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Vanessa Sears
Vanessa Sears is a Canadian actress and singer. She originated the role of Nicola in the Canadian premiere production of '' Kinky Boots'', which played at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. In 2022, Sears originated the role of Anaia in the Canadian premiere production of '' Is God Is'', for which she was nominated for a Dora Award for Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role. Early life Sears was born and raised in Deep River, Ontario. She is of Guyanese and Jamaican heritage, since her father was born in Guyana and her mother was born in Jamaica. She has two brothers and two sisters. As a child, Sears contracted flesh-eating disease, where she stayed at the Ronald McDonald House while receiving treatment at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Growing up, Sears performed in community theatre productions of ''Beauty and the Beast'' and ''My Fair Lady.'' She also performed as an entertainer at Canada's Wonderland. In 2014, Sears advanced to the semi-finals of an international ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deep River, Ontario
Deep River is a town in Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada. Located along the Ottawa River, it lies about north-west of Ottawa on the Trans-Canada Highway. Deep River is opposite the Laurentian Mountains and the Province of Quebec. The name "Deep River" purportedly derives from the notion that the Ottawa River reaches its greatest depth of just outside the township. Although this is not official, the Ottawa River reaches a depth of in Moose Bay, which is located on the Holden Lake reservoir from the Des Joachim dam, west of Deux-Rivières. The primary industry centres on research at the Chalk River location of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), a facility of the Chalk River Laboratories about 10 km east of Deep River on Highway 17. The facility is named for and primarily accessed via the nearby town of Chalk River although the site is technically in Deep River. History Plans for the construction of this planned community began in 1944 by the federal government as par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Wizard Of Oz (1902 Musical)
''The Wizard of Oz'' was a 1902 musical theatre, musical extravaganza based on the 1900 novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum. Although Baum is the credited bookwriter, Glen MacDonough was hired on as jokewriter after Baum had finished the script, and the book was largely ghostwritten by a man named Finnegan. Much of the original music was by Paul Tietjens, some of which has been lost, although it was still well-remembered and in discussion at MGM in 1939 when the The Wizard of Oz (1939 film), classic film version of the story was made. The original show was particularly popular because of its two comedy stars: Fred Stone playing Scarecrow (Oz), the Scarecrow, and David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman. The show premiered at the Chicago Grand Opera House on June 16, 1902, and then went on tour throughout the upper Midwest before moving to the Majestic Theatre (Columbus Circle), Majestic Theatre on Broadway theatre, Broadway on January 21, 1903, where it ran for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Measha Brueggergosman
Measha Brueggergosman–Lee (née Gosman; June 28, 1977) is a Canadian soprano who performs both as an opera singer and concert artist. She has performed internationally and won numerous awards. Her recordings of both classical and popular music have also received awards. Background She was born Measha Gosman in Fredericton, New Brunswick, to Anne Eatmon and Sterling Gosman. As a child, Gosman began singing in the choir of her local Baptist church, where her father served as a deacon. She studied voice and piano from the age of seven. As a teen, she took voice lessons in her home town, and spent summers on scholarships at the Boston Conservatory and at a choral camp in Rothesay, New Brunswick. She studied for one year with New Brunswick soprano Wendy Nielsen, before moving on to studies at the University of Toronto, where she obtained a B.Mus. She went to Germany for five years, where she pursued a Master's degree at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, Germ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jully Black
Jully Black (born Jullyann Inderia Gordon Black, November 8, 1977) is a Canadian singer, songwriter and actress. She has released 4 studio albums, and 2 remix EPs. She has collaborated and written for many artists, including Nas, Saukrates, Choclair, Kardinal Offishall, Destiny's Child, and Sean Paul. She was chosen by CBC Music as one of "The 25 Greatest Canadian Singers Ever" and has long been dubbed the "Canada's Queen of R&B" by fans and industry peers alike. Early life Jullyann Inderia Gordon Black was born to Jamaican immigrants. She is the youngest of nine children, she grew up in the North York district in the neighbourhood of Jane and Finch in Toronto, Ontario. After her parents divorced, she was raised in a strict Pentecostal household by her single mother, Agatha. Musical career At age 19, Black was discovered by Warner/Chappell Music who immediately signed her. Shortly after, she was courted by Universal Music Canada where she was offered a deal to help propel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caroline, Or Change
''Caroline, or Change'' is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics and book by Tony Kushner. The score combines spirituals, blues, Motown, classical music, and Jewish klezmer and folk music. The show ran both Off-Broadway and on Broadway as well as in London. Production history Workshops & Off-Broadway The musical was first workshopped in 1999 at New York's Off-Broadway Public Theater. Director George C. Wolfe continued to workshop the musical at the Public Theater, where it opened on November 30, 2003, and closed on February 1, 2004. Original Broadway Production It transferred to Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on May 2, 2004, and closed on August 29, 2004, after 136 performances and 22 previews. The musical starred Tonya Pinkins in the title role, Anika Noni Rose as Emmie Thibodeaux, Harrison Chad as Noah Gellman, Veanne Cox as Rose Stopnick Gellman and Chandra Wilson as Dotty Moffett (all both off-and on-Broadway). The choreographer was Hope C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Elliot The Musical
