Mondays are Dark, Memorial Day 2009

I hope you're all haveing a relaxing Memorial Weekend Holiday. Here's your Monday reading list, in case you get stuck in the rain:

Cocktail Tale

Christine Dolen has a drink with Sofia Vergara.

Vergara has interrupted her limited starring gig in the long-running Broadway revival of Chicago to headline the show's touring company this week at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. That's unusual, but this is a performer who has built a thriving career on doing things differently.

Chicago plays at the Arsht Center this Tuesday through Sunday.

South Florida's Ignored Playwright

Christine also tells us a little bit about Tarrel McRaney, a playwright from Miami who has yet to have one of his productions staged in South Florida.

On Wednesday, May 27, McCraney will receive the first New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award in a ceremony at the newspaper's Manhattan headquarters. Honoring an American playwright who has made a recent professional debut in New York (McCraney was chosen for The Brothers Size at the Public Theater), the award was determined by a committee of three Times arts editors, Times contributor Sylviane Gold and four impressive playwrights: Edward Albee, Richard Greenberg, James Lapine and brand-new Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reviews his "Brother/Sister" trilogy, being produced at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey.

Partly spiritual, very funny and altogether grabbing, The Brothers Size Marcus; or The Secret of Sweet is the semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale by Tarell Alvin McCraney - at age 29, a master storyteller and one of the American theater's boldest, brightest new voices.

Random Bits

Alliance Theatre Lab releases pictures of Kim Ehly in the title role of My Name is Rachel Corrie.

In A Dark House opens at Mosaic Theatre this week. Theatre Mania fills us in.

You could win free tickets to City Theatre's Summer Shorts 2009: uVu Video Blog tells you how.

Ivanka Trump supports Miami Shores' Playground Theatre, according to Social Miami.

Out of Town

South Florida favorite Lisa Morgan will be closing out the theatre season at on the Gulf Coast, according to BroadwayWorld:

"This play is truly a gem, and I think audiences will immediately fall in love with Shirley and her story," said (Florida Rep) Producing Artistic Director, Robert Cacioppo. "One-person shows are difficult to do because you have to be absolutely certain that you choose the perfect actor - and Lisa Morgan is the perfect choice, and Willy Russell has given us one of the funniest, touching and most wise one-person-plays around."

2009 Cappies

Last week, we mentioned the Cappies. SouthFlorida.com has a report on the results.

Pomp and circumstance marked the event as students from 29 schools turned out in their nicest attire. The gala began as all the nominated students processed from the stage into the audience.

Meanwhile, In Palm Beach...

...the Royal Poinciana Playhouse is still closed. The Palm Beach Daily News reports:

A majority of the council made it clear at an April 15 meeting that it is open to razing the Playhouse if that is necessary to get a new, more economically viable theater built.

Council members also expressed a lack of confidence in the Palm Beach Theater Guild's ability to raise enough money to renovate and operate the Playhouse. The guild has long proposed to operate the Playhouse under a lease with Sterling; Sterling says the guild has no viable business plan.

This is a long way from being over:

Not content to rely solely on the landmark protection or the 1979 agreement, Theater Guild President Patrick Flynn formed a political action committee that gathered enough signatures this spring to place on the ballot a proposed town charter amendment that would give voters the power to protect the Playhouse.

Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher's office certified in April that 822 signatures were from registered town voters, enough to place the amendment on the ballot.

So it looks like the least-desired performance space in South Florida will remain in limbo for awhile longer.