JACKSONVILLE behind the curtain a look at local theatre and the people who make it happen Fall TV & Movie Preview | Interview with Klob | Up & Cummers Fashion Forward | Ghetto Gourmet free monthly guide to entertainment and more | september 2008 | www.eujacksonville.com 2 SEPTEMBER 2008 | eu jacksonville monthly contents 5-9 25 13 on the cover feature family pages 5-9 behind the curtain: local theatre page 20 supplemental education for kids Photo by A.M. Stewart page 25 nickelodeon’s worldwide day of play Image of the Florida Theatre a better u page 26 family events stage from lighting grid page 13 a greener u: back to school catwalk page 13 senior olympic games music page 25 klob interview A.M. creates a variety of authentic page 15 estrogen warrior page 27-31 music events images spurring from the depths of her imagination. Specializing dish in the unordinary, A.M. welcomes page 16 dish update + food events theatre & culture commissions. myspace.com/ page 10-11 cultural events page 17 ghetto gourmet: bungalow on park amstewartview; amstewartview@ page 18 up & cummers: fashion forward gmail.com home visual arts page 12 notes from the bachelor pad page 19 art events page 15 netscapades page 21 picturing fl orida book review eu staff pages 22-23 wjct’s 50th anniversary managing director pages 24-25 fall tv preview Shelley Henley movies creative director page 33-38 fall & holiday movie preview Rachel Best Henley page 39 september movies + showings senior writer food editor Rick Grant Erin Thursby specialty features Jon Bosworth contributing writers september 08 Kellie Abrahamson Jennifer McCharen Laura Britton Troy Spurlin Brenton Crozier A.M. Stewart 22-23 Dick Kerekes Tom Weppel Published by EU Jacksonville Newspaper. P.O. Box 11959, Jacksonville, FL 32239. Copyright 2008. Repro- duction of any artwork or copy prepared by EU Jack- sonville is strictly prohibited without written consent of the publisher. We will not be responsible for errors and/ or omissions, the Publisher’s liability for error will not exceed the cost of space occupied by the error. Articles for publication are welcome and may be sent to info@ entertainingu.com. We cannot assume responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. For in- formation concerning advertising phone 904-730-3003 or email [email protected]. 33-38 eujacksonville.com | SEPTEMBER 2008 3 4 SEPTEMBER 2008 | eu jacksonville monthly behind the curtain How the theatre season gets on area stages by erin thursby, photos by a.m. stewart ong before the fi rst whiff of face powder and the spotlight shines on the stage there’s a beehive of activity that not L only goes on backstage on opening night but also for weeks, and sometimes months. There’s a cadre of professionals and volunteers who design and build the sets, sew the costumes, fi ne tune the lighting and sound systems. But even before that, the show’s ringmaster is the producer who coordinates all the elements, selects the shows and manages the production. players by the sea and the road to sweeney todd Since 1966, Players by the Sea has been offering quality community theatre to Jacksonville Beach. They’ve grown since those gypsy begin- nings, when they traveled from venue to venue to put on their shows and they’ve weathered disaster when their fi rst established theatre burned to the ground in the 70s. These days they’ve got two theatres onsite and a loyal patronage that looks for both the avant-garde and the tried and true. This month, the often controversial but new- ly popular musical, Sweeney Todd, will be gracing At a Theatre Jacksonville rehearsal, an actress waits for her entrance their stage. In choosing the season, Players by the Sea tries to gauge what the volunteers and the that their choice was guided by knowing the talent in the city. community wants. “People were questioning, do we have the talent to do it? I have to say yes,” answers Hamby “I’ve Says Executive Director Joe Schwarz: “I done theater in many towns…and we have some of the best talent around.” make the process very transparent…people knew “A lot people that are well-known in the theatre community come back from the professional world… that we were considering Sweeney Todd a long just because it’s community theatre doesn’t mean the talent hasn’t been there, done that.” time ago. The reason that I do that is because I Like some of the talent in the show, Hamby is a veteran of the New York acting scene. He came back want their input.” to Jacksonville because of a family matter and ended up staying on to direct. “We throw the net very wide,” explains “People say, ‘Why aren’t you in New York?’ Well, I was in New York, I did National Tours. I just love Schwarz. “We look to the community, the talent doing theatre, no matter where it is.” and we also look to our patrons [to] fi nd out, what “I have Matthew J. Campbell playing Sweeney and he’s a professional actor. He’s lived in New do they want…I wouldn’t have necessarily picked York…he’s traveled with regional theatre. Same thing with my Mrs. Lovett. Dana Brant, she’s gone and Music Director Samuel Sweeney Todd, if a lot of people hadn’t wanted done things elsewhere…Just because it’s community theatre doesn’t mean it’s Joe Shomo working in an Clein and Bill White us to…You can’t do a play without actors…in a offi ce somewhere wanting to do community theatre.” review changes to a community theater.” song in Sweeney Todd Lee Hamby, who is directing the show, says » continues on page 6 » eujacksonville.com | SEPTEMBER 2008 5 Erin Gowera and Bonny Tennant get ready backstage before the start of rehearsal at Players by the Sea But fi nding talent wasn’t Hamby’s fi rst concern when Players was considering doing the show. In- stead, it was a technical issue: the infamous barber chair, which collapses to slide the bodies of Sweeney Todd’s victims through a trap door to the meat grinding area below. “That was my number one concern from the get-go…if we can’t do the chair; we can’t do the show… My fi rst thought was to get the chair from someone who’s already used the chair and knows that it works properly and can explain it to us. But the more I did research on it, nobody had a good-looking chair…They all looked out of scale…I called people in Georgia, even up to Atlanta. Nobody had one that I really liked. David Paul, our technical director at Players by the Sea, he is so good…He’s built some crazy things that you can’t fi nd anywhere, so this was the perfect job for him…He got on it, built a prototype… We did lots of research on what other people did.” “People were questioning, do we have the talent to do it? I have to say yes, I’ve done theater in many towns…and {}we have some of the best talent around.” His main concern was keeping the actors safe, not only because he likes his actors, but because understudies can often be in short supply in community theatre. “It works famously. We love it…and it works. We are doing something a little different. I don’t want to give away the secret, though…You can’t do something completely different because people expect certain things.” Hamby enjoys the pace of community theatre because there’s often more time to fi ne tune a show. “Community theatre is just the opposite of professional—[for professional] you’ll have two weeks to put up the show, and then months of the run…[in community] you rehearse for a couple of months and then just do a couple of weekends of the show…As an actor you have more time to perfect your part more so than you do in professional theatre.” The production of Sweeney will be its own creature, not a slavish copy of the movie or the Broadway revival. Hamby and his cast have worked hard to give the people what they want, while still putting their own unique Players by the Sea stamp on things. “Sweeney Todd hasn’t been done in this town for 25 years. The last…[theater] that did it was River City Playhouse…Everyone’s been talking about doing it, but no one really had the nerve to do it…It’s one of the most diffi cult shows in musical theatre…People saying that we can’t do this just makes me more excited to do it.” what we want at the alhambra According to Tod Booth, executive director of the Alhambra Dinner Theatre, public desire drives the season choices for his theatre. “We’re a commercial theatre so we pick our shows based on what we believe the public is Clayton Hughes saws through interested in and will support, because we’re not a custom-made set design for endowed by any grants…So we have to very con- an upcoming production of Alhambra’s Westside Story cerned about what we pick being marketable…” 6 SEPTEMBER 2008 | eu jacksonville monthly They look to more than one type of market in the Jacksonville area, so you’ll fi nd different types of shows on their roster. “We plan a very diverse schedule…some [shows] appeal to families, some to older people, some to school groups, others appeal to just children.” The majority of the shows are produced onsite, with just 10 days to stage the show.