Can-Can Choreographer Tells All!

Conversation with... Patti Colombo & John Charron: "Making Can-Can Dance!"

The cast of Can-Can. Photo by Craig Schwartz.

Award-winning Can-Can choreographer tells all in "Conversation with...
Patti Colomobo and John Charron" -- "Making Can-Can Dance!" on Saturday, July 28 at 1:00 p.m.

The dance scenes from the hit musical Can'Can have dazzled audiences and critics alike. Says Jay Reiner of the Hollywood Reporter... "Patti Colombo's choreography is right up there with the best of Broadway."

Enjoy a lively and engaging conversation with the award-winning Colombo and associate choreographer John Charron. The event will be moderated by Los Angeles Times Dance Critic Lewis Segal.

SATURDAY, JULY 28, 2007 at 1 p.m.
The Gourmet Cobbler Factory serves up delicious cobbler & ice cream at 12 noon!

To reserve your FREE seats, email Gay Parker.

Playhouse Artistic Director Sheldon Epps Receives James Irvine Leadership Award

Sheldon Epps, of the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, CA, is congratulated by Governor Schwarzenegger and The Irvine Foundation's President and CEO James E. Canales, right, as a recipient of one of The James Irvine Foundation's six 2007 Leadership Awards during a visit to the governor's Cabinet room at the state capitol in Sacramento on Monday, July 16, 2007.
Photo by John Decker



From Brian:

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful and yet most wonderful. - William Shakespeare - As You Like It

Only the great line from Shakespeare can capture our feelings as we proudly announce that Sheldon Epps is a 2007 recipient of the James Irvine Leadership Award. This honor, which includes an $125,000 grant to the theatre, is given each year to just a handful of Californians who have made a leading and meaningful impact on the lives of Californians.

I know that we are all proud of Sheldon, but he and I want you to know this award is also an acknowledgment of all our efforts -- the dedication and tireless hours that each of you put in as a member of the Playhouse family as well as the great work and generosity of our Board of Directors in support of the vision and direction of our theatre.

Congratulations to Sheldon (and to all of us!)

Brian

From the James Irvine Foundation:

The Pasadena Playhouse is officially California’s state theater, but poor attendance has threatened to close its doors more than once in its long history. Up until the last decade, when the theater did put on performances, often there would be no people of color — and few under 60 — in the audience. Enter Sheldon Epps in 1997, one of the few African-American artistic directors of a major regional theater in the country. His commitment to diversity and the production of an eclectic range of high-quality performances has led to the Playhouse’s remarkable renaissance. Today it is recognized nationally for its commitment to theatrical diversity, artistic excellence, and box-office success. The Playhouse offers a broad range of high-quality productions, draws a younger and multiethnic audience and conducts programs to expose disadvantaged youth to live theater, while maintaining steady growth in subscriptions and ticket sales.

More on Sheldon and the award here.

From the Archives: A Stow-Away on the Playhouse's Voyage Across the Sea

Earlier this week, the Playhouse archives received an email from Noel Coward scholar Michael Menzies recounting his very first experience with the Pasadena Playhouse in the unlikeliest of places – the other side of the world. Surprisingly, the archives didn’t contain any record of the following events. So, to shed some light on this all but forgotten piece of Playhouse history and entertain our blog readers, Mr. Menzies has kindly allowed us to post his email.


In 1949, I was fourteen years old and living with my family in Auckland, New Zealand. At that time there was no professional theatre in the country at all, and the Pasadena Playhouse sent a company of players for a six month season at a converted cinema, known as the Prince Edward.

Their first production was Sam Benelli’s The Jest (a curious choice for a city that had little theatre). This was followed by a Moss Hart play, Light Up the Sky (about the blitz in London - a theme more suited to New Zealand, which had supplied both men and food to England and her allies). I am not totally sure this was the second production - it has become a little muddled in my mind... it may have been The Little Shop Around the Corner, or Angel Pavement, both of which I believe the Pasadena players performed. Then came the most successful production of the engagement: Charley’s Aunt.

At the time there was a world-wide polio scare, and children were denied access to public gatherings - we had to attend correspondence school. I was devastated at the time, since I was unable to attend any performances and theatre had already become what turned into a life long passion.

I wrote to members of the company - I recall the names Gabriel Boyne and Molly Rayner, and asked for autographs and photos of the players. Instead, I received an invitation from actress Molly Raynor to watch Charley’s Aunt from the flies of the theatre. I was in heaven - or at least the flies!

My parents agreed to this ruse to avoid a public gathering and drove me to the theatre, delivered me backstage, and bought tickets for themselves to attend the matinee performance.

I can’t recall later productions at the Prince Edward, an awkward and inconvenient location for a live theatre company doomed to fail - my memory of the Pasadena Players in New Zealand ends with that performance.

Congratulations on the success of Can-Can, and may good and continuing fortune stay with you.

Best wishes,
Michael Menzies

Hindsight at Hot House

Book Now! Next FREE Hothouse Reading Just Announced!

Book your tickets now for the upcoming reading from Pasadena Playhouse's sell-out new play development series...

Hindsight
By Ross Brown
Directed by Kappy Kilburn

July 17 and 18 at 8:00 P.M.
Carrie Hamilton Theatre.

It’s 1970 and teenage Rob Gold and his brothers are surrounded by the sounds of combat: Vietnam, anti-war protests, and most of all, the marital combat between their parents. Then comes the accident – and a family dynamic that goes from armed insurrection to Armageddon. HINDSIGHT is the story of brothers and how they endure and escape the mess they call family – each in his own way. It’s about dysfunctional parents, sibling bonds, grief, and survival. It will even make you laugh. What else can you do when your mother steals your Bar Mitzvah money and gives it to Yul Brynner so he can gamble in Vegas?

Email BoxOffice@PasadenaPlayhouse.org with your full contact information, number of tickets, and performance for which you wish to book. Or call (626) 356-PLAY!

Jonathan's Mailbox: EF Pasadena International Homestay Program

Jonathan:

Thank you for offering to place some images and text on the Pasadena Playhouse Blog. Although we are not certain of the exact count, we believe we still need over 40 Host Families before the students arrive next Wednesday, July 11. At present we have over 130 out of 175 placed.

The main points for the Blog are:

* High School Students from China, France, Germany, Russia, Spain and Switzerland
* July 11 - August 7 -- only a 3 or 4 week commitment. 40 out of 175 still to place.
* Activities pre-planned -- no need to take students to beach, amusement parks, etc., we do it for you!
* CONTACT CHRISTINE CHRISTOFF FOR MORE INFORMATION - fizz4you@aol.com

Attached are two of our favorite images for your Blog. One is of a young family that hosted a German boy, born in Turkey. The other is of two EF students from abroad enjoying Universal City Walk.

We will contact you in the next few weeks for further discussion regarding an afternoon International Festival at the Pasadena Playhouse featuring the Playhouse and EF Homestay. EF has an enormous database of families from Pismo Beach to San Diego. EF has been active in the United States for 40 years, placing over 150,000 students in homes. We believe that the Festival would be of mutual benefit to both of our organizations and could be held next Spring.

Thanks for your assistance,

Jerry and Christine Christoff

EF Pasadena International Homestay Program