BROADWAY MASTER CLASS:
From: Amanda Macomber <csr4932@hotmail.com>

Subject: Fwd: Broadway Master Class with Matilda cast

Date: April 11, 2016 at 11:03:08 AM EDT

To: Jane Zussman <jszussman@gmail.com>

Good morning Jane,

The good folks at Step N Time and CPAC are offering this wonderful opportunity for the younger set. We were wondering if you could share it with the G.L.U.T group so kids have a chance to participate. Thank you.

Best Regards,
Amanda Macomber

Begin forwarded message:


From: "Auten, Hollie" <autenh@charlottenet.org>
Date: April 11, 2016 at 10:57:17 AM EDT
To: Kyra Macomber <csr4932@hotmail.com>
Subject: Broadway Master Class with Matilda cast


Hello Lansing Area Theater Friends!

On Saturday April 23rd, while Matilda is in town at the Wharton Center, we have the opportunity to have one of their cast members teach a master class! This is a great opportunity for area theater kids. Not only will it be a dance class, it will also include all aspects of musical theater, a TRUE TRIPLE THREAT event! Please share, this is not only for Step N' Time students! We encourage all area thespians to get involved in this awesome opportunity! Register today!  Flyer and registration form is attached. 

Also available online at http://stepntimedancestudio.com/2015-16-information/


Thank you!


Hollie



--
Hollie Auten
Box Office Manager (CPAC) 517-541-5690
Fax: 517-541-5696
autenh@charlottenet.org
Hours:  8:30 am - 12:30 pm, Weekdays (Closed when school is not in session)

Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Friday at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Sunday at 1:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Cobb Great Hall

Tickets from $38 ● plus applicable fees

$25.00 MSU student tickets available

Part of MSUFCU Broadway at Wharton Center Series

TicketOffice: whartoncenter.com
517.432.2000 or 1.800.WHARTON

EAST LANSING, Mich. – TIME magazine’s #1 Show of the Year, MATILDA THE MUSICAL, is coming to Wharton Center as part of the MSUFCU Broadway at Wharton Center series. Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Dodgers, the first national tour of MATILDA THE MUSICAL will be featured on Tuesday, April 19 – Sunday, April 24, 2016, in Cobb Great Hall. Tickets to see MATILDA THE MUSICAL are available at the official source to purchase Wharton Center tickets online, whartoncenter.com, at the Auto-Owners Insurance Ticket Office, or by calling 1-800-WHARTON.

Winner of 50 international awards including 4 Tony Awards® and a record-breaking seven Olivier Awards including Best Musical, MATILDA THE MUSICAL is based on the beloved novel by best-selling author Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Fantastic Mr. Fox). It is the story of an extraordinary girl who dreams of a better life. Armed with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind, Matilda dares to take a stand and change her destiny.

MATILDA THE MUSICAL is directed by Tony Award® winner Matthew Warchus (God of Carnage), who helms this production with a book by Tony Award® winning playwright Dennis Kelly and music and lyrics by Australian comedian, musician and composer Tim Minchin.

The production has sets and costumes by Tony Award® winner Rob Howell, with choreography by Peter Darling, orchestrations, additional music and musical supervision by Christopher Nightingale, lighting by Tony Award® winner Hugh Vanstone, and sound by Simon Baker.

Book, Music and Lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
 
Directed and Choreographed by Brad Willcuts
Musical Direction by Dave Wendelberger
 
--Tickets on sale--
www.whartoncenter.com
EAST LANSING – MSU’s Department of Theatre gears up for the final production of its 2015-2016 Season of Journeys by presenting Grease, at the Pasant Theatre at Wharton Center from April 15 – 24. With a catchy rock and roll score, including popular songs such as “Summer Nights”, “Greased Lightning”, and “We Go Together,” Grease is sure to delight audiences.  (Appropriate for ages 13 and up)
 
This production of Grease will be especially unique from recent versions in that MSU was honored with the very rare opportunity to present the show with all of the original lines from the Broadway production in 1972. Director Brad Willcuts articulates, “Before Grease Live! a few months ago on FOX, before Grease: You’re the One That I Want the reality television series, and even before Grease the film, there was a concept musical created to be an anti-musical: a piece of musical theatre inspired by Hair to present something unpolished, aggressive, sexual and unapologetically Rock and Roll.” Willcuts is referencing the slightly raunchier and more vulgar version of the now well-known characters:  the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds (originally Burger Palace Boys). In the original, the characters “…challenged social mores…revealed truths of repressed American culture, and actually empowered women’s sexuality instead of undermining it,” explains Willcuts.
 
