Assassins- Camarillo Skyway Playhouse, Camarillo

Camarillo Skyway Playhouse closes its 2012 season of "The American Experience" with Stephen Sondheim's landmark musical, "Assassins" 

Opening Friday, September 28th. Exploring the darker side of the American Dream, the assassins and would-be assassins come together to examine success, failure, fame, and the drive for power in American society. Winner of five Tony Awards including Best Revival on Broadway as well as the Drama Desk Award for Best Revival of a Musical, it includes classic Sondheim dark comedy into an imaginary world where the various assassins talk to each other about their hopes and dreams. It incorporates history, the true words of the men and women into the musical, as well as memorable and haunting songs such as "Everybody's Got the Right", "Unworthy of Your Love", and "Something Just Broke". It is a musical that confronts pain in order to heal our society - a true modern classic that you won't want to miss! 
Tickets are $18 for adults, $13 for students, seniors, and military with group rates available. Call (805) 388-5716 or email boxoffice@skywayplayhouse.org to reserve your tickets. 
Showtimes are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM, running fromSeptember 28th through November 4th, 2012. "Assassins" is directed by Brian Robert Harris, produced by Dean Johnson with music direction by David Watkins and conducted by Susan T. Calkins. This show is not recommended for small children.

Harpist Bridget Kibbey- Camerata Pacifica, Ventura

HARPIST BRIDGET KIBBEY TO JOIN

CAMERATA PACIFICA’S NOVEMBER PROGRAM

OF FRENCH MASTERWORKS.

“[Bridget Kibbey] made it seem as though her instrument had been waiting all its life to explode with the gorgeous colors and energetic figures she was getting from it.”

New York Times

Camerata Pacifica’s French November program has been created to showcase the harp, and one of its premier exponents, Bridget Kibbey. A colleague of Camerata principal artists Richard O’Neill & José Franch Ballester at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bridget’s virtuosity, musicality and sparkling personality make her an easy fit into the Camerata community.

The program takes us into that early-20^th century French world of swirling colors and shifting chromatic harmonies epitomized in the music of the rarely-acknowledged-as-the-radical-he-is Claude Debussy and all of the works and composers on this program have a link to that composer. The first half of the program deals with music that is deliberately evocative, opening with Debussy’s Danse sacrée et danse profane. André Caplet was Debussy’s orchestrator and his Conte fantastique is written on the tale of Edgar Allan Poeʼs “Masque of the Red Death”. The score of Jolivet’s Chant de Linos includes the following information: “The Chant de Linos in Greek antiquity was a form of threnody: a funeral lamentation interrupted by cries and dances.”

Following intermission the musical expression is more indirect and abstract,Debussy returns with his late work, the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp andMaurice Ravel’s later affinity for orchestral sonority gets an early exploration within the tightly restricted ensemble deployed for his Introduction & Allegro.

Of Debussy’s groundbreaking L’Après midi d’un faune, Ravel famously commented, “It was hearing this work, so many years ago, that I first understood what real music was.”

Tickets for the concerts, as well as additional information on Camerata Pacifica can be found at www.cameratapacifica.org or by calling 805-884-8410.

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November performance dates:

Friday, November 9, 1 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.     Hahn Hall, Santa Barbara

Sunday, November 11, 3 p.m.                                 Temple Beth Torah, Ventura

Tuesday, November 13, 8 p.m.                   The Gold Room, Pasadena Civic Auditorium

Thursday, April 12^th, 8 p.m.                       Zipper Hall, Los Angeles

The program:

November 2012

Debussy: Danse sacreé et danse profane*

Caplet: Conte fantastique after Edgar Allan Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death”

Jolivet: Chant de Linos
Debussy: Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp*

Ravel: Introduction and Allegro*

Performers:

Adrian Spence – flute, Bil Jackson – clarinet, Catherine Leonard – violin,

Agnes Gottschewski – violin, Richard Yongjae O’Neill – viola, Ani Aznavoorian – cello, Tim Eckert – double bass, Bridget Kibbey – harp

Ticket prices:

Hahn Hall**, Zipper Hall & Pasadena Gold Room*** concert: $45 single tickets

Lunchtime Hahn Hall** concert: $22 single tickets

Temple Beth Torah concert: $40 single tickets

                       

-       Student Rush, 30 minutes prior, for $10, with valid student i.d.

