Oooo, I just LOVE Cult Movie Monday’s and this month’s selection is a GREAT one! I am not a fan of all Tarantino work, but this one is a fave. I thought I would share some fun facts and trivia regarding this 1994 classic.
Vic Vega (Michael Madsen) from Reservoir Dogs and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) [...]

Chip Decker is the Artistic Director at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte. But what the heck does that mean? Does he stand around saying, “Beige, paint the stage beige. That will get everyone’s attention.” NO! Does he choose which pieces of art hang in the hallways and the lobby? NO! He does fifty million little things everyday [...]

Did I grab your attention with that title. If you are reading this I assume so.
Well…Chaps! A Jingle Jangle Christmas opened last night the the review from Larry Topman is already in. He liked it. He really really liked it. What does this mean. It will probably translate to sold out audiences yet again so [...]

In less then a week Chaps! A Jingle Jangle Christmas opens for your holiday viewing pleasure. This is a musical comedy that is sure to please the entire family (recommended for ages 10 and up). At a recent rehearsal I interviewed director Patrick Tansor about the show and his directing style. Here is what he had to [...]

The goal for every theatre, during every run of a show, is to play to a sold out crowd. Marketing is planned weeks, and sometimes months, in advance to spread the word, but it isn’t always enough. Any business’s greatest marketing asset is word of mouth from clients, in our case audience members, telling their [...]

Let’s go back in time. The year is 1944, and while not necessarily a simpler time, it certainly was different. This is the year in which our next play, Chaps: A Jingle Jangle Christmas is set, and to get us in the mood I thought a little time travel would be good. Unfortunately, both my time [...]

Last week before Next Fall opened I had a chance to ask Dennis Delamar three questions. Since then I have spent just over a week trying to transfer the viseo from my phone to any and all available systems so you could enjoy our brief Q&A. To put it simply – I fought technology, and [...]

Last night I sat in on the final rehearsal for Next Fall. It was the final chance for the cast and crew to tweak the hundreds of little details that go into making a great show. Final notes for the actors were given. Technical issues were being discussed and resolved. The final hurdle is getting past opening night [...]

The opening of our next show, Next Fall, is just around the corner. Rehearsals are becoming more intense, and tech week has begun. Preview shows are this weekend, and the official opening is November 2. Not only are the cast and crew preparing for the audiences coming to the show, but they are also preparing [...]

The title of this blog comes from a review by the New York theatre critic David Cole. “the little play that could.” His was one of nearly thirty reviews where critics had nothing but positive things to say about the play Next Fall.
How could one show that that covers so much emotional territory garner such praise?
Simply enough [...]

You are enjoying a lovely show and the person next to you begins unwrapping a piece of hard candy from noisy crinkly cellophane. Then, because they couldn’t hear what was just said, they ask the person next to them about it, who may or may not be their date. But the torture hasn’t ended because they [...]

I will tell you right up front that I LOVE Repo! The Genetic Opera. I saw it when it was originally released back in November of 2008. I took a friend with me who I warned beforehand that this was not going to be light and fluffy, but weird and gross in parts. She said [...]

Actor’s Theatre patrons were treated to preview performances of In The Next Room or the Vibrator Play this past weekend and the reviews I have heard are favorable. I have also heard many people commenting that they feel the topic of the play is rather unusual - The use of the first vibrators for treatment of female hysteria.
Suprisingly, [...]

Pretty much, everyone knows that to put on a play in a theatre it takes more than the director and actors to make the experience as enjoyable as possible. Any number of designers can be in on the overall look and feel of a show, sometimes over-lapping each other: production design; set design; light design; costume design; [...]

Carrie Cranford is the stage manager for The Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte. She makes sure that every little detail involved in the production
of the show is carried out to its fruition. Schedules, building, prop making, orders for props, coordinating and shopping for designers, assisting the
director, and about a million other little details are under her control.
She took [...]

Oh the Victorians, how they amuse me so. If a woman was nervous she was hysterical. If she was giddy she was hysterical. If she was irritable she was hysterical. If she showed any of the 75 pages worth of symptoms one doctor recorded, the woman was hysterical. It seems to me that if a [...]

There are only two more week to see The Rocky Horror Show. Since opening, the show has only gotten better and better, playing to sold out crowds.
The performers have gotten more comfortable and confident in their roles, but they had and have a lot of help to keep it all moving like clockwork.
Many hands and minds went into [...]

Tonight is the official opening night of The Rocky Horror Show, but last night was a special performance to benefit RAIN, and the audience and performers were ready for it. But did they enjoy themselves - See what a few well dressed members of the audience had to say, Good or Bad? Weren’t they just precious?
Now [...]

It is a dark and stormy night. Your car breaks down. The closest palce where you might get help is a castle, with a light shining in the darkness. You knock. The first person you encounter is a scragly looking hunched man, who makes your skin crawl. Do you go in when he invites you?
The [...]

Well…maybe not all of them walked in. While these characters have what some would consider smaller roles, The Rocky Horror Show would not be what it has become without them.
The Narrator leads us down the path of ill repute with the innocent Brad and Janet. He helps us begin the journey and brings it to its [...]

What would our little freak show be without the innocent couple – Brad and Janet? The hero and heroine of the show. Let’s take a moment to meet the newly engaged couple – out of character.
Brad(Asshole)                                                       Janet(Slut)
Will this clean cut pair of kids survive the night’s impending sexcapade’s. Will they embrace the awakening they are [...]

It is time to meet the Phantoms of The Rocky Horror Show. But before we do – What/Who the heck are the Phantoms?
Unfortunately, most people are only familiar with the movie, and in the movie there are Party Goers. The original London musical (1973) had Phantoms. These Phantoms help move the story along throughout the [...]

Chip and Carrie are working the fingers and brains down to the bones. They have lots of fabulous ideas, most of which I refuse to share with you because I want you to be surprised at the spectacle they are about to pull off.
The cast is slowly coming together with the movements and songs, all [...]

Tomorrow night is Cult Movie Monday and the night’s feature is Shock Treatment, a sort of sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Was it doomed to fail from the beginning?
Written by O’Brien and Jim Sharman, and directed by Sharman, the movie was supposed to be filmed in real locations but was forced to bring the production down [...]

[title of show] is winding down. There are only five more shows left and if you haven’t seen it yet – WHY? It’s fun. It has catchy show-tunes. It has jazz hands. Go see it before you miss this great opportunity.
The next show is already gearing up – The Rocky Horror Show. Music rehearsals are [...]

IT HAS OPENED! The songs are strong. The movements have meaning. The lines are memorized and delivered with accute comic timing. The birth of a new show at ACTS has happened. Was it painless? From what I saw, it was far less painless than some shows, but it wasn’t without its moments.
Has all that hard [...]

I went to another rehearsal two days after the last. Most people would not believe that two days can make that big of a difference, but it can. The main reason is that the confidence level of the actors is growing every rehearsal. While there is work to be done on the big things like [...]

We are now less then two weeks out until the opening of [title of show]. Lines are still being learned. Choreography is still being learned. Working a Flip camera is still being learned.
I had the opportunity to sit in on a rehearsal last week and actually filmed some of it to share with you. Unfortunately, [...]

The title of the next show is literally [title of show]. It chronicles it’s own creation for the New York Musical Theatre Festival and premiered in 2004.  How could that possibly be interesting? Isn’t writing a show just some person or persons sitting around batting ideas back and forth, and then frantically typing away when [...]

Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of the 2011 Women’s Impact Fund Arts and Culture Grant.  Actor’s Theatre will receive $70,000 to help fund the first two years of its newest program “New Voices for a New Generation” new play festival beginning in September 2011.
Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte [...]

