Encore Atlanta

Children’s auditions for Annie Nov. 12

Do you have an aspiring Broadway star in your house? Theater of the Stars will have an open audition for girls on Nov. 12 for principal and ensemble roles in their production of Annie, playing the Fox Theatre from Jan. 7-22.

Registration begins at noon at the St. Mark United Methodist Church (781 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta). Get there early, because registration ends at 1 p.m. and the auditions begin directly afterwards.

The audition is for girls between the ages of 7-13 who are 5-ft. and shorter. In the past, the kids have sung “Hard Knock Life” in groups and solo. There’s a lot of “hurry up and wait” and the auditions run until 6 p.m., so moms may want to pack snacks and activities.

Roughly 10 percent of the girls who audition will be invited to the callback. Encore Atlanta has had the privilege of watching open calls in the past. Our advice to the girls auditioning is to be prepared to give it your all when it’s your turn to sing. The director needs to know that you can handle yourself at the Fox in a professional show, so seize the opportunity when you have it. If you go shy or sing soft, there’s no do-over. And excuses won’t do you any good.

That being said: Break a leg. Go sing your hearts out, little ladies!

What are the Suzi Bass Awards?

Atlanta has its own Tony Awards-style gala to celebrate its top theater artists and designers, the Suzi Bass Awards. Named after the late Atlanta film, TV and theater actress, the awards celebrate the best Atlanta’s professional theater scene has to offer. The first honors were bestowed in 2005, and Encore Atlanta is proud to be a media sponsor of this event.

How do people and organizations get nominated? Theaters submit productions to Suzi Bass Award judges to review. The judges then attend the shows and make their recommendations for which actors, actresses, productions and design elements should be nominated to win a “best of” award. The nominees were announced in September, and the award-winners will take home their trophies at the 2011 Suzi Bass Awards on Nov. 7.

The Suzi Bass Awards is a membership-based nonprofit organization and every member gets a vote. Member votes are tabulated to equal one judge’s vote. In tight races, that is sometimes enough to tip the balance. It’s only $25 to join, so go ahead and make your vote count! Tickets for the event are $40 and may be purchased from the Suzi Bass Awards website. (You can also donate $1 and vote for the Audience Choice Awards there too.)

At the nomination party, we had the chance to speak with Executive Director Deadra Moore. In this short video, she explains why the events were founded, who Suzi Bass was and how people can get involved in celebrating Atlanta’s best theater artists.

Creating a dialogue through art and time

The most interesting thing about the new “Picasso to Warhol” show at the High Museum of Art isn’t the fact that pieces are on loan from the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) impressive collection. Nor is it that it features iconic masterpieces by marquee-name artists on display in Atlanta for the first time. Or that it will only be shown in Atlanta and was created by curators from both museums.

It’s that the High’s new show takes work you may be familiar with and creates an entirely new visual dialogue about art, inspiration, exploration, rivalry and friendship using artists that most observers would consider unrelated.

“This exhibition highlights the achievements of some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, and through them we see key developments throughout the history of modern art,” explains Jodi Hauptman of MoMA, the exhibit’s lead curator. “They expanded what art can be. They invented totally new forms of art-making — cubism, abstract expressionism, pop art and surrealism — they reinterpreted portraiture, still life and sculpture. They took on new subjects, making new art for a new world.”

The way Hauptman and her team organized the exhibition was inspired by the fact that some of the artists knew each other. Marcel Duchamp is the one who named Alexander Calder’s work a “mobile.” Calder had an a-ha moment in Joan Miro’s studio. Piet Mondrian and Constantin Brancusi were friends.

Visitors to the High not only can see Mondrian and Brancusi’s work presented side by side, they can see how photographs of Brancusi’s studio inspired the way Hauptman’s team displayed his sculptures. They can follow a clear line of inspiration from Duchamp’s films and ready-made installations to Andy Warhol’s pop-art boxes and screen tests, and see how Miro’s spindly painted lines were reinterpreted in Calder’s metalwork.

