Latest news with #AnnieGetYourGun
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Langholm Operatic and Dramatic Society changes name and seeks new talent
Langholm Theatre Group, previously known as Langholm Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society, is looking for new talent to join their next musical production. Members of the group decided to change their name at an Extra-Ordinary General Meeting as it was felt that the word "operatic" was a factor in deterring potential members from joining the society. The group, which has been running for 102 years, has put on a range of musicals, plays, and concerts, including The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, and Calamity Jane. Annie Get Your Gun stars Leona Mason in the lead role (Image: Naomi House) Last year, the group staged a production of Annie Get Your Gun. They are currently seeking new members, including both those interested in acting as well as joining the production team. Anyone over the age of 14 is welcome to join. The group is also seeking a producer or director for their March 2026 show. President Jackie Beckett said: "It has been fantastic to see new members coming along to join the society in recent years, but we need more. "If anyone has ever wanted to be on stage, or even help in other ways, please get in touch. "You don't need to live in Langholm as we have members who travel from outwith the town. "And you will be made most welcome." People interested in joining can email for more information. The group's annual general meeting was held on Thursday, May 12, at Langholm Town Hall.
San Francisco Chronicle
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
From stutter to stage star: David Everett Moore's journey in theater
When David Everett Moore landed his first big role in a school play, he had an epiphany. 'That was the first time that I noticed that I was on stage speaking these lines, and I didn't stutter,' he told the Chronicle. 'And I was like, 'What? Interesting! I didn't know that was possible! '' He was 12 years old in Los Angeles and the play was 'Annie Get Your Gun.' Discovering that onstage he could speak without his stutter 'was freeing. It was empowering,' he recalls. Now 46, the Berkeley resident and professional union actor doesn't think of the speech impediment he's had since early childhood as a tragedy or a cage. More Information 'Crumbs From the Table of Joy': Written by Lynn Nottage. Directed by Elizabeth Carter. Opens Saturday, April 26. Through May 25. $38-$68. Aurora Theatre Company, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. 510-843-4822. Instead, Moore learned, 'It has to do with flow.' He contrasted extemporaneous speech with recited lines or music: 'When words are already living in your brain, when it's already memorized, there's a flow for that.' That's especially true with Shakespeare, with its rhythmic iambic pentameter, which Moore frequently performs. Moore, currently performing in Lynn Nottage's 'Crumbs From the Table of Joy' at Aurora Theatre, said that to get where he is now, he suffered less prejudice than one might think. But the system he had to devise for himself requires a dedication to craft that might make many lesser men quit. 'There's never been a point where I was like, 'Oh, I should give up acting because of this,'' he said. And he's hardly the only public-facing professional with a speech impediment; former President Joe Biden, James Earl Jones and Samuel L. Jackson all had or have stutters. Moore's stammer isn't severe, but you do notice it in conversation. When he meets people for the first time, he might ask them not to suggest words to him when he pauses. 'I know the word; I'm just having trouble getting it out,' he said. In prior years, when he'd meet new collaborators in audition or rehearsal rooms, he'd explain that he speaks more fluidly onstage, 'just to make sure they knew I could do it,' he said. Then one time, he gave no preamble, and no one ever raised an eyebrow. Same thing every time after that. Eventually, he realized that his reputation and resumé, with roles at San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Crowded Fire Theater and Colorado Shakespeare Festival among many others, speak for themselves. Victoria Evans Erville, a playwright, director and erstwhile leader of the now-defunct TheatreFirst, described Moore as an ideal actor, and he credits her with seeing his potential before he could. 