It is two weeks until we get to see Waiting For Guffman. Squeee! In honor of that and because I am somewhat enamored with Christopher Guest I have decided to include a few video from interviews and acting he has done.
Christopher Guest on improv and filming.
Guest on Ward
Corky St. Clair in putting a show together and [...]

If you haven’t heard, the next Cult Movie Monday has been moved to Monday, May 23, instead of the last Monday of the month. And, we are in for a treat! This month’s film is Waiting For Guffman, a Christopher Guest and company mockumentary.
If you have ever been involved in the theatre, whether it was in [...]

We are all in for a true treat for the next Cult Movie Monday – April 25. The movie that is being screened is a true cult classic. The film is Freaks, directed by Tod Browning, from 1932.
The synopsis of the story can be found under the Special Events section of the ATC website so [...]

Jean has lived in a box (her comfort zone) that she has allowed herself to become a prisoner of. You live in your box, but are you a prisoner of it?
Jean changes the course of her life, and those in Gordon’s, by answering his cell phone. How is your life going to change if you leave your box and come [...]

The show is ready and now needs audiences.
With the guidance of the director, the actor’s have polished their characters into shiny reflections of the people they are supposed to be. And, the costume designer has helped them slip into their new skins with greater ease. What they need is an audience to understand them, to [...]

There are two cast members left to meet in Dead Man’s Cell Phone, which opens next Wednesday, April 6. First, Catherine Smith who plays Jean, the woman who answers the phone and inadvertently changes her life, and those in Gordon’s. Finally, Glynnis O’Donoghue who plays the other woman in Gordon’s life.
Q:  What is the first [...]

Last week we got to know a couple of the actresses in the next show Dead Man’s Cell Phone.  Today, we have a brief Q&A with the two guys in the show. Christian Casper plays the dead man whose cell phone changes the life of  Jean (Catherine Smith). John C. Cunningham plays Dwight, his brother [...]

Here is Allison Lamb Tansor from Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and her response to our short Q&A. Allison Lamb Tansor plays the inebriated, and sometime understandably so, Hermia, the widow.
Q: What is the first show you ever acted in?        
A: My first plays were “original works” put on with childhood friends when our parents would have dinner parties. We [...]

There are less then three weeks until the opening of Dead Man’s Cell Phone. It’s time to start meeting the cast and those involved. Here is a quick interview with Poly Adkins, who plays Mrs. G, the overly opinionated and domineering mother of our dead man and his brow beaten brother.
Q: What is the first [...]

The first read-through is done, and the countdown until the opening for Dead Man’s Cell Phone has officially begun. What exactly is a read-through though? According to the Encarta Dictionary it is:
reading of play before rehearsals: a reading of a play without acting, allowing actors to familiarize themselves with the dialog before full rehearsals begin.
God, that [...]

You know that you have done something right when at the end of a show the audience practically leaps from their seats with applause and cheers of Bravo. This is what I encountered Wednesday night for Blue Door.
It was “Pay What You Can Night” and the show was playing to a sold out plus audience. [...]

Brian Daye (front) and Jeremy DeCarlos play in "Blue Door" at Actor's Theatre of Charlotte.
By Perry Tannenbaum
Theatre Critic
Creative Loafing
Back in the days of JazzCharlotte, I asked the great folksinger Odetta a few weeks before she arrived in town whether she was going to perform any of the work songs, such as “Water Boy” or “No [...]

Brian Daye (front) and Jeremy DeCarlos play in "Blue Door" at Actor's Theatre of Charlotte.
 By Lawrence Toppman
Theatre Critic
The Charlotte Observer
It’s easy to forget how young a country we have.
My father has lived through more than 20 percent of the events that have occurred since the first Pilgrims landed in 1620. As a boy, I lived [...]

