#Aidan Wharton

[myveryownfanfiction]

which Sam Rockwell characters should I write for next?

[larryland]

REVIEW: "Hair" at the Berkshire Theatre Group

REVIEW: “Hair” at the Berkshire Theatre Group

[raven-curls]

Talia Suskauer & Aidan Wharton

[thediaryofatheatrekid]

How long are Mariand and Erin on the tour until? Seeing the show in November but have a feeling they will be gone then...

They normally have about a year average for contracts on the tour. I really don’t know.

HOWEVER, I do know that Aidan Wharton will be replacing Jeff Sears as first cover Fiyero and DJ Plunkett will be replacing Michael Wartella as Boq. (Aidan will be joining sometime during the Seatle run and DJ will be joining in July.)

[foxestacado]

I have been really struggling with what to say or do following the senseless death of George Floyd, but also of countless others: Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Riah Milton. I admit I have been coping by escaping. I feel it is important not to stay silent, and yet I feel anything I do or say is inadequate. I have been deeply moved by the courageousness of protesters, and felt shaken to the core by the violent retaliation from police. I feel paralyzed by the lack of justice for so many. For the first time, I am reconsidering my assumptions on the necessity of an armed and outrageously overfunded police force. I am fearful for protesters’ health and safety, and I feel shameful and guilty for my inaction. I recognize I am also privileged to be able to take the time to process and escape. 

In addition to other, personal work I am committed to doing, I would like to start with two action items relating to my online work here: 

(1)    I am donating the full resolution download of “Fight Fascism with Queer Romance” to anyone who makes a $10 donation to any organization on https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#donate. Just email a screencap of your digital receipt to foxestacado(at)gmail(dot)com and I will give you a link to the download.

(2)    I am also donating 100% of my June 2020 earnings from Patreon to the Transgender Law Center.

We have so much to do to address systemic racism in our country. As a non-Black POC, I recognize what I need to do and ask the same of others: show up, be uncomfortable, give space, listen, amplify, confront friends/family for their racist beliefs, question the history we were taught in schools and seek out the history that we weren’t taught, think critically about what we can do in our jobs and our careers to support our Black colleagues, support Black creators and businesses, and actually put recommendations into action. Recognize voter suppression tactics. VOTE.

If you're looking for more places to donate, Aidan Wharton on Insta has some lists of orgs doing great work: https://instagram.com/aidanwharton 

[bluejellie]

never thought i’d have to do this but im using the very small platform i have to ask anyone generous enough and in good enough financial standing to help out my friend. he’s a struggling lgbtq+ who has recently been abused by his father and has been kicked out of his house. he set up a gofundme to try and do whatever he can to get groceries and take care of his cat while he works part time and also tries to get through his remaining time at school. literally anything helps

https://t.co/TQxsnqhWg1

[authorjaninaarndt]

Wharton Park, Durham

One of the views described in my 'Album of Written Photographs', which you can find in our Peninsula Anthology!

I wrote it in a workshop on writing and photography last year that I organised as a collab between St. Aidan’s Creative Writing Society and Durham University Photography Society.

The reason I called my stories 'written photographs' is that I write them in the moment with the view in front of me and don't go back and edit them afterwards, so they are full of the raw immediate thoughts the place inspired when I was there.

Enjoy autumn everyone!

[klenasource]

Anastasia's Derek Klena, Wicked's Jackie Burns Star in Last Days of Summer Musical Reading December 7

Two-time Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun, who develops the new musical, directs a cast that includes Derek Klena (currently in Anastasia), current Wicked star Jackie Burns, Anthony Rosenthal (Falsettos), Drew Gehling (Waitress), and Abby Mueller (Beautiful), as well as Melissa Van Der Schyff, Daniel Jenkins, Mel Johnson, Jr., Jim Kaplan, Julia Antonelli, Kevin Carolan, Christopher Paul Richards, Yasmeen Sulieman, Anthony Norman, and Aidan Wharton.

Keep Reading

[derekklenadaily]

Anastasia's Derek Klena, Wicked's Jackie Burns Among Cast of Last Days of Summer Musical Reading

NOV 28, 2017 

Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun, who developed the show, will also direct the industry presentation.

An industry reading of the new musical Last Days of Summer, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Steve Kluger, will be presented in Manhattan December 7.

Two-time Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun, who is developing the new musical, will direct a cast that includes Derek Klena (currently in Anastasia), current Wicked star Jackie Burns, Anthony Rosenthal (Falsettos), Drew Gehling (Waitress), and Abby Mueller (Beautiful), as well as Melissa Van Der Schyff, Daniel Jenkins, Mel Johnson, Jr., Jim Kaplan, Julia Antonelli, Kevin Carolan, Christopher Paul Richards, Yasmeen Sulieman, Anthony Norman, and Aidan Wharton.

