#gablestage

[uomo-accattivante]

I recently came across a bunch of press articles and photos about Oscar Isaac that are so old, they appear to be out-of-print and pre-date social media. Considering they were probably never digitally transcribed for internet access, I’m guessing that the majority of current fans have never seen this stuff.

Even though a lot of these digital scans are challenging to read because they are the original fuzzy news print, I think there some gems worth sharing with you guys. Over the next several weeks, I will transcribe and share those gems on this page. Hope you enjoy them!

Let’s start with this fantastic 2001 profile piece done before Oscar was accepted into Juilliard:

South Florida’s rising star isn’t just acting the part

By Christine Dolen - cdolen@herald.com

February 4, 2001

As fifth-graders at Westminster Christian School in Miami, Oscar Isaac and his classmates were asked to write a story as if they were animals on Noah’s Ark. Oscar turned in a seven-page play – with original music – from the perspective of a platypus. Then he starred in the production his teacher directed.

He hasn’t stopped expressing himself creatively since. Today, Isaac is one of South Florida’s busiest young theater actors, and certainly its hottest. And not just because he’s a slender five-feet nine-inches tall with an expressively handsome face and glistening brown eyes.

Since making his professional debut as a Cuban hustler in Sleepwalkers at Area Stage in July 1999, he has played an explosive Vietnam vet in Private Wars for Horizons Repertory, a pot-smoking slacker in This Is Our Youth at GableStage, another Cuban on the make in Praying With the Enemy at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, the entrancing narrator of Side Man at GableStage, a Havana-based writer in Arrivals and Departures for the new Oye Rep and, most recently, a young Fidel Castro in When It’s Cocktail Time in Cuba at New York’s Cherry Lane Theater.

Beginning Wednesday, he’ll be juggling five roles in City Theatre’s annual Winter Shorts festival, first at the Colony Theatre in Miami Beach, then at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. But that is not all: During the two weeks he is doing Winter Shorts, he’ll also be playing dates with the punk-ska band The Blinking Underdogs (www.blinkingunderdogs.com), which features him as lead singer, guitarist and songwriter.

Oh, and he just got back from auditioning for New York’s prestigious Juilliard School of Drama.

All this for a guy a month shy of his 22nd birthday.

Sure, you could hate a guy who’s that talented, that charismatic, that transparently ambitious. But the people who have worked with Oscar Isaac don’t. On the contrary, they’re all sure he has it – that magical, can’t-be-taught thing that transforms an actor into a star.

Playwright Eduardo Machado, who put in a good word for Isaac at Juilliard, says “he does have that star quality that makes your eyes go to him. It’s great that someone with that talent still wants to train.”

“He has a star quality that’s rare in a young actor,” adds Joseph Adler, who directed him in Side Man and This Is Our Youth. “Without a doubt I expect to be hearing great things from him.”

‘I JUST LOVE CREATING’

Isaac, who also makes short films, can’t say exactly why he was attracted to acting. He just knows it makes him happier than anything, that it’s what he was meant to do. And he’s been doing it since he was a 4-year-old putting on plays in his family’s backyard with his sister Nicole.

“I just love creating, whether it’s music or films or a character on a stage. I love taking people for a ride,” he says. “In Side Man, every night I would love being that close to the audience. I felt like I was talking to 80 of my closest friends.

“I could feel what the audience was feeling.”

His powerful, mournful-yet-loving monologue near the end of the play, he said, “worked every night. I knew it would get them. I’d hear sniffles.

“But it had less to do with me than with the atmosphere [created by the playwright and director].”

You could understand if Isaac, surrounded as he is by praise and possibility, had an ego as burgeoning as his career. Instead, he channels the positive reinforcement into confidence about his work.

“He has such a charm and an ease onstage, but he’s very modest,” says New York-based actress Judith Delgado, who shared the stage with Isaac in Side Man. “He’s hungry. He’s got moxie. I was blown away by him.

“He saved me a couple of times. I went up [forgot a line] and that baby boy of mine came through. He’s a joy.”

FORGING HIS OWN PATH

The son of a Cuban-American father and a Guatemalan mother, Isaac was never a stellar student. But he found ways of turning routine assignments – like the Noah’s Ark story – into creative challenges.