Dead Man’s Cell Phone,by Sarah Ruhl, is about to start rehearsals. For those who don’t know, the show revolves around a woman who inadvertently becomes involved in the life of a man who has just died, and she answered his phone. Sounds quirky – Why YES! But the little handheld device on stage has come [...]

Blue Door has now opened. It covers many points of history, with the lead character passing back and forth meeting some of his ancestors, but always returning to 1995. The year of the Million Man March.  Here are a 10 other things happening that year:

1995 was called the International Year of Tolerance.
Newt Gingrich becomes Speaker of the [...]

 
Brian Daye (front) and Jeremy DeCarlos play in "Blue Door" at Actor's Theatre of Charlotte.
Tanya Barfield’s “Blue Door” is in Charlotte this month.
 
By Ryanne Persinger 
The Charlotte Post
The play is about Lewis, a tenured professor of mathematics at a university with a troubled soul and questions about his cultural identity. When his wife leaves him, Lewis [...]

A mathematician (Brian Daye, seated) listens to one of his long-dead relatives (Jeremy DeCarlos) explain the past he never thought about in "Blue Door."
Actor’s Theatre offers local premiere of drama about a man hiding from his family’s past.
By Lawrence Toppman
Theater Critic
Posted: Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011
Tanya Barfield is a woman who has written “Blue Door” [...]

Joe Klosek, Chip Bradley and Maret Seitz settle in for a long winter's nap.
By Mitch Metz
Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) is playing at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte now through December 18th.  The premise is solid enough, a trio of talented actors fly through Christmas stories, bringing laughter and joy to all.  Well, [...]

By Bea Quirk
After 22 years of presenting contemporary, cutting-edge plays, The Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte has definitely established a reputation for being irreverent. Even Christmas is not immune from its slightly askew and whacky view of the world.
‘Every Christmas Story Ever Told (and then some!)’ manages to poke fun and satirize many of our Beloved [...]

Or so it seems at first, before the comedy carries us through more challenging terrain
By Lawrence Toppman
Theater Critic
The Charlotte Observer
Posted: Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010
 
3.5 out of 4 stars!
Who among us in a long relationship has not dreamed of meeting an enormously rich, attractive stranger who finds us captivating and wants to carry us away from [...]

“The 39 Steps” at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte
By Mitch Metz, CLTBlog.com

Get involved in The 39 Steps
Actor’s Theater of Charlotte hitched their trailers to the pick-ups, and dragged them back to Texas, leaving behind nothing more than a few empty Pabst Blue Ribbon cans and a tattered Snugli… but wait, what is that on the horizon?  [...]

“The 39 Steps” – puts the play back in theater
By Elizabeth Bertrand, Examiner.com

If you have ever wondered why we use the word play when describing a theatrical production, you need only watch “The 39 Steps,” running through Oct. 2 at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, to get your answer. From start to finish, “The 39 Steps” [...]

‘The 39 Steps’ is one unbroken leap into lunacy
3 out of 4 stars!
By Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer

Am I allowed to say that John Buchan’s 1915 novel “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” admittedly one of the cornerstones of espionage literature, is a stiff and clunky tale?
Am I permitted to add that Alfred Hitchcock made many a masterpiece, [...]

Review: The Great American Trailer Park Musical
By Mitch Metz, CLTBlog.com

Opening night always carries a special sort of energy with it, but this time there were a few surprises.  I knew I was in for something a little different when the beautiful woman behind the counter asked for ID, and said my Costco card would be [...]

Check out this video of a Trailer Park Musical rehearsal of the song “Storm’s A-Brewin’”.
See you at the theater!

Actor’s Theater is heading back to the trailer park.
Audience favorite The Great American Trailer Park Musical is about to wow audiences again during these dog days of summer.
Featured in the accompanying picture are returning director Dennis Delamar and stage manager Carrie Cranford as well as Taffy Allen, Cassandra Wood and Carmen Schultz, also known as [...]

Meet the cast and make your plans to go see ATC’s latest production: Five Course Love!
Video below …