Last Days of Summer features a score by Grammy winner Jason Howland (Little Women) and a book and lyrics by Kluger.

The musical concerns 13-year-old Joey Margolis, the neighborhood punching bag who in 1940s Brooklyn. Growing up fatherless and in search of a hero, he turns to New York Giants player Charlie Banks, despite reluctance from the all-star third baseman.

[source]

[nyslovesfilm]

SAVE THE DATE:  TV Premieres & Film Releases

The schedule of television premieres and film releases continues.  Below is a list of upcoming television shows and films that participated in New York State’s production and post-production tax credit programs with upcoming release/premiere dates.

The Ring Thing – April 1 – Gravitas Ventures When a woman proposes to her girlfriend by accident, she finds that they each have very different expectations of their future. Starring: Sarah Wharton, Nicole Pursell, Matt Connolly (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Post Production)

The Last O.G. – April 3 – TBS Released from prison on good behavior, ex-con Tray falls back on skills he learned in prison to support himself and his kids. Starring: Tracy Morgan, Cedric “the Entertainer” Kyles, Allen Maldonado (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Production)

A Quiet Place – April 6 – Paramount A family lives an isolated existence in utter silence, for fear of an unknown threat that follows and attacks at any sound. Starring: Emily Blunt, John Krazinski       (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Production)

You Were Never Really Here – April 6 – Amazon Studios A contract killer uncovers a conspiracy while trying to save a kidnapped teen from a life of prostitution. Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Alessandro Nivola (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Production)          

Where Is Kyra? – April 6 (Limited) – Killer Films/Great Point Media A fragile woman is already stressed from a fast-paced world when her mother dies and she must find a means for survival while hiding her struggles from her new boyfriend. Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Kiefer Sutherland (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Production)

Paterno – April 7 – HBO After becoming the winningest coach in college football history, Paterno’s legacy is challenged and he is forced to face questions of institutional failure in regard to the victims. Starring: Al Pacino, Riley Keough, Tess Frazer (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Production)

Hot Air – April 10 A right wing talk show host's life takes a sudden turn when his 16-year-old niece comes crashing into his life. Starring: Stephen Coogan, Neve Campbell, Taylor Russell (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Production)

Wildling – April 13 – IFC Midnight A blossoming teenager uncovers the dark secret behind her traumatic childhood. Starring: Liv Tyler, Brad Dourif, Bel Powley (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Production)

Come Sunday – April 13 – Netflix Based on true events, globally-renowned pastor Carlton Pearson risks everything when he questions church doctrine and is branded a modern-day heretic. Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martin Sheen, Condola Rashad                       (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Post Production)

Beirut – April 13 – Bleecker Street Media                                                               A U.S. diplomat flees Lebanon in 1972 after a tragic incident at his home. Ten years later, he is called back to war-torn Beirut by a CIA operative to negotiate for the life of a friend he left behind. Starring: Jon Hamm, Rosamund Pike           (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Post Production)

Fear The Walking Dead – S4 – April 15 – AMC A Walking Dead spin-off, set in Los Angeles, following two families who must band together to survive the undead apocalypse. Starring: Kim Dickens, Frank Dillane, Coleman Domingo (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Post Production) Super Troopers 2 – April 20 – Fox Searchlight Five wacky troopers must set up a new highway patrol station as the United States and Canada dispute the location of the border. Starring: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Erik Stolkanske  (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Post Production)

Quantico – Season 3 – April 26 – ABC A look at the lives of young FBI recruits training at the Quantico base in Virginia when one of them is suspected of being a sleeper terrorist. Starring: Priyanka Chopra (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Production)

The Week Of – April 27 – Netflix Two fathers with opposing personalities come together to celebrate the wedding of their children. They are forced to spend the longest week of their lives together, and the big day cannot come soon enough. Starring: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Steve Buscemi (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Production)

Elementary - Season 6 – April 30 – CBS                                                                 A modern take on the cases of Sherlock Holmes, with the detective now living in New York City. Starring: Johnny Lee Miller, Lucy Liu, Aidan Quinn                    (Participated in the New York State Film Tax Credit Program – Production)

[notebookmusical]

An industry reading of the new musical Last Days of Summer, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Steve Kluger, will be presented in Manhattan December 7.