His science reports were inevitably video documentaries underscored with punk music. He acted through middle and high school, though he had a falling out with his drama teacher at Santaluces Community High in Lantana over his misgivings about a character. When she refused to cast him in anything else, he got his English teacher to let him play the dentist in Little Shop of Horrors his senior year.

His skepticism about authority and love of playing the devil’s advocate have long made him resist doing things the usual way. His post-high school “training” consisted of one semester at Miami-Dade Community College’s South Campus (where he met his girlfriend, Maria Miranda), touring schools playing an abusive character in the Coconut Grove Playhouse’s Breaking the Cycle, and working as a transporter of bodies at Baptist Hospital, where he absorbed the drama of people in emotionally intense situations.

“It was the most magnificent dramatic institute I could’ve attended,” Isaac said. “I was able to observe the entire spectrum of human emotion, people under the most extreme duress. I was mesmerized watching the way people interacted with each other in such heightened situations.

“I learned everything about the human condition, and it was real and harsh and brutally honest.”

Yet even given his propensity for forging his own path, something nudged him another direction while he was in New York making his Off-Broadway debut in December. Walking by Juilliard one day, he impulsively went in to ask for an application. Though the application deadline had passed, Isaac persuaded Juilliard to accept his, noting in his application essay that most of the exceptional actors he admires had acquired “a brutally efficient technique” to enhance their talent by studying at places like Juilliard.

Though he won’t know whether he has been accepted until the end of this month, his audition last weekend went well, he says. He did monologues from Henry IV, Part I and Dancing at Lughnasa, adjusting his Shakespearean Hotspur to a more fiery temperature at the suggestion of Michael Kahn, head of Juilliard’s acting program – though not without arguing that Hotspur wouldn’t be speaking to the king that way.

Isaac, not surprisingly, loves a good debate.

Adler, GableStage’s artistic director and a man who is as liberal as Isaac once was conservative, savored the verbal jousting they did during rehearsals for Side Man.

“He knows exactly how to pull my chain,” Adler says with a laugh. “Intelligence is the cornerstone of all great actors, and he’s bright as hell.

“He has relentless ambition but with so much charm. He’s very hard to say no to. He has incredible raw talent and magnetism that is very rare in a young actor along with relentless energy, perseverance and ambition. I see his growth both onstage and off. He’s mature in both places.”

Part of his growth, of course, will necessarily involve dealing with the rejections that are part of any actor’s life. His career is still too new, his string of successes solid, so it’s anyone’s guess how failure will shape him. But director Michael John Garcés, who picked him for When It’s Cocktail Time in Cuba after Isaac flew to New York at his own expense to compete with a pool of seasoned Manhattan actors for the role, believes his character will see him through.

“Oscar is realistic, but he’s so willing to go the whole nine yards,” Garcés says. “He didn’t go out when he was in the show here. His focus earned the respect of the other actors, some of whom have been working in New York for 30 years.

“He hasn’t had a lot of blows yet, when the career knocks the wind out of you. But he has talent, determination and focus, and if he has perseverance – my intuition is that he does have it – he could achieve a lot.”

FAMILY TIES

His father and namesake, Baptist Hospital intensive-care physician Oscar Isaac Hernandez, couldn’t be more proud. (Isaac doesn’t use the family surname in order to avoid, in his words, being “put in that Hispanic actor box.”)

“I’m ecstatic that he’s probably going to be going to the most prestigious drama school in the United States,” he says. “School will help him focus his energies and give him discipline. He’s got the raw material and the drive.”

Isaac’s mother, Maria, divorced from his father since 1992, is a kidney-transplant recipient who acknowledges that she’ll miss her son if he moves to New York. But, she adds, she wants him “to live out his dreams. He amazes me every day. He calls me every day. I’m very proud of him.”

Even the other guys in The Blinking Underdogs are fans of Isaac’s acting, though it could take him away from South Florida just as the band appears to be, Isaac says, on the brink of signing a recording deal (it has already put out its own CD, The Last Word, with songs, lead vocals and even cover photography by Isaac.

“Oscar’s the leader of the band, a great musician who amazes me and motivates us,” says sax player Keith Cooper. “I’ve been to see every one of his plays. He’s a phenomenal actor.

“I completely buy into his role in every play. As close as I am to him, I forget it’s Oscar.”

His South Florida theater colleagues credit that to Isaac’s insatiable desire to learn and grow.

