Mondays are Dark

Mondays are actually not dark this summer; South Florida Theatre League member companies are hosting free readings of plays by playwrights who are also League members. Tonight, Kutumba Theatre Project and Thinking Cap Theatre present a reading of The Happy Ones, by Kim Ehly, at the Galleria Studio Theater (which we're pretty sure is also the home of Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre).

As you must know by now if you read The Scene, The South Florida Theatre League has built an entry for The Great Coconut Grove Bed Race; your next chance to see it will be at Sol Children's Theatre performance of Sleeping Beauty this Thursday.

Anyway, here's your Monday reading list:

Movies at the Miracle

Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theater is hosting a series of movies in celebration of the The Miracle Theater's origins as a cinema, according to The Coconut Grove Grapevine, who must be tired of waiting for theatre to come back to the Grove.

Speaking of the Playhouse
Rachel Bay Jones is no stranger to Actors' Playhouse, having performed roles varying from glamorous Eva Peron in Evita to the crotchety Pennywise in Urinetown.  She's currently appearing in the Broadway revival of Pippin, and Playbill has posted a video of her interview with Broadway musical blogger Seth Rudetsky.

...But no Playhouse Here
WLRN tells how Hollywood is cultivating its own arts scene.  But that apparently doesn't include saving their Playhouse and getting theatre back into their local scene.  A few years ago, they boasted the Playhouse, as well as the Florida Playwrights Theater and the Hollywood Boulevard Theatre Company. 

...And This Playhouse is in Doubt
The Palm Beach Daily News reports that the council is getting impatient with the drawn out lease negotiations for The Royal Poinciana Playhouse between Sterling Palm Beach and prospective tenant The National Arts Institute .  And they are getting serious:

One possibility would be for the town to take over the Playhouse through eminent domain and have the recreation center “run it as a public theater and rent it out to other users,” Wildrick said. Eminent domain litigation would be expensive, but Sterling won’t get much money for the theater as its long vacancy has proven it has no value, he said.

This might actually be the best hope for saving the Playhouse.