Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton announces Five Course Love, Gregg Coffin’s culinary musical tour of five dates gone hilariously wrong, for its summer slot, opening June 12 in The Loft Theatre.
 
Coffin’s work isn’t new to Dayton. An earlier musical, Convenience, wowed local audiences when it was being developed and rewritten here in 2004, and has gone on to success across the country.
 
Five Course Love is well past the rewriting stage, having drawn rave responses from audiences and critics coast to coast for three years. Even tough New York critics became fans of the Oberlin grad when the show ran off-Broadway. The Associated Press described it as “hilarious and imaginative” and syndicated columnist Liz Smith called it “a smashing production.”
 
Coffin says Five Course Love was inspired by a friend’s tales of her horrible experiences with speed dating. “We were laughing so hard,” he says, “and it put an idea in my head of how it would be even worse if you were eating. So my little composer mind thought, ‘what if the food inspired the music?’”
 
The five courses come in five eateries, with country music at a barbecue joint, Italian opera at a trattoria, and on into German, Mexican and ‘50s do-wop sounds and savories. And as for the disasters encountered by the various would-be Romeos, a Mafia hit is just par for the course.
 
In addition to musicals, Coffin has composed incidental music for dozens of stage productions, including Human Race productions of Proof and The Drawer Boy. He has just completed a new musical, called rightnextto me.
 
The Human Race production of Five Course Love will be directed by HRTC Resident Artist and Wright State theatre professor Joe Deer, who drew raves for his work on Big River and Seussical at The Loft.
 
Tickets for Five Course Love are available by calling Ticket Center Stage at (937) 228-3630 or (888) 228-3630, or via www.humanracetheatre.org <http://www.humanracetheatre.org> .
 

Playwright/actress Heather Raffo wrapped a two-night engagement in Cincinnati with 90 minutes at the Mercantile Library Wednesday night, a 45 minute excerpt from her “Nine Parts of Desire” followed by 45 minutes of Q&A on her first-hand anecdotes about Iraqi views of the U.S., at least as she can report on her extended family in Baghdad.

The condensed version of “Desire” nevertheless makes clear that the central desires are “peace” and “freedom” – the conundrum being is it possible to have both? With a magical piece of black cloth and embracing and precise characterizations, Raffo created disparate Iraqi women, all distinctly and indelibly drawn: the young girl pulled out of school and uncomprehending of adult motives; the artist; the political activist; the Bedouin rejected by her husband and then by a would-be lover; the frantic Iraqi-American glued to the television and trying to intuit the fates of loved ones as she frantically watches the news for each new piece of information and identifies landmarks in neighborhoods left in rubble.

“Desire” is a rare look at the women of Iraq and has the ring of truth. I suspect the conversation about it by the people who saw it will continue on for days and weeks to come.

Daughter/mother writing team Kristin and Lynn Elzey of Sharonville will again see student performances of their original Underground Railroad drama “Cincinnati 28,” playing at Cincinnati Museum Center Feb. 6-8 and Feb. 13-15.

 

Several years in the making, “Cincinnati 28” started out as a high school writing project for Kristin Elzey in her junior year at Cincinnati Christian Hills Academy.

 

Lynn Elzey came across the story of a group of fugitive slaves and conductor John Fairfield crossing the Ohio River near Cincinnati when she was researching her play “Runaway Slave” that she wrote while working for the Heritage Museum at Sharon Woods.

 

Kristin’s story turned out so well, the Elzey women looked at each other and asked, “What if we worked together?” bringing it to the educational stage.

 

Now Kristin is a senior at Miami University and “Cincinnati 28” debuted at the museum center in November with more performances this month. Lynn works in the museum center’s education department, opening the door for “Cincinnati 28.”

 

Kristin says their writing styles are different – Lynn “writes everything out by hand and can write all night if she has an idea. I write mostly on the computer in small blocks of time.” Lynn is responsible for researching and Kristin brings the theatrical perspective of “scene changes, interaction between characters.”

