Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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Sweet Tea Shakespeare Performs at Botanical Garden by TERI MEDINA Sweet Tea Shakespeare Company is joining with the Cape Fear Botanical Garden to present The Importance of Being Earnest from July 18 – 22 on the Garden's Great Lawn. When William Shakespeare asked, "What's in a name?" in the 1590s, he probably never imagined Oscar Wilde would answer the question three hundred years later in The Importance of Being Earnest. The name, it seems, is everything to main characters Jack and Algernon and the women they love. Both men take to using the name "Earnest" and the women want to marry men named Earnest. It all seems wholly convenient, but as in life, nothing is as easy as it seems. Mistaken identity and lost identity swirl together with Victorian class roles to produce a farce for the ages. "It's a little bit of country mouse/city mouse story, a little bit of Romeo and Juliet, a little bit of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It's as contemporary as it is classical. Everyone will identify with it," said Robyne Parrish, the play's director and the artistic director of the Gilbert Theater. Jeremy Fiebig, Sweet Tea Shakespeare's founder Parrish is excited to break out of traditional theater space and on to the Great Lawn. "If you've seen Earnest before, it's going to be different than any other Earnest you've seen. We're using a huge amount of space. We're basically using the entire lawn. Actors will be entering and exiting from 100 yards away. It's been fun fi guring out how to navigate the space. It's going to be fi lm- esque in the way it's staged." thinks Earnest is the perfect fi t for the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens. "It really fi ts in with the atmosphere of the garden, in particularly with the great lawn and the gazebo. The setting of the play is the late 1890s at an English country estate. It's a really great fi t for the Victorian feeling of the garden." And while more than 200 patrons braved the historic heat wave to see Sweet Tea Shakespeare's June production of Much Ado About Nothing, Fiebig anticipates cooler evenings for Earnest. "The pine trees around the great lawn will absorb some of the summer heat and the great lawn never really gets direct sunlight, so even if it's record-setting temperatures again, it won't be unbearable." Actors enjoyed performing at the Sweet Tea Shake- speare performance of Much Ado About Nothing at Cape Fear Botanical Garden earlier this summer. the Fayetteville theater scene. Six of the eight Earnest cast members were also in Much Ado About Nothing. Matt Lamb, a recent transplant from Pittsburgh, plays Jack. James Merckle plays Algernon. Tracey Hinton, who plays Gwendolen, was recently seen in Gilbert Theater's Musical of Musicals and will play the lead in the Gilbert's season opener, The Fantasticks. Jaclyn Plate is Cecily. Phillip Hunter Gilfus plays Dr. Chasuble. Antoinett Gage is Miss Prism and Lindsay Myers is Lady Bracknell. J.R. Hustwit will play a duel role as the butler for both houses. Parrish concurs with Fiebig when he proclaims, "It's one of my favorite plays and audiences love it. It is hysterical." The cast includes both familiar and new faces to children under 12 and are available through the Fayetteville State University Box Offi ce by calling (910) 672-1724. Preorders for gourmet picnic packages should be directed to Fiebig at jfi ebig@uncfsu.edu. blanket or lawn chair. Tickets are $20. for general admission, $16 for garden members and $13 for Shows begin at 7 p.m. nightly. Remember your TERI MEDINA, Contributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. Gilbert Theater Announces New Programs by NICK THAGARD With Robyne Parrish as the new artistic director of the Gilbert Theater, there are sure to be a few changes. She is filling the shoes of Lynn Pryer, who started the theater in 1994 in his basement. It then later moved to a space above the Arts Council building on Hay street in downtown Fayetteville. Currently, the Gilbert Theater is located at the corner of Green and Bow streets. The theater has produced many works throughout the years, such as As You Like It by William Shakespeare and Dickens' A Christmas Carol. One of the changes is the addition of the Gilbert Conservatory and the Gilbert Glee projects. The conservatory is aimed at honing the skills of people 15 and up. The classes will be taught by Robyne Parrish, Jeremy Fiebig and Dr. Gail Morfesis. They want the community to be more involved in the arts. By offering the Gilbert Conservatory and Gilbert Glee, they hope to encourage a new generation of actors, singers and behind-the-stage enthusiasts. Gilbert Glee, however, is a year-long monthly workshop for students ages 8-15. The workshop is scheduled for the last Saturday of every month from 8 UCW JULY 11-17, 2012 September 2012 through May 2013. The workshop focuses on Alice in Wonderland, and concludes with a performance in June of 2013. The aim of the workshop is not only to entertain, but also to educate young people about theater and music. Gilbert Glee is by audition only, but don't let that discourage you from coming; they are always looking for young and fresh talent in the community and could see potential in you. Both Gilbert Glee and Gilbert Conservatory are designed to revamp interest in theater in the community and help Gilbert Theater become a larger influence in Fayetteville's thriving arts community "We are starting both of the projects now because there is a need for it in the community. The Gilbert Glee project is only going to take a small group of extremely talented kids to continue their education in the theater," said Parrish "When plays are put on in the future, we don't want to have to bring people in from out of town for a role, we want our locals to have the skills and the passion to take the roles. We are going to grow both of the projects in the future and mix up and add classes. Our goal is to educate our artists who are here and improve their products." Parrish says that her objective is to take the theater's involvement within the community to the next level with huge growth and expansion in the near future. Both the Glee and Conservatory are going to help acheive her visions since they are designed for people in the community who are interested in theater and other visual arts to become more involved with their craft and hopefully increase the interest of the next generation. If you are interested in either the Gilbert Conservatory or Gilbert Glee, visit www.gilberttheater.com or call them at (910) 678-7186. NICK THAGARD, Contributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM