening, it made me want to see more of his work.

One of the goals of the competition is to bring new directors to the attention of established theaters. Queen City’s Lyle Benjamin offered entrant Mike Miller a gig at the end of that night's program.

 

Come autumn, New Stage Collective will be losing many of its regulars including Acclaim winner and new Williams College graduate ANDREW LAZAROW to Seattle. (No, we haven’t caught up yet on the hip-o-meter.)

Lazarow, with some classmates from Williams, grads from New York University and Class of 2007 CCM Drama grads including Anthony Darnell and Adam Standley are gonna dig in with a dream. "The idea is to go back to theater collectives like the Open Theatre and Living Theatre that were so vibrant in the 1960s, '70s and '80s," Lazarow explains.

"We are going to consistently train as an ensemble in various forms of approach to performance" ranging from Viewpoints to Suzuki to Grotowski to incorporating ritual-based performance from around the world.

The Cincinnati-based gang is sticking around for Cincinnati Fringe Festival and New Stage's summer season, including Radiant Baby. Lazarow is currently working on Cincinnati native Andrew Dainoff's new play 8-Hour Father (opening at Williams in May). "I hope we can bring it to Cincinnati in the near future."

Oh, for the day when young talent consistently decides to try their luck here…

 
What’s up with past Acclaim winners: DALE HODGES checks in to the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in April for the world premiere of Julie Marie Myatt’s Boats on a River. Hodges is playing a British nun…