Release Date: September 7, 2006
Springfield Theatre is pleased to announce our productions for the 2006-07 season. The year includes a number of original and innovative productions along with some classic theatre.
The Mainstage season begins in February with the hilarious British farce I Shot My Rich Aunt by Mark Chandler. Directed by Springfield Theatre Associate Director Jill Plumb, the play centers on the adventures and misadventures of friends and relatives of elderly Lady Valonia who are somewhat captive in a weird old castle. I Shot My Rich Aunt is classic British comedy at its best. I Shot My Rich Aunt runs February 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24.
The Mainstage season continues with the Tony Award winning musical The Pajama Game by Richard Adler, Jerry Ross, George Abbott and Richard Bissell. Based on Bissell’s best-selling novel 7 1/2 Cents, The Pajama Game features some of Broadway’s best known tunes in a story about labor negotiations in the pajama industry. Featured in this classic 1950s musical are such memorable songs as Steam Heat, You There and Hernando’s Hideaway. The Pajama Game won the 2006 Tony Award for musical revival on Broadway. Jonathan Siegle directs with vocal direction by Stacy Swartout and musical direction by Chris Holt. The Pajama Game runs May 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19.
The student-directed Peer Productions season includes three shows–On Golden Pond; Silent Night, Lonely Night; and Summer Cyclone.
Directed by Jen Starr, On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson is the story of summer in the country where an 80-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy learn powerful lessons on the shores of a small lake. On Golden Pond runs November 16, 17, 18.
Directed by Lani Boykin, Silent Night, Lonely Night by Robert Anderson, one of the America’s most esteemed playwrights, is a touching tale of two lonely people struggling through personal crises who come together on Christmas Eve.Silent Night Lonely Night runs January 18, 19, 20.
Directed by Wes Johnson, Summer Cyclone by Amy Fox is an innovative new play about the emotional conflicts between an artistic young cancer patient and an idealistic medical student during a clinical drug study that culminates in the shadows of the great roller coaster at Coney Island. Summer Cyclone runs March 8, 9, 10.
The Springfield Acting Ensemble plans a full season of original works. The longest running sketch comedy show in Lane County, Hanging By Our Fingernails, returns for its 19th season with all new comedy sketches and music. Hanging By Our Fingernails 19 runs November 9, 10, 11.
Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre continues January 12-13 with an all new audience participation production.
In collaboration with noted area composer Don Kelly, the Ensemble is creating a new musical theatre production based on a 16th century play by William Rowley, The Birth of Merlin, April 5, 6, 7.
The season concludes with the showing of original student films June 1-2.
Advanced Theatre enters the performance scene with an innovative production of Morton Wishengrad’s The Rope Dancers. Set in a New York tenement in the early 20th Century, The Rope Dancers tells the story of hard-working Irish immigrants and their schizophrenic daughter. The Rope Dancers runs January 25, 26, 27.
For the eighth year, the Advanced Theatre class is participating in TheatreLink, a distance-learning program sponsored by The Manhattan Theatre Club, one of the top producing theatre companies in New York. In TheatreLink students in schools around the country write and share original one-act plays based on a current or recent MTC production, including such Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning plays as Proof and Brooklyn Boy. An evening of TheatreLink plays coincides with the Ensemble student film festival June 1-2.
Release Date: September 7, 2006
Release Date: September 7, 2006
Springfield Theatre is pleased to announce our productions for the 2006-07 season. The year includes a number of original and innovative productions along with some classic theatre.
The Mainstage season begins in February with the hilarious British farce I Shot My Rich Aunt by Mark Chandler. Directed by Springfield Theatre Associate Director Jill Plumb, the play centers on the adventures and misadventures of friends and relatives of elderly Lady Valonia who are somewhat captive in a weird old castle. I Shot My Rich Aunt is classic British comedy at its best. I Shot My Rich Aunt runs February 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24.
The Mainstage season continues with the Tony Award winning musical The Pajama Game by Richard Adler, Jerry Ross, George Abbott and Richard Bissell. Based on Bissell’s best-selling novel 7 1/2 Cents, The Pajama Game features some of Broadway’s best known tunes in a story about labor negotiations in the pajama industry. Featured in this classic 1950s musical are such memorable songs as Steam Heat, You There and Hernando’s Hideaway. The Pajama Game won the 2006 Tony Award for musical revival on Broadway. Jonathan Siegle directs with vocal direction by Stacy Swartout and musical direction by Chris Holt. The Pajama Game runs May 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19.
