Archived entries for

Announcing: An Evening with Davis Gaines

MUSIC OF THE NIGHT: AN EVENING WITH DAVIS GAINES
WILL BENEFIT SOSMentor
IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CHILDHOOD OBESITY

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19 AT 8PM
AT THE ALEX THEATRE IN GLENDALE

Broadway star Davis Gaines, who has performed the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera over 2,000 times, will present Music of the Night: An Evening with Davis Gaines, an intimate concert to benefit SOSMentor, a not-for-profit organization fighting childhood obesity. The concert will take place at the Alex Theatre in Glendale on Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 8pm.

SOSMentor is a Los Angeles based not-for-profit organization whose mission is to decrease the alarming rate of childhood obesity and related illnesses by educating students in health, nutrition and fitness through after-school mentoring programs. SOSMentor’s ShapeUp program has become a key tool in helping fight childhood obesity within LA County by offering high school students a five-week educational program in nutrition, health, and fitness. The high school students are then sent out to mentor middle and elementary school students by sharing what they’ve learned about making smart food choices and the importance of physical fitness. Since 2006, the SOSMentor ShapeUp program has expanded to 26 elementary, middle and high schools in the LAUSD, with over 2,000 students participating. For more information, visit www.sosmentor.org.

Davis Gaines played The Phantom on Broadway, in Los Angeles (where he remains LA’s longest running Phantom), and in San Francisco (winning the Bay Area Critics Award for Best Actor). His other stage credits include playing Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind, Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing, Camelot with Richard Burton, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Alexis Smith. Aside from Phantom, other LA stage credits include 1776 (Musical Theatre West), Side By Side By Sondheim (Rubicon Theatre/Pasadena Playhouse), and Parade (Mark Taper Forum). Gaines has worked extensively on television (Desperate Housewives, Charmed, Chicago Hope, Veronica’s Closet, Bodies of Evidence, Murder, She Wrote, and three PBS Great Performances specials, among others). He has sung for five U.S. Presidents, and with every major symphony orchestra in North America.

Gaines’ concert will feature Broadway show tunes and popular standards, with all proceeds benefitting SOSMentor/ShapeUp. The curtain will rise at 8pm on Saturday, February 19, and the event will also feature drawings for valuable prizes. Regular tickets are $75 and $100 and are available by visiting www.AlexTheatre.org or by calling (818) 243-2539. A limited number of VIP tickets are available (which include a post-performance reception with Mr. Gaines) for $150, and may be purchased by calling (818) 222-4243.

The Alex Theatre is located at 216 N. Brand Boulevard in Glendale. Ample parking is available. There is validated parking at the Orange Street Garage located at the corner of California and Orange, the Exchange Garage located on Maryland Avenue, and the Glendale Marketplace Garage, located at the corner of Harvard and Maryland. Parking costs $1.00 for four hours with validation (rates subject to change). Parking tickets can be validated by the house manager in the Alex Theatre lobby.

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01-26-11

Announcing: Submissions Now Being Accepted for The Blank Theatre Company’s Young Playwrights Festival

THE BLANK THEATRE COMPANY’S
19TH ANNUAL NATIONWIDE
YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS

The Blank Theatre Company logoThe Blank Theatre Company’s Young Playwrights Festival is now seeking submissions nationwide from playwrights 19 years of age and younger. Submission deadline is March 15, 2011. Winning plays will be presented by professional actors and directors from June 2-26, 2011 at the Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood, CA.

Now in its 19th year, The Blank Theatre Company’s Young Playwrights Festival is a nationwide competition that produces the work of eight to twelve teenaged playwrights each year. Since 1993, the festival has produced 208 plays by playwrights 19 and younger from over 25 states.

Each winning play will have five performances in a weekend run. The productions are made possible in part by grants from The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, The Plum Foundation, The John and Marilyn Wells Family Trust, Los Angeles County Arts Commission and City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Hollywood’s Blank Theatre Company has had its work featured on MSNBC, CNN Showbiz Today, Entertainment Tonight, BBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, in Entertainment Weekly magazine, and in the Financial Times of London.

“Every year I am amazed at the depths to which these teenagers go in their writing. They are brave, bold and uninhibited,“ said Noah Wyle (star of television’s ER), Artistic Producer at The Blank. “The winners are thrilled to see their plays presented by professionals, but these professionals are often given a great gift in return: a renewed sense of artistic purpose. We learn from the playwrights as they learn from us!”

