Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold - Page 25

'Gypsy is a dream come true for me. I have been involved with Maine State Music Theatre since 1993, and to become part of the family is very special.' Raymond Marc Dumont's eyes sparkle and he glows with enthusiasm as he talks about his current involvement with the company as choreographer for their production of Gypsy which runs from July 17- August 3 at the Pickard Theatre in Brunswick, ME. Not only is this production a homecoming for the Maine-born and raised actor, director, and choreographer, but it his first gig as a member of SDC, the directors and choreographers union. 'To come in with a classic is an absolute thrill!'

The Fourth of July weekend continued at the Bowdoin International Music Festival with an exciting showcase of the festival's young talent: a four-hour lineup of back to back concerts in the Artists of Tomorrow series. The purpose of these recitals is to create a platform where the festival's students, who range in age from fourteen to mid-twenties, can gain experience performing in a supportive environment. In the first two programs which I attended, twenty-five young artists from seven different countries played with passion, verve, and a firm grasp of the essentials of professional concertizing on the stage of the elegant, acoustically excellent Studzinski Recital Hall on the Bowdoin College campus.

"Three hundred miles north of everywhere," the small but bustling college town of Brunswick, Maine, attracts some of the world's most prestigious musicians to its summer festival. The Bowdoin International Music Festival, now in its forty-ninth year, is a performance and practice program where 250 carefully selected students from twenty-five countries and thirty-six states come to study with world-renowned faculty instructors and guest artists. In the course of the six-week session, these musicians perform over one hundred public concerts. With the resources at their command the results are generally astounding!

It was with this amusing phrase that Margaret Caroline Struthers loved to describe her talented actress daughter, Sally. And, indeed, for several generations of television and theatre audiences, Sally Struthers has reigned as a comedienne. The vivacious, outgoing, blonde actress is currently back at the Ogunquit Playhouse for her thirteenth production in eleven seasons where she is playing Mrs. Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie. A perennial favorite at this famed seaside summer stage, Struthers has starred in their productions of (among others) Hello, Dolly! The Full Monty, Fiddler on the Roof, Always, Patsy Cline, and Chicago.

It is hard to connect the soft-spoken young actor with whom I am conversing to the soul-singing, hip-swinging rogue he is playing onstage at the Pickard Theatre. Indeed, the more we chat, the more Kelvin Roston, Jr., who plays James 'Thunder' Early in the Maine State Music Theatre hit production of Dreamgirls, seems to be full of surprises.

The brutality and barbarism of Shakespeare's early 'revenge' play, Titus Andronicus, make it difficult fare for modern audiences. And yet, as director Stacey Koloski says about her staging at South Portland's Mad Horse Theatre Company: 'Titus Andronicus shows the human cost to the cycle of war and violence.' That the tragedy with all its on-stage atrocities may be 'frighteningly relevant today' does not make the experience any less painful for the spectators. Yet despite its assault on our emotions and senses, the audience at the Mad Horse Theatre cannot help but be gripped and moved by what it witnesses.

The dark, handsome man with twinkling blue eyes and classically chiseled features who sits opposite me at the Maine State Music Theatre has the look of a leading man. However, at this moment he is wearing his hat as the company's newly minted Artistic Consultant. Nonetheless, I am not wrong in my initial impression. Curt Dale Clark is, indeed, a leading man - a prominent actor who has tread the boards in major theatres across the country starring in roles such as Javert (Les Miserables), The Phantom (Phantom of the Opera), Don Lockwood (Singing in the Rain), and Joe Gillis (Sunset Boulevard). He is also the playwright and lyricist of a number of musical fairy tales, for which his longtime collaborator, Marc Robin has written the music. But this is the first juncture in a career that has spanned twenty-four years that Clark has had the opportunity to combine his creative and acting talents with his skills as a theatre administrator.

In his in vino veritas speech near the end of Ken Ludwig's comedy, Moon Over Buffalo, George Hay voices a nostalgic paean to the "wicked life upon the stage." Like several of Ludwig's other plays, Moon Over Buffalo is a predictable, but gently amusing look at a troupe of actors treading the boards in out-of-town theatres, ever dreaming about the big break.

With the start of Memorial Day, hordes of summer visitors flock to Maine for an idyllic summer of sailing, swimming, hiking, kayaking, and reveling in the beauty of the rocky coast, serene lakes and mountains, and pine-scented air. But exploring the outdoors is not the only reason to visit the state whose moniker is 'Vacationland.' For theatre lovers there are some excellent opportunities to experience exciting professional and community theatre productions.