The student-directed Peer Productions season includes three shows–On Golden Pond; Silent Night, Lonely Night; and Summer Cyclone.
Directed by Jen Starr, On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson is the story of summer in the country where an 80-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy learn powerful lessons on the shores of a small lake. On Golden Pond runs November 16, 17, 18.
Directed by Lani Boykin, Silent Night, Lonely Night by Robert Anderson, one of the America’s most esteemed playwrights, is a touching tale of two lonely people struggling through personal crises who come together on Christmas Eve.Silent Night Lonely Night runs January 18, 19, 20.
Directed by Wes Johnson, Summer Cyclone by Amy Fox is an innovative new play about the emotional conflicts between an artistic young cancer patient and an idealistic medical student during a clinical drug study that culminates in the shadows of the great roller coaster at Coney Island. Summer Cyclone runs March 8, 9, 10.
The Springfield Acting Ensemble plans a full season of original works. The longest running sketch comedy show in Lane County, Hanging By Our Fingernails, returns for its 19th season with all new comedy sketches and music. Hanging By Our Fingernails 19 runs November 9, 10, 11.
Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre continues January 12-13 with an all new audience participation production.
In collaboration with noted area composer Don Kelly, the Ensemble is creating a new musical theatre production to run April 5, 6, 7.
The season concludes with the showing of original student films June 1-2.
Advanced Theatre enters the performance scene with an innovative production of Morton Wishengrad’s The Rope Dancers. Set in a New York tenement in the early 20th Century, The Rope Dancers tells the story of hard-working Irish immigrants and their schizophrenic daughter. The Rope Dancers runs January 25, 26, 27.
For the eighth year, the Advanced Theatre class is participating in TheatreLink, a distance-learning program sponsored by The Manhattan Theatre Club, one of the top producing theatre companies in New York. In TheatreLink students in schools around the country write and share original one-act plays based on a current or recent MTC production, including such Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning plays as Proof and Brooklyn Boy. An evening of TheatreLink plays coincides with the Ensemble student film festival June 1-2.
Release Date: September 7, 2006
Release Date: April 7, 2006
And now for something completely different: The Springfield High School Performing Arts Department presents the World Premiere of Benches – The Musical, May 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. in the Springfield High School auditorium.
Benches is a band musical featuring 24 instrumentalists on stage performing prominently along with a company of 19 actor/dancers instead of anonymously in the pit orchestra. Performing a variety of music from Stravinsky to Gershwin to John Williams, Benches was inspired by the high-energy drum corps musical Blast.
Created by Springfield High School director of bands Chris Holt, and Springfield Theatre director Jonathan Siegle, Benches is a send up of the traditional let’s-put-on-a-show musical. But the script, written collaboratively by a multi-talented group of senior performing arts students, turns the tradition a bit on its ear.
Benches–“There’s no stopping a bunch of band nerds with big idea!”
The school is preparing to produce West Side Story when a fire destroys the home of Lisa, the band’s first chair flute. Determined to help the reluctant Lisa, a group of band kids persuade their directors to abandon West Side Story and produce an original musical revue featuring, well, themselves. All of which creates great enmity within the department, especially with the singers and actors who’d planned on doing West Side Story!
How the kids resolve their differences and put on their own show is played out in the first half of Benches. The second half is the show they produce, the show within a show.
Included among the 18 musical numbers in Benches are classics from musical theatre, movie themes, the big band songbook, even a cute number from Veggie Tales. Five vocal numbers add to the entertainment.
Among the performance pieces are Hey Pachuco, a hot swing dance and String Thing, a Bach cello suite performed by McKenzie Kramer (the Hult Center Performing Arts Student of the Month for November) and danced to by Jennifer Cunnningham (the Hult Centre Performing Arts Student of the Month for February).
The show includes band and dance arrangements of the theme from The Incredibles, a medley of John Williams themes, and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. New music includes The Tubes, created for an instrument made of 3.5-inch pvc pipe and Junkyard Rumble, a garbage can medley, directed by band director Dana Demant, and Collage, a Latin-inspired improvisational jazz number.