Not-so-friendly competition also inspired some of the exhibit’s staging. Large-scale works by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso are hung so they may be viewed alone or in contrast to each other. Louise Bourgeois‘ quiet sculptural reflections on motherhood and isolation are an interesting break from the visually noisy and very macho art that comes before and after her. After walking through a series of increasingly frenzied Jackson Pollack canvases, it’s hard not to heave a sigh of relief when you see a room full of Jasper Johns, who sought to distance himself artistically from Pollack’s emotional excesses. John’s large-scale silk-screened reinterpretation of America is a colorful patchwork that is reflected, but not represented, in Romare Bearden’s rough civil rights-era collages.

“The works of art speak to each other, throughout time,” Hauptman says.

MoMA Director Glenn D. Lowry says it was revelatory to discover that by relocating a portion of their collection to a new city, they could uncover a dialogue between well-known artists that felt completely fresh and new.

“It’s anchored by iconic artists like Picasso and Matisse but is threaded with surprises like Louise Bourgeois, who sings in this exhibition,” Lowery says. “These kind of juxtapositions are invisible at the Museum of Modern Art.”

“Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters,” runs through April 29. Several adjunct programs will be available, such as a fall/winter film series of movies from MoMA’s archives and ArtLabs for Teens, a series of four-week art-making workshops on Thursdays and Saturdays through Nov. 12.

Before you go, download ArtClix, a free mobile application that’s available for both Android devices and iPhones. With the app, you can take a self-guided tour of the exhibit, snapping photos of works to reveal audio snippets and historical information. Users also can engage in real-time dialogue with other visitors and museum staff through ArtClix’s community boards, post images on social networks and send postcards to friends.

Speaking of friends, MoMA’s Lowery and Michael T. Shapiro, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green Jr. director, have been friends since college. They began talking about forging an artistic exchange between New York and Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics; since then the High has displayed MoMA pieces in four exhibits. The High’s successful, three-year collaboration with Paris’ Musee Louvre inspired inspired even greater ambitions.

“Picasso to Warhol” is the first of what the two museum directors say will be several high-profile co-productions between MoMA and the High, so stay tuned. The second will be unveiled this time next year, and a third is planned for fall 2013.

For more information, visit high.org.

Synchronicity honored for its quality, diversity and dynamic contribution to American theater

Synchronicity Theatre only has three full-time and four part-time employees. It doesn’t have a permanent theater space. But it is about to receive one of 10 prestigious $10,000 National Theatre Company grants from the America Theatre Wing this month. Other award-winners will include Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company and Austin’s Rude Mechanicals.

To be eligible, theaters must have been in operation for at least five but no more than 15 years. They also must have articulated a distinctive mission, cultivated an audience and nurtured a community of artists in ways that strengthen and demonstrate the quality, diversity and dynamism of American theater. According to the Wing, theaters were chosen for their uniqueness, courage, creativity and inspiring programs that develop new work, outreach and education.

“We are honored by this incredible award,” says Synchronicity Producing Artistic Director Rachel May. “We commend the vision of the American Theatre Wing for recognizing companies like Synchronicity, who may be smaller or lesser-known, but are nevertheless changing the face of American theater.”

May founded Synchronicity in 1997 with three friends, Julie Oshins, Hope Mirlis and Michele Pearce, who have since moved on to other projects. It annually produces a mix of contemporary theater for adults as well as family friendly plays or musicals. Its shows are presented at Horizon Theatre, 7 Stages and the Balzer Theater at Herren’s. Its groundbreaking Playmaking for Girls outreach program uses theater to empower young women before, during and after their journey through the juvenile justice system.

This year, 70 applicants vied for the grant. May and Resources Director Jamina Cole D’Amica will travel to New York for the Oct. 24 awards ceremony.

“Our national grants committee was astounded by the breadth and depth of the work being done by nonprofit theatre companies around this country,” says Lucie Arnaz, chair of the Wing’s grants committee. “It’s thrilling for me to prove, once again, that great theater isn’t just on Broadway between 40th and 50th streets, but that Broadway is a road that is 3,000 miles long.”

Synchronicity’s 14th season opens Oct. 28 with Sarah Ruhl’s tongue-in-cheek historical comedy In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play. Next, playwright Megan Gogerty will perform her autobiographical Feet First in the Water With a Baby in My Teeth (Dec. 2-18), followed by The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Dec. 11-Jan. 1), Petite Rouge (Feb. 25-March 25) and Brilliant Traces (March 2-25).

For more information, visit synchrotheatre.com.

And the 2011 Spirit of Suzi Bass Award goes to …

Reay Kaplan didn’t intend to go to 2011 Suzi Bass Awards nominee announcement party. But a friend suggested she join her there, so she did.

Midway through the evening, Deadra Moore, the executive director of the Suzi Bass Awards — Atlanta’s version of the Tonys — said that they were going to try something new. They would announce the winner of the Spirit of Suzi Bass Award that night instead of waiting until the formal awards ceremony on Nov. 7. (Encore Atlanta is a media sponsor of this event.— Ed.)

Named after the late Suzi Bass, a prolific local actress who helped organize film and theater unions in the city, the Spirit of Suzi Bass Award goes to an organization or a person the awards committee feels embodies some of the qualities that made Bass such an important part of the local film and theater scene.  “Those qualities include a real concern for the artistic community in Atlanta, its life and vigorousness; a dedication to professionalism beyond your own; and a real concern for education and pulling in of new and not so usual members into the theater community,” Moore said.

She then announced the winner of the 2011 Spirit of Suzi Bass Award, the Center for Puppetry Arts, and invited Kaplan onstage to accept the honor.

After joking about how she was only there to have a drink with a friend, Kaplan thanked the committee. “I have worked there for 10 years,” she explained. “It is my family in Atlanta; it is my doorway to this greater theatrical community. The center is the national center for this art form. It is a national treasure, a worldwide treasure. And for people who don’t know that it exists here in Atlanta, I feel like that’s such a disservice because … there is no place like it in the world, and that is a certifiable fact. To be recognized by this community and have the opportunity to collaborate with it on projects like Avenue Q and to work with the Alliance, it is a joy and privilege. On behalf of all my colleagues … I thank you, and we look forward to many, many more years of collaboration.”

For more information about the Suzi Bass Awards or to purchase tickets for the Nov. 7 event, visit suziawards.org.

You can watch the whole exchange below. For more videos about the awards, visit our YouTube channel.

Georgia Shakespeare update: Thanks to 986 people, the show will go on!

This is a message from Producing Artistic Director Richard Garner.

Dear Friend of Georgia Shakespeare,

THANK YOU!! Because of the remarkable generosity of 986 people over the past thirteen days, we have some stunning news.

As of 1:00pm on Thursday, September 22, we have surpassed our $150,000 initial benchmark goal by $48,727 AND have received another $108,000 in pledges towards our total goal of $500,000. That’s a total of $306,727 in support and pledges, putting us over 60% of the way to our final goal!

Our doors will stay open and our Fall production of The Glass Menagerie is a “go”! And, we are well on the way to stabilizing the finances of Georgia Shakespeare and announcing a vibrant 2012 season.

I am unable to summon the words that can adequately say how moved I and all the rest of us at Georgia Shakespeare are for this incredible outpouring of support. It has come from friends of all sorts from all around the country.

Almost every check or on-line donation we received also came with a heartfelt note letting us know how much this company means to our friends. In one case it was a two page note from a local school teacher and in another case it was simply the word “Success!” written on the bottom of a check from friends in North Carolina.

We had children who have benefitted from our educational programs dig into their piggy banks for us and we’ve had a local foundation call us up and say they didn’t want to be left out of those who stood up for us.

We heard from former employees who’ve told us their time here has helped shape their professional careers. And we heard from local artists who donated their time and talent on our behalf because they said Georgia Shakespeare is their artistic home. The cabaret they put together for us raised almost $18,000 this past Monday.

When I first wrote my appeal about our situation, I spoke of some of the images from the past at Georgia Shakespeare that make up the story of this company. There are now new extraordinary stories that will forever be a part of what this theater is:

• 4-year old Eirinn Lucas bringing in her plastic pumpkin with $3.67 she raised by selling her artwork.
• 8-year old Beatrix Clark bringing in a baggie filled with $30 of her birthday money, tooth-fairy money and some change she “found on the ground”.
• Former acting intern Sid Solomon, now living in Brooklyn, exhorting all of his friends around the country to buy him an “imaginary birthday beer” by sending a donation to us. We know for a fact that Sid has a lot of nice friends.
• And 983 other stories all as personal as these.

We have lots to celebrate but we still have important work ahead of us. What now? Come see The Glass Menagerie and look for your name proudly displayed in our lobby. Continue to tell your friends about us – we still have to reach our final goal by the end of December. And please read the letter on our website from our Board leaders.

