Memo from the RTC - Rhapsody Players Delight Saturday Night Crowd in Benefit Performance

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