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Monthly Archives: June 2014

PRESS RELEASE
June 30th, 2014

JOYCE DEWITT TO JOIN MICKY DOLENZ IN COMEDY IS HARD! WORLD PREMIERE  SEPTEMBER 24th at THE IVORYTON PLAYHOUSE

joyce-dewritt-couch-photo-theater-debut-07-02-2011FULLNew York/Ivoryton –Joyce DeWitt has just been confirmed to play opposite Micky Dolenz in  Mike Reiss’ new play Comedy Is Hard!, premiering Wednesday, September 24, at The Ivoryton Playhouse in Ivoryton, Connecticut.

Ms. DeWitt is most widely known to audiences for her starring role as “Janet Wood” in the ABC Television hit series Three’s Company but she has an extensive theatrical background, working both as actress and director in a stage career which spans over fifty years.

In those fifty years, Ms. DeWitt has starred in theatrical productions of every genre including Moliere’s Tartuffe, Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Euripides’ Medea as well as the popular comedies Sam Bobrick’s Remember Me, Neil Simons’s Star Spangled Girl, as well as the hilarious British farce Noises Off among many others.

Her long list of starring roles in musicals includes South Pacific, Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity, Oklahoma, Married Alive, Leader of the Pack, They’re Playing Our Song, Hats, All Shook Up, revivals of Cole Porter’s Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Mama Rose in Gypsy, and the mythical Olympus on My Mind for which she completed the cast recording – her first Broadway Album.

HIRESDOLENZBLUE2Reiss’ play is set in a home for retired actors and the play takes an affectionate look at the relationship and rivalry between a retired stand-up comedian and a classical actress.

Reiss, who is writer and producer for the long running TV show, The Simpsons, also created the animated series The Critic; the webtoon Queer Duck and worked on the screenplays for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs; Horton Hears a Who!; The Simpsons: The Movies; and, My Life In Ruins. Ivoryton audiences turned out in droves in the June 2013 for his hilarious play, I’m Connecticut, which was a huge popular and critical success.

Comedy is Hard!opens at the Ivoryton Playhouse on September 24 and runs through October 12, 2014. Directed by Playhouse Artistic Director, Jacqueline Hubbard, the rest of the cast is not yet announced.

Performance times are Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Evening performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm. Tickets are $42 for adults, $37 for seniors, $20 for students and $15 for children and are available by calling the Playhouse box office at 860-767-7318 or by visiting our website at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org  (Group rates are available by calling the box office for information.) The Playhouse is located at 103 Main Street in Ivoryton

Members of the press are welcome at any performance. Please call ahead for tickets.

Generously sponsored by Hamilton Connections and Middle Oak.

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DSC05012With less than a week until opening night, crew of All Shook Up is working hard at getting the sets build and painted. Getting the look and feel of a small town in America’s mid-west involves quite a lot of paint. Featured here is one of the Ivoryton Playhouse interns, Gaylen Ferstand, painting on wood texture to an interior wall. This process gives the illusion of wood grain without there actually being any.

 

Typically there would be a dark shade applied evenly on the wall first, this is the color that will show through in the end product. This color doesn’t have to be brown like it is here. It could be a deep plum or a green, this would create something a little funkier than what we are looking for.

 

 

 

DSC05022Next, a lighter shade is applied. Before it dries, a wood grained stencil is run along the paint in a single stroke. This creates the effect. The painter has to be sure to use even strokes with the stencil, otherwise the grain will look blotched.  This process has to be repeated until the whole desired area is covered.
DSC05034Once it’s dry, the wall will have a neat texture to it. Depending on your color choices it can be more natural, or as mentioned before, really funky.

 

 

To see all the different techniques used on the sets, check out All Shook Up, running through the month of July at the Ivoryton Playhouse.

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INTRODUCING THE IVORYTON PLAYERS!

We are so excited to announce a brand new program at the Ivoryton Playhouse starting in July. The Ivoryton Players is an opportunity for adults who love the theatre to have fun, meet new friends and put on a show!

You will learn about professional theater while preparing and rehearsing for a staged reading with the performance on 12/09/14 on the Ivoryton Playhouse Stage!  All levels of experience or no experience are welcome.  Here comes the fun …  NO MEMORIZING!

If you are interested in performing again in your life or it is on your bucket list to see what it’s like to be “in the theater”, here’s your chance.

