California Central Coast Late May Matinees and More!

As we move toward Memorial Day and beyond, I hope your holiday weekend plans include taking in a couple of theatre and/or live performance productions that are playing in various and assorted venues here on our beautiful California Central Coast!

Paradise Productions (www.paradisetheatrecompany.com) will present Yours, Anne - the musical version of the story of Anne Frank, June 2-4, at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Atascadero.

The idea of a musical based on the tragic story of Anne Frank sounds almost like an oxymoron, but Yours, Anne is not a typical musical.  It is a play that, like an opera, is enhanced by its passionate and powerful songs.  The lyrics are inspired by the writings from Anne Frank's diaries, which the young girl wrote while hidden in the attic of rescuers shielding her from the doom of the Holocaust.

Yours, Anne, written by Enid Futterman and Michael Cohen, uses quotes from Anne's diaries more than the Pulitzer and Tony award-winning 1955 play, The Diary of Anne Frank, did.  This musical version blends material from that play with the diaries.

SLO Little Theatre's (www.slolittletheatre.org) current mainstage production, Spinning Into Butter, runs through June 12.  And be sure to check out their children's summer theatre program classes and productions at act@slolittletheatre.org.  Auditions for ACT's summer youth production of Ann of Green Gables will be May 27 & 28 (by appointment), with callbacks on May 29; rehearsals June 19-July 22; performances July 29 - August 7.

Kelrik Productions' (www.kelrikproductions.com) current show, Aladdin, runs through June 12.  Auditions for Seussical the Musical will be held on June 1 (performances July 16-24 at the Spanos Theatre on the Cal Poly campus).  Also - be sure to check out their acting classes for kids & youth!

The God Is Still Speaking Players (follow them on Facebook) next show will be Nunsense Jamboree September 2-5 & 9-11 (auditions July 10-12). 

Upcoming performances at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center (www.pacslo.org) include RSVP XVI: Duende on May 31 & June 2, and Cal Poly Arab Music Ensemble Spring Concert on June 3.

Murder In Mind Productions (www.murderinmind.com) will present their interactive murder mystery, The Altos - Blood Is Thicker Than Wine, on Sundays at The Spyglass Inn in Shell Beach through June 5.

Sorcerer Productions (check them out on Facebook) recently closed a VERY successful run of the Tony Award winning The Drowsy Chaperone in the Clark Center Studio Theatre.  Next Up?  Little Shop of Horrors - auditions June 5 & 6, performances August 12-28 on the Clark Center main stage.

Other upcoming performances at the Clark Center (www.clarkcenter.org) include Mother Goose, presented by Everybody Can Dance & the Santa Maria Civic Ballet, on June 11 & 12.

To help celebrate Arroyo Grande's Centennial, South County Historical Society (SCHS) is producing "100 Years of People - Stories from our Past," a series of Readers' Theatre programs, each an hour long, adapted from historic writings to run every Saturday at 2PM throughout the summer.

"Young Clara"  
Born 1855 to missionary parents in Indian Territory, Clara's childhood years turn her into an educated and adventurous woman, who arrives in Arroyo Grande in 1883.   

Performances Saturdays at 2PM, June 4, 11, 18, 25

"Life in the New City"
Clara's continuing adventures in Arroyo Grande as a pioneer teacher and wife of the city's first permanent doctor, Edwin Paulding.

Performances Saturdays at 2PM, July 2, 9, 16, 23
    
The Great American Melodrama's (www.americanmelodrama.com) current production, Soup du Jour, will run through June 12, followed by yet another Vaudeville Revue to tickle your musical senses.  And be sure to check out Camp Melodrama for young people ages 7-17 which runs July 18 - August 15.

Curt Miner received his degree in theatre from Northern Arizona University and has been involved in theatre, educationally and professionally, for nearly 40 years now. He is currently Pastor of the United Church of Christ in San Luis Obispo, CA (www.sloucc.org), where he founded a theatre outreach ministry known as The God Is Still Speaking Players (check them out on Facebook). Their first production was the West Coast Premiere of a new play by Gordon Greene (one of Curt's former theatre professors from back at NAU) entitled "The Scopes Monkey Trial: What Really Happened" in October of 2008. Curt and his wife of 35 years, Linda, worked together as Director and Music Director on a production of "Godspell" June 2009. The group presented a readers' theatre production of Archibald MacLeish's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play "J.B." November 2009, participated in a collaborative effort with Bent Angel Productions in a staged reading of "12 Angry Men" in February 2010, presented "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" the first 2 weekends of September 2010, embarked upon another collaborative effort with Bent Angel Productions of a staged reading of Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood" in November 2010, presented a readers' theatre production of "The Diary of Anne Frank" the first weekend this past March, mounted a production of "Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree" the first 2 weekends of September, and presented "Celebration In Song" - a musical variety show to benefit the work of GALA and PFLAG in November. A readers' theatre presentation (possibly "Our Town") or another musical revue will be presented this coming March, with "Snoopy" (sequel to YAGMCB) on the schedule for the first 2 weekends in September. When people ask him "Why a theatre outreach ministry?" Curt tells them "I have found that theatre is sometimes able to touch a person's heart and soul more deeply than the best crafted worship experience ... that's why."

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