Mondays are Dark

Madeline's Christmas
Madeline may have always been "the smallest one," but she always had the biggest heart.  So, too, does Sawyer O'Keefe, one of the ten-year-old actresses playing Madeline at Actors' Playhouse.  The Examiner tells us about her, and lets us know that the Playhouse is holding a toy drive throught Christmas Eve.

Still Crazy After All These Years
New Times sits down with Paul Tei to talk about 12 years of Mad Cat.

We fill a huge void in the theatrical community here, but it feels like Mad Cat is the lone punk band that shows up to a battle of the bands showdown and all the other groups are cover bands, ya know?

Meanwhile, Florida Theater On Stage gets the straight poop on why he chose to do Macbeth and the Monster, where a mother re-invents 'the Scottish play' for her son's bedtime story:

“It’s the time slot!” joked Mad Cat co-founder Paul Tei who is directing the show. “What were we going to do? White Christmas?”

At The Garage
Talkin' Broadway brings us up to speed on the new Theatre at Arts Garage program, helmed by former producing director of Florida Stage, Louis Tyrell.

"Picture Florida Stage, but more intimate. Just as devoted to producing new plays and developing new playwrights, but with less emphasis on production values. The space—and it is a great space—will dictate the kinds of plays we will be able to do here" said Tyrell. Plays with smaller cast sizes, usually only one set, but that leaves plenty of terrific scripts that we can serve up, many that I already have in hand."

It sounds like he's going back to the design philosophy of the old Theatre Club of the Palm Beaches; what we used to call the "two chairs and a table" school of set design.  Can you guess what it entailed?

Interview with Eric
Florida Theater On Stage interviews music director Eric Alsford.

Speaking of Interviews
James Cubby can't separate the performer from the performance when he interviews Elvis Presley for MiamiArtZine.com.

As a writer I’ve always fantasized what it would be like to interview some of my idols like James Dean, Montgomery Clift, and Elvis Presley. One fantasy came true this past week when I spoke to Elvis on the phone...

On The Road
Eileen Faxas has been on tour with Mama Mia, and started blogging about it awhile back.  In this installment of BlogosFaxas, she discovers life outside suburbia.

Why was my initial reaction negative, I ask myself.  Then I realize.  This place is not sleek and shiny and clean (or corporate).  What it is, is original.  It is then that I begin to see the humble origins, the work, struggle and striving in its facades.

Funding the Arts
Onstage/Backstage talks with Margy Waller of Cincinnatti's ArtsWave, and learns that there really is sound, fiscally responsible reasons why we should fund the arts:

...ask what top three things we should do to improve the economy, no one answers “subsidize the arts.” But... ask people what would improve their neighborhood the most, the arts come up time and time again.

Why? Because artists’ residences are known to herald an improvement in real-estate values; because arts audiences mean feet on the street and therefore greater public safety; because arts venues are known to spawn coffee shops and restaurants and other places of urban liveliness.

Examples of this abound in our own South Florida; when the Broward Center was built, its neighborhood was a blighted warehouse district populated by homeless people.  Actors' Playhouse moved into a theater surrounded by wedding shops that closed at 5pm.  While they tore down the ghetto before they built The Kravis Center, that meant that it sat in the middle of a wasteland.  Now look at those areas; restaurants, galleries, and vibrant night life can be found at all three locations.

Gift Guide for Theater Lovers
Florida Theater On Stage has a list of gifts for the hard-to-shop-for musical lover in your life.

2012 Muse Awards
BroadwayWorld reports the recipients of the 2012 Muse Awards in Palm Beach County.  They are awarded by the Palm Beach County Cultural Council.  The Maltz Jupiter Theater garnered awards for the theater's namesakes Milton and Tamar Maltz (Outstanding Civic Leader) , and its Artistic Director, Andrew Kato (Council's Choice).  Congratulations!