Tag Archives: Duane Jackson

MATILDA on stage of The Studio Theatre from June 6 to 23

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Image may contain: 5 people, indoorThe Studio Theatre, in proud partnership with Barnes & Noble, presents MATILDA the MUSICAL June 6-23, 2019! C

urtain for evening performances is 7:30pm, and 2:30pm for matinees. Box office opens one hour prior to curtain.

MATILDA the MUSICAL is sponsored by: Arkansas Women’s Center, The Wonder Place, Advanced Allergy & Asthma, Apartment Hunters, and The Toggery!

Matilda is a little girl with astonishing wit, intelligence and psychokinetic powers. She’s unloved by her cruel parents but impresses her schoolteacher, the highly loveable Miss Honey. Over the course of her first term at school, Matilda and Miss Honey have a profound effect on each other’s lives, as Miss Honey begins not only to recognize but also appreciate Matilda’s extraordinary personality.

Matilda’s school life isn’t completely smooth sailing, however – the school’s mean headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, hates children and just loves thinking up new punishments for those who don’t abide by her rules. But Matilda has courage and cleverness in equal amounts, and could be the school pupils’ saving grace!

The cast includes Berkeley Courtney-Moore, Marcia Brown, Duane Jackson, Rosalyn Williams, Cory Williams, Maggie Garrett, Isaac Sides, and Harper Keith.

Others in the cast are Jake Coffman, Brooklyn Courtney-Moore, Maddie Lentz, Gabrielle Neafsey, Ethan Patterson, Matthew Sewell, Sharayah Wallace, Hailey Weiner, and Bryce Wrote.

There are two casts of children playing students, one the Naughty Cast, the other the Miracle Cast.

The Naughty Cast plays June 7, 8 (evening), 13, 15 (matinee), 16, 21, and 22 (evening). It includes Sydney Crary, Libby Golleher, Erin Johnston, JD Kirby, John Isaac Small, and Beckham Wolf.

The Miracle Cast plays June 6, 8 (matinee), 9, 14, 15 (evening), 20, 22 (matinee) and 23.  It includes Reagan McCartney, Melissa Hutchinson, Emily Jones, Eli Lancaster, David Garrett and Xander Lucas.

Tickets can be purchased here.

Pulitzers Play Little Rock: RABBIT HOLE at Weekend Theater

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RabbitHoleTWTThe announcement that the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama went to David Lindsay-Abaire for Rabbit Hole was a bit of surprise.  The play had actually opened on Broadway the prior season.  (While now the Pulitzer year equals the calendar year, at that time, the Pulitzer calendar went from Autumn to Autumn.)

Lindsay-Abaire’s play tells the tale of a family coming to grips with the accidental death of a four year old son.  The Weekend Theatre brought the play to life on a Little Rock stage in 2009.  Andy Hall directed the production (duties he has performed for the current Weekend Theatre production of Assassins).

Patti Airoldi took on the central role of the aggrieved mother.  Duane Jackson played her husband, Patti German played her mother, and Regi Ott was her somewhat unconventional sister.  William Moon rounded out the cast.

Though the play veers to the edge of maudlin, it never gets there.  The script presents how different people cope with grief and guilt without becoming a “Very Special Episode” of After School Special.

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the first Pulitzer Prize for Drama being given. To pay tribute to 100 years of the Pulitzer for Drama, each day this month a different Little Rock production of a Pulitzer Prize winning play will be highlighted.  Many of these titles have been produced numerous times.  This look will veer from high school to national tours in an attempt to give a glimpse into Little Rock’s breadth and depth of theatrical history.

9 TO 5 closes out 59th season of CTLR

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9to5musicalWhat better way to end your 59th season than with a show with a 5 and a 9?  The Community Theatre of Little Rock presents the musical 9 to 5 through June 21st at The Studio Theatre (320 West 7th Street).

Performances are at 7:30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings and at 2pm on Sunday afternoons.

9 to 5 is written by Patricia Resnick, who co-wrote the movie screenplay, with songs by Dolly Parton.  Parton received a Tony nomination for her score.

Set in the late 1970s this hilarious story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex era is outrageous, thought-provoking, and even a little romantic.  Pushed to the boiling point, three female co-workers concoct a plan to get even with their boss. In a hilarious turn of events, Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy – giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains “otherwise engaged,” the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down.

The cast is led by Bridget Davis, Becky McAlister and Karena White as the main trio of women working hard to get ahead in the workplace. They are joined by Duane Jackson as the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical, bigot of a boss from Hell and Cheryl Troillett as his lackey.  Others in the cast include Chuck Massey, Chase Cundell, Jeremiah Herman, Leon Baggett, Rachel Garrett Bland, Mark Burbank, Jerry Davidson, Katy Fraley, Amanda Garrison Gilmore, Shann Nobels, Tanner Oglesby, Michael Pete, Jennifer Jackson Restum, Hannah M. Sawyer, Danny Troillett, Bruce Ward, Olivia Witcher and Jerry Woods.

