Sarasota theater looking for new short plays

  If you can write a play in the next couple of months about some people who are middle-aged or older, it might get presented by The Players Theatre. 
  The Sarasota theater troupe will produce a Senior Play Reading Festival Oct. 12-13. The festival is looking for non-published plays, between one and 10 minutes long, revolving around characters who are least 45 years old. 
  The festival is accepting entries through July 31.
  Send entries to The Players, 838 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236, Attn: SSS Play Reading Festival. The titles of the winning plays will be posted on The Players website by Sept. 6. 
   For information, call 941-365-2494 or visit
www.theplayers.org.


Here are some guidelines: 
-- Playwrights have to live in Florida
-- Keep in mind that the actors are all 55 or older.
-- No more than eight performers in any play.   
-- Manuscripts must be typed and bound.
-- Include a biography of the playwright.
-- No more than three scripts per playwright.
-- No musicals.

GWAR and Tampa brewer introduce Impaled Ale

   So, a few weeks back Cigar City Brewing in Tampa rolled out its first band-themed craft beer. It was called High Road Ale and it was inspired by the music of Bradenton's Have Gun Will Travel.

GWAR

   Now Cigar City will be expanding from Americana into metal with Impaled Ale, a new brew that will debut at the annual GWAR-B-Q music festival in Richmond, Va. on Aug. 17.
   GWAR, as you may know, is a satirical metal band. They're known for elaborate costumes and extreme stage shows.
   According to www.americancraftbeer.com, Impaled Ale is the second GWAR-themed beer. Three years ago, a couple of home brewers in the Tampa Bay area created Death Piggy Ale as an homage to the band.
   Almost all the Impaled Ale will be canned and kegged to be sold at GWAR-B-Q, so if you really want to try it you may have to travel to Richmond.
  
   
  
   

Josh Groban announces November concert in Tampa

   Pop star and former wunderkind Josh Groban is coming to Tampa.
   Tickets go on sale May 10 for the Nov. 9 concert at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. He has a small band traveling with him, and he's hiring an orchestra and chorus in each city on his American tour, which kicks off Oct. 2.

Josh Groban

   The concert will be in the round, with the stage in the center of the arena and seats all around. That makes for closer seating, and it means the worst seats won't be as distant as in a traditional set-up.
   Groban had a semi-operatic sound early in his career, but lately he's become a chart-topping pop-rocker. His latest album includes songs by Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Webb and Dave Matthews, and it was produced by Rob Cavallo of Green Day fame..
    The Tampa Bay Times Forum is at 401 Channelside Drive in  Tampa. Call 813-301-6500 or visit www.tampabaytimesforum.com.

Diana Ross comes to Sarasota Sept. 11

   Diana Ross, an American musical icon for a half-century, is coming to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall Sept. 11.

Diana Ross

   Ross has won a Tony Awards and been nominated for an Academy Award and for tons of Grammys. (She's never won a Grammy, though, which is surprising.) She's of course had countless hits, both with the Supremes in the 1960s and as a solo artist since 1970, and she starred in "The Wiz" and "Lady Sings the Blues."
   The Van Wezel concert starts at 8 p.m, Wednesday, Sept. 11. Tickets are $30-$115. 941-953-3368 or www.vanwezel.org.

Sneak peek of "Star Trek" film in Tampa

   If you're already getting excited about the upcoming "Star Trek Into Darkness," you no doubt know that the official release date is May 17.
   But you can actually see it two days earlier at the IMAX Dome at the Museum of Science and Industry

(MOSI) at 4801 E. Fowler Ave, Tampa.
   Showtimes are 8 and 11 p.m. May 15 and 1:15, 3:55, 6:35 9:15 and 11:55 p.m. May 16. Show times through May 31 are at www.mosi.org.
   Tickets are $11.95 for adults, $10.95 for students, $9.95 for seniors and $8.95 for kids. MOSI members get discounts.You can get tickets now by calling 813-987-6000 or by visiting www.mosi.org. The MOSI people "highly recommend" that you get tickets in advance. 

