Rave Reviews for "Spamalot"

Skyler Goff as Tim the Enchanter | Photo by Tommy Propest

We opened Spamalot last weekend, and this photo kind of hits the nail on the head of how we all felt about it. This is among the biggest shows we've ever tackled. Scenic pieces are huge and move constantly (a real feat for a theatre with no fly space and very limited wing space), costumes number well into the triple digits, and cast members are jumping over the orchestra pit, jumping out of windows, and jumping off of tables. Production wise, this was a real challenge! Plus, Spamalot is the type of show that absolutely needs an audience, so to even get to the moment where the show has opened, and then to have the overwhelmingly wonderful feedback from those opening weekend audiences ... well, we it felt like it was an arms-outstretched-during-a-gargantuan-roar type of weekend.

Two reviews came out almost immediately, and in case you didn't see them earlier, they're posted here for you!

Asheville Citizen-Times: "Spamalot" superb at ACT

Mountain Xpress: Asheville Community Theatre’s “Spamalot” is a laugh-a-lot hit

Spamalot runs through June 29, 2014 with performances Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 pm and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 pm. Call us at 828-254-1320 for tickets or get them here!

Cast Announced for Driving Miss Daisy

We're thrilled to announce the cast for Driving Miss Daisy, Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize winning drama. We had an astounding number of extremely talented actors audition for this piece - and congratulations are due to all who auditioned. Congratulations also to the three who were cast:

Miss Daisy - Pamela Gilmer
Hoke - Ronnie Pepper
Boolie - Michael Boulos

We'll begin rehearsals for the show next week! Driving Miss Daisy opens August 1 and runs for three weekends with performances on Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 pm and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 pm.

Spamalot: Pics from Rehearsal!

We've been in rehearsals for about a month now on Spamalot, and we don't know if we've ever had this much fun learning "routines and chorus scenes." Our stage manager, Rodney Smith, is also an excellent photographer, and he's been posting pictures from the first day of auditions all the way through. It's an authentic look behind the scenes of the production process - and it's also a lot of fun to see new pictures every few days!

Spamalot has everything - killer rabbits, flying cows, taunting Frenchmen - but is there another production of Spamalot in the world that has a rehearsal photo of a Julia Child impersonator reading her lines? We think not (and we're so glad Rodney captured that very funny moment).

Dearly Departed Cast List

We are THRILLED to announce the cast for Dearly Departed, the drop dead funny Southern comedy that will open April 11, 2014! Director Lauren Fortuna has assembled a cast that mixes returning friends and first-time ACTers. Congratulations to all who auditioned - if your name isn't on this list, we hope it will be on the next one! 

Raynelle - Judi Pratt

RayBud - Adam Arthur 

Lucille - Amy LaDeroute 

Junior - Craig Justus

Suzanne - Susie Davis

Marguerite - Diane Chapman 

Royce - Waylon Wood

Delightful - Stephanie O'Rear 

Rev. Hooker - Frank Salvo

Veda - Annette Hobbs

Norval - Terry Ward 

Nadine - Cary Nichols

Clyde - Eric Mills

Juanita - Honor Moor

Bud - TBA 

Joy of Life Singers: 

Andriette Kinesella

Tracy Munn

Peter Johnson

Gary Gaines

Susan Mengel

Cabaret: Creating the Set

Jill Summers (bottom left) is the Technical Director here at Asheville Community Theatre. She's also designed many of the sets over the past few years, and has been working hard on the concept and build for Cabaret.

Jill shared her scenic model for Cabaret with the staff, cast, and crew a few weeks ago (top right). It's a two level set with a space between the grand staircases so that the orchestra can be seated onstage. It's grounded by a metal centerpiece (hence, the welding, top left) with wooden platforming, the beginnings of which are show on the bottom right. Of course, by the time Jill and her talented crew of carpenters and painters are through, the metal and the bare wood will be transformed into the Kit Kat Klub.

Cabaret: The Inside Scoop

That's me on the right! Lyle Laney is on the left,
Jessica Pisano (Sally Bowles) is center, and
Alan Malpass is on the floor!

Hi everyone, my name is Van Raynor and I am a marketing intern for ACT. I am also in this years production of Cabaret. Jenny Bunn and I thought that we would give you an inside scoop on what is happening behind the scenes of Cabaret.

If you have never seen the show, Cabaret is set in Berlin in the 1920s during the rise of Nazi Germany. The show takes place in the debaucherous Kit Kat Klub with a wide variety of interesting (and very flexible, I might add) club dancers. Cliff Bradshaw, an American writer, comes to the city in the search of inspiration for his book. He goes to the "Klub" where he meets Sally Bowles, a British singer. The characters face many new challenges and decisions that will change their lives maybe for the better, maybe for the worse as they move into the new political climate.

