[donybrx]

From Broad Street to Broadway - and back
Philadelphia’s booming theater scene fosters a rich reciprocal relationship.
By Howard Shapiro

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_left_story/20080519_From_Broad_Street_to_Broadway_-_and_back.html
Inquirer Staff Writer

One of American theater's most respected innovators, New Yorker Bill Irwin has been busy for weeks at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, creating a piece with eight performers, mostly Philadelphians. Together they have shaped The Happiness Lecture, a world-premiere comedy now in previews and opening Wednesday.
"Who knows what's going to happen to this piece after a year? It's up to the gods," says Sara Garonzik, PTC's producing artistic director. She commissioned Irwin - a MacArthur fellow, a Tony-winning actor, and Sesame Street's Mr. Noodle - because she knew he and her theater both would benefit.

"The point is to do it, and do it here. What earns you an imprint in the national landscape is the production of new work," Garonzik said. "The best thing is to knock down the borders between New York and Philadelphia and have everyone working together."

Those borders are falling fast. While Irwin toils in Center City, Philadelphians have been making waves in New York. Sound and video designer Jorge Cousineau - who created stage effects for The Happiness Lecture - just won a Lortel, New York's big Off-Broadway honor. It came for his work on Opus, written by local playwright Michael Hollinger, premiered here by the Arden Theatre Company, and staged in both cities by Terrence J. Nolen, the Arden's artistic director.

Last week Philadelphia playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes was nominated for a Tony for her script for In the Heights, Broadway's most-nominated new musical of the season. And Tobias Segal, a young Philadelphia actor who started at Mum Puppettheatre, was nominated for the coveted Drama Desk award for his current role in Manhattan Theatre Club's From Up Here. Although he didn't win last night at the ceremonies in New York, the nomination is an achievement for the 26 year old.

A steadily growing relationship between the two cities' theater worlds has blossomed and is now perennial. Philadelphia no longer operates in New York's shadow; it has its own obvious dynamic. Plenty of busy actors, directors, playwrights and stagecrafters work in one place and live in the other. Theater created in Philadelphia moves north to Manhattan, and vice versa.

Current examples abound. East Oak Lane's Hugh Panaro, who starred in Broadway's Phantom of the Opera, is back home in the lead in Walnut Street Theatre's makeover of Les Miz, opening Wednesday. Also in the cast is Broadway actor Paul Schoeffler - his third role at the Walnut this season. The high-paying, big-exposure Walnut is a plum gig for New York actors.

"You have to get to the Walnut's New York auditions really early in the morning," says Zakiya Young Mizen, a Downingtown native who lives in New York and currently appears in Broadway's The Little Mermaid.

The wacky musical Nerds, a hot ticket for Philadelphia Theatre Company in first full production last season, is slated for Broadway. In the other direction comes the Harold Arlen/Yip Harburg musical Jamaica, cut to almost-cabaret plotlessness when it opened on Broadway in 1957. The Prince Music Theater's version, which begins May 31, will be its first-ever full staging, and it comes as a result of Prince producing director Marjorie Samoff's New York theater connections.

Smaller companies are in on the action as well. Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theatre premiered its contribution to a cycle of works called 365 Days/365 Plays in New York last year, then came home to perform it here, too.


Long relationships
Philadelphia's theater community has been building relationships with New York for decades. Since 1984, what is now the Prince has developed dozens of world premieres and sent many on to Broadway. The Philadelphia Theatre Company's elegant 1995 world premiere of Terrence McNally's Master Class headed north and won the best-play Tony in 1996.
Even earlier, the city was a well-known tryout town for producers refining New York-bound shows until prohibitive costs and other routes to Broadway ended the practice in the '80s. Now Philadelphia's two dozen professional theaters are making this a different sort of tryout town - a place to create something new.

When the Arden's Nolen made his New York directing debut last year, "it was amazing how many people talked to me about moving to Philadelphia, how many people knew about the work here," he says. ". . . You're not going to become rich and famous working in Philadelphia. People are here because they can do good work that challenges them."

"Philadelphia is not an outer borough of New York; it's an alternative," says Margie Salvante, executive director of the Philadelphia Theatre Alliance, the umbrella organization that sponsors the annual Barrymore Awards. Salvante was education director of New York's Roundabout Theater before she moved here, drawn in part by the city's affordability.

"We live in danger of being in New York's shadow," she says, "but what's emerged is a vibrant theater community that shares in both directions. New York is so desperately competitive, the opportunities to take risks and invent are so minuscule, the stakes so high. In Philadelphia, people have the room and the support of the community to try new ideas."

Local theater lovers have proved themselves willing to experiment, especially if word of mouth is good. According to the Theatre Alliance, local companies sold more than a million tickets last season, not counting Broadway road tours.

We go to New York, too. The Broadway League, New York's commercial theater producers, says Pennsylvanians - mostly from the Philadelphia region - bought 553,000 Broadway tickets in the 2006-2007 season. That does not include theatergoers from the region's three South Jersey counties. Factor them in, and the figure probably is closer to 800,000.


A comfortable place
Philadelphia is a comfortable place for those who work in or train for theater. In addition to the respected university programs, companies run their own schools. Director Walter Dallas, himself a New York emigre, not only imported talent to Freedom Theater because he wanted actors from both cities to mix, but also sent off many students from Freedom's training program to work elsewhere, including Broadway.
The Prince Theater's Rainbow program for high schoolers does the same. Alumnus Gideon Glick of Merion - part of the original Broadway cast of Tony winner Spring Awakening - says, "In Philadelphia, an actor can harness talent and develop."

Steve Kuhel, who now works with the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, cites "the focus on art and sense of discipline, mixed with a knowledge of shared sacrifice" that prevails here and says actors make "clear business sacrifices" in order to work in Philadelphia.

But offsetting any downside is the region's big plus: its manageable cost of living.

"The beauty of Philadelphia is that the economics allow you to create work that's pretty offbeat," says New Paradise Laboratories' Whit MacLaughlin, "and still be able to have a house and a family and the things normal people look for in life."

This opportunity extends to stagecrafters. "A young designer who lives in Brooklyn and works on a very small budget has a chance to come here and work on a larger scale," says Blanka Zizka, the Wilma Theater's artistic codirector.

Another boost is the Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe, which brings locals and imports together in a burst of often cutting-edge performance art for two weeks every September. Artists network, producers scout. Performer Thaddeus Phillips, a festival regular, saw his career take off when he moved here from New York.

"Philadelphia is an amazing place to make original work," he says, "and the Live Arts festival has become a fantastic venue to present the work and get it seen."

Getting it ready was more the point at a recent rehearsal as Irwin and cast honed The Happiness Lecture. During a break, he described meeting local artists in workshops four years ago when he starred in Philadelphia Theatre Company's Trumbo. He offered his take on the Philly difference.

"The interesting thing about Philadelphia performers is that they don't delineate - and de-limit - themselves here, the way they tend to in New York. We are actors, dancers - everything - more readily here."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Howard Shapiro at 215-854-5727 or hshapiro@phillynews.com.

