Q: How exciting is it for you to create the title role in one of the most famous musicals ever written?

A: It’s a little overwhelming. There are some big shoes to fill with all the great stars who have made the role of Annie their own. It is truly a special opportunity for me. The kind that only comes around every once in a while. I am really excited.

Q: How will you approach the role of Annie Oakley?

A: I did a lot of research, studied the background of Annie Oakley. She’s a very strong willed, savvy person. I have seen productions where she has been portrayed as dumb rather than uneducated. There’s is a subtle difference there between being dumb and uneducated. I found her to be an inherently smart woman. Annie see things simply and then she’s always doin’ what comes naturally. She is a very joyous person and that’s why I am having so much fun playing her. It’s like finding my inner child.

Q: How have you enjoyed your Hale experience?

A: I have so loved it. It’s my first show with Hale Theatre. I have always known it’s a great place to work from other people and from the shows I have seen there.

Q: What other roles have you tackled?

A: In 2008. I was Millie in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers for Director Tregoney Shepperd at Gilbert Fine Arts. I have also done a few shows at MCC where I had a lead role in Back to the ’80’s and also played in Children of Eden and Sweeney Todd.

Q: Are there any roles you would like to play?

A: It’s completely opposite from the role of Annie in Annie Get Your Gun but I would love to play Johanna in Sweeney Todd. I am a big Sondheim fan. My school is actually doing Into The Woods next year. I feel that I would have to be older to play the witch but there’s always Cinderella.

Q: What else have you done with U of A?

A: This past year, the Freshman class did The Traveling Vaudeville Show. We will be doing Spelling Bee next year.

All Show photos courtesy of Wade Moran

Tregoney Sheppard is returning to the Hale Theatre where she directed Beauty and the Beast and last season’s triumphant Guys and Dolls. Shepperd has appeared on Broadway as well as the National Tours of Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera. Her credits as a director, music director and choreographer include: Little Shop of Horrors, The Sound of Music, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Children of Eden, Seussical, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Shepperd has performed her one woman show Bigger is Better in New York, Chicago, LA and has appeared in cabaret rooms across the country.

Q:You have directed some of the Hale Theatre’s most popular shows. Your staging of Guys and Dolls this past season was simply wonderful. What can we expect to see with a new Annie Get your Gun?

A: I think it is going to be really enjoyable. It’s an older show and I have tried to stay true to the original script, to keep it charming and lively and fun. I have a really great cast to work with and they are painting wonderful pictures of all the things that I am wanting to create.

Q: How did you prep your Annie Get Your Gun cast?

A: For Annie Get Your Gun, we talked at length about striving to make the show not appear hokey. That was my biggest concern. I wanted them to play it as it was written, just to play it as it is. I did not want to make more or less of it than what is written on the page.

Annie Get Your Gun is very old fashioned. The cast was having a hard time connecting to it at first. We really don’t speak that way anymore and sometimes, with material like this, it is hard not to be cheesy or campy. I told them it’s all about the characters’ relationships that they had to make them all seem as real as possible. For me, the more engaged the audience is in the relationships between the characters on stage, the more they care, the stronger the show will be.

Q: It’s all about having faith in the history and validity of the material, isn’t it?

A: Yes, the original show was a hit for a reason. It is so important for me to instill a feeling of nostalgia for another time. If it worked as it was written it should work again. You really have to have respect and have faith in the material you are working with.

Q: You have performed in two of the theater’s most successful musicals on Broadway, Les Miserables and The Phantom of the Opera. What was it like to work under the magic of Trevor Nunn and Harold Prince?

A: It was amazing! They were totally different experiences. When I did Les Miz, Trevor Nunn and John Caird came in right from the start and had massive rehearsals with us because the show had been playing for a while at that point. The both of them are so brilliant. You just sit there. You don’t want anyone else to talk. They are both such master painters. They paint with words and create pictures. You can easily visualize everything that they want. They were an important influence on how I try to work with each new cast on each new show.