Two-time Tony nominee Jeff Calhoun, who is developing the new musical, will direct a cast that includes Derek Klena (currently in Anastasia), current Wicked star Jackie Burns, Anthony Rosenthal (Falsettos), Drew Gehling (Waitress), and Abby Mueller (Beautiful), as well as Melissa Van Der Schyff, Daniel Jenkins, Mel Johnson, Jr., Jim Kaplan, Julia Antonelli, Kevin Carolan, Christopher Paul Richards, Yasmeen Sulieman, Anthony Norman, and Aidan Wharton.

[nyskateboarding]

Full Video: DUMMY MOB PRESENTS-SWAG (2020) Here's a 25 minute video DUMMY MOB PRESENTS-SWAG by Aidan McCaul featuring: Jadon Wharton, Ethan Tate, Taip Ceman, Timmy Yang, Axel Mosso, Rebel Spirit, Isaiah Benjamin, Josiah Wiggins, Kevin Brisbane, Nasir, Iulios Kouroupis, Carlos Kanter, Jack McCool, Saadiq Khalid and Asa Hibibion.

[larryland]

by Roseann Cane

I was just shy of 15 when Hair opened off-Broadway and began to cause a stir in 1967, a pivotal time in American culture. When a significantly revised version of the show opened on Broadway in 1968, it rapidly permeated the culture it reflected. It’s impossible to overstate the national turbulence caused by the war in Vietnam, the terror that the draft imposed on students and families, the frequent public protests in cities, suburbia, on college campuses, and even in high schools. The war felt that much more personal because it was televised right in our living rooms, a new experience then.

Concurrently, the free-spirited hippie counterculture blossomed, with its commitment to peace, political awareness, love, sexual freedom, spontaneity, and drug experimentation.

Hair was a widely celebrated, groundbreaking musical. Because so many of its songs were covered by popular artists, and heard on radios across the nation, its fame reached far beyond the New York stage to make the show an international sensation.

With its multiracial cast, brazen sexuality, and mostly whimsical nature, with its actors (or the Tribe) frequently mingling with the audience, no theatergoer had ever seen anything like it. It also became famous because of its notorious nude scene, which was probably far less shocking than prospective audience members imagined: the Tribe rapidly undressed and stood proudly naked in a line downstage for a moment at the end of the first act.

The exuberant young Tribe now celebrating Hair at the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre is percolating with joie de vivre. I was enormously gratified to hear the songs that helped shape my adolescence presented by lush and powerful singing voices, including those of the stunning Latoya Edwards (Dionne), sexy Brandon Contreras (Berger), and lusty Eric R. Williams (Hud). As Sheila, Kayla Foster’s poignant rendition of “Easy To Be Hard” was arresting and memorable; an adorable trio of castmates, Livvy Marcus (Jeanie), Sarah Sun Park (Tribe ensemble), and Katie Birenboim (Crissy), joined in a charming presentation of “Air.” Will Porter (Woof) offers a hilarious delivery of “Sodomy.” As Claude, Andrew Cekala’s portrayal of a young man faced with a heart-wrenching decision is tremendously touching.

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Really, while Hair has is packed with many more songs than most musicals, every song in the show is a gem, not only because of lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, and the music by Galt MacDermot, but thanks to this charming cast and to the excellent musical direction of Eric Svejcar and his orchestra, along with Lisa Shriver’s consistently delightful, fresh, and sometimes surprising choreography. Shane E. Ballard’s costumes were authentic and colorful, and Jason Simms’s scene design created an ideal minimalist, yet gritty, showcase for the action. Lighting and sound by Patricia M. Nichols and Nathan Leigh, respectively, buoyantly enhanced the show.

While I commend director Daisy Walker for her casting, pacing, and the easy interaction among the members of the Tribe, I was disappointed with a few of the choices she made. There is a song in the first act, “My Conviction” (a wry explanation of the flamboyance exhibited by males of all species) that is traditionally sung by a mature, conservatively dressed woman identified as Margaret Meade, who emerges from the audience with a silent male companion. At the end of the song, Meade flashes the audience to reveal she is a man in drag. I’ve always found that to be a witty bit of gender-bending. Walker has a female Tribe member sing it center-stage, and even though the singer has the appropriately conventional suit on, and she has a fine voice, a neatly show-stopping bit of humor was lost. Then there was the nude scene. At the end of Act I, some of the Tribe members clustered upstage in the dark, removed their clothes, and exited. From the audience, we could just about see dark outlines of bodies. While I think choreographing and clustering the actors could very well make a more authentic statement about the free-spirited, freely sexual nature of the Tribe than lining them up downstage, I don’t see the point of including the nude scene at all if the audience can’t see it.

I had a lot of fun vicariously reliving my wayward adolescence at Hair, as I think most Baby Boomers will. In fact, I know most theatergoers of all ages (except young children, perhaps) will enjoy themselves. Hair is emblematic of a particular time and place in history, and this production is faithful to that time and place.