[alex1]

chicago and Toronto have traditionally been the #2 and #3 theater towns in North America. What those two cities have/had that NY never truly offered was experimental theater at an intimate scale (theater setting) on a large scale (hundreds of theaters city-wide).

It's nice seeing another city, if this article is to be believed, join the handful of North American cities that have a vibrant and unique theater scene. Its a wonderful asset to have.

anyone know how many working theater companies there are in Philly?

[donybrx]

Philly has always had a vibrant and unique theater tradition scene given that some of America's earliest theaters were founded in Philadelphia; all the best actors of their day performed there, from the Barrymores & Booths to Edmund Forrest, et al; the revered Walnut Street Theater, referenced in the article, is the nation's oldest theater. Over the decades and centuries Philly has enjoyed hundreds of theater structures including movie palaces, legitimate houses---- both large and intimate, many of the finest lost to development, fire, obsolescence or plain bad judgment. Today the city hosts numerous theater companies, dance companies, and training settings including the Univeristy of the Arts, Academy of Vocal Arts and, of course, for opera and classics the creme-de-la-creme Curtis Institute.......

The article is fully credible; it simply elaborates on the additional up-tick in Philly's enduring & lively theater community by virtue of Philly's concerted push to enhance it (e.g. the Avenue of the Arts project). Historically, Philly has been overshadowed by Broadway, understandably, but has never suffered qualitatively. Chicago, for example, has not had to compete theatrically in any way with another metropolis just 90 miles away, enjoying its own sphere. Makes sense that it would have grown greatly, untethered....but Philly is happily Philly doing what it has always done well, smaller scale or not....

[alex1]

The article is fully credible; it simply elaborates on the additional up-tick in Philly's enduring & lively theater community by virtue of Philly's concerted push to enhance it (e.g. the Avenue of the Arts project). Historically, Philly has been overshadowed by Broadway, understandably, but has never suffered qualitatively. Chicago, for example, has not had to compete theatrically in any way with another metropolis just 90 miles away, enjoying its own sphere. Makes sense that it would have grown greatly, untethered....but Philly is happily Philly doing what it has always done well, smaller scale or not....

i think being close to NY actually helps Philly. Milwaukee, another wonderful theater town (90 miles away) is almost entirely built up and acted upon by Chicago actors and such.

Not to mention, if you're a small theater company, it makes more sense to reside in a place that's cheaper and doesn't give all the glory to commercial theater (as is the case in NY). Philly is in a great location to really profit off of nYc's real weakness IMO.

[donybrx]

Philly is in a great location to really profit off of nYc's real weakness IMO.

sure...not that it really needs to or ever has had to, but the proximity is a boon to the cultivation of better theater in both cities.......which is one of the highlights of the article.......and Broadway's expense (from production costs to ultra expensive seats for shows that at one time would have been considered somewhere below par or too formulaic...also benefits off-off Broadway. I've gotten to see some real creative things staged in churches and other hidden venues in NYC over the recent past.....

[brian_b]

chicago and Toronto have traditionally been the #2 and #3 theater towns in North America. What those two cities have/had that NY never truly offered was experimental theater at an intimate scale (theater setting) on a large scale (hundreds of theaters city-wide).

It's nice seeing another city, if this article is to be believed, join the handful of North American cities that have a vibrant and unique theater scene. Its a wonderful asset to have.

anyone know how many working theater companies there are in Philly?

I read an article in the NY Times a few years ago complaining that it's too expensive to be a broke actor in NYC.

You really need a special combination - a city large enough to support dozens of small-scale theatres, yet inexpensive enough that the actors can afford to live while devoting a significant amount of their time to projects that do not bring in much revenue.

[urbanactivistTX]

I read an article in the NY Times a few years ago complaining that it's too expensive to be a broke actor in NYC.

You really need a special combination - a city large enough to support dozens of small-scale theatres, yet inexpensive enough that the actors can afford to live while devoting a significant amount of their time to projects that do not bring in much revenue.

Houston's pretty good for this style of living. Definitely no Philly, but another great theater town nonetheless. And very affordable to live in.

Philadelphia would strike me as the perfect arts enclave... It's museums are world-reknowned, great educated community, but in a conservative, working-class state (which always encites some sort of conflit between the city and work towns).

[donybrx]

Here's a current article that reminds me that Philly could use some more seating capacity...and the loss of an important old theater goes against that:

link & photo:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20080520_Boyd_Theater_makes_endangered_list.html


Boyd Theater makes endangered list
By Inga Saffron

Inquirer Architecture Critic

With the celebrated Boyd Theater once again for sale, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has placed the art deco movie palace on its annual list of the 11 most endangered historic sites in America.
The sad, yet coveted, designation comes at a low moment for the shuttered 2,350-seat Chestnut Street theater, also known as the Sameric before closing in 2002. Only three years ago, Live Nation, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, bought the run-down Boyd with the intention of turning it into a sumptuous venue for music shows. But the company, which has been consolidating operations, decided to get out of that business and put the property back on the market.

Live Nation has invited interested parties to submit bids by Friday. But there is no guarantee that a buyer would be committed to restoring the ornate interior for live theater performances or film. The building at 1908 Chestnut St., which was constructed in 1928 and is the last intact movie palace left in Center City, does not have historic protection in Philadelphia because of its entanglement in a legal battle dating from the 1980s.

That's why the National Trust decided to single out the Boyd this year, trust president Richard Moe said, along with such other threatened locales as New Orleans' Charity Hospital and Manhattan's Lower East Side neighborhood.

"The nomination helps bring real attention to these sites, both locally and nationally," Moe explained. "We hope it will bring the theater to the attention of a potential developer."

When Live Nation acquired the Boyd from Goldenberg Group in 2003 for roughly $13 million, the company was seen as the theater's savior.

It promised to invest about $17 million to expand the small stage for live shows and to buff up its elaborate art deco detailing, which includes a series of etched mirrors and murals depicting the history of women, and an intact marquee and ticket kiosk, all designed by the noted theater architects Hoffman & Henon.

But costs escalated, and public support from the city and state never materialized.

Live Nation did manage to stabilize the building, sealing it from water infiltration, and obtained rights to an adjacent parking lot before giving up on the project, said Adrian Scott Fine, the trust's Philadelphia-based program officer and a member of Friends of the Boyd, a nonprofit devoted to finding a sympathetic reuse for the theater.

Fine said the group wasn't "sure what to expect" from potential buyers. Although Friends of the Boyd have been contacted for information by several preservation-minded investors, it's not clear that they will be able to put together a winning bid.

"It's a highly challenging building," Fine acknowledged. "It's why we lobbied to have it listed. More than ever, the Boyd is at a crossroads."

One factor that might help the Boyd is a no-competition clause in Live Nation's sale invitation. It precludes the future owner from converting the theater into a venue for rock concerts, a business Live Nation still pursues.

At the same time, the clause could encourage some buyers to eye the site for a high-rise and retail development. Last year, the Irish firm Castleway Developments paid $36.7 million to acquire the parcel immediately to the south, on the 1900 block of Walnut Street, for a proposed luxury condo and hotel development on Rittenhouse Square.

In the hope of drumming up support for preservation, Friends of the Boyd plan a rally in front of the theater from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, said Howard Haas, the group's president.