From time to time, Hal would show up to fine tune The Phantom of the Opera. What makes that show so special, for me and everyone involved, is the breathtaking spectacle that the creative team fashioned for its audiences.

Funny story! When I toured in the show, the theaters were so different in size and configuration that the chandelier’s collapse took on a new meaning for us. I was one of the characters on stage when it would come crashing down. Depending on the size of the theater, sometimes you couldn’t get off the stage fast enough to get out of its way. Other times the auditorium would be so huge, it would take forever for it to move downwards. It would be this slow, shaking, deliberate descent and you would have to stand there and look horrified and then move as if in slow motion. It was always such fun!

Q: Do you have any favorites among your roles as an actor, choreographer or director?

A: My favorite role is Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. As a choreographer, I would have to say I really loved doing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I think Children of Eden is my favorite of all the productions that I have directed.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: I plan on going to Jackson Hole to perform some cabarets there in August. After that I am excited to be doing Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man with Phoenix Theatre and the Phoenix Symphony in September. It’s going to be a staged concert of the musical at Symphony Hall, similar to the City Center Encores! series in New York. I will be on stage, once again, playing the Mayor’s wife, Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn.

Show photos courtesy of Wade Moran.

Recently, Jessica Van Zalen of the Arizona Republic interviewed Forever Plaid Director Michael Bryce.  Below is the article that followed.  We still have great seats available for this final and closing weekend.   Call the Box Office today at (480) 497-1181 or visit www.haletheatrearizona.com to buy now.  You’ll be “Plaid” you did!

(link to the entire article is at the bottom)

Throw on your saddle shoes and catch one of the remaining performances of the do-wopping ’50s musical hit “Forever Plaid” at the Hale Centre Theatre in Gilbert.

The Hale Centre Theatre management is devoted to presenting the very best in family entertainment, both for its loyal adult and youth patrons. The Hale Theatre presents the return engagement of one of its most popular shows, the musical Forever Plaid. When first presented in 2007, this internationally acclaimed musical was a sell out, turning away eager audiences nightly. The new production plays through July 10.

The Examiner chatted with Hale Producer David Dietlein about all things Hale last week. Dietlein is a man of many talents, in addition to producing, he is his company’s lighting, set and sound designer, a true renaissance man of the theater. David has been involved in all aspects of theater since a child. He is the grandson of respected theater greats Ruth and Nathan Hale (original founders of the Glendale Center Theatre). Dietlein has produced over 150 comedies and musicals. He brought the Hale Theatre to Gilbert in 2003 after working many years in Glendale along side his brother Tim. Dave oversees all aspects of each production and contributes greatly to the finished product.

Q:The Hale Theatre Centre is an exciting part of the Gilbert community. How many Hale Centre Theatres are there currently?

A: The original Hale Theatre is in Glendale California, right outside of Los Angeles. There’s also one in Salt Lake City’s West Valley and one in Orem, which is about fifty miles south of Salt Lake City. The Hale has a summer theater in Grover, Utah.

Gilbert is our newest home. We chose to build here because there wasn’t a permanent year round theater in Gilbert at the time. We have never regretted that decision. Each theater is totally, independently owned and operated. Our only connection is that we are all family.

Q: What do you consider important in planning each new production?

A: Each area has a different personality. My wife, Corrin, and I have talked about this a number of times. What might work in LA may not work in Arizona or Utah. The family talks about different shows, studying what might and might not work in the different locales. We have to look at what people like in the various locations. It’s definitely a learning process. We do find that our audiences in Gilbert respond well to shows that have a lot of action. It’s a little more over the top than I was used to in California. Here they like bigger more vibrant characters. We were talking about doing The Importance of being Earnest next year. Glendale had just done it and when I spoke to my brother, Tim, who runs that theater, told me that the Wilde play has an exhausting amount of clever dialog and not much action in it. I thought that it might not work for our audiences. One thing we have found here is that dramas don’t seem to do as well as the comedies and the musicals, of course, are always enormously popular.

