THE SHARON SCOOP - June 2016

THE SHARON SCOOP Volume 1, Issue 2

June 2016

ESSICA LANG DANCE NYC Contemporary Dance Company

issue

THE SHARON SCOOP

IN THIS

The Sharon Academy Pat Boone

Ricky Nelson Remembered Jessica Lang Dance Louis Prima Jr. & The Witnesses Next 3 to See

The Sharon & Compass Creative Dramatics Staff Spotlight Kenneth Constant

Backstage Info The Sharon Golfs!

The SharonWhat's Coming Up The Studio Theatre

Volume 1, Issue 2 | June 2016

A Word From

WHITNEY

Whitney Morse, Artistic Director, The Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center The Acting Classes at The Academy are one of the highlights of my week. We offer a 5 course curriculum (each course meets once a week for six weeks) that covers everything from the basics of stage terminology to auditioning to Shakespeare. Currently, I am teaching an Acting 1 class on Monday nights and I just love walking into that classroom!

Acting is my passion and I have devoted my life to it – I even got a Master’s Degree in it. And I have found that passing on my knowledge of the craft is the most fulfilling way to use my training. The classes are really fun, we play warm up games, learn script analysis techniques, and the best part – we perform scenes for each other. In every class

The Sharon Performing Arts Center The Sharon is pleased to expand the cultural offerings found in The Villages® by bringing Broadway quality entertainment to Villagers and friends throughout Central Florida.

The Sharon seats just over 1,000 guests in a multilevel theater offering state of the art audio, visual, and theatrical rigging systems to create an entertainment experience second to none.

Performances spotlight a variety of artistic disciplines ranging from concerts and comedians to dance, musicals, and operas.

Named for the matriarch of the Morse family, Sharon herself was an accomplished

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I assign students at least one scene to use as a tool to learn the craft of acting. We really focus in on that one scene. We will look at it and analyze it, build their characters with it, and ultimately perform it. Sometimes, if my students are especially daring, I will even allow them to invite family and friends to watch the final class as a casual showcase of what they have learned. The goal of the entire 5 course academy is to give both aspiring and working actors the skill set they need to go out into the world and make their own art. I want my students to feel well equipped to walk into any audition or performance situation; be it giving a presentation at work, auditioning for a play, or performing in a film.

performer, and an avid patron of the arts.

While she enjoyed her time on stage, her favorite moments were perhaps those spent with her family watching others perform.

She and husband Gary enjoyed the theater in Chicago, and shared that joy with their children and grandchildren when they were old enough to attend.

Dedicated in her memory and inspired by her passion, we hope that you too will feel Sharon’s love and excitement for entertainment throughout this beautiful theater.

The Sharon is now offering: Acting Classes, Theatre History Classes and more!

Classes currently instructed by Trevin Cooper and Whitney Morse.

ACTING

(Some sessions ages 14+) Whether you are a beginning theatre artist, seeking first time experience, or a seasoned professional, wanting to improve your skills, our classes are constructed to teach and improve theatre artists at any level of his or her capability.

THEATRE HISTORY

TECHNICAL

Along with our courses in acting and theatrical design, we also offer classes in the History of Theatre. We cover a wide range of topics from Greeks to Shakespeare, Neil Simon to Rodgers & Hammerstein and beyond.

The area just off stage, of a theatre is referred to as “The Wings.” Our “In the Wings” series’ presents students with an introductory experience of theatre from the perspectives of a technical director, scenic, lighting, sound or costume designer.

Theatre History I.......... $150

Level 1 .............................$250 Theatre History II ........ $150 Level 2 .............................$250 Musical Theatre............ $200 Level 3 .............................$250 Theatre Appreciation......$25 Level 4 ............................. TBA Level 5 ............................. TBA History classes meet 90 minutes a week for 4 weeks.

Acting classes meet 3 hours a week for 6 weeks.

MASTER CLASSES (Ages 14+)

Our Master Class series is offered multiple times a year. These sessions, allow our students the opportunity to work with acclaimed professional actors, directors and casting agents who are noted for their work on Broadway, Europe and across America.