The production is directed by Justin Pike with Jo Murry serving as music director.

Musicals and Plays on schedule for 23rd Season at Weekend Theater

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WeekendTheaterThe Weekend Theater has recently announced their 2015-2016 season.  The 23rd season for this volunteer theatre includes seven plays, three musicals and a one-man show.

The Addams Family
By Marshall Brickman, Rick Elice and Andrew Lippa.  Based on characters created by Charles Addams.
June 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28, 2015
Directed by Tom Crone; Music Direction by Lori Isner

Two families with vastly divergent cultures, mores, and expectations collide when the Addams hosts a dinner for Wednesday Addams’ “normal” boyfriend and his parents. Trust and fear, love and truth, acceptance and forgiveness are just a few things on the menu in this magnificently macabre new musical comedy created by Jersey Boys authors, Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice and Drama Desk Award winner, Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party).

 

American Idiot
By Billie Joe Armstrong, Green Day and Michael Mayer
July 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 31, August 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 2015
Directed by Frank O. Butler; Music Direction by Lori Isner

The two-time Tony Award-winning hit musical — based on Green Day’s Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum album – is an energy-fueled rock opera that brings us face-to-face with the perils of war, drug addiction, escapism, and the power of true friendship, as Will, Johnny, and Tunny struggle to find meaning in a post-9/11 world.

Contains adult language and situations.

 

Two Trains Running
By August Wilson
August 21, 22, 28, 29, September 4, 5, 2015
Directed by Jamie Scott Blakey and Margaret Parker

This is the 1960s chapter of the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright’s decade-by-decade saga of ordinary African Americans in this turbulent century. In Memphis Lee’s Coffee Shop we meet a local sage, an ex con, a numbers runner, a laconic waitress, and a mentally handicapped man through which, with Chekhovian obliqueness, Wilson reveals simple truths, hopes and dreams, creating a microcosm of an era and a community on the brink of change.

 

The Shape of Things
By Neil LaBute
September 25, 26, October 2, 3, 9, 10, 2015
Directed by Byron Taylor

This modern day retelling of the fall of man challenges our most deeply entrenched ideas about art and love. In The Shape of Things, Evelyn, a sexy, aggressive artist, and Adam, a shy, insecure student, become embroiled in an affair after meeting in a museum. Before long, Adam, under Evelyn’s steady influence, goes to unimaginable lengths to meet her approval, and the show veers into the kind of dangerous, seductive territory that LaBute does best.

 

God’s Man in Texas
By David Rambo
November 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 2015
Directed by Allison Pace

Faith and egos collide in the age of mass-market religion at Houston’s Rock Baptist Church. A search committee has been secretly formed to find a successor to Rock’s legendary pastor, and a young up-and-comer is asked to audition for the job. The Biblical struggle climaxes during Rock’s spectacular annual electrical Christmas parade.

 

The Foreigner
By Larry Shue
December 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 2014
Directed by Matthew Mentgen
Winner of two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best New American Play and Best Off- Broadway Production, this off-beat comedy demonstrates what can happen when a group of devious and bigoted characters, including a two-faced minister and his bigoted associate, must deal with a stranger who (they think) knows no English but who has heard more than he should of their unscrupulous plans.

 

Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays
By Mo Gaffney, Jordan Harrison, Moisés Kaufman, Neil LaBute, Wendy MacLeod, José Rivera, Paul Rudnick, and Doug Wright; Conceived by Brian Shnipper
January 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30, 2016
Directed by Duane Jackson

This collection of monologues and short stories celebrates the recent advances in winning marital rights for gay and lesbian couples, and how the changing laws are changing lives. This mostly genial and often funny omnibus holds a magnifying glass to the highs and lows, joys and fears, courage and silliness, of people bucking trends and making history.

 

Once on This Island: A Musical
By Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty
February 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26 , 27, 28, 2016
Directed by Monica Clark-Robinson; Music Direction by Greg Robinson

From the Tony Award-winning songwriting team that brought you Ragtime, comes this Tony nominated, Olivier Award-winning musical set in the Caribbean Sea concerning a peasant girl on a tropical island, who uses the power of love to bring together people of different social classes. From the first song you will be enthralled by the music and engaging lyrics of this magical story which includees hints of Romeo and Juliet and the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, The Little Mermaid.