'When he acts, you don't ever hear it, ever,' she said of his speech impediment. Instead, his other qualities shine: his focus, bravery and willingness to play, his ability to work with actors of any experience level. Most of all, he doesn't have to be in the spotlight if it doesn't serve the story. 'He loves the craft more than he loves himself,' she said. But being onstage doesn't 100% cure his stammer, Moore cautioned. He still occasionally stutters in performance, such as that one time in 'Much Ado About Nothing' at Colorado Shakespeare Festival. 'I just got stuck onstage in front of 1,100 people,' he recalled. 'The play ground to a halt because I couldn't get the word out. It was probably like five seconds, but five seconds onstage is an eternity.' After he exited, one of the show's more seasoned actors pulled him aside to say, 'Hey, it's not your fault' — a gift he still remembers fondly. Over time, Moore has learned more about how his brain works and developed mitigation strategies to decrease the likelihood of such incidents. For example, he learned that words that start with hard consonants followed by short vowels are harder for him. 'Dine' is easy; 'dinner,' not so much. When he first reads a script aloud to himself, he notes all the words that could be 'spicy,' he said with a laugh. He tries to make sure he's at or toward the beginning of a breath on tough words, a bit like the way singers and reed and brass players might plot where in a score they inhale. Or he'll imagine other words coming before a tough word, but not say them, and then mentally put a little music to the whole phrase as well. All the audience hears is 'dinner is served,' but in his head he appends 'what time shall I tell them that' to the beginning. All professional actors learn to be aware of where they're holding tension in their bodies, but for Moore the practice takes on additional importance. If he gets stuck on a word, he tries to take a 'mental photograph' of his physicality and ask himself, 'Is the tension in my throat? Is there tension in the neck muscles, or in my tongue?' Then, if he identifies the spot, he can try to release it or breathe through it. Sometimes he simply has to slow down, even when a play's scene demands urgency, presenting an intriguing artistic challenge of 'playing the tension of the moment without bringing physical tension,' as Moore put it. When all else fails, Moore might ask a director for permission to change a word in a script. Surveying his career, Moore attributes his success first to his parents, who took him to see theater growing up, which is 'still not commonplace for Black people,' he said. As a young boy, he saw Dulé Hill ('The West Wing') in a national tour of 'The Tap Dance Kid,' which showed him that people who look like him can be actors. 'Representation matters,' he said. Now he tries to pay that forward. He works frequently as a teaching artist, and once, working with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he gave a talkback to students, showing them that the actor they'd just seen onstage speaks with a stutter. Afterward, a student wrote him a note saying he made her feel better about her own speech impediment. 'That's everything,' Moore said. When other theater artists ask him for advice about working with speech impediments, he makes it a point to give them however much time they need, too. I thought I remembered docking Moore for vocal stumbles in my reviews of his work, before I learned about his speech impediment, but then didn't find any evidence in the Chronicle's archives. Still, I can say I at least thought about doing so. I recently asked Moore what he might think about such a criticism. 'If the person said that it took away from their enjoyment of the experience,' he replied, 'then I I would encourage that person to ask themselves why it took them out of it.' Flawlessness is illusory anyway, he noted: 'Seeing something different than my expectations doesn't make that thing bad.'
