Early May 2012 Performance Opportunities on the California Central Coast

As we make our way into the Merry Month of May, I hope you are making plans to attend a number of the upcoming shows at the various live performance and theatre venues located here on the beautiful Central Coast of California!

Paso Robles High School Drama Department's (http://prhsdrama.com/index.html) Spring Musical will be Guys and Dolls with performances May 11-20.

Nathan Detroit, the organizer of the oldest permanent floating crap game, bets Sky Masterson that he can't make the next girl he sees fall in love with him - this is Miss Sarah Brown of the Save-a-Soul Mission.  Meanwhile, Nathan's longsuffering fiancée and the main attraction at the Hot Box nightclub - Miss Adelaide, only wants to get married.  In the end the gamblers and "spunky do-gooders" are thrown together.

Musical numbers include: Fugue for Tinhorns, Follow the Fold, The Oldest Established, I'll Know, A Bushel and a Peck, Adelaide's Lament, Guys and Dolls, If I Were a Bell, My Time of Day, I've Never Been In Love Before, Take Back Your Mink, More I Cannot Wish You, Luck Be A Lady, Sue Me, Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat, and Marry the Man Today.     

The Theatre at the Cambria Centerfor the Arts (http://artistsofcambria.com/cambriapac/index.html) will present DRAMARAMA - Youth Acting Classes June 4-28.

The Pewter Plough Playhouse (www.pewterploughplayhouse.org) in Cambria will present Outward Bound through June 3.

Templeton Performing Arts Center of the North County Dance and Performing Arts Foundation (http://www.northcountyperformingarts.org/) in association with Class Act Dance will present SYNERGY, a summer dance recital, on June 23. 

Currently playing for Kelrik Productions (www.kelrikproductions.com) in their Family Series is Willy Wonka, through June 3 [NOTE: Caught the opening matinee - FUN show ... GREAT kid vocals!].  Sweeney Todd will be presented May 18 - June 2 as part of their After Dark Series. 

SLO Little Theatre’s (www.slolittletheatre.org) next mainstage production, The House of Blue Leaves, will run May 25 - June 17.  And be sure to check out the Academy of Creative Theatre’s (http://www.slolittletheatre.org/pages/classes) children & youth theatre opportunities for this spring and summer!

The God Is Still Speaking Players (https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/92718528887), in collaboration with Bent Angel Productions, recently completed a readers’ theatre production of Our Town.  Next up is a summer musical production of Snoopy – auditions July 16 & 17, performances August 31 - September 9.

The Cuesta College Performing Arts Center (http://academic.cuesta.edu/performingarts/) will present a Wind Ensemble Concert on May 13, a Band Concert on May 14, Cuesta Combos Concert on May 15, and a Chamber Music Concert on May 16.

Espressivo! Chamber Theatre (http://espressivotheatre.com/) will present The Botanical Engineers May 12 – June 10 at various locations on the Central Coast – including May 18 at the Red Barn in Los Osos, May 19 at the Yoga Center in Morro Bay, May 20 & 24 at Pewter Plough Playhouse in Cambria, May 25 at Poalillo Vineyards in Paso Robles, May 26 at SLO Botanical Garden, May 27 at SLO Little Theatre, May 31 at the Gather Wine Bar in Arroyo Grande, June 1 at Davidson's Furniture "Art After Dark" in SLO, June 2 at Sculpterra Winery in Paso Robles, June 3 TBA, and June 7 back at Poalillo Vineyards in Paso Robles (WHEW ... talk about takin' it on the road!).

Upcoming performances at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center (www.pacslo.org) include Cal Poly's Theatre & Dance Department's The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other May 10-19, SLO Youth Symphony’s Season Finale Concert on May 13, Cal Poly Early Music Ensemble Concert: Treasures of Tudor England on May 18, Street Heat Dance Company’s Epidemic on May 19 (Spanos Theatre), Cal Poly Jazz Concert on May 19 (Cohan Center), and a Forbes Pipe Organ Recital by Paul Woodring on May 20.

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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