Duane and I returned last Saturday from a terrific week in NYC. We rented a small apartment in Hell's Kitchen and this turned out to be a great idea. We were close to the theatre district, to all kinds of transportation and some great restaurants.
We landed in Newark late on Saturday, July 28 (after a very long delay in Minneapolis) and, after dropping our belongings off in Hell's Kitchen, promptly set about exploring our neighborhood. Duane was wanting some Two Boots pizza, so we did that and then went to find an open pharmacy (my health, as usual!).
On Sunday we went to see a reading of a new musical called "Marina" at the New York Musical Theater Festival (NYMF) and enjoyed that very much. Directly after that we went to a full production of another NYMF show called "Swing State" and this show was very good. I am going to get with Kathy Page Hauptman at the Forum about possibly securing the rights to produce this...it would be excellent on our stage here in Wichita. Sunday evening ended with us going to the Speigel Tent and seeing a very weird and wonderful circus called "Empire".
More to come soon..........
Friday, August 10, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Summer 2012
I have some travel coming up! I will be in Miami for a work conference in a few weeks and then right after I return from that I leave for a wonderful week in New York City. I haven't been to NYC since I lived there (very briefly) in the early 90's. We have lots of fun things lined up and I hope to touch base with a number of dear friends. I also hope to catch a few Broadway shows--woohoo!
PAX,
Paul
PAX,
Paul
Monday, January 09, 2012
2011--Theatre work in review
In 2011 I was fortunate to be able to lend my talents to four theatrical productions. At UCC last Spring Karen Robu and I produced Violet (I music directed) and the show was very well-received by our audiences. This is a bittersweet memory as it would prove to be the last show Karen and I would produce at UCC. We had been doing an annual Spring production since 2005 and the church eliminated Karen's position shortly after we closed Violet.
In June I was cast in the Barbershop Quartet in Music Theater of Wichita's first production of their 40th anniversary season -- The Music Man. It was great fun to spend two intense weeks with this amazing theater company. It seems every year the bar gets set a bit higher and I was proud to return to that stage once again.
Almost immediately after The Music Man closed, I began working with Conrad Jestmore and Kathy Page-Hauptman on a new musical version of A Christmas Carol. We spent most of the summer writing and re-writing scenes, songs and story for a December premiere at the new Forum Center for the Performing Arts. Once we got the bulk of this completed, I then set about working as the Musical Director on the Forum Theater's inaugural production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. We had a blast preparing this hysterical romp for our Wichita audiences and opened in October to wonderful reviews and terrific audience response.
Almost immediately after we closed A Funny Thing..., we began rehearsing our new A Christmas Carol. Kathy and I had tried for weeks to recruit the right actor to play Scrooge, but in the end I assumed the role for this first production. I had so much fun and our little musical was greatly received by the Wichita community. I will write another post soon about this experience, but for now let me suffice to say that it was one of the most rewarding artistic periods of my life.
2012 sees me with a few projects on the horizon--Conrad, Kathy and I are working on our next project with plans to workshop it this summer and premiere it in the fall. Also, we will tweak A Christmas Carol and present it again during this year's holiday season in December. We already have some great ideas to make it even better!
I am planning on auditioning for MTWichita and we'll see what happens there!
It should be an exciting year!
PAX
Paul
In June I was cast in the Barbershop Quartet in Music Theater of Wichita's first production of their 40th anniversary season -- The Music Man. It was great fun to spend two intense weeks with this amazing theater company. It seems every year the bar gets set a bit higher and I was proud to return to that stage once again.
Almost immediately after The Music Man closed, I began working with Conrad Jestmore and Kathy Page-Hauptman on a new musical version of A Christmas Carol. We spent most of the summer writing and re-writing scenes, songs and story for a December premiere at the new Forum Center for the Performing Arts. Once we got the bulk of this completed, I then set about working as the Musical Director on the Forum Theater's inaugural production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. We had a blast preparing this hysterical romp for our Wichita audiences and opened in October to wonderful reviews and terrific audience response.
Almost immediately after we closed A Funny Thing..., we began rehearsing our new A Christmas Carol. Kathy and I had tried for weeks to recruit the right actor to play Scrooge, but in the end I assumed the role for this first production. I had so much fun and our little musical was greatly received by the Wichita community. I will write another post soon about this experience, but for now let me suffice to say that it was one of the most rewarding artistic periods of my life.
2012 sees me with a few projects on the horizon--Conrad, Kathy and I are working on our next project with plans to workshop it this summer and premiere it in the fall. Also, we will tweak A Christmas Carol and present it again during this year's holiday season in December. We already have some great ideas to make it even better!
I am planning on auditioning for MTWichita and we'll see what happens there!
It should be an exciting year!
PAX
Paul
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