Keith Byron Kirk
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Keith Byron Kirk
Keith Byron Kirk is an American theater actor, singer and playwright. He is a director of graduate studies for the Theatre Department at the Virginia Commonwealth University. Education Kirk attended SUNY (Anderson Scholarship recipient) where he received his MA in Performance Studies and Playwriting at New York University in the spring of 2007 (Newington/Cropsey Foundation Fellow, Alfred Gallatin Scholarship 2006/07) and his PhD at Northwestern University’s Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama Program under the guidance of Professors Tracy Davis and Harvey Young. Career Early Career in Chicago Kirk's career as a performer began in Chicago, Il in Steinbeck’s ''The Grapes of Wrath'' with Steppenwolf Theatre Co, alongside Gary Sinise, Kathryn Erbe, and Lois Smith. He followed the production to the La Jolla Playhouse, The Royal National Theatre in London, and eventually to Broadway in the production's Tony Award winning run at the Cort Theatre After the Broadway production ...
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Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virginia General Assembly merged MCV with the Richmond Professional Institute, founded in 1917, to create Virginia Commonwealth University. In 2022, more than 28,000 students pursued 217 degree and certificate programs through VCU's 11 schools and three colleges. The VCU Health System supports the university's health care education, research, and patient care mission. VCU had a record $310 million in sponsored research funding in the fiscal year 2019 and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". A broad array of university-approved centers and institutes of excellence, involving faculty from multiple disciplines in the humanities, public policy, biotechnology and health care discoveries, supports the unive ...
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Joseph Jefferson Award
The Joseph Jefferson Award, more commonly known informally as the Jeff Award, is given for theatre arts produced in the Chicago area. Founded in 1968, the awards are named in tribute to actor Joseph Jefferson, a 19th-century American theater star who, as a child, was a player in Chicago's first theater company. Two types of awards are given: "Equity" (annual judging season August 1st to July 31st) for work done under an Actors' Equity Association contract, and "Non-Equity" (annual judging season April 1st to March 31st) for non-union work. Award recipients are determined by a secret ballot. Award categories In 2018, the committee merged the actor and actress performance categories, eliminating gender from consideration. Two awards are now awarded from each of the new performance categories, ensemble awards remain singular: Equity Awards Performance categories * Outstanding Performer in a Principal Role in a Play * Outstanding Performer in a Supporting Role in a Play * Outstandi ...
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Ahmanson Theatre
The Ahmanson Theatre is one of the four main venues that compose the Los Angeles Music Center. History The theatre was built as a result of a donation from Howard F. Ahmanson Sr, the founder of H.F. Ahmanson & Co., an insurance and savings and loans company. It was named for his second wife, businesswoman and philanthropist Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson.David Wise, ''Tiger Trap: America's Secret Spy War with China'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, p. 3/ref> Welton Becket, Welton Becket & Associates was the architect. Construction began on March 9, 1962 and was undertaken by Peter Kiewit & Sons (now Kiewit Corporation). The theatre's inaugural event was held on April 12, 1967, with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Association sponsoring the national cast production of ''Man of La Mancha'', starring Richard Kiley and Joan Diener. The theatre also was the U.S. premiere of ''More Stately Mansions'' starring Ingrid Bergman, Arthur Hill, and Colleen Dewhurst, which opened Septembe ...
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Georgia Stitt
Georgia Stitt (born June 17, 1972) is an American composer and lyricist, arranger, conductor, and musical director. Early life and education Stitt was born in Atlanta, but spent most of her childhood in Covington, Tennessee. She earned a B.Mus degree in Music Theory and Composition from Vanderbilt University and a M.F.A. in Musical Theater Writing from New York University. Career Stitt began her career in New York City as a pianist, conductor and musical director on '' Little Shop of Horrors'', '' Avenue Q'', ''Sweet Smell of Success'', ''The Music Man'', ''Titanic'', ''Annie'', and the national tour of '' Parade''. Stitt composed music for ''The Water'', which won the 2008 ANMT “Search for New Voices in American Musical Theatre”. She has also composed for the musicals ''Snow Child, Samantha Spade, Ace Detective, The Big Boom, Big Red Sun,'' ''Sing Me A Happy Song'', ''Mosaic'', and ''Hello! My Baby''. Stitt's recorded music includes ''A Quiet Revolution'', ''My Lifelong ...
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The Piano Lesson
''The Piano Lesson'' is a 1987 play by American playwright August Wilson. It is the fourth play in Wilson's ''The Pittsburgh Cycle''. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir nga sense of self-worth by denying one's past".Bryer, Jackson R.; Hartig Mary C. ''Conversations with August Wilson'', p.25. ''The Piano Lesson'' received the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A Romare Bearden painting, ''The Piano Lesson'', inspired Wilson to write a play featuring a strong female character to confront African-American history, paralleling Troy in earlier ''Fences''. However, on finishing his play, Wilson found the ending to stray from the empowered female character as well as from the question regarding self-worth. What ''The Piano Lesson'' finally seems to ask is: "What do you do with your legacy, and how do you best put it to use?" Set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression, ''The Piano Lesson'' follow ...
