Tony noms are announced!

I must digress from crossing cultures right now to address the recent Tony Award nominations.

The first and most important element of this entry is to extend a congratulations to Towson University's own John Glover, alum and visiting acting instructor, on his nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Waiting for Godot. Those who aren't familiar with Glover may know him from television as Lex Luthor's father, Lionel, on Smallville, or most recently, as Sylar's father on the supernatural drama Heroes.

I've had the privilege of working with Glover in my Acting I and Directing I classes, and he frequently returns to Towson when he's not busy starring on Broadway or in top-rated TV shows. He prides himself on offering real-world advice to students.

As for the rest of the noms, the Dolly Parton musical 9 to 5 is up there, as well as Shrek: The Musical and Next to Normal, which opened at Arena Stage in DC before finding fame on the Great White Way. Hollywood actresses Jane Fonda, Marcia Gay Harden and Angela Lansbury are also in the running for an award.

Godot is also up for Best Revival of a Play and Best Costume Design.

For a full list of the nominations, check out the Tony Awards official site. Tune in to the Tonys on Sunday, June 7th at 8/7c on CBS.

--DQ

There's one more star in the sky

Film and Broadway actress Natasha Richardson, 45, passed away tonight from head injuries after a skiing accident.

Ms. Richardson's impressive career consisted of numerous Hollywood roles including a remake of The Parent Trap and Maid in Manhattan. She was most well known for being a gifted stage actress, having performed in Hamlet, A Streetcar Named Desire, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1998, she earned a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of struggling singer Sally Bowles in Cabaret.

The theatre world grows a little quieter for you today, Ms. Richardson.

The cast is great, the script is swell, but this we're telling you, sirs...

A couple of entries ago, I mentioned that each theatrical season at TU involves not only the larger Mainstage productions, but also student-directed shows, where theatre majors have the chance to cast and direct a show of their choice rather than perform in it.

I spoke with graduating senior Andrew Peters, an Acting student who is directing a play called Bug this spring, set to open next month. As a young theatre artist, he gave me some insight into the directing experience.

What drew you to Bug and why did you have an interest in directing it?

I first read Bug a few years ago and I've always been drawn to how visceral and gritty it is. It's a love story, a thriller, a piece of science fiction, a dark comedy...all of these different genres all wrapped into one. As a student director, I wanted to direct something challenging and gritty, but something that would allow me to also flex a creative muscle so to speak. It also came down to what I thought would not only interest theatre artists, but the Towson student body as well. With most of its Mainstage repertoire, the Towson theatre department puts on shows that I feel are good learning experiences, but I don't always feel that they are chosen due to what students our age actually want to see. So I wanted to do something very raw, provocative, and fun, but still doable in a college environment.

Author Tracy Letts is also responsible for the Tony Award-winning play August: Osage County. Did this success have any effect on your decision to direct Bug?

The fact that Letts is becoming a huge name in the theatre world definitely influenced my decision. In general, I wanted to do this to get his name out there to a younger audience because I think he's going to be someone who continues doing work for years, and if I can spread his work around to as many people as possible, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

As a theatre student, how valuable is it to have this kind of behind-the-scenes, hands-on experience with a show?

You learn a lot about the process that certain things like classes and such won't teach you. I've been in a good amount of shows here at Towson, but directing a show has taught me so much more than I could've gotten from actually being on stage. You learn about the process and the ways to adapt to it.

What have been your favorite moments so far?

Sometimes, we've stumbled into territory I never expected. For instance, I love it when the actors take a risk with a way they deliver a line or an action they perform, and it completely makes me rethink my original ideas. Also, seeing the show on its feet as it progresses is incredibly exciting each step of the way. The first time we put together Act 1 in one night, I really got a sense that we were well on our way.

Do you have any advice for future student directors?

One, don't be afraid to take risks. Jump in head first! Second, think around the box. With Bug, there are a lot of technical things that I am working around now that I've been able to brainstorm solutions for, and I'm really excited to see how those choices will pay off when the performances start. It's a thrill to be able to see how you can play with a concept and adapt a piece of text to it.

Bug runs April 2 - 4, 2009, in the Ruth Marder Theatre at Towson University.

--DQ

Think of the prestige. Think of the respect. Think of...the Tony!

The Tony Awards are to Broadway what the Oscars are to Hollywood, and anyone involved in the art will tell you that even if they aren't entirely devoted to the Great White Way as the best representation of good theatre, they're still curious about which shows are catching the eyes of the biggest critics in the industry.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't one of those people.

