Since moving out of the DC area last Fall, it’s been difficult staying connected. Theater is about the people, and learning about productions via email and Facebook doesn’t provide an adquate bond between us as editors and the theaters. As we learned with our efforts to start a ShowBizRadio site in other regions of the country, the editor needs to be involved in local theater activities.

The best thing about the experiences of the past nine years is the people we’ve met. At the very first show we attended (2nd Flight’s Jesus Christ Superstar in Manassas), sitting in the audience before the curtain, as we eavesdropped on the people around us and hearing them discuss the roles they were going to audition for, and the gossip about other actors, we never really thought we would become a part of that community. Everyone we’ve met over the past nine years has been incredibly friendly and supportive.

We’ve made a few mistakes over the years. Sometimes we revealed surprise plot points in a review. Once we gave a snap opinion to a director immediately after the show. We allowed people to post hurtful comments on a review. We occasionally allowed ourselves to be hurt by anonymous insults. We are very grateful to those of you out there who have accepted our apologies for our mistakes and have continued to support us.

One thing we have never apologized for is taking our role of reviewer (and later our role as editor) seriously. We strive to share with our readers both the successes and flaws of a production. We realize that art is very subjective, and it is likely that your reaction to a piece will be different than ours. And that’s ok, we never imagined that anyone would think that our reviews would be the final word. Despite the flaws inherent in the theater awards systems (notably WATCH and Helen Hayes) it was gratifying when those systems agreed with our reviews, either by recognizing an outstanding aspect of a show, or by not recognizing a portion.

What are we proud of?

We’ve always attempted to respect our readers. We include the entire cast and crew lists with each review so that the entire production team gets a bit of credit. We don’t allow pseudonyms on our writers and commenters, we believe that the strongest opinions are those that can be attributed to a specific person. Our web sites don’t do any annoying advertising, such as pop-ups, pop-unders, animated ads, and have limited the number of ads to two banners, despite occasional requests for more ads so the rates could be less expensive. We don’t break articles into multiple pages in order to inflate our page hit counts.

We broadcast the WATCH nominations live, using audio in 2011 and video in 2012 and 2013. We interviewed audience members before and after each broadcast, and broadcast video before the ceremony and during intermission at the 2012 and 2013 WATCH ceremonies. We also live tweeted and liveblogged the WATCH Awards and Helen Hayes Awards several times, starting in 2011.

We have been a supporter of the Cappies since 2007, publishing over 450 reviews. By supporting local high school theater, we’ve been a part of building the love of theater in the next generation of actors, designers and technicians. Many of the high school productions we’ve attended have been excellent, despite huge casts, inexperienced staff, tiny budgets and challenging technical aspects. Please continue to support high school theater by attending your local school’s productions.

We share the site’s revenues with our reviewers. Granted, it wasn’t a lot of money. But it helped offset their travel expenses.

According to our site’s traffic analysis, over 500,000 people have read the site, viewing over 2,000,000 pages.

We also screen people who express interest reviewing. About one in three people don’t continue writing for the site after the screening process. The process involved a phone interview, looking over their theatrical resume and a writing sample, and then reviewing a production attended with Mike and Laura. We then can offer guidance on the review, as well as ensure that whatever they state in the review is justifiable. We also require our reviewers to fully disclose any potential biases they have with a production. If they’ve worked at a theater in the past year, or have a family member or close friend in the show, they are generally unable to review that production.

Our index of theater companies and productions is an never-ending project. This index attempted to list every show produced in the area by every company. We have over 5,000 pages of information cross-referenced on our sites. This takes a huge amount of time to get up and running, but we received comments from artistic directors who used the listings to help plan their future seasons.

We tried to build out a network of sites under the ShowBizRadio brand. We did this in several ways as an experiment to see if our current workflow was scalable. And we learned that the way we were operating really wasn’t. We started three new sites in different regions of the United States. One site simply wasn’t large enough to get any economies of scale despite covering an entire state. One site didn’t get enough traction from the existing theater community to be successful, and the last attempt was a partnership with an existing theater site. That partnership failed, despite a lot of work we did, due to internal problems at that other site. At least we tried!

We joined the American Theatre Critics Association. Being a tiny part of the Tony Award process for recommending the Regional Theatre Award was exciting. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much else to our membership, as we weren’t able to afford to travel around the country to attend conferences, and ATCA doesn’t do much online.

What could we have done better?

We should have obtained more help in managing the deluge of information coming in to us. We receive nearly 50 email messages per day (30,504 messages since starting to count on September 1, 2012). We also get numerous Facebook messages and event invitations, most of which are hidden by Facebook’s horrible messaging system. In the past year we’ve begun receiving press releases from theaters around the country.

We could have used social media better. While we are active on sites like Facebook and Twitter, they are for the most part time sinks, and a money pit. So we made the decision to use them primarily to link to our own articles. We very briefly explored using YouTube and Pinterest, but again, we chose to not use those sites.

We should have varied our monetizing efforts. The only real success we had was selling advertising space on the site. Exploring different ways to generate income earlier in the site’s life would have been fruitful. Last year’s effort at the ShowBizRadio Club brought in some extra revenue, but not enough to help sustain the sites.

Thank You

The ShowBizRadio web site archives will not be going away. Due to existing scheduling, there will be a few reviews coming out over the next month or so, but we will not be making new press reservations. Our performance and audition calendars will rapidly become outdated, but the time commitment to make changes and corrections is too great to continue.

Thank you to the people who have contributed reviews and articles to the site over the years. Mark Lee Adams, Joe Adcock, Bob Ashby, Genie Baskir, Amy Berlin, Barbara Trainin Blank, Nick Dauley, Mari Davis, Betsy Marks Delaney, McCall Doyle, Courtney Ferguson, Jennifer Gusso, Roman Gusso, Michelle James, Eric Jones, Jacob Kresloff, Bruce Levy, Amanda Lipon, Sara McMullin, Lisa Kay Morton, Rachael Murray, Jose Pineda, Rodrigo Pool, Kari Kitts Rothstein, David Siegel, Daniel Sherrier, Adam Sylvain, Ty Unglebower, Xandra Weaver. ShowBizRadio was better with your efforts.

As always, feel free to send us an email.

Thank you for allowing us to be a small part of the big world of theater. – Mike & Laura

With plenty of PG-13 rated Borscht Belt, burlesque-style “nudge nudge, wink wink” spinning humor, Arlington’s Signature Theatre is bringing a musical bauble, the premiere of Cloak and Dagger or the Case of the Golden Venus.