Q: Like many of the Valley’s theater companies, the Hale has a vibrant children’s theater. Can you tell us about it?

A:We are really excited about our children’s program. While our shows are very interactive with our young audiences, they are equally as entertaining for the adults. The shows have a lot of humor. We try to mix modern with traditional. Some of the characters can be pretty wacky and a whole lot of fun but they are always bright and colorful.

We’re very thrilled about our next show, The Little Mermaid. This is an original work written especially for the Hale. In fact, one of its writers, Karey Kirkpatrick, is someone I knew in LA when he was going to film school. He came to us with the idea of adapting Hans Christian Anderson’s classic fairy tale for the Hale and the resulting show is just great. The Little Mermaid was a collaboration of love by Jonathon Hale and Sarah Sandberg, with the music by Karey Kirkpatrick and Byron Simpson. In fact, Karey was also involved as a writer or director for Madagascar, James and the Giant Peach, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Imagine That starring Eddie Murphy as well as Over the Hedge. The Little Mermaid will play from July 10 through November 27.

The Little Mermaid will play from July 10 through November 27 following our current production of The Princess and the Pea.

Q: This is not the first time the Hale has presented Forever Plaid. What convinced you to bring it back now and can you describe the new production?

A: We simply couldn’t get everybody in last time. It was a complete sell out. The new production has the same director, Mickey Bryce, who created all the magic the first time out. We have an new choreographer for the revival, Amanda Paige, who performed on Broadway for a number of years and is freshly relocated to the Valley. We have a great new group of actors, DeVal Johnson as Sparky, Devon Johnson as Jinx (no relation to DeVal), Stephen Erek as Francis and Nathan Turley as Smudge. Mickey Bryce is also the music director and our live band includes Lincoln Wright (piano), Stephen Tessier (bass) and Walt Partlow (drums).

This production will be a total change for the Hale. When the audience walks into the theater, they are in store for a delightful surprise. We are converting the auditorium into a proscenium thrust stage. We have draped off the north section, removing about fifty seats, replacing them with a stage. It’s very cool.

Forever Plaid is one of those shows that you can see over and over again and never get tired of it. Somehow the music of that era is like ice cream. It is such a treat. You can’t have enough of it. That’s a tribute to why the show is so popular and done so much all over the world. We are very excited to bring it back.

Next up for the Hale Centre Theatre Main Stage is the classic Irving Berlin musical Annie Get Your Gun. Annie Get Your Gun, follows Forever Plaid, opening July 16 and running through August 28.

All photos and artwork used by permission of Hale Centre Theatre.

For more information about performance schedule and ticket availability for Forever Plaid, Annie Get Your Gun, The Little Mermaid and/or The Princess and the Pea, please contact Hale Centre Theatre directly either ON LINE or the box office at (480)-497-1181.

Hale Centre Theatre 50 West Page Ave Gilbert 85233

Click here to view the embedded video.

Special thanks to John Janezic for putting this video together.

The plays are for young audiences, but experienced adult actors play adult characters, so you can rely on the solid production values you’ll generally find in a Hale show. The current Children’s Theatre offering, The Princess & the Pea, has been running for about a month, and it continues into June, because these shows are presented just once a week, at a Saturday morning matinee. It’s kind of a nifty system that leaves both the venue and the performers available for more complex, time-consuming projects during the rest of the week.

One of the nice, homey things about Hale that’s even cooler with a young audience is that the performers come out to the lobby in costume to say hello, sign autographs, and pose for photos when the play’s over. Everyone is popular, but as Tabitha, the Queen’s cat, Ashley Letizia was definitely a favorite, and her performance was quite good, too, incorporating an adorable costume by Pam Oborn, the physical control of a dancer, and the cute grouchiness of, well, a cat.

