Archived entries for Celebration Theatre

Press Release: Celebration Theatre 31st Anniversary Benefit Event – Saturday 4/26 at CBS Studio Center

Celebration Theatre’s Annual
VIBRANT VOICE AWARDS
BENEFIT EVENT
Featuring Original ‘Golden Girl’ Betty White
Along With Her Hot in Cleveland Co-Stars
Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick
Reading a Classic Episode of The Golden Girls
2014 Vibrant Voice Awardees
Wendie Malick & Robert Forster

Special Guest Sean Hayes and More!

Saturday, April 26, at 7:30pm
Sound Stage 19 at CBS Studio Center
in Studio City

Celebration Theatre's Vibrant Voice Awards 2014Celebration Theatre has announced its annual Vibrant Voice Awards benefit event, this year featuring original ‘Golden Girl‘ Betty White along with her Hot in Cleveland co-stars Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick reading a classic episode of The Golden Girls. The 2014 Vibrant Voice Awards will be presented to Wendie Malick and Robert Forster, and there will be special appearances by Sean Hayes and other stars to be announced.

The Vibrant Voice Award is presented annually in recognition of long-term support of Celebration Theatre as well as spreading the word about the work and mission of Celebration. Past recipients of the award have included Leslie Jordan and Sharon Lawrence.

Tickets for the 2014 Vibrant Voice Awards, Celebration Theatre’s 31st Anniversary benefit event, are available at three price levels. Gold tickets are $500 each and include priority seating for the show, an exclusive meet-and-greet with the stars, a souvenir poster, and priority entrance to the post-performance party on the set of Hot in Cleveland. Silver tickets are $250 and Bronze tickets are $100 (both include show and party). All ticket purchases are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Tickets may be obtained online at www.celebrationtheatre.com or by phone at (323) 957-1884.

Directing duties will be shared by Celebration Co-Artistic Director and Ovation Award-winner Michael Matthews and Ryan Bergmann. The evening will also feature a raffle for a walk-on role in a future Hot in Cleveland episode. The event is produced by the Celebration Theatre Board of Directors and Executive Director Michael C. Kricfalusi, and is sponsored in part by Zing Vodka.

The Hot in Cleveland sound stage is located at CBS Studio Center, 4024 Radford Avenue in Studio City. Complimentary parking will be available.

Founded in 1982 and now in its 31st season, Celebration Theatre is a community of artists dedicated to presenting innovative, provocative and relevant work that examines the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer experience. It provides a supportive forum for professional and emerging writers, directors, designers and performers, giving voice to the full experience of gay culture. The theatre endeavors to challenge society’s perception of the community and give a vibrant voice to its evolving identity.

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03-25-14

Announcing: Linda Lavin: Portrait of an Artist – One Night Only Benefit for Celebration Theatre – Sat, Feb 1

Celebration Theatre
Presents a One Night Only Benefit Event
PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST:
AN EVENING WITH LINDA LAVIN
Featuring Lavin’s Husband and Artist Steve Bakunas

Saturday, February 1, 2014 at 8pm
Atwater Village Theatre in LA
Proceeds to Benefit Celebration Theatre

Linda LavinCelebration Theatre has announced a one night only benefit event — Portrait Of An Artist: An Evening With Linda Lavin, featuring Lavin’s husband and artist Steve Bakunas, on Saturday, February 1 at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles. The curtain rises at 8pm, and proceeds from the evening will go to support Celebration Theatre.

In an intimate setting, actress Linda Lavin shares in detail the story of her life and career as her husband, artist Steve Bakunas, paints her portrait while conducting the interview. Always spontaneous and revealing, Lavin opens up about her early years as a chorus girl, a cabaret singer, Broadway star and television icon. Bakunas, a multi-talented renaissance man, mines for the gold with humor and sensitivity, providing an entertaining and insightful evening.

Linda Lavin, a six-time Tony Award nominee, won the 1987 Tony for Best Leading Performance By An Actress In A Play (as well as the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Helen Hayes Awards) for her performance in Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound. Lavin’s other widely acclaimed stage appearances include Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Collected Stories, and most recently The Lyons. She is well known to television audiences for her portrayal of the title role in Alice, which ran for nine seasons (1976-1985) on CBS, and she currently co-stars on Sean Saves The World with Sean Hayes on NBC. Lavin’s recent film credits include roles in The Back­Up Plan and Wanderlust.