This sizzling show directed by Jerry Crouch will be sure to keep you warm in the month of February. The cast of 15 who have various backgrounds in acting, dancing and singing, have been rehearsing since December in preparation of opening night on the 7th of February 2014. We are all excited to get this show up on its feet! Our almost nightly rehearsals have left some of us - and I can testify to this - sore and out of breath because of the tough dance steps our choreographer Kathy Myers has given us. Just wait for some of the lifts and routines we have waiting for you at the "Klub!" And if that isn't enough we have Lenora Thom as our Music Director which as anyone who's worked with her before knows that she will get you singing to a German efficiency. Director Jerry Crouch has been taking candid pictures of the rehearsals for the past few weeks and we thought we would show you a few to get you in that Cabaret spirit!

Scenes from a musical - or at least the rehearsals!

Cabaret: Cast List

Asheville Community Theatre is happy to announce the cast for the upcoming production of Cabaret opening February 7, 2014.

EMCEE - Kevin Moxley*
SALLY - Jessica Hutchman
CLIFF - Mark Jones
FRAULEIN SCHNEIDER - Ruth Butler
HERR SCHULTZ - James Curley*
FRAULEIN KOST - Jess Marie*
ERNST LUDWIG - Luke Haynes

KIT KAT KLUB GIRLS & BOYS: Fleming Lomax, Jax Ranger*, Leslie Lang, Ashley Dillingham*, Karen Panek, Rebecca O'Quinn*, Lyle Laney, Jacob Walas, Van Raynor and Alan Malpass

The Cabaret Creative Team and the staff of ACT would like to thank the 45 talented actors, singers and dancers who auditioned for the 17 roles in this legendary Broadway musical drama.

One of the most exciting things about this wonderful cast is the *6 new actors who will be joining the ACT family for the first time! As the Emcee of the KIT KAT KLUB says "Wilkommen!"

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: Study Guide

We have two matinee performances during the run of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever that are for school groups only.  For those performances, we provide a study guide that we send to teachers in advance of the field trip.  But guess what? The study guide is great for any young audience member - whether they're attending a school performance or not!

 

Best Christmas Pageant: Cast List

Congratulations to everyone who auditioned for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! We know how much courage it takes to try out for a show, and we wish that every show had more parts to go around.

Drumroll, please! Here's the cast list for the show:

Father: Jeff Corpening
Reverend: Frank Salvo
Mother: Robin Oswald
Mrs. McCarthy: Carla Pridgen
Mrs. Slocum: Viola Williams
Mrs. Armstrong: Francis Davis
Mrs. Clausing: Karen Lechner
Imogene: Charlie Abell
Beth: Delaney Martin
Alice: JyAire McEachni
Maxine: Eleanor Conner
Doris: Isabelle McLellan
Gladys: Riley Oswald
Beverly: Victoria Weatherman
Shirley: Finlay Martin
Ralph: Cade Wooten
Elmer: Frank Davis
Leroy: Matthew Daggerhart
Claude: Brendan Nickerson
Hobie: Luke McLellan
Charlie: Gavin Reep
Ollie: Reed Atherton
David: Ben Kepple
Baby Angels: Violet Conner, Lucille Conner, Ellery Grace

Annie Get Your Gun: Press and Reviews

Annie Get Your Gun is open! We had full houses for all three performances Opening Weekend and welcomed 380 students and teachers to a school matinee performance just this morning (which ended with high school students chorusing together on songs from the show as they waited for their bus in the lobby). Everyone in the cast and crew is majorly excited and minorly exhausted. At least we think that's the order!

 

A triumvirate of talent: Charlie Davenport (Pat LaCorte),
Sitting Bull (Mike Vaniman), and Buffalo Bill (Richard Blue)
scheme and sing throughout the show. Photo by Tommy Propest

This show has generated a lot of excitement in the press as well. The Mountaineer ran a terrific preview piece on Annie Get Your Gun by Mark Ellis-Bennett of The Biltmore Beacon. It includes interviews with director Jerry Crouch and stars Brandon Kersey and Jacqueline Collison-Canney. Tony Kiss of the Asheville Citizen-Times also chatted with director Jerry Crouch prior to opening.

And this morning, we received our first review! Jim Cavener of the Asheville Citizen-Times says that Annie Get Your Gun is "this is a theater experience to make time and space to see and enjoy." The show runs for three more weekends through October 13 - and we hope that gives you enough time to join us for a performance!

"Annie Get Your Gun" Study Guide

We are trying to up our game in the study guide department - and we're getting closer to where we'd like to be! We're sending this one out to about 700 students who will be joining us for Annie Get Your Gun over the next few weeks. Let us know what you think!

 

Lights! Camera! Annie!

The “Little Sure Shot” of the “Wild West,”an exhibition of rifle shooting at glass balls, etc.
The title is almost longer than the film itself! This short film (only about 21 seconds long) of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler was filmed on November 1, 1894 in Thomas Edison’s Black Maria studio by cameraman William Heise. It's thought to be the 11th motion picture ever filmed!

Note: No need to adjust your volume - there was no sound recorded in early Kinetoscope films.


Annie Get Your Gun runs Friday, September 20 through Sunday, October 13. We've got some tricks up our sleeves, too!  Come and see!