Mondays are Dark

We're into week two of the South Florida Theatre Festival; a number of shows opened last week, with more to come.  This week, there are several activities at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts; on Monday, you can tour the center, and on Tuesday you can attend a workshop taught by members of the cast of Young Frankenstein, and then stay to watch a reading of a new play, only 18, the true story of neophyte playwright Bonnie Tocwish's struggle with ovarian cancer her freshman year of college.  A certain theatre blogger will participate in the reading.

Speaking of reading, here's your Monday reading list:

Don't Cry for Us, Theatre Patrons
Not that he's complaining, but The South Florida Theater Review's Bill Hirschman points out how many plays are opening in the first two weeks of the South Florida Theatre Festival.

Yuck.
Both the Miami Theatre Examiner and BroadwayWorld.com seem to have signed on for perpetrating the lamest diminutive nickname for a theatre in recent history.  Sorry, guys, I know you're trying to create a brand for yourselves, but this one - words can't express how poor it is.  If you don't like "New Theatre", change it entirely; simply putting "the" in front of one half or the other simply doesn't work.  Seriously.  "New Coke" was a better idea.

But that shouldn't stop you from checking out New Theatre's production of Jack Goes Boating.  (On the bright side, at least we're not adding a REP or a PLAYHOUSE to the list.)

So who is GFour, Anyway?
I know that's the question I've gotten from people about the current production of Motherhood The Musical, now playing at the Miniaci Performing Arts Center.  Christine Dolen talks with the four "G's" in The Miami Herald.  We'll talk about the Miniaci PAC some other time.  Maybe.  (It's not much of a story, really.)

Candida
I confess, everytime I read the title of this George Bernard Shaw classic, I hear Tony Orlando sing "...we can make it together/The further from here girl, the better..."  I'm hopelessly contaminated by popular media, obviously.  Fortunately, Jan Sjostrom doesn't make that connection in her sit-down with Palm Beach DramaWorks in Saturday's Shiny Sheet.

Raising Cane
Andrew Rosendorf illustrates how a new play is constantly evolving over on 1st Draft.

Raising Funds
Elsewhere at Florida Stage, the Shiny Sheet reports that the company just secured a loan from the West Palm Beach CRA to cover their moving costs.

“We have been courting Florida Stage for years to come into the downtown,” Commissioner Bill Moss said. “If we are to live up to the hype of being the cultural center of the county, we need production companies like Florida Stage and Palm Beach Dramaworks and all the cultural organizations we can lure into the city.”

When I first moved to Florida, there were two companies in downtown West Palm; the defunct Florida Repertory Theatre, and the resurrected Actors' Repertory Company (now using its birth name, Actors' Workshop and Repertory Company).  Was it confusing having two companies a few blocks apart both referred to as "the Rep?"  You bet.  But it was great hanging out at the old Roxy's after shows.  Where will the new "theater bar" be?

South Goes Southwest
BroadwayWorld.com reports that Ken Kay will be appearing Noises Off over at The Florida Rep in Fort Myers.  (No relation to the WPB company referenced above.)  Meanwhile, his wife, the lovely Kim Cozort, is appearing in Candida, now playing at Palm Beach DramaWorks, which is scheduled to move into the space once inhabited by the old Florida Rep (no relation to the Fort Myers company just referenced).

Making Up for Lost Time
For years, Christine Dolen chastised Miami and its theatre companies for ignoring one of its brightest playwrights.  GableStage is producing The Brothers Size next years, and now The South Florida Theater Review reports that The New World School of the Arts will be bringing their alumnus back as the centerpiece of  fundraiser.

Dream come True
BroadwayWorld.com reports that when the national tour stops in at the Arsht Center, one of the Dreamgirls will be no stranger to South Florida.  Syesha Mercado, who plays Deena, was recently a student at Florida International University.  And yes, she's THAT Syesha Mercado. 

Poe for Yo'.
OK, that heading really sucks, but the event is already called Poe Choices.  Conundrum Stages will be participating in a celebration of the works of Edgar Allen Poe.

Hap's Picks
Hap Erstein lists his "must see" plays for the 2010-2011 theatre season in The Palm Beach Post. (The Post hasn't shut down yet - hard to believe, innit it?).  One of them is Dreamgirls; and it occurs to me that the last time it played South Florida might have been the 1989 production at the Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre, which featured a boatload of Broadway talent.

Maltz loads for Bear
The Maltz Jupiter Theatre has just signed Tony Award winner Frank Galati to direct their upcoming production of Twelve Angry Men, according to TheatreMania.

Meanwhile...
..in Palm Beach, The Shiny Sheet reports that the Royal Poinciana Playhouse is still closed.