http://dannybryck.com/

No Room For Wishing-one man documentary play by Danny Bryck
READING: May 27 @ 2pm at Wall Street to Main Street Festival, BRIK Gallery, 473 Main St, Catskill, NY
http://www.facebook.com/events/311862005560920/
READING (Excerpts): June 20 @ 7pm at Hall Space, 950 Dorchester Avenue, Boston, MA
MORE TO COME IN THE SUMMER & FALL, http://dannybryck.com/noroomforwishing/

Danny Bryck is an actor, writer and theatre artist hailing from Amherst, Massachusetts.

Since graduating summa cum laude from Boston University’s School of Theatre and studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Danny has been living and working in the Boston area. As an actor, he has worked in New England, New York and Spain. Boston theatre credits include RENT with New Repertory Theatre, The Nutcracker at Stoneham Theatre, Breaking the Code with Underground Railway Theater, Cymbeline with Actors’ Shakespeare Project, the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac in both English and Spanish with Apollinaire Theatre Company, The Real Inspector Hound with The Publick Theatre, The Corn is Green with The Huntington Theatre Company, The Donkey Show with American Repertory Theater, the title role in Romeo and Juliet with Shakespeare Now!, Carny Knowledge with Fort Point Theatre Channel, Animal Farm with New Repertory Theatre, and the title role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch with Blue Spruce Theatre, which earned him an IRNE nomination. Danny has also performed Off and Off-Off Broadway at New World Stages and with New Perspectives Theatre Company. He can be seen in a small handful of independent films including the Rasmussen Brothers’ Dark Feed, and on the daytime drama As the World Turns.

photo by Shannon Gmyrek

Danny is an Artistic Associate with Whistler in the Dark Theatre, where he has performed in A Number, Family Stories and the IRNE award-winning Tales from Ovid, Danny is also Whistler’s resident dialect coach, and has done dialect and vocal coaching for numerous other companies and colleges in Boston, as well as privately.

He has also taught courses in theatre, acting, improvisation, musical theatre, playwriting, dance, audition technique and performance poetry with The Huntington Theatre Company, Apollinaire Theatre Company, Company One, and numerous high schools and summer programs in Massachusetts and directed high school theatre productions in Boston and Western Mass.

Danny’s play Love in the Time of Time Travel, co-written with A. Vincent Ularich, was recently given a staged reading at OBERON, the second stage of the American Repertory Theatre. His writing has also been performed locally by ImprovBoston’s sketch comedy troupe, “The Ruckus,” and at GAN-e-meed Theatre Project’s “Not a Box” New Play Festival, and he has performed as a singer/songwriter and (occasionally) performance poet at venues around Massachusetts.

He recently finished performing in Troilus and Cressida with Actor’s Shakespeare Project, directed by Tina Packer, and is currently working on an original one-man documentary play about Occupy Boston entitled No Room for Wishing. (from Danny Bryck’s website)

photo credit: Lyric Stage of Boston

Episode 6: Geeks, Nerds & Artists Podcast: Spiro Veloudos, Artistic Director of Lyric Stage Company of Boston and director of current production of Avenue Q

http://www.lyricstage.com/

Avenue Q: May 11-June 24, 2012 (it is selling out presently)

Spiro Veloudos is the Producing Artistic Director of The Lyric Stage Company. and has been honored with numerous awards and honors including The Elliot Norton Award and The Independent Reviews of New England (IRNE) Award. He has been personally honored with the 2006 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, Stage Source’s 2002 Theatre Hero Award and was cited as the city’s Best Artistic Director by Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston program in 1999.
He has directed over 90 productions in Massachusetts and throughout New England. He is proud to be a three-time winner of the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director. He has also been honored five times as the Outstanding Director of a Musical by the Independent Reviewers of New England.

His directing credits include: Lyric Stage Company –Kiss Me, Kate,Grey Gardens, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Follies, The Importance of Being Earnest, Three Tall Women, Arms and the Man, Souvenir,1776, The Goat or, Who is Sylvia, Urinetown: the Musical(IRNE award for Best Musical Production and Direction), A Number, A Little Night Music,(IRNE award for Best Musical Production and Direction, 2004), Noises Off!, The Spitfire Grill, Book of Days, Side Show, Dirty Blonde, Side Man, No Way To Treat A Lady,(IRNE Award for Best Director of a Musical) The Curse of the Bambino, Glengarry Glen Ross (IRNE Award for Best Production ), Sunday in the Park with George (Best of Year mention: Boston Globe, Herald and Phoenix, The Elliot Norton Award and IRNE for Outstanding Musical Production and Direction), Assassins (Outstanding Production of 1998 and one of 5 most memorable productions in the last 15 years: Boston Globe), Lost in Yonkers and Never the Sinner: The Leopold and Loeb Story (Elliot Norton Award Outstanding Director, for both, along with Assassins), and Speed-the-Plow ( Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production);

Publick Theatre – Design for Living, A Midsummer Night’s Dream ( Boston Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Production and Direction), Quilters (The New England Theatre Conference’s Moss Hart Award), Anything Goes and Sweeney Todd (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Direction for both).