The rules for the festival competition are as follows: playwrights must be 19 years of age or younger on March 15, 2011; original plays and musicals can be any length, on any subject. Scripts must be legible; pages must be numbered and unbound; submissions must be postmarked or emailed by March 15, 2011. There is a limit of three (3) plays per playwright. All plays must include a cover sheet with the play’s title, playwright’s name, date of birth, school (if any), mailing address, contact phone number, e-mail address and the play’s production history (if any). Visit www.YoungPlaywrights.com for further information.

Each playwright whose work is accepted will be assigned a mentor: professional writers who will help the youngsters hone their work for performance. Past mentors have included Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally, Tony Award-nominated composer Michael John LaChiusa, writer Jeff Greenstein (Will & Grace), Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening), television and film director Garry Marshall, among many others. The playwrights then experience the thrill of seeing their plays performed by industry professionals in staged workshop productions.

Past festivals have featured well known actors such as Jeremy Sisto, Chris Pine, Noah Wyle, Molly Shannon, Tiffani Thiessen, Michael Welch (The Twilight Saga), Heather Morris (Glee) Nicholas Brendon and Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Tom Lenk, Josh Radnor and Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother), Sherri Shepherd (The View), Kelly Lynch, Debra Messing, Mark Valley and Constance Zimmer (Boston Legal), Kathryn Joosten (Desperate Housewives), Tony Award-winning actress Daisy Eagan, Emmy Award-winner Edward Asner, and many others.

In past years, some winning plays have gone on to have a life on The Blank’s mainstage for full-scale production. Should this happen, the playwright is treated as a full professional, from signing an option agreement to being paid royalties for his/her play. The Why, a play by 19-year-old Victor Kaufold, received a Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award nomination for ‘Best Writing – World Premiere’ as a result of The Blank’s production. Kaufold is the youngest nominee in his category in 21 years of Ovation Award history.

For more information, visit the festival’s web site at www.YoungPlaywrights.com or The Blank Theatre Company’s website at www.TheBlank.com.

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01-19-11

Announcing: Erich Bergen Brings Club Act to SF’s Rrazz Room Mon 2/7

FORMER “JERSEY BOYS” STAR ERICH BERGEN
BRINGS HIS NEW CLUB ACT TO SAN FRANCISCO
CELEBRATING FIRST SOLO CD RELEASE
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7 AT THE RRAZZ ROOM

In celebration of his first solo CD release, former Jersey Boys star Erich Bergen brings his new club act to San Francisco at the Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko on February 7 at 8pm.

Of Bergen’s appearance at The Magic Castle in Los Angeles in September, 2010, BroadwayWorld.com said, “Taking the stage with the gusto akin to a tornado or blazing brushfire, this young dynamo captivated the packed house from the moment he opened his mouth.” Added BlogCritics.org, “Erich Bergen is one hell of a performer!” “Savvy, classy, hip … a razor-sharp sense of humor,” said LATalkRadio.com.

Erich Bergen recently completed a three-year run starring as Bob Gaudio in the Tony and Grammy Award-winning Jersey Boys, beginning with the year-long San Francisco engagement at the Curran Theatre (2006-2007). He also appeared in the Los Angeles, First National Tour and Las Vegas companies. Other recent credits include Gossip Girl (CW Network), White Christmas (Pantages Theatre), A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (Reprise), and Venice (Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre). He also co-produced, directed, and served as musical director for Las Vegas Celebrates the Music of Michael Jackson, a benefit concert which raised $118,000 for Music Education in Nevada public schools.

Bergen’s CD, titled The Vegas Sessions, features new studio recordings of original compositions in the pop genre, along with live tracks recorded during three sold out Las Vegas appearances at the Liberace Museum in April, 2009. The disc will be available for purchase at the Rrazz Room concert, and is also available at Amazon.com, CD Baby, iTunes and other digital music outlets.

Bergen’s San Francisco appearance at the Rrazz Room is on Monday, February 7 at 8pm and the Hotel Nikko is located at 222 Mason Street. Tickets are on sale now at $25 and $50 (VIP package that includes a copy of the CD, a post-show reception, meet-and-greet, and a champagne toast), and can be purchased at www.therrazzroom.com or by calling TicketWeb at (866) 468-3399. Admission to the Rrazz Room is limited to those over 21 years of age.

Visit Erich Bergen at www.erichbergen.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/erichbergenfans, and follow Erich on twitter @erichbergen.

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01-18-11