The Sembrich has launched “Enrico in the Jungle,” the fourth installment of its 20/20: Musical Visionaries summer festival, which looks at the life of Enrico Caruso. [Read more…] about Enrico Caruso & Werner Hertzog’z Fitzcarraldo
Theatre
Sunday Rock Legacy Project Drive-In Theater Song And Dance
The Sunday Rock Legacy Project in St. Lawrence County, NY, has announced an outdoor drive-in live theater presentation of The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers, by Lori Fischer and Don Chaffer, with performances on August 20-22. [Read more…] about Sunday Rock Legacy Project Drive-In Theater Song And Dance
Shakespeare on Pause; Violinist Madeleine Jansen (Streaming)
The Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts (ALCA) has announced two upcoming livestreams, as part of their ALCA-Seltzer Series: Online Relief from the Headaches of Social Distancing.
The first livestream, “Shakespeare on Pause: Part I,” is an encore performance of the 2019 Adirondack Lakes Summer Theatre Festival (ALSTF) production of Macbeth, set for Friday, July 31st; and a recital by violinist Madeleine Jansen on August 7th. [Read more…] about Shakespeare on Pause; Violinist Madeleine Jansen (Streaming)
Geneva Light Opera Presents Virtual Music Event
Geneva Light Opera (GLO) is set to present a retrospective of its recent work in Geneva’s historic Smith Opera House, in addition to digital recordings made by the cast from this summer’s cancelled production of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola” from “lockdown” locations across the USA, on July 26th, at 3 pm. [Read more…] about Geneva Light Opera Presents Virtual Music Event
Drive-In Musical Theatre In The Adirondacks
If you had asked youth theatre producer/director Kathleen Recchia six months ago what she’d be doing this summer, she would not have included Zoom Webinars or setting up a drive-in theatre production on her to-do list.
Normally at this time of year, she is preparing for the Book & Blanket Players annual summer musical-in-a-week program. She is still doing that but this year that involves a whole new skill set. Instead of cancelling the production, which normally involves an intense week of working together at Keene Central School in the heart of the Adirondacks, with the performance of a full musical onstage at the end of the week, Recchia went about figuring out how to continue the program with new rules and new parameters. [Read more…] about Drive-In Musical Theatre In The Adirondacks
Danny Kaye In The Catskills
It has often been said that the first play Danny Kaye ever saw, he was in.
That would have been in June 1929, at the White Roe Lake House in Livingston Manor, Sullivan County, NY, where the soon-to-be legendary performer got his professional start, and refined his trademark comedy routine. [Read more…] about Danny Kaye In The Catskills
Gompers and Hammerstein: The Cigar Makers Who Transformed Theatre
In 1693, Leicestershire-born immigrant William Bradford was appointed public printer for New York. Living in Pearl Street, Manhattan, he published from his offices in Hanover Square the first book with a New York imprint, entitled New-England’s Spirit of Persecution Transmitted to Pennsylvania by Quaker author George Keith.
Between 1725 and 1744, Bradford produced the New-York Gazette, the city’s first newspaper. Lower Manhattan continued to be the center of New York’s printing industry for many years, but by the 1860s the street took on a northern European accent and became known for a different type of leaf – tobacco. [Read more…] about Gompers and Hammerstein: The Cigar Makers Who Transformed Theatre
Ada ‘Bricktop’ Smith: Queen of Montmarte
Her hair was flaming red and so were her freckles. Born Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith on August 14, 1894 in Alderson, West Virginia, she was the youngest of four children.
“I am hundred percent American Negro with a trigger Irish temper” – as she summarized her genealogy. The “Queen Victoria” in her birth name is both puzzling and amusing, but whatever the explanation she lived her life as a royal – Queen of Montmartre. [Read more…] about Ada ‘Bricktop’ Smith: Queen of Montmarte
New York’s Black Othello, Ira Aldridge
On March 25, 1833, the celebrated Shakespearian actor Edmund Kean collapsed on stage at London’s Covent Garden while playing the role of Othello. He died shortly thereafter.
Sixteen days later, New York-born Ira Frederick Aldridge – known as the ‘Negro Tragedian’ – was asked to replace him as the Moor. His chequered career in England coincided with the final push towards the abolition of the slave trade there. [Read more…] about New York’s Black Othello, Ira Aldridge
Ti Historical Opening With ‘Singing of the Green’
The Ticonderoga Historical Society is set to open for their 2020 season on Friday, March 27 with “The Singing of the Green, The Irish in American Musical Theater,” a presentation by Diane O’Connor. [Read more…] about Ti Historical Opening With ‘Singing of the Green’