Steve Bakunas has worked in a traveling circus, as a used car salesman, a mechanic, a bellhop, a bartender, a carpenter, a limo driver for The Grateful Dead, a taxi driver in San Francisco, a school bus driver, a Fuller Brush man, a house painter, a furniture upholsterer and designer, a carpet salesman, a truck driver and bulldozer operator, and a telegram singer. His acting credits include Doubt, Rabbit Hole, Dinner With Friends, Art, Speed The Plow, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Proof. Bakunas’s directing credits include Collected Stories, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Lobby Hero, and God Of Carnage. He is currently a jazz drummer for his wife’s cabaret act, and a self taught painter.

Founded in 1982 and now in its 31st season, Celebration Theatre is a community of artists dedicated to presenting innovative, provocative and relevant work that examines the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer experience. It provides a supportive forum for professional and emerging writers, directors, designers and performers, giving voice to the full experience of gay culture. The theatre endeavors to challenge society’s perception of the community and give a vibrant voice to its evolving identity.

Tickets for intimate onstage seating (with bottle service) for Linda Lavin: Portrait Of An Artist on Saturday, February 1 at 8pm are $100 each. Premium seating is $75, and general seating ranges from $30—$50. Tickets may be purchased online at www.celebrationtheatre.com or by phone at (323) 957-1884. Celebration’s temporary home, the Atwater Village Theatre, is located at 3269 Casitas Avenue, in Los Angeles.

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01-24-14

Announcing: ‘Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera’ in Concert – Tuesday 2/4 at King King Club – Will Benefit Celebration Theatre

TONYA & NANCY: THE ROCK OPERA
IN CONCERT

ONE NIGHT ONLY EVENT AT HOLLYWOOD’S
KING KING CLUB
TO BENEFIT CELEBRATION THEATRE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4 AT 8PM
**ADDITIONAL SHOW ADDED**
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5 AT 8PM

TONYA & NANCY LOGOA one-night-only concert performance of Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera has been set for Tuesday, February 4 at 8pm at Hollywood’s legendary King King Club. The concert will take place just a few days before the start of the 2014 Olympics, which is also the 20th anniversary of the lead pipe assault heard ‘round the world and their subsequent skate-off at the 1994 Winter Olympics. The librettist is Elizabeth Searle and music by Michael Teoli, the concert version of Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera will be choreographed and directed by NAACP and Ovation Award-winner Janet Roston. Proceeds from the evening will go to support Celebration Theatre.

Based on the infamous knee-attack scandal, Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera tells the story of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, two girls going for the gold and two lifelong dreams colliding on the Olympic Ice. This high energy and darkly comic show takes the audience on a wild, hilarious, and insightful ride. The true over-the-top tale contains operatic themes with twists so outrageous they seem invented; the struggle of the seemingly good girl and bad girl, one from the trailer park and one from a loving home, who meet each other head on; the bad boy who sells out his girl; and the three clowns who bungle a crime. The piece explores our celebrity-crazed-society, the public’s hunger for salacious scandal, and the media’s drive for tabloid fodder.

Steve Almond at WGBH in Boston called Tonya & Nancy, “One of the most exciting spectacles I’ve ever seen.” The Boston Herald enthused, “When Tonya & Nancy lands a moment … it’s like watching a skater land that perfect triple Lutz.” And The Boston Phoenix called show, “Absurdly funny … surprisingly poignant.”

The February 4 concert staging of Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera will include a full rock band, vocals, and visuals to tell the stranger than fiction story of the two Olympic skaters. The ensemble is (in alphabetical order) Michael Ballestero, Jordan Kai Burnett, Sarah Chaney, Joe Donohoe, Michael Shaw Fisher, Maegan McConnell, Jesse Merlin, Suzanne Petrela, Michael Shepperd, Jeff Sumner, and Laura L. Thomas. Executive producer for the concert is Paul T. Boghosian, producer is Ryan Bergmann, and associate producer is Rebecca Eisenberg.

Founded in 1982 and now in its 31st season, Celebration Theatre is a community of artists dedicated to presenting innovative, provocative and relevant work that examines the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer experience. It provides a supportive forum for professional and emerging writers, directors, designers and performers, giving voice to the full experience of gay culture. The theatre endeavors to challenge society’s perception of the community and give a vibrant voice to its evolving identity.

Tickets for Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera on February 4 and February 5 at 8pm are $20 in advance and $25 on the day of the show. Doors open at 7pm for bar service. A live DJ will be spinning before and after the performance. Tickets are on sale now and may be purchased online at www.celebrationtheatre.com or by phone at (323) 960-9234. The King King Club is located at 6555 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, 90028.

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01-16-14