Ragtime at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

Posted on by Thor

I went to a dress rehearsal for Ragtime the Musical at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts presented by Encore! Cast Performing Arts. Entering through the stage door I got lost in the maze of backstage hallways and found myself backstage for Pecha Kucha. The whole audience was holding up glow sticks while Bob Kodzis stood on stage inspiring them to follow their dreams. What an amazing sketch opportunity.  I had gone to the wrong theater and so had to backtrack. Ragtime is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty. The music includes marches, cakewalks, gospel and ragtime. Based on the 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime tells the story of three groups in the United States in the early 20th century: African Americans, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem
musician; upper-class suburbanites, represented by Mother, the
matriarch of a white upper-class family in New Rochelle, New York; and Eastern European immigrants, represented by Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from Latvia.

Coalhouse Walker Jr. dreamed of finding his lost love Sarah. When he discovers she is living with a rich white family in New Rochelle, he immediately goes to the home. Sarah refuses to see him. Despite this, he returns each week to play Ragtime on the family piano in hopes that someday she will come down to see him. Hearing Coalhouse’s music, Sarah finally descends to forgive him, and the lovers were joyfully reunited.

 The musical includes cameos by many of New York City’s historical greats, like Houdini an JP Morgan. The rich and poor mingle in the vast city. Tateh , a Jewish immigrant sells paper cut out silhouette to scrape by with his young daughter. One day he creates a stack of silhouettes, that when flipped come to life by moving. Someone offers to buy the book for a whole dollar. Tateh vows to create more moving pictures. The next one he would sell for two dollars.

Ticket sales on July 9th and 10th, Benefited USO Central Florida. The USO
strengthens America’s military service members by keeping them connected
to family, home and country throughout their service to our nation.
That mission is accomplished on a daily basis thanks to the dedication
and generosity of the American people. Whether it is a commitment of
time from a volunteer or a contribution of dollars from a donor, USO
Central Florida turns this generosity into centers, programs and
services that reach troops across 14 counties in Central Florida.

Pecha Kucha at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

Posted on by Thor

On January 8th Pecha Kucha moved into the grandeur of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts (445 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida). Eddie Selover  took to the stage to introduce the speakers in the brand new Disney Theater. Pecha Kucha means chit chat in Japanese. The concept is simple. Speakers present 20 slides and they can only speak for 20 seconds with each slide. There is no stopping, no going back or revising one’s words. What results is a concise easy to digest presentation without extraneous and pointless verbiage. The presentations become a for of pure poetic communication. Even poets could learn to ed and extract just the heart of the subject.

On this evening the presentation that left the biggest impression was by Evan Miga. In high school, Evan was told the the dollar bill is s well designed, that it could not be reproduced. Evan took that as y challenge and us” his computer and Photoshop , he set about producing a bill that was indistinguishable from the original. Friends were impressed and asked for then own copies. The problem was that one of this friends spent the bill. Soon, the FBI came knocking on Evan’s door. He had to answer
so me serious questions. The agents must have realized that the young
student was n, a criminal mastermind and he got off with a slap on the wrist.

The next Pecha Kucha titled “Breaking the Surface” is Friday July 8th at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts (445 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida) starting at 6pm.  Tickets are $24.25.

SPEAKERS:
Andrae Bailey, CEO of Central Florida Commission on Homelessness
Julian Chambliss, Rollins History Professor
Michelle Jones, Bandleader of Violectric
Kostya Kimlat, Magician Extraordinaire
Bob Kodzis, Cheerleader and Creative Catalyst
Ama McKinley, HuffPost Contributing Blogger
Marc Middleton, Founder and CEO of Growing Bolder
Alejandro Musa, Getaboard Foundation
Shawn Welcome, Performance Poet and Founder, Diverse Word

Orlando Strong: A SAK Benefit Show.

Posted on by Thor

SAK Comedy Lab (29 S Orange Ave, Orlando, Florida) offered a free comedy benefit in the wake of recent events in Orlando. The core values at SAK have always been “Truth, Excellence and Joy”, so wanted to use their strengths as a comedy venue to share those values in support of the community (especially the LGBT and Latino communities) who could really use some joy. This show will featured SAK performers in a variety of fun acts. Admission was free, but donations were encouraged at the door. 100% of proceeds from the door will go to the “OneOrlando” campaign helping the victims and families of victims of the Pulse attack.

The Fringe superstar and fashion diva Pepe acted at the MC to open the show. He wore a gorgeous rainbow feathered boa that looked like, could inspire love, the most hate for person. As he said it was a sexy sold out house. All the mammies and poppies held each other dose as Pepe announced the first acts. Every seat in the venue had a sheet of colored paper. Bob Kodzis invited every member of the audience to write down a message for families of the decided survivors and first responders. There was an artist sketch! in the row in front of me. He held two fingers to his neck like he was checking his pulse. I believe he was sketching one of the 49 who were killed using a photo on his phone as reference.

A video set to the song, “Carry on” opened the evening. It showcased what people used to imagine about Orlando, with photos of Disney theme parks,and I-4 traffic. Then shots taken outside Pulse of the evening of the attack were replaced with photos of crowds coming together in grief an love culminating in the huge 50,000 strong Lake Eola vigil. The point of course is that we must carry on and let the work see that we are more than a tourists cliche. It was an inspiring vision of we could be without ever forgetting.

We were all ready for some laughs and the huge crew of comedians delivered. What the show real I delivered besides laughs, was joy. The comedy lab only held two other benefits in it’s 25 year history. The first was after 9/11 and the second after hurricane Charlie and his two other companions. The founder of SAK told us about his visit to the memorial outside the Dr, Phillips Center for performing arts. He was seated at one of the tables and there was another woman seated at the same table. He didn’t know her. She reached out her hand, and he took it.  They sat holding hands for 5 minutes an then she left. They never spoke a word. What if this was our everyday Standard behavior? What if we all loved more then we have ever loved before? The world would certainly be a better place.

During the auction, Pepe and another performer said they would match whatever was bid on a dinner for two. The item went for $100 after heated bidding. The event raised $4384.00, SAK matched that amount bringing the total to $8,768.00. After the show, all the performers got on stage for a spontaneous dance party. “I wanna dance with somebody“of course we all got up and joined in. Laughter and Joy bring healing.