It’s that time of year again. The show/season has been announced. And it is time to get going. We need to find a director, a production team, and of course a cast.

Last year I took on the role as co-producer for my local community theater’s first two productions of the season. This was my chance to see and learn how things are done right from the start.  Someone thought I would be a good producer and asked me if I would be interested in the role. I am always willing to learn more and said “yes” because I also like to try new things.

The end of August is usually a time where college seems to be on everyone's mind. Whether it's incoming freshmen getting ready to move into their residence halls or high school seniors preparing their applications, college is a constant discussion. 

For theatre students, where you attend can certainly have an impact on your career with the type of training you receive. It's also important to note that while each school listed here is excellent, a college degree doesn't guarantee success nor is one required to become successful in this industry. 

Here at OnStage, we take months to research the best BFA programs to come up with our own lists.

We're going to do separate lists for each type of degree field. Let's start today with BFA in Dance. 

Recent debate about a production of Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?', in which the Albee estate withheld production rights due to the fact that a black actor was cast in the role of Nick, is just another of many examples which in my opinion prove that we need to accept certain things and move on.

EMACT (Easter Massachusetts Association of Community Theatres) is a great organization dedicated to assisting its member theater groups in various ways. One of which is through an awards program. The DASH (Distinguished Awards and Special Honors) awards are essentially the Eastern MA equivalent of the Tony Awards. I don’t know if other areas of the country have organizations dedicated to recognizing local theater and talent but if not, they should. It’s amazing- here’s why.

Before I begin to address this, there is one very important matter - which I boldfaced above - that I would like to address. Instrumentalists, you are not background wallpaper to us, the singers. Speaking as a professional opera singer who has also done musical theatre and concert work, at no point, ever, have I considered the pit musicians anything less than colleagues and collaborators. This is a disgusting statement to make about highly trained instrumental musicians, and I am very sorry you had to deal with hearing it (and for those who have worked there, had to apparently endure this idiocy.)

I have always been someone who doesn’t only listen to the cast album, but learns everything I can about the show. I watch cast interviews and behind the scene videos on YouTube and if the show is based on a book or a movie, of course I read/watch that too.

There’s a new musical that should really get a shot on the Great White Way, and I’m not just saying that because I’m part of the original cast recording. Well, maybe just a little... I mean I wouldn’t complain if the creative team took me along for the ride to the Broadway. Anyway, Bubble Boy the Musical, written by the writers of the Despicable Me franchise, Cinco Paul, and Ken Daurio is that new musical.

The majority of plays are centered around, as Hamlet put it, “words, words, words.” From Shakespeare’s soliloquies to Mamet’s fractured urban poetry to Durang’s whimsical prose, dialogue is often the most important aspect to any given play. But what happens when your play features almost no dialogue at all? Bess Wohl’s “Small Mouth Sounds,” which is playing New Haven’s famed Long Wharf Theatre from August 30-September 24, is such a work. It takes place at a silent retreat and only contains a handful of spoken lines, most of which comes from the mouth of actor Orville Mendoza.

It was right after Marya called Natasha a horrid hussy of a girl that the sound cut out in the Imperial Theatre at the Sunday matinee of Great Comet this weekend. Natasha, Marya and Sonya soldiered on; projecting like champs while their mics failed. Seconds later, a voice filled the theatre alerting the audience to something we already knew--that they were experiencing technical difficulties. The show was stopped, and the audience was encouraged to stay put. The actors exited (not pursued by a bear with a policeman on its back) and the theatre erupted with applause.

It was recently announced that a revival production of Mark Medoff's  Tony Award winning play 'Children of a Lesser God' will be opening March 22 2018 at Studio 54. As a supporter of theater and specifically #DeathTalent I am excited and overjoyed to read this news. I am already planning a trip from St. Louis with some ASL using friends.