The Guardian
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
June Opitz obituary
My aunt June Opitz, who has died aged 100, spent 50 years in the Northern Territory outback of Australia, first setting up a store and motel that became part of the Kakadu national park, and then at Charles Darwin University, where she finished a PhD aged 84 before returning to her native UK. It was in 1958 that June became a 'ten pound Pom', sailing from Tilbury Docks. She worked her way across the country before taking a job at the remote Nourlangie safari camp, 300 miles east of Darwin. There, June met Tom Opitz, a crocodile hunter who called her Judy, a name she adopted throughout her time in Australia. They married in 1963, then set up the Cooinda Trading Post and Motel. In 1980 they returned the site to the traditional owners, and it was eventually absorbed into the newly proclaimed Kakadu national park, now a world heritage site. June was born in London, the fourth of six children of Irene (nee Molesworth) and Charles Rowley, an army captain, and initially lived in Tonbridge Wells, Kent. A brother, Charles, died when he was two. In 1935, her father died, and the family moved to London, where June attended Glendower school in South Kensington. When she was 16 years old, her mother married Frank Ash, an ex-army captain and friend of June's father. With the onset of the second world war, Glendower was closed and June was sent to stay with friends in Winchester. There, her studies suffered, and she left school without qualifications. After studying shorthand and typing at a commercial college, June joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) aged 18. She was posted to RAF Bourn in Cambridgeshire with 105 Squadron, where she transported the Mosquito aircrew to and from the dispersal points for flights as well as driving ambulances to crash sites. Demobbed in 1946, June auditioned for a production of the musical Annie Get Your Gun, and was taken on as a chorus girl. However she got to play Annie on its opening night at the Empire, Liverpool, when the show's star, Barbara Shotter, and her understudy both fell ill. More acting and other jobs followed, but June yearned to see more of the world. In 1957 she set off overland by bus for India, with a view to getting a boat to Australia. She made it through Europe, Turkey and Persia but became ill with hepatitis so returned to England, sailing to Australia the following year. Tom died in 1982, and she did a series of access courses that led to a degree in archaeology and anthropology at the Northern Territory University (now Charles Darwin University), followed by her doctorate. She published her autobiography, An English Rose in Kakadu, in 2009. In 2012 June returned to the UK to live in Cambridge with her sister, before moving into a retirement home in Cambourne, near RAF Bourn. She remained an honorary fellow at Charles Darwin University. A letter from the university to mark her 100th birthday noted her contribution to widening understanding of the Kakadu national park. She is survived by seven nephews and nieces.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Susan Lucci Reveals Unconventional Ritual She Still Follows as She Returns to Broadway (Exclusive)
Susan Lucci is excited to take the stage. The legendary actress is part of the second cast of My First Ex-Husband, a new comedy play from Joy Behar and directed by Randal Myler, now playing at the MMAC Theater in New York City. The play features a rotating lineup of luminaries from theater, television, and film, bringing fresh voices and perspectives to stories about the messy truths of love, marriage, and divorce, revealing the chaotic, funny, and often eye-opening realities of relationships. Speaking with PEOPLE about her role, the Emmy-winning actress, 78, says she's excited to be on stage in a comedy. "First of all, I love doing comedy and the material, I love the material. Joy Behar called and asked if I would do this. When I saw the material, I realized Joy and I were so on the same page. I thought, 'Of course I'm going to do this.' " "The material is so funny," she continued. "It's true material, too... They're stories written by individual women who have been in bad marriages. And I don't think they meant them necessarily to be funny. They are just true." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Related: Susan Lucci Reveals the 3 Foods She Eats Every Day Since Having 2 Heart Operations Lucci is no stranger to the stage, having been in Annie Get Your Gun on Broadway in 1999. The idea of being back in front of a live audience is thrilling for the actress. "Performing live comes with its own set of excitement and involvement. The audiences gets engaged, and it's terrific. I think especially when you —well, anytime, but especially with comedy — anytime the audience gets engaged, it's really nice. You're in this together. The audience is there to laugh, and you're there to find the laughs. It's very fun to get the response from the audience." As for rituals, Lucci has one she's adopted as a rule and one she unconsciously developed. "I don't eat before I perform. That's always the case," she says. "And I love to eat, but I have no desire to before I go on stage, so that works out." "I found out a ritual I wasn't even aware of when I was doing Annie Get Your Gun," she continues. "There were some very quick changes backstage, and one involved changing my shoes and my top. There were two dressers there and when it came time, she asked me, 'Do you put your left shoe on first or your right shoe?' " Lucci continues, "I frankly had never thought of it before, but I thought, oh, oh, I could think I'm in the right business here. Okay, it's my left. I realized at the time then, I do put on my left shoe first. So I have continued that ritual." From February 26 to March 23, Lucci will appear alongside Judy Gold, Tonya Pinkins and Cathy Moriarty in My First Ex-Husband. Read the original article on People
New York Times
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
These Actors Made Broadway Debuts as Children. Now They're Back.