Gail Garrisan, who is directing him in Donnie and One of the Great Ones for Winter Shorts, observes, “It’s not often that you find a young actor who is willing to listen and who doesn’t think he knows everything. He loves the work.

“He really brought the young man in Side Man to life. When I saw it in New York, it seemed to be the father’s play. When I saw it here, I felt it was his [Isaac’s] play.”

Oye Rep’s John Rodaz, whom Isaac calls “the best director I’ve ever worked with,” gave the actor his first important job in Sleepwalkers at Area Stage. They met when Isaac came to see Area’s production of Oleanna and the actor, knowing Rodaz ran the theater, introduced himself.

“He has so much energy and such a sparkling personality,” Rodaz says. “He knows how to move in the world. He seems to take advantage of every situation in a good way; he’s not a cold, calculating person who’ll stab you in the back.

“[But] he wants it so badly. Everything he does, he’s the leader. When I was 21, I was taking naps.”

Rodaz coached Isaac on his Juilliard monologues and found the experience energizing.

“I got chills just watching him. That happens so rarely. I was so exhilarated when I came home that I just had to go out and run. You just know he’s got all the tools.”

Christine Dolen is The Herald’s theater critic.

###

[thesoulofmiami]

Great Theater to Benefit Orchestra Miami 8/10/18

Great Theater to Benefit Orchestra Miami 8/10/18

Great Theater to Benefit Orchestra Miami Friday, 08/10/2018 – 07:00 pm – 10:00 pm GableStage at the Biltmore 1200 Anastasia Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida 33134 Website Cost: $40

Join us for An Evening of Thought-Provoking Theater to benefit Orchestra Miami! Through the generosity of Artistic Director Joseph Adler, GableStage is hosting a special preview performance of their next event- “White Guy…

[showbizchicago]

Court Theatre, under the continuing leadership of Charles Newell, Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director, concludes its 2017/18 season with the Asolo Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Pasadena Playhouse production of The Originalist by John Strand, directed by Molly Smith with Associate Director Seema Sueko, and featuring Edward Gero as Antonin Scalia. The Originalist runs May 10 – June 10, 2018 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Ave.  

 When a Harvard Law School graduate with decidedly different views takes on a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, one of America’s most brilliant and polarizing figures, she discovers in him an infuriating opponent and an unexpected mentor. Their relationship faces the ultimate test as they confront one of the most polarizing cases to reach the nation’s highest court.  Written by Charles MacArthur Award winner John Strand, this daring new work shows just how much passion for the law and risk it takes to defend one’s version of the truth. Court is thrilled to introduce this brilliant play to Chicago, with Edward Gero at its center. Molly Smith’s production is a sensation in Washington, D.C., where it premiered and has been revived twice.

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  The cast of The Originalist includes Edward Gero (Justice Antonin Scalia), Jade Wheeler (Cat) and Brett Mack (Brad).  The creative team includes Misha Kachman (scenic design), Joseph P. Salasovich (costume design),Collin K. Bills (lighting design), and Eric Shimelonis (sound design). The production stage managers areSusan R. White and Amanda Weener-Frederick.

  About the Artists

  JOHN STRAND (Playwright) has had works commissioned for Arena Stage including Snow Child, TheOriginalist, The Miser, Lovers and Executioners��(MacArthur Award), and Tom Walker. Recent works include the book and lyrics for Hat! A Vaudeville (South Coast Reperatory); Lincolnesque (Old Globe); Lorenzaccio(Shakespeare Theatre Company), and the book for the musical The Highest Yellow (Signature Theatre). Additional plays are The Diaries (Signature Theatre) and The Cockburn Rituals (Woolly Mammoth). Strand spent 10 years in Paris, where he worked as a journalist and drama critic, and directed NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing in Paris. His novel Commieland was published by Kiwai Media, Paris in 2013. He is currently at work on a new play about President Teddy Roosevelt for Arena Stage and on the film adaptation of The Originalist.