-       **Hahn Hall add $2 per ticket Facility Fee

-       ***  Pasadena Gold Room add $3 per ticket Facility Fee

            -     Call the office for group rate details

* denotes repertoire for 1 p.m. performance.

For tickets and information: www.cameratapacifica.org

Or call: 805-884-8410

BRIDGET KIBBEY

Possessing a special connection with her instrument that captivates audiences across the United States and abroad, harpist Bridget Kibbey’s performances “…make it seem as though her instrument had been waiting all its life to explode with the gorgeous colors and energetic figures she was getting from it” (New York Times).

An Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, a winner of Concert Artist Guild’s 2007 International Competition and Astral Artist Auditions, and a member of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS II, Ms. Kibbey’s performances have been broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today, on New York’s WQXR, WNYC’s Soundcheck, WETA’s Front Row Washington, and A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts. Bridget’s debut album, Love is Come Again, was named one of the Top Ten Releases by Time out New York. She may also be heard on Deutsche Grammaphon with Dawn Upshaw on Berio’s Folk Songs and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre.As hailed by the New York Times, harpist Bridget Kibbey

Ms. Kibbey has collaborated with an array of artists in repertoire new and established, including Ian Bostridge, David Krakauer, Jaime Laredo, Edgar Meyer, Mayumi Miyata, Cristina Pato, Sharon Robinson, David Schifrin, and the Calder and Jupiter Quartets. She is frequently featured with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and is the founding harpist of the International Contemporary Ensemble and Metropolis Ensemble.

This season’s highlights include Opening Night at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and multiple appearances in Alice Tully Hall showcasing French masterworks with harp with members of the Society, appearances at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C, Boston’s Gardner Museum, Chicago’s MusicNowseries, Elliott Carter’s 103^rd Birthday Celebration, a world-premier by Kaija Saariahio with Houston’s DaCamera, concerto appearances with the Modesto Symphony, Illinois Symphony, a concerto tour with the Manchester Festival Strings, and solo and chamber performances at Music @ Menlo and the Mostly Mozart Festivals.

2012 saw the premier of Bridget’s new solo project, Music Box, a vibrant exploration of solo harp told through the lens of seven international composers, bringing their unique folk backgrounds to the harp, including Paquito d’Rivera, Kinan Azmeh, DuYun, David Bruce, Susie Ibarra, Kati Agocs, and her own arrangement.

A leader in broadening the scope and platform of her instrument, she has premiered new works by Kati Agocs, Harrison Birtwistle, Sebastian Currier, Pierre Boulez, Nathan Shields, Kaija Saariaho, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Augusta Read Thomas, Charles Wuorinen, among others. Ms. Kibbey performed Britten’s Canticles in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall with tenor Ian Bostridge, performed the New York premier of Elliot Carter's Mosaic in Zankel Hall for the composer's 100th birthday, and the American premier of Sebastian Currier's Broken Minuets with Symphony in C in Philadelphia's Kimmel Center.

Ms. Kibbey is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where she studied with Nancy Allen. She is on the harp faculties of Bard Conservatory, New York University, and the Juilliard Pre-College Program.

Review: Assassins- Camarillo Acorn

Dark comedy takes aim

Musical explores nine assailants of American presidents

By Cary Ginell

originjazz@aol.com

Camarillo Acorn

DANGEROUS—Sara Jane Moore (Julie Bermel) meets Lynette“Squeaky”Fromme (Randi Saxer) in this dark comedy about presidential assailants. “Assassins” plays through Nov. 4 at Camarillo Skyway Playhouse. Courtesy Barbara MazeikaJohn Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald:

 “Move your little finger and you can change 

the world.” That sentence sums up Stephen 

Sondheim’s “Assassins,” a sneeringly cynical 

musical that groups nine historical 

presidential assailants in a “Twilight Zone”-like 

revue of comic malevolence.

Not only is it one of the more difficult 

Broadway shows to perform, its dark premise is revulsive to many theatergoers.