Hair, directed by Daisy Walker, book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, music by Galt MacDermot, music direction by Eric Svejcar, choreography by Lisa Shriver, scenic design by Jason Simms, costume design by Shane E. Ballard, lighting design by Patricia M. Nichols, sound design by Nathan Leigh, CAST: Latoya Edwards (Dionne), Brandon Contreras (Berger), Eric R. Williams (Hud), Kayla Foster (Sheila), Livvy Marcus (Jeanie), Katie Birenboim (Crissy), jWill Porter (Woof), Andrew Cekala (Claude). Tribe Ensemble: Ariel Blackwood, Shayna Blass, Chance Brayman, Kristopher Saint Louis, Nick Pankuch, Sarah Sun Park, Aidan Wharton.

Hair runs July 5-August 11, 2018,at The Unicorn Theatre, The Larry Vaber Stage, on the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Stockbridge Campus, 6 East Street, Stockbridge, MA. Tickets: A: $90 B: $67 C: $45. https://www.berkshiretheatregroup.org

REVIEW: “Hair” at the Berkshire Theatre Group by Roseann Cane I was just shy of 15 when Hair opened off-Broadway and began to cause a stir in 1967, a pivotal time in American culture.

[raven-curls]

Talia Suskauer & Aidan Wharton

X X

[newyorktheater]

Kristine Nielsen

Aidan Quinn

“The Young Man from Atlanta,” about an aging couple whose only son has died young,  is the wrong play by Horton Foote to revive –- it’s dated, and overrated —  but one can guess why the Signature theater and director Michael Wilson have picked it over other Foote plays that would be a better fit for 2019.

It was one of the plays that Signature premiered as part of its season devoted to the playwright in 1995, when it won for Foote, at age 79, the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. The play was restaged on Broadway two years later, and though it ran for only 84 performances, it marked the playwright’s return there after an absence of 43 years.

“A Young Man From Atlanta,” in other words, revived the theatrical reputation of a prolific playwright who had become primarily known as a screenwriter: He had won Academy Awards for both “To Kill A Mockingbird” with Gregory Peck and “Tender Mercies” with Robert Duval.

But over the previous half century, Foote had written more than 50 plays. Director Michael Wilson took a new look at nine of them, all of which were set in the fictional town of Harrison, Texas, based on Foote’s birthplace of Wharton, Texas, and inspired by the story of Foote’s father.  Foote died in 2009 ten days short of his 93rd birthday, and nine months before Wilson mounted “The Orphans Home Cycle,”  a chronological ordering of those nine plays so that they traced 28 years in the life of one man and his extended family, which I just included in my list of the top 10 plays of the decade.

In these plays, his characters soldier on through their sorrows without much fuss, just as the playwright depicts their everyday struggles with an engaging simplicity, which under the surface contains a deep well of feeling.

Wilson has gone on to direct two more of Foote’s plays on Broadway, Dividing the Estate, and The Trip To Bountiful, starring a transcendent Cicely Tyson. It makes sense that he would want to try his hand at the one that won the Pulitzer. Wilson employs many of the same design team as he did in the Foote plays he directed, but the effect is not the same.

Some of the characters from the  “The Orphans Home Cycle” are in “The Young Man From Atlanta,” now older and living in Houston. Will Kidder (Aidan Quinn) is now 64 years old and, as the play begins, he is a self-confident executive in a wholesale grocery company where he’s worked for four decades. Yet his conversation with a younger colleague soon veers to the death of his son, Bill. At the age of 37, Bill drowned on a business trip to Florida, when he walked into a lake.  “Everyone has their theories…I’m a realist. He committed suicide. Why, I don’t know.”

Shortly afterward, Will’s boss enters his office to fire him, saying apologetically that the company’s in trouble and the position needs a younger man.

Will tries to put a positive spin on what’s happened, telling himself he’ll start his own business.

At home, Lily Dale (Kristine Nielsen) doesn’t even pretend to be on top of things. She was a composer and a pianist, and has neither written nor played a note since her son died.

There are a half dozen other characters in “The Young Man from Atlanta,” mostly in scenes that feel slow-moving and tangential. (I need to say here that I don’t blame the actors, many of whom – Kristine Nielsen, Aidan Quinn, Jon Orsini, Stephen Payne — I’ve seen give far more memorable performances in other productions.) But the most important of these characters doesn’t have any scenes at all. The title character never appears on stage.