 

Vincent
By Leonard Nimoy; Based on the play “Van Gogh” by Phillip Stephens
March 18 and 19, 2016
Directed by Alan Douglas

In van Gogh’s lifetime, he sold only one painting and critics labeled his work madness. His story, however, is so much more than that of the misunderstood genius who cut off his own ear. In this play, Vincent’s brother, Theo, movingly reveals Vincent as few knew him, arguing the bigger meaning and significance of his brother’s life to all humankind. As seen through the eyes of Theo, Vincent van Gogh lives on as a symbol of inspiration, courage, passion, and the lust for life that art kindles in all of us.

This is a special presentation, not part of the regular season.

 

Driving Miss Daisy
By Alfred Uhrey
April 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10 15, 16, 17, 2016
Directed by Andy Hall

The place is the Deep South, 1948, just prior to the civil rights movement, where Daisy Werthan, a rich, sharp- tongued Jewish widow of seventy-two learns that she must rely on the services of a chauffeur, a thoughtful, unemployed black man. In a series of absorbing scenes spanning twenty-five years, the two, despite their mutual differences, grow ever closer, realizing they have more in common than they ever believed possible.

 

A Piece of My Heart
By Shirley Lauro
May 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 2016
Directed by Betty Fernau

This is a powerful, true drama of six women who went to Vietnam: five nurses and a country western singer booked by an unscrupulous agent to entertain the troops. The play which was recently been named “The most enduring play on Vietnam in the nation,” by The Vietnam Vets Association, portrays each young woman before, during, and after her tour in the war-torn nation, drawing attention to the largely unsung American women who served in Vietnam.

Little Shop of Horrors continues at The Studio Theatre

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LSOHTSTThe second production of The Studio Theatre is the award winning 1983 musical Little Shop of Horrors.  Featuring book and lyrics by Oscar winner Howard Ashman and music by Oscar winner Alan Menken it is based on an early film from Roger Corman.

The cast includes Sharayah Wallace, Jess Carson, Denai Brown, Jeremiah James Herman, Gabi Baltzley, Jeremy Hall, David Weatherly, Duane Jackson and Mark Burbank.

The show is directed by Michael Henderson with music direction by Matthew David Mentgen.  Brandon Nichols is the choreographer.

The show opened on Thursday, September 11.  It continues tonight, September 18-20 and September 25-27 at 7:30pm.  On September 21, there is a special 5pm performance.

Tickets are $20.

Acclaimed musical BABY is latest offering of CTLR

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Baby CTLRThe latest offering of the Community Theatre of Little Rock (now in its 58th season) is BABY.  This Tony nominated musical from acclaimed duo Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, examines how parents-to-be experience the emotional stresses and triumphs, as well as the desperate lows and the comic highs that accompany the anticipation and arrival of a baby.

BABY tells the story of three couples on a university campus as they deal with the painful, rewarding and agonizingly funny consequences of this universal experience. There are the college students, barely at the beginning of their adult lives; the thirtysomethings, having trouble conceiving but determined to try; and the middle aged parents, looking forward to seeing their last child graduate from college when a night of unexpected passion lands them back where they started.

The cast is led by Miki Thompson, Jeremy Elliot, Elizabeth Reha, Bob Bidewell, Erin Murphey Martinez and Justin Pike.  Others in the cast are Pammi Fabert, Mary Ann Hansen Cheryl Troillett, Duane Jackson, Danny Troillett, Case Dillard, Libby Smith and Doug Robillard.  The production was directed by Michael Henderson with music direction by Matthew Mentgen.  Jerry Woods is the executive producer.

The show opened last weekend and continues through March 2.  Show times are 7:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays; Sunday matinees are at 2pm.

COMPANY comes in to the Weekend Theater

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20130307-232808.jpgThose good and crazy people of George Furth and Stephen Sondheim’s Company come to Little Rock at the Weekend Theatre during the month of March. The production opened last night and runs through Sunday, March 24.

Craig Wilson stars as the central character Bobby who is celebrating his 35th birthday. Bobby is surrounded by five married couples and three single women as he travels through time and space. Company is a musical journey into what makes a marriage but also modern living.

The production is directed by Andy Hall. Joining Wilson in the cast are Kathryn Pryor and Ralph Hyman, Alan Douglas and Patti Airoldi, Jeremiah James Herman and Kate East, Duane Jackson and Erin Martinez, and Gabriel Washam and Julie Atkins. The women in Bobby’s life are played by Hannah M. Sawyer, Moriah Patterson and Jessica L. Hendricks.

The Weekend Theater production of the musical opens Friday, March 8, at the performance space at Seventh and Chester streets in downtown Little Rock. Curtain times are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays through March 24. Tickets are $20 for adults and $16 for seniors age 65 and older and students.

To make pre-paid reservations, visit the theater’s Web site, http://www.weekendtheater.org; tickets can also be purchased at the door. (As seating is currently limited due to reconstruction at the building, advance purchase is encouraged.) For information only, call (501) 374-3761.