Originally staged off-Broadway in 1990, “Assassins” closed after only 73 performances. 

Two years later, a London production fared no better.

When “Assassins” finally reached Broadway in 2004, it won five Tony awards, including 

Best Revival of a Musical.

Camarillo Skyway Playhouse producer Dean Johnson and director Brian Robert Harris 

deserve double points not only for attempting to stage the show but for doing so right 

before Election Day.

“Assassins” memorably traverses time and space, with historical criminals interacting with 

one another. Where else can Charles Guiteau, who shot President James Garfield in 

1881, clumsily seduce Sara Jane Moore, who took a potshot at Gerald Ford 

nearly a century later? The bizarre confluence of the deluded assailants 

and their perverted rationales is tied together in the setting of a shooting gallery, 

run by a gruesomely jovial carnival barker played by Louis Graham.

Familiar patriotic numbers such as “Hail to the Chief” and Sousa’s “El Capitan” march 

are stretched and distorted to reflect the twisted perversion of the characters’ 

polluted patriotism.Sondheim’s score is deliberately dissonant, with the singers’ 

parts often sonically at odds with Susan Calkins’ three-piece orchestra.

Sondheim customized the songs to the eras in which each assassin lived, “The Ballad 

of Booth” sounding like a Stephen Foster banjo ditty and the love song John

 Hinckley composes for Jodie Foster deliberately amateurish.

The Camarillo cast labored for four months on the difficult songs, and although much 

of the singing is shaky at times, the acting is universally excellent, with several 

performances standing out. Jim Seerden is shattering as Samuel Byck, 

who was foiled in a 1974 attempt on the life of Richard Nixon. A raving lunatic in 

a Santa Claus suit, Byck rants to conductor Leonard Bernstein through a 

hand-held tape recorder and then to Nixon himself.

Randi Saxer plays Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, one of the lesser-known acolytes of 

mass murder mastermind Charles Manson until she took a shot at Gerald Ford in 

1975. A beguiling actress much more attractive than the plain would-be murderess 

she is portraying, Saxer is chilling in a particularly bloodthirsty performance. Her 

duet with Eric Umali as Hinckley in “Unworthy of Your Love” is the musical highlight 

of the show.  Alex Choate plays John Wilkes Booth with self-pitying nobility. 

The scene in which he and the other assassins persuade a suicidal Oswald (Andy Justus) 

to shoot down John F. Kennedy is superbly disquieting.

In this circus full of triggerh appy fruit- cakes, Julie Bermel’s Sara Jane Moore is 

the nuttiest of all. A foppish five- time divorcee, Moore missed Ford only because 

her gun was misaligned. Bermel’s whacked-out scene with Saxer’s Squeaky is 

horrifically funny as they joust about their respective obsessions.

Kyle Johnson as anarchist Leon Czolgosz ( President McKinley’s assassin), 

Evan Boelsen as Guiteau and Luis Soto’s anguished FDR sniper Giuseppe Zangara 

are equally creepy and effective. Kellie Holm ties everything together as The Balladeer, 

who acts as the Greek chorus of the show.

Due to the unsettling subject matter, gunfire and frequent profanity, “Assassins” is definitely not for 

children. But if you appreciate imaginative black comedy, you’ll have a blast.

“Assassins” plays through Nov. 4. For tickets, call (805) 388-5716 or go online to 

www.skywayplayhouse.org.

http://www.thecamarilloacorn.com/news/2012-10-05/On_The_Town/Dark_comedy_takes_aim.html

Auditions: Three Gifts of Christmas- Elite Theatre Company, Oxnard

Elite Theatre Company
Auditions for a new one act play collection Three Gifts of Christmas based on The Gift of the Magi, The Wind in the Willows,and The Legend of the Poinsettia
Oct. 8 & 9

Calling all actors, ages 6-75 for a holiday collection of one act plays based on The Gift of the Magi, The Wind in the Willows, and The Legend of the Poinsettia.  This production is entitled Three Gifts of Christmas.
Auditions are Monday, Oct. 8 and Tuesday, Oct. 9 from 6pm-7pm at the Petit Playhouse located at 720 S. B Street, Oxnard.