Lighting .......................$150 90 Minute Classes ..............$75 Scenic ...........................$150 120 Minute Classes ..........$100 Sound ..........................$150 180 Minute Classes ..........$125 Technical Direction ......$150

For questions and registration visit: The Sharon Box Office | www.TheSharon.com/academy | 352-751-7799

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JUNE 4TH 3PM

PAT BOONE

10 Fun Facts you didn’t know about Pat Boone: 1

Just released in April 2016, Pat Boone plays the part of Walter Wesley in the new movie God’s Not Dead 2. His other film credits include: State Fair, Journey to the Center of the Earth, April Love, The Cross and the Switchblade, and The Greatest Story Ever Told.

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In May of 2015, Boone, along with his partner, Ethan Tucker, achieved great success on the ABC series, Shark Tank, for striking a $5 million dollar deal to further develop AIRPod, a car that runs on compressed air.

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In 2006, he and his wife Shirley Boone donated $3 million to Pepperdine University for the Graduate School of Education and Psychology Center for the Family.

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Former next door-neighbor of Ozzy Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne. His cover of "Crazy Train" was used as the theme for The Osbournes (2002).

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One of the owners of the American Basketball Association's Oakland Oaks from 1967-1969. He sold his interest in the team and it moved to Washington, DC.

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He attended the University of North Texas.

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His 1962 hit song "Speedy Gonzalez" featured the unmistakable vocal impression of Mel Blanc on the recording (Blanc improvised all of his lines).

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He was awarded two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1731 Vine Street and for Television at 6268 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

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Was personally invited by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to perform at his inaugural ball on January 20, 1957.

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His father was a building contractor and his mother was a nurse.

RICKY NELSON REMEMBERED

JUNE 17 & 18TH 5PM & 8PM

Ricky’s Hit Songs Performed By His Own Twin Sons Matthew & Gunnar Every artist can point to one or two defining moments that gave shape to their future course. For the Nelson brothers, such a moment occurred at the annual Country Music Association Festival in 2014. Shucking off the gussied-up image that propelled them to fame in the early ‘90s, Gunnar and Matthew took the stage with nothing but two acoustic guitars, two microphones and their exquisite brother harmonies. The crowd, skeptical at first, was dazzled. “The audience kept getting bigger and bigger,” recalls Matthew. “I could feel them turning… in the best of ways.” “Maybe everyone there was expecting us to have our own Rick Nelson ‘Garden Party’ moment,” echoes Gunnar.

“But it turned out to be a victory of the highest order.”

Music, of course, runs broad and deep in the Nelson clan. The brothers’ grandparents, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, soared to fame in the ‘50s on the longrunning family sitcom, “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.” Lesser known is that the couple scored a Number One hit during the big band era, in 1934. More importantly, the twin’s legendary father, Ricky Nelson, emerged from the TV series to become a monumental figure in American music—recording such hits as “Travelin’ Man” and “Hello Mary Lou,” and penning the 1972 classic, “Garden Party.” Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, Gunnar and Matthew’s father is widely credited with establishing the whole country-rock genre.

By way of tribute, the brothers named their independent record label—Stone Canyon Records—after their father’s seminal group, the Stone Canyon Band.

Matthew Nelson: “We literally grew up with this music - our father pioneered it.

It’s in our DNA.”

Gunnar Nelson: “Two brothers and two guitars, writing great songs and singing together as one voice. That’s going to be our sole focus, going forward.”

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ESSICA LANG DANCE NYC Contemporary Dance Company

JUNE 11TH 7PM

Jessica Lang is a choreographer and the artistic director of Jessica Lang Dance. Hailed as “a master of visual composition” by Dance Magazine, Lang seamlessly incorporates striking design elements and transforms classical ballet language into artfully crafted, emotionally engaging contemporary works.

Opera House, and she has received commissions from the Dallas Museum of Art and the Guggenheim Museum for its Works and Process series. For opera, Lang received outstanding acclaim for her directorial debut and choreography of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the 2013 Glimmerglass Opera Festival.

"Moving and masterful." — Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times "And then, of course, there are the members of Jessica Lang Dance.

Lang is a New York City Center Fellow for 2015 and the recipient of a prestigious 2014 Bessie Award. Her ballet Lyric Pieces, commissioned and performed

by Birmingham Royal Ballet earned a nomination for a coveted 2013 Manchester Theatre Award in the UK. Lang has received numerous grants for her work on ballet companies from organizations including the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the NEA, and the Choo San Goh Foundation. Her receipt of a 2010 Joyce Theater Artist Residency supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation helped launch her own company, Jessica Lang Dance (JLD) in 2011.

