Get cultured this weekend!

Don't let schoolwork, boredom, or the many fascinations of the Twitterverse and the Facebook Nation prevent you from experiencing the multitude of theatre playing in Baltimore right now.

No money? No problem! Most professional theatre companies have a student rush program, which provides discounts to students an hour before the show on any tickets that didn't sell.

For all you locals, head on over to the Baltimore Theatre Alliance website to see what's playing and when, and go do something different with your Friday and Saturday night. And don't worry, most shows will be over around 10:30, which will leave you plenty of time to get your weekend party on.

--DQ

Calling all theatre people or bloggers, or both!

Overheard on Twitter:

The Baltimore Theatre Alliance is accepting applications for bloggers, either to write reviews of BTA productions or to blog about personal Baltimore theatre experiences. Granted, the applications are due tomorrow, so I apologize for not posting it here sooner, but I just discovered this yesterday.

I followed the link from @balttheatre to the blog. Although the Baltimore Theatre Alliance is a prominent promoter of theatre in the region, the blog is a new endeavor for them. Upon viewing the ad, I contemplated sending in an application, but then decided against it, knowing that soon after graduation (just 41 days now!) I'm moving to Central Florida and will therefore a) not have time to blog much anymore due to the hours I'm going to be working and b) will no longer be living in Baltimore and therefore will not be seeing much of its theatre.

I do regret not having this opportunity sooner, especially with the recent development of All the World's A Stage. But if you or anyone you know is interested, they are still accepting applications until April 12th. It's a great way to promote yourself in online media and to break your way into the Baltimore theatre community.

I remain your Drama Queen.

What's the story, morning glory? What's the word, hummingbird?

Overheard on Twitter:

Single Carrot Theatre, one of Baltimore's newest theatre companies, has found recent success with a play by none other than Tracy Letts, author of Bug and August: Osage County.

"Last performance of Killer Joe is on right now," @SingleCarrot tweeted yesterday afternoon. "A sell out weekend, standing room only--our most attended show ever. Thanks to all who came!"

For a company trying to gain its ground and compete with Baltimore's already-thriving theatre community, Single Carrot is well on its way! They were voted the Best New Theatre Company by City Paper's Best of Baltimore 2008 issue. According to their website, they strive to produce socially relevant shows to educate the community through a variety of diverse works, a feat which I'd say they are accomplishing at an astonishing rate right now.

I suppose, then, that their motto is true:

"The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution." --Paul Cezanne

Now there's some food for thought.

--DQ

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.

Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome...

My name is Dana, and I'm a double major at Towson University in Theatre Studies and Journalism & New Media. What a perfect way to fuse my two passions here on a blog about all things theatrical.

As the title of this blog (and the subject line from 'Cabaret') suggests, this is theatre people central! By that, I mean not people who are simply interested in theatre or who attend plays frequently or have been to Broadway, although you are certainly welcome. But the term 'theatre people' implies a community with a more significant connection to the art, one where members are are actively involved in the discipline, whether it's performing, designing sets, hanging lights, sewing costumes, directing, casting, running a theatre, teaching drama, whatever. We're all theatre people because this passion has taken a forefront in our lives to the point that we've become immersed in this world somehow. And often our passion for this art allows us to share that experience with the rest of the world in the form of a production or the first reading of a new translation of a play or young playwriting festivals.

Much work and detail goes into this art, and this is a space to experience all of it, comment on it, and perfect it through respectful sharing of opinion. Several theatre enthusiasts, like Blogway Baby, are already out there blogging about the Great White Way and beyond. But this is the theatre world from my eyes, created for people in theatre about theatre and without limitations, and I hope it's useful and entertaining to all who decide to become a part of it.

Until next time, I remain your faithful Drama Queen.