Agatha Christie's Mousetrap Opens in Potomac

The Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap opened in London in 1952. It has run continuously for almost 60 years! If you don't feel like traveling to London just to see this masterpiece, you can drive about10 minutes to the Bullis School campus.

The Potomac Theatre Company will be presenting The Mousetrap starting this Thursday, March 10 at the Blair Family Center on the Bullis Campus. The show will run for three consecutive weekends. See the flyer below

Mikado at Potomac Theatre Company

Long-term readers of Inverness Forest Today will remember that I am the photographer for two local community theater companies: The Potomac Theatre Company and the Victorian Lyric Opera Company. When one of these theater companies has a particularly good production, I write a blog post to let you know.

This time, both of these theater companies have combined forces to create a memorable production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado".

The show opened last weekend and the audiences, judging by the applause, seemed very happy with the production.  The final performances will be this weekend at the Bullis School, about 8 minutes from Inverness Forest.

The Mikado is a story of two young lovers who triumph in the end after overcoming numerous obstacles and a case or two of mistaken identity.  Among the humorous plot twists in the case of the Ko Ko, the royal executioner, who tries to figure out how to chop off his own head.  The story is summarized in this Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mikado

To request tickets and for the location and times of the show, see the flyer below.

Harvey
iftblog@gmail.com

Fun Holiday Show Opens in Potomac

Longtime readers of Inverness Forest Today will recall that I periodically write about local community theater productions that might be of interest to residents. Today I'd like to talk about the Potomac Theatre Company's production of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas", which opened last night at the Blair Family Theater on the Bullis campus (less than a 10 minute drive from our community).

The music and lyrics were written by Meredith Willson, who also wrote "The Music Man" and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", and is based on the classic movie, "Miracle on 34th Street". The music is performed by a live orchestra and features a large, talented cast. Kris Kringle (aka Santa Claus) is played by Potomac Theatre Company veteran Vin Kelly. Macy's Department store executive Doris Walker is played by Jessica May. Ex-marine turned lawyer, Fred Gaily, is played by another PTC veteran, Ken Kemp. The fourth lead, Doris's daughter, Susan Walker, is played by 12 year old Mary Sorensen. The leads are wonderful actors and singers and are backed by a large talented cast.

Here is what Wikipedia says about the show:

Based on the classic film Miracle on 34th Street, it tells the tale of a skeptical little girl who doubts the existence of Santa Claus. When the real Kris Kringle inadvertently is hired to represent jolly St. Nick in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, he must convince the child and her cynical divorced mother (the department store's special events director) that he's the genuine article. Susan Walker and her mother, Doris, live alone in New York in the 1960s. Doris works in an executive position at Macy's, and at the start of the musical is busy organizing the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Susan meets an ex-marine named Fred Gaily, who takes it upon himself to rid her of her "realistic" outlook on life by taking her to see Santa Claus at Macy's. Kris (Santa) manages to win Susan over while love blooms between Fred and Doris. The second act sees Kris appearing in the New York Supreme Court, with Fred helping him defend his sanity. In the conclusion, Fred uses the Post Office to prove to the court (and the world) that Santa Claus does exist: Kris Kringle is he.

Tickets and directions can be found at the Potomac Theatre Company website:

http://www.potomactheatreco.org/

Anyone attending tonight's performance (Nov 21) is invited to a free wine and cheese party after the show in the theater lobby where you can meet the cast and crew. Tonight's show will start an hour earlier than normal, at 7:00 PM, to accommodate the party.

The show runs for three consecutive weekends.

Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com

Two Impressive Shows Open Locally

As long-time readers of Inverness Forest Today know, I occasionally discuss the productions of two local theater companies: The Potomac Theatre Company and The Victorian Lyric Opera Company.  Since I'm associated with both companies I get to see the rehearsals and watch the shows take shape.  In June each company will present their season's finale.  The Potomac Theatre Company will present the play, Don't Dress For Dinner while the Victorian Lyric Opera Company will present Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers.

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Picture from the Art and Seek Blog
Don't Dress for Dinner is a two-act play by French playwright Marc Camoletti.  The Answer Girl blog provides the following summary: "Don't Dress for Dinner is a farce about a naughty weekend that goes wrong in every possible way. Bernard and Josephine are at their country house for the weekend, but as the play begins, Josephine is on her way to visit her mother. Before she leaves, she discovers that their best man, Robert, is coming to share Bernard's bachelor weekend; what Bernard doesn't know is that Robert and Jacqueline are actually having an affair.  So Jacqueline cancels her plans to visit her mother, but what she doesn't know is that Bernard had invited his own mistress, Suzanne, to spend the weekend while Jacqueline was away. He's also hired a cook to prepare a special dinner for him, Robert and his girlfriend; the cook's name is Suzette. Suzette arrives as Robert is alone in the house, expecting to meet Suzanne, and wackiness ensues."

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The Gondoliers is equally zany.  (Picture and text from Wikipedia)

"The story of the opera concerns the young bride of the heir to the throne of Barataria who arrives in Venice to join her husband. It turns out, however, that he cannot be identified, since he was entrusted to the care of a drunken gondolier who mixed up the prince with his own son. To complicate matters, the King of Barataria has just been killed. The two young gondoliers must now jointly rule the kingdom until the nurse of the prince can be brought in to determine which of them is the rightful king. Moreover, when the young queen arrives to claim her husband, she finds that the two gondoliers have both recently gotten married. A last complicating factor is that she, herself, is in love with another man."

Show dates and ticket information can be found at:

Don't Dress For Dinner 

The Gondoliers 

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I've been attend rehearsals of both shows and taking pictures.  The links to those pictures are here:

Don't Dress For Dinner Rehearsal pictures

Gondoliers Rehearsal pictures

Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com

Magical Merry Widow

Long time readers of Inverness Forest Today know that I occasionally discuss local live theater productions. The Victorian Lyric Opera production of The Merry Widow starts today at the Fitzgerald Theater in Rockville. This is a magical, delightful production. It has great singing, dancing, and very funny dialog. Director Debbie Niezgoda brings the show to life by recreating the atmosphere of the Pontevedrian embassy in early 20th century Paris. The music bubbles and sparkles under the baton of artistic director and conductor Joseph Sorge.

Ticket Information

The story

The cast and orchestra are so uniformly outstanding that it would be hard to single out specific performers for special praise. Instead I'll let you judge for yourself. Below are links to pictures and musical selections from the Victorian Lyric Opera production.

My Dress Rehearsal Pictures

Listen to Music clips from the VLOC production


Don't miss this show!

Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com

Scrooge -The Musical Comes to Potomac

Scrooge - the Musical will be performed by the Potomac Theatre Company starting November 21 and running until Sunday December 7, 2008. Performances are at the Blair Theater at Bullis School, only a six minute drive from Inverness Forest.

(From the Potomac Almanac):

The Potomac Theatre Company will celebrate its 20th year with a production of "Scrooge: The Musical" beginning Friday, Nov. 21. Shows run from Nov. 21 through Dec. 7 each weekend at the Blair Family Center for the Arts at the Bullis School, 10601 Falls Road, Potomac. For more information and to purchase tickets call 301-299-8571 or visit
Potomac Theatre Company.
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I have been attending and photgraphing the rehearsals and am very impressed. Director Ron Sarro has assembled a fantastic cast for this production, which is an ideal show for the holiday season. The Potomac Almanac has a feature story on this production of Scrooge both online and in the current edition.

You can see a wonderful live performance of a great show for a fraction of the cost of a downtown show. It is much more convenient than traveling downdown since the Blair Theater is only a six minute drive from Inverness.

I'll be working the lights during the performances; stop by the lighting booth at the back of the theater and say hello during intermission or after the performance.In addition to my photographs that appeared in the Potomac Almanac (and one in the Gazette), you can see the entire Scrooge photo collection here:
http://harveylevine.smugmug.com/Theater/637404

Harvey

ifatreasurer@mac.com

Local Live Theater This Weekend and Next

We are certainly fortunate in the Potomac area to have several very good local theater companies. I have the privilege of being the photographer for two of them: the Victorian Lyric Opera (VLOC) and the Potomac Theatre Company (PTC). Both companies are performing this weekend and next weekend.



VLOC is performing Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience", which is a fun spoof through the world of Victorian poets and the swooning maidens attracted to them. Here is the Wikipedia article on Patience. The show has typical G&S bubbling music and witty dialog and the VLOC performance is fantastic. Find out more and order tickets here.


PTC is performing "On Golden Pond", an exploration of the sometimes tense relationships between three generation of a family. Here is the Wikipedia description of On Golden Pond. The Potomac Almanac ran a story on this production this week (along with my photographs of the cast). If you missed it, here is the link: Potomac Almanac story about On Golden Pond. Reservations at 301-299-8571.

I'll be the lighting operator for all the performances of On Golden Pond except the June 22 matinee (I'll be at the performance of Patience that day). Stop by the tech booth at the back of the theater to say hello to me after the show.

Harvey
ifatreasurer@mac.com