Other venues- The Philadelphia Story, A Christmas Carol, Macbeth Les Liaisons Dangereuse, Cabaret, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Cyrano De Bergerac. As an actor his favorite roles were, Big Daddy (Cat on a Hot tin Roof) Benedict (Much Ado About Nothing) Prospero (The Tempest) Garfinkle (Other Peoples Money)Cyrano (Cyrano De Bergerac) Guido Contini (Nine). He holds a BFA (cum Laude) in Acting /Directing from Emerson College. He has taken graduate level courses in financial management, marketing, entertainment law and negotiation through the Organization Development Project and the Achieving Excellence Program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. He proudly serves on the Board of the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund. He was recently included in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in Hellenic American Business and Industry .He is a founding member and serves as the President for the Producers Association of New England Area Theatres, is on the Adjunct Faculty in Performing Arts at Emerson College and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. (from Stage Source)

http://www.whistlerinthedark.com/

Trojan Women:  May 18- June 2 at the Factory Theatre in Boston

Meg Taintor is the founding Artistic Director of Whistler in the Dark Theatre, for whom she has directed 13 productions. Also for Whistler, Meg produced three years of FeverFest, a new works festival dedicated to connecting adventurous audiences with young and vital theatre companies and artists in Boston. Meg has also directed for Mill6 Theatre and New Voices @ New Rep.

In 2009, Meg joined with other artists working in the small and fringe theatre scene to form the Small Theatre Alliance of Boston, where served for two years as President of the Board. She is now Chair of the Alliance Events Committee and a member of the Board for StageSource. Meg believes passionately in the necessity for a strong community of local artists supporting and challenging itself to do better and more exciting work.

Her regional theatre credits include the National Players, Rorschach Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, the Potomac Theatre Project and Washington Shakespeare Company. She holds a B.A. in Theatre and Women & Gender Studies from Middlebury College. (profile from website)

Episode 4:  Benjamin Zander Part 3

(recorded live) We discuss the bringing art to the people, exploring new paths, and making memories.
http://benjaminzander.com/

Boston Philharmonic Concert, http://www.bostonphil.org/,

MAHLER SYMPHONY No. 7

Thursday, April 26 @ 7:30pm
Discovery Series
Sanders Theatre

Saturday, April 28 @ 8pm
Pre-concert talk at 6:45pm
Jordan Hall

Sunday, April 29 @ 3pm
Pre-concert talk at 1:45pm
Sanders Theatre

Episode 3:  Benjamin Zander Part 2

(recorded live) We discuss the Boston Philharmonic, arts organizations in general, and arts education
http://benjaminzander.com/

Boston Philharmonic Concert, http://www.bostonphil.org/,

MAHLER SYMPHONY No. 7

Thursday, April 26 @ 7:30pm
Discovery Series
Sanders Theatre

Saturday, April 28 @ 8pm
Pre-concert talk at 6:45pm
Jordan Hall

Sunday, April 29 @ 3pm
Pre-concert talk at 1:45pm
Sanders Theatre

Episode 2:  Benjamin Zander Part 1

(recorded live) Interview with conductor of the Boston Philharmonic.  Talks about Mahler 7th and how to get people more involved in the arts. http://benjaminzander.com/

Correction:  Mahler waited 6 months  to write the first movement, not 6 years.

Boston Philharmonic Concert, http://www.bostonphil.org/,

MAHLER SYMPHONY No. 7

Thursday, April 26 @ 7:30pm
Discovery Series
Sanders Theatre

Saturday, April 28 @ 8pm
Pre-concert talk at 6:45pm
Jordan Hall

Sunday, April 29 @ 3pm
Pre-concert talk at 1:45pm
Sanders Theatre

Photos of designs below.

Interview with Boston based set designer Janie E. Howland.  http://www.janiehowland.com

Credits include: Long Day’s Journey Into Night (New Rep), The Miracle Worker (Wheelock Family Theatre), History Boys and 5 by Tenn (Speakeasy Stage), Big River (Lyric Stage Company), Tonya & Nancy (Oberon), Breaking the Code (Underground Railway), Spring Awakening and Little Women (Boston Children’s Theatre). Venues include: Weston Playhouse, NSMT, New Rep, ART Instit., Nora Theatre, Stoneham Theatre, Seacoast Rep, Merrimack Repertory, Wheelock Family Theatre, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Huntington Theatre Studio 210, Opera Boston, Emerson Stage, Barnstormers, Foothills Theatre. Founding member of CYCO SCENIC; MFA from Brandeis University; 2009, 2006 and 1997 winner of the Elliot Norton Award; 2007 & 2006 winner of the IRNE award; part time faculty at Wellesley College and Emerson College; USA local 829.