The New York stage has some notable nostalgia this year: More than a half-dozen performers in significant roles made their Broadway debuts as children. Some were in hits and some were in flops; they experienced joy and (in one case) trauma. A few have appeared onstage with regularity, while others pursued music or film and are now returning. Here they reflect on those early experiences. Nick Jonas Nick Jonas was just 8 when he landed a part as a Tiny Tim understudy in a 2000 production of 'A Christmas Carol' at Madison Square Garden (Frank Langella was Scrooge). A year later, at 9, he made his Broadway debut as Little Jake in a revival of 'Annie Get Your Gun' then starring Reba McEntire. He did two more Broadway shows in rapid succession: At 10 he played Chip, a teacup, in 'Beauty and the Beast,' and at 11 he played Gavroche, a street child, in 'Les Misérables.' Though he became a successful pop star in the years that followed, the stage kept calling: At 19, he returned to Broadway in 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.' And this spring, at 32, he is returning in the first Broadway production of Jason Robert Brown's much-loved 'The Last Five Years.' Like many of the actors interviewed here, Jonas said that in theater he found a group of peers who understood him in a way that classmates often did not. At school, Jonas said, 'I definitely felt like I was strange to them.' But onstage, he said, 'I finally felt like I was around my people.' Jonas, who was born in Texas and raised in New Jersey, said an adult who influenced him was the actor Rob McClure, who was an understudy in 'I'm Not Rappaport' in 2002 when Jonas was in 'Beauty and the Beast.' McClure, who lived near the Jonas family, would drive Nick to the city when they both had shows, and they would talk about acting, do improv bits and listen to tenors. They would also watch videos of Broadway bloopers — comforting, because Jonas has long clung to the memory of missing a cue while in 'Annie Get Your Gun.' 'I literally had to bolt down from my fourth-story dressing room down to the stage and left Reba McEntire and Brent Barrett waiting for little Jake to arrive, and he didn't,' Jonas said. 'But, in the theme of that show, the show must go on. We have to adapt.' Now, as he prepares for the intense theater schedule, he says he wants to reconnect with the 'joy and freedom' he felt as a child actor. 'Back then it was just fun — I just got to do a thing I loved,' he said. 'I think that for me to do my best work and to have the best experience I need to be loose and as carefree as I was then.' Sadie Sink The 2012 Broadway revival of 'Annie' was underway when cast members started to get sick, and the production needed more understudies. That's how Sadie Sink, at 10, landed a gig as a standby on Broadway — she was a Texan, but she was in New York because her brother was performing in 'Elf,' and she knew 'Annie' because she had starred in a production in Houston at Theater Under the Stars. 'I remember being at the Palace Theater, doing the same old 'Annie' songs I'd been singing my whole life at that point, and they cast me just to join for a bit as a placeholder while they needed extra coverage, but that ended up extending, and then that turned into being Annie,' she said. 'It was a lot on my family, because moving from Texas to New York is not easy financially and logistically, but it just kind of happened, and I just remember it being this huge whirlwind of excitement.' For a while, she was home-schooled, but she made plenty of friends because the 'Annie' cast was filled with young girls who also loved theater. When she was 12 she took on another Broadway role, playing a young Elizabeth, the future queen of England, in 'The Audience,' starring Helen Mirren. Those early Broadway parts 'really set a good foundation for me, and a good level of discipline,' she said. Sink went back to public school, and in ninth grade she was cast as Max Mayfield in Netflix's 'Stranger Things.' She skipped college to focus on that series, and this spring, at 22, she'll return to Broadway in 'John Proctor Is the Villain,' a comedy that interrogates 'The Crucible' through the eyes of high schoolers. Sink says she is ready for it. 'There are some nerves that come with it, too, just cause it's been a while, but it's going to be super-rewarding just to re-approach it as an adult now and make new memories,' she said. 