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JOHANNS AND GE0RGS: THE BATTLE OF THE ORGANS!

It’s time to get keyed up! Bach at Leipzig plays its many organs from March 18th through April 1 at Howard Community College’s Helen Hayes Award Winning Rep Stage. Directed by Kasi Campbell (she won the Helen Hayes Award in 2004 for directing The Dazzle), the production boast a terrific cast: two-time Helen Hayes Award winner Bruce Nelson (The Dazzle in 2004and The Violet Hour in 2005) as Georg Schott, Bill Largess who is appearing now in Two by Pinter), as Georg Kaufmann), Karl Kippola (recently seen in Opus at Everyman Theatre) as Johann Fasch, Matt Dunphy (recently seen in Kennedy Center’s national tour of Alice)  as Johann Steindorf, David Marks (Helen Hayes Award for Briar Patch in 1990 at Arena Stage) as Johann Graupner, Alexander Strain (recently seen as Kermit in The Kennedy Center’s production of Teddy Roosevelt and the Treasure of Ursa Major as Georg Lenk and Alex Zavistovich (The Baltimore Shakespearean Festival) as “The greatest organist in Germany.”

I can’t wait to see what Bruce Nelson will do with Georg Schott. He’s one of my favorite actors because he puts so much energy into his roles and performances.

According to the Media Advisory (probably the cousin once removed of weather advisory) I received from Rep Stage, this is what the play is about:

“Johann Kuhnau, revered organist of the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church), suddenly dies, leaving his post vacant. In order to fill this position, the city council invites a small number of musicians to audition for the seat. The play is based on actual persons and events, and uses a mix of high wit, low ribaldry and rich characterizations.”

It sounds Amadeusish – don’t you think? And with that great cast, it should produce some wonderful organic music and should be fuge-ing great theatre. Compose yourself and buy tickets here.

NEVERMORE - ONCE MORE: THE RAVEN FLIES INTO KAT

Kensington Arts Theatre (KAT) is building quite a reputation for its interpretation of Sondheim shows. Its production of Assassins last winter recently received 14 WATCH Awards (Washington Area Theatre Community Honors) and its fall production of Urinetown received 6 nominations. The troupe will be performing Sweeney Todd in May. Now, Nevermore is alive and well and living at The Kensington Arts Center from March 9-31st

It’s Wednesday, February 27th at 10:15 PM. I’ve just returned from a rehearsal at The Kensington Art Center where for two hours, I saw a hard working team of actors rehearse while Kevin Boyce was hanging lights and Kevin Garrett and his assistant Eric Scerbo, who is also a talented costumer, were working on the sound. It was teamwork at its best.

And there was the enthusiastic but very tired Evan Hoffmann wearing two hats – director and Poe, singing Matt Conner’s lush score in his beautiful tenor voice. When very friendly Caroline Angell, who plays a Woman of the Night practiced her Eldoradoride with Evan, it was something to behold. It had its ups and downs.

The funniest moment of my stay was watching Evan and the troupe trying to figure out how to remove the one-legged table (which Evan built for the show) discreetly from the stage after a major scene. That wobbly creation of Evan’s didn’t have a leg to stand on!

And what a joy is was to see Gilly Conklin, a local actress whose performances in Mame at Reston Community Players and in Bells Are Ringing at the Springfield Community Theatre brought me and The Ushers to their feet! And here she was perfectly cast as Poe’s Aunt and Virginia’s mother.

And what fun it was to schmooze with two extremely talented local actors and Kensington regulars - Diego Prieto, who I loved in Arena Stage’s Cabaret, and who was phenomenal as John Wilkes Booth in KAT’s production of Assassins, and Andy Izquierdo, who was astounding as Mickey in Blood Brothers at The Elden Street Players and as The Balladeer/Oswald in KAT’s Assassins. The two Kevins, Diego, Eric, Andy and Jaclyn Young, who plays Younger Elmira, are all nominated for WATCH Awards this year. They will find out this Sunday, March 4th, if they have won in their categories. Good luck to all of you on Sunday!

What a wonderful moment it was when composer Matt Conner called Evan in the middle of the rehearsal to tell the cast that he would be dropping in to see them in two days. I asked Evan if I could talk to Matt, and I told Matt that the will be proud when he hears this wonderful cast. This is a very talented group of actors and technicians, and I can’t wait to see the finished product.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Theatre Schmooze. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.