Two times the intensity

Photo by David Cooper

There’s no rest for the wicked! Wicked performers that is. For the past several weeks we have had both our Musical Theatre Intensive and Actor’s Intensive programs in full swing down on Granville Island.

Led by Program Director, Peter Jorgensen, our Musical Theatre Intensive is entering its 9th year of bringing high quality, professional training to young people with an interest in singing, dancing, and acting. Aimed at youth aged 12-19 years who are considering pursuing a theatre career, the Intensive exposes students to the kind of training that begins their journey toward becoming a ‘triple threat’ (actor/singer/dancer).

For the more mature actor, the Actor’s Intensive is a four-week course led by Program Director Dean Paul Gibson and Head Instructor Scott Bellis that takes a back-to-basics approach to tune up the actor’s instrument with voice, movement, and acting training from working pros. This course culminates in a showcase of participants for invited directors.

It has been great having all the participants share a large part of their summer with us working hard to hone their craft!

For more information on both the Musical Theatre Intensive and the Actor’s Intensive, visit artsclub.com.

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Flashback . . . The Passion of Dracula

Did you know that Eric McCormack and Vincent Gale met while doing an Arts Club production The Passion of Dracula at our Granville Island Stage in 1996?  Here are some production photos of them and co-star Molly Parker—you may recognize her from the HBO series Deadwood.
 

Vincent Gale, Eric McCormack, and Molly Parker in Passion of Dracula. Photos by David Cooper.

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5th Annual Arts Club vs Bard on the Beach Softball Game

"All the world's a baseball diamond, And all the men and women merely players." Shakespeare's first draft of Jacques' monologue in As You Like It.

The 5th Annual Theatre in the Summer Classic took place on Monday, August 2 at Trout Lake Park –- and what a game it was! 

This summertime tradition pits the cast, crew, and staff from both the Arts Club Theatre Company and Bard on the Beach against each other in a serious softball battle to the death!

The Arts Club had a team of almost 20 this year, including actors from our productions of Salt-Water Moon, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, White Christmas, Glengarry Glen Ross and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It was truly a beautiful (albeit warm) summer day to get out on the diamond, and to have some fun with our colleagues. 

It was a hard fought game, with no one team leading by more than 4 runs at any point. It came down to the final inning, when the Arts Club was up 20-16, with Bard coming up to bat. A quick out and one run later, the score was 20-17 with one person on base. The Arts Club retired the next two batters, winning the game by the final score of 20-17.

We’d like to thank and congratulate everyone from Bard on the Beach for a great afternoon, and for a lot of laughs.  The Arts Club leads the series 3-2.  Those Shakespearians better bring their “A” game next summer!

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Glengarry Glen Ross F.A.Q’s

Bart Anderson and Eric McCormack. Photo by Emily Cooper.

Glengarry Glen Ross has taken the city by storm! With 16 sold-out performances so far and raves from critics and audiences, we’re thrilled that so many people are making the show, and live theatre, a part of their summer.

Along with the great feedback and interest, we’ve also been fielding questions from people intrigued by the play itself and wanting to learn more either before or after seeing the show. Here are your 4 most frequently asked questions answered!

Q: What are the differences between the film and the play? Many people are very familiar with the amazing 1992 film version starring Alec Baldwin, Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Al Pacino, and Kevin Spacey. For the most part, the film follows the play, which premiered in 1982, exactly. BUT there are a few differences:

  • The film contains a character not in the play – Blake (played by Alec Baldwin). Mamet (who also wrote the script for the film) created this character and the “Coffee’s For Closers” scene specifically for the film and they do not appear in the play.
  • The scenes in the film that show Shelley (Lemmon) going to visit an uninterested potential client were added for the film. Some of his phone conversations are added as well.
  • The setting of the film is New York, while the play is set in Chicago

Q: What does “Glengarry Glen Ross” mean? The title of the play comes from the names of two of the real estate developments being peddled by the salesmen characters, Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms.

Q: What are they selling? Levene (Gerard Plunkett), Roma (Eric McCormack), Moss (John Pyper Ferguson) and Aaronow (Brian Markinson) are not entirely legitimate real estate agents. Their main goal is to try to sell swamp land in Florida for far more money than it’s worth. The land is real, however, it is most likely worthless (cannot be built on or developed in any way etc), and in promoting it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that can change lives they are in fact con-men; the con is not in the fact that the purchase itself is fake, but in that the quality of that which is purchased is considerably lower than advertised.

Q: What exactly are “the leads”? The ”good leads” are the  names and numbers of real possible, potential clients as opposed to the other leads that come from forms, competitions, surveys, registration of products etc.

Want to know more? Leave us your question in the comment section and we’ll add it to the post!

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The real Leaf Coneybear?

Josh Epstein (William Barfée), Vincent Tong (Chip Tolentino), and Jeremy Crittenden (Leaf Coneybear)

It appears that our Leaf Coneybear is not the only one!  Doing research on the characters in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee we stumbled across a MySpace page for a real Leaf Coneybear from an actual Putnam County.  He’s even friends with William Barfée!  Take a look at Coneybear’s MySpace here and Barfée’s here.

Ok…so these guys are actually from a 2005 production of “Spelling Bee” at Circle in the Square on Broadway.  Check out this video, omitted from the MySpace page, about Coneybear’s cat cape business.

To learn more about the amazing man behind our Leaf Coneybear, Jeremy Crittenden, you can check out his blog here!

C-O-N-T-E-S-T!

The actor in the video is now in a new ABC television series.  Name the show and you could win a pair of tickets to our Tuesday, August 10, performance of  The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Granville Island Stage!  To enter email publicity@artsclub.com with your answer in the subject line.  We will draw from the correct responses at noon Monday, and notify the winner.

Good luck!

Congratulations to our lucky winner, Jessica!  She knew that the actor in the video clip is Jesse Tyler Ferguson and that he stars as Mitchell on ABC’s Modern Family.  Thanks to everyone who entered!

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Eric McCormack, Brian Markinson, and their worst jobs

A few weeks ago, while Glengarry Glen Ross was still in rehearsals, we had the pleasure of having Dana Gee and The Province come by to visit with stars Eric McCormack and Brian Markinson. Among the many topics discussed? Their worst jobs. Which one of them worked at Baskin Robbins? Sold Thighmasters? Check out the hilarious DGTV clip below!

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