Theatre Geeks

Ed Trout, ComedySportz Indianapolis This week’s guest is Ed Trout, Artistic Director at ComedySportz in Indianapolis, Indiana. ComedySportz is a national network of improv clubs with a family-friendly approach. ComedySportz Indy offers training classes as well. Ed tells us about how ComedySportz works and how actors train and develop characters and situations. More info at the ComedySportz website. Music provided by Music Alley.

Knock-Knock, it’s Theatre Geeks News Love Never Dies on PBS June 2 http://www.playbill.com/news/article/166595-Andrew-Lloyd-Webbers-Love-Never-Dies-Unmasked-on-PBS-June-2 Car Talk, the Musical — Finally, people are apparently so hard up for good source material that they are mining NPR for ideas. Les Miserables coming to the screen in December — Theatermania.com. Death of Salesman beats the Broadway ticket price record — New York Times Shakespeare Knock-Knock Jokes from Shakespeare Geek. American Association of Community Theatre upcoming events WACTCON 2012, June 9, Hartford, WI MN Assoc. of Community Theatres FASTFest 2012,June 16, Lakeville Eastern MA Assoc. of Community Theaters Drama Festival, June 28-30, Chelmsford AACT New . . . → Read More: Theatre Geeks News for June 5, 2012

Community theatre is still a bargain This week the Geeks discuss pricing of theatre tickets both for community theatre and professional productions, and of course, we get off on one of our famous tangents as well. Good conversation on an important topic. Shows Alert! We’ve got some great shows for you in the coming weeks, including: Ed Trout, Artistic Director for ComedySportz in Indianapolis Diane and Bruce Rowe, of Center Stage Software, an online ticketing solution for community theatres Ovation inflation!! Has the standing O worn out its welcome? Watch for these and more great shows in the weeks and . . . → Read More: Ticket Pricing in Community Theatre (That’s the Ticket!)

News of community and professional theatre Dave’s back with more news after kind of a hiatus, but things are hopping with the Geeks, and you’ll hear more as the summer progresses. Ovation Inflation — The New York Times — this is a pet peeve of Marcia’s and we’ll definitely be talking about it again in a future episode. Is Willie Loman Jewish? New York Times — provocative article discusses some positions on both sides. Apparently playwright Arthur Miller wrote some stories involving Jewish characters, several of whom could have been the prototype for Willie. Why did Miller remove any reference . . . → Read More: Theatre Geeks News for May 20, 2012

Theatre Workers' Code of Ethics from 1945 still applies today. Last month, Dave reported on a code of ethics for theatre workers that was found among the effects of the late actress Kathleen Freeman. . . . → Read More: Ethics in the theatre

Andrew Goffman is the author and star of the one-man show The Accidental Pervert, now playing at the 13th Street Repertory Company in New York City. . . . → Read More: Theatre Geeks interviews Accidental Pervert star Andrew Goffman

More Shakespeare, good-bye to Davy Jones and your theatre ethics Theatre Workers’ Code of Ethics from 1945 — LA Stage Times Michael Billington on actors — The UK Guardian Canadian Arts Funding spared in this parliament — Canadian Theatre Hub More on how Shakespeare really sounded — National Public Radio L’il Abner revived off-off-Broadway — NYTheatre.com Davy Jones Monkees Audition Video — Hollywood Actor Prep Lady Gaga and Shakespeare — American Shakespeare Center What if Shakespeare was Country —Shakespeare Geek   AACT Events » ESTAFest/Original Works Festival, April 19-22, Wilkes-Barre, PA » Maine Association of Community Theatre 2012 Festival, April . . . → Read More: Theatre Geeks News for April 1, 2012

Our preview of the Stratford and Shaw festivals in Canada! The Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford Ontario and the Shaw Festival in Niagara On the Lake, Ontario are two great theatre events well worth attending this year. Dave, Marcia and guest geek Randy Zonker discuss the shows planned at these two festivals, all without mentioning Tim Horton Donuts once. Links to the festivals’ websites: Stratford Festival — http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/ Shaw Festival — http://www.shawfest.com/ Send us YOUR recommendations for great summer theatre and we may be able to mention it on an upcoming episode. . . . → Read More: Brush up your Shakespeare and Shaw at two great Canadian theatre fests.

