New theater in Central Square
With the support of MIT, the Nora Theatre Company (founded in 1988) and the Underground Railway Theater (1978) have joined forces to create a new theater facility at the site of the long-vacant Bradford Café at 450-452 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square. In a press statement, the Nora and the URT announced that the new facility, projected to open in 2005, will have "over 9000 square feet of space and house a 175-seat black-box theater, rehearsal space, box office, and other amenities for the two theaters." The space will be part of a larger structure that MIT is building on the site of the Bradford, which the press statement identified as "the oldest building in Central Square and the second-oldest building in the Cambridgeport area." The plans call for the preservation and renovation of the Bradford building, which is part of "South Row, the surviving part of a three-story, hip-roofed Federal-period row that was built in 1806 by Chief Justice Francis Dana, a major landowner in Cambridgeport."
For its part, MIT offered URT and the Nora MIT "a favorable per-square-foot rental rate that is significantly below market, and a tenant allowance to help them build out the space." MIT associate provost for the arts Alan Brody explained, "I’m proud of our ability to provide the theater companies with a home, not only because of their quality but because of the model of collaboration and cooperation their plans represent. They are responding to these difficult times with thoughtful and creative solutions, and I look forward to even closer relations with both organizations as they settle into their new home."
He wrote the Letters
Over the past 14 years, there have been so many performances of Love Letters, the epistolary pas de deux between staid lawyer Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and flighty artist Melissa Gardner, that we weren’t sure why the pairing of playwright A.R. Gurney and actress Annette Miller should be considered a special event. Then we remembered that A.R. Gurney wrote Love Letters. So we’re convinced. Gurney and Miller, who won this year’s Elliot Norton Award for Best Solo Performance for her star turn in Golda’s Balcony, will be giving one performance, on Monday August 18, as a benefit for Shakespeare & Company’s actor-training programs. The evening will begin with a 6 p.m. pre-performance reception with cocktails and "light fare"; the 8 p.m. performance will be followed by a champagne reception with Gurney and Miller. Patron tickets ($250) include both receptions, preferred seating for the performance, special mention in the evening’s program, and VIP parking. Sponsor tickets ($150) include both receptions and preferred seating for the performance. Friend tickets ($75) include the performance and the post-performance reception. For more information, call Karen Climo at (413) 637-1199 extension 125.
Súgán’s Gigolo
Ronan’s Noone’s The Gigolo Confessions of Baile Bréag, which had been scheduled to get its premiere this spring from the Bridge Theatre Company, will now appear as part of next season’s Súgán Theatre Company line-up at the Boston Center for the Arts. The play concludes Noone’s "Baile" trilogy, which began this past season with The Lepers of Baile Baiste (at Súgán) and continued with The Blowin of Baile Gall (at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); in this one, "Paddy tries to persuade William to join his thriving gigolo business while William’s ex-girlfriend, the determined Rosie McCann, deals with her father’s descent into madness." Noone, who was born in Ireland, earned an MA in Creative Writing from Boston University in 2001; The Lepers of Baile Baiste won the 2002 National Student Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and The Blowin of Baile Gall won the 2003 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script. The dates for The Gigolo Confessions of Baile Bréag have not yet been determined; watch this space for Súgán’s 2003-2004 season announcement, or visit www.sugan.org.
Commonwealth’s Macbeth
Casting has been announced for this summer’s free Shakespeare-on-the-Common offering from Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Macbeth, which will be presented July 18 through August 10. Jay O. Sanders, whose credits include Petruchio opposite Alison Janey (of The West Wing) in New York Shakespeare Festival’s recent Central Park production of The Taming of the Shrew, has the title role. Jennie Israel will star as Lady Macbeth, Ben Evett as Banquo, Dan Domingues as Malcolm, Robert Walsh as Macduff, Baron Kelly as Duncan, Ted Hewlett as Lennox, Julie Jirousek as Lady Macduff, and Bill Mootos as Ross.
Commonwealth Shakespeare made its debut in 1996 in Copley Square with a free production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Since then it has presented Romeo and Juliet (1997), As You Like It (1998), Julius Caesar (1999), The Tempest (2000), and Twelfth Night (2001), all at the Parkman Bandstand on the Common. Last year’s production, Henry V, was seen by nearly 50,000 people.
