Features
Theater? Spectacle? The Arsht’s Donkey Show Prepares To Bray
The Arsht Center is laying a six-figure bet on The Donkey Show, a very loose version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream transmuted into the glitz and glitter of Studio 54. A hybrid of theater and the club scene with the performers working around the audience on the dance floor and at tables, The Donkey Show is an attempt to lure a broader clientele that would never think of Shakespeare as an entertainment option, says Arsht Executive VP Scott Shiller.
Talkin’ in the Green Room With: Antonio Amadeo
Unlikely but perhaps, secretly, Antonio Amadeo is actually a nasty misanthrope, but no one will ever believe it. Amadeo is widely-regarded as one of the nicest guys and quietly talented members in the local theater community, eliciting comparisons to a teddy bear (although Amadeo himself reveals that he’s Batman.) Over the decades he has built an enviable resume including The Elephant Man, The Pillowman and The Unseen, as well as co-founder of Naked Stage.
Talkin’ In The Green Room With: Harriet Oser
n this edition, we visit Harriet Oser who talks about a career that encompasses playing the bride in Blood Wedding while pregnant to wondering if a scene partner was going to collapse on stage. Having just celebrated her 80th birthday – she volunteered that piece of information – Oser is as busy as ever.
Hamlet Prince of Cuba Delivers the Bard in English and Spanish
Hamlet, Prince of Cuba is a new version adapted in English by Michael Donald Edwards, producing artistic director of the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, and translated into Spanish by Nilo Cruz, the Pulitzer-winning playwright raised in Miami, playing at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center..
Arsht and Chicago Company Hope Death & Harry Houdini Mixes Theatrical Magic
The melding of narrative metaphors and stage magic are emblematic of the spectacle infused in the play Death and Harry Houdini, another imagistic work from the House Theatre of Chicago and the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts opening this week. Last year, Arsht vice president Scott Shiller brought the House production of The Sparrow to Miami, notable for its highly stylized brew of acting, video, music, singing, lighting, sound and imaginative staging.
Mosaic Play Looks At Teen Violence In Premiere Of A Measure of Cruelty
To clarify misconceptions, the drama formerly entitled The Michael Brewer Project did not end up being specifically about Michael Brewer. A Measure of Cruelty, having its world premiering at Mosaic Theatre on Thursday, only uses the burning of the Deerfield Beach teenager in 2009 as the inciting incident, said playwright Joe Calarco and director Richard Jay Simon.
On the Boards Podcasts: Slow Burn’s Fitzwater and Korinko
We initiate a new feature this week: A series of podcasts interviews produced by Arts Radio Network featuring Florida Theater On Stage’s Bill Hirschman interviewing region theater figures in Palm Beach County. While some interviews are tied to upcoming or current projects, each tries to dig deeper into the rich South Florida theater scene. The production is engineered by Arts Radio co-founder John C. Watts. It is also available at http://artsradionetwork.com/
Director and Star Seek Fresh Spin on Hello Dolly at the Maltz
Director Marcia Milgrom Dodge and actress Vicki Lewis face that old psychology experiment: Imagine there’s an elephant in the room. Now ignore the elephant in the room. In their case, the elephants, plural, are Carol Channing and the iconic Gower Champion production of Hello, Dolly! engraved in the minds of much of the audience coming this month to see the warhorse at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre.
Color Blind Casting Poses No Obstacle To Filipino-American Dancing As British Billy Elliot
Initially, it’s impossible to ignore that 15-year-old actor J.P. Viernes leaping and soaring through the musical Billy Elliot is not a typical youngster in a downtrodden unsophisticated mining village in northeast England in the 1980s. John Peter Viernes, with a broad grin and flashing eyes, is inescapably a Filipino-American with caramel-colored skin and half-moon eyes. But by all accounts, his infectious charisma, joyous dancing and sheer acting skills successfully banish most audience members’ resistance to the color-blind casting within a few minutes.
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