It is musical theater under the confident direction of Eric Schaeffer meant to bring a respite from the real world. And that is a very good thing, given the real world lately.

Cloak and Dagger has a full complement of hard-working purposeful groaners of jokes that Milton Berle may have written, some delightful hip-swinging ala Mae West by way of Harvey Feinstein, and mugs that Sheldon Leonard once played. If those names are fresh in your mind, along with Sunday nights with Ed Sullivan, or a trip to the Catskills, or perhaps the modern equivalent, a cruise ship meandering about. You can have a ball especially if you are in the mood for some anodyne bawdiness.

As the Signature marketing material notes, the storyline is this: “Third-rate detective Nick Cutter is down on his luck when a beautiful blonde bombshell tosses a very intriguing case (and herself) into his lap. For the next 90 minutes, Nick races through every New York neighborhood in this zany, mile-a-minute whodunit.” All in early 1950’s New York City. It isn’t Stacey Keach as Mike Hammer, but as a singing detective.

Four actors play the nearly 20 roles. Well make that two actors play nearly 18 roles. The cast includes Erin Driscoll as Jessica Rabbit, oops, I meant Helena Troy. Driscoll was most recently seen at Signature in The Three Penny Opera. Down-on-his-luck Detective Nick Cutter is played by Signature newcomer Doug Carpenter. The other 18 characters are under the amusing purview of Helen Hayes Awardees Christopher Bloch and Ed Dixon.

Oh, and one other small detail. Dixon also wrote the book, music and lyrics for this world premiere production of Cloak and Dagger. His score of about nineteen numbers, including several reprised songs, is a pastiche of lyrics and melody that mimics the spoofing nature of the production and its off-beat characters. There are plenty of percussion and sax-like notes that emanate from conductor Jenny Cartney and her jazzy four-piece band that includes keyboard, reeds and drums. Colorful orchestration by Jordon Ross Weinhold adds personality to each of the characters.

Some cute songs and their titles include “A Real Woman” with a vamping Mae West (Dixon) and an animated “Shake Your Maracas” (Bloch and Dixon). Driscoll gets to use her lovely, lovely voice in a torchy number entitled “Doors Close.” Carpenter’s beefy baritone opens the show with musical introductions of what the show is about: “The Worst of Times” and “The Best of Times.” Is the score memorable? Not really. But so what.

As for the dialogue; the quips can be witty shtick delivered with a knowing glance to make sure the audience is in on it. The broad pokes at the many different people who make up New York are not meant to harm.

The show is full of old-fashioned, New York City accented car-chase speed playful dialogue. The actors move about the minimally adorned stage (Daniel Conway) through three well-used doors, matching the dialogue delivery speed. There is also a large, sturdy-appearing marquee over the doors that provides a place for large black and white photos of New York City to be seen to set a New York state of mind.

The ever-changing costumes for Block and Dixon by way of Kathleen Geldard are a bright treat of flowing silks, or perhaps polyester, character defining hats, suits with wide lapels, and bemusing cross-dressing attire. And, there is also one very special neon yellow glowing image of the Lady in the New York harbor. Wig designer Anne Nesmith certainly enjoyed herself with her campy selections. As for Driscoll, she is wrapped in a form-hugging, cardinal red pencil dress.

Up for something with amusement, silliness, and banter propelled by a lively score and excellent voices? Then head off to Cloak and Dagger at Signature Theatre. It is a screwball musical to ice you down during this summer heat wave. Marvel at what tongue-in-cheek delivery whether straight dialogue or song can prove; a good time.

Photo Gallery

Helena Troy (Erin Driscoll) sings ‘Doors Close’	Helena Troy (Erin Driscoll) tosses an intriguing case to Nick Cutter (Doug Carpenter)
The Irish Landlady (Ed Dixon) sings ‘A Real Woman’	Manny (Christopher Bloch) sings ‘An Agent’
Helena Troy (Erin Driscoll) sings ‘Chinatown Blues’	Fat Tony (Ed Dixon), Nick Cutter (Doug Carpenter) and Gino (Christopher Bloch) sing ‘Who Put the Mob In’
Stanley (Christopher Bloch) and Helena Troy (Erin Driscoll)	Nick Cutter (Doug Carpenter, center) and Pinsky’s Chorus Girls sing ‘Shake Your Maracas’

Photos by Margot Schulman

Cast

• Nick Cutter: Doug Carpenter
• Helena Troy: Erin Driscoll
• Character Man Two: Christopher Bloch 
• Character Man One: Ed Dixon

Artistic and Design Team

• Book, Music & Lyrics by Ed Dixon
• Directed by Eric Schaeffer
• Orchestrations: Jordon Ross Weinhold
• Music Director: Jenny Cartney
• Scenic Design: Daniel Conway
• Costume Design: Kathleen Geldard
• Lighting Design: Collin K. Bills
• Sound Design: Lane Elms
• Wig Design: Anne Nesmith
• Stage Manager: Julie Meyer

Disclaimer: Signature Theatre provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Some reviews can be a struggle. What new can be written about Nobel Prize winning playwright Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) and his masterworks about the human condition? As for Beckett’s allusive, yet curiously poetic, Happy Days what might it say for contemporary audiences in these current times. Does the “old style” of existentialism still set the mind aflutter?

Let’s be clear, the 1961 Happy Days is theater with deeply drawn substance to chew on especially for those with an affinity for post-WW II “Theatre of the Absurd” chops. As Scena Literary Manager Anne Nottage wrote in program notes, the “Theater of the Absurd” was hell-bent “to shake audience from their conventional viewing habits.”

As Nottage wrote, playwrights like Beckett wanted to force audiences “to think about the absurdity and unresolved issues in their own lives.” For Beckett’s Happy Days Scena Theatre Artistic Director Robert McNamara wrote in his program notes that the play “presents us as audience with an astonishing central image…a veritable earth goddess.” She is living in “a kind of post-nuclear” world, hungering for with “mutual need and dependency.”

For your reviewer, recent new events brought images to mind of a genderless central protagonist as a POW or a prisoner of the state locked away in some hole of a maximum security prison, with sleep deprivation the main tool of control by an unseen force. The prisoner must find a way to survive until, well just until. So the ritual of talking, with words pouring forth gives a semblance of living.