Bring a head shot or a picture of the actor's face which the director can keep and resume of acting experience if you have one.  No experience needed however, beginners welcome!  Sides will be available for study at the Auditions.  
*Some roles will involve singing and we also need guitarists who read chords.*

Actors must be available for all rehearsals and performances.
Rehearsals: Mondays-Thursdays Oct. 11- Nov. 29 from 6:30pm-8:30pm.
(There are no rehearsals on Thanksgiving weekend.)
Performances: Friday-Saturday, Nov. 30- Dec. 23, 2012.

Email director Gai Jones at gai.jones@sbcglobal.net for more info.
Roles included are available for all ages.

(This activity is not endorsed or sponsored by the school district.)

Cast Descriptions 
*indicates major role 
ACT ONE - THE GIFT OF THE MAGI CAST – Time 1880-1900 
*Joel Poinsett, Narrator – age 70ish
*Della, a young wife – age 20-25ish, impoverished
*Molly, Della's best friend – age 14-17, somewhat better off than Della A butcher's boy - age 8-15
*Jim, Della's equally young husband – age 20-30ish, impoverished Stuart, a copy boy – age 14-17
Mr. Symington, Jim's boss – 40ish 
ACT TWO – WIND IN THE WILLOWS – No Time Period 
JOEL POINSETT, narrator age 70
These characters don’t have ages-could be adults or youth *RAT – assertive, a leader
*MOLE – insecure, a worrywart, sings
*WEASEL – a bully, menacing, then obsequious, shifty *OTTER – careless and carefree
*RABBIT – highly nervous 
MICE
*ELWYN, THE HEAD FIELD MOUSE
*ALEX, A FIELD MOUSE, SECOND-IN-CHARGE, ASSERTIVE Younger mice (pre-teen):
CYNTHIA, A FIELD MOUSE, ABSENT MINDED
YOUNG BILL, A SMALL FIELD MOUSE, MISCHIEVOUS, TARDY SAMUEL, A FIELD MOUSE, YOUNG BILL'S SHOW-OFF BROTHER ROBERT, A FIELD MOUSE, SHY
CECILIA, A FIELD MOUSE, KEEPS IN THE BACKGROUND EMILY, A FIELD MOUSE, LIKES TO ACT
All mice sing in a group. 
ACT THREE – LEGEND OF THE POINSETTIA CHARACTERS – Time 1850, back to 1825 
Joel Poinsett: U.S. ambassador to Mexico, age 50 and age 70
*Abigail Poinsett: his granddaughter, age 7-9, dressed in nightclothes
*Winthrop Poinsett: his grandson, age 5-7, dressed in nightclothes
Father Adolfo: a Catholic priest, age 40-50
Rodrigo: Father Adolfo's assistant, age 16-20
*Lucinda Rubelcava: the alcalde's daughter, Graciela's nemesis, spoiled, rich, age 11-13
Aldo Vega: a poor child, age 6-10
Graciela Vega: Aldo's older sister, age 11-13
Schoolchildren: Isabel Ybarra, Enrique Cardenas, Paloma Chacon, Javier Ramirez, Guillermo Lopez, ages 6-13 *Grandmother Vega: grandmother of Aldo and Graciela, age 50-70
Senor Vega: father of Aldo and Graciela, age 40ish
Shepherd, any age, probably age 12-20 
***Also: Guitarist to accompany songs-could be a character 

The Woman in Black- Elite Theatre Company, Oxnard

THE ELITE THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS THE GHOSTLY DRAMA 

THE WOMAN IN BLACK

Arthur Kipps, a middle-aged solicitor, hires a theatre and the services of a professional actor to help him re-enact -- and thereby hopefully exorcize -- a ghostly event which befell him many years previously with horrifyingly tragic results. From the cluttered stage, the actor portrays the young Kipps, sent north by his London firm to settle the estate of an elderly recluse, the late Mrs. Drablow, in whose isolated marshland house Kipps encounters the Woman in Black. This specter, seeking vengeance for the death of her young child, attaches herself to Kipps and unleashes a macabre sequence of events, which culminate in a truly chilling twist in the play's final moments.