 

They created a play “that investigates themes of courage and change,” says Kristin, appropriate for grades four to 12, “and that illustrates the strength and sacrifices of those who gave their lives so that others could achieve freedom.”

 

Kristin, a strategic communication major with a minor in entrepreneurship isn’t a playwright but she could be a presenter. These days she’s submitting “Cincinnati 28” to play competitions and educational theaters, hoping the play can have life beyond Cincinnati.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an option to watching the results of the Florida primaries – join me at Art Academy of Cincinnati for Brand New Work, showcasing three women artists talking about (and demonstrating) their process: Christy Altomare, CCM senior and songwriter, will talk about “Soiled Doves,” a new musical she’s co-writing about “working” women of the Old West; Beth Ford will preview the movement drama that’s her senior project at Northern Kentucky University; and photographer Dana Kadison will preview a series she’s developing that uses computer manipulation.

 

AND IT’S FREE. Brand New Work starts at 7 p.m. Hope to see you there!

 

Cincinnati Fringe Festival won’t announce its 2008 line-up till mid-March, but some VERY interesting proposals are in the mix, including a song cycle entry directed by Richard Hess, who brought original musical work by Adam Wagner and Mark Halpin to the festival in previous years, both big hits. If this new idea comes together, so will it be.

Other admired theater artists on the local scene who have pitched ideas are director/actor Ed Cohen, currently busy at work with studio projects at College-Conservatory of Music and Northern Kentucky University, as well as getting Madisonville Community Arts Center open for business, and actor Charlie Clark, who opens in February in the regional premiere of “Take Me Out” for New Stage Collective.

Getting psyched for the “Company” debut on “Great Performances” Feb. 20?

To really get you in the mood, check out the ongoing blog of ensemble member Kristin Huffman at BroadwayWorld.com. Entry number 33^rd entry is online now, and you can read back through back entries at the Web site.

An excerpt, on this entry’s theme of “little things”:

“During our pre-show warm up and tune the whole cast meets on stage forty-five minutes before the start time and we tune and play a number from the show.  Mostly this is done to get our instruments warmed up but we also use it as a time to catch up with each other's days, compliment a cute outfit, ask about an audition or an event and coo at baby Samantha who is often strapped to Heather.  Since she won't stay a baby for long, she is also one of the little things we want to remember.

Miami University junior theatre and East Asian languages and culture major Rachel Conaway-Bennison, from Oxford, took top honors in a Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) regional competition. She won first prize in the design project costume design competition — her second consecutive win.

The KCACTF Region Three competition was held Jan. 8-13 in Milwaukee, hosted by Marquette University and Cardinal Stritch University.  Festival entries were submitted from graduate and undergraduate students in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

Conaway-Bennison’s design for Euripides’ “Medea” was judged the best by a panel of three professional theatre designers and a professional director.  Her design was selected from among 26 costume design entries by graduate and undergraduate students.

“For the last few years I’ve been working with the KCACTF Design competitions, I haven’t seen a student win in consecutive years when the judges had been entirely different teams,” said Gion DeFrancesco, associate professor and scene designer in the department of theatre.  “Both years, the judges have noted Rachel’s high skill level at rendering and the translation of her conceptual thought about character into strong costume choices.  She clearly has a great passion for what she does.”

Senior theatre and zoology major James Lees was selected from a pool of eight candidates from across the region to serve as production stage manager for the KCACTF 10-Minute Play Festival.  “At Miami, James has shown great finesse at the art of stage managing,” said DeFrancesco.  “His organization and management skills really came through, and everyone who worked with him at the Festival had nothing but praise.”

Junior theatre and English literature major Taylor Fenderbosch was named a finalist for the KCACTF Stage Management Award, part of the National Stage Management competition.

What does it take to get a decent acting role these days? A darned long commute, at least according to several non-Equity performers who are choosing to drive from Columbus, Indianapolis, Dayton, and not-quite-Northern Kentucky to perform on local stages.

 

Performers at Ovation and Covedale have been braving cold, weather and rising gas prices to spend these winter weeks driving to Cincinnati almost nightly for rehearsals and performances. And, no, they’re not breaking even on their financial investment although, they say, feeding the artist within is what counts.

At Ovation, where ‘And Then They Came for Me” plays Jan. 31-Feb. 16 at the Aronoff’s Fifth Third Bank Theater, Ilse Apestegui commutes from Henry County, midway between Louisville and Cincinnati and Roger Ortman is in from Indianapolis. Ortman has the advantage of a guest suite at Thomas Moore College, where Ovation artistic director Alana Ghent heads the theater department.

 

Ghent is bemused but delighted. When she realized that Ortman lived in Indy, “I thought he’d never take the role,” but Ghent reasoned that he traveled to Cincinnati to audition for the Anne Frank drama, so chances were he knew what he’d be getting into. It turns out Ortman loves the show which, says Ghent, is “essentially about can this happen again and how do we reflect on that fact now?”

 

Apestegui, primarily an opera performer, is a native of Costa Rica who was recently Portuguese dialect coach for “The Clean House” at Actors Theatre of Louisville.  

Isn’t there an easier, to say nothing of less expensive way, to get a stage fix?

 

“It’s a disease?” suggests Kristina Oost of Dayton, part of the ensemble of “Deathtrap” at Covedale Center. The show plays Jan. 24-Feb. 10.

 

Brent Alan Burlington commutes to Covedale from Columbus (“the north end.”) The drive is two hours each way, and depending on fluctuating gas prices, “$30 to $40 a day.”

 

“It’s this show,” says Burlington, who takes the central role of dastardly author Sidney Bruhl in the sneaky mystery. That and, he adds, the fact that several Columbus theater companies have closed in recent years.

 

Barry Williams, who lives south of Florence, is closer to Cincinnati than when he was among the founders of Actors Guild of Lexington in the mid-Eighties. Now he concentrates on independent film – but he’s awfully fond of “Deathtrap.”

 

New Stage Collective gives an ungainly name to a nice new discount. Buy a mini-subscription to the Cincinnati premieres of “Take Me Out,” “Bug” and “Jerry Springer: the Opera” for $48. That’s a 20 percent discount and you get to pick your dates.

 

The mouthful of a title is “The Collective Edge Triple Play,” but it’s the titles and the price that counts. Check it out at 513-621-3700 and www.newstagecollective.com.

Playhouse in the Park Producing Artistic Director Ed Stern talks arts and community to the League of Women Voters on Jan. 28.

 

Stern, celebrating 15 years helming Playhouse, is a nonpareil arts advocate as well as a director, teacher and administrator. Stern’s topic is "The Arts in Greater Cincinnati: How Can We Enrich Our Community?" The evening begins at 6 p.m. at The Vernon Manor Hotel,  (400 Oak St.)

In case you didn’t know, Stern is a graduate of the University of Virginia and Indiana University, he was co-founder of the Indiana Repertory Theatre (Indianapolis) and served as its artistic director from 1972-80. He has held faculty positions at both Rutgers University and the William Esper Studio in New York City.

Cost $21.50. For additional information, call 513-281-8683.

 

Don’t forget to catch Stern predicting the Oscars on Feb. 10, (joining me in our annual debate) to benefit Theater Artist Projects Fund, People Working Cooperatively and Cincinnati World Cinema. Check pwchomerepairs.org, cincyworldcinema.org and cinstages.com for information.

Prolific playwright and Cincinnati native Theresa Rebeck's latest, Our House, opens in Denver, leading off Colorado New Play Summit at Denver Center Theater Company. (Two other full productions, four new play readings, panel discussions and more are on the schedule.)

Our House, conceived by Rebeck and Daniel Fish (who directs), Rebeck is taking aim at reality programming, “skewers the trend toward the presentation of television news as entertainment and ambitious news anchors becoming celebrity media stars,” according to the theater.

Reviews to come.

