Can you believe it’s already been 3 MONTHS since the 22nd annual Jump Back Ball?!?!? And while it seems like a lifetime ago, the memories will never fade, including those that live on with the theme (remember Jump Back Two Spaces, the amazing board game theme?) The PlayhouseSquare Partners have decided to continue the fun of that theme into their next event – Life Size Game Night! Yep, you heard right- game boards will fill the Palace Theatre Lobby on May 23^rd to create a night of over-sized fun. Imagine the ultimate game night, inside a theater, surrounded by a ton of CLE young professionals, food, drink, prizes and more!

Some of the games you’ll find are:

Life Size Operation
Cornhole
Ladderball
Drinking Battleships
Twister
Wii
PlayhouseSquare Memory
Tabletop Foosball and Hockey

Playing one of these games could score you a raffle ticket to win one of the fabulous raffle prizes available.

The event is catered by Sammy’s so, as you roam from game to game snack on sliders, tator tots, apples with caramel dip and cake pops- PLUS, we’ll have complimentary Labatt Blue on tap*!

Come on down this Thursday and try your hand at Operation, Wii Golf, and more!

Check out these photos from The Today Show when they played Life Size Operation. Pretty fun, huh?

Photos courtesy of today.com

Hope to see you there! 

*Labatt has donated 2 kegs for the event. Complimentary beer available while supplies last.

Theater news for the week of May 11 – May 18, 2013

Each week, we’re going to keep you up-to-speed with the latest Broadway news and stories. Check back every Friday to see what you missed this week and to catch a glimpse of what’s going on at PlayhouseSquare this weekend. Enjoy!

Happening on Broadway …

NBC’s Live The Sound of Music sets premiere date
The live three hour television special of The Sound of Music, featuring Grammy winner Carrie Underwood as Maria Von Trapp, will premiere on NBC on December 5. No additional casting or director has been announced at this time .(broadway.com) Read more.

Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays heading back to Broadway in the fall
Legendary comedian and actor Billy Crystal is bringing back to Broadway his Tony-Award-winning one-man show about growing up on Long Island, 700 Sundays, this fall. 700 Sundays will play a 9 week engagement at the Imperial Theater November 5-January 5. (broadway.com) Read more.

Tony nominee Cristin Milioti revealed as Mother on How I Met Your Mother
Tony nominee and Once star Cristin Milioti was revealed as the Mother on How I Met Your Mother on the season eight finale of the popular CBS series. Milioti will play a prominent role of the final season of the series. Set in New York City, How I Met Your Mother follows Ted Mosby’s quest for his soul mate. Told in flashback to his growing children, Ted recalls the eight season odyssey that eventually led him to meet and marry their mother (Milioti). The series also stars Tony host and Broadway vet Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan and Cobie Smulders. (broadway.com) Read more.

Upcoming Events at PlayhouseSquare

Rich Girl – Cleveland Play House
Guys and Dolls – KeyBank Broadway Series, Great Lakes Theater
The Singing Angels 49^th Annual Spring Benefit Concert
Partners Life Size Game Night – PlayhouseSquare Partners
A Night of Classic Funk featuring Con Funk Shun

Share your thoughts on this week’s news below, or talk to us on Facebook or Twitter!

Theater news for the week of May 4-10, 2013

Each week, we’re going to keep you up-to-speed with the latest Broadway news and stories. Check back every Friday to see what you missed this week and to catch a glimpse of what’s going on at PlayhouseSquare this weekend. Enjoy!

Happening on Broadway …

Neil Patrick Harris to host the Tony Awards
Actor Neil Patrick Harris is slated to host the 2013 Tony Awards on June 9 – this will be Harris’ fourth time hosting the show. “It’ll be more impressive than ever – if my math is correct, it will be 267 times bigger than last year,” Harris said in a statement. “Oh wait. No. That can’t … hold on … carry the one … I’m awful at math. But rest assured, the show will rock.” (broadway.com) Read more.

August: Osage County big screen debut slated for later this yer
Tracy Lett’s August: Osage County, which won numerous Tony Awards in 2008, will be released on the big screen later this year. Starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Same Shepard and more, the movie is set to be released November 8. Check out the first movie trailer here. (broadway.com) Read more.

Les Miserables Composers to Be Honored by the Recording Academy
The Recording Academy Honors, which annually present the Grammy Awards, have announced that Les Miserables composers Alain Boublil, Herbert Kretzmer and Claude-Michel Schonberg will be among the honorees at this year’s ceremony on June 25. (broadway.com) Read more.

Upcoming Events at PlayhouseSquare

Rich Girl – Cleveland Play House
Guys and Dolls – KeyBank Broadway Series, Great Lakes Theater
Becoming Liv Ullmann –Cleveland Play House
Architects of Air: Exxopolis
Grug -  International Children’s Festival
The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly – International Children’s Festival
ZooZoo – International Children’s Festival
The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer – International Children’s Festival
Margie and Mike – Cleveland Play House
Informed Consent – Cleveland Play House
Aziz Ansari: Buried Alive Tour

Share your thoughts on this week’s news below, or talk to us on Facebook or Twitter!

Experience theater performances from around the world and celebrate the performing arts, global culture, and FUN at our International Children’s Festival May 9-11. The festival features four children’s shows from around the globe: Grug, The Girl who Forgot To Sing Badly, ZooZoo, and The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer by Tim Watts.

Grug is visiting from Australia, and is a story based on a book series. The idea for it all came from a father using his imagination to create bed time stories for his children. Grug began his life as the top of a Burrawang tree that fell to the ground. Resembling a small, striped haystack with feet and a nose, Grug is fascinated by the world around him and solves everyday problems creatively and without fuss.

Recommended Grade Level: Pre-K-2

The Girl who Forgot to Sing Badly comes from Ireland and is written by Finegan Kruckmeyer, who is regarded as the world’s best current children’s theater playwright. The story follows Peggy O’Hegarty and her parents, who are both packers. They squeeze fruit into tins, foxes into boxes, and even bikes into brown paper bags. All the while Peggy sings with the voice of an angel – a grossly unfortunate angel who can’t sing at all. But one day work stops working, and the jobs stop coming, and Peggy steps outside to find that everyone in her city has gone!

Recommended Grade Level: 2-6

ZooZoo is representing the United States in the Festival and is a Cirque Du Soleil style acrobatic experience featuring actors dressed in zoo animal costumes. The show feature penguins playing musical chairs, a cat trapped in a giant paper bag, hippos with insomnia, anteaters as waiters, and a madcap revue of illusion, comedy and fun that has inspired audiences nationwide.

Recommended Grade Level: K-6

  The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer is visiting from Australia, and was created by puppeteer Tim Watts. While at a workshop, he was told to create a puppet out of found objects, and created Alvin Sputnik out of a Styrofoam ball and a glove. The show features his puppet, and uses a heavy amount of technology – including a Wii remote!

Recommended Grade Level: Ages 8+

We have found that most families prefer to attend one or two shows – or one show and Exxopolis, along with some of the other free activities we offer. Free activities include crafts, an Art Walk, short films, roaming artists and more! Join us in for our global celebration this weekend!

For more than twenty years, the Architects of Air have created 20 traveling art pieces known as “luminaria.” Their creations have traveled all across the world – visiting 38 countries and providing extraordinary experiences for more than 2 million visitors.

Designed by Alan Parkinson and made completely out of 9,000 hand stitched PVC pieces, Exxopolis is like a castle of color and light. The design was inspired by geometric shapes in nature, Islamic architecture, and Gothic cathedrals. The thin plastic shapes that create Exxopolis have been pieced together to create a work of art that playfully displays colors and architecture by just using the light that enters this inflatable building.

As you enter the structure be prepared to encounter a labyrinth of vivid reflections of liquid color. Winding paths connect to high-ceilinged domes and quiet alcoves as natural sunlight streams through the colored plastic. With all of the natural beauty and colored light, it’s easy to forget the world outside. Guests freely walk through the luminarium and sit down and relax inside.

