It’s CURTAINS for PCPA TheatreFest!

The California Central Coast’s pre-eminent professional theatre, PCPA TheatreFest is presenting the smash-hit musical whodunit CURTAINS in a split run, April 15-May 9 in Santa Maria’s Marian Theatre and June 17-July 3rd at the Festival Theatre in Solvang. The company has been presenting for over 45 years and has become a staple of the Central Coast’s vibrant Arts scene. I recently spoke with Craig Shafer, the Media Relations / Communications Manager for PCPA and Erik Stein who has the plum role of Christopher Belling in CURTAINS, about the production. Shafer brought me up to speed on the gargantuan task of creating a production of this beautifully designed musical that can be moved from one theater space to another.

So far, CURTAINS is shaping up to deliver a huge hit for PCPA…

Peter Mills Wins 2010 Kleban Prize

Congratulations to Peter Mills, winner of the 2010 Kleban Award! TRW author Peter Mills, the book, music and lyric writer of ILLYRIA, was awarded the prestigious Kleban Award, annually given to both a librettist and a lyricist. Also receiving this year’s award is Barry Wyner, wrote the music, lyrics and book for CALVIN BERGER, a new version of  “Cyrano de Bergerac.”

Mills wrote ILLYRIA, a beautifully realized musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” in 2001.  The adaptation of the comedy is credited to Mills and Prospect Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Cara Reichel. Noteworthy productions have included two runs at New York’s  Prospect Theatre Company in 2002 and 2009, and the regional premiere at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in 2004.

Spiegel’s Spiel, April 2010

I’ve just returned from my energizing, wonderful and successful trip to New Zealand and Australia. As we talked about in my first blog post, I attended the 50th anniversary conference of Musical Theatre New Zealand where over 350 artistic and managing directors representing 80 societies came to Auckland for three days of meetings, workshops and events. The goal of Musical Theatre NZ is to foster and encourage the development of, and commitment to, the highest standards by community theatres, including standards of excellence for production, health and safety, management, governance, community relations and service. Throughout the conference the importance of, and belief in, this mission statement was brilliantly carried out and demonstrated by everyone.