Tennessee Williams revived, brush up your Shakespeare accent and More! Booboo the Wonder Cat who helps Dave with the News Theatre News Notes Watch the video version of this episode here. Chris Jones’ review of Death of A Salesman on Broadway in the Chicago Trib — Good, but not great? Tennessee Williams’ final play is getting its world premiere in NYC this spring — more information is here. Backstage Magazine’s Broadway Power List — Know these names? Theatre Resources Unlimited and Back Stage Present Panel About Bringing Diversity to Broadway , from Backstage Magazine — Is this an issue . . . → Read More: Theatre Geeks News for March 19, 2012

PLUS: Technical traumas Dave, Marcia and special guest geek Randy Zonker (sitting in for John Shoup) react to an article Dave reported on from the UK Guardian by Matt Trueman, Does Theatre Leave Too Little to the Imagination? We discuss this in context of both professional shows and shows we’ve had first hand experience with. Randy hits some technical faux pas, too.   Music provided by Music Alley.

Bullets over Broadway will be a musical. Sondheim says there are too many musicals on Broadway as he readies his own. Death of a Salesman returning to Broadway. It's festival season again!

American Association of Community Theatre Executive Director Julie Crawford joins the Geeks to talk about the upcoming AACT convention in NYC. We also talk about the status of community theatre around the country. Randy Zonker sits in for the traveling John Shoup. More information about AACT's convention is here. Music provided by Music Alley.

Theatre news items of interest are culled from Alltop's theatre page at theatre.alltop.com, playbill.com and other stories gathered using Feedly and the American Association of Community Theatre.  Here are the items for this week: Interesting article about the sometimes thankless job of the librettist, or book writer for musicals: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/159878-An-Open-Book-Explaining-What-Musical-Librettists-Do The Stratford Shakespeare Festival's hit production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, directed by 2-time Tony Award winner Des McAnuff, opens March 22, 2012 (previews begin March 1) at the Neil Simon Theatre. The cast gave a secret performancelast night, and met the press on Tuesday.  Full story at http://broadwayworld.com/article/Saturday-Roundup-This-Week-on-BroadwayWorld-20120218#ixzz1mo50y7OZ Speaking of Stratford, their season starts in April with the usual mix of great plays by the Bard and many more.  Full season listing is here: http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/ The blog Shakespeare Geek has an article about a Shakespeare app for your Android phone or device at http://goo.gl/N8nTX The app is called MicroShakespeare and you can learn more about it here: http://goo.gl/X18Kf Basketball and Broadway come together in a new play, Magic/Bird, opening on Broadway this spring.  It's a dual biographical drama about Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.  Playbill has an interview with Johnson about the play and his involvement with the playwright, here: http://goo.gl/4eOBf. Last week, members of the cast of Newsies, the upcoming stage adaptation of the 1992 Disney musical, did a live streaming chat on Ustream with Q&A from the viewing audience.  Newsies just finished some initial performances in New Jersey and opens on Broadway March 15.  You can watch the video and read the Playbill.com article here. Southeastern Theatre Conference Convention 2012, March 7-11, Chattanooga TN TNT Annual Conference, March 16-17, Tyler TX PACTFest 2012, March 16-18, Wellsboro, PA Theatre New Mexico State Festival, March 23-25, Las Vegas, NM Indiana Community Theatre League State Festival 2012, March 23-25, Indianapolis, IN John, Marcia and Dave will be back in the studio with more shows soon!

Plus more of the I know! I know! gameshow Deirdre Lovejoy (The Wire, Bones, Body of Proof), joins us once again for more fun and conversation about the theatre and its superstitions (some would say traditions).  John and Randy Zonker (one of our audience members) recounts some true ghosts stories that happened in our home theatre, and we again play our gameshow by trying to stump Dede.  We close out with another round of LIMERICKs. Special thanks to the following folks for making this event possible: Kristin-Schwerha Scott Kori Fortunato Rick Ellis Kevin Egelsky Amy Pawlosky Mark Potuck ... and Mel Moore for taking some great pix of the event. Music provided by Music Alley Video of this episode of Theatre Geeks:

Cell phones, noisy candy and latecomers top our bad theatre etiquette list Theatre Geeks is live again at the Bristol Opera House in Bristol, Indiana with Deirdre Lovejoy, Kevin Egelsky and Rick Ellis playing our theatre trivia game, "I know! I Know!"  Listen as the Geeks and audience members compete for goofy prizes with a round of "Get the Geeks" plus ever-popular limerick game. Special thanks to the following folks for making this event possible: Kristin-Schwerha Scott Kori Fortunato Rick Ellis Kevin Egelsky Amy Pawlosky Mark Potuck ... and Mel Moore for taking some great pix of the event. Music provided by Music Alley