The cast is rounded out with multiple lead roles in the Pink Ladies and Burger Palace Boys, including Shelby Antel (BFA Acting Sophomore) as Sandy and Lukas Jacob (BFA Acting Sophomore) as Danny. Also, Blaine Mizer (BFA Acting Senior) makes a special appearance as the Teen Angel in his final MSU production. These are only a few of the widely talented cast. Elspeth Williams (MFA Design 3rd Year) finishes her time at MSU as Costume Designer, and Kenzie Carpenter (BFA Design Senior) is the Lighting Designer in her final design for the department as well.
 
Performances held in the Pasant Theatre at Wharton Center for Performing Arts
Directed and Choreographed by Brad Willcuts
 
Friday, April 15, 2016 at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 16, 2016 at 2:00pm
Saturday, April 16, 2016 at 8:00pm
*Sunday, April 17, 2016 at 2:00pm
Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 7:30pm
**Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 7:30pm
Friday, April 22, 2016 at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 2:00pm
Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 8:00pm
Sunday, April 24, 2016 at 2:00pm

*   Director Pre-Show Discussion, Sunday, April 17, 2016, 1:15.
** Post-Show Discussion on Thursday, April 21, 2016. (Following the performance)
 
Tickets are available from the Wharton Center Box Office; 1.800.WHARTON; www.whartoncenter.com.
Box office at the Pasant Theatre opens 1 hour prior to each performance with house doors opening 30 minutes prior.
General Admission $22. Seniors and Faculty $20. Students $17. Children 12 and under $10. (+$3 Wharton Center facility fee)
 
Pasant Theatre, Wharton Center for Performing Arts, Michigan State University, 750 E Shaw Rd, East Lansing, MI  48824.
For more information and the entire 2015-16 season, “A Season of Journeys” visit theatre.msu.edu

1/15 - Wharton Center is offering an amazing special discount price for this Friday's performance of Valentijin Dhaenens: Bigmouth. Supposed to be an AWESOME one-man tour de force show, and a great one for theatre fans. Thanks for helping us spread the word!

Thanks, 
Joe Quick

Valentijn Dhaenens: BigMouth
Friday, January 15, 8 pm
MSU’s Wharton Center – Pasant Theatre
 
“Brilliant…a fascinating experience.” – The Guardian
 
"Electrifying and transcendent"- Exuent
 
A sell-out at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the talk of theatre festivals around the world, Belgian actor Valentijn Dhaenens brings this tour-de-force performance to MSU’s campus. Bigmouth explores the potency of words spoken, shouted and whispered through shifts in tone, accents and languages. In this worldwide sensation, with five microphones and unrelenting energy, Valentijn Dhaenens travels through 2500 years of history’s most memorable speeches including Socrates, MLK, Mohammed Ali, JFK, George W. Bush, victory speeches to eulogies, all woven together in a thrilling and powerful oratory rollercoaster. Along with music and theatrical elements, BigMouth is a remarkable piece of theatre.
 
Special $15 ticket offer! All seats, redeemed at the following link:  http://goo.gl/wkum0h 
 
For more information:  http://www.whartoncenter.com/events/detail/bigmouth
Suitable for ages 14+
 
Questions? Call the Wharton Center Tickets Office at 1.800.WHARTON.
www.whartoncenter.com

Music by RICHARD RODGERS
Lyrics by OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II
Book by HOWARD LINDSAY and RUSSEL CROUSE Suggested by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp

Directed by JACK O’BRIEN

Tuesday, February 9 — Sunday, February 14, 2016

Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Friday at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

Cobb Great Hall

Tickets from $38 ● plus applicable fees Student and group discounts available. whartoncenter.com
517.432.2000 or 1.800.WHARTON

Tickets are on sale now for the brand new production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC

This lavish new production will make its East Lansing premiere February 9-14 at Wharton Center as part of a North American tour.

