Mondays are Dark

Somehow we missed that this past weekend was the annual Florida Professional Theatres Association unified auditions.  Hope you're there, reading this between call-backs. 

Pass the word along; two disreputable producers whom we'll only identify as "G" and "J" are apparently up to old tricks; a recent employee of theirs contacted us, stating they were owed back pay, and a web search led them to our coverage.  Now they know to do the web search before taking the job, although they're disheartened to learn G and J don't worry much about paying off even when the court tells them they have to.

Here's your Monday reading list:

Big Guns
The Miami Herald visits the legendary Area Stage Company to look into their summer conservatory program.  Studying under John Rodaz, and his wife Maria Bandaz-Rodaz, would be opportunity enough.  But they've also got the man who discovered Liza Minelli and Marvin Hamlisch.

Broadway producer Arthur Whitelaw will never forget his first major production. A rather ordinary girl walks into a nondescript New York rehearsal room in the heat of July 1963, gives her name and asks if she can sing a song written by her 16-year-old accompanist — a bespectacled pianist no one yet knew.

It's Getting Better All The Time
Florida Theater On Stage ruminates on all the good stuff that's been happening in the South Florida theatre scene.  The actual scene, that is. Not the blog. 

All Wet at the Arsht
The Miami Herald reports that the Arsht Center had to dump The Lion King in the middle of the show due to a broken roof drain.

Or Not.
Saving The Word... has run into more disruptive audience behavior.

...there was what sounded like an adult woman with some kind of severe mental disability. I never saw this person, so that’s an assumption. What I do know is that most of the show was accompanied by a stream of noise from this person – low (but not quiet) moaning, brief louder wailing, snatches of singing, and a sound that resembled a cross between throat-clearing and blowing a raspberry.

As much as I feel for this person, and for the people with her, there’s a huge disrespect for the rest of the paying audience in evidence – not on the part of the woman with the disability (the sounds definitely did not come from a child), but from whoever was with her. If you took a child to that kind of event, and they made the kind of noise that would disrupt the experience for other members of the audience, you’d take them out.

Kravis Center Still Screwing the Help
It seems that G and J aren't the only ones in Palm Beach County that don't honor directives from a court of law.  The Palm Beach Daily News reports that I.A.T.S.E (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) has filed another charge against the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts with the National Labor Relations Board.  You may recall that the courts found that the Kravis Center violated their contract with the technician's union back in 2000, and the Center was ordered to negotiate a new contract and pay the union back for wages their members lost while the performing arts center illegally employed replacements.  Guess what the Kravis Center still hasn't done?

What, No Shakespeare?
New Theatre announces its new season, and Florida Theater On Stage reports that there's no Shakespeare in it.  The small company had gained some renown for its summer productions of The Bard, but even a cut-down version of any of his folio is a major undertaking.  It's an exciting season, even without any Shakespeare.

Openings from Broadway World
Broadway World reports that The Alliance Theatre Lab will be presenting Mark Della Ventura will be starring in his own play, Small Membership, directed by his friend, the Renaissance man David Sirois.  And they also tell us about Proof, opening at Palm Beach DramaWorks.

The Warhorse Tour; Behind The Scenes
When Warhorse plays The Broward Center next year, Stage Directions reports that its crew will be safe from falls.

The Palm Beach Theater Scene
The Palm Beach Post lists the various productions playing Palm Beach County over the next week or so.