Among the vocal arrangements is Pizza Angel, from Veggie Tales, Someone To Watch Over Me, performed by Mary Elkington, who played Lily in Kiss Me Kate, Cool from West Side Story, and My Strongest Suit from Aida, performed as a trio.
Five students collaborated on the script. All five are alumni of the TheatreLink program, where students around the country, with the support of the Manhattan Theatre Club–one of the top theatre companies in New York–write and produce each other’s plays. Two years ago these SHS students created the acclaimed Golden Years.
Featured in the cast are an amazing assembly of multi-talented performers, including Megan Wright (soprano, dancer, actress, trumpet, piano, vocal director); Mary Elkington (soprano, dancer, actress, baritone horn); Bria Light (soprano, dancer, actress, flute); Tommy Lovell (actor, singer, tenor saxophone); Caitlin O’Donnell (singer, dancer, actress, clarinet); MeKenzie Kramer (singer, dancer, actress, cello); Jennifer Cunningham (dancer, actress, flute, clarinet, oboe); and Brandon Hudson (singer, dancer, actor, Hult Center Performing Arts Student of the Month for April).
In order to see the on-stage marching band performances from above, technical director Ron Simmons has devised a video system to project the overhead view during the performance.
Benches is directed by Jonathan Siegle, Chris Holt, Dana Demant and Felicia Sanders.
Tickets for Benches–the Musical are $8.00, $5.00 for students and seniors. For ticket information and reservations, please call the Springfield Theatre box office at 517-9028. For all other information, please call the theatre office at 744-4768.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release Date: January 3, 2006
To culminate the Springfield High School Islam Project, Springfield Theatre presents an unusual staging of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello, February 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Studio Theatre.
The Islam Project has given teachers the opportunity to include lessons about Islam, Muslim culture and history into their daily curriculum. The title character, Othello, a North African Moor, represents the other, the outsider, the one different from us, the one we’re first to demonize into an enemy.
In Othello, Venice is about to be attacked by a fleet from the Ottoman Empire. Leaders of the city turn to Othello to lead their forces against the Turk. But when Othello marries the beautiful Desdemona against her father’s will, he sets in motion his own–and many others’–tragic death.
Though Othello and Desdemona are the central figures in the tragedy, it is the character of the evil Iago that captures the attention. Iago conspires to destroy Othello. He manipulates the guileless Cassio, Othello’s lieutenant; Emilia, his own wife; and the hapless Rodrigro, who is hopelessly in love with Desdemona. No one is immune from Iago’s villainy.
Othello is the only play Shakespeare set in his own time. To enhance the timelessness of the story of jealousy and betrayal, Springfield Theatre presents Othello in the round in the intimate black box Studio Theatre. Only 112 seats will be set up for this production. A student art show inspired by the Islam Project accompanies the performance.
Featured in the cast are Brandon Hudson and Jennifer Cunningham as Othello and Desdemona. Andrew Watson and Wes Johnson play Iago and Cassio.
As has now become standard with Shakespeare, since he wrote his plays for male actors, the production features some cross-gender casting. April Hench plays Rodrigo and Lacey Hoover-Hale plays both the Duke of Venice and Lodovico. Elizabeth Spiry plays Cassio’s lover, Bianca, and Lani Boykin plays Iago’s wife, Emilia.
Also featured in the cast are Jo Warkentin, Jennifer Starr, Micah Pearce, Alec Crisman, Melissa Mealy, Edge Branom, Tommy Rhoads and Tessa van Rossum, an exchange student from Holland. The stage manager is Krystal Browning.
Othello is directed by Jonathan Siegle, who has studied Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre in London.
Tickets for Othello are $5.00 all seats. With seating limited to 112 ticket reservations are recommended. Call the box office at 517-9028 for ticket information. For additional information about the production, call Springfield Theatre at 744-4768.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release Date: October 31, 2005
Once again it’s time for original topical humor and music when the Springfield Acting Ensemble renews Lane County’s oldest continuously running sketch comedy revue, Hanging By Our Fingernails, November 17, 18, 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Springfield High School auditorium. Musical guests this year are As The Rest Fall.
