Lauren Van Hemert - Page 6

Six-Time Tony Award Winning Costume Designer William Ivey Long is a busy man. He's not only working on five shows simultaneously, including the movie-to-Broadway musicals of 'Beetlejuice' and 'Tootsie' but he is also celebrating the publication of two books. books. The first accompanies The Mint Museum exhibition, William Ivey Long: Costume Designs 2007-2016, which runs through June 3rd in Charlotte, North Carolina. The second, The Designs of William Ivey Long, is a monograph by Bobbi Owen, chronicling Long's career over 350 shows. Next week, Long and Owen will be stopping by The North Carolina Museum of History to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of The North Carolina Arts Council. They spoke to me to discuss Owen's book, Long's North Carolina roots and designing with improbable fabrics.

Can't wait for Hamilton to come to Durham next fall? This weekend, Raleigh theater lovers can enjoy the music of Hamilton at Burning Coal Theatre's songfest, Hamiltunes. Burning Coal's Artistic Director Jerome Davis sat down with me to discuss Hamiltunes, Oakwood history, and the theatre's upcoming season.

Timothy Tyson's book, BLOOD DONE SIGN MY NAME, chronicles his family's journey living in Oxford, NC in 1970, just after Henry 'Dickie' Marrow, an African American Army vet, was shot, beaten, and killed by three white men. Raleigh Little Theatre's Artistic Director Patrick Torres says he hopes the world premiere of Mike Wiley's ensemble version of BLOOD DONE SIGN MY NAME, which opens this week, will move the dial towards racial reconciliation.

Broadway veteran Megan McGinnis is no stranger to the musical Daddy Long Legs. In fact, she originated the role of the character Jerusha at the Rubicon Theatre in 2009, where the musical premiered. These days, however, she is reimagining the show as the director for Theatre Raleigh's production which opens next week. She sat down with me to discuss making her directorial debut, revisiting material that is near and dear to her heart, and what's next. Daddy Long Legs opens at The Kennedy Theatre in Raleigh on May 16th and runs through May 27th. For more information, visit, www.theatreraleigh.com.

Janis Joplin is alive and well and rocking the Fletcher Opera Theater at The Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. Directed by Randy Johnson, the creator, writer, and director of the 2014 Tony Award nominated production, North Carolina Theatre's A NIGHT WITH JANIS JOPLIN pays homage to the rock icon and resurrects the souls of the singers who inspired her.

Robert Askins' Tony Award nominated play Hand to God is about a puppet ministry in Texas that goes awry when a sock puppet wreaks havoc on the church, the pastor, and the other kids. Billed for mature audiences only, Ira David Wood IV says the irreverent Hand to God is one of those plays that walks the edge but never really crosses the line. Wood not only directs this production, but also steps into the dual role of the troubled teen Jason and his demonic puppet. This is his second time taking on the role of both director and performer, the first of which was Theatre in the Park's 2009 production of Romeo and Juliet, starring his sister, Evan Rachel Wood.

This week, North Carolina Theatre pays tribute to Janis Joplin and her influences by bringing Randy Johnson's 2014 Tony Award nominated A Night with Janis Joplin to the AJ Fletcher Opera House. Johnson not only wrote and directed the Broadway musical, but he is also directing the North Carolina Theatre production. Sharing the role of Joplin are Paige McNamara and Francesca Ferrari, both of whom say stepping into the rock icon's shoes, sharing her legacy, and working with Johnson is a dream come true.

When I was a kid, my parents took me to the theater a lot. As a mom with a child on the autism spectrum, however, it's been hard to share my love of the theater with my daughter. So imagine my delight when I heard that Raleigh Little Theatre was collaborating with Arts Access to do a sensory-friendly performance of Alice @ Wonderland. To think that a community theater here in the Triangle was making theater accessible to special needs kids was just, in the words of the young Alice herself, awesome.

There is something very sinister happening at Theatre in the Park (TIP) in Raleigh and you only have until May 6th to catch it before it's exorcised. It's a good night out for mature audiences who don't mind a little blasphemy with their supper.

COLIN CLOUD considers himself more Sherlock Holmes than DAVID COPPERFIELD. Still, he says he is incredibly honored to be part of the cast of The Illusionists Live From Broadway coming to The Durham Performing Arts Center in May. 'The caliber of magicians that this show has, I am excluding myself here, I am talking about the other guys, are some of the greatest names in magic,' he says. 'These are guys who are hailed by other magicians as being the living legends of magic today.'

The king has landed in Raleigh... that is ALTON FITZGERALD WHITE. White was the longest running Mufasa in Disney's The Lion King, playing over 4300 shows. He sat down with me to discuss The Lion King, his book, My Pride, and his view about deriving happiness from commonplace achievements.

While the stage version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC does not follow the movie exactly, and the choreography at times seems contrived and clumsy, fans of the story will delight in Douglas W. Schmidt's sets, Tony Award-winner Jane Greenwood's costumes, and of course, in Rodgers and Hammerstein's music. In fact, at DPAC Friday night, you could hear the hum of the audience under the iconic songs, which seem to connect us all to each other in some way.

Mike McLean leads the national tour of THE SOUND OF MUSIC back to Durham April 20. McLean says the production is bigger and more beautiful than ever.

Thirty-four years after Alice Walker's The Color Purple won The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the national tour of the Tony Award®-winning Broadway revival of the same name delivers a timely story of self-discovery and forgiveness.

Beloved classics and recent Tony Award winners mark North Carolina Theatre's seventh season at The Duke Energy Center. The national tours of Jersey Boys and The King and I headline the season. NC Theatre's productions of In the Heights, Mama Mia, Murder for Two (theatre debut), and family favorite Annie round out the season.

Following their successful OUR WAY tour in 2015, DANCING WITH THE STARS' brothers VALENTINE CHMERKOWVSKIY and MAKSIM CHMERKOWVSKIY brought their new show, CONFIDENTIAL, to The Durham Performing Arts Center stage Thursday, along with twotime Mirror Ball winner, also known as Maks' wife, PETA MURGATROYD.

The national tour of THE COLOR PURPLE rolls into DPAC next month led by five members of the original Broadway cast, including Carla R. Stewart, who steps into Shug Avery's shoes. Stewart says she is blessed to be part of such a timely and timeless story.