Memo From the RTC:
Rhapsody Players Delight Saturday Night Crowd in Benefit Performance
By Norm Scott
Those lucky enough to attend the benefit performance of “The
Rhapsody Players” (rhapsodyplayers.org) at the home of the Rockaway Theatre
Company last Saturday night were treated to two hours of delightful
entertainment by the seven member singing group, accompanied by an outstanding
six piece band. This was the second time I had seen them and the harmony and
the ability of each member to deliver a rock’n sock’n solo gave the audience
the feeling they were at a top level show delivered by star pros. They were
recently joined by our one of RTC’s major stars and voices, Renee Titus, whose
voice can knock down walls – and practically did.
We were accompanied by David Bentley, a former colleague and
friend of mine, who since his retirement from the NYCDOE reviews plays in
various parts of the nation (https://thepeoplescritic.com/).
David, invited us to dinner the night before at the famed Lamb’s Club, a social
club in New York City for actors, songwriters, and others involved in the
theater. It is America's oldest theatrical organization – since 1874 and we
were treated to members performing various songs as we ate dinner – all with an
accompaniest on the piano. All performers are members of the club, which over
its 142 years has contained many famous members – oh that photo on the wall
with a 25 year old Fred Astaire. We told
David about the RTC benefit and he decided to join us, expecting a nice
performance by local amateur talent. Well, he was blown away and couldn’t
believe The Rhapsody Players were not performing professionally. I agree and am
only sorry that all RTC fans didn’t get to see it. Hopefully The Rhapsody
Players will return to Rockaway soon.
Rockaway Café
rehearsals heat up and RTC preps new courses
I’ve been added to the cast of the legendary RTC productions
of The Rockaway Café, which returns after a few years layoff, on Nov. 3 for 10
performances over 3 weekends (and one Thursday). But fans shouldn’t fret – I
can’t mess things up too badly since also joining the cast are Tony Homsey and
Curtis Wanderer – also known as that dynamic duo – Tony Curtis.
The three of us will also be involved in a brand new course
being taught by Tony – Basics of Theater Set Construction, beginning soon after
Thanksgiving and running every Sunday for 8 weeks in two hour sessions. Basic
use of the tools used, safety in using the tools will be covered in the first
session. This is not a set design course but how to exercise the vision of the
set designer and the director in the most feasible manner possible. One of the
goals is to expand our set building crew so as to distribute the workload. One
of the major projects in the course will be building the sets for the two
children’s theater group’s plays in February and March. If interested in joining us keep an eye out
for more information in a few weeks.
Read Norm’s other column, School Scope and his blog at
ednotesonline.com
No comments:
Post a Comment