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The Civil War (musical)
''The Civil War'' is a musical written by Gregory Boyd and Frank Wildhorn, with lyrics by Jack Murphy and music by Wildhorn. The musical centers on the American Civil War, with the musical numbers portraying the war through Union, Confederate, and slave viewpoints. The musical was nominated for two Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical. Its styles include Gospel, Folk, Country, Rock, and Rhythm and Blues. Production history A studio cast album was released in 1999 by Atlantic Records, and included Linda Eder, Maya Angelou, James Garner, Hootie & the Blowfish, Travis Tritt, Dr. John and Betty Buckley. Both a double-disc album was released as "The Complete Work", and a "highlights" version entitled "The Nashville Sessions". "The Nashville Sessions" charted on Billboard's Top Country Albums, eventually peaking at #48. The musical had its world premiere at the Alley Theatre, Houston, Texas, on September 16, 1998, where co-author Boyd is the Artistic Director. The ...
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King David (musical)
''King David'' is a musical, sometimes described as a modern oratorio, with a book and lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Alan Menken. The musical is based on Biblical tales from the Books of Samuel and 1 Chronicles, as well as text from David's Psalms. Description and history ''King David'' is mostly sung-through with little dialogue, and the music swings from pop to jazz to grand choral arrangements. It uses a large orchestra and a large choir. The work was conceived as an outdoor piece to commemorate the 3,000th anniversary of the city of Jerusalem. However, according to Rice, "When it proved logistically and financially impossible to do it and Disney took an interest, we changed gears.... We felt we'd been commissioned to write it as an oratorio, and still hoped it would be performed as such in Israel. ... we should have emphasized that more to avoid being judged primarily as a Broadway show."Jones, Kenneth"Menken and Rice's King David Will Rule Again in 2004-05" playbill.com, ...
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A New Brain
''A New Brain'' is a musical with music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Finn and James Lapine. Though many of Finn's previous musicals were to some extent autobiographical, ''A New Brain'' dealt directly with his own harrowing experience with an arteriovenous malformation and the healing power of art."'A New Brain' at the Newhouse, Background, Cast and Creatives"
. Lincoln Center Theater, accessed December 27, 2011
The hero of the musical, Gordon Schwinn, worries that he may not live to complete his work. Finn wrote many of the songs soon after his release from the hospital. The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 1998 and has been revived in the U.S., England and elsewhere.


Productions

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The Color Purple (musical)
''The Color Purple'' is a musical with a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray. Based on the The Color Purple, 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker and its The Color Purple (film), 1985 film adaptation, the show follows the journey of Celie, an African-American woman in the southern United States, American South from the early to mid-20th century. The original Broadway theatre, Broadway production ran from 2005 to 2008, earning eleven 2006 Tony Awards, Tony Award nominations in 2006. An enthusiastically acclaimed Broadway revival opened in late 2015 and ran through early 2017, winning two 2016 Tony Awards—including Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, Best Revival of a Musical. A The Color Purple (2023 film), film adaptation of the musical is currently in the works for a December 20, 2023 release. Productions Workshop and world premiere (2004–2005) ''The Color Purple'' was originally workshopped by the Allian ...
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Evita (musical)
''Evita'' is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. It concentrates on the life of Argentine political leader Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. The story follows Evita's early life, rise to power, charity work, and death. The musical began as a rock opera concept album released in 1976. Its success led to productions in London's West End in 1978, winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical, and on Broadway a year later, where it was the first British musical to receive the Tony Award for Best Musical. This has been followed by a string of professional tours and worldwide productions and numerous cast albums, as well as a 1996 film adaptation. The musical was revived in London in 2006, and on Broadway in 2012, and toured the UK again in 2013–14 before running for 55 West End performances at the Dominion Theatre in September–October 2014. Synopsis Act I On 26 July 1952, a crowd in a Buenos Aires, Ar ...
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Che Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted by Jon Lee Anderson), asserts that he was actually born on 14 May of that year. Constenla alleges that she was told by Che's mother, Celia de la Serna, that she was already pregnant when she and Ernesto Guevara Lynch were married and that the date on the birth certificate of their son was forged to make it appear that he was born a month later than the actual date to avoid scandal. ( Anderson 1997, pp. 3, 769.) – 9 October 1967) was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture. As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout South America and was radicalized by the poverty, hunger, ...
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Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince (born Harold Smith; January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019), commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatre director and producer known for his work in musical theatre. One of the foremost figures in 20th century American theatre, Prince became associated throughout his career with many of the most noteworthy musicals in Broadway history, including ''West Side Story'', '' Fiddler on the Roof'', ''Cabaret'', ''Sweeney Todd'', and ''Phantom of the Opera'', the longest running show in Broadway history. Many of his productions broke new ground for musical theater, expanding the possibilities of the form by incorporating more serious and political subjects, such as Nazism (''Cabaret''), the difficulties of marriage ('' Company''), and the forcible opening of 19th-century Japan (''Pacific Overtures''). Over the span of his career, he garnered 21 Tony Awards, including eight for directing, eight for producing the year's Best Musical, two as Best Producer of a ...
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