I enjoyed the other performances, too, including Tyler Pounds’ portrayal of young Prince Valiant. Pounds plays naive and good-hearted in an earnest, believable fashion. Even if that’s not a stretch for the baby-faced MCC student, he rounded out the character and won the audience over.

In his quest for a bride, Valiant and his squire, Donald Dunce (Kevin Whitaker, goofy and charming) meet several princesses with whom the prince doesn’t quite click. These actresses do quite a bit of doubling, and they ably adjusted more than just their wigs and dresses to play multiple characters.

The script does make some positive statements about romantic compatibility, incorporates just enough slapstick, gives the kids in the audience opportunities to participate, and stretches what is really a very short story into two brief acts that nearly make sense.

The Princess & the Pea continues through Saturday, June 26, at Hale Centre Theatre, 50 West Page Avenue in downtown Gilbert. Tickets are $10 and $12; order here or call 480-497-1181. Girls in the audience are encouraged to dress up all princessy, but when I attended I saw a diverse mix of wardrobe choices, from super-cute sundresses to the smallest, most fully outfitted Cinderella I’ve ever seen, and everyone looked comfortable.

Garson Kanin’s classic comedy Born Yesterday is more than a half century old but time has done nothing to wither its topical bite or delightful charm. Last night the Hale Centre Theatre opened its new production of Born Yesterday. There has never been a better time to revisit and marvel at this play’s enduring wisdom. Born Yesterday will continue, happily educating its audiences in civics and civility through May 22.

Born Yesterday opened on Broadway on February 4, 1946 at the Lyceum Theatre. The Kanin comedy starred Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn, the deceptively not so “dumb blonde,” Paul Douglas as junk merchant Harry Brock and Gary Merrill as reporter Paul Verrall. Holliday famously replaced the deserting, original star Jean Arthur with only a few days rehearsal. Of course, the rest is history. Holliday became an “overnight” sensation and Born Yesterday settled down for a highly successful four year, 1,642 performance run.

The Hale Centre Theatre’s Born Yesterday stars many of it’s audience’s favorite performers. Returning are Alaina Beauloye as Billie, Eric Thompson as Paul and Don Crosby as Harry.

The production is staged by another audience favorite, award winning director Allan Dietlein. Mr. Dietlein has staged the production with his seasoned, knowing eye, illuminating the play’s amazing, up-to-date political commentary, never missing the opportunity to highlight its delicious satire and comedy.

Alaina Beauloye is simply superb as Billie. She is as fresh and delightful as Holliday must have been on that opening night so long ago. Even if she just sashays silently across the stage, Beauloye commands the audience’s attention. When she speaks, Kanin’s words become comic poetry. Beauloye makes Billie’s apparent boredom with the Washington scene a pleasure to watch. What a chameleon! Beauloye can do it all, sing, act, dance. Hale Theatre audiences have been continuously charmed by the many roles she has created there. To play the stern Anna in The King and I, the shy Amalia in She Loves Me and now the radiant Billie in Born Yesterday is proof positive that she can do anything. And do it to perfection!

Eric Thompson’s Paul is all nerdy nerves and earnest sincerity. He easily erases William Holden’s less than stellar performance in the play’s classic film version. Thompson and Beauloye have a most believable and lovely compatibility. Their mutual affection is neither forced nor insincere.

Paul plays Pygmalion to Billie’s Galatea. Through his patient tutelage Billie blossoms touchingly into her own woman. Paul’s initial goal in accepting the role as her tutor may have first been motivated by his desire to get closer to Harry, a man he despises, but, like Pygmalion, he ultimately can not resist any of Billie’s charms, his Galatea.

Billie initially tries in vain to seduce Paul. She tells him that she feels the way to his heart is through his head. When Paul finally breaks down and asks Billie to marry him, she amusingly teases him saying that he only loves her for her brain.