An ongoing series of future posts will feature shows receiving Tony buzz and any other Tony news that happens to pass my ears. While the nominees won't be officially announced until May 5th (the awards take place on June 7th), it's never too soon to start considering the top shows of the year.

I remain your Drama Queen.

Ya got trouble, my friends, right here in New York City.

As most of you are aware, the United States economy is in a time of crisis. No matter where we are in the country or what our professions or interests involve, in some way this recession is affecting all of us.

Thus, it saddens me to the core to admit that even Broadway is experiencing economic hardship.

While it's true that there have been a significant lack of new shows appearing on the Great White Way for quite some time, Broadway has elegantly survived over recent years through revivals of popular musicals like Grease and Gypsy and by bringing in larger audiences by casting superstars from the film industry in new shows it DOES manage to import, such as Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame, who plays a young man with a sexual fascination to horses in Peter Shaffer's Equus.

Even so, the reality of the economy's current devastation hit the New York theatre scene heavily this past January, when 13 shows closed, including the new Tony Award-winning sensation The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein and the classic French farce Boeing-Boeing. Other popular favorites like Spamalot, Hairspray, and Spring Awakening also watched the final curtain fall.

The Curator and I agree that audiences are dying for new subject matter in the theatrical realm, which isn't exactly easily accomplished when one considers that the cost of putting up a production, especially one as high-scale as a Broadway show, goes much beyond what you see on the stage in performance. The production staff demands a hefty salary, as does the cost of equipment needed for the set and lighting. There are numerous other fees that must be accounted for, and consideration must first and foremost go to the performers whose talents you employ to make your show a success.

It's a cruel contradiction to that old stage adage, "the show must go on," but if you can't pay your actors, you don't have a show.

Through the good and bad, I remain your Drama Queen.

Measure your life in love, seasons of love.

Last night, I had the immense privilege to see the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical (and one of my favorite shows of all time, up there with Les Miserables), RENT, for the umpteenth time. But what made this night better than any others was that the roles of Mark and Roger were played by none other than the original cast members, Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, respectively.


Now, let me preface this by saying that I'm not one of those saw-the-movie-and-jumped-on-the-bandwagon-omg-RENT-is-awesome people. No, indeed.

I am a RENThead.

A RENThead is a person who has been a supporter of the show from when it got its start in 1996 and has loved everything about it ever since, who saw the trailer for the movie and nearly screamed in the movie theater, who saw the movie the night it opened and sang along to every word, who could pick out which songs were left out of the movie but went back to see it again anyway, who has seen it performed on stage several times and never gets tired of it. You get the idea.

Anyway, so yes. I'm a hardcore RENT fan. I sing it in my apartment, I sing it in my car, I sing it with my friends, I sing it everywhere.

But this post is hardly about me. As I mentioned, two of the original cast members reprised their roles for a short run in Philadelphia at the Academy of Music.


Both Anthony and Adam were in the movie, and they both were in it on Broadway for much of its run before it closed in September of 2008 (a travesty, but an issue that will be saved for another day).

I'd seen the show performed at the Academy last year around this time, and it dazzled me as it always does as I sit there in my seat, singing along under my breath.

This time, the original cast members, knowing it like the back of their hands, completely stole the show. From the cheers that greeted them as they ran on stage to the shouts of approval they garnered after such powerful Mark-and-Roger anthems as "Rent" and "What You Own," the experience was totally surreal to me. I sat in my seat wondering how many people were seeing the show for the first time ever, and how many have seen it 20 times and are still coming back.

Regardless, usually shouting appraisal at the actors before the end of the show is not considered the best theatre etiquette (again, a topic for another day). For any other show, it wouldn't be appropriate to cheer and clap in the middle of the song after a heartfelt solo. But what I've found over the years of loving this show in all its pieces and as a whole is that RENT creates this unbelievable community the moment the show starts. And this goes back to the basic idea of theatre, that it is meant to be an art that unites a spattering of diverse people in one moment in time. During the song most people (RENT fans and non-RENT fans alike) associate with the musical, "Seasons of Love," the entire audience clapped with the cast. This usually happens in every performance (it has at every one I've been to). Something like that just gives me this incredible affection for my passion, and I'm amazed that one musical by one talented man who didn't even live to see the first performance of his worldwide sensation could have that kind of power over an audience that can fill four balconies and a ground level.


I may as well admit one more thing here, in case you haven't already realized how crazy I am about this show. During "Without You," the song that pulls on heartstrings as Angel dies (if you don't know by now, shame on you!), I was bawling.

It's things like this that make my passion worth pursuing, no matter how small they are.

Until next time, I am ever your Drama Queen.