Friday, March 4, 2011

Manatee Players in Atlanta: 'Solid and entertaining'

HERALD FILE PHOTO Steve Dawson as George and Dianne Dawson as Dot in the Players’ production of “Sunday in the Park with George.”

The Manatee Players are poised for another national honor.

The Bradenton community theater company staged an abridged version of the first act of Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Sunday in the Park with George” at the Southeastern Theatre Conference today at Spelman College in Atlanta.

"The Manatee Players were ambitious bringing 'Sunday In the Park With George' to this year's competition," reported former Bradenton Herald features writer January Holmes, who now lives in Georgia. "Their performance was solid and entertaining. And their mastery of a challenging Sondheim score, especially in a condensed competition format, continues to distinguish their theatrical reputation in the region."

The Herald will learn if the Players win late Saturday.

If they do, they will compete at the American Association of Community Theatre's AACTFest11. The national theater event brings the best community theatre productions from across the country and the U.S. Armed Services in Europe to Rochester, N.Y., June 20-26. More than 600 people are expected to participate in this event. A victory there ranks as the highest honor in the nation bestowed upon companies such as the Manatee Players.

In 2005, the Manatee Players won Best Production for “Metamorphoses” at the 2005 AACTFest.

The Players' staging of “Sunday in the Park with George” ended its two-week Bradenton run last October and later that same month won at the Florida Theatre Conference Festival.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I saw the play in Bradenton.I was very surprised with the end result.I really got into the story,and thought the acting was superb.Danny Patt,Bradenton,Florida