The Woman in Black will be presented August 17- September 16.  

Fridays at 8:30pm, Saturdays at 8:00pm, and Sundays at 2:00pm.  

Tickets are $15 for students and seniors, $17 for general admission.  

The Elite Theatre is Located in Oxnard’s beautiful and historic Heritage Square. 730 South B Street Oxnard, CA 93030. 

For more information call 805-483-5118 or visit http://www.elitetheatre.org/. 

Review: The Woman in Black- Stage Happenings

THE WOMAN IN BLACK

By: Robert Lilly

http://www.stagehappenings.com/Robert_Lilly/reviews/_2012/womaninblack.php

One of the longest running and most successful ventures in the history of the London theatre scene has now been brought to Oxnard. The Woman in Black is a fascinating and ambitious undertaking presented with a unique style of storytelling seldom seen in Ventura County.

The majority of shows produced in area fall into a predictable pattern of production and presentation. The Woman in Black, currently on stage at the Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard, does not fall in to that convention. The tale is told in a distinctive and creative way that exposes local audiences to one of the traits that made this show a long running sensation on the British Stage.

At the onset, we find an awkward and nervous “actor” (Terry Fishman) in the throes of reading aloud from pages of a manuscript that he himself has penned. Now voicing it for the first time, he is urged on to better his performance by a young professional actor and director (Curtis Cline). Soon we learn that both men are in a theatre with the shared goal of telling the story of Arthur Kipps to the public, but with very different motives. The younger sees the deep dramatic value of the yarn, both as a human experience and as a haunting ghost story; whereas the writer of the tale wishes only to unburden his soul of the events he lived by speaking them in a public forum. As the play within the play unfolds, we see what is ostensibly a final dress rehearsal of a multi layered autobiographical play that the two men have prepared for public consumption in the local London theatre district. In their play, Cline plays the part of the Kipps as a younger man, and Fishman takes on the roles of the various people that Kipps met along the way, all of whom are brought together by the recent death of a mysterious and troubled woman who lived and died secluded in a house so surrounded by marshland that the path to it is only visible at low tide.

The “actors” guide us through the story of the unsuspecting and diligent Kipps on his journey to the enigma of a woman’s now empty house. In due course, we discover that whenever the ghost of the woman in black is seen, a child dies. As they prepare their story for presentation, they discuss story-telling techniques of the late Victorian age, including the recent innovation of recorded sound and modern theatrical ambiance. All the while they remain under the constant and watchful eye of the ever present Woman (Debbie Price) dressed all in black, whose existence is a source of both fear and excitement to the men as they prepare their production. Their play, as well as ours, culminates in a startling dream like a final scene where reality is intermingled with the supernatural and eventually we see that the storytellers have become a part of the narrative as they told it.

So successful was the original stage production that it was made in to a film of the same name, starring a now grown Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame as the youthful Kipps. The movie focused on the ghost story, but it is the unusual structure and individual boldness of concept that made the stage play such a hit. Those essentials are alive in this production and are further supported by strong acting and many fine production elements.

Fishman takes on the mammoth task of building a multitude of diverse characters, all the while playing a man learning to be an actor. He skillfully delineates dialects and his face tells a different story for each character he plays. Cline plays well the energetic and younger version of Kipps, and Price adds mystery and presence in the silent title role. Director Tom Eubanks braves the difficult script well and succeeds particularly well in building a strong relationship between the two male leads. Eubanks offers up a skillfully staged production that makes use of every inch of the intimate theatre. The costumes suggest well the time and the set by Eubanks is a prime example of ingenuity and inventiveness, though it is at times under used. The show occasionally lacks the jump that one desires in a ghost story, but strong characters, able performers, and a clear grasp of the theatrical value of the piece are well at work here. This show is as difficult as it is stirring and deserves to be performed more often by venues such as this.

The Woman in Black runs through Sept. 16th at the Elite Theatre in Oxnard. http://www.elitetheatre.org/

Review: The Farnsworth Invention- Ventura County Star

Ventura County Star

'West Wing' creator explores the birth of TV in Camarillo play Who invented TV?