The Boyd's expansive auditorium, with its curving balcony, is considered too large for today's movie industry, which prefers to market films to niche audiences. Three small screening rooms that were once part of the Boyd have already been turned into shops.

As a live theater, the Boyd would have to compete with the state-supported powerhouses along Broad Street's Avenue of the Arts, including the Academy of Music and the Kimmel Center.

Still, cities around the country have found creative strategies to preserve their historic movie palaces. In New York, AMC Entertainment Inc. moved the historic Empire Theater 168 feet down 42d Street, then built a 25-screen multiplex onto the top of the façade.

The National Trust's Moe said he remained optimistic about the Boyd, noting that of the roughly 200 places listed by the trust in the last 20 years, only seven have been lost.

The Boyd was chosen for this year's list from among 100 nominees. Among the other endangered properties listed are: California's state parks; the Great Falls Portage on the Lewis and Clark trail in Montana; Hangar One at Moffett Field in Santa Clara County, Calif.; Chicago's Michigan Avenue streetwall; Buffalo's Peace Bridge neighborhood; Dallas' Statler Hilton Hotel; Sumner Elementary School in Topeka, Kan.; and the Vizcaya and the Bonnet House in Florida.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact architecture critic Inga Saffron at 215-854-2213 or isaffron@phillynews.com.

Find this article at:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20080520_Boyd_Theater_makes_endangered_list.html?adString=inq.news/home_top_stories;!category=home_top_stories;&randomOrd=052008011059


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[alex1]

Houston's pretty good for this style of living. Definitely no Philly, but another great theater town nonetheless. And very affordable to live in.

Philadelphia would strike me as the perfect arts enclave... It's museums are world-reknowned, great educated community, but in a conservative, working-class state (which always encites some sort of conflit between the city and work towns).

houston's Latino theater community is chipping in and creating some really good work but I wouldn't call the overall scene inspiring or reflective of the size of the city or metropolitan area.

[urbanactivistTX]

^I think it depends on your definition of "theater". I'm an opera singer, so I'm really hooked in to that and the musical theater sect, and they are plentiful here. As for other theater groups, there's something to be desired.

How is Philadelphia's opera and music theater scene?

[donybrx]

^I think it depends on your definition of "theater". I'm an opera singer, so I'm really hooked in to that and the musical theater sect, and they are plentiful here. As for other theater groups, there's something to be desired.

How is Philadelphia's opera and music theater scene?

The opera scene is very good. The major company is the Opera Company of Philadelphia, of course, which has been able to expand its schedule since the Philadelphia Orchestra vacated the venerable Academy of Music for its new home at Verizon Hall (Kimmel Center). Academy of Music is the oldest opera house in use in the USA ---1857, so it's a whole 'experience' complete with limited vision seats... lol........ I caught two operas this spring including the east coast premiere of Cyrano (commissioned by the Phila. and Michigan Opera companies) and then Norma in April. Both were very well done, excellent staging/sets/ orchestra, perfect. As far as NORMA goes, it's impossible to match the gold standard of Sutherland/Horne, but Christine Goerke did an excellent job. I caught AIDA there a couple years back and was not disappointed. Angela Brown sang AIDA, also at the MET where she was praised as "at last, an Aida!"........

Musical comedy is healthy too, much of it (original stuff) staged at the Prince (named for Hal Prince) a smaller, newer house in Center City; the Walnut St. often stages their own versions of classic musicals with local casts; Road shows of course, make their way thru Philly at the Walnut, Forrest and Merriam theaters (all big 1920s houses) and also the Academy of Music.

Students of Curtis Institute stage operas as part of their rigorous training. There are other smaller-scale opera companies in Philly some of which I hear do extraordinary work often taking on lesser known/performed operas.... all in all, if you live there and are committed to music of all kinds, you can stay real busy......and poor....

There's no shortage of new talent with the Curtis Institute and Academy of Vocal Arts nearby...or Univ./Arts of course.

Nice to hear that you're an opera singer; I admire you folks and wish I'd had a lot more talent from the gitgo. In retrospect, I think I'd have had a more satisfying life somewhere in music......cello would be nice.....lol

[donybrx]

...sub topic, important to Philly's theater history and capacity:

Posted on Thu, May. 22, 2008

Changing Skyline: Boyd's loss would be a new shame of the city
By Inga Saffron

Inquirer Architecture Critic

It's always a little embarrassing when someone notices that the thing you're treating like trash is actually a treasure. So Philadelphia should be feeling properly chagrined that it took the National Trust for Historic Preservation to point out that the endangered Boyd Theater is an architectural gem worth hanging onto with all our municipal might.
The art deco extravaganza on Chestnut Street is back on the market, six years after the city's Historical Commission declined to intervene in a developer's demolition plans and award the building historic status. The only reason it stands today is that the current owner, Live Nation, came to the rescue, convinced that the old movie house would make a spectacular new musical theater.

Live Nation's Larry Magid says he still believes the Boyd has star potential, but his company has decided, for internal reasons, to bow out of the theater business and sell it.

And that puts the Boyd right back where it was in 2002. Thanks to the killer combination of passivity and politics, Philadelphia's last surviving downtown movie palace still lacks the protective mantle of historic certification. What's changed is that the Boyd's location, on Chestnut Street's blossoming 1900 block, is now catnip for developers.

Live Nation is giving bidders an extended deadline of Wednesday, instead of tomorrow, to submit offers for the 2,350-seat theater and an adjacent parking lot. It's entirely possible that a sympathetic theater operator could triumph over an ambitious condo developer. But since Live Nation will need time to evaluate the bids, we may not learn the Boyd's fate for days, or even weeks.

Why wait to find out? The nominating petition necessary to start the historic-designation process remains stored on the hard drive of computers at the Preservation Alliance.

Submit it now - before the next owner has a chance to apply for a demolition permit.

Cranking up the designation process won't guarantee that the 1928 theater will win historic certification, but many are convinced it could qualify in a snap.

A formal nomination for city designation would freeze the building's status quo. And that's a whole lot better than the alternative.

It was the lack of formal certification that prompted the National Trust to include the Boyd on this year's list of America's 11 most important endangered historic places, says Adrian Scott Fine, the trust's local representative and a member of Friends of the Boyd. In Philadelphia, any building lacking local designation is fair game for the wrecking ball, even if it's listed by the federal government on the National Register of Historic Places.

Think back to spring 2002, the last time preservationists attempted to have the Boyd certified.

Then-owner Ken Goldenberg, who contributed almost half a million dollars to John Street during his two mayoral terms, arrived at the Historical Commission's designation hearing with feared über-attorney Richard Sprague in tow.

At that point, it didn't matter that the Boyd was the one of the last intact representatives of about 430 movie theaters built in Philadelphia before the Great Depression, during Hollywood's Golden Age. Or that the Boyd was the first in the area to install a wraparound Cinerama screen. Or that its jutting deco crown, glass retail arcade, and original ticket kiosk were beloved landmarks.

The Historical Commission certainly didn't care about the quality of the interior, with its etched mirrors and its vivid polychrome frame over the stage - Philadelphia's preservation laws don't cover interiors.

