Mondays are Dark

Santa brought us a wealth of great stories for your Holiday reading list; enjoy!

Sun Sets on Rising Action
Florida Theater On Stage brings the news that Rising Action Theater is closing in the middle of its current season; but it's not the end of the story:

...some staffers plan to replace it next fall with a new company, Island City Stage, said Andy Rogow, artistic director for both ventures.

Island City Stage will continue to present shows focusing on LGBT issues, but expand the appeal to a wider audience through the plays selected, Rogow said Thursday.

Reasons for the closing include lack of performance space; their home up to now, Sunshine Cathedral, is losing too much time converting the space from a theater to a room suitable for other activities.  So the Cathedral is getting its room back.  And of course, Rising Action has collected a little baggage along the way.
A fresh start will wipe the slate clean for this unique company.

Can I Get Six Comps on the Aisle?
We learn the Secrets of the Box Office from Adventures of the Conger Persuasion;

• Concerning refunds:  I don't do them.  And that's an industry standard.  So you can kiss it.
• If you are going to be more than 15 minutes late to a performance, just stay home.  Walking in late is disrespectful to the people who have to seat you, the audience members you have to climb over to get to your seat, and to the actors who have to keep their sh*t together onstage as you uproot half the house, loudly apologizing all the way.

The Scottish Boy and the Monsters
Miami Artzine.com examines the next play from Mad Cat Theater Company, Macbeth and the Monsters, which opens Wednesday at the Light Box at the Goldman Warehouse.

'Tis The Season...
...for a write-off, fa-la-la-la-la, la la la laaa.  Florida Theater On Stage posts a list of worthy theatres who would gladly accept a donation before the year ends, so you can get the tax break.

Now we have to get this out of our head:

'Tis the season for a write-off
fa-la-la-la-la, la la la laaa
You're the rich folk missed by Madoff
fa-la-la-la-la, la la la laaa
The IRS will cut your taxes
fa-la-la, fa-la-la, la la la!
So call them now, or send some faxes
Fa-la-la-la la, la la, la, LA!

Well, THAT happened. On with the reading list...

Speaking of the End of the Year
The Examiner has a list of resolutions for theatre patrons to consider.

The First Fab Four
The Miami Herald tells us about The Million Dollar Quartet, opening Wednesday at the Arsht Center.

This Holidaze is a Cirque Dream
Miami Artzine.com steps into the wings to talk with costume designer Lenora Taylor.  She designed the entire range of costumes in Cirque Dreams Holidaze, playing this week at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. 

"The greatest challenge I face is in the construction of costumes.  The performers wearing the costumes are doing such amazing and death defying acts, and the costume is the last thing I want them to think about while they are performing.  For some people the costume needs to fit like a second skin, for others they can't have anything covering their legs or arms or even neck in some cases."

The Sun-Sentinel spoke with composer Jill Diane Winters.

"We have reindeer in the air hanging from their antlers; I mean, that is such fun to put music to," said Winters. "Then we have the Ice Queen – that's what we call her -- she's the lead vocalist. She walks on and you really want to feel the cold. I love to use things like the wind in my music. If they are climbing a rope then you want to evoke that with music. If they are flying around on straps, then you want to hear that in the music."

It just finished playing in Fort Myers, where The Naples Stage Door spoke with director Neil Goldberg.

"One of the most exciting scenes in the show is where we actually reenact baking a gingerbread cookies and a gingerbread house," Goldberg said. "The entire stage at the end of the scene is transformed into a mammoth gingerbread house and all of the candies and all of the decorations are actual performers that are acrobats flipping through the air."

It opens Tuesday at the Broward Center, and plays through Sunday.

Speaking of the Holidays
Soul Doctor opened on Christmas day at the Colony Theatre.  TheaterMania tells us about the cast of the musical, a biographical musical chronicling the career of Shlomo Carlebach, the Rock-Star Rabbi.

There She Is...
TheatreMania reports that former Miss America Kate Shindle will play Sally Bowles when Cabaret opens at The Maltz Jupiter Theatre in a couple of weeks.

I Heard It On The Radio in the Taxi-cab
The Artful Manager relates how taxis replaced the radio in Johannesberg back in the 1990's.

Honorably Unmentioned
New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley reflects on the reviews that left out noteworthy contributions.

Though the Times is exceedingly generous in the space it allots its arts critics, we still have only a limited number of words with which todistribute praise (or blame). And sometimes we get the proportions wrong.

Feel left out?  You can mention it in the comments section of his article.

Meanwhile
...in Palm Beach, the Royal Poinciana Playhouse is still closed.  The Shiny Sheet reports that Palm Beach Landmarks Commission is... talking about it.

At the urging of member William Cooley, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will conduct a hearing to determine whether the Royal Poinciana Playhouse is suffering from demolition by neglect.

They're not conducting a building inspection, mind you.  Nor or they demanding a survey by any sort of theater technician.  They're gonna talk about the condition of the building.  And only that;

“I guarantee I’m going to get up and leave if we have a continual conversation about a lack of a theater. That’s not our purpose. If it’s demolition by neglect, certainly I want to take care of that.”

Because after all, it's more important to have a theater than to have theatre happening in it.