Tickets are available at the official source to purchase Wharton Center tickets online, www.whartoncenter.com, at the Auto-Owner’s Insurance Ticket Office, or by calling 1-800-WHARTON. For more information, please visit www.TheSoundOfMusicOnTour.com.

MUSIC, directed by three-time Tony Award® winner Jack O’Brien.

BEN DAVIS (Broadway’s Violet, A Little Night Music, La Bohème) will play Captain Georg von Trapp and ASHLEY BROWN (Broadway’s Mary Poppins, NBC’s The Sound of Music) will play The Mother Abbess with MERWIN FOARD as Max Detweiler, TERI HANSEN as Elsa Schraeder, DAN TRACY as Rolf and PAIGE SILVESTER as Liesl. The von Trapp children will be played by ERICH SCHUETT (Friedrich), MARIA KNASEL (Louisa), QUINN ERICKSON (Kurt), SVEA JOHNSON (Brigitta), MACKENZIE CURRIE (Marta) and AUDREY BENNETT (Gretl).

And introducing Jack O’Brien’s brand new discovery, KERSTIN ANDERSON as Maria Rainer. A current student at Pace University, Ms. Anderson won the coveted role from hundreds who auditioned. This is her first national tour.

Director O’Brien had this to say about his leading lady, “in looking over a great American classic, like THE SOUND OF MUSIC, sometimes you stumble on something you wonder if anyone ever saw before. For instance, I was privileged to actually see Mary Martin in the original production — as I was myself just a junior at the University of Michigan. She was a great star, and she was giving a ‘great star’s’ performance. She was at the apex of her career, and she was both brilliant and 46 years old.

“But in reading it privately, something caught my eye: Maria is probably, as a postulant, no more than six or seven years older than Liesl! She may be many things — a country lass, a climber-of-trees, a young renegade, but she is clearly NOT an established star! How interesting!

“I’ve always believed Maria was a ‘star-making’ part, rather than the leading role we remember from the movies and our experience; so I went looking for someone with star-making magic. And in through the auditiondooronedaywalkedKerstinAnderson,stillstudyingatPaceUniversityinNewYork. Sheopened her mouth, she sang, and the tears welled up in my eyes.

“If ever there were an enchanting young woman standing on the brink of discovery — this was it! And now, the discovery is about to be all of ours! Please, as I do — welcome her!"

THE SOUND OF MUSIC features music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, suggested by The Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp. This new production is directed by Jack O’Brien (credits include: Hairspray, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Coast of Utopia), choreographed by Danny Mefford (Fun Home, The Bridges of Madison County and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) and music supervision by Andy Einhorn (Bullets Over Broadway, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Brief Encounter, The Light in the Piazza). The design and production team is comprised of Douglas W. Schmidt, set design (Tony Award® nominee: 42nd Street, Into the Woods); Jane Greenwood, costume design (2014 recipient of the Special Tony Award® for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre), Natasha Katz, lighting design (Five-time Tony Award® winner: An American in Paris, Once, Aida, The Coast of Utopia, The Glass Menagerie) and Ken Travis, sound design (Aladdin, Newsies, Memphis). Casting by Telsey + Company/Rachel Hoffman, CSA.

According to director Jack O’Brien, “THE SOUND OF MUSIC has been in our ears for decades, as it deserves to be. But it might be time to look once more, and more closely, at this remarkable work which, I feel, begins to reveal itself as deeper, richer, and more powerful than ever. It’s no longer ‘your mother’s’ familiar SOUND OF MUSIC. We are tearing off the varnish

of the past from one of the great glories of our theatergoing experience and making it fresh! This is an opportunity we’ve all longed to create!”

Producer Beth Williams (Grove Entertainment) said, “It’s a great privilege to bring this beloved Rodgers & Hammerstein musical to theaters across North America. We hope that people of all ages will continue to fall in love with it for the first time, or all over again, and that it will truly become one of their ‘favorite things.’ From our distinguished team led by the creative master Jack O’Brien, audiences can expect a truly magnificent production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC.”

In the words of Ted Chapin, President of Rodgers & Hammerstein, “THE SOUND OF MUSIC continues to be the world’s most beloved musical. When a major national tour was suggested, I not only agreed, but was willing to roll up my sleeves and do whatever I could to fashion a new stage production that would re- engage today’s theatergoing public. The show was originally created for Broadway, and seeing it on stage only reinforces the power of the story and the score. And with Jack O’Brien at the directorial helm – well, we simply couldn’t do better. Landing somewhere between The Coast of Utopia and Hairspray (shows for which Jack won the Tony®), his production is smart, focused, and surprising.”

THE SOUND OF MUSIC enjoyed extraordinary success as the first live television production of a musical in over 50 years when “The Sound of Music Live!” aired on NBC in December, 2013; 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the film version, which continues to be the most successful movie musical in history. The spirited, romantic and beloved musical story of Maria and the Von Trapp Family will once again thrill audiences with such songs as “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “Edelweiss” and the title song.

For more information, please visit www.TheSoundOfMusicOnTour.com. www.facebook.com/TheSoundOfMusic www.twitter.com/SoundOfMusic www.instagram.com/soundofmusicontour

THE SOUND OF MUSIC is generously sponsored by Auto-Owners Insurance; Farm Bureau Insurance; Jackson National Life Insurance Company; Retailers Insurance Company; and Rick’s American Cafe/Harrison Roadhouse/Beggar’s Banquet.

10/23 - 24 - WHARTON CENTER AND MSU COLLEGE OF ARTS AND LETTERS’ DEPARTMENT OF THEATRE PRESENT
FOR TONIGHT – A Staged Concert

Friday, October 23, and Saturday, October 24, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
Pasant Theatre
$15.00 ● plus applicable fees

whartoncenter.com

517.432.2000 or 1.800.WHARTON

EAST LANSING, Mich. ― A key part of Wharton Center’s and the MSU Department of Theatre’s mission is focused on creative collaboration. This idea has sparked a new artistic endeavor called the ĭmáGen project. ĭmáGen partners the MSU Federal Credit Union Institute for Arts & Creativity at Wharton Center with the MSU College of Arts and Letters’ Department of Theatre and local high schools. Together, they create two nights of extraordinary theatrical entertainment – highlighting the best of Broadway talent alongside East Lansing’s brightest students. This year, the group presents FOR TONIGHT – A Staged Concert, an indy-rock love story and the second smash ĭmáGen production.

Joe Barros, a New York theatrical director, has been hired to direct the performance, which will be presented on Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24 in Wharton Center’s Pasant Theatre. Tickets are available at the official source to purchase Wharton Center tickets online, whartoncenter.com, at the Auto-Owners Insurance Ticket Office, or by calling 1-800-WHARTON.

Brand new and freshly written, FOR TONIGHT takes place in a small Welsh village, where three siblings – Thomas, Haydon, and Nettie – find themselves living on their own following the death of their beloved parents. Armed with nothing but a guitar and empty pockets, Haydon heads off to Liverpool to try to fill the missing pieces in his life and find a place that he can truly call home.

Kirk Domer, Chair of the MSU Department of Theatre, says, “It’s a revolutionary program for MSU and high school students. It will allow them to work with Broadway professionals...and will attract the highest-quality students.” Bert Goldstein, Director of the MSUFCU Institute for Arts & Creativity, says “Most people who begin a career as an actor are certainly able to use the skills that they learned and apply them to other things. I’m hoping that all of this is about creating a well-rounded, extremely creative human being who can ask great questions, solve problems, and do all of the things that the arts can instill really well.”