  MOLLY SMITH (Director) has served as Artistic Director of Arena Stage in Washington DC since 1998. Her more than 30 directing credits at Arena Stage include Carousel, Oliver!, The Originalist, Fiddler on the Roof,Camp David, Mother Courage and Her Children, Oklahoma!, A Moon for the Misbegotten, My Fair Lady,The Great White Hope, The Music Man, Orpheus Descending, Legacy of Light, The Women of Brewster Place, Cabaret, South Pacific, Agamemnon and His Daughters, All My Sons, and How I Learned to Drive. She recently directed Our Town at Canada’s Shaw Festival. Her directorial work has also been seen at The Old Globe, Asolo Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Trinity Repertory, Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, Montreal’s Centaur Theatre and Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska, which she founded and ran from 1979-1998. Molly has been a leader in new play development for over 30 years. She is a great believer in first, second and third productions of new work and has championed projects including How I Learned to Drive; Passion Play, a cycle; Next to Normal; and Dear Evan Hansen. She has worked alongside playwrights Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein, Lawrence Wright, Karen Zacarías, John Murrell, Eric Coble, Charles Randolph-Wright and many others. She led the re-invention of Arena Stage, focusing on the architecture and creation of the Mead Center for American Theater and positioning Arena Stage as a national center for American artists. During her time with the company, Arena Stage has workshopped more than 100 productions, produced 39 world premieres, staged numerous second and third productions and been an important part of nurturing nine projects that went on to have a life on Broadway. In 2014, Molly made her Broadway debut directing The Velocity of Autumn, following its critically acclaimed run at Arena Stage. She was awarded honorary doctorates from American University and Towson University.

  SEEMA SUEKO (Associate Director) joined the Arena Stage staff in July 2016 as Deputy Artistic Director and made her Arena Stage directorial debut with Smart People. She previously served as Associate Artistic Director at Pasadena Playhouse and Executive Artistic Director of Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company. Her directing and acting credits include Pasadena Playhouse, People’s Light, The Old Globe, San Diego Repertory, Yale Repertory, 5th Avenue Theatre, and Native Voices, among others. As a playwright, she received commissions from Mixed Blood Theatre and Center Stage. Her work has been recognized by the California State Assembly, NAACP San Diego, Chicago Jeff Awards, American Theatre Wing and American Theatre magazine. Seema developed the Consensus Organizing for Theater methodology, has done research on the neuroscience of acting and serves on the Diversity Committee of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

  EDWARD GERO (Justice Antonin Scalia) is a four-time Helen Hayes Award winner and 15-time nominee. Regional credits include The Originalist (Arena Stage, Asolo Repertory, Pasadena Playhouse); The Little Foxes and Red (Arena Stage); Red and Gloucester in King Lear (Goodman); Nixon’s Nixon and Night Alive(Round House); Sweeney Todd (Signature Theatre); Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (Ford’s Theatre); andAmerican Buffalo, Shining City and Skylight (Studio Theatre). In 32 seasons with Washington DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, his over 70 roles include Helen Hayes turns in Henry IV, Richard II andMacbeth. Film/TV credits include House of Cards, TURN: Washington’s Spies, Die Hard 2, Striking Distanceand narrations for Discovery Channel and PBS. He is a Ten Chimneys 2015 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow and associate professor of theater at George Mason University.

  JADE WHEELER (Cat) returns to the role of Cat in The Originalist following productions at Pasadena Playhouse and Asolo Repertory. Jade has performed extensively along the east coast from Massachusetts to Florida. Most recently she appeared in The Legend of Georgia McBride at GableStage. Her one-woman show Who is Eartha Mae? played Off-Broadway at the 2016 United Solo Fest and won for Best Cabaret. Local credits include Debbie Allen’s Alex in Wonderland and Lost in the Stars (the Kennedy Center); An Octoroon (Woolly Mammoth); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare Theatre Company); and Ruined(Everyman Theatre). Regional credits include GableStage, Central Square Theatre and Stoneham Theatre. She received her B.A. in theater and French from George Mason University and additional training from La Ferme de Trielle and The Actors Space.

  BRETT MACK (Brad) has appeared in The Originalist (Arena Stage), The Great Society (Asolo Repertory);Mezzulah 1946 and The Muckle Man (Pittsburgh City Theatre); Leveling Up and The Tempest (The Hippodrome Theatre); Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar (Orlando Shakespeare Theatre); and The Illusion(Chautauqua Theatre). Brett is a recent M.F.A. graduate from Florida State University. He can be seen in season two of Scandal on ABC.

Court Theatre will be hosting a number of events related to The Originalist. Upcoming events are as follows:

  The Originalist Discussion Series

May 10 – June 3, 2018

In the spirit of The Originalist, a play about listening to and engaging in civil discourse with those who have opposing viewpoints, Court is pleased to host a series of post-play discussions to delve deeper into the art and its related themes.  Even if you are attending the production on a different day, we invite Court patrons to attend any of the discussions. The production runs approximately 100 minutes and discussions begin promptly at the end of the performance.