This from Plabill.com: MTV holds auditions Jan. 21 in Orlando for an upcoming reality show that will search for an actress to play Elle Woods in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde.

The open call at Orlando Shakespeare Theater is open to non-union talent and seeking actresses 18 and over with strong acting, vocal and dancing skills to compete for the lead in the Broadway musical. The notice states that filming will take place over four weeks in March.

The open call for the MTV search for the next Elle starts at noon Monday at the theater, 812 E. Rollins Street in Orlando, FL. Callbacks scheduled for Jan. 22 and 23.

Here’s a fun fact about “The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead” at Playhouse in the Park:: both the play and its star began their theatrical lives in Australia.

“Blonde” is by Australian Robert Hewett and premiered in Sydney in 2004 before touring nationally and landing at Canada’s Stratford Festival in 2006. It was a runaway hit and brought back in 2007. Hewett is a hoot – read an interview with him in Thursday’s Enquirer.

Star Annalee Jefferies grew up in Texas, where “my dad was a ranch manager and I worked cattle as a kid.” But back in the Sixties, dad and artist mom decided it would be a fine adventure to take a freighter to faraway places.

They landed in Australia and stayed five years – which is where young Annalee happened on a community theater in “a broken-down church.” It was love at her first smell of greasepaint.

Another fun fact: “Blonde” really is a one-woman show. While Jefferies is swapping costumes – and wigs – there are videos and voiceovers and they are all her – right down to “dogs, cats, the radio.”

Jefferies’ home base remains the family farmhouse (circa 1850s), not too far from Houston, where she’s a resident company member at the Alley Theatre.

 

Arts Kentucky, the statewide arts advocacy and service organization and local arts advocacy champion, Center for Great Neighborhoods are hosting “The Election Connection”, an arts advocacy workshop related to the 2008 Kentucky General Assembly – but good for pointers for all arts advocates-in-training.

 

The free workshop, from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 31 at the Center for Great Neighborhoods, 1650 Russell St., Covington, will address how to advocate for arts issues, how to get your arts message across, and an “ask” to your state legislators to support the state’s arts agency.

 

If you are an artist, an arts advocate, a volunteer for the arts, or someone who recognizes the importance of the arts in your community and wishes to have your voice heard, you are invited to attend.  Important research from the Americans for the Arts will be provided.  This “Creative Industries” research details the number of employees and business in each House and Senate district and is useful in describing the impact of the arts in your region.

 

The workshop is free, but pre-registration is requested.  Go to:  www.artsky.org  Click on “workshops” and the workshop you wish to attend and pre-register. Participants will receive handouts, materials and a CD with the Creative Industries data.

 

For more information, contact the Arts Champion in your region: 

 Jean St. John, Center for Great Neighborhoods, 1650 Russell, Covington

859-491-2220 ext. 17

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s coming, it’s coming, says Queen City artistic director Lyle Benjamin of the Cincinnati premiere of August Wilson’s drama about life in a gypsy cab company. Originally scheduled to open next week, Benjamin says the show will go on but he’s also sweating out grants. Benjamin is trying to hang on to a crackerjack cast including Tony Davis and Reggie Willis for a mid-February opening. Benjamin hasn’t given up on big dreams of producing Wilson’s epic “Gem of the Ocean” this season, either.

ASCAP/DISNEY is ISO new musicals for the 2008 ASCAP Foundation/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop in New York. Submissions deadline is Friday, February 1, 2008

 

Oscar and Grammy-winning composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz is artistic director. (If you need a credits list they include “Wicked,” “Godspell,” “Pippin,” and Disney films “Pocahontas” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and that’s enough to give you the picture.

 

The workshop will take place March 18, 19, 26, 27, 31 and April 1, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. sharp, at ASCAP, 5th Floor, One Lincoln Plaza (Broadway between 63rd and 64th Streets) in New York.