Sign up now for the very first meeting of The Ivoryton Players.  Meetings begin Monday, July 21st from 1:00pm to 3:30pm (time flexible according to membership needs) at the Ivoryton Playhouse Office and Rehearsal Studio located at 24 Main Street, Centerbrook.  The group will meet every Monday leading up to the show.

If you want to be a part of this fun group but would prefer to be involved in the backstage work essential to a great show, there are props, costumes, set design, stage managing, publicity, understudies and more – something for everyone who wants to participate.

The group will be performing a riotous comedy to be announced.  The first meeting will include a welcome packet for all, an overview of the club and some hilarious get-acquainted improvisations.  We will then start the rehearsal process in the next meetings.

Joyce BeauvaisThe Ivoryton Players director is Joyce Beauvais.  Joyce, after settling in CT, currently runs this program in Old Saybrook and also starting in East Lyme.  Ms Beauvais brings with her a lifetime in the theater performing her first professional role at age seven.  She lived in NYC for over 25 years as an actress in stage, TV and film, also a Broadway and Off-Broadway producer and 5 years as owner and operator of Chez Beauvais, Restaurant and Cabaret.  Chez Beauvais was a boite on Tenth Ave., NYC offering fine cuisine and the best of New York City jazz.  She partnered with uber agent Jack Rollins and Jane Rollins.  After moving to FL she continued to perform as an actress but also developed this program that today will be the Ivoryton Players.  “The mix of people and experience”, Joyce finds, “turns into the magic one only finds in theater”.  Joyce promises this will be one of the times of your life!

There is limited enrollment and only a $5 charge per class (funding available for those who need it), so come and join us.  After one meeting you’ll be hooked!.

Please call to register:  860.767.9520 x 205.  

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Press Release

C’mon everybody!
All Shook Up
at The Ivoryton Playhouse

4_all_shook_upIvoryton:  Time to dust off your blue suede shoes: The Ivoryton Playhouse is preparing for its latest summer musical, ALL SHOOK UP by Joe Di Pietro, inspired by and featuring the songs of the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley.

The show had its first staging on the shoreline in 2004 at the Norma Terris Theatre in Chester and later ran for 213 performances on Broadway.

Like a play by Shakespeare seen through a fun house mirror, ALL SHOOK UP tips its hat to the Bard, especially his magical comedies Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with themes of unrequited love, humorous confusion, and an ultimately happy ending.

It’s 1955 and into a square little town in a square little state rides a guitar playing roustabout who changes everything and everyone he meets in this hip swiveling, lip-curling musical fantasy. ALL SHOOK UP features 24 Presley classics, such as “Jailhouse Rock” and “Heartbreak Hotel.”

Appropriate for all ages, this one is sure to be an instant hit. Playhouse Artistic Director, Jacqueline Hubbard says “We were looking for a summer musical that would appeal to people of all ages and this show certainly fits the bill. It is high energy and really funny with great music but it also deals with themes of inequality and challenging the status quo. And of course, a love story – what would summer be without a good old fashioned love story!”

Directed and choreographed by Richard Amelius and musical directed by Logan Medland, the show features Preston Ellis as Chad and Danielle

Will true love prevail? Will the power of music win in the end? Tickets are available online and at the box office.

ALL SHOOK UP opens in Ivoryton on July 2nd   and runs through July 27th . Performance times are Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Evening performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm. There are 2 extra matinees for this show on Saturday July 19th and 26th at 2pm.

Tickets are $42 for adults, $37 for seniors, $20 for students and $15 for children and are available by calling the Playhouse box office at 860-767-7318 or by visiting our website at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org  (Group rates are available by calling the box office for information.) The Playhouse is located at 103 Main Street in Ivoryton.

Generously sponsored by:  Pasta Vita

Members of the press are welcome at any performance.  Please call ahead for tickets.

*member of Actors Equity

 

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Now open thru October – every Saturday from 10am – 1:30pm.  Music every Saturday from 11:00am.  Lots of vendors selling fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, Italian ice, flowers, garlic, meat and more.  Shop local and support local farmers.  Great family fun, too!

http://www.ivorytonfarmersmarket.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks, Outthink, for producing this great video piece.  Fingers & Toes now open and wowing audiences!  Get your tickets today!

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Our thanks to Frank Rizzo “Behind The Curtain” writer at The Hartford Courant for this fascinating article and video interview featuring Fingers & Toes director Robert Moss.  Follow this link to view the story:

http://www.ctnow.com/arts-theater/hc-fingers-and-toes-0601-20140601,0,3150245.story

 

 

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