Manatee Players stage a strong, emotional 'Fiddler'

   For their first show in their spectacular new theater, Manatee Players staged a spectacular show, the flashy and high-tech “Miss Saigon.”
   Now that they’re easing into the space, still so new that the unobtrusive smell of wet paint lingers, Manatee Players are offering a quieter, more traditional, but no less impressive musical.
   “Fiddler on the Roof” is a gentle but emotional musical that gets its power from characters and delicate writing rather than bombast. 
   That makes the show especially demanding for the performers, but the Manatee Players cast pulls it off admirably.
   The large choral numbers are among the highlights of this staging, but the performances in the important roles are all engaging.
   Tevye, the beleaguered father caught in a struggle between tradition and modernity, is a tough role. He’s the only complex character in the whole show, and anyone who takes on the role has to compete with two legendary performances, by Zero Mostel and Topol.
   Michael Bajjaly makes a fine Tevye, faithful to the spirit of the character without being imitative of the classic performances. Tevye’s wry one-liners  come across just as well as the heaviness of his emotional burden in Bajjaly’s performance.
   The music in “Fiddler” (by Jerry Bock) is not especially melodic -- “If I Were a Rich Man” is a notable exception -- and some songs are difficult to sing. Bajjaly sings some of them imperfectly, but because he’s such an appealing actor, the songs all work. “Do You Love Me?,” a musically awkward song, ends up being the emotional highlight of the show, thanks to the chemistry between Bajjaly and Sharon Albert, who plays his wife Golde. 
   There are a lot of noteworthy performances in smaller roles, especially all three of Tevye’s marrying daughters, Marina Wright, Katherine C. Herbert and Emily Arthur.
   There’s also a really solid seven-piece orchestra.
   Director Cheryl Carty’s approach is straightforward. But she adds a nice touch by having the title character, the actual fiddler, much more prominent than usual. The fiddler, a symbol both of the tradition that binds Tevye and his need to maintain balance, is a nearly constant presence, dancing through across stage at pivotal moments.
   “Fiddler” is on the long side, solidly over two and a half hours, and has only a couple of good songs. So there are times when this production feels tedious. But there are more times when it feels engaging and even powerful.
   Details: Through May 19, Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 Third Ave. W, Bradenton. Show times: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $26-$36. Information: 941-748-5875 or www.manateeplayers.com.

"War Horse" at Tampa's Straz is magical

   There's almost no set, the music is recorded, the story is farfetched and ultimately predictable, and the title character is portrayed by a puppet made of sticks and aluminum.
   So why is "War Horse" so enthralling?
   The Tony-winning Broadway play debuted at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa Tuesday. It proved to be a magical work of imagination and deliciously low-tech craftsmanship.
   The story has to do with a boy in rural England whose horse is sold to the army's cavalry and shipped to France to fight in World War I. The boy lies about his age and enlists to try to find his horse.
   The set consist almost entirely of a ragged piece of fabric that stretches across the stage above the actors with projected images, almost all in gray. There are sketches of villages and frantic abstract animations that represent the chaos of battle.
   A reason for the sparse set, one suspects, is that designers didn't want to draw attention away from the Joey, the horse and the emotional center of the play. His design and construction are  spectacular feat of puppetry and his performance -- actually the performance of three actors who work his head, midsection and hindquarters -- is poignant.
   It's difficult to describe the puppet and the performance in any way that would do it justice. Even still photographs don't convey the complexity, power and delicacate beauty of the puppet. But it's so effectively designed and built that even with the actors (on opening night, Christopher Mai, Harlan Bengel and Rob Laqui) clearly visible, it's easy to believe you're watching a real horse. And the actors work it so beautifully that there's never a problem discerning subtleties of the horse's emotion. You can see the horse's thoughts. You can feel his fear and sadness. You believe you can see his muscles bulge as he strains to pull an ambulance full of wounded soldiers.
   "War Horse" isn't just about impressive puppetry, though. The show wouldn't work as well if the horse (actually, there are several horses) weren't so astounding. But the horse is an element of the show; it's not the show itself. It's one thrilling performance by a leading actor in a fine show.
   It's a bit overlong, about two and a half hours, and the first 20 minutes or so are slow. The use of recorded music in a Broadway show is disappointing, but by the end of the evening, all those slight flaws had been forgiven. "War Horse" is a wonderfully human work of creativity.

Details: Through May 5, Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa. Show times: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $44.50 plus service charge and up. Information: 813-229-7827 or www.strazcenter.org.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/04/25/4497445/acclaimed-stage-drama-war-horse.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy