Christine Ebersole featured in new Broadway Legends book

Robert Viagas, the founding editor of Playbill.com and host of Playbill Radio, profiles many of Broadway's greatest performers in "I'm the Greatest Star: Broadway's Top Musical Legends From 1900 to Today". The book profiles many celebrated stars from Broadway's Golden era including Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Jerry Orbach, Zero Mostel and Gwen Verdon along with some wonderful backstage stories. Two-time Tony winner Christine Ebersole, who opens our 2009-2010 Cabaret Series in Samueli Theater this Thursday, is featured as well. Anyone who has seen this incomparable talent knows why she's considered a legend.

You can read more about the book here or buy a copy at Amazon.com

Trey McIntyre Project Draws 1,500 School Children to the Center

More than 1,500 youngsters, many of whom have never seen a professional dance performance, attended a special preview at the Center by Trey McIntyre Project on Friday, October 2. Some are seen walking around the set and equipment for the World Premiere piece, "The More I See You," which will be unveiled during the Friday and Saturday evening performances (upper right image).

A Day in the Life of Trey McIntyre Project

Click above to see a video of Trey McIntyre Project’s busy first day in Orange County. The video includes a visit by Trey and Brett to the University of California, Irvine to work with graduate students in Professor Naugle’s choreography composition class and a spontaneous dance event at Huntington Beach Surf City Nights open market. These activities are part of the dance company’s week-long residency at the Center which were designed to expand the artistic experience beyond the stage.

Find A Spurban Near You

Last night, Trey McIntyre Project took passers-by at Huntington Beach Surf City Nights by total surprise when they danced three works at the intersection of Main and Olive Streets. The company calls these performances spur-of-the-moment urban dances and they will be performing more throughout Orange County today, Wednesday, September 30. Below is a list of spurbans with locations and times. Be sure to arrive on time because the dances last only 5-10 minutes. (More photos below.)

11:25 a.m. Chapman University – Fahmy Attallah Ph.D. Piazza, off of One University Drive and N. Glassell Street

Noon/12 p.m. Santa Ana Arts District – Cal State Fulleton Grand Central Art Center at Broadway and 1st next to the Gypsy Den

12:40 p.m. South Coast Plaza at the Carousel Court on the ground floor

1:30 p.m. Irvine Spectrum in front of the Edwards Movie Theater and foodcourt

Tickets to Trey McIntyre Project are just $10. They will perform Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3 in Segerstrom Hall and on the community plaza. More info at http://www.ocpac.org/home/Events/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=961&NavID=86

Banned...and in good company

In recognition of Banned Books Week (BBW) - September 26−October 3, 2009 - and our upcoming presentation of the critically acclaimed musical Spring Awakening, we offer the following quiz:

Which of the following works of theater have been banned?

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Tartuffe by Molière
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Marriage of Figaro by Pierre Augustin Caron De Beaumarchais
A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
The Importance Of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan
The Three-Penny Opera by Bertolt Brecht
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Kismet by Edward Knoblock
Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
West Side Story by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Jesus Christ Superstar by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber
Hair by Gerome Ragni, James Rado, and Galt McDermott
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner
Fences by August Wilson
Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard
Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon
Miss Saigon by Alain Boubil, Claude-Michel Schonberg, Richard Maltby, Jr.

If you said ALL of these plays have been banned…you are correct!

Spring Awakening, the winner of eight 2007 Tony Awards including best musical, is based on Frank Wedekind’s controversial 1891 drama, a work so daring in its depiction of teenage
self-discovery it was banned from the stage and not performed in its complete form in English for nearly 100 years. The musical plays Segerstrom Hall November 17 - 29, 2009.

BBW, an annual event held during the last week of September, celebrates the freedom to read and the power of literature.

Catch Steve Martin on Your TeeVee

For those of you who just can’t wait for Orange County native Steve Martin to make his way to the Center October 30, you're in luck! He’ll be appearing on a couple of television shows next week so be sure to tune in to the airwaves. On Monday October 5, Steve will be a guest on the Late Show with (funnyman) David Letterman which airs on CBS. And on Tuesday, October 6, he will talk with the ladies at ABC’s hit morning show, The View. In Steve’s visit to the Center, he will perform with The Steep Canyon Rangers in an evening of bluegrass and banjo. The performance will feature music from his latest release, The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo.

The First Lady on why the arts matter

"That is the power of the arts -- to remind us of what we each have to offer, and what we all have in common; to help us understand our history and imagine our future; to give us hope in the moments of struggle; and to bring us together when nothing else will. That is what we celebrate here today.”

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