Emily Hecht as Alice and Brett Johnson as Charlie in T: An MBTA Musical. Plays June 30-July 9 at ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect Street in Cambridge. Tix/Info: 617-576-1253 or improvboston.com. Photo by Ben Snitkoff

T: An MBTA Musical, music and lyrics by Melissa Carubia, book by John Michael Manship, ImprovBoston, 6/30/11-7/9/11. http://www.improvboston.com/shows/musical?ref=slide.  Mature Themes.  **Warning:  should not be viewed by kids, pets, bikes, and particularly tourists and freshmen (we need people to keep coming to Boston, and they don’t need to know the truth until it’s too late!)

Reviewed by Becca Kidwell

LISTEN TO ORIGINAL MUSIC EXCERPTS

Most people have been there at one time or another:  the T (translation for non-Bostonians–the subway).  For those who know it is a frustrating experience that makes you want to hop in your car and drive to the country or Rhode Island.  Delays, fires, sports fans, and vomit are all familiar sights on that are highlighted in the hilarious new musical at ImprovBoston–T:  An MBTA Musical. If interactive/improvisational theatre scares you, don’t worry:  this is a scripted show.  This show makes you laugh until it hurts; then, you are not so angry at the train on the way back–until the train stands still for twenty minutes because of a fire on the rail.

T:  An MBTA Musical follows in the footsteps as Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, and “Once More With Feeling” from the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This snarky, sarcastic musical follows three hapless MBTA passengers who want to bring down the T and the T employees who will stop at nothing to stop them.  Charlie (played by Brendan Mulhern), the famed passenger from the old folk song and the namesake of our fare card, sets the action in motion by singing “The MTA Song”.  This leads to the passengers “Letters of Grievance”.

Alice, played by Emily Hecht, comes from a long lineage of MBTA criminals; she is grateful that she has not fallen victim to her family’s curse and get out of Boston–if she can only get off the MBTA.  Alice has a treasure map that could bring down the T but only decides to use when she meets fellow twenty-somethings Michelle and John and she becomes a fugitive of the MBTA Cops.  Hecht has a strong voice and personality that makes her a formidable opponent against anyone.  Her strong mezzo voice and comedic timing help the audience feel safe on this wild, side-splitting ride.

Michelle, played by Sarah Tupper, feels that she has been branded as a subway slut because of a drunken night of partying that led to a regrettable hook up with the frat boy played with precision by Eric Rehm.  Michelle believes that no one will love her for who she is because the T stops running at 12:35am.  Michelle meets John and there is attraction, but she is afraid he is just another immature frat boy that is going to drag her down.  Tupper looks like a typical college party girl but also has an innocence and quirkiness that belie that first impression.  Tupper is able to mix strength with fragility both in her action and voice.  These qualities allow her character to initially accept, then reject, then accept again John’s advances.

Patrick Parhiala is a cross between Nathan Fillion and Ashton Kutcher; he has pretty-boy good looks but allows himself to look foolish and pathetic as John.  John is a former frat boy, who has yet to shed all of his immature habits; his life was messed up because his bus never arrived and he could not go to his interview.  He sees Michelle and they are instantly attracted to each other, but he feels like a loser because he was never able to recover from that tragic day when he missed his interview.  He finds new strength when he, Alice, and Michelle join forces to take down the T.  Parhiala has such a charming personality and voice that even when his character acts like a stereotypical guy, we realize he just slipped back into his old frat boy ways and deserves a second chance.

Their nemesis, the T-Cops (Leslie, Nielsen, and Lance), run around like the Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny.  Their feeble attempts are thwarted at every turn.  The cops, played by Deana Tolliver, Timothy Hoover, and Alex LeBaron, have to answer to the “Big Boss” (aka the general manager of the month) played by Ray O’Hare.  O’Hare first appears during “The Shuttle Song”, which takes its structure from Chicago‘s “Cellblock Tango”.  O’Hare’s boss is both smooth and bungling.  He finds himself in the ranks of Mr. Burns, Boris Badenov, and Doctor Claw.  He directs his minions to use all of the tricks in their arsenal from express trains to shutting down the trains and implementing shuttle buses to stop those “meddling kids”.

The songs have clever lyrics and melodies reminiscent of several different musical styles.  ”The Letters of Grievance”, “If They Could Only See”, and “The Threesome Song” show off Melissa Carubia’s musical skill with complex counterpoint.  Although it has some rough edges, Melissa Carubia and John Michael Manship could easily join the hilarity of their contemporaries:  Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Robert Lopez, and Joss Whedon.  If ImprovBoston decides to find a venue for a longer run, it will have no problem selling out for an infinite amount of time.  We have all been there; we’ve all had at least one moment of frustration on the T.  Whether it’s the erratic schedules, drunken fans, overfilled buses, or incoherent stop announcements, T: An MBTA Musical slyly sings the words felt in every Bostonian’s heart.  TNETG.  7/2/11.

EXCERPTS FROM THE ORIGINAL MUSIC.  USED WITH PERMISSION.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

The Letters of Grievance excerpt

The Bro Song excerpt

The cast of T: An MBTA Musical. Plays June 30-July 9 at ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect Street in Cambridge. Tix/Info: 617-576-1253 or improvboston.com. Photo by Jeffrey Mosser.