''Billy Elliot: The Musical'' is a Coming-of-age story, coming-of-age stage musical based on the Billy Elliot, 2000 film of the same name. The music is by Elton John, and the book and lyrics are by Lee Hall (playwright), Lee Hall, who wrote the film's screenplay. The plot revolves around Billy Elliot, a motherless British boy who begins taking ballet lessons. The story of his personal struggle and fulfillment is balanced against a counter-story of family and community strife caused by the 1984–1985 miners' strike in County Durham, in North East England. Hall's screenplay was inspired in part by A. J. Cronin's 1935 novel about a miners' strike, ''The Stars Look Down'', to which the musical's opening song pays Homage (arts), homage. The musical premiered at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London's West End theatre, West End in 2005 and ran through April 2016. The production was nominated for nine Laurence Olivier Awards and won four, including Laurence Olivier Award for Best New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Shop Of Horrors (musical)
''Little Shop of Horrors'' is a horror comedy rock musical with music by Alan Menken and lyrics and a book by Howard Ashman. The story follows a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. The musical is loosely based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film ''The Little Shop of Horrors''. The music, composed by Menken in the style of early 1960s rock and roll, doo-wop and early Motown (music style), Motown, includes several well-known tunes, including the title song, "Skid Row (Downtown)", "Somewhere That's Green", and "Suddenly, Seymour". The musical premiered off-off-Broadway in 1982 before moving to the Orpheum Theatre (Manhattan), Orpheum Theatre off-Broadway, where it had a five-year run. It later received numerous productions in the U.S. and abroad, and a subsequent Broadway theatre, Broadway production. In part because of its small cast, it has become popular with school and other amateur theatre groups. The musical was also made in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stratford Festival
The Stratford Festival is a repertory theatre organization that operates from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, the Shakespeare Festival and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. The festival was one of the first arts festivals in Canada and continues to be one of its most prominent. It is recognized worldwide for its productions of Shakespearean plays. The festival's primary focus is to present productions of William Shakespeare's plays, but it has a range of theatre productions from Greek tragedy to Broadway musicals and contemporary works. In the early years of the festival, Shakespeare's works typically represented approximately one third of the offerings in the largest venue, the Festival Theatre. More recently, however, the festival's focus has shifted to encompass works by a more diverse range of playwrights. The success ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Poppins (musical)
''Mary Poppins'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman (the Sherman Brothers) and additional music and lyrics by George Stiles (composer), George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, and a book by Julian Fellowes. The musical is based on the similarly titled Mary Poppins (book series), ''Mary Poppins'' children's books by P. L. Travers and the 1964 Mary Poppins (film), Disney film, and is a fusion of various elements from the two, including songs from the film. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh and Disney Theatrical Productions and directed by Richard Eyre with co-direction from Matthew Bourne who also acted as co-choreographer with Stephen Mear, the original West End theatre, West End production opened in December 2004 and won two Laurence Olivier Awards, Olivier Awards, one for Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical and the other for Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer, Best Theatre Choreograph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An Octoroon
''An Octoroon'' is a play written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. It is an adaptation of Dion Boucicault's '' The Octoroon'', which premiered in 1859. Jacobs-Jenkins reframes Boucicault's play using its original characters and plot, speaking much of Boucicault's dialogue, and critiques its portrayal of race using Brechtian devices. Jacobs-Jenkins considers ''An Octoroon'' and his other works '' Appropriate'' and ''Neighbors'' linked in the exploration of theatre, genre, and how theatre interacts with questions of identity, along with how these questions (such as "Why do we think of a social issue as something that can be solved?") transform as a part of life. In a 2018 poll by critics from ''The New York Times'', the work was ranked the second-greatest American play of the past 25 years. Characters and casting Jacobs-Jenkins recommends the play be performed with 8 or 9 actors, with male characters played using blackface/whiteface/redface, and female characters portrayed by actress ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shaw Festival
The Shaw Festival is a Charitable organization, Charitable theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is the second largest repertory theatre company in North America, second only to Canada's Stratford Festival. The Shaw Festival was founded in 1962. Originally, it only featured productions written by George Bernard Shaw, but changes were later implemented by Christopher Newton and Jackie Maxwell that widened the theatre's scope. As of 2019, the theatre company was considered to be one of the largest 20 employers in the Regional Municipality of Niagara, Niagara Region. History The Festival's roots can be traced to 1962 when Brian Doherty and Calvin Rand staged a summertime "Salute to Shaw" at the Niagara District Court House, Court House Theatre. For eight weekends, Doherty and his crew produced Shaw's ''Don Juan in Hell'' and ''Candida''. Paxton Whitehead took over management of the company in 1967. During his tenure, he establish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obsidian Theatre
Obsidian Theatre Company is a Canadian professional theatre company that specializes in works by Black Canadian artists. The company is located in Toronto, Ontario. The declared mandate of the company is a threefold mission: to produce plays, to develop playwrights and to train theatre professionals. Obsidian is dedicated to the exploration, development, and production of the Black voice. They produce plays from a world-wide canon focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on the works of highly acclaimed Black playwrights. Obsidian provides artistic support, promoting the development of work by Black theatre makers and offering training opportunities through mentoring and apprenticeship programs for emerging Black artists. History Founded in February 2000, Obsidian Theatre Company has grown into a large independent theatre company with a full schedule of productions, playwright/play development and professional training programs. Since the company's inception, Obsidian has worked ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