 

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to present selections from their original works in progress for professional critique.  Each session will feature prominent guests from all aspects of musical theatre, including producers, directors, critics, performers and composers.  Past panelists have included Lynn Ahrens (Tony Award-winning lyricist: “Ragtime”); Stephen Flaherty (Tony Award-winning composer: “Ragtime”); Sheldon Harnick (Tony Award-winning lyricist: “Fiddler on the Roof”); Mark Hollmann (Tony Award-winning composer/lyricist: “Urinetown”); Rupert Holmes (Tony Award-winning librettist and composer/lyricist: “Drood”); and Joseph Stein (Tony Award- winning librettist: “Fiddler on the Roof”).

Writers interested in applying for participation in The ASCAP Foundation/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop in New York should submit the following:

 

-A CD of four (4) songs with lyric sheets -A brief description of each song as to its plot placement -A brief synopsis of the musical -Biographical information for each composer, lyricist & book writer (Please include address/phone number/email)

 

Send complete submission package to:

Michael A. Kerker

ASCAP/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop

7920 W. Sunset Boulevard, Suite 300

Los Angeles, CA 90046

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: WHILE THE WORKSHOP WILL TAKE PLACE IN NEW YORK, SUBMISSIONS MUST BE SENT TO ASCAP'S LOS ANGELES OFFICE.

 

All submissions must be received by Friday, February 1, 2008.

 

PLEASE NOTE:

1) Please submit 4 songs only.  If you send us a full recording, we will only listen to the first 4 songs.

2) Submissions do not need to be produced in a studio.  We are looking for talent and potential, not production values.

3) You will be notified by Friday, February 22, 2008 if you have been selected to present your musical in the workshop.

4) If your musical is selected, you will need to present 50 consecutive minutes from the musical at the workshop.  The 50-minute selection must include book and songs.

 

Space is limited.  Submissions will not be returned.

 

For further information, please call Michael Kerker at 212-621-6264.

Blue Ash native (and Sycamore High grad) David Baum made it to 499 performances in the Broadway revival of “A Chorus Line” last weekend then packed his tap shoes and it’s next stop, Provo, Utah, where he’s part of the cast of MTV’s summer release “The American Mall.”

The update is from Baum classmate and pal Alan Patrick Kenny; the dish, from BroadwayWorld.com: “Following in Disney's lucrative formula for TV movie-musicals, MTV hopes to make its mark in the original musical arena with plans afoot for “The American Mall.” 

"The project, from “High School Musical” producers Bill Borden and Barry Rosenbush, will premiere in the summer on the cable network, followed immediately by a release on DVD," reports Neelie Andreeva of The Hollywood Reporter as published on Billboard.com.

"Bulgarian-born actress Nina Dobrev and Rob Mayes lead the ensemble cast of the musical, a romantic comedy-drama set at a mall. It centers on high school graduate Ally (Dobrev), a singer/songwriter battling to save her mother's music store and to keep the boy she loves, Joey (Mayes), a musically gifted young janitor who fronts a garage band. Autumn Reeser will play Ally's mean-girl adversary Madison, the spoiled and ruthless heiress to the owners of the mall who tries to shut down the music store and steal Ally's boy," state the website.

This from Diva Talk at Playbill.com, about composer John Bucchino. Love him, but why we’re really excited: “A Catered Affair” has CCM grads Faith Prince and Leslie Kritzer, mentioned below, and is directed by “Company” man John Doyle.

 

From Playbill: “…when it was announced that Bucchino was penning his first Broadway score — with multiple Tony winner Harvey Fierstein writing the book (and co-starring) and Tony winner John Doyle directing — A Catered Affair became the new musical I was most looking forward to during the 2007-08 theatre season. And, the production, which begins previews March 25 at the Walter Kerr Theatre, features not one, but two divas: Tony winner Faith Prince as Aggie Hurley, mother of the bride; and up-n-comer Leslie Kritzer as the bride.”

 

 

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The Satori Group, best known for their most successful local effort, “iLove:” at the 2007 Cincinnati Fringe, and for off-stage high drama later last summer with New Stage, are at long last packing their bags for the long-promised move to Seattle. CCM Drama grads Adam Standley and Lindsey Valitchka and Cincinnati native Andrew Lazarow go west this month (with the rest of the troupe, mostly Williams College grads). The next wave (including ’08 CCM grads) head off in June.

 

In its first year of artistic life, Satori’s quality has been all over the place – and watching their growing pains has been a hoot. Occasional returns are already planned. Satori has submitted an application to the 2008 Fringe and plan on returning to The Carnegie “within the next two years.”

 

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Aaron LaVigne (we loved him onstage in his NKU days and in “Tick, Tick….Boom” for Know) checked in to ask for votes. He’s entered two of his songs in an online contest at FAMECAST.COM.

“If you wouldn't mind tossing me a vote, you would rock my face off.” The cash prize would be welcome, writes LaVigne, most recently seen on a local stage touring through in “Rent,” “but it could be opportunity far beyond that if it’s seen by the right people!”

LaVigne warns, “It’s kind of a pain in the ass to have to sign-up as a fan, but if you do... big love to you.”

Here's the link (where you can give a listen and move along to LaVigne’s MySpace page): http://www.famecast.com/backstage/artist.php?artist_id=7121&backstage=1

If you’re seriously in the market for a downtown performing space, you might want to give Urban Sites Properties a call.

 

At 6 p.m. Monday, Bill Baum’s property company will be showing off a 19,000 sq. ft. building at 125 East 9^th St. that includes a 4,000+ sq. ft. grand ballroom with 19-ft. ceilings. One hundred-plus artist folk have been invited to Monday’s “Urban Exploration.”

 

“We’re looking for the best fit, not necessarily the one with the deepest pockets,” says Urban Sites’ Kris Sommer.

 

There’s been lots of chat lately, Sommer muses, about moves, expansions and maybe even an arts council. Why not a theater and/or live music venue? Why not administrative offices? “And the basement is as big as the ballroom,” says Sommer. “It would make a great costume shop.” He also suggests apartments for visiting artists on the top floor.

 

P.S., Sommer brags on the “literal seas of parking” surrounding the former Hamilton County Republican headquarters (circa 1928.)

 

Flashlights (hey, it’s early days in a rehab) and refreshments will be provided. Small group tours will be led throughout the building.

 

Attention Cincinnati World Cinema, another of Sommer’s ideas is “the building could host a movie house, with enough space for one large screen and other rooms for smaller screens.”

 

Urban Sites has won seven historic preservation awards in Over the Rhine, including The Lofts on Broadway and The Duveneck Flats.

 

For further information, contact Sommer at 513-621-6246 or Kris@urbansites.net.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Count down has begun to Wednesday’s opening of “Wicked.”

 

REMEMBER: A day-of-performance lottery for a limited number of seats will be held for every performance. You must come to the Aronoff box office to register your name two and one-half hours prior to curtain. Names will be drawn two hours before curtain. Tickets are $25 cash, limit two per person.

 

There are still scattered single seats for most performances – and if you go to the Aronoff for the lottery, check in at the box office just in case – because you never know. Also remember, Broadway Across America strongly recommends buying tickets from legitimate ticket outlets; counterfeit tickets are for sale online and will not be honored.

 

MARK THE PASSING: For the past several years, January has marked the unveiling of Playhouse off-night “alteractive” series, which ran winter Mondays for the last several years.

 

The idea was to pull in a different audience with national, regional and local acts, and there were some doozies, including Daniel Beatty in “Emergence-see!” (he went on to win an Obie), Charlie Bethel’s mesmerizing “Beowulf” from Minneapolis Fringe and Loveland’s own Ann Randolph in “Squeeze Box.”

Unfortunately, alteractive was a loss leader with too many artists playing to too few audience members. While there’s no equivalent for the national acts that brought a highly professional alternative view of the world to alteractive (and Cincinnati theatergoers), Playhouse producing artistic director Ed Stern points out that since Playhouse raised the curtain, other venues, like Cincinnati Fringe Festival, have come on the scene, running along a “slightly different” but certainly parallel track.