The man, named Randy, was Bill’s “roommate” in Atlanta, ten years his junior.  Will doesn’t like him; he says during the funeral the young man “got hysterical and cried more than my wife.”  There are other such unmistakable clues. A former maid of the family (standout Pat Bowie) pays a visit; the sole purpose of this scene seems to be to talk about what a terrific five-year-old Bill was – that he was “pretty” and didn’t like baseball, although Will kept on trying to interest his son in the game.

So,  Bill was gay, and he committed suicide. The only facts really open to question are: Did the young man from Atlanta take advantage of Bill, and is he doing so now with Lily Dale, who’s been seeing him secretly without telling Will and giving him gifts of money?

No characters utter a single word (even in euphemism) about homosexuality, a silence that of course would probably be characteristic of a conservative (explicitly Republican) couple in Houston in 1950. But I struggle to detect anything in the play that sufficiently separates Foote’s attitudes in 1995 from his characters’ in 1950. To the characters, homosexuality cannot be discussed, and homosexuals are invisible. But the playwright keeps both off the stage as well.

And then, the gay man has apparently committed suicide – a hoary plot line for a drama first produced some 30 years after Stonewall!  Way back in 1968, “The Boys in the Band” made fun of just such a lazy, hateful  fate that was near-universally imposed on fictional homosexuals.

Now, each of these unenlightened elements in the play separately might be defended as artistic choices in keeping with Foote’s frequent approach of keeping feelings unspoken. I understand that the play bears a superficial resemblance Death of A Salesman – that Will Kidder like Willy Loman has chosen self-delusion in pursuit of the American Dream,  and defined success in ways that destroy the soul. I’d also hate to be one of those critics who seem to see every work of art through the fixed lens of their personal (and often self-righteous) political worldview.   But there are so many other plays by Horton Foote that are so lovely, so affecting, and don’t feel as if they are written with the same prejudices and limitations of the time and place in which they are set.

  The Young Man from Atlanta

Written by Horton Foote. Directed by Michael Wilson.

Scenic design by Jeff Cowie, costume design by Van Broughton Ramsey, lighting design by David Lander, sound design and original music by John Gromada

Devon Abner as Ted Cleveland Jr., Dan Bittner  as Tom Jackson, Pat Bowie as Etta Doris, Harriet D. Foy as Clara, Kristine Nielsen as Lily Dale, Jon Orsini as Carson, Stephen Payne as Pete Davenport, and Aidan Quinn as Will Kidder.

Running time: 2 hours and 5 minutes, including one intermission

Tickets: $35-$55

The Young Man from Atlanta is on stage through December 15, 2019

The Young Man From Atlanta Review: Not The Best Foote Forward “The Young Man from Atlanta,” about an aging couple whose only son has died young,  is the wrong play by Horton Foote to revive –- it’s dated, and overrated --  but one can guess why the Signature theater and director Michael Wilson have picked it over other Foote plays that would be a better fit for 2019.

[greenvillehqs-blog]

oh look at that, it’s DEJAN JACKSON & NOVA DE LA CRUZ & COLE DAVIDSON & ASHLEY BELL, they’re said to reflect AJ SAUDIN & VAL MERCADO & CORY WHARTON & FRANK DILLARINE. welcome to greenville, i hope you feel safe here! you better move in within 8 HOURS or else the gates passcode will change!

( AJ SAUDIN / TY DOLLA SIGNS ) : did you hear DAJAN JACKSON moved into greenville palms, greenville’s gated community, to get away from the paparazzi. the SINGER is TWENTY-TWO. people say that they are AFFABLE and SHREWD. the banter around town says that HE is SECRET… no wonder they came to greenville palms. ( LUCY, EST, PASTA )

( VAL MERCADO / DEMI LOVATO ) : did you hear NOVA DE LA CRUZ moved into greenville palms, greenville’s gated community, to get away from the paparazzi. the SINGER/MODEL is TWENTY-THREE. people say that they are CANDOR and RELUCTANT the banter around town says that SHE is SECRET… no wonder they came to greenville palms. ( ARIEL, PST, TACOS )

( CORY WHARTON ) : did you hear COLE DAVIDSON moved into greenville palms, greenville’s gated community, to get away from the paparazzi. the REALITY TV STAR is TWENTY-THREE. people say that they are PROTECTIVE and ARROGANT. the banter around town says that HE is SECRET … no wonder they came to greenville palms. ( AIDAN, EST, POPEYES )

( FRANK DILLAINE ) : did you hear ASHLEY BELL moved into greenville palms, greenville’s gated community, to get away from the paparazzi. the MODEL is TWENTY FOUR. people say that they are OPEN MINDED and STUBBORN. the banter around town says that SHE/THEY is/are SECRET… no wonder they came to greenville palms. ( k, pst, chocolate )