No two visits to Exxopolis are exactly alike; the light changes with the weather and with the sunlight. Even the way people are spaced throughout the structure can change the experience.

There are just a few simple rules for visiting Exxopolis– no shoes, no running, no sliding down the inflatable walls, and of course, have fun! Here are a few pictures from inside the luminarium that give a quick snapshot of what guests experience inside Exxopolis.

Exxopolis is visiting as part of our International Children’s Festival and will be open Thursday, May 9 through Saturday, May 11 in the parking lot on the corner of Euclid Avenue and E 17^th Street next to the Hanna Building. Children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by and adult and Exxopolis is wheelchair accessible. It will be open rain or shine, and for more details click here.

*Funding for this installation of Exxopolis provided by Kathy & Jim Pender and the Michael Pender Memorial Fund.

Theater news for the week of April 27 – May 3, 2013

Each week, we’re going to keep you up-to-speed with the latest Broadway news and stories. Check back every Friday to see what you missed this week and to catch a glimpse of what’s going on at PlayhouseSquare this weekend. Enjoy!

Happening on Broadway …

Kinky Boots and Matilda top the 2013 Tony Awards
The 2013 Tony Award nominations were announced on April 30 – Kinky Boots leads the pack with 13 nominations and Matilda is close behind with 12 nominations. Pippin, Cinderella and Golden Boy also have several nominations. The 2013 Tony Awards will be announced live on June 9. For a full list of nominations, click the ‘Read more’ link. (broadway.com) Read more.

Rocky heading to Broadway in 2014
Rocky, the musical version of Slyvester Stallone’s blockbuster movie, is heading to Broadway in 2014, with preview performances in February, and opening officially in March at the Winter Garden Theatre. The musical, directed by Alex Timbers (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Peter and the Starcatcher), features an original score by the Tony-winning songwriting team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens ( Ragtime, Once on This Island, Anastasia) and a book by Tony winner Thomas Meehan (The Producers, Hairspray, Annie) (broadway.com) Read more.

Johnny Depp in talks to join Meryl Streep for movie adaptation of Into the Woods
Johnny Depp is in talks to star as Baker in Rob Marshall’s film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical Into the Woods. Meryl Streep is already slated for the role of the Witch. A reimagining of beloved fairy tales, Into the Woods centers on the Baker and his wife, who make a deal with an evil witch (Streep) in order to have children. Their odyssey into the woods brings the couple face-to-face with Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Jack and his magical beans. The musical also explores what happens after these fairytale characters get their “happily ever after.” (broadway.com) Read more.

Upcoming Events at PlayhouseSquare

Rich Girl – Cleveland Play House
Guys and Dolls – KeyBank Broadway Series, Great Lakes Theater
Lucky Plush – DANCECleveland and Cleveland Play House
Love Story: The Musical
Q&A with Jordan Harrison – Cleveland Play House
Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison, 2013 Roe Green Award Winner – Cleveland Play House
MorrisonDance: 15^th Anniversary Season Performance
Jillian Michaels
Spanish Harlem Orchestra -  Tri-C JazzFest
Becoming Liv Ullmann –Cleveland Play House
The O’Jays
Architects of Air: Exxopolis
Grug -  International Children’s Festival
The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly – International Children’s Festival
ZooZoo – International Children’s Festival
The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer – International Children’s Festival
Margie and Mike – Cleveland Play House
Informed Consent – Cleveland Play House

Share your thoughts on this week’s news below, or talk to us on Facebook or Twitter!

Meet the stars of our production of Love Story the Musical with Baldwin Wallace University! Zach plays the lead of Oliver Barrett IV, and Lucy and Sara share the lead role of Jennifer “Jenny” Cavalleri, performing on different nights.

The show follows two lovers Oliver and Jenny as they start out as college friends, and end up living out the love story that will define their lives. We were able to sit down with these talented students, to ask them a few questions about their theater experiences, and some of their own love stories.

What inspired you to start performing?

Lucy: Everyone in my family was involved in theater, so I didn’t really have a choice. I grew up in a theater. In fact, I took my first steps in a theater.