Legendary DC actor and multi-Helen Hayes recipient, Nancy Robinette is a confident actor to behold in her role Winnie in Happy Days. She takes on her character who is entombed in the earth up to her chest in Act I and in Act II finds herself swallowed by sand up to her neck. Robinette spends her time before us as a sad eyed prophet with long bursts of optimism and a bright smile to carry her through her sun-lit, yet dreary day. No matter the nature of her miserable day, it is a happy day that she conjures in her mind even as tears are so close.

We are drawn to Robinette’s simple humanity as Winnie; the naturalness of her presentation. It is as if being stuck in a mound of sand is to be expected. Vocally her tone is a paint brush of words, with diction tight. Some words are drawn out in a hissing long breath as she often pronounces the phrase “the old style.” And yes there are little jokes, some about sexuality, that bring her and the laughter.

Visually the lines on Robinette’s face are the lines of a life lived. Her eyes, oh her eyes! They are matched and move to the words she speaks so smoothly. Her eyes are heavily covered with a thick cobalt blue eye shadow which can make her eyes small and sorrowful and then burst into being large moons of happiness. And she is just stuck in place at the center of the audience’s attention.

Between a piercing bell for waking and a bell to announce time for rest, the character Winnie struggles to pace her day. She tries to stay alert and even has a routine to brush her teeth and put on make-up. Well, at least while she can move her arms to reach her close-by leather hand bag.

Winnie’s only human contact is Willie (a loud, annoyed, very precise Stephen Lorne Williams), her husband or partner. He is largely unseen to the audience and not seen at all by Winnie until a few short critical moments as the play reaches its end. He lives in a small cave out of Winnie’s view from her high mound of earth. One trait that Winnie admires about her Willie is his ability to sleep which she cannot. She calls it a “marvelous gift.”

In Act I, actor Williams is seen a few times, but only from the rear. From what the audience sees, he is dressed in quite informal attire, with a straw hat covering his bald pate. In the final moments of the play the audience finally sees Williams as he crawls up the mound toward Robinette in full formal attire including spats. As he reaches up toward Robinette, he becomes frozen almost touching her hand. Or is he reaching for the gun that is also near-by? With his last word; “win” he brings a final outburst of words and humming of a waltz from Robinette. And darkness falls.

Scenic designer Michael C. Stepowany has given the audience a desolate, dun-colored waste land; a dry desert of a landscape barren of life. There is a mound in the center for Robinette and a backdrop of a blue sky with one fair weather puffy cloud, which a photographers would relish. Multiple Helen Hayes nominated lighting designer Marianne Meadows provides halogen white-hot lighting worthy of a New Mexico desert, with a hint of amber to highlight the set’s sand and pebbles surrounding Robinette.

The costume design by Alisa Mandel gives Robinette a matronly look. She is in a dark blue dress along with a strand of large pearls around her neck. Robinette is topped-off with a little pill of a hat with some eye-blinking ostrich feathers shooting up from the front. Filled to the brim is a black leather hand bag, just in Robinette’s reach during Act I. Inside is a bevy of items by way of props designer Joyce Milford.

Denise R. Rose’s sound design has a most piercing buzzer bell to wake character Winnie as well as to inform her when it is time for a moment of rest. It certainly startled the audience at the performance.

“So little to say, so little to do, and the fear so great,” says the character Winnie. Yet she finds a way to go on looking ever forward to other Happy Days. That is, should tomorrow come for her.

Your reviewer is brought back to Bob Dylan’s “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” with its final refrain, “who do they think could bury you?” For Robinette’s Winnie as created by Beckett, sorrow is always breaking in, just as she finds a reason to be optimistic even as she is buried ever so slowly.

Photo Gallery

Nancy Robinette in the lead role of Winnie	Stephen Lorne Williams as Willie and Nancy Robinette as Winnie

Photos by Don Summers, Jr.

Cast

• Winnie: Nancy Robinette
• Willie: Stephen Lorne Williams

Artistic and Design

• Director: Robert McNamara
• Scenic Designer: Michael C. Stepowany
• Costume Designer: Alisa Mandel
• Lighting Designer: Marianne Meadows
• Dramturg: Gabriele Jakobi
• Sound Designer: Denise R. Rose
• Stage Manager: Lena Salinas
• Production Manager: Michael Sperber
• Properties: Joyce Milford

Disclaimer: Scena Theatre provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Occasionally a production of a familiar show can completely change how that it is perceived and performed. Such was Joseph Papp’s 1980 Central Park production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, in which Kevin Kline reinvented the role of the Pirate King as an athletic, comic swashbuckler. Coming at a time when the venerable D’Oyly Carte company was on its last legs, artistically as well as financially (having seen some of their touring productions here in 1976 and 1978, I can testify to the former), Papp’s production reinvigorated Pirates for late 20th century audiences.

Like any innovation, however, a groundbreaking production of a show can evolve into old hat. For most of 30 years, directors of Pirates productions seemed to feel compelled to replicate the Papp production, even those parts of it — like its hyper-vaudevillian approach to the Sergeant and his policemen — that never worked well. Fortunately, with the passage of time, productions have begun to find their own footing once again. I saw a very competent traditional take on Pirates by the Madison (Wisconsin) Savoyards two summers ago, and the current Victorian Lyric Opera Company (VLOC) production in Rockville is a very lively effort both the musical and staging aspects of which succeed delightfully.

Director Felicity Ann Brown (who is also part of the choreography team, along with Helen Aberger and Amanda Jones) makes the show move fluidly. Not for this Pirates the dreaded “G&S two-step,” which has passed for movement in too many productions. The choreographic highlight is a production number version of the Pirates’ “Come friends who plow the sea” in the second act, which with its two planned encores — including brief Fiddler and Chorus Line moments and a variety of kick lines — earned the loud approval of the near-capacity Saturday night crowd.

Brown made other creative choices that worked beautifully. Among the female chorus members were four older ladies, who played chaperones to the younger women. When Frederic is singing “Oh is there not one maiden breast…,” the chaperones do their best to contain their charges’ enthusiasm, causing the maidens’ “Oh no, not one” to make the most theatrical sense that I have ever seen.

Even by standards of Gilbert’s topsy-turvy world, the Major-General’s second act number “Sighing softly to the river” makes remarkably little sense. Brown wisely upstaged the Major-General’s gyrations and uber-silly lyrics by having two tree set pieces moved about by Pirates, while befuddled policemen tried to keep pace with them. Shortly afterward, Brown tops this with a smoothly executed rope trick, in which the Pirates’ capture of the girls morphs into their capture of the police.

Musically, music director Joseph Sorge’s full orchestra performed with excellent attention to tone, dynamics, and tempi: Gwen Earle on oboe and percussionist George Hutlin had particularly nice moments. Sorge conducted a lovely rendition of the a capella “Hail poetry,” with the cast in an appropriately choral formation. The quality of the choral singing, by both the men’s and women’s ensembles, was high throughout, even in those numbers involving substantial movement.

Jeffrey Gates, as the Pirate King, was far and away the outstanding soloist. With a robust, yet subtle, baritone voice, as well as a dynamic stage presence, Gates commanded his scenes, whether in a solo number like “I am a pirate king” or playing well with others in “A paradox.” For “Poor wandering one,” a Mabel needs to have the same sort of coloratura chops as Cunegonde in Candide’s Glitter and Be Gay. Keely Borland passed that test. (Courtney Kalbacker plays this role in alternate performances.) Stevie Miller, Amanda Jones, and Rachel Ackerman nicely supported Mabel as the three female chorus leads.

In any Pirates, an important challenge faces Mabel and Frederic in the second act. Having been typically silly G&S characters throughout, their exaggerated romantic and duty-bound natures, respectively, driving their comic excess, they must suddenly and credibly handle the score’s sweetest moment, the touching duet “Ah leave me not to pine.” Borland was able to generate the requisite emotion, physically as well as vocally. As Frederic, Timothy Ziese was as fresh-faced, enthusiastic, and guilelessly dutiful as one could ask for, also contributing a pleasant tenor voice to the proceedings. He might have connected more solidly with scene partners at times. In “Ah leave me not to pine,” though, while Mabel focused on him and her relationship with him, Ziese was oriented straight out to the audience, diminishing some of the feeling the song can convey.

Wendy Stengel as Ruth and George Willis as Major General Stanley were not as strong vocally as the other principals. Stengel had a rather thin sound. G&S patter baritones are not expected to be pure singers, of course, but Willis struggled noticeably with pitch at times. While not the most graceful actor ever to assay the role, Willis had great fun with an encore to the “I am the very model of a modern major-general” that spoofed current pop music. Stengel had excellent energy and moved well in the “A paradox” scene.

Ruth is Exhibit A for Gilbert’s chronic disdain for middle-aged women (47 years old: the horror). Sometime it would be fun for a director to reimagine her as a relatively hot, toned 40-something in pursuit of a cute young thing. Think “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” visits Penzance. But that would be a different production.

Samuel is a supporting role that can often disappear. To his credit, Rick DuPuy made his character’s presence felt, and he handled his solos in “Pour, oh pour the pirate sherry” and “Come friends who plow the sea” creditably. As the Sergeant of Police, Tom Goode was vocally adequate and brought an appropriately schlumpy presence as the hapless leader of as decrepit a bunch of bobbies as one could imagine.

Denise Young’s costume deigns for the women accented the director’s contrast between the younger and older chorus women, with the younger women in variously colored pastels while the chaperones were in uniform, subdued grayish dresses with thin stripes. As the lead, Mabel wore white. Generally, the ladies’ and pirates’ costumes were colorful and flattering to the actors, with the Pirate King and Major General being in different sorts of striking red uniforms. The combination of the Major General’s 50s sitcom-style pajamas and his plumed military hat in the second act was humorously effective. Only Ruth’s costume was ill-conceived, giving her an unnecessarily awkward look. The costumes for the policemen were baggy, which, intentionally or not, suited the way they were played.

The production sported some nice prop moments. Carl and Jane Mayott provided dolls and teddy bears for the young women in the opening scene of act two and newspapers with a period look for the young women to appear to read during “How beautifully blue the sky.” My favorite, however, was a large, multi-hued parrot hand puppet that one of the pirates carried throughout, manipulated to look as if it were joining the singing. My only regret is that the bird did not get an individual bow in the curtain call.

Director Brown also designed the set, which, despite some quirks, functioned well in facilitating interesting and balanced stage pictures and movement. Among the quirks was, in act two, a model house the style of which was more Virginia colonial than Cornwall. On the stage left side of the cyc was a drawing of a large 18th century-style man-o-war, hardly the sort of ship that Victorian-era pirates (had there been such) would have chosen. The second act set included grave markers for “Porter” and “Murgatroyd.” Brown correctly gauged that G&S fans — especially of a show the libretto of which cites “that infernal nonsense Pinafore” — would find a cross-reference or two irresistible.

VLOC was the area’s second G&S-centered group to be formed, starting life in the late 1970s as a splinter group of the older Montgomery (later Washington) Savoyards. With the apparent demise of the Savoyards — a casualty not only of economic troubles but also of considerable muddle concerning its niche in the local theater scene — VLOC stands as the only local company specializing in operetta. The success of this Pirates, both artistically and in terms of drawing an audience, is a hopeful sign that VLOC can continue to prosper by maintaining its focus and quality.

Director’s Note

Earlier this year, I heard actor John Lithgow speak at The University of Maryland. He told a story of an orchestra that had been playing a particular piece in rep all season, and was getting bored with it, and it showed in their rehearsal. Just before a performance, the conductor addressed the orchestra, and told him that he understood their frustration, but he wanted them to go out and play for two specific people in the audience: The person who is hearing the piece for the very first time, and the person who is hearing it for the very last.

In directing this show, I’ve tried to keep that perspective in mind. There are those of you who were probably brought here by a friend or a parent or grandparent and are hearing Sullivan’s music and Gilbert’s jokes for the very first time today, and then those of you who have seen countless productions of Pirates in your lifetime and are bound to make comparisons between this and all of the other productions you’ve seen. My hope is that we will provide something for everyone in this audience, providing entertainment for you no matter what your level of Pirates expertise.

Pirates is the first Gilbert &Sullivan show I ever saw. I was a student at Westtown School, a Friends school in Pennsylvania, and our class was taken to see the middle school’s production. I thought it was a very fun and silly show, but I did not retain much of the plot. Still, my grandmother, upon hearing I had seen the show, impressed upon me that this was something very important. She herself had played Ruth in a production at the very same Quaker school in the 1930’s. A family legend stands that my great-grandfather had started the G&S tradition when he came there as a teacher in the 1920’s, as a way to sneak some music into the rigid curriculum at a time when Quakers were not quite sure if music and theatre were appropriate uses of student time. I’m sure that Gilbert’s cleverness with words, Sullivan’s history of writing music for the church, and the rigidness of Victorian values displayed in the G&S canon helped to grease the wheels needed for approval.

This family tradition carried on to me when I first graced the stage as a sailor, complete with stipple-brushed beard, in H.M.S. Pinafore at age twelve. I got involved with building sets for the first time, helping to hoist a giant mast and rigging on stage, I climbed up into the catwalk to focus lights, I cut off pants and glued ribbons on hats to make sailor costumes, and was fully enveloped by full range of the magic of theatre for the first time. To this day, I remain that involved, even when my primary duty is as director, because I love that feeling of creation of every little piece of the magic.

After that first production of Pinafore, the music and words were permanently engraved into my mind. I didn’t realize the significance of this until a few months later, when I was watching the cartoon Animaniacs and the segment “H.M.S. Yakko” came on and I realized I had been let in on this incredible extended inside-joke specifically for Gilbert & Sullivan fans. Sure the cartoon was goofy and full of slapstick that any child would be amused by, but I could identify all of the score as pieces of H.M.S. Pinafore and Pirates, and I understood that “I am the very model of a cartoon individual” wasn’t just something from a kids show…this was an exclusive club I had been allowed into…a shared culture of the performing arts. This membership lets people in on the G&S allusions that are seen in The Simpsons, Pretty Woman, West Wing, Family Guy, Star Trek: Insurrection, and far too many more to list. Gilbert & Sullivan is part of our cultural literacy that warrants passing on to future generations. Thank you for being here today, and keep passing it on.

Cast

• Frederic: Timothy Ziese
• The Pirate King: Jeffrey Gates
• Samuel: Rick DuPuy
• Ruth: Wendy Stengel
• Major General Stanley: George Willis
• Mabel: Keely Borland (Courtney Kalbacker in alternate performances)
• Edith: Rachel Ackerman
• Kate: Amanda Jones
• Isabel: Stevie Miller
• Sergeant of Police: Tom Goode
• Young Frederic: Gabriella Jones
• Chorus of Pirates, Police, and General Stanley’s Wards and their governesses:
• Helen Aberger, Brian Beard, Densie Cross, Kayla Cummings, Kris Devine, Tara Hockensmith, Chuck Howell, Rand Huntzinger, Ralph Johnson, Joanna Jones, Josh Katz, Erik Kreil, Lauren Lentini, Carl Maryott, Jane Maryott, Josh Milton, Rowyn Peel, Brian Polk, Bill Rogers, Kevin Schellhase, Sarah Seider, Barbara Semiatin, Ed Vilade, Maria Wilson, Kent Woods

Orchestra

• Violin 1: Steve Natrella (CM), Bonnie Barrows, Peter Mignerey, Irv Berner
• Violin 2: Martin Brown, Edwin Schneider, Cassie Conley
• Viola: Amanda Laudwein, Stephanie Cross
• Percussion: George Hutlin
• Bass: Pete Gallanis
• Flute: Jackie Miller, Louise Hill
• Oboe: Gwen Earle
• Clarinet: Laura Langbein, Laura Bornhoeft
• Bassoon: Steve Weschler, Betsy Haanes
• Horn: Joe Cross, Lora Katz, Gail Hixenbaugh
• Trumpet: Curt Anstine, Rick Pasciuto, Tom Gleason
• Trombone: Steve Ward, Frank Eliot, Al Potter
• Cello: Michael Stein, Sheryl Friedlander, Andrew Nixon

Production Staff

• Producer: Denise Young
• Director: Felicity Ann Brown
• Music Director: Joseph Sorge
• Assistant Music Director: Jenny Craley Bland
• Assistant to the Director: Helen Aberger
• Stage Manager: Douglas Maryott
• Choreography: Amanda Jones, Felicity Ann Brown, Helen Aberger
• Scenic Designer: Felicity Ann Brown
• Costume Designer: Denise Young
• Lighting Designer: Noam Lautman
• Rehearsal Pianists: Jenny Craley Bland, Joanna Jones
• Light Board Operator: Noam Lautman
• Makeup/Hair Designer: Renee Silverstone
• Master Carpenter: Devin Work
• Set Crew/Painters: Helen Aberger, Felicity Ann Brown, Rober Dennis, Kris Devine,
• Ben Dransfield, Alice Drew, Tony Dwyer, Blair Eig, Dean Fiala, Rand
• Huntzinger, William Kolodrubetz, Sarah Martin, Douglas Maryott, Anna Polk, Brian Polk, Bill Rogers, Sarah Seider, Scott Tennent, Ed Vilade, Kent Wood, Timothy Ziese
• Costume Construction: Denise Cross, Stephanie Cross, Rebecca Meyerson, Stevie
• Miller, Felicity Brown, Sarah Martin, Maria Wilson, Lauren Lentini, Kathie
• Rogers, Barbara Miller
• Props: Carl & Jane Maryott
• Photography: Harvey Lavine
• Audition Pianist: Jenny Craley Bland
• Program: Courtney Kalbacker, Denise Young
• Surtitles: Douglas Maryott, Annie Gribben
• Cover & Poster Art: Erika White Abrams
• Publicity: Courtney Kalbacker, Ed Vilade, Felicity Ann Brown
• House Management: Denise Young, Cassandra Stevens
• Set and Costume Storage: Rockville Civic Center

Disclaimer: Victorian Lyric Opera Company provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

In the “chair force” world depicted in George Brandt’s Grounded we witness the slow grinding boredom of the new way to wage war, punctuated by moments when a pilot feels a God-like rush to take action against the bad guys. The warrior is, at first, a strutting “gung-ho lifer” who initially has no compunctions about wasting a bad guy’s life until more personal issues find their way into the warrior’s mind.

But then the warrior is no longer piloting a high-flying, fancy, F-16, doing unseen damage from high in the blue sky. This warrior is piloting a high technology drone which endlessly surveils and then can destroy someone in the time it takes a signal to transmit half way around the world into the air above Afghanistan…in this case, a bit over one second. Then a silent poof as a missile is launched, destruction happens seen from grey images on a screen.

To some this particular warrior may be an unlikely one. She is an unnamed, grounded pilot. She was grounded after she unexpectedly became pregnant and then became a mother and wife. No longer flying high into the wild blue yonder, she is a drone pilot in a barcolounger an hour’s drive from Las Vegas in the Nevada desert. A desert not unlike what is in Afghanistan.

