Ed Pugh

MICHA, the not-for-profit association dedicated to attending to actor/director/author Michael Chekhov's artistic vision and technique, announced the recipients of its coveted Studio Scholarships today.

Long before the stage saw puppets having sex and Ugandans confronting Mormons, there was JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA, a joyously foul-mouthed stage musical that's as much of a hilarious guilty pleasure as its title suggests. The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills is the latest American regional theater to take on this racy, over-the-top show. Due to popular demand--and, frankly, rightly so--this surreal musical's run has been extended through August 14. At the height of its popularity, Jerry Springer's eponymous TV program which inspired this reverent parody cornered the market in shocking reveals, loud on-stage brawls, and outrageous fringe parades. So the idea that this low-brow talk show-slash-circus sideshow has somehow been immortalized into a musical theater piece--specifically an Opera, perhaps the most high-brow of the Arts--attracts nothing less than amusing curiosity.