Since 1999, Lang has created more than 90 works on companies worldwide including Birmingham Royal Ballet, The National Ballet of Japan at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Joffrey Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Ballet San Jose, Richmond Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Ailey II, ABT II, Hubbard Street 2, and New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, among many others. American Ballet Theatre has presented her work at the Metropolitan

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Jessica Lang’s Veteran Tribute: Here’s some special scoop on Jessica Lang’s piece to honor our Veterans…

Created in June 2015, "Thousand Yard Stare" sheds light on the theme of war and those who have been affected by it, most specifically veterans. In preparation for the work, Lang talked with numerous soldiers to learn about their experiences as well as to gather their reactions to samples of music. Her research included themes of injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, and arts-based therapies for veterans, to name a few. The music used for this piece, Beethoven's late String Quartet No. 15, is an adagio written while the composer himself was battling a serious illness.

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Louis Prima Jr. and the Witnesses

August 3rd 7PM

Louis Prima Jr. and The Witnesses can sing, swing, rock and play trumpet! It’s going to be a jump-jiving, high-kicking, fast-stepping night of mirth and music, and nobody does “Just a Gigolo” better.

Two words immediately spring to mind when thinking of the legendary Louis Prima – boisterous and fun. With BLOW, the second album by Louis Prima Jr. and The Witnesses, those two words are the starting point for an explosive journey into the pure expression of out-and-out exultation.

Following up on his critically acclaimed

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Warrior Records debut CD Return of the Wildest, Louis brings the family tradition of unadulterated joyous swing right up to the immediate present with eleven tracks of thunderously unbridled testifying...To borrow a phrase from the liner notes “A new legend is being born and it will BLOW you away.” ~Marty Kahn

Next 3 to See

THE SHARON

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Mission

Compass Creative Dramatics partners with school and community organizations to offer quirky, engaging theatre programming designed to provide arts enrichment and cultivate personal growth and character. We strive to provide these organizations an opportunity to enhance their current theatre education and life skills training as well as provide arts programming within schools and organizations with limited arts resources.

We encourage students to take creative risks and trust without self-judgment, stretching their creativity and bravery "muscles" as they develop social skills like teamwork, respect, and empathy through their exploration of theatre.

Cassandra Quinn

Co-Founder & Marketing Director Cassandra is a co-founder of Compass Creative Dramatics. Originally from Bedford, IN, she graduated from Huntington University with a BA in Theatre Performance and Sociology.

Chicago credits include Space Wars: the Panto! at Piccolo Theatre, Devour with 20% Theatre and As You Like It with Spectralia Theatre. She has served as an actor, director, and educator for numerous educational theatres including GreatWorks Touring Theatre Company, Imagination Theater, and CLIMB Theatre. www.cassandraquinn.com

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David Fink Dave is a guitar teacher, singersongwriter, and an ensemble member of Nothing Without a Company Theatre Company. He teaches at Emerald City Theater School in Chicago, and has performed with Lifeline Theatre, The Hypocrites, City Lit Theater Company, The Gift Theatre Company, and Theatre-Hikes, and others.

PRESENT Performed by local students from your community!

WHERE: The Sharon

WHO: 1st – 6th Graders

WHEN: June 20th-24th 9:30am-3:30pm

HOW MUCH: $90 per student

Final Performances: June 24th & 25th at 5pm

REGISTER: The Sharon Box Office www.TheSharon.com

352-751-7799 | www.TheSharon.com

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Staff Spotlight

THE SHARON

KENNETH CONSTANT Technical Director Kenneth Constant is a Houston native. He studied scenic design at the North Carolina School of the

With his wife, Elizabeth, The Sharon's Booking Coordinator

Arts before becoming the resident designer and technical director for the California Theatre Center.

He's worked all across the country since then and is thrilled to work on high level entertainment in The Villages®. He and his wife, Elizabeth Constant (The Sharon’s Booking Coordinator), moved to Florida’s Friendliest Hometown in October 2015 to help open and work for the performing arts center. They have been with The Sharon from the start.

Warming up the crowd

With Paula Poundstone

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With his Mother, Mary Griffin

What is the truck unloading process and stage set-up like from your perspective?

The physical load-in of shows is actually probably the easiest part of the entire process. The planning and preparation for each load in is by far the most difficult. However, if I’ve done my job correctly, the load in will be as efficient as possible. It’s kind of like an intricate dance between The Sharon’s house staff, and the touring show’s staff. We know our venue better than anyone else. They know their show better than anyone else. Communication is paramount. Typically during a load in I’m either working on our automated fly system, or making sure all of the extra hired labor(sometimes up to 55 people in addition to our house staff and the touring staff) are staying safe and on task. Deadlines are a real thing.

What’s backstage like before, during, and after a performance?

Backstage before, during, and after performances tends to have a very professional air about it. That’s not to say we don’t have fun, because we do, but the ultimate goal is always to put on a flawless performance. So whether you’re running a spot light, helping with quick changes, or mixing from front of the house, everyone tends to stay on task.

What have you learned from this first year with the Sharon?

The simplest answer to this would be A LOT. I come from a production theatre background, so this commercial theatre stuff was new to me. In addition to that, we have a very unique building that has created some interesting challenges. Since everything in the building is so state-of-the-art, a lot of standard theatrical practices are not applicable. In order to be successful we’ve needed to be continuously creative.

Our industry is very small. Everyone knows everyone. The prep and planning will get easier as the touring crews become more familiar with our venue. We even had a member of Once's touring staff (our most recent Broadway your) who was also a member of Million Dollar Quartet's touring staff (our first Broadway your). I look forward to that being more common in the future.

Because our industry is so small, everyone in our hospitality department turns into immediate allstars. Particularly Sean graham, Elizabeth Constant, and Autumn Encarnacion. They deal with the things I can't (transportation, relations, catering, ect.) It's those things that make these touring companies want to come back to The Sharon. They're doing an amazing job.

Jason Goedken was one of my groomsmen in our wedding. I get to share, and soon create (black box), this type of art with one of my best friends. That's incredible. The fact that I get to do it with my wife is unheard of. I won't be the one to say it "oh it was easy."

Because it wasn't; hell, it still isn't. Would it be any fun if it was? Me and mine are beyond blessed. From the first day I stepped into The Villages®, October 20, 2014, the Morse family has treated me as their own. This is not lost on me. I've worked for a lot of companies in the past. This company, The Villages®... It's inspiring. It's family.

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at The Sharon

BACKSTAGE Golf Outing

The Sharon joined in the fundraiser to Benefit The Villages® Charter Schools! Saturday, May 14th, 2016 marked the 16th Annual Villages® Golf Tournament Held at Evans Prairie Country Club. Format was a “four-person best ball 18-hole scramble.” And the teams were spread over full 27 holes. It was a great time for a great cause!

Left to Right: Jason Goedken, Kenneth Constant, Sean Graham, Yasmeen Stogden

Jason Goedken

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The Sharon team won “Best Dressed” AND Jason personally made all the team’s costumes!

The team ended at 9 Par!

Yasmeen Stogden

Left to Right: Yasmeen Stogden ,Jason Goedken, Kenneth Constant, Sean Graham

What's Coming Up...

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ACADEMY: Basics for the Actor - Level 1

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Final Performance

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INTRODUCING “We are so excited to launch our inaugural season at The Studio Theatre. This season’s selected scripts follow a common theme, “A Model Home: Peer Beyond the Façade.” It features four stories of seemingly perfect homes and the lengths these characters go through to hold these homes and their lives together. What we observe from the outside is a perfect house, but if you just peer through the shaded window, you’ll find that things are not so perfect after all.”

—Whitney Morse, Artistic Director Tierra del Sol was formally a Country Club with performances as a backdrop to the outstanding food and impeccable golf course views. It has since transitioned, bringing the performances to the forefront by evolving into a new state of the art Black Box Theatre. The Studio is now a flexible theatre with ninety-nine seats and [black box theatre] options for Thrust, Round, or • black box theater Proscenium style seating. There will (or experimental theater) be 100 performances total in the • consists of a simple, somewhat inaugural season (25 performances unadorned performance space, per each of the 4 shows), that will usually a large square room with commence from November 2016 black walls and a flat floor through April 2017.