Don Crosby’s Harry would be very comfortable as a member of the Soprano family. Crosby makes Brock’s buffoonish evil fun to watch. He never misses a beat, perfectly illustrating Harry’s oozing, vicious, mean spirited demeanor. You can’t help loving/hating his character, especially when he tells Billie, “I don’t own anything cheap but you.” Harry knows he has to marry Billie to protect himself from the law. When he tells her she has to marry him, Billie refuses saying that he is just too dumb for her now.

Director Allan Dietlein does double duty designing the beautifully appointed set. Sandy Dietlein has as done a superb job costuming the actors. Her designs for Billie are perfection right down to the black seams on her nylons.

Born Yesterday may have been born yesterday but Kanin’s play is gloriously alive and well and firmly living in the present.

Tickets are on sale now, so call the Box Office today at (480) 497-1181 or visit www.haletheatrearizona.com  You won’t want to miss this one!

(Photo by David Dietlein)

Thankfully there isn’t much time until our next show, Born Yesterday begins.  The Hale Creative team has been working feverishly to finish the set, get costumes and props in all the right places, set the lights and prepare the sound system.  Director Allan Dietlein returns with an all-star cast made up of Don Crosby (Most recently seen in Camelot) as Harry Brock, Alaina Beauloye (Most recently seen in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) as Billie Dawn and Eric Thompson (from Beau Jest) as Paul Verrall as well as many other talented actors and actresses.  This will be one comedy you won’t want to miss. Call the Box Office today to book your tickets.

(Photo by Wade Moran)

Prince Valiant is having difficulty finding a partner, as he must marry a princess.  When a young woman seeks shelter in the castle and claims to be a princess, his mother decides to test the guest by placing a pea in the bed the young woman is offered for the night.  In the morning, the guest, Princess Olivia, tells her hosts that she had a sleepless night, kept awake by something hard in the bed.  The prince rejoices.  Only a real princess would have the sensitivity to feel a pea through such a quantity of bedding.

2. Creativity

Apart from Princess Olivia, Prince Valiant & Tabitha the Cat, who brings humor to the play, meet Stella Strong (smartly clad in a white Olympia gown with gold trim), Dianna Ding-a-ling (Silly with an awful singing voice), Minerva the Marvelous (the brainy princess in cap and gown), and Bealah theBeautiful (carries her cosmetics in a gold bag).

3. Relevance

There’s a universal lesson to be learned here.  Prince Valiant isn’t dazzled by the good looks or impressed by the brains of the princesses.  He seeks a princess with whom he can share something in common for a long-lasting marriage.

4. Introduction to Children’s Theatre

Hale Theatre offers children’s theatre in the spring & summer.  The productions, characterized by action, drama, emotion, colorful costuming and appealing story lines, are a good way to introduce a child to live theatre. Plus, it’s a positive alternative to watching cartoons on TV!

5. Celebrate or Have a Picnic

The show starts at 11 am on Saturdays.  The water park across the street has tables and grassy places for a picnic or birthday party after the show.  If you’re celebrating a birthday, the theater will keep your cake refrigerated until the party.  Birthday children are introduced on stage and given a small gift.  In addition, the audience sings the birthday song.

(Text courtesy of Srianthi Perera of the Arizona Republic)

]]> http://www.haletheatrearizona.com/blog/5-reasons-to-see-the-princess-the-pea/feed 0 http://www.haletheatrearizona.com/blog/if-youre-not-away-come-down-to-the-play http://www.haletheatrearizona.com/blog/if-youre-not-away-come-down-to-the-play#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:59:28 +0000 admin http://www.haletheatrearizona.com/blog/?p=686 With spring break among us, kids are begging and pleading for something fun to do.  What better way to spend time with your kids than bringing them to enjoy our wonderful childrens show, The Princess & The Pea.  Your little princess will surely enjoy this lively production!

(All photographs from show courtesy of Wade Moran)