'That's just what I'm meant to do, and I feel very lucky that I somehow figured that out at a really young age.' Christian Slater At 10, Christian Slater hit the road. His father was an actor and his mother was a casting director, and Slater, growing up in New York City, was discovered when the director of a Broadway-bound production of 'The Music Man' noticed him on a cable access show on which his mother was being interviewed. Looked after by guardians, Slater traveled the country for months playing Winthrop, the little brother of Marian the librarian. 'I was having the best time of my life,' he said. 'It was incredible.' So in 1980, Slater made his Broadway debut in 'The Music Man,' and that was followed by roles in 'Copperfield,' 'Macbeth' and 'Merlin.' He attended schools set up for child performers. 'Honestly, I loved it — I've always loved it,' he said. 'Other than dealing with some crazy adults, for the most part it was a pretty smooth experience. I had guardians, I had tutors, I had other kids who were also in the shows who I could spend time with.' He became well known for films including 'Heathers' and 'True Romance,' but he also struggled with substance abuse during a tumultuous early adulthood. 'I definitely felt the need to find ways to escape from my own head, and from some of the uncomfortable stuff, and unfortunately when you're looking to escape you find substances you do that with,' he said. 'They work in the beginning, and then they end up biting you in the ass somewhere else down the line, and hopefully you survive it and come out the other side a little bit wiser and a little bit clearer about who you want to be in life.' He has done a couple of Broadway shows as an adult — 'Side Man' and 'The Glass Menagerie' — and now, at 55, he is starring Off Broadway in a New Group production of Sam Shepard's 'Curse of the Starving Class.' His character is the family patriarch and an abusive alcoholic. 'It is funny to grow into older characters, and to be playing the dad,' Slater said. 'I'm certainly able to tap into aspects of my own life and my own path.' Alex Winter Before Alex Winter became one of filmdom's most famous slackers — starring opposite Keanu Reeves in the 'Bill & Ted' movies — he was performing on Broadway. In 1978, when he was 13, he played Anna's son in a revival of 'The King and I,' and in 1979 he starred in 'Peter Pan' as John Darling. That period of his life was traumatic because, he said, he was being sexually abused by someone he has not named. 'During the 'King and I' era I ended up in a really bad, predatory situation that was prolonged, that took some work to get through,' he said. He still considers his early childhood career a positive. 'These are societal, systemic issues,' he said. 'They're not showbiz issues. And in fact, I would argue that the show itself and the theater itself was a refuge for me — it was safe, it was lovely, it was magical.' Winter, whose parents were dancers, and who lived in Montclair, N.J., when working on Broadway, has spent a lot of time thinking about child performers; in fact, in 2020 he made an HBO documentary on the subject called 'Showbiz Kids.' 'What childhood is ever just idyllic?' he said. 'I played. I ran. We would skateboard on the stage between shows. We would have baseball games. I had issues because I was exposed to stuff — you were in an adultified space, and so there are dangers there — there are stressors involved in being in entertainment that young.' He said he believes conditions have improved. 'There is a lot more language and protection in place for children in the industry now than there was when I was in the industry, and a lot of it has to do with the #MeToo movement opening up dialogue.' A portion of his career has been focused on directing, but next fall he plans to return to Broadway to star alongside Reeves in a revival of 'Waiting for Godot.' 'Acting onstage is in my bones. I've always been very comfortable doing it. I got onstage at 5 years old, and it's something I have good feelings for,' said Winter, who is now 59. 'But it will be a monumental thing for me emotionally.' Gracie Lawrence Gracie Lawrence's first Broadway show was a famous flop — a revival of Neil Simon's 'Brighton Beach Memoirs' that lasted just a week beyond opening night. But she was only 12, and, she said, 'It all went a little over my head.' 