  Thursday, May 10: First Preview Tasting with CHANT and Discussion

Enjoy samples from Dining Partner CHANT pre-show in the lobby, and a post-play discussion led by Seema Sueko, Arena Stage Deputy Artistic Director.

  May 11-17: Preview Performances with Post-Play Discussion

Following all preview performances, Seema Sueko, Arena Stage Deputy Artistic Director, or Edward Gero who portrays Justice Scalia, or other members of the artistic team lead a discussion with the audience.

  Friday, May 18: The Originalist Playwright John Strand

Following the Friday 8:00pm performance, Charles MacArthur Award winning playwright John Strand leads the audience discussion.

  Sunday, May 20: Martha Nussbaum and John Corvino on Religion, Law, and LGBT Rights

Following the Sunday 2:30pm matinee, Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, joins John Corvino, Professor of Philosophy at Wayne State University and author of Debating Same-Sex Marriage, to discuss Supreme Court decisions on religious liberty and LGBT rights.

  Thursday, May 24, 2018: David Bevington Discussion

Following the 7:30pm performance, join us for a discussion with theatre scholar David Bevington and members of Court Theatre’s artistic staff.

  Saturday, May 26: Elliot Feldman, Attorney and Legal Advisor for The Originalist

Following the Saturday 3:00pm matinee, enjoy a discussion led by Elliot Feldman, Senior Partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP in Washington, D.C., UChicago Alumnus, and Legal Consultant for The Originalist.

  Sunday, June 3: Alison LaCroix and Jason Merchant on Rhetoric and Legal Interpretation

Following the Sunday 2:30pm matinee

In celebration of Alumni Weekend at the University of Chicago, the discussion will be led by Alison LaCroix, Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, and Jason Merchant, Lorna Puttkammer Straus Professor, Department of Linguistics and Humanities Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago.

  Staged Reading of Thurgood

By George Stevens, Jr.

Featuring A.C. Smith as Justice Thurgood Marshall

Directed by Charles Newell

Saturday, June 2 at 5:30pm and Monday, June 4 at 7:30pm

Thurgood is a one-man tribute to Justice Thurgood Marshall’s pioneering career and legacy as the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court. Justice Marshall revisits landmark civil rights victories, likeBrown v. Board of Education, and the moments in history that are still charged with a moral urgency today. For a short time, Thurgood Marshall served on the Supreme Court with Antonin Scalia who is the subject of the final production in Court’s 2017/18 season, The Originalist. Court favorite A.C. Smith (Gem of the Ocean, Waiting for Godot, Fences) will bring to life this vivid portrait of a civil rights icon in a special staged reading event. Subscribers enjoy free tickets as part of their benefits. All other tickets are $10 general admission.

  Open-Captioned Performance of The Originalist

Sunday, June 3 at 2:30pm

Please call the Box Office at (773) 753-4472 to purchase tickets, as we may have seating suggestions.

  The Originalist is sponsored by The University of Chicago Women’s Board and Charles Custer.

  Court Theatre is guided by its mission to discover the power of classic theatre. Court endeavors to make a lasting contribution to American theatre by expanding the canon of translations, adaptations, and classic texts. Court revives lost masterpieces, illuminates familiar texts, and distinguishes fresh, modern classics. Court engages and inspires its audience by providing artistically distinguished productions, audience enrichment activities, and student educational experiences.

    Court Theatre’s Chicago Premiere of “The Originalist” Featuring Edward Gero As Justice Scalia Runs May 10-June 10 Court Theatre, under the continuing leadership of Charles Newell, Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director, concludes its 2017/18 season with the Asolo Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Pasadena Playhouse production of The Originalist by John Strand, directed by Molly Smith with Associate Director Seema Sueko, and featuring Edward Gero as Antonin Scalia. 

[darlenelaure]

Survey finds Grove voters prefer smaller, cheaper redevelopment of playhouse

The Coconut Grove Playhouse and Ken Russell (Credit: Wiki Commons)

The future of the Coconut Grove Playhouse is still undecided, but a new report shows that residents prefer a cheaper, smaller redevelopment plan.

Nearly 80 percent, or 312 of 400, of Miami residents surveyed by Bendixen & Amandi International favored Miami-Dade County’s $20 million plan to renovate and reopen the historic playhouse, according to the Miami Herald. GableStage, the theater company that would manage the playhouse under the county’s plan and stands to benefit from the proposal, commissioned the survey.

Voters picked the county’s plan over that of arts patron Mike Eidson. Eidson wants to restore the entire structure and build a 700-seat theater costing at least $48 million, more than double what the county is pitching.

Miami-Dade has suggested replacing the playhouse’s 1,100-seat auditorium with a modern, 300-seat theater. But in December, the Miami City Commission voted in favor of preserving the theater’s exterior facade.

As a sort of compromise, the city could contribute $10 million to the project, increasing the size to about 450 seats, county commissioner Xavier Suarez said. Suarez’s son, Francis Suarez, was elected in November as the city’s mayor.

The state-owned property stopped operating as a theater in 2006 after accruing overwhelming debt. Six years later, ownership reverted to the state, and the county partnered with Florida International University to create a plan for redeveloping and reactivating the theater.  [Miami Herald] – Amanda Rabines

from The Real Deal Miami https://therealdeal.com/miami/2018/02/05/survey-finds-coconut-grove-voters-prefer-smaller-cheaper-redevelopment-of-historic-playhouse/ via IFTTT

[cynthiajayusa]

Winter Shorts at Adrienne Arsht Center

City Theatre (@citytheatremia) and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County (@arshtcenter) are proud to present WINTER SHORTS, America’s Short Play Winter Festival. Playing December 7-23 in the intimate Carnival Studio Theater (Ziff Ballet Opera House) and led by City Theatre Artistic Director Margaret M. Ledford, WINTER SHORTS is the brand new festive version of City Theatre’s renowned Summer Shorts: America’s Short Play Festival and will include a jolly program of short plays – each a complete work totaling 8-10 minutes long.

Tickets to WINTER SHORTS are $39-$54*. Tickets are available now and may be purchased through the Adrienne Arsht Center Box Office by calling (305) 949-6722, or online at arshtcenter.org.

Penned by the country’s leading playwrights and performed by a company of South Florida theater all-stars, WINTER SHORTS offers theatergoers an evening filled with hilarity, both naughty and nice.

WINTER SHORTS features the following plays:

this movie by Amanda Keating

On a lonely Thanksgiving Day at the movies, two strangers discover an unlikely bond including family dysfunction, burgers, and a love of film.

The Miracle of Chanukah by Sheri Wilner

Marilyn has an annoying Chanukah ritual to acknowledge the holiday’s true meaning; each person must talk about a miracle that happened to them during the year. When her son’s new girlfriend describes a miracle that’s too fantastic for the others to believe, everyone suddenly confronts the hilarious limits of their faith.

Becky’s Christmas Wish by Ashley Lauren Rogers

Little Becky is visited by the Christmas Elf, who promises to grant her one special holiday wish – until he hears what she wants!

Santa Doesn’t Live Here Anymore by Patrick Gabridge

Mom and Dad have never gotten around to telling Jeffrey that there’s no Santa. He’s 30, and he still believes. This Christmas the truth comes out about Santa and it isn’t the only family secret that threatens to ruin the holiday season.

Oy Vey Maria by Mark Harvey Levine

It’s the very first Christmas, and Mary forgot to invite her mother to the birth of Baby Jesus. When Mom arrives, she’s armed with a brisket, a healthy dose of guilt, and some advice for Mary on Jewish motherhood.

Feliz Navidad by Staci Swedeen

A harried holiday shopper is frantically seeking a specific doll for her niece, while cursing and bemoaning the stresses of the season. The only clerk in the store can only speak Spanish, but with patience and humor, assists the shopper. Upon finding the right gift, the shopper realizes what she was looking for all along.

Fly, Baby by Gina Femia

It’s New Year’s Eve and Ariel wants to watch the fireworks on her rooftop, while Miranda wants to fly. Their resolutions turn serious and dangerous when Ariel steps to the ledge. Santa and the Toothfairy, at wits ends over the state of the world, watch from the North Pole hoping they can still be of help.

Occupy Hallmark by Cassie M. Seinuk

Moose and Salty – nurse grudges, broken hearts and share a disdain for Corporate America – camp out in front of a greeting card store to scare off the Valentine’s Day shoppers. Over beers the insults fly, and as they share a hatred of all things heart-shaped, they discover maybe there is someone out there for everyone.