Most importantly, please know that if you are one of the 986 people who responded to our plea, you are our hero. We are literally still here because of you. Thank you.

My very best,

Richard Garner
Producing Artistic Director

An interview with Claci Miller, star of Atlanta Lyric Theatre’s Thoroughly Modern Millie

Encore Atlanta was honored to have a chance to chat with Claci Miller, the star of Atlanta Lyric Theatre’s production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Like her character, Claci went to New York City with big dreams that had to make room for reality once she fell in love. In this interview, she shares what brought her to Atlanta, what she loves about the show and why she thinks audiences will fall in love with the Lyric’s production.

My name is Claci Miller and I am playing Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie, which is fun!

So tell me about your character, what is your favorite thing about her?

Oh, that’s a good question … she’s spunky and she has a dream and she is not afraid to go out and get what she really wants. But deep down inside, she discovers that love is more important than what she thinks she wants. So it’s a really sweet, coming of age story for a girl in her 20s in New York City. I relate to that a lot because I went to New York in my 20s and I was very gung-ho (“I’m gonna be a Broadway star!”). And I found love — on the subway — but I found love and it, love sort of helps put life in perspective a little bit.

So is that one of the reasons why you moved to Atlanta?

It is actually. My husband and I were living in New York City when 9/11 happened and it really helped us to sort of reevaluate our priorities. And we moved to Los Angeles and he got a job in the financial industry. And he doesn’t tell anyone he used to be an actor, because who would trust an actor with their money? (laughs) So we moved to Los Angeles and he started working with a financial institution and we got transfered here to Atlanta. Closer to home for me, closer to family. So in a round-about way, yeah.

If someone has never seen Thoroughly Modern Millie before, how would you tell the story to them, in a nutshell?

In a nutshell, a little girl goes to the big city to seek her dream and she wants to marry her boss. She thinks she’s modern, so she bobs her hair and wears short dresses, you know short dresses for the 1920s. So she gets a job as a stenog[rapher] and she plans to marry her boss. And her plan is thwarted when she literally trips a man in the street. And through meetings and friendship they fall in love. And his plan is to just play and have fun. He’s a very wealthy person and they kind of court and through the process, they fall in love and discover the real meaning of life. And it’s a very sweet sweet story.

What’s your favorite part of the show or musical number?

I really love the closing song in Act One, it’s where, on the balcony. Jimmy, the character that plays opposite Millie, get in an argument, and they kiss, and he runs offstage and he leaves Millie standing on the balcony over New York City discovering what has just happened and what is happening in her heart. It’s called “Jimmy” and she discovers as she’s singing the song, her feelings for him. I get to wear this great blue sparkly dress and stand alone onstage, in the spotlight, and it’s a really fun number. It’s sort of where all her emotions come to a head in the show. It’s very sweet, and I like it a lot.

So you’ve been doing this show in front of audiences for a weekend already. What are they responding to most?

The dancing in the show is so fabulous. I really don’t know — I can’t pinpoint one thing about the show. I think it’s just a great melding of the minds. First of all it’s a beautifully written show, it’s a great show. And the dancers — every single person in this show is so exact and so precise. Karen, the choreographer, has been so … I don’t want to say like [mimes cracking a whip] but she’s been so great with everybody in the show. She’s been like, she knows exactly what she wants and it’s so clean and it’s so beautiful and so period and the costumes are so gorgeous. But after the dance numbers you can hear the audiences [gasps and claps] you know as people applaud because they’re so excited. I don’t know that you see dancing like this in musicals in Atlanta. In my experience, the Lyric really produces for people on a large scale for this city, glamorous musical theater. And I think the theater where it’s produced, the Strand Theatre in Marietta, it’s an Art Deco theater, so the set the costumes, it all blends in to a huge Art Deco ’20s experience. It’s really beautiful, visually to see.

If people want to get tickets to see the show, where can they go?

They can go to the website, http://www.atlantalyrictheatre.com and there’s a whole Get Your Tickets Now! section, with a view of the theater and the box office number is there or you can get your tickets online.

Great, and how long is the show running for?

It runs through Oct. 2nd, next Sunday.