• it is a relatively recent innovation in theatre

The Studio Theatre is an extension of The Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center, also located in Spanish Springs of The Villages, Florida.

Since The Sharon is a road house hosting a variety of artistic disciplines ranging from concerts and comedians to dance, musicals, and operas.

The Sharon seats just over 1,000 guests in a multi-level theater offering state of the art audio, visual, and theatrical rigging systems to create an entertainment experience second to none.

The Studio Theatre will be staffed by The Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts employees as well as a few new members. The Sharon’s Educational Director, Trevin Cooper will direct two out of the four shows (Private Lives and Proof ) the Artistic Director, Whitney Morse will star in three of the plays (Next to Normal, The Last Five Years, and Proof ) while Technical Director Kenneth Constant; Lighting Director, Dan Hopper; and Audio Director, Eric Mielke will be designing the entire season. Gary Powell will be jumping from The Sharon to The Studio as Musical Director. The team is excited to produce its own work.

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SEASON ONE – A Model Home: Peer Beyond the Façade: NEXT TO NORMAL Side effects may include… dysfunction.

Preview: NOV 14th Opening Night: NOV 18th Closing: DEC 17th

Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and three time Tony Award winner of 2009, including Best Musical Score, Next To Normal was chosen as “one of the year’s 10 best shows” by critics around the country.

With book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt, Next To Normal explores how one suburban household copes with crisis and mental illness. Containing a thrilling contemporary score, Next to Normal is an emotional powerhouse of a musical about a family trying to take care of themselves and each other. Hailed by Rolling Stone Magazine as “The most talked about show on Broadway - the acclaimed, groundbreaking musical that pushes Broadway in new directions.” See the show, The New York Times described as “Much more than a feelgood musical; it is a feel-everything musical.”

THE LAST FIVE YEARS If I didn’t believe in you we wouldn’t be having this fight.

THE LAST

YEARS

Written and Composed by JASON ROBERT BROWN Originally Produced for the New York stage by Arielle Tepper and Marty Bell Originally Produced by Northlight Theatre Chicago, IL

Preview: FEB 20th Opening Night: FEB 24th Closing: MARCH 19th

With music and lyrics by three-time Tony Award winner, Jason Robert Brown, The Last 5 Years follows the characters of Jamie (an upcoming novelist) and his girlfriend/fiancé/ wife, Cathy (a struggling actress).

This powerful and intimate musical explores the journey of a New York couple in their twenties who succeed, struggle and succumb to the challenges and charms of married life. Utilizing a divergent plot structure, this two character musical simultaneously demonstrates a budding romance and a dissolving marriage. Follow Jaime’s story in chronological order as it crashes into Cathy’s side of the story told in reverse chronological order. See the Drama Desk award winning musical once named by Time Magazine as one the ten best shows of the year!

Pr ivate

Lives

Preview: JAN 16th

PRIVATE LIVES Marriage: A place where romance and catastrophe become one!

Noel Coward’s 1931 masterpiece is one of the most revered comedies in the canon of theatre. Set against the backdrop of glitzy and glamourous 1920s Paris, this hysterical and heartwarming love story examines the comedy and calamity of love and marriage. See the play praised by The New York Times as, “Gorgeous, dazzling and fantastically funny.”

Opening Night: JAN 20th Closing: FEB 12th

PROOF

BY DAVID AUBURN Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award Winner

Preview: APRIL 3rd Opening Night: APRIL 7th Closing: APRIL 30th

PROOF The house where genius and insanity collide.

Catherine is the daughter of a brilliant, but mentally disturbed mathematician, trying to come to grips with her possible inheritance: both his brilliance and his insanity.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards’ Playwright, David Auburn’s Proof currently holds the record for the longest running Broadway play of the 21st century.

The final offering in The Studio Theatre at Tierra del Sol’s inaugural season, see the play that has garnered more awards and critical praise than any other play of its time.

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The Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center has a mission to provide quality entertainment to The Villages® and its surrounding communities.

© 2016 Holding Company of The Villages, Inc., All Rights Reserved. © 2016 The Sharon L. Morse Performing Arts Center. Prices and availability subject to change without notice.