'I was having this euphoric moment, and then when it ended, everyone else was grappling with more adult realities than I was. I just had to go back to going through real puberty.' The 2009 play, which had 34 performances including previews, was formative. She remembers watching the older actors get into character just before the curtain went up. So she developed her own preparation strategy — she would roll her eyes just before the show began, to snap into character as the snarky girl she was playing. She remembers proudly sharing that discovery with Jessica Hecht, one of the show's performers. Her artistic life then took a turn. She and one of her brothers formed a band, Lawrence, and for the past decade she has spent much of her time touring. But Lawrence, who grew up in New York and whose father is a filmmaker, has continued to act, including with a role on the Max series 'The Sex Lives of College Girls.' And this spring she will return to Broadway to play the singer Connie Francis in 'Just in Time,' a musical about another singer, Bobby Darin. 'So much of my life has been around the question, 'Will I ever return to Broadway?' because it was this wildly significant thing in my childhood,' Lawrence, now 27, said. 'I'm not chill about it at all. It's one of the craziest, coolest things that's ever happened to me — I'm just having this wild experience that I didn't know if I'd ever have again.' Nicholas Barasch When he was 8, his mother jokes, Nicholas Barasch asked whether she had found him an agent. By 10, he had gotten his big break, playing a child who sang 'Somewhere' in a 2009 Broadway revival of 'West Side Story.' It was fun and nerve-racking and sure, sometimes things went wrong. 'One time I was having a full giggle fit backstage,' he said, 'and we're getting closer and closer to my entrance, and I remember standing in the wings and telling myself, 'If you do not pull yourself together, your career is over.'' Barasch, who grew up in Westchester County, N.Y., did pull himself together, and he has been performing ever since. At 14 he was in Broadway's 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood.' 'It was like being in master classes, and it was nice because when you're the kid everyone handles you a little more gently,' he said. 'But also, the paradox is, I was also expected to perform like a professional adult.' Barasch, whose great-grandmother performed in vaudeville and whose grandfather wrote two Broadway plays, was back on Broadway at 17, playing a delivery boy in a revival of 'She Loves Me.' He has done some screen work ('Riverdale') and toured (as Orpheus) with 'Hadestown,' and this spring, at 26, he has his biggest Broadway role yet, as Frederic in 'Pirates! The Penzance Musical.' 'I sometimes long for the freedom and the innocence that came with being 10 and not knowing a single thing about the craft or the industry,' he said. 'But at the same time, I've had to unlearn some of the hyperdiscipline that I had as a kid, and just relax more and trust myself.' Kevin Csolak As far back as Kevin Csolak can remember, he wanted to dance. He grew up in Flemington, N.J., where his mother runs a performing arts studio; at 5, he started entering dance competitions. Shortly after turning 11, he landed a part dancing on Broadway in 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas!' (He was one of several 'Little Whos' in Whoville.) Performing was fun. School, not so much. 'It was 'twinkletoes!' and 'Broadway Boy!'' he said. He tried playing baseball, but was missing too many games. He stopped talking to classmates about his afternoons and evenings in the city. 'It felt like I was missing out — like I was inside a dance class while the kids were outside playing ball and running around,' he said. 'But at the same time, coming into the city and performing and auditioning and meeting people that were so like me — who had this unspeakable passion for this art form — that filled me up.' He remembers watching Patrick Page, who played the Grinch. 'It was my first time experiencing an actor who was offstage so sweet and so nice, and then gets onstage — he transformed,' Csolak said. 'That's where I was like, 'Oh, wow.'' In the years since, he has performed on television ('Boardwalk Empire'), film ('West Side Story') and stage ('The Outsiders'), and now, at 29, is featured in the Broadway revival of 'Gypsy.' Csolak plays Tulsa, a young man who yearns to dance. 'Tulsa is definitely just a big old kid who gets to sing and dance and dream,' Csolak said. 'That's what I dedicate every night to, hopefully inspiring a kid out there who has some sort of dream.'