Interview with Freddie Ashley, Actor’s Express artistic director

Spring Awakening Director Freddie Ashley shares with us why he chose the show to kick off Actor’s Express’ 24th season, some of his favorite characters and moments, and what he hopes audiences take away from his production.

Tell me a little about Spring Awakening, why did you select it to kick off your 24th season?

I fell in love with Spring Awakening the first time I ever heard the cast recording, and I saw a production of it on the national tour. And I thought, it would work so well in an intimate space. And when we looked at planning this season, knowing we had been in this big financial emergency and that things had been really dire. I was looking for a way to say, “Actor’s Express is back!” And this show has such a bold imprint that it leaves on the audience, I thought what better show to announce our emergence from this campaign than a show like Spring Awakening.

What do you connect with most in the show?

I think it’s one of those things that everybody’s been there. We’ve all been a teenager and we’ve all gone through those awkward moments, and some of us had healthier teenage years than others. Some of us had traumatic teenage experiences, some of us had ideal teenage experiences, but we’ve all been there and we know what it’s like to have those questions and those anxieties and those discoveries. I think it’s something everyone can identify with.

Do you have a particular character that you identify with most or who is your pet favorite?

I shouldn’t choose, but I love the characters of Moritz and Ilse. Mortiz, who is the sort of doomed character who’s full of angst, he can’t seem to get anything right and he’s under a tremendous amount of pressure to excel at school. Ilse is a young woman who has escaped an abusive household and gone to an artist colony, but who is living this sort of dangerous and fast life now. There’s something about those two characters who have lost their innocence before it was time for them to lose their innocence that I find really heartbreaking and beautiful. And there is a scene between the two of them in Act Two that is one of the most tender, sweet and heartbreaking scenes that I’ve ever directed in any show. I just loved getting to that scene every night in rehearsal. Yeah, those were the two characters that I just loved so much.

What’s your favorite song?

Oh gosh, I don’t know if I can even answer that! I have different favorites for different reasons. There’s no number like the song “Totally Fucked” it’s an amazing, energetic explosion of a big ol’ number — the dancing, the music, the movement — it’s a great song. But there’s also the “Song of Purple Summer” at the end of the show that’s so sweet and tender and beautiful and uplifting. I love the “Bitch of Living” in Act One. It’s hard to choose just one because the score is so rich. You have these songs that rock out and then these songs that are very tender, sweet ballads, it’s hard to choose which ones you love the most. Or it’s hard for me, at least.

What do you hope the audience takes away from your production?

Well, I hope that people, first and foremost, have a really rich emotional experience. I think this show is such a roller coaster ride. There are really really funny parts of the show and there are really really tragic parts of this show. And I want people to walk out of this show feeling like they just experienced something significant. I think the show has the power to do that. I also sort of hope that people think about the world that they’re living in and the world that they’re giving the young people who will take our places. You know, there’s something of a cautionary tale in Spring Awakening. It’s about what happens when you don’t talk to your kids and you don’t listen to your kids. And I think that’s a responsibility we all shoulder to make sure that we leave the world a better place for the people coming along after us.

Can you give us a little preview of what’s coming up after Spring Awakening?

We have a beautiful new play called Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them. It’s a rolling world premiere through the new play network that started at the Humana Festival in Louisville, Ky. And it opens in late October, just an unbelievable coming of age story about a young brother and sister who have been abandoned by their father and form a new kind of family for themselves. And it’s just fantastic writing. We’re falling that with a big Broadway hit, Next Fall. Then we’re doing a co-production with Theater Emory of Night of the Iguana in the spring and we’re ending the season with Xanadu and we also have Libby Whitmore with Libby’s at the Express.

Where can people go for more information?

People can absolutely go to http://www.actors-express.com or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

2011 Suzi Bass Award Nominees for Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress, Best Director and Productions

Ahem…

Ladies and gentlemen, the nominees for Outstanding Lead Actress and Lead Actor for both plays and musicals:

And now, the 2011 Suzi Award nominees for Outstanding Director, Production and World Premiere for both musicals and plays:

2011 Suzi Award Nominees for Outstanding Design

Drumroll please!

Some of the most talented people working in theater do so behind the scenes. Here are the 2011 Suzi Award Nominees for Outstanding Design (Play):

Here are the nominees for Outstanding Design, Choreography, Musical Direction (Musical):