About The Cast:

ALEX ALVAREZ was last seen in City Theatre’s Summer Shorts 2016 at the Arsht Center. Other South Florida theatre credits include: The Humans, Dry Powder, Stalking the Bogeyman, The Motherf**ker with the Hat, and Superior Donuts (Gablestage), The Goldberg Variations, and Daniel’s Husband (Island City Stage), Domestic Animals (Palm Beach Dramaworks), Mud, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay on the Death of Walt Disney, Or, and A Map of Virtue (Thinking Cap Theatre), Trust (Zoetic Stage at the Arsht Center), Visiting Hours (New Theatre), The Unseen (Promethean Theatre) and Melisma (Arca Images).  Alex studied acting at California Institute of the Arts and the Larry Moss Studio. Alex is a Carbonell Award winner and a five-time nominee, a Silver Palm Award winner, and a New Times Best Supporting Actor.

DAVE COREY was part of the 2004 cast of City Theatre’s Summer Shorts. Dave retired from 50 years of broadcasting this past April, but has kept busy working part-time for Insight for the Blind, and was seen in The Legend of Georgia McBride at GableStage this past June. On TV and films, Dave has appeared in Burn Notice, Walker, Texas Ranger, Analyze This, and productions going way back to Miami Vice.

DIANA GARLE’s recent City Theatre appearances include: Short Cuts Tour 2016 and 2017. Other theatre credits: The Humans (GableStage), Juliet Among The Changelings (Lost Girls Theater); Sound Bite: South Beach and Hip Hop Won’t Save You (The Project [theatre]); Hedda Gabler and Three Sisters (Miami Theater Center); and The Plough and The Starsat O’Reilly Theatre Company in Dublin. Recent film credits include: Band of Brothers, Scenes from Our Young Marriage, For Family’s Sake (Best Narrative Short Film at New York City International Film Festival).  Diana was featured in the January 2016 edition of American Theatre Magazine as one of the “7 Theatre Workers You Should Know.”  She is a teaching artist at Miami Theater Center, Broward Center for the Performing Arts and Arts for Learning.

JOVON JACOBS holds a B.F.A in acting and is a proud participant in the South Florida theater community. He was recently seen in The Good Girl with Primal Forces. Some of his recent credits include: Informed Consent (Gablestage), All The Way (Actors’ Playhouse), Motherland at Theatre Lab, The Mystery of Love & Sex (Arts Garage), Fences & Five Guys Named Moe (M Ensemble Theatre), Them Beaux (Miami Theater Center), The Violet Hour (Broward Center), Map of Virtue (Thinking Cap Theater) Broadwayworld.com Award, Hip Hop Won’t Save You (The Project [theatre]),  S4K & Summer Shorts 2013 (Adrienne Arsht Center), A Man Puts On A Play (Naked Stage) and Home Sweet Funeral Home (The Alliance Theatre).

RITA JOE is fresh off her performance in The Mighty Gents at the Wendell A. Narcisse Performing Arts Theatre. With a B.F.A. in theatre from the University of Central Florida, Rita has had the opportunity to work as a performer at Walt Disney World and has enjoyed performing on stages around the world. A few of Rita Joe’s performance credits include: Island City Stage’s The Submission, for which she was nominated for a Carbonell Award for Best Actress, Terror and Brothers of the Dust, for which she won a Sliver Palm Award for her performance, Shorts Gone Wild 5, Shorts Gone Wild 4, Flyin West, The Piano Lesson, Hustlers, Sisters, For Colored Girls, The Good Woman of Setzuan, Romeo and Juliet, S/HE, Once on this Island, and Home. For more information, please visit iamritajoe.com.

MARGOT MORELAND is an original company member of Summer Shorts and Winter Shorts.  Margot was last seen in It Shoulda Been You (Actors’ Playhouse), Sunday in the Park with George (Zoetic Stage at the Arsht Center), Sister Act (Wick), and Mamma Mia (Theatre Aspen). She is a four-time Carbonell recipient for Ruthless!, Heartbeats, Tomfoolery, and Annie.  Other favorites include: I Love You….Now Change, Zombie Prom, many years of Shear Madness (Kennedy Center and US),  Sondheim on Sondheim, Les Miserables, She Loves Me, Fiddler on the Roof,  Gypsy, Fat Pig, and the world premieres of Stripped (Zoetic Stage at the Arsht Center), Dr. Radio, Bombshells, Unlikely Heroes, and Motherhood.