Grounded is a fairly taut portrayal of this unnamed Air Force Major’s life as she unravels into a break-down into a lock-up awaiting a court-martial. Grounded is not so much a drama about the morality of new warfare methods, nor is it a flashy production full of visual pyrotechnics. In its own way, it is very old-fashioned; a one actor monologue with the pilot (Lucy Ellinson) trying to get inside the audience’s head and stir things up.

Grounded is to be appreciated for Ellinson’s acting prowess over its 60 intermission-free, claustrophobic minutes. The audience comes to know Ellinson’s character as her mind opens up even as she is “locked” away in the transparent box that is her mind. It is her mind-box we peer into as her crack-up slowly begins, taking away her pride, her sense of self and much more.

Now before I go too much further into this review, let me say this, I was once in the Air Force, as an intelligence officer in a war long ago. I was stationed in the Far East and worked in a large windowless box, with some of my unit in a trailer not unlike what is depicted in Grounded miles farther from my own main windowless box. It was a different war, Vietnam, and I was not a “gung-ho lifer.” I recall utter monotony, until events happened which set all into a highly stressed mode. I was often enough the only officer on duty in the world of around the clock shift work. Decisions had to be made. Actions had to be taken. So, Grounded is a show that brought my own memories flooding back.

Under Christopher Haydon’s straight forward direction of Grounded, we first come in contact with the Pilot as she is in a transparent box, by way of set designer Oliver Townsend. She is actively surveilling the audience. AC-DC like rock music (sound designer Tom Gibbons) is blaring. The Pilot is not passive as she stands in her at-ease position even moving into a more swagger laden pose with hands in front, always watching. And the words begin to flow. The grinding down of her pride, her personhood, and the unnerving juxtaposition of killing from a distance only to drive home and be with her husband and daughter.

We see her descent into her own private Hell as her words tumble out, her fists harden, her pilot’s cock-sure strut is no more. Lights flash in the mind box as things happen. In the last gripping five minutes or so of the production, the audience witnesses intimately the Pilot’s actions and inactions. Frozen. Traumatic. Then a black-out leaving the audience to contemplate the issues raised.

As directed by Haydon, who is the artistic director of Britain’s Gate Theatre and directed the show there, Grounded is a well-accomplished production with a rhythm of life working in the stressful conditions that war brings. Some of the technical and acting elements hit quite well. The blaring music to drown out boredom and help to alleviate stress. The pilot’s need for a blatant kind of lusty life to prove herself alive.

This is playwright Brandt’s introductory course into modern, distant warfare. It will not be the last such teaching production from a playwright or screen writer, I am certain. Grounded is not a drama about the larger morality issues of new warfare including the use of drones. It is more an intimate portrait of one particular woman warrior. A warrior who believes totally in “protect and destroy” as an adage. Who thinks being a pilot is being a “rock star.” Who at first wears a flight suit (Oliver Townsend again) as a powerful sexy attire that draws men to her.

In an interview, Grounded playwright Brant is noted to say: “I approached this play with a lot of questions and wasn’t sure where I stood with this new technology and the moral implications of it; I’m happy anytime American soldiers lives are not at risk, but am troubled by some of the moral implications of [drone warfare] and what it’s doing to our standing in the world.”

Grounded is an issue-raising script and performance that doesn’t shrivel away from tough matters. It has its share of tragedies depicting a world rarely shown on stage. It is another import from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival but will strike a different nerve than the vastly different Black Watch that Shakespeare Theatre brought to town a few years ago. Of possible interest for those who see Grounded is a new movie that will be opening soon in DC, that started as a play written by Matt Witten. It had a one performance screening last week at the E Street Cinema. It is called “Drones.”

Studio Theatre’s artistic director David Muse has brought to DC, what is surely to be a growing list of theater productions not unlike what some of us vividly recall from the Vietnam War era. Different wars with new artistic visions and distinct voices.

Note: I recall this from 1970 as my unit (called Able Flight back then) would sometimes sing from Elton Johns’ “Burn Down the Mission” with lyrics by Bernie Taupin:

If we’re gonna stay alive
Watch the black smoke fly to heaven
See the red flame light the sky.
Burn down the mission
Burn it down to stay alive
It’s our only chance of living
Take all you need to live inside.

Photo Gallery

Photos provided by Studio Theatre

Cast

• The Pilot: Lucy Ellinson

• Playwright: George Brant
• Director: Christopher Haydon
• Set and Costume Designer: Oliver Townsend
• Lighting Designer: Mark Howland
• Sound Designer: Tom Gibbons
• Technical Tour Manager: Katy Munroe Farlie
• Studio Technical Director: Robert Shearin

Disclaimer: Studio Theatre provided a complimentary media ticket to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Opening & Closing

• The Super and the Mundane/Hotel Times, Artstream, Silver Spring, MD

Opening

• Much Ado About Nothing, Fat & Greasy Citizens Brigade, Washington, DC
• DC Black Theatre Festival, DC Black Theatre Festival, Washington, DC
• Pinkalicious, Adventure Theatre MTC, Glen Echo, MD
• Pride and Prejudice, Homeschool Theatre Troupe, Woodbridge, VA
• Disney’s The Lion King, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC
• Buyer and Cellar, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, DC

Closing

• Titus Andronicus, Faction of Fools, Washington, DC
• Ghost the Musical, Drama Learning Center, Columbia , MD
• Kwaidan, Spooky Action Theater, Washington, DC
• Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Fauquier Community Theatre, Warrenton, VA
• Bat Boy: The Musical, 1st Stage, McLean, VA
• The Pirates of Penzance, Victorian Lyric Opera Company, Rockville, MD
• Some Girl(s), Unquiet Theatre Company, Lorton, VA
• Art, Hard Bargain Players, Accokeek, MD

Auditions

• 2014/2015 Season Auditions, Discovery Theater, Washington, DC
  • Monday, Jun 16th@10:00AM
  • Tuesday, Jun 17th@10:00AM
  • Wednesday, Jun 18th@12:00PM – Callbacks
• My Fair Lady, Damascus Theatre Company, Gaithersburg, MD
  , Damascus, MD
  • Thursday, Jun 19th@7:00PM
  • Friday, Jun 20th@7:00PM
  • Saturday, Jun 21st@2:00PM – callbacks (By invitation only)
• Children of Eden, 2nd Star Productions, Bowie, MD
  • Saturday, Jun 21st@11:00AM

Larry Alan Smith, festival artistic and executive director indicated that this year’s Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and Academy has the theme “Amazona, The Rhythms and Colors of South America.” Each of the many and varied arts activities and performances will be built around the theme.