• By Rita Moran
• Posted August 1, 2012 at 2:47 p.m.
• http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/aug/01/west-wing-creator-explores-the-birth-of-tv-in/

A world without television would be a world few today could imagine. But there was such a world, just as there was one without radio, and without motion pictures.

Thanks to Philo T. Farnsworth, a Utah farm boy with a flair for electronic and mechanical invention, TV arrived sooner than it might have, even though he didn't always get full credit for his crucial contributions.

The battle among a multitude of potential innovators at various U.S. research and business sites is a focus of Aaron Sorkin's play "The Farnsworth Invention," now on stage at Camarillo Skyway Playhouse. At 13, Farnsworth was the youngest to envision all-electronic television and his insights were phenomenal. Sorkin, who many TV fans will remember as creator-writer of "The West Wing" series, brings the same kind of quick-and-clever dialogue to the stage that he did to the tube. That's both a virtue, thanks to the riveting intensity it produces, and a bit of a drawback as technical information comes at an audience fast and furious, leaving some at opening night missing essential strains of the argument, while at least catching the funniest of the comeuppances delivered. Farnsworth's relentless drive and many-faceted mind can at times be as confusing as it is compelling.

Central figures in the cast do their utmost to deliver the information-laden lines crisply and persuasively. Best at communicating the fast-moving text is Patrick Beckstead in the title role. From the opening scene when as a bumptious student he asks his new science teacher if he can skip the basic course and the teacher says no, it's obvious something's in the air. The next day Farnsworth produces his "homework," a mass of papers that cover the entire course, and the teacher changes his mind.

From that moment on, Beckstead, as convincing as a grown up as a kid, fuels Farnsworth's fire though endless experimentation on crucial elements of TV transmission, working with only a few friends who are equally surprising innovators.

The major confrontation of the play, it turns out, comes from another young man, David Sarnoff, who emigrated with his mother and siblings from Europe to America in 1900, when he was 9. Sarnoff was a driving force in the expansion of radio, eventually heading Radio Corporation of America (RCA), and alert enough to recognize the possibilities of television as an even more world-changing communications force. Of course, it took quite a while before the technical problems of making television actually work were solved. And possibly, some shenanigans to latch on to Farnsworth's key work. The smooth Sarnoff is effectively played by Eric Mello, who gets to utter the words that define him in Sorkin's play, "The ends do justify the means … that's what means are for."

Sorkin's play has been criticized by some history buffs for its crucial courtroom scene in which Farnsworth loses the patent-right contest. It seems that he actually won, but that would have made a different kind of story. The explanation centers on the fact that there was more than one legal skirmish and that Farnsworth lost some even while ultimately winning and going on to invent many other patents in his areas of interest.

Director Elissa Anne Polansky effectively handles the cast of 23, many in multiple roles, with action taking place against a simple backdrop that includes a second-level area to accommodate a continuous flow of scenes. There are familiar faces in the cast along with welcome new ones, all obviously committed to a serious performance of the play, presented for the first time on a major county stage.

But the most striking element of the production comes at the opening when two large screens on either side of the stage come alive with unforgettable television moments, from grainy shots of Walter Cronkite announcing John F. Kennedy's death and the appropriately unearthly sight of an American walking on the moon to silly flash-by shots of Lucy and Desi, "All in the Family" and Richard Nixon gamely intoning "Sock it to me!"

Now that television and other means of mass communication have flooded the world the question no longer seems to be how are we going to communicate with the rest of humanity, but can we try to make what we send out worth the electronic trip?

"The Farnsworth Invention" may not be the most colorful drama onstage, but it is a timely reminder of what life was like before TV, and how much struggle went into making it a reality.

'The Farnsworth Invention'

Aaron Sorkin's take on Philo T. Farnsworth's battle to create television in the early years of the 20th century will be staged through Aug. 26 at the Camarillo Skyway Playhouse, 330 Skyway Drive, Camarillo. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $18 general, $13 seniors, military and students; and $10 children 12 and younger. Call 388-5716 or visit skywayplayhouse.org.

Email Rita Moran at ritamoran@earthlink.net.

© 2012 Ventura County Star. All rights reserved.