source https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2017/11/30/winter-shorts-at-adrienne-arsht-center/ from Hot Spots Magazine http://hotspotsmagazin.blogspot.com/2017/11/winter-shorts-at-adrienne-arsht-center.html

[ferrarelli]

Day one. #GableStage

[colomike925]

Enjoyed the play and the thespians last night. #shakespeare #antonyandcleopatra #gablestage #rsc #publictheater

[miamifun]

MiamiFun.org The Minnesota native used his low-key style and expertise to forge ties in South Florida’s theater community. MiamiHerald.com: Performing Arts http://goo.gl/w109C1

[uomo-accattivante]

Il materiale di origine: GableStage / Oscar Isaac as Warren Straub and Samara Siskind as Jessica Goldman in Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth at GableStage in Coral Gables, FL. (11 March - 9 April, 2000)

[veronicakirby]

GableStage Reaches Out Virtually to Engage Diverse Audiences

GableStage continues to connect with artists and audiences. GableStage Reaches Out Virtually to Engage Diverse Audiences published first on Miami Local News

[thesoulofmiami]

Mention My Beauty 2/13/17

Mention My Beauty 2/13/17

Mention My Beauty Monday, 02/13/2017 – 07:30 pm – 09:30 pm GableStage 1200 Anastasia Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida 33134 Facebook Cost: Free

City Theatre and GableStage are proud to co-present a one night only performance of Leslie Ayvazian’s new one-woman show, Mention My Beauty, on Monday, February 13 at 7:30 p.m. Ayvazian, whose plays are often produced at City Theatre’s Summer Shorts Festival,…

[darlenelaure]

Survey finds Coconut Grove voters prefer smaller, cheaper redevelopment of historic playhouse

The Coconut Grove Playhouse and Ken Russell (Credit: Wiki Commons)

The future of the Coconut Grove Playhouse is still undecided, but a new report shows that residents prefer a cheaper, smaller redevelopment plan.

Nearly 80 percent, or 312 of 400, of Miami residents surveyed by Bendixen & Amandi International favored Miami-Dade County’s $20 million plan to renovate and reopen the historic playhouse, according to the Miami Herald. GableStage, the theater company that would manage the playhouse under the county’s plan and stands to benefit from the proposal, commissioned the survey.

Voters picked the county’s plan over that of arts patron Mike Eidson. Eidson wants to restore the entire structure and build a 700-seat theater costing at least $48 million, more than double what the county is pitching.

Miami-Dade has suggested replacing the playhouse’s 1,100-seat auditorium with a modern, 300-seat theater. But in December, the Miami City Commission voted in favor of preserving the theater’s exterior facade.

As a sort of compromise, the city could contribute $10 million to the project, increasing the size to about 450 seats, county commissioner Xavier Suarez said. Suarez’s son, Francis Suarez, was elected in November as the city’s mayor.

The state-owned property stopped operating as a theater in 2006 after accruing overwhelming debt. Six years later, ownership reverted to the state, and the county partnered with Florida International University to create a plan for redeveloping and reactivating the theater.  [Miami Herald] – Amanda Rabines

from The Real Deal Miami https://therealdeal.com/miami/2018/02/05/survey-finds-coconut-grove-voters-prefer-smaller-cheaper-redevelopment-of-historic-playhouse/ via IFTTT

[jennizzles]

Stephen Adly Guirgis.

He's my favorite playwright of all time and I met him today thanks to GableStage for holding a workshop. It's interesting to hear such a well-known writer flat out say that the writing process for him is grueling. Glad I'm not alone. 

I walked away with a lot. It was interesting seeing other writers/actors openly express themselves in front of strangers in their writing.

[uomo-accattivante]

Il materiale di origine: George Schiavone / The cast of GableStage’s production of Warren Leight’s Side Man in Coral Gables, Florida. (17 June - 16 July, 2000)

[uomo-accattivante]

Il materiale di origine: George Schiavone / Oscar Isaac during his early theatre years in Miami, Florida.

[uomo-accattivante]

Il materiale di origine: George Schiavone for GableStage / Oscar Isaac as Clifford in GableStage’s production of Warren Leight’s Sideman in Coral Gables, FL. (17 June – 16 July, 2000) #myedit