Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘WICA’

Believe the Rumors!!

Posted in Culture? What the what?!?!, tagged , , , , on March 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Quality theater on Whidbey? Believe the rumors.

Elizabeth Herbert

Elizabeth Herbert is a busy bee.

Bouncing from production to production, the prodigiously-talented South Whidbey resident could be referred to as an actress/writer/director/acting coach, but that would miss out on about 23 other jobs she’s had in the worlds of theater and TV.

After directing City of Angels at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in 2014, Herbert spent a year working on a show in Las Vegas.

Between then and now, she penned a full-length comedy which became a finalist in a New York competition and worked with daughter Chelsea Randall on a children’s TV show.

Herbert worked as an acting coach on the pirate-themed musical The Adventures of Captain Callie, which Randall created and wrote for WhidbeyTV.

In the near future, Herbert plans to direct a pair of one-act plays, teach summer acting classes and mount a production of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Driftwood Playhouse in Edmonds.

Oh, and she’s also currently writing a sitcom.

Somehow, in the middle of the hurricane, Herbert has carved out time to direct the Neil Simon farce Rumors, which runs at WICA Mar. 31-Apr. 15.

The play, which ran 535 performances on Broadway in the late ’80s, winning a Tony for Christine Baranski, is set at an anniversary dinner party.

Things quickly fall apart as gunshots, a car accident and much verbal back-stabbing replace dinner as everyone’s focus.

Herbert has long wanted to bring the play to vibrant life.

“I proposed Rumors to WICA a few years ago, before we entered the surreal world in which we are currently living,” Herbert said. “It was a funny play written by a favorite playwright of mine, Neil Simon; it was also a farce, which I love to direct.”

Farce uses an emphasis on characters taking themselves over seriously, intensified body energy and big/wild characterizations, which makes it even more appropriate in the cracked world we currently inhabit.

“Timing is everything,” Herbert said. “Now you can see how RELEVANT this silly, funny play has become.”

The cast for the production includes:

Brian Burroughs
Jim Carroll
Gail Liston
David Mayer
Christina Parker
Megan Parker
Nicole Parnell
Brian Plebanek
Kathy Stanley
Ken Stephens

For ticket info, pop over to:

https://www.wicaonline.org/events-calendar-view/2017/3/31/rumors

Read Full Post »

Buy a ticket, unleash the smile!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Drama, Not sports? Tough!, tagged , , , , , on February 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

It's like sunshine flows from every pore in Chelsea Randall's face. (Kelsey Simmons photo)

It’s like sunshine flows from every pore in Chelsea Randall’s face. (Kelsey Simmons photo)

Savannah (left) and Chelsea Randall, early in their careers.

Savannah (left) and Chelsea Randall, early in their careers.

Chelsea Randall has a smile that lights up the world.

Not just the room she’s in, or the city outside that room, or the continental U.S., but the entire freakin’ globe. It’s a documented fact.

Seriously.

Scientists in Oslo have determined that one smile from Ms. Randall can cure entire villages of depression, malcontentedness and you-look-like-you-have-a-stick-up-your-rear syndrome and are debating flying her into war-torn countries as a one-woman USO tour shooting joy from her dimples.

It’s Nobel Prize-worthy research, really.

For the next two nights, you, the person reading this article as you try to open your eyes and stuff some cereal in your face, can help make the sunniness bloom in her cheeks. Can make her eyes twinkle like the stars set free from the heavens.

It’s simple.

Slap down a few bucks and see Whidbey Island Center for the Arts production of “City of Angels” as it plays its final two shows.

Fill the seats, from the floor to the back row and reward the show’s supremely-talented choreographer/assistant director (and everyone else involved in the creation of an intricate, wildly entertaining musical comedy) for the countless hours she has poured into giving Whidbey a slice of Broadway in its own backyard.

Chelsea, working with mom Elizabeth Herbert (director) and lil’ sis Savannah Randall (one of the show’s leading ladies with Karla Crouch and Deana Duncan) has taken a show that won multiple Tony Awards and injected her own brand of sassy dance into it, bringing new life to the already-strong music.

The show is fast-talkin’ and high-swingin’ for the fences, and the untold hours she and her cohorts have poured into the show need to be rewarded.

Of course, you could wait until Chelsea ends up on the Great White Way, as a writer or choreographer, and go buy a ticket to see her work then.

Or, you could make your wallet happy and spring for a ticket now and still have some bucks left over for dinner or drinks pre-or-post-show.

You’re smart. You’re reading this story, after all. So the decision is easy.