On that day in 2002, the commission wasted no time in dismissing the nomination. One member, explaining why he voted against historic status for the Boyd, said the theater was "an old, decrepit, falling-down disaster."

What neglected historic building isn't?

Even now, some preservationists are hesitant to push the Boyd nomination. They fear that certification could scare away buyers, or prevent the next owner from finding a creative way to preserve the theater. There may also be concern that a designation could be overturned in a lawsuit, as happened in 1993 after former owner United Artists complained that historic status was based on the theater's interior decoration.

But if you give in to those fears, why bother with historic preservation at all? By nature, preservation laws are restrictive and bothersome to private property owners. We tolerate them because our society believes that, at some point, certain structures enter the public domain, at least for discussion purposes.

What's the point of having a Historical Commission that won't protect important buildings, that won't create historic districts, that won't utter a word of protest when a bullying state agency razes a row of architecturally important buildings on City Hall's doorstep? This isn't just about the Boyd; it's about what Philadelphia will make of itself in the 21st century.

More than almost any other city in America, Philadelphia has much to gain from its older buildings. This is one of the last places where time is rendered visible, in the crazy-quilt glory of our streets. That authentic mix remains one of the most powerful reasons to visit, and to live, here. Retaining the past doesn't mean that nothing new can ever be built, but only that interventions should be thoughtful.

Nearly every sizable city in America has found a way to preserve at least one great theater from Hollywood's heyday, Fine says. That includes metropolises less well-heeled than Philadelphia, such as Detroit and Birmingham, Ala.

Compared with those rescue projects, the Boyd should be easy, since it's been shuttered a mere six years.

Almost certainly, political will and public money will be needed to save the theater. The Nutter administration still appears uncertain how to respond to the National Trust's listing. Though a statement was promised yesterday, there was no word from City Hall as of early evening.

The Trust meant to give Philadelphia a gentle prod, to get it to do right by the Boyd.

The real embarrassment will be making the list of cities that allowed their last great movie palaces to fade to black.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Changing Skyline: Pro-Boyd Events
In hopes of drumming up support for its preservation, Friends of the Boyd plans a rally in front of the theater, 1908 Chestnut St., at 11:30 a.m. today.

At 5:30 p.m. today at the AIA Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St., Shawn Evans of Atkin Olshin Schade Architects and Adrian Scott Fine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation will present a lecture on the Boyd's significance and its context in a national preservation struggle. Admission is free.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact architecture critic Inga Saffron at 215-854-223 or isaffron@phillynews.com.

[donybrx]

For anyone interested, there seems to be a book out about the Walnut Street Theater, America's oldest (1809) from Arcadia Press with this description:

Book Description:
"The Walnut Street Theatre, located at the corner of Ninth and Walnut Streets, is America’s oldest theater, a national historic landmark, and the state theater of Pennsylvania. Since its opening in 1809, world-famous stars, such as Henry Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, and Marlon Brando, have performed on its stage. Many of the greatest works in American theater premiered there, including A Streetcar Named Desire, A Raisin in the Sun, and Neil Simon’s first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn. In 1982, under the direction of Bernard Havard, the Walnut became a not-for-profit producing theater company. Today, with over 56,000 subscribers annually, it is the most subscribed theater company in the world. Through vintage images from the theater’s archives and the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Theatre Collection, Walnut Street Theatre rediscovers the Walnut’s rich past."

Author Bio: Bernard Havard is recognized as one of America’s leading theater producers and is currently the Walnut Street Theatre’s producing artistic director. Mark D. Sylvester, managing director of the Walnut Street Theatre, is widely regarded as a theatrical marketing expert and consults with organizations internationally.

http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=0738557706

[donybrx]

Hopeful sign for the afore-referenced BOYD Theater:

Breaking News..........

Posted on Thu, May. 29, 2008


Boyd Theater nominated for historic designation
By Inga Saffron

INQUIRER ARCHITECTURE CRITIC

Hoping to head off a possible demolition threat to the Boyd Theater, the Preservation Alliance has asked the Philadelphia Historical Commission to grant the Chestnut Street movie palace protective status.
Alliance Director John Gallery said he nominated the Art-Deco theater for historic designation yesterday after consulting with high-ranking officials in Mayor Nutter's administration and receiving assurances that City Hall would both support the nomination and help find funds to subsidize its reopening.

Concern about the fate of the Boyd, designed in 1928 by theater architects Hoffmann & Henon, has intensified since the building was put up for sale by its owner, Live Nation. The deadline for submitting bids was yesterday.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/20080529_Boyd_Theater_nominated_for_historic_designation.html

[volguus zildrohar]

The Boyd perservation is an act worth joining. Despite the absolutly disgusting condition the former managers kept it in, under the grime the theater was truly magnificent and the main theater is an absolute gem. Philadelphia has lost enough of its old charm.

[donybrx]

^^^ I agree. Since I've sworn off making contributions to political campaigns, I think I'll send a bit to this more satisfying cause......

Here's a fleshed out article on the preservation nomination form the day after the announcement. Interesting read and this surprising excerpt caught my eye:

"Among the important events listed in the new application is the 1993 state Supreme Court ruling overturning the Boyd's original designation. That decision was itself a landmark and caused many cities to revamp their laws.
Every preservation student in the country is taught about that lawsuit," Historical Commission director Jon Farnham said."

(Note: article contains 1928 exterior photo from Irvin R. Glazer Theater Collection at the Philadelphia Athenaeum)


Posted on Fri, May. 30, 2008

Boyd Theater renominated for landmark statusBy Inga Saffron

Inquirer Architecture Critic

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080530_Boyd_Theater_renominated_for_landmark_status.html


Hoping to head off a possible demolition threat to the Boyd Theater, the Preservation Alliance has asked the Philadelphia Historical Commission to declare the Chestnut Street movie palace a protected landmark.
Alliance director John Gallery said yesterday that he had nominated the art deco theater for historic designation Wednesday after receiving assurances that the Nutter administration would support the action. The application is scheduled for a July 16 hearing before the commission's designation committee.

In a statement yesterday after the nomination became public, Mayor Nutter urged the Historical Commission to give the application "its fullest consideration."

"I pledge to work with [the commission] to preserve this building," Nutter added.

His statement came a little more than a week after the National Trust for Historic Preservation thrust the theater into the spotlight. The group included the ornate movie house on this year's list of America's 11 most endangered historic sites after learning that the owner, Live Nation, had abandoned restoration plans and put the Boyd up for sale.

Concern about the Boyd, which is on the 1900 block of Chestnut and is the only surviving movie palace in Center City, has been mounting since Live Nation decided to get out of the theater business. This month, the entertainment company announced that interested buyers had until Wednesday to bid on the theater, known in its final years as the Sameric. Live Nation has not revealed anything about the submissions.

There is no guarantee that the Historical Commission will approve the Preservation Alliance's request, but the application was partly a tactical maneuver. Building owners cannot seek a city demolition permit as long as a nomination for historic designation is pending.

"It gives the Boyd interim protection," Gallery said.

He acknowledged that the alliance "had some concerns about whether the nomination was the right thing to do in terms of working cooperatively with Live Nation." But ultimately the nonprofit advocacy group decided it needed to protect the Boyd from the unknown.

The alliance failed twice before to win landmark status for the Boyd. After its 2002 nomination was rejected, then-owner Ken Goldenberg went straight from the hearing to the city's Building Department to file for a demolition permit. As long as a demolition permit is active, structures cannot be nominated for historic status.

Howard Haas, who founded Friends of the Boyd to promote the theater's restoration, said the movie house should have received historic certification years ago, long before it stopped showing movies in 2002.

"It has a beautiful art deco exterior with many original decorative elements intact. It's about time it was recognized as a landmark," Haas argued.

But the alliance, which has extensive experience crafting historic-designation applications, became entangled in a legal morass when it previously tried to win such status for the Boyd.

The theater's most impressive architectural elements are inside the lobby and auditorium rather than on the facade. Because Philadelphia's preservation laws do not cover interiors, the courts struck down the alliance's original 1987 nomination. The Historical Commission rejected the 2002 attempt on other grounds.

This time, Gallery said, the alliance rewrote the application to make sure its arguments strictly comply with Philadelphia's preservation laws. Though a building's fine interiors cannot be listed as the basis for landmark status, its role in important events may be considered.

Among the important events listed in the new application is the 1993 state Supreme Court ruling overturning the Boyd's original designation. That decision was itself a landmark and caused many cities to revamp their laws.

"Every preservation student in the country is taught about that lawsuit," Historical Commission director Jon Farnham said.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact architecture critic Inga Saffron at 215-854-2213 or isaffron@phillynews.com.




"

[donybrx]

another dimension of Philly theater.


ED KRIEGER / For The Inquirer
Jim Brochu (left), Steve Schalchlin in "The Big Voice: God or Merman?" (Photo at link: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20080612_Gay_theater_takes_the_stage.html

Posted on Thu, Jun. 12, 2008


Gay theater takes the stage
By Wendy Rosenfield

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20080612_Gay_theater_takes_the_stage.html

June is Pride Month, a 30-day celebration of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community that this year also heralds the Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian Theatre Festival's sixth season. The two-week festival, which begins tomorrow night, is marking this anniversary with a half-dozen shows, called, inevitably, " 'Six' in the City."
Soon after they met seven years ago, personal and professional partners Matthew Cloran, 47, and Bill Esher, 50, decided the time was ripe for the festival's creation.

"We knew in the beginning we wouldn't have the resources," Cloran recalls, "but our hearts were in the right place." Fortunately, the pair also knew something about producing theater. Cloran heads the drama department at the Haverford School, and Esher is drama coordinator at its sister school, Agnes Irwin.

The festival has steadily gained a reputation for quality work, and Cloran says its mailing list grows by 1,000 names annually. As the pair's resources catch up to their ambitions, Cloran and Esher continue their efforts to bring what Cloran says is "great theater that tells our story" to Philadelphia.

The festival's first offering, starting a two-night run tomorrow at Plays & Players Theatre, is The Big Voice: God or Merman?, a musical written and performed by two real-life partners, Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin, about their 20-odd-year relationship. And odd they are, an Arkansas Baptist and a Brooklyn Catholic, recounting a comic life together with dueling pianos.

Starting Tuesday at Mum Puppettheatre is Carol Lynn Pearson's Facing East, which opened Off-Broadway in 2007. Pearson, a Mormon, is perhaps best known for her memoir Goodbye, I Love You, which chronicled her relationship with her gay Mormon husband (the father of their four children) and his death from AIDS. In Facing East, she again examines her church's attitude toward homosexuality, as a Mormon couple are forced to confront the suicide of their gay son and the presence of his longtime partner.

Next up, opening Wednesday at the Walnut Street Theatre's Studio 5, is Dan Martin and Michael Biello's reprise of their successful 2002 Fringe Festival production, Q. This musical revue spans the couple's quarter-century of musical and personal collaboration with 14 original songs and a cast of five, including "transgoddess" Tipsy.

The festival's middle weekend, June 20 through 22, will feature David Sisco's Bait, a frantic two-hander that takes place at a "Gay Bait" speed-dating event. (Speed dating, for those who have never experienced its particular torments, requires one to chat for several minutes with a total stranger until a bell rings and one moves on to the next stranger and more chat. At evening's end, an organizer collects surveys filled out by the participants. If someone you've ranked highly also admires you, a match is made; if not, all that suffering was in vain . . . unless, of course, you can make a comedy out of it.)

Bait, to be presented at Mum Puppettheatre, also requires some speed acting, as its performers take on more than a dozen roles. The show won big at the 2006 National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival, with prizes for best comedy, best in festival, and audience favorite.

Keith Bunin's drama The Busy World Is Hushed - at the Arden June 20 through 27 - premiered in 2006 at New York's Playwrights Horizons. In that production, Jill Clayburgh starred as Hannah, a widowed Episcopal minister who has a distant relationship with her gay son. While working on a book, Hannah hires a ghostwriter whose presence creates an emotionally charged family triangle.

Susan Miller's My Left Breast is a 1994 Obie winner about a self-described "one-breasted, menopausal, bisexual lesbian mom." Deborah Seif directs 30-year People's Light & Theatre player Marcia Saunders in this comedy, opening June 22 at Mum Puppettheatre, that looks at relationships, parenthood, cancer and identity with an arched eyebrow and triumphant spirit.

As a one-time-only festival bonus event this Sunday, a staged reading of Minnesota playwright Matthew Everett's But Not for Love will be given at the Walnut Street Theatre's fourth-floor rehearsal hall. Everett uses As You Like It's double wedding as the jumping-off point for this play about a gay brother, his straight sister, and their effort to marry the men they love while protesters, paparazzi and police all attempt to intrude on the proceedings.

------------------------------------------------------------------------Gay & Lesbian Theatre Festival
The festival runs tomorrow through June 28 at four Philadelphia venues: the Arden Theatre, 40 N. 2d St.; Mum Puppettheatre, 115 Arch St.; Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St., and the Walnut Street Theatre, 825 Walnut St.

Tickets: $17.50-$25. Information: 215-922-1122.

The Big Voice: God or Merman? 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Plays & Players Theatre.

Facing East 8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, June 24 and 26 at Mum Puppettheatre.

Q 8 p.m. Wednesday- June 21; 7 p.m. June 22; 8 p.m. June 24-28 at Walnut Street Theatre's Studio 5.

Bait 8 p.m. June 20 and 21, 2 p.m. June 22 at Mum Puppettheatre.

The Busy World Is Hushed 8 p.m. June 20 and 21; 7 p.m. June 22; 8 p.m. June 24-28 at the Arden Theatre.

My Left Breast 7 p.m. June 22; 8 p.m. June 25 and 27; 2 p.m. June 28 at Mum Puppettheatre.

Staged reading of But Not for Love 7 p.m. Sunday at Walnut Street Theatre.

[donybrx]

Posted on Thu, Jun. 19, 2008

$10M Annenberg grant paves way for Kimmel arts fest
By JOHN F. MORRISON
Philadelphia Daily News
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20080619__10M_Annenberg_grant_paves_way_for_Kimmel_arts_fest.html

Link to Kimmel Center and it various venues & institutions---- www.kimmelcenter.org

A citywide arts festival, putting together the vast array of cultural and artistic groups and schools in the city, has been a dream of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
Now, it's going to happen, thanks to a $10 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation. Starting in 2011, the festival will become an annual event.

The Annenberg funds will be used to support programming, commissioning, unique productions costs, management and marketing.

The Kimmel Center will organize, coordinate and collaborate with arts and culture organizations throughout the region.

Each festival will have a theme; emphasis will be placed on rarely performed musical works. It also will incorporate educational programs through partnerships with area schools.

"I can think of no better tribute to the Kimmel Center than the show of support from the Annenberg Foundation for our vision of a citywide arts festival," said William Hankowsky, Kimmel chairman. "The Kimmel Center is uniquely positioned to act as a catalyst for creative collaborations both with its resident companies and arts organizations throughout the city."

Gail Levin, executive director of the Annenberg Foundation, said, "We are thrilled to support such a bold and innovative collaboration among Philadelphia's art organizations." *

[donybrx]

Acclaim stuns Temple University students in Iraq play

By Shttp://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080715_Acclaim_stuns_Temple_University_students_in_Iraq_play.htmltephan Salisbury

Inquirer Culture Writer

Nothing like it had ever happened to Temple University theater students, at least as far as anyone could remember. But that was before the Iraq war, and the voices it summoned up for journalist Yvonne Latty.
Now In Conflict, the play based Latty's book of the same name, has blossomed from a Temple student production, first staged last fall, to an international phenomenon that has stunned and inspired just about everyone connected with it.

On Aug. 1, the play will open - with all 11 members of the original student cast portraying Iraq war veterans - at the super-charged Edinburgh Fringe Festival for a run through Aug. 25. On Sept. 3, it returns to Temple's Randall Theatre for 12 performances as part of the Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe.

And when that ends, the set comes down, is loaded on a truck and rolls up to New York City's Barrow Street Theater in the West Village, where previews begin Sept. 18 for an open-ended off-Broadway run.

"It's unbelievable," said Latty, a former Philadelphia Daily News reporter whose collection of interviews with Iraq war vets inspired and guided the show. "I feel like I'm in a state of shock. What these kids have created, and the number of lives they've been able to touch - young lives - is incredible."

The students are a bit discombobulated themselves.

"I don't think it's hit any of us yet," said Stan Demidoff, a Temple senior. "It's surreal."

Demidoff, 22, portrays Cpl. Alex Pressman, a Brooklyn native who took a smoking break one day and lost his foot to an improvised explosive device.

Joy Notono, 22, who graduated this year, portrays Maj. Tracey Ringo, a medical officer in Baghdad who Notono said approached her duties "with compassion" for soldiers and civilians alike: "That's her unique perspective in the play, a really strong sense of compassion. She worked with women, civilians working in the clinic that she worked at, and you can hear that in her voice, her gentleness and also her faith."

"I feel very privileged," Notono said of her participation in the play. "I'm feeling more and more responsiblity towards the vets. . . . And I'm actually very serious about volunteering my time with them."

Douglas C. Wager, artistic director at the Temple School of Communications and Theater and head of the graduate directing program, adapted In Conflict for the stage, directed the production and, by all accounts, urged countless out-of-town theater friends to come in for a look during its October run at Temple.

Normally, with a student production, that would have been that. But Wager felt the students' work was so good, and the production was so powerful, that In Conflict deserved a longer life before a broader audience.

Drawing on his contacts from more than two decades at the acclaimed Arena Stage in Washington, and years in film and television, Wager interested producers in New York and elsewhere, including New Haven, Conn., where the company performed the play at the Long Wharf Theatre in January.

Allan Buchman, producing artistic director of the Culture Project, a New York theater organization focused on social and political projects, decided In Conflict presented both an intense dramatic experience and a mine-strewn moral landscape. He told Wager that he wanted it for New York - and that he wanted the original student cast members, who created it, to reprise their roles.

Those actors who are still at Temple will receive academic credit for their off-Broadway appearances, and university officials said their financial aid and scholarship status will not be adversely affected during the run. (New York living arrangements are still being worked out, and actors will receive stipends from the Culture Project; officials said union issues with Actors Equity largely have been resolved.)

"It's unprecedented," said Wager, who at the moment is trying to raise funds to get his students to Scotland for the weeks of the Fringe Festival, a costly enterprise.

Temple is providing some funding for the trip, but not all, and while students have raised money on their own, the company still needs about $20,000 to cover its costs. Whatever else it may be, Edinburgh during the Fringe is not cheap.

No one is backing off, however.

"We're moving into brand-new territory with what it's turning into," said Wager. "It's basically amazing. The students will also be involved with the Culture Project in arranging constituent talk-back programs involving gays in the military, women in the military, Latinos in the military, PTSD [post traumatic stress disorder] vets, wounds, injuries - all kinds of things that raise the question of how do we bring these people home and care for them for the rest of their lives."

In Conflict speaks to such issues with the raw and often matter-of-fact voices of actual veterans.

"The core ethos [explored by the play] is, what is the nature of service and patriotism in America in the 21st century," said Wager. "I've come to really admire and honor these people. Some had horrific experiences. Some had moving experiences and feel good about what they did. Some were broken by the experience."

It all comes down, he said, to "what does America stand for?"

At a meeting with his actors last week, Wager tried to focus their energies on the main mission.

"There's a lot of moving parts to this thing - financially, emotionally, spiritually," he said. "You've got to remember why we're doing it. It is embracing the idea that as citizen artists you are seeking to raise awareness and help ease the transition of veterans who have served."

That is a point that speaks directly to Demidoff.

"All I wanted to do was change people's lives - and I can't believe I have the opportunity to do that at 22," he said. "Support of the troops, that's what the show is based on. Not the war. The troops. I don't think I'll ever be this lucky again."




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact culture writer Stephan Salisbury at 215-854-5594 or ssalisbury@phillynews.c

[donybrx]

Update: Promising development. Now, about the $30 million needed......

Boyd Theater moves closer to historical designation
By Ashwin Verghese
-Inquirer Staff Writer

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080717_Boyd_Theater_moves_closer_to_historical_designation.html

In 1991, the Boyd Theater lost its designation from the Philadelphia Historical Commission after a lawsuit went all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Yesterday, the 80-year-old theater - the only Center City movie palace remaining from Hollywood's golden age - moved one step closer to regaining its historical status.

Citing the Boyd's art deco style and its place in local film history, the commission's designation committee unanimously endorsed the Boyd's candidacy for preservation.

Janet Klein urged fellow committee members to recommend that commissioners approve the Boyd's nomination at their Aug. 8 public meeting, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. in Room 18-029 at 1515 Arch St.

Approval would mean no changes could be made to the theater's exterior without the commission's permission. The theater would also be added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.

Before closing in 2002, the theater, in the 1900 block of Chestnut Street, played host to numerous film premieres. The Oscar-winning Philadelphia had its international opening at the Boyd in 1993, with stars Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks attending.

Numerous supporters of the Boyd's preservation filled the room at the committee's meeting yesterday.