Presented by the Wang Center for the Performing Arts and the Poduska Family Foundation and directed by CSC artistic director Steven Maler, Macbeth will be presented Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Parkman Bandstand. For more information, call (617) 532-1212 (that’s also the number for weather cancellations), or visit commonwealthshakespeare.org.
Hundreds
This past Monday, SpeakEasy Stage Company’s Bat Boy: The Musical celebrated its 100th performance at the Boston Center for the Arts. The current run, its third, will close this Saturday, and who’s to say it won’t be back for a fourth? Still, that achievement may not impress Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum, the Egyptian Department of the Museum of Fine Arts, and New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, all of whom will be marking their 100th year of performances this fall. We’ll fill you in on the details of their celebrations as they become available.
Boston Blues Challenge
The annual Boston Blues Challenge, sponsored by the Boston Blues Society and beginning every July 4 weekend at Harpers Ferry, typically features a mix of sadsack Stevie Ray wanna-bes and genuine talents. In the past, the likes of Michelle Williams (in her Evil Gal days) and Susan Tedeschi have gone on to greater glory by competing in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. The local prizes include $1000; the national event offers cash, studio time, a CD pressing, a Gibson guitar, national bookings, and more. The Blues Society has just announced this year’s line-up. Sets are at 9:30, 10:30, and 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.
July 3: guitarist/vocalist Tim Arthur and his band; dobro player Lloyd Thayer; Western Massachusetts veteran bottleneck player Robin O’Herin; and power trio the Donnie Noyes Project.
July 4: electric-blues rockers Geezer; the well-respected veteran vocalist George Leh; South Shore chromatic harmonica guy Steve DiCecco and his band; trad-blues and jump-blues guys the Blue Harts led by harp man Ryan Hartt.
July 5: Central Massachusetts blues dance band the Wildcats featuring vocalist Fay Adams; multi-award-winnning (Spotlight magazine, Jam Music magazine, New Hampshire magazine) funk/R&B/blues outfit Rhythm Method; the Matthew Stubbs band featuring guitarist Stubbs and vocalist Kit Holiday; the J.J. Sadler Blues Cure featuring vocalist Sadler.
July 6: 17-year-old guitar prodigy Ryan Fardy and Shades of Blue; Chicken Slacks Soul Revue; self-described "New York–born, Boston–raised Puerto Rican from out of the projects" Jose Ramos and the No Way Jose Band; Rhode Island singer/songwriter/guitarist Lois Greco and her band.
The final will be held July 17. Harpers Ferry is at 158 Brighton Avenue in Allston; call (617) 254-9743.
Jazz at the Hatch Shell
The Phoenix has announced its 10th season of free Sunday-afternoon jazz concerts at the Hatch Memorial Shell on the Esplanade. The shows include Boston’s celebrated avant-garde quartet the Fully Celebrated Orchestra (July 13), up-and-coming Latin jazz vocalist Marta Gomez (July 27), the progressive Ryles Jazz Orchestra led by trumpeter Frank Vadaros (August 10), and Mingus-loving alto-saxist James Merenda and his Masked Marvels (August 24). Concerts run from 5 p.m. to 7. For more information, call (617) 937-5987.
Drumming at the NEC
The New England Conservatory is offering another of those intensive summer weekend seminars that are irresistible to the music-loving amateurs among us. Running July 8 through 13, "The Rhythm of Tradition: African and Indian Rhythm in Theory and Practice" is presented by Jerry Leake, who’s best known to local jazz fans as the tabla player/percussionist in the Indo-jazz outfit Natraj. The seminar will be divided into three geographic regions: West Africa, North India, and South India. Tuition will include a 200-page booklet, but the seminar will focus on "active participation, recitation, clapping, counting patterns, and applying ideas to non-traditional instruments." Our favorite clause: "While the classes are demanding, there is no expectation that participants have any prior experience with these repertoires or even with music" (emphasis ours). Working with Leake will be teachers David Lock, George Ruckert, and Gretchen Hayden. For more information, call Margaret Ulmer, director of the NEC summer School, at (617) 585-1126, or visit www.newenglandconservatory.edu/summer.