One of the highlights of the growing summer Festival will be the theater production of Our Lady of the Clouds, written by South American playwright Aristides Vargas and directed by DC area director Stevie Zimmerman. Zimmerman, from Falls Church, Virginia, has past directorial credits including By Jeeves and The Pitman Painters at Tysons’ 1st Stage. She has also directed at the Capitol Fringe, the Theatre of the First Amendment, McLean Drama Company, and Woolly Mammoth Theater. Last summer Zimmerman directed Art at the 2013 Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and Academy.

Our Lady of the Clouds was written by Arístides Vargas, an award-winning Latin American actor, director and writer. Originally from Argentina, he currently lives in Ecuador. “Most of his plays are about memory, exile, and being uprooted” said Zimmerman. His world can be one of magical realism.

How does the show begin? Two travelers, Bruna and Oscar, meet unexpectedly in a nondescript little place and come to learn of their shared past; a past with many layers they never knew existed. Their shared past includes memories of events in their lives in a Latin American town called ‘Nuestra Señora de las Nubes’ (Our Lady of the Clouds).

According to Zimmerman, the production will include a series of vivid short scenes and arresting vignettes in which we learn about the two characters: their lives and the place they came from, the town called Our Lady of the Clouds. It is a “crisp, interesting translation” of a play originally written in Spanish, Zimmerman noted. It is about “what it means to be an exile, to be searching for meaning in a crazy world.” Perhaps an audience might recall “The Twilight Zone” with episodes of Rod Serling magic.

“Many of the scenes stand in for the various ways” people try to create a pure new world and find that new world “gradually corrupted to the point where people who speak truth about it must be exiled.” added Zimmerman. “I hope we can bring some interesting and provocative characters to life in intriguing and unusual ways.”

Both Smith and Zimmerman noted that the show will be in an uncommonly delightful setting; a “Big Red Barn” not far from the main Wintergreen Resort. “It’s a wonderful space that is like a blank canvas.” said Zimmerman. “It’s not a traditional performance space so you can sort of allow it to be anywhere and everywhere. It’s also very intimate – not too many people in the audience – and the actors are right there in front of you, no barriers, no curtains!”

Two local professional DC actors are featured in the production. They are Liz Dutton as Bruna and Edward Nagel as Oscar. In a recent email conversation, Dutton indicated that one of the reasons for wanting to be in the cast was “the challenge, definitely!”

“It’s a two person play, so you have to be present with your scene partner at every moment of the piece – I was very excited about the opportunity to delve into such an intellectual and thought-provoking piece that allows the actors to set up the world that they are living in and convey that story to the audience.”

As for the characters? “We play a wide variety of characters in the piece – the main story line centers around two wandering souls who happen upon each other and realize they are from the same fictional town.” said Dutton. “They then relive how the town was founded and how different characters in the town react to certain events – it provides a narrative on how people view their surroundings and circumstances, both political and personal, and how it shapes their lives. We play grandmothers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, fathers and daughters – lots of different characters!”

The full Festival begins July 7 and runs until August 3, 2014. “it is such a gorgeous place and setting to experience artistry.” said Smith. “All on the crest of the Blue Ridge.”

Where and When: Our Lady of the Clouds performed as Visual Arts and Theatre portion of the Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival at Big Red Barn at Rodes Farm, 826 Rodes Farm Drive, Nellysford, VA. Five evening performances: July 19, 20, 24, 26 and 27, 2014. Tickets $10-$20. For tickets call the Box office: (434) 325-8292. Note: A wine reception will follow first performance on Saturday evening, July 19. A talkback follows the performance of Sunday evening, July 20.

If one needed an “excuse” not to be home watching the Tony Awards, nothing could serve better than a near-perfect production of Noel Coward’s comedy of unmannerly manners, Private Lives, at Shakespeare Theatre Company.

There isn’t a false note in the direction of Maria Aitkin, an acclaimed Coward actor and teacher, or in the performances of James Waterston and Bianca Amato as Elyot and Amanda. The couple had divorced five years previously and re-meet while on their honeymoons with new spouses, only to find their passions quickly rekindled. Autumn Hurlbert and Jeremy Webb, playing those spouses, the hysterical Sybil and the well-meaning but rigid Victor, ably match the leads. Even in her small role, Jane Ridley grabs and holds the stage for as long as the playwright allows her to.

It doesn’t hurt that this may be Coward’s funniest play — certainly the wit never takes a break and the barbs fly fast and furious, especially between Elyot and Amanda. They’re hopelessly in love and equally hopelessly unable to live together for very long without objects and insults being thrown. Later Sybil and Victor get drawn into the fray, but they are mere amateurs learning from the masters…

From the minute Waterston steps out on the balcony of his and Sybil’s hotel suite, you know he’s in command. Of a perfect English accent, the wit, the right look, and the bits of physical comedy later on.

Plus the actor’s chemistry with Amato’s alternatively sexy, playful, forbidding, and defiant (almost feminist) — not to mention mercurial–Amanda sizzles. From Act II, although not much of a plot is advanced, we seem to learn every nuance of romantic attraction, happy, passionate, frustrated, and miserable.

You might say Private Lives is a master class in love, so much so that we forgive Elyot and Amanda for outrageous and insensitive behavior and overlook the fact that we know nothing about them other than what we see — violations both of morality and theatrical conventions up to that point.

The play is light-hearted; you’ll likely find yourself laughing at almost every line, especially in a production as on target as this one. But you’ll also feel the reality of two people who may be more elegant and devil-may-care than we are but are still looking, underneath their acerbic, callous statements, for a true connection.

In short, Elyot and Amanda are too lovable to judge. And the more-upright Sybil and Victor come across as tedious, even as a part of us feels sorry for the awful way they’re being treated.

Beyond the underlying serious side, Private Lives is hilarious, and this production gives you plenty of cause to laugh. I’m certain many audience members would have sat through a repeat performance right away.

It is fitting that Allen Moyer’s sets — elegant in Act I, and bohemian tossed into disarray in the next two — move forward slightly as each Act begins. Like the text itself, they beckon us to enter the chaotic but endearing world of Elyot and Amanda.

This production is debuting at STC, but cut its teeth in the spring of 2012 at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, with the same cast and director.