Howard B. Haas, president of the nonprofit Friends of the Boyd Inc., invoked the theater's regal history and called the Boyd "the last major, premier motion-picture theater reminiscent of Philadelphia's past."

Harris Steinberg, director of PennPraxis, a design group affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, said the Boyd's nomination was a "no-brainer."

"This is a building that is significant on several counts," Steinberg said.

In addition to the Boyd, the committee endorsed the nomination of the Walnut Lane Bridge, built in 1908, which connects Roxborough and Manayunk to West Mount Airy over the Wissahickon Creek.
-----
Contact staff writer Ashwin Verghese at 215-854-4319 or averghese@phillynews.com.

[donybrx]

City itself as Theater................

Posted on Mon, Jul. 28, 2008

In historic district, quite a story to tell

By Howard Shapiro
Inquirer Staff Writer
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080728_In_historic_district__quite_a_story_to_tell.html

In summer, Philadelphia is a theater without walls. It's one of the few places in the United States where every day, in the middle of a living city, actors offer passersby tales of the town, all for free. The story-theater buzzes through the streets of Old City, and has changed the way tourists visit Philadelphia. Sometimes even local citizens, going about their hometown business, will stop to listen.
The actors offer not only well-researched stories but an easy chance to connect with real Philadelphians, even if for only five or 10 minutes. And they do their work in a cityscape packed with narrative: Perhaps no other American place has such a wealth of documented anecdotes about itself and its people, invested here with the idea that Philadelphia gave the modern concept of liberty, in all its bold imperfection, to the world.

It's likely you've never heard some of these tales before - the one about the Philadelphia librarian who secretly helped make revolution possible, or about the colonial Philly girl who danced the night away with the Brits, surrounded by stuff stolen from Philadelphia homes. An actor at a storytelling bench may morph into King Louis XVI, as Tim Gross - just back from a national theater tour - did the other day. Or, like Temple theater major Brittany Holdahl, she'll describe her forbidden night with the redcoats so vividly that you feel personally offended at the very idea (unless, perhaps, you're visiting from London).

"They really make the history come to life," Linda Stewart, a visitor, said of the actors stationed around the historic district. She had just heard Nathan Edmondson, whose last gig was in Arden Theatre's recent Our Town, describe the risk-taking involved in signing the Declaration on Independence.

The actors, most of them hired by Historic Philadelphia Inc., are stationed all over the city blocks that contain Independence National Historical Park, whose staff certifies the authenticity of each story. (Grosset & Dunlap this month published 20 of them in a book, Patriots, Pirates, Heroes & Spies: Stories from Historic Philadelphia.)

As cars whoosh by, a street musician plays and Philadelphians pass within feet of the Liberty Bell without noticing (because it's always there), these actors spin their yarns - each has a repertoire of half a dozen - four or five times an hour. The stories are set in Philadelphia, with Philadelphians as characters, but like so much of the city's historical endowment, they end up being about what makes Americans Americans.

Every little piece has tension, conflict and plot. "I treat them as five- to seven-minute one-acts," says Historic Philadelphia's artistic director, Geoffrey Berwind. "There has to be a clear thread. What is this performance about? What are these performers' individual gifts? What's the point of the story, and how can we make it jump? We use a lot of mime, and interaction, and a bench may become a ship."

The storytellers meet face to face with those who come to the city for the chance to explore America's roots. (More than a million summertime visitors typically sample the historic district, and this year, the National Park Service says, numbers are trending even higher.) They appear to be channeling the spirit of a gentleman who pops up as a character in a number of their anecdotes: quintessential Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin, who himself had a way with a story or - when he was ambassador to France - at least a decent bon mot.

This the fourth year of Historic Philadelphia's Once Upon A Nation program, which employs the actors to tell a total of 80 stories at 13 half-circle benches in Center City, and four at Valley Forge, where many visitors experience the program on their way into town. Observers often express delighted amazement at the program, which is live, informal, continuous and - best of all - free.

"It's one of the nicest things in the city," said Kim Daquilante of Williamstown, N.J., who with her family had just heard an account of George Washington's personal travails rendered by Mala Wright, an actor who's also working on a yet-unreleased cable series called Sister Girl. "First of all, it's free," Daquilante said, "and they're always great actors, the storytellers."

Wright, in her third summer as a storyteller, is by now used to the heat that comes with performing outdoors, as well as the occasional strange encounters with street people. "We are in an urban setting, so that happens," she says. But there's a clear upside: The actors are the people tourists will remember.

"People say, 'This is the best thing on our trip,' " according to Wright. "There's a lot of one-on-one, and it's such a nice thing to touch people personally. It says to them, 'You're not just a tourist.' "

Indeed, the actors, who ring an old-fashioned handbell to draw people into the start of a story, end up being civic ambassadors, answering questions about everything from the historic to the mundane once the stories are over.

Historic Philadelphia, whose funding comes from government and private sources, also runs the interpretation programs at Betsy Ross House, Franklin Square, the evening Lights of Liberty show, and a round of special programs each week. Evening tours and Lights of Liberty charge fees, unlike the daytime programming - with the storytelling by actors in light-green shirts, and the open-air programming with costumed actors at Betsy Ross House or along Harmony Lane, off Third Street near Chestnut. The actors make between $13 and $16 an hour.

One morning last week, Historic Philadelphia storytellers and interpreters met in their headquarters at Third and Chestnut before fanning out to their posts. It was a typical summer day for typical backstage preparations - although without, of course, a typical stage.

Actors who play colonial roles were busy at racks of costumes. They pulled on tights and put on vests or aprons and bonnets, smoothing out the fabric. In another room, storytellers discussed the strange behavior of two observers who had kept reappearing the day before; supervisors would be tracking them if they showed up again.

The humidity already was building as the storytellers loaded brochures into their packs and Gregory DeCandia - operations manager at Society Hill Playhouse and a Once Upon a Nation supervisor - brought the meeting to a close.

"Stay cool," he told the actors, in a pep talk unlikely ever to be heard in theaters with walls. "Stay hydrated. Stay healthy."

And, it went without saying, stay on top of those stories.

[bucks native]

Many plays to debut in Philadelphia

By ROBERT BAXTER • Courier-Post Staff • July 18, 2008

New plays take over Philadelphia stages this weekend. The fourth annual Spark Festival brings original works and a few classics to Plays and Players Theatre. PlayPenn, the city's professional new play development organization, presents readings of six new plays at the Adrienne Theater and the Playground.


Sponsored by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, the 2008 Spark Festival features a range of comedies and dramas reflecting a variety of themes. Productions are created by Philadelphia artists and performers.

South Jersey playwright Walt Vail is featured in the festival with "American Dream" (Philadelphia Dramatists Center). The line up also features Bryan S. Clark's "Lunch Break" (Black Star Collective), Nathan Wright's "Naked Fish" (EgoPo Productions), Wendy MacLeod's "Division III" (Flashpoint Theatre Company), Eugene Ionesco's "The Leader" (The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium), John Stanton's "The Last Straw" (Madhouse Theater Company), Alex Dremann's "She Licks His Face in the End" (Secret Room Theatre), Howard Korder's "The Middle Kingdom" (Simpatico Theatre Project) and Ryder Thornton's "Das Urteil" (Temple Theaters).

The plays are performed this evening at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at Plays and Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Stret. Tickets ($10 to $25) are available at (215) 4132-7150 or by visiting www.theatrealliance.org.

Artistic director of PlayPenn says the company provides "a laboratory environment" for the development of plays. He says the process combines "collaboration, experimentation, rehearsal and rewriting."

The conference begins this evening at 8 p.m. with a reading of Bruce Graham's "Any Given Monday." Next up is Jeffrey's adaptation of J.M. Barrie's "Dear Brutus" July 21 at 8 p.m..

Six other plays are being developed during two weeks of workshops that began June 25 and run through July 26: Peter Bonilla's "A Human Equation," Jennifer Haley's "Breadcrumbs," Lila Rose Kaplan's "Wildflower," James Mclindon's "Saving Grace," Gregory S. Moss' "House of Gold" and Silva Semerciyan's "Another Man's Son."

Two symposia round out the conference. Moderator Rick DesRochers and panelists Gary Garrison, Terry Nolen and Lucy Thurber participate in "Expectations? Audience, Playwright and Producer" July 24 at 6 p.m. "Is Idealism Still Possible in the American Theatre?" is posed July 25 at 6 p.m. by moderator Michele Volansky and panelists Celise Kalke, Todd London and Karen Hartman.

The conference takes place at the Adrienne Theater and the Playground, 2030 Sansom Street, Philadelphia. All events are free. Reservations are recommended. Call (215) 568-1434 for reservations and more information

[donybrx]

Posted on Wed, Aug. 6, 2008


Walnut Street Theatre's Les Miz gets 11 Barrymore nominations
By Howard Shapiro

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/20080806_Walnut_Street_Theatres_Les_Miz_gets_11_Barrymore_nominations.html

The Walnut Street Theatre production of Les Misérables - one of the first reimaginings of the celebrated musical's staging since it premiered 22 years ago - received 11 nominations today in various categories for this year's Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre, the region's professional theater honors.

The Walnut was one of a group of theaters given permission by British producer Cameron Mackintosh, who owns rights to the show, to restage Les Miz, the musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's sprawling 1862 novel. The production, which closed Sunday after a long summer run, garnered two leading musical actor nominations, for Hugh Panaro, who played Jean Valjean, and Paul Schoeffler, as his nemesis, Javert.

Its director, Mark Clements, also was nominated.

Les Miz was followed in the nominations, announced at a news conference at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, by eight nods to the Arden Theatre Company's production of Stephen Sondheim's dark and unusual musical, Assassins. They included one for the Arden's producing artistic director, Terry Nolen, who staged the production, and four in acting categories for Jeffrey Coon, Scott Greer, James Sugg and Mary Martello, all playing characters who kill - or try to - a president.

The Walnut and the Arden tied for the number of nominations among all plays for their companies, at 16 apiece. People's Light & Theatre Company and the Philadelphia Theatre Company followed with 12 nominations each, while Theatre Exile, Lantern Theater Company, and the Wilma Theater had eight apiece.

Karen DiLossi, the director of programs and services for the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, told a crowd filled with theater artists that "we are up 38 [eligible] shows from just two years ago, and we're only continuing to grow."

The 14th annual presentation of the Barrymores, named for the acting family and organized by the alliance, will take place at Oct. 6 at the Crystal Tea Room in the Wanamaker Building. The alliance has not yet named a host or hosts.

Eleven judges made the nominations from choices given them by 48 nominators; the nominators include people who work in various aspects of theater in the region as well as audience members. Between now and the ceremony, the judges will select the winners.

The nominators considered entries by 41 participating companies (40 are professional; the 41st is Villanova's theater program) - 134 productions in all since the season began last fall.

The judges determined the winner in one category, announced today: A lifetime achievement award goes to Dolly Beechman Schnall, a writer and director who went on to teach theater and establish a theater scholarship at the University of the Arts and a lecture and workshop fund at Temple University, where she had earned a fine arts master's. Schnall has been a board member of many theaters, including 1812 Productions, Prince Music Theater, and the Wilma, Walnut Street and Arden companies.

The five plays announced today as best-production nominees are InterAct Theatre Company's regional premiere of Frozen, about a sex offender and the aftermath of his crime; Lantern's Skylight, David Hare's play set in London, where two former lovers meet; the People's Light production of Six Characters in Search of an Author, in a new adaptation by Louis Lippa; Theatre Exile's Bug, a play by this year's best-play Tony winner, Tracy Letts; and the Wilma's staging of Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl's retelling of the Orpheus tale.

In addition to Les Miz and Assassins, the best-musical-production nominees are the 11th Hour Theatre Company's The World Goes 'Round, a revue featuring the music of John Kander and Fred Ebb; Azuka Theatre's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a show about an East German sex-changed rock goddess that also earned Dito van Reigersberg a best- actor nomination for the portrayal; and the Walnut's The Irish ... And How They Got That Way, Frank McCourt's musical history of the Irish, which the Walnut presented on its smaller Stage 3.

The five nominees for outstanding new play - works that received world premieres here - are the Arden's staging of David Davalos' Wittenberg, a comedy that puts Dr. Faustus, Martin Luther and Hamlet at the same university; Tony-winning actor Bill Irwin's take on life in The Happiness Lecture at Philadelphia Theatre Company; InterAct's House, Divided, about a family's coming together after a long separation over Mideast politics, by Larry Loebell; Lippa's adaptation of Six Characters for People's Light; and People's Light's Getting Near to Baby by Y York, about children tossed into a trying circumstance.

Locally based actors Joliet Harris and Harry Philibosian emceed the nomination announcement.

[donybrx]

Great news: At long last!!

Posted on Fri, Aug. 8, 2008


City protects Boyd Theater

By Inga Saffron
......Inquirer Architecture Critic

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/20080808_City_protects_Boyd_Theater.html


Just three months after the National Trust for Historic Preservation chastised Philadelphia for failing to safeguard its last intact movie palace, the city's Historical Commission voted unanimously yesterday to protect the facade of Chestnut Street's Boyd Theater.
Without a word of protest from anyone in the packed hearing room, the commission agreed to place the theater on the city's roll of historic buildings, ending two decades of rancorous debate about the Boyd's architectural and cultural merits. Only six years ago, Mayor Street's historical commission insisted "the wreck" wasn't worth preserving and signed off on a demoliton permit.

Howard B. Haas, who began the effort to save the glamorous art deco theater after that permit was issued in 2002, praised the commission for protecting the building, which is now up for sale. At the same time, he cautioned that the "Boyd theater is not saved by today's action alone."

Philadelphia's preservation law currently protects only the exteriors of historic buildings, allowing owners to modify and even gut the interiors. Yet, with extravagantly ornamented buildings like the Boyd, the interior decoration can be more important historically than the facade.

Just before the Boyd vote, the commission approved the wording of a bill that would to extend its jurisdiction to cover certain interior spaces.

The bill, introduced this spring by Councilman Bill Green, still requires approval by the Planning Commission and City Council.