Zach: Started performing in shows my freshman year of high school. I guess I did it because I wanted to meet people and branch out. It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I got my first lead role.

Sara: I’ve been taking classes and doing theatre since I was 4, and I’ve been reenacting Disney movies since before I could talk. I’ve always wanted to do this, and it sometimes feels like Theatre chose me.

What is your dream role?

Lucy: Maria in West Side Story, Christine in Phantom of the Opera, and secretly, Mama Rose in Gypsy

Zach: Guy in Once

Sara: Dot in Sunday in the Park with George

Which is your favorite version of Love Story, the novel, the movie, or the musical?

Zach and Lucy in Love Story rehearsals at BW

Lucy: I read the book and it was heart wrenching. I avoided watching the movie because I wanted to create my own version of Jenny, which is a compilation of the strong women that I know in my own life.

Zach: I think that the musical has the most heart. The movie version is missing the “fire” of when Jenny and Oliver first meet. At first, they’re like two pieces of metal, striking together and creating sparks, but later, they meld together to become one.

Sara: I like the musical best because it explores all the facets of the characters humaneness. Unlike the book and movie where, I believe, the characters are too commercial and flat. The musical rounds out the characters nicely and explores the areas of light in Jenny and Oliver’s relationship, which the book doesn’t do. The music fills in the gaps that the words in the book and movie can’t do.

Have you ever been on an awkward first date or had an awkward first kiss?

Lucy: When I was with my first serious boyfriend, I was practicing making food for a class, but I had to be at a call back that night so I didn’t have much time. I’d never used a grill before, so the streaks didn’t get quite done. Nonetheless, my boyfriend ate his entire plate.

Zach: I once tried to impress an old girlfriend by cooking her dinner; little did she know that I had no idea what I was doing. Let just say I learned how to use a fire extinguisher that night.

Sara and Zach rehearsing for Love Story

Sara: I was 16. I lost my way and was late picking my date up. I painted my nails on the way and spilt polish all over the front seat. So, my date had to sit in the backseat. We went to walk around Lake Erie and my date, who is a photographer, kept taking pictures of me instead of talking. It was very uncomfortable. The date ended with a long hug that was trying to turn into a kiss, but it just didn’t happen.

Why did you choose to go to Baldwin Wallace for Music Theater?

Lucy: What most attracted me were the connections that Vicki Bussert has to offer. She is so good at marketing her students. She sets her students apart from the rest and markets them as individuals. I don’t think I would be marketed in the same way if I were attending another school.

Zach: What attracted me was the small class sizes as well as the fact that BW is known as the “indie” school. Baldwin Wallace is edgy, and always staying up to date with theater trends. BW started doing the “rock thing” at the same time that it was becoming popular on Broadway. I feel like most other schools are stuck in the 1950s.

Sara: I’ve always wanted to go to BW; it’s been my dream school since I was 7. I’ve been watching Scott and Vicky foster such amazing talent my whole life. I moved to NYC for awhile, but decided I need to go to school, specifically Baldwin Wallace, to earn an education and develop the training that only BW can give.

Imago Theatre’s ZooZoo, the last show of the 2012-2013 Children’s Theater Series and part of the 2013 International Children’s Festival, presents a series of short vignettes of animals in relatable situations, using only music and the actions of fully costumed and masked performers to tell the stories. For ZooZoo, the costumes actually come first in the creative process—the show’s co-creators Jerry Mouawad and Carol Triffle continually dream up and build new animal costumes and then bring them to the performers so that a plot can potentially build around the masks.

The pair has many costumes and masks that have never made it into the show. To earn a spot in ZooZoo, the vignettes must have a “telling moment” that makes them relatable to the audience. The pair can tell in rehearsals if the costume and premise has what it takes to be a successful addition to ZooZoo or other Imago productions.