Hanging By Our Fingernails 18 features comedy takes on among others dating, Thanksgiving pageants, iPods, annoying relatives, vaudeville, clowning, soap operas, marriage proposals, awkward moments and misunderstandings. Some of the sketches include The Eugenics Game, Days of Our Whines and Urban Jungle. As always the show includes a satire on today’s news and the annual serious sketch.
In keeping with the school-wide Islam project, the serious sketch looks at prejudice against Muslims.
Musical guests As The Rest Fall are making a name for themselves in area rock circles. This hard driving rock ‘n’ roll band features the fabulous guitar work of the very talented Austin Taylor.
The house opens at 7:00 p.m. for a half hour mini-concert by As The Rest Fall before the show’s curtain at 7:30 p.m. The band is featured throughout the show and at intermission.
Tickets for Hanging By Our Fingernails 18 are only $4.00 at the door. For additional information call the box office at 517-9028.
Release Date: October 31, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release Date: September 19, 2005
Springfield Theatre announces its 2005-06 season, including performances by all four resident theatre companies–Mainstage, Peer Productions, Springfield Acting Ensemble and Teatro Prima Vera. All shows are 7:30 p.m. curtain.
Mainstage productions, directed by Jonathan Siegle, begin with Shakespeare’s Othello, February 2, 3, 4, 9, 19, 11. The production of Othello culminates the school-wide Islam Project in which every department teaches the influences and contributions to their disciplines of Islam and Arabic culture. The spring musical is an as yet unnamed original band musical. In traditional musicals, singers break into song. While our new show will have vocalists, the bulk of the music will be instrumental; instead of breaking into voice, performers will break out their horns. Band directors Chris Holt and Dana Demant are assisting with the production, along with senior CAM student Megan Wright.
Peer Productions, the student-directed company presents two shows this year, the 1950s heavenly comedy Down to Earth by Bettye Knapp, and the old-fashioned melodrama The Curse of an Aching Heart, by Herbert Swayne. Down To Earth, directed by Brandon Hudson, runs November 3, 4, 5; Curse of an Aching Heart, directed by April Hench, runs December 8, 9, 10.
Springfield Acting Ensemble begins its season with the 18th edition of the area’s longest running sketch comedy show, Hanging By Our Fingernails, November 17, 18, 19. Musical guest is Austin Taylor. The season continues with murder mystery dinner theatre January 13-14, Curtain for dinner theatre is 7:00 p.m. The annual performing arts department Talent Show, presented by the Acting Ensemble, is March 3. April 13, 14, 15 the Ensemble plans to produce an original collaborative production in the manner of the Theatre du Soleil. Similar to the work of the University Theatre’s John Schmorr, and past works at Springfield High School, this new show involves the cast in collaborative writing and performance. The Ensemble closes its season with an evening of original films, date TBA.
Teatro Prima Vera, the Latino theatre company, has scheduled its next production March 16, 17, 18. Directed by Juan Cuadros, assisted by recent U of O graduate Michael Miranda, the production features bilingual performances by Spanish-speaking students.
Additional performances include the Advanced Theatre one-act play festival, January 27-28, and two nights of original TheatreLink plays, June 2-3. TheatreLink is a distance-learning project sponsored by the Manhattan Theatre Club, one of New York’s top producing theatre companies. This is the seventh year Springfield High School has participated in TheatreLink.
Release Date: September 19, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release Date: September 2, 2005
Springfield High School celebrates the premiere of the FOX television show Bones, featuring 1991 SHS graduate Eric Millegan, with a party and a viewing of the show on the big auditorium screen, Tuesday September 13 at 8:00 p.m. All are invited to attend.
For the past 10 years Eric has worked in New York to advance his career. He appeared in the Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar and recently premiered the part of Harold in the new musical production of Harold and Maude opposite Academy Award –winning actress Estelle Parsons. Eric was a featured performer in the film On_Line and has appeared previously on television in Law and Order.
Inspired by the work of real life anthropologist Kathy Reichs, Bones tells the story of Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, who is called upon by police investigators to assist when standard methods of identifying crime victims are unavailable. Eric plays the role of Dr. Brennan’s assistant, Zack Addy, a prodigy whose genius gets in the way of his finishing the several doctorates he’s started. Eric, a fine singer/dancer, also finds a way to sing in future shows. To learn more about the show visit www.fox.com/bones.