Singing the praises of CCTA

By Carolyn Kelemen
Posted: March 13, 2010

It’s no secret that Toby Orenstein has built a pipeline to Broadway and Hollywood right from her home base at Toby’s Dinner Theatre and its affiliated performing arts school, the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts.

Just ask Betsy True, who went from starring roles at Toby’s to singing “On My Own” night after night as Eponine on Broadway in “Les Miserables.” Or ask Stephanie Waters, who took her turn singing the same role, or “triple threat” Ric Ryder, who starred opposite Petula Clark in “Blood Brothers” on Broadway, and returns from time to time to lead master classes for CCTA.

Then there is film star Edward Norton, who honed his theatrical skills under the watchful eye of Orenstein, and TV actress Tracie Thomas, who was a knockout locally first in a Toby’s production of “Beehive.”

And the list goes on — for the past 37 years, in fact, since Orenstein first opened her theatrical school in the Talbott Springs neighborhood center in the fall of 1973.

On Tuesday evening, March 23, friends, fans and stage-loving “hons” of all sorts will gather at the Columbia dinner theater for a local premiere of the musical “Hairspray” that will also benefit the non-profit school and keep it around for future generations of theatrical talent.

“It was Jim Rouse’s dream to start a performing arts school in the new city,” recalled Orenstein about the impetus behind it all. “I was part of that dream. He would be so proud to see so many successful actors who trained at our school.”

Not that all of them turned out to be Broadway-bound. Harolyn Blackwell was one of Toby’s Young Columbians before becoming a world-class opera singer. Look for her in May, when she returns to the area to perform a solo show at the Kennedy Center.

Rather than bragging about her protégés, Toby Orenstein is more interested in promoting CCTA and the upcoming fund-raising benefit.

“Through the arts, children learn and become better people,” says Orenstein at her dinner theater office. “We’ve touched the lives of thousands of children who have gone on to become actors and performers but also doctors, engineers, writers, politicians and teachers. They all carry the lessons they learned of self esteem, self worth, determination, taking risks. They learn compassion, how to give and take, how to trust themselves. That’s what we’re all about here at the Center.

The Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts has also been home to the Young Columbians, the Labels Project and Theatrical Arts Productions (TAP), the original youth productions which provide free outreach programs to “places where children have never been exposed to theater before.”

CCTA director Melissa Rosenberg points with pride to shows like “Ben Carson, M.D.,” seen by thousands of students throughout the state since 2004. New this year is a collaboration with Loyola University pairing graduate students with children with autism. Just in the past few months, some $17,000 has been awarded in scholarships, though the government grants for such programs are drying up.

“We all know that funding has been cut to the arts,” Toby Orenstein laments. “The ‘Hairspray’ benefit is important to be able to carry on this mission in these times.”

The “Hairspray” fund-raising benefit for the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts takes place Tuesday, March 23. Tickets of $60 include a pre-show silent auction, a “big hair” competition plus parking, hot buffet dinner and a complete performance of the award-winning musical. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; curtain goes up promptly at 7:30 p.m.

For information on this and all CCTA events, go to www.cctArts.com.

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All work, no play

By Mike Giuliano
Posted: March 10, 2010

The unusual evening titled “Working It Out” does not work out very well at Centerstage. Excerpts from three workplace-themed plays are performed in an intermissionless 95-minute-long program that, not surprisingly, suffers from a sense of narrative incompletion.

The most satisfying of the sampled plays is Aaron Sorkin’s “Hidden in This Picture,” about a first-time film director anxious that an ambitious panoramic landscape shot will be ruined. Sorkin (“A Few Good Men,” “The West Wing”) knows what he’s talking about with his inside-showbiz jokes.

Lynn Rosen’s “Washed Up on the Potomac” capably establishes an office environment and gives that setting a quirky twist by making it a proofreading company in Washington, but this excerpt ends just as you’re getting to know the characters.

Rick Cleveland’s “Jerry and Tom” is a mafia comedy about two contract killers. Cleveland’s play is broken up into several very short scenes done before and after each of the other two plays. Although this mob comedy has very funny moments, it also has a glib tone and disconnected quality that characterizes the evening as a whole.

The good-natured cast includes Vasili Bogazianos Joseph Wycoff, Amy Hohn, John Ramsey, Luke Robertson, Kate Buddeke, Garrett Neergaard and Katie Jeffries.

“Working It Out” continues through March 28 at Centerstage, at 700 N. Calvert Street in Baltimore. Tickets are $10 to $35. Call 410-332-0033 or go to www.centerstage.org.

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Hollywood, chastened?

By John Harding
Posted: March 8, 2010

It’s hard to remember an Oscars show more in touch with reality. The broadcast Sunday night was long and uneventful, but the awards were given, by and large, to the most deserving. Also note there were no pleas from the podium for special causes; no political cheap shots taken; and there was refreshingly little potty-mouthed humor.
Oh, I know, it’s very fashionable to be cynical about the Academy Awards, whether you watch it year after year, hour after endless hour, or not. It’s a knee-jerk impulse that cuts across politics, religion and even sexual preferences. You’re supposed to mock the winners and the dresses they came in on, right?

But no one can argue that last night’s ceremony was immature. Oh, sure, Best Actress winner Sandra Bullock made time to thank motherhood, and there was the occasional display of self-congratulation. Mo’Nique said that her Best Supporting Actress award just went to prove that sometimes Oscars were “about the performance and not about the politics.”

No one was better behaved last night, though, than the political bomb-throwers. Tim Robbins confined himself to singing the praises of actor Morgan Freeman, and he was surprisingly charming. Sean Penn delivered a testimonial, too, stumbling too much over his speech to make any off-the-cuff attacks on capitalism or what have you.

When director Kathryn Bigelow accepted her last of many Oscars for Best Picture “The Hurt Locker,” she had no one left to thank so she repeated her expression of gratitude to U.S. troops in harm’s way and extended her safe wishes to other “first responders” who “are there for us so we’re there for them.”
After years and years of anti-establishment tirades and snide put-downs, Hollywood appeared amazingly adult over all. Is it growing up at last? Or chastened to find that not all the problems in the world are Bush and Cheney’s fault?
Maybe Tinseltown got the message that America is hurting now, and is economically down on the mat. The last thing it needs is more kicks or apologies from the golden statue set.

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KenCen returns to ‘Camelot’ as Farrell fans the flames

By Carolyn Kelemen
Posted: March 6, 2010

Save your pennies, art lovers. In honor of the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is readying a not-to-be-missed commemorative season. Starting Jan. 20, 2011, the seasonal lineup will offer what KenCen president Michael Kaiser called “a memorable tribute to JFK, with a cast that will dazzle us” at a press preview last Tuesday.

Kaiser promised that the Center will re-create two concerts from the “Camelot” era. “It will be a living memorial,” he teased the audience of supporters and journalists. Personally, I’m hoping that it will include the return of Mikhail Baryshnikov, one of Jackie Kennedy’s personal favorites, perhaps dancing with students from the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre.

President Kennedy often spoke of his dream of making the arts available to all Americans, and the Center’s Millennium Stage continues to advance that vision with its mission of free performing arts programs for everyone.

The Center will also be mounting two independent festivals: “Celebrate Mexico 2010,” which brings music and dance from the land just south of the border, runs Sept. 11 – Oct. 3. Then “maximum INDIA” is a mega-salute to a far distant culture, March 2-20, 2011.

Highlights of the next theater season will include plays from the Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, while ballet fans should be jumping at the chance to see the return of companies from Cuba, Denmark, and of course, Russia.

Meanwhile, you can still catch the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater now through Sunday, March 7. With her intimate knowledge of George Balanchine’s works, Farrell carries forth his legacy through her company’s annual performances. For dance historians, Farrell’s staging of Balanchine’s rarely seen ballets is reason enough to buy tickets.

Last Wednesday evening, Farrell presented the master’s 1947 work, “Haieff Divertimento,” which had not been seen in nearly two decades. This 20-minute gem captures the delicacy of the dancers and the loveliness in Farrell’s staging. Balanchine’s “Apollo” and the Act 2 pas de deux from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” plus Jerome Robbins’ “Afternoon of a Faun” were also fascinating to see again.

Farrell’s tireless dedication to Balanchine’s choreography is preserving his genius into the 21st century.  Look for two separate Farrell programs in the next KenCen dance season.

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet performs a repeat of its opening program this Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. A second program, including “Donizetti Variations” and “Agon” but not “Haieff Divertimento,” will be danced  Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening. Evening concerts are 7:30 p.m. and matinees at 1:30 p.m. Call toll free 800-444-1324 or visit www.kennedy-center.org.

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You had me at ‘memory’

By Mike Giuliano
Posted: March 1, 2010

Trust the language. That’s an important idea when thinking about how to stage a play. Set design, music, lighting and other aspects of the physical production are all in the service of the playwright’s language.

The Rep Stage production of Tennessee Williams’ so-called “memory” play, “The Glass Menagerie” — whose snow-affected run has been extended through March 14 — is quite strong. But it includes the problematic use of projected photographs depicting imagery mentioned in Williams’ dialogue. When the playwright’s word pictures are so powerful, why risk visual overkill?

It’s a more complicated aesthetic issue than that, however, because Williams himself called for slide projections in an early draft of the play. Indeed, a local production at UMBC in 1988 used similar visual imagery.

Still, backing up the words with projected photos strikes me as a conceptual mistake. Indeed, the slideless original Broadway production of “The Glass Menagerie” during the 1944-1945 season made the right decision in dispensing with them.

I’m also haunted by other aspects of this production. The narrating character of Tom Wingfield is played by an actor, Karl Kippola, who is older than the casting norm.

The Rep Stage intention is that from the narrator’s 1944 perspective, he’s recalling family life back in 1937. We’re told in a flashback scene that Tom’s sister Laura is two years older than he is, yet in this production Tom looks like he could be her father.

Tom’s mother, Amanda, admittedly remains a menacing maternal presence, and yet she and Tom often seem like squabbling siblings rather than a mother and son. At the risk of seeming obsessive, that casting move kept nagging at me as I watched a production that I otherwise admired.

Williams’ play remains a deeply moving experience and the Rep Stage revival knows how to tap into those profound emotions. If you’ve seen the Rep Stage production, please share your thoughts about this. “The Glass Menagerie” runs through March 14 at Rep Stage at Howard Community College.

Tickets are $16 to $30. Call 410-772-4900 or go to www.repstage.org.

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