Unleash the smile.

BUY TICKETS at:

http://wicaonline.com/2013-2014/CITYOFANGELS.html

Read Full Post »

Do you want to break Chelsea Randall’s heart? Yeah, I thought not!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Drama, tagged , , , , on February 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The early days of actress Savannah Randall (left) and choreographer Chelsea Randall.

  The early days of actress Savannah Randall (left) and choreographer Chelsea Randall.

Chelsea (left), Savannah and mom Elizabeth Herbert (right), out for a day on the town.

  Chelsea (left), Savannah and mom Elizabeth Herbert (right), taking the theater world by storm.

The Chelsea Randall Appreciation Society is standing by, paddles at the ready, if you don't make the right choice.

  The Chelsea Randall Appreciation Society is standing by, paddles at the ready, if you don’t make the right choice.

Your butt in a theater seat. Make it happen.

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts production of “City of Angels,” a majestic, sweeping musical comedy set in the film noir-drenched world of classic Hollywood, opens tonight for a two-week run in Langley.

It’s simple. You buy a ticket (or, better yet, multiple tickets) and the Chelsea Randall Appreciation Society doesn’t have to hunt you down and apply the Paddle o’ the Hurtin’ Butt.

We know where you live. We have the technology.

So, if you treasure your ability to sit down in the days to come, it’s simple — go bask in the inspired choreography laid down by Ms. Randall (which was not in the original Broadway show, it’s all her), the snappy direction of Elizabeth Herbert (her mom, who used to hang out with Elvis and Henry Fonda in her days as an actress) and the acting with a capitol A delivered by a cast that includes (uber-talented) little sis Savannah and Coupeville’s own heartthrob crooner, Jim Castaneda.

It’s an easy choice.

Otherwise Mr. Affleck and the boys will be round to see you. Soon. Very soon.

Go buy tickets here:

http://wicaonline.com/2013-2014/CITYOFANGELS.html

Read Full Post »

Illness pushes back opening of “City of Angels”

Posted in Drama, tagged , on February 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Savanna

Some of the stars of “City of Angels.” (WICA photo)

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts production of “City of Angels” has been pushed back a week due to wide-spread cast and crew illness.

The production, which was slated to open this Friday, Feb. 7, will now open Thursday, Feb. 13 instead, WICA Development & Communications Manager Kathryn Morgen announced Tuesday.

An additional performance on Thursday, Feb. 20 has been added to the schedule.

The dates affected during the planned Feb. 7-22 run are Friday-Sunday, Feb. 7-9.

WICA staff will contact all those who have purchased tickets for the opening weekend and offer replacement dates.

For questions, call the ticket office at (360) 221-8268 or check out http://wicaonline.com/2013-2014/CITYOFANGELS.html

Read Full Post »

Do you want to make Chelsea Randall cry?!?!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Drama, tagged , , , on February 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

It's true.

  It’s true. Sunshine flows out of her when she smiles. Seriously. (Kelsey Simmons photo)

No. No, you don’t.

Cause she’s awesome and you’re not a complete turd.

At least that’s what I’ve been telling people…

So, since you’re smart enough to know that Ms. Randall is witty, intelligent, caring, compassionate, uber-talented and a generally wonderful person in every way possible, you won’t hesitate to purchase your tickets for her new show, “City of Angels,” right freakin’ now.

Or face the wrath of the Chelsea Randall Appreciation Society.

Yeah, it’s a real thing.

Running Feb. 7-22 at Langley’s Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, “City of Angels,” an adaptation of a Tony Award-winning musical comedy, is directed by Chelsea’s mom, Elizabeth Herbert (she hung out with Elvis, so there’s that).

The choreography — all new, as the original show didn’t include dance — is courtesy of Chelsea, while the show stars her little sis, Savannah Randall, and a cast of talented song and dance hoofers such as Tristan Steel, Karla Crouch and Jim Castaneda.

It tells the story of a struggling Hollywood screenwriter whose film noir script comes to life as he fights to hang onto his original dream while falling down the rabbit hole of Tinseltown.

Bouncing from the “real world” (in color) to the “reel world” (black and white), it’s jazzy, quick-moving, full of snappy dialogue and snappier songs and the best thing Whidbey’s arts community has produced in some time.

So buy a ticket. Be one of the good guys (or gals). Spread the word. Chelsea Randall and Co. are back in town — so don’t make her frown.

Otherwise, her fan club may show up on your doorstep for a little “talk.”

For tickets: http://wicaonline.com/2013-2014/CITYOFANGELS.html

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »