Mondays are Dark

We're going to start this week's reading list with a couple of stories about theaters going through some tough times; nobody's closing, but it's a rocky time.

Not Open, But Not Gone
Florida Theater On Stage broke the story that The Women's Theater Project has had to postpone the rest of its season, due to losing its venue:

Lasher said finding a new venue was the immediate challenge. At least one venue offered to help, but could not be certain two months in advance of a particular show whether the space would be available. That makes it difficult to hire actors, do publicity or even guarantee subscribers a season.

But TWTP President Meredith Lasher added Thursday, “We’re not going out of business, we’re not folding…. We have thousands of dollars in the bank.”

The company is still planning to mount Girl Play 2012, its annual lesbian-themed playwriting festival.

Still Open, And Not Gone Either
Florida Theater On Stage also broke the news that the Caldwell Theater Company is considering filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.  But be assured, the 37 year old company plans to continue producing plays:

In 2012, the board remains optimistic that the Caldwell can survive, even prevail, Cholerton said. “We feel very confident. After all, GM emerged from bankruptcy, a leaner, meaner company. South Florida needs this cultural institution.”

Chapter 11 means that the company remains in operation, protected from its creditors seizing their assets while they try to re-organize.  Florida Stage, which closed its doors last year, took a different route: Chapter 7, which means that all its assets are sold off to settle its debts.

Speaking of Florida Stage...
Louis Tyrell, the former producing director of the late company (which is gone), is back with a new venture, according to The Shiny Sheet.  His new project is The Theater at Arts Garage and it launches Tuesday with a reading series.  A lot of the playwright's names will be familiar, and expect to see some familiar names doing the reading.

It's Like Mad Libs.
Remember Mad Libs?  The game where you'd insert random nouns, verbs and adjectives into a pre-written story and hope that the result was hilarious?  Well, the last couple of years folks have been inserting various nouns in front of the words "The Musical," and praying for success.
The Sun-Sentinel tells us about the latest entry in this genre, Top Gun! The Musical! It's being produced by Anagram Entertainment at Empire Stage.

When Art Meets Medicine
The Miami Herald tells us about the talk-back sessions for Next To Normal at Actors' Playhouse, which features medical professionals answering questions and addressing issues raised by the play.

Hialeah-bred Rioseco plays the son of a couple in the Pulitzer-winning musical of a woman’s struggle with bipolar disorder and the familial toll that fight takes. He has joined his cast mates and medical staff from the psychiatry department at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine for pre- and post-performance talk backs.

Not Your Grandfather's Bard
The Examiner reports that the Improvised Shakespeare Company is coming to The Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Using audience suggestion, the Improvised Shakespeare Co. creates a fully improvised play in Elizabethan style which might be filled with power struggles, star-crossed lovers, sprites, kings, queens, princesses, sword-play, rhyming couplets, asides, insults, persons in disguise and all that we've come to expect from the pen of the great Bard.

The company is also holding a workshop at Broward Center.

Free Tix and This and That and Stuff
They're offereing free tickets to LION KING that the Arsht Center on Saturday that's the lede of the article, but The Miami Herald also reports that The Playground Theater is presenting the first of its Sandbox Series on February 12.  And other stories are crammed into the article.

An Audience Request
Parabasis brings us a simple request from an audience member.

If We Could See Her Now...
Broadway World reports that Margot Moreland will be starring in the Boca Raton Theatre Guild production of Sweet Charity.

“It is surprising to me that Sweet Charity doesn't receive more recognition, after all it's a dream role for a lot of women,” Garsson says. “In this case it's a dream cast with one of South Florida's finest musical comediennes, Margot Moreland, as Charity. Margot has always wanted to play this role. What can I say? The timing was perfect and early rehearsals proved she owned this part immediately.”

Mmm.  We remember a production at the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre Training back in the early nineties...  but that's all that comes to mind.  Entirely coincidentally, Moreland is an alumnus of B.R.I.T.T.