Imago’s blog featured a post explaining this process, citing the acrobatic larva vignette as an example. While there are fantastic, massive costumes created at Imago all the time—even a 25-foot-long caterpillar—it can happen that a costume much simpler in comparison becomes the best choice. The staff knew within three hours of beginning rehearsals with the larva costume that the larvabatic vignette had great potential and would be added to the show. In other cases, defining how a costume and its character could potentially join the show can take up to a year.

No matter how simple the costume may appear, developing the look is a time-consuming process. The larva costume took Imago Theatre six months to create. Cats joined the existing cast of anteaters, frogs and other creatures in ZooZoo at the end of last year, and the cat costumes also required a considerable amount of time to perfect. The show’s creators explained to The Oregonian that the cat’s features proved to be especially difficult to recreate in sculpted form, and the mask required several tries with different image sources, including Triffle posing her cats as models.

Because we see animals like cats and dogs so frequently and have such strong mental images of them, Mouawad said they are much more difficult to recreate as a costume than animals that we see less frequently. Luckily for viewers, Triffle’s efforts eventually yielded a product she was happy with, and she said the initial public response to the costumes suggested audiences were happy with them, too.

To create the most authentic interpretations of the animals’ motions with the masks and costumes, the actors must make some unusual adjustments while performing. Take the frogs for example: The actors’ faces are actually facing down when the frog masks are on. What appear to be the eyes would actually be the top of the actor’s head, which helps the actors’ shoulders and posture appear more frog-like as they move on stage. Because the actors cannot see with these masks, they rely on floor markings and sounds to move about the stage and must genuinely imagine that they can see to bring the mask to life.

Theater news for the week of April 20-26, 2013

Each week, we’re going to keep you up-to-speed with the latest Broadway news and stories. Check back every Friday to see what you missed this week and to catch a glimpse of what’s going on at PlayhouseSquare this weekend. Enjoy!

Happening on Broadway …

Guys and Dolls slated for a movie makeover
Guys and Dolls is heading back to the big screen with 20^th Century Fox at the helm. No word yet on a screenwriter or director, but Fox hopes to see Channing Tatum (Magic Mike) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer) star as Sky Masterson and Nathan Detroit.  Guys and Dolls comes to PlayhouseSquare May 1 – June 30, 2013. (broadway.com) Read more.

Just announced – The Glass Menagerie is transferring to Broadway
John Tiffany’s acclaimed revival of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie will transfer to Broadway this September for a 17-week run. The revival stars Cherry Jones, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Zachary Quinto and Brin J. Smith.  (broadway.com) Read more.

Romeo and Juliet revival slated for late summer
Tony winner Chuck Cooper and Brent Carver will join Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad in David Leveaux’s Broadway revival of Romeo and Juliet. This is the first Broadway staging of the play in 36 years and will “honor Shakespeare’s written verse while moving the shows setting to contemporary time in which the warring Montague and Capulet families are of different ethnicities.” (broadway.com) Read more.

Upcoming Events at PlayhouseSquare

Flanagan’s Wake
Miss Julie – Cleveland State University Dept of Theatre & Dance
Rich Girl – Cleveland Play House
Perhaps, Pericles
Michael Feinstein – Tri-C JazzFest
Bill Frisell’s Beautiful Dreamers – Tri-C JazzFest
Joe Lovano: Us Five – Tri-C JazzFest
Natalie Cole – Tri-C JazzFest
Erik Larson – William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series
Guys and Dolls – KeyBank Broadway Series, Great Lakes Theater
Partners Dine Around: Little Italy – PlayhouseSquare Partners
Lucky Plush – DANCECleveland and Cleveland Play House
Love Story: The Musical

Share your thoughts on this week’s news below, or talk to us on Facebook or Twitter!

Guys and Dolls’ costumes await actor fittings on an unsuspecting costume rack.

The costume renderings for Guys and Dolls, created by Costume Designer Jennifer Caprio, are pinned up throughout the Great Lakes Theater Costume Shop as a reference for the artisans that are creating the clothing.

 The costume renderings for Guys and Dolls, created by Costume Designer Jennifer Caprio, are pinned up throughout the Great Lakes Theater Costume Shop as a reference for the artisans that are creating the clothing.