The Giant Turnip at College Park Arts Exchange, Jan 11 at 3pm

The Giant Turnip at College Park Arts Exchange, Jan 11, 2015 at 3pm

Beechtree Puppets present
The Giant Turnip, a Ukrainian folk tale
Sunday, January 11, 2015 at 3 pm

Location: College Park Arts Exchange

This whimsical and humorous telling of a Ukrainian folk tale celebrates community and caring for the earth. An old man and his wife who, after lovingly preparing and tending their garden, grow a vegetable that is so large that they can’t pull it up by themselves. The story is told with hand- crafted rod-puppets, and much singing. There is a shadow puppet element that reveals what happens under the ground, including a helpful and jolly root gnome.

Ingrid Cowan Hass and Ole Hass have been performing as singers and actors for a long time, both with Masters degrees in Opera Performance from the North Carolina School of the Arts, and Ole also a Doctor of Musical Arts from UMD in College Park. Their shows are inspired by the magical puppet shows at Acorn Hill Waldorf Kindergarten in Silver Spring, but also by their own performing experience. In crafting the puppets and stage, Ingrid draws on her visual arts expertise (she majored in studio art at Smith College) and her experience with wool and fabric, dyeing, spinning and felting her own wool. The woodwork and mechanical aspects are mostly left to Ole, who likes to dabble in woodworking and construction.

Holiday Tales at the Publick Playhouse, Dec 16

Holiday Tales at the Publick Playhouse, Dec 16

Prince George’s Publick Playhouse

Midweek Matinee
Tuesday, December 16, 2014, at 10:15 am & 12 noon
Holiday Tales

A sparkling multi-cultural collection full of holiday legends, the program includes Gift of the Magi, The Nutcracker, Kwanzaa Kite, and Soul of a Menorah. Performed by the Emmy-nominated Pushcart Players, at the heart of each story are gifts of love, kindness, compassion and generosity. This program will warm your heart with the genuine spirit of the season.

Curriculum Connections: literature classics, language arts, music, dance, and theatre arts
Recommended for grades K-8

Tickets: $8; $6/groups of 20 or more

Cricket on the Hearth at the Publick Playhouse, Dec 9

Cricket on the Hearth at the Publick Playhouse, Dec 9

Prince George’s Publick Playhouse

Midweek Matinee
Tuesday, December 9, 2014, at 10:15 am & 12 noon
Cricket on the Hearth

This classic story was Charles Dickens’ most popular holiday tale in 19th century London. Theatre IV’s new musical shows how lucky it is to have a cricket on the hearth watching over things, especially if you’re a poor and kindly toymaker with a beautiful blind daughter, a curmudgeonly boss, and a mysterious stranger as a houseguest.

Curriculum Connections: language arts, literary classic, music, reading, character development, history, and family
Recommended for grades K-5. Tickets: $8; $6/groups of 20 or more

The Nutcracker at College Park Arts Exchange, December 7

The Nutcracker at College Park Arts Exchange, December 7 at 3pm & 4pm

Nutcracker Ballet with Connect the Dots Dance.

Location: College Park Arts Exchange

Sunday, December 7, 2014, 3 pm and 4pm

Performance on December 7 at 3:00pm at the Old Parish House.
Enjoy watching ballet dancers performing to this beautiful and familiar music in a casual setting.

3 pm — general admission performance, perfect for young children and their families.
4 pm — autism friendly performance, with dimmed lighting and softer music.

Free.

Please contact info@cpae.org if you need more information.

Open Enrollment for the Greenbelt Winter Youth Musical, Nov 24 – Dec 13

Open Enrollment for the Greenbelt Winter Youth Musical, Nov 24 – Dec 13

Open Enrollment for the Greenbelt Winter Youth Musical, Nov 24 – Dec 13

Location: Greenbelt Recreation Department

Enrollment opens November 24, 2014 for non-residents.

PROGRAM

The annual Greenbelt Youth Musical, now in its fifteenth year, is an open-enrollment musical theater program for teen actors in grades seven through twelve. The program gives teen actors the opportunity to work with professional theater artists and experience the fun of bringing original musical works to life, while building confidence and community. The environment is affirming, the process is fun, and the productions are excellent:

THIS YEAR’S STORY

Secret Circus is the story of a traveling circus in 1930’s-era Europe, racing against time to smuggle to safety people deemed physically unacceptable by the rising fascist regime. One refugee, Anya, must confront her own discomfort with the sideshow prodigies of the circus even as she accepts their help in fleeing persecution. It is a touching, exciting, and beautiful show. Secret Circus was last performed in Greenbelt ten years ago, by Camp Encore. The 2015 edition of the show features an expanded story, with additional songs, new dialogue, and enhanced circus production values.

CASTING

The Greenbelt Youth Musical is open to all interested performers in grades seven through twelve. Everyone who enrolls is cast in the show. Attendance is required for all participants at our two casting rehearsals, which are coming up soon on Saturday, December 13, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, and Monday, December 15 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm (perfect timing for those of you who will be going through musical withdrawal following the close of Eleanor Roosevelt High School’s Hairspray). We have also reserved Wednesday, December 17, from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm for principal callbacks, if needed. After the casting rehearsals, we will take a break until Friday, January 9, when regular rehearsals will begin. In the interim, author-director Chris Cherry will be fine-tuning the script and score based on our cast.

PERFORMANCES

Performances will be Saturday, February 28, 2015, Sunday, March 1, 2015 and Saturday, March 7, 2015.

REGISTRATION AND TUITION

Registration is open now for Greenbelt residents. For non-residents, on-line registration will open on November 24, but you can fax (301-220-0561) or drop off a hard-copy registration at the Community Center now, and it will be held until the resident preference period expires. Because non-resident registrations are held and then processed in the order in which they are received, dropping off a hard-copy registration early is a way for savvy non-Greenbelters to be near the front of the queue on the day that non-resident registration officially opens. This is to your advantage, as we do reserve the right to cap enrollment to keep the cast at a manageable size. See below for links to registration materials.

The activity number for the Greenbelt Youth Musical is 144230-1. Tuition remains at $154 for residents and $177 for non-residents, and the performance ticket price remains $5. Generous scholarship assistance is available for Greenbelt residents from the Mary Purcell Geiger Scholarship Fund. (Applications are available from the Community Center business office; please contact Ruth Campbell at 240-542-2059.) Enrolling in the Greenbelt Youth Musical signals a commitment to participate in a collaborative artistic project with a company of other committed young performers. Please note that we do not issue tuition refunds in the event that an actor withdraws from the production after casting. We expect that all actors enrolling in the production are committed to participating in a fun and collaborative experience, regardless of casting, and we set the production budget based on the total tuition received.

For more information: http://www.greenbeltmd.gov/youthmusical