Sunday, March 26, 2000
CCM music class showcases talent
BY JACKIE DEMALINE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Whatever happened to the music class of '99 at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music? Sara Gettelfinger is in Fosse and will soon be on Broadway in Suessical, by the creators of Ragtime. Tobi Foster and Jessica Boevers are already there, in Les Miz.
Jeremy Seymour is off-Broadway with Jose Rivera's new play Sueno. Also off-Broadway are Shoshana Bean and Leslie Kritzer in a new version of Godspell. There's talk of a transfer to the Great White Way.
You can catch this year's class of Stars of Tomorrow next weekend in CCM's Studio Theater. The graduating seniors from the musical theater and drama departments offer a free preview of showcases they'll take to New York in April, where their audiences will be agents and producers.
The drama department will strut its stuff at 6 p.m. Friday and 8:30 p.m. Saturday. Musical theater's showcase plays 8:30 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday.
The Class of 2000 will be the first graduating seniors from the drama department to take a showcase to New York, and that's A Very Big Thing, says senior Gina Ramsden. “That's a huge priority, that's partly why I came to CCM,” she says.
She and her six classmates also see it as a huge responsibility. “If agents and casting agents come see it and don't like it, they'll never come again.”
Ms. Ramsden has already lined up an apartment in Queens. They hope the showcase will raise some interest. “If nothing happens, we'll start on our own. It's scary and exciting.”
The musical theater showcase is an annual SRO event for agents and casting agents. Liz Pearce, who had feature roles this year in The Secret Garden and Man of La Mancha,is part of a graduating class of 15 (five women and 10 men).
The hour-long musical revue is written and choreographed by the students. This year the theme is “My So-Called Art.”
“Most of us plan to stay in New York for two weeks” after the April 6 showcases. “Hopefully, we'll get to audition, find apartments. Everything is riding on what happens with the showcases.”
Tickets to the weekend showcases are free but by reservation only, call the box office at 556-4183.
Friends of CCM will sponsor two performances of the musical theater showcase at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday as a fund-raiser to help the students get a leg up in New York. Tickets are $75 and include a New York deli-style buffet between shows. Call 556-2100 for reservations and information.
"GREAT' RETURNS: Stage First artistic director Nicholas Korn is happy enough with the response to the debut of his Alexander the Great: Part I that the theater's 2000-2001 season will open Sept. 14-30 with Alexander the Great: Part II.
“We wanted to see how it did, and there was a good turn-out,” says Mr. Korn. “Lots of people want to know what's going to happen next. I want to build on that interest.”
For folks who missed it, the first section of Mr. Korn's trilogy caught up with the ancient Macedonian as ascending prince and warrior. The show ended with the murder of his father the king.
In Part II, Alexander will conquer the world. (Oh, no, I gave it away.) Part III is being written.)
The Stage First third season of “world classics” will have five productions instead of seven, and extend each run from two weekends to three “so we're actually doing more weeks,” Mr. Korn points out.
The schedule: Nov. 9-25, Moliere double bill That Scoundrel Scapin/Rehearsal at Versailles; Feb. 1-17, Hamlet; March 29-April 14, Aristophenes' The Clouds; May 24-June 9, Ibsen's The Master Builder.
Hamlet? Isn't the Bard covered locally? “Shakespeare is something we have to do every now and again to justify ourselves as a classical company,” asserts Mr. Korn.
The Clouds will be a follow-up to Lysistrata, which doesn't open until April 27, but Mr. Korn expects it to do well. “It will sort of be Jim Henson meets Hustler,” he laughs.
Phallus puppets will help move the action along in the Greek comedy about a sex strike that's declared to stop a war. Mr. Korn is hoping that after a taste of Lysistrata his audiences will be panting for more.
In other happy news, Mr. Korn has gathered enough funding to pay himself for six months. He plans to cut back on directing and spend more time writing grants. The goal is a $140,000 budget. The need, he says “is to be able to offer stipends to actors, designers and directors.”
Stage First's Long Day's Journey into Night, Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical drama about the tragic Tyrone family, continues at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at the Aronoff's Fifth Third Bank Theater. Call the box office at 241-7469 for reservations.
ASSOCIATION SEARCH: As Cincinnati Arts Association looks for new leadership, board member Lee Carter offers his assessment. “Everything else is really doing well, so the real question is how do we make the Aronoff Center do what it was supposed to do in the first place, which was to be a builder for downtown activity.
“The board is united in our belief that what we need is someone who can help us do our own producing and presenting. We need someone who understands how to do that, someone who can form alliances, find co-producers, be imaginative and aggressive.”
MUSEUM MUSINGS: Starting April 4, be sure your first stop at Cincinnati Art Museum is the new visitor seven-minute orientation video that will unreeling in the Fine Arts Fund Partners Gallery just off the museum lobby.
Visitors will be introduced to Chief Conservator Stephen Bonadies in the Conservation Lab, artists Jim Dine, Joel Otterson and Michael Wilson and many more, most filmed with favorite artwork.
Docent (and Walnut Hills High School art teacher) Wylie Ferguson advises visitors to get up close and personal with a work of art, getting to know the brush strokes, as he does with a Hans Hoffman painting. Art Academy student Susanna Rosenthal assures, “It's OK to have questions and not to like every work of art.”
And new museum director Timothy Rub suggests visitors be prepared: you might just have an art experience that stays with you for the rest of your life.
As of March 21, the Fund has reached $4,274,104. That's 48.1% of this year's $8,886,458 goal. The fund drive ends April 27.
The fund primarily supports Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Symphony, Contemporary Arts Center, May Festival, Playhouse in the Park and Taft Museum of Art.
Last year about $600,000 was divided among nine midsized associate members and dozens of small arts organizations. Anyone interested in contributing to the fund can call 871-2787 for more information.
Jackie Demaline is the Enquirer's theater critic and roving arts reporter. Write her at Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati OH 45202; fax, 768-8330.
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