Cast

• Amanda: Bianca Amato
• Sibyl: Autumn Hurlbert
• Louise: Jane Ridley
• Elyot: James Waterston
• Victor: Jeremy Webb

Direction and Design

• Director: Maria Aitken
• Set Designer: Allen Moyer
• Costume Designer: Candice Donnelly
• Lighting Designer: Philip S. Rosenberg
• Sound Design & Music Arrangements: Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen
• Music Director: Barbara Irvine
• Choreographer: Daniel Pelzig
• Fight Choreographer: Ted Hewlett
• Head of Voice and Text (for STC): Ellen O’Brien
• Original Casting Director: Alaine Alldaffer
• Additional Casting, of Binder Casting: Jack Bowdan
• Literary Associate: Drew Lichtenberg
• Assistant Director: Gus Heagerty
• Production Stage Manager: Leslie Sears
• Assistant Stage Manager: Elizabeth Clewley

Disclaimer: Shakespeare Theatre Company provided two complimentary media tickets to ShowBizRadio for this review.

Opening & Closing

• Spring Awakening, Little Butterfly Theatre Company, McLean, VA

Opening

• Beats, Studio Theatre, Washington, DC
• Grounded, Studio Theatre, Washington, DC
• Avenue Q, Olney Theatre Center, Olney, MD
• The Pirates of Penzance, Victorian Lyric Opera Company, Rockville, MD
• The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Theater Alliance, Washington, DC
• Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Fauquier Community Theatre, Warrenton, VA
• Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Colonial Players, Annapolis, MD
• The Producers, Sandy Spring Theatre Group, Gaithersburg, MD
• Some Girl(s), Unquiet Theatre Company, Lorton, VA
• West Side Story, Riverside Dinner Theater, Fredericksburg, VA
• 50th Old Time Music Hall, British Players, Kensington, MD
• 84, Charing Cross Road, Off the Quill, Greenbelt, MD
• Some Girls, Unquiet Theatre Company, Lorton, VA
• La Traviata, The In Series, Washington, DC
• Side Show, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC
• Plaza Suite, Little Theatre of Alexandria, Alexandria, VA

Closing

• The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Forum Theatre, Silver Spring, MD
• Sunny and Licorice, Arts on the Horizon, Alexandria, VA
• Rumors, Providence Players, Falls Church, VA
• Turandot, National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, Washington, DC
• The Taming of the Shrew, Laurel Mill Playhouse, Laurel, MD
• The Princess and the Pea, Workhouse Theatre, Lorton, VA

Auditions

• Silver Spring Stage One Act Festival, Silver Spring Stage, Silver Spring, MD
  • Monday, Jun 9th@7:00PM – Callbacks
• The Wedding Singer, Arlington Players, Arlington, VA
  • Monday, Jun 9th@7:30PM
  • Tuesday, Jun 10th@7:30PM
  • Thursday, Jun 12th@7:30PM – Callbacks (By invitation only)
  • Saturday, Jun 14th@7:30PM
• Alice, Dodgeball Theatre, Herndon, VA
  • Wednesday, Jun 11th@7:30PM – Callbacks
• Sage of Blackwell, Part of Capital Fringe, Washington, DC
  • Thursday, Jun 12th@7:00PM

ShowBizRadio is thrilled to be a supporter of the Cappies program. Since 2007, we have published nearly 400 student-written reviews of high school productions, and have included photographs of the productions when the schools have provided photos.

Marketing and Publicity

• Gracie Denton, Jordon McCray, Ben Roberts, Peter Serle, West Potomac High School, Spamalot

Sound

• Kimberly Fonseca, Lydia Bennsky, Hayfield Secondary School, Marvin’s Room

Lighting

• Kristen Chiama, Allison Tickner, Westfield High School, Little Shop of Horrors

Sets

• Natalie Jurkowski, Ella Moore,WPHS set crew, West Potomac High School, Spamalot

Costumes

• Lesya Melnychenko, Becky Lehner, West Potomac High School, Spamalot

Make-up

• Lecia Stock, Clare Smith, Nurbanu Dayaz, Charlotte Martin, Washington Lee High School, Macbeth

Props

• Stephen Cox, Sarah Dickenson, David Koenigsberg, Emily Tobin , Westfield High School, Little Shop of Horrors

Special Effects and or Technology

• Chantilly Tech Team, Chantilly High School, The Front Page

Stage Crew

• Darby Binford, Vicki Clinch, McKenzie Moskowitz, Marybeth Ward, Fairfax High School, 9 to 5: The Musical

Orchestra

• West Potomac Rice and Beans, West Potomac High School, Spamalot

Choreography

• Kaila Anderson, West Potomac High School, Spamalot

Creativity

• Nate Welsh, Composer, H-B Woodlawn, The Tempest

Ensemble in a Play

• The Sisters, Washington Lee High School, Macbeth

Ensemble in a Musical

• The Barber Shop Quartet, Annandale High School, The Music Man

Featured Actress

• Nikki Amico , West Potomac High School, Spamalot

Featured Actor

• Julian Sanchez, Westfield High School, Little Shop of Horrors

Female Dancer

• Gabrielle Bullard, The Madeira School, Footloose

Male Dancer

• Elijah King, Robinson Secondary School, Curtains

Female Vocalist

• Alie Campbell, Loudoun Valley HS, Legally Blonde

Male Vocalist

• Vinny Okechukwu, Heritage High School, Les Miserables

Comic Actress in a Play

• Cindy Funes, Hayfield Secondary School, Marvin’s Room

Comic Actor in a Play

• Patrick Moore, Wakefield School, The Importance of Being Earnest

Comic Actress in a Musical

• Paige Cilluffo, James Madison HS, The Music Man

Comic Actor in a Musical

• Jack Gereski, South County High School, The Producers

Supporting Actress in a Play

• Lily Brock, Langley High School, The Children’s Hour

Supporting Actor in a Play

• Nicholas Cadby-Spicer, Wakefield High School, Rebel Without A Cause

Supporting Actress in a Musical

• Grace Vaughan, Loudoun Valley HS, Legally Blonde

Supporting Actor in a Musical

• Eddie Perez , West Potomac High School, Spamalot

Lead Actress in a Play

• Alicia Hartz, Washington Lee High School, Macbeth

Lead Actor in a Play

• Stephen Coakley, Tuscarora, Noises Off

Lead Actress in a Musical

• Samantha Dempsey, Westfield High School, Little Shop of Horrors

Lead Actor in a Musical

• Alex Stone, McLean High School, Catch Me If You Can

Song

• You Won’t Succeed On Broadway, West Potomac High School, Spamalot

Play

• The Children’s Hour, Langley High School

Musical

• Spamalot, West Potomac High School