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PPTOPA Alumni Go Hollywood, CA
Gary & Edmund Entin present an Entwin Production
Simple Joys
(Click above link to view trailer)
| Posted on Sun, Nov. 05, 2006 |
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Criminal defense lawyer Alvin Entin, set to play Mayor Shinn in a production of The Music Man at Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts, suffered a heart attack the night of dress rehearsal. He felt symptoms at the theater -- a burning sensation across his chest, jaw pain and difficulty breathing. ''I was already in costume,'' says Entin, 61. He changed from a seersucker suit and bow tie into a T-shirt and shorts, and wife Lois, 57, rushed him to Memorial Hospital West in the Pines. Emergency surgery that night, Oct. 27 -- one stent. Five days later, he underwent a second operation at North Ridge Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. He got out Thursday with another four stents. ''Fortunately, we had an understudy in place,'' says Entin, the community theater's longtime board chairman. Jim Welles, 65, a Pompano Beach writer, was covering. Unfortunately, Welles didn't work out. Theater execs replaced Welles on Saturday after learning of a 2002 arrest -- an Internet sex sting. The ''15-year-old girl'' was a Lantana policeman. Case was later dropped, according to an April '06 story on Welles' case in New Times Broward-Palm Beach. Welles, author of The Story of Stupidity and Understanding Stupidity, agreed to counseling. New understudy is Gordon Levine, 49, a Fort Lauderdale paralegal. He performed, script in hand, at Saturday's matinee and evening show. Entin, who has quit smoking, hopes to be back onstage before final curtain call on Nov. 19. Others in the cast include: Broward Circuit Judge Jeff Streitfeld, 59 -- he sings in the quartet -- and Kelsie Templin, 11, who plays Gracie Shinn, one of the mayor's daughters. Kelsie's mom, WPLG-ABC 10 anchor Kristi Krueger, 42, is assistant director. Director is Florence Andrews, 80, a Cooper City retiree. Her grandson, James Cichewicz Jr., 35, is the community theater's volunteer prez. He stars as Harold Hill, the music man. Cichewicz's leading lady, Caryn Jerez, 25, who plays Marian the librarian, is Cichewicz's real-life love. Cichewicz, who sells high-end audio equipment, and Jerez, a teacher at The Sagemont School in Weston, are getting married Thanksgiving weekend in Plantation. Play is at Susan B. Katz Theatre of the Performing Arts at the River of Grass ArtsPark in the PinesTickets range from $10 to $17. |
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| Posted on Thu, Nov. 02, 2006 |
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PEMBROKE PINES Theater matriarch returns to direct `The Music Man' THEATRE OF THE PERFORMING ARTS FOUNDER DIRECTS HER BELOVED 'MUSIC MAN' WITH HELP FROM LOTS OF RELATIVES Special to The Miami Herald Theater is in the blood of Pembroke Pines' Theatre of the Performing Arts -- literally. Florence Andrews, the group's matriarch whose father was a theater director, made a childhood dream come true nearly two decades ago when she staged her favorite musical, The Music Man, with help from nine of her offspring in a tiny Hialeah theater. Andrews, now 80, living in Cooper City and the founder of PPTOPA in 1993, is directing the show again with two daughters, three grandchildren, a soon-to-be granddaughter-in-law and 10 great-grandchildren. ''Family is everything,'' Andrews said. And those who are not from Andrews' family tree become family. ''They adopt us,'' said Kristi Krueger, assistant director of the show, but best known for her role as television news anchor on WPLG-ABC 10. Krueger's daughter, Kelsie, 11, plays Gracie Shinn, and husband Todd Templin helped build the set. Nineteen other cast members make up seven other families, and even more community actors, singers and dancers complete the tight troupe of dedicated thespians. Together, the group plays a fast-pitched, highly technical and talented version of the Meredith Willson winner that debuted on Broadway in 1957. Set in 1912, The Music Man revolves around Professor Harold Hill, a fast-talking traveling salesman who takes prepaid orders for musical instruments and uniforms for the folks of River City, Iowa, to start a youth band under the assumption that he will be the bandleader. But Hill's plan to skip town as soon as the goods arrive becomes complicated when he falls in love with the beautiful local librarian. The toe-tapping tunes tempt the audience to sing along, the story line is family-friendly and predictably sweet, and the show remains every bit the family crowd pleaser it was in the 1950s on Broadway -- and in 1988 at Hialeah's Goodlet Park Theatre. ''Much has changed, and so much has not,'' Andrews said. The curtain rose Friday at the Susan B. Katz Theatre, 17195 Sheridan St., Pembroke Pines, and the show goes on through Nov. 19. The show features original choreography by Andrews' daughter, Stacey Cichewicz, costumes stitched two decades ago by Andrews' own hand; Andrews' grandson, James Cichewicz, in the leading role; and his fiancée, Caryn Jerez as librarian Marian Paroo. James Cichewicz was just 17 and a Miramar High School student when he played a small part in Andrews' first run. Now, at 35, he is president of PPTOPA and executive director of PPTOPA@Cooper City Theatre. Jerez, a drama teacher at The Sagemont Academy in Weston, who will become an official Cichewicz when she weds James over Thanksgiving weekend, said PPTOPA bonds families in the audience, on stage and behind the curtain. James Cichewicz said the theater troupe will always be that way. It's community theater by families for families. ''We don't get monetary compensation, but we certainly give and get love,'' he said. |
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| Posted on Sun, Feb. 13, 2005 | |
 PEMBROKE PINES Troupe moves offices, classes to Cooper City
In the Broadway musical Annie, playing through Feb. 27 at Jim Davidson Theatre in Pembroke Pines, a lovable moppet searches for home, sweet home. On Feb. 28, the Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts, with 11 seasons and more than a dozen acclaimed theater productions under its belt, will move into a home of its own -- in Cooper City. ''We are growing, our programs are successful, and it's time that we have a real focal point,'' President James Cichewicz said. The community theater group is moving theater classes to a permanent location and management out of the houses of members -- in particular, the Pembroke Pines homes of founder Florence Andrews and the group's chairman of the board, Alvin Entin. Marketing Manager Omi Fundora said the group will continue to produce a lineup of fully staged plays at the Davidson Theatre and the River of Grass ArtsPark in the Pembroke Pines Academic Village, but business and theater classes for kids, teens and adults will be conducted at PPTOPA@Cooper City Theatre, 12233 SW 55th St., Cooper City. Cichewicz said theater classes for kids, started in 2001, became so popular that parents requested classes, which led to PPTOPA After Dark for adults. Fundora said the new 2,700-square-foot facility, converted from warehouse space, includes three classrooms, an office and a performance room that will be renovated to resemble a black box theater for workshops, play readings and rehearsals. The program, now called PPTOPA Conservatory Curriculum, includes more classes for kids and adults, a new teen program and expanded theater classes to include dance, voice and music. Financing will come through grants, private and corporate support, ticket sales and student tuition. Prices for the eight-week sessions range from $225 to $350. ''PPTOPA@Cooper City Theatre is like an incubator in many ways,'' Fundora said. ''We have teachers lined up to develop the future of community theater through music, dance and acting,'' the marketing manager said. For details about PPTOPA@Cooper City Theatre, set to open Feb. 28 at 12233 SW 55th St. in Cooper City, call 954-437-4884 or visit www.pptopa.com. |
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Posted on Sun, Nov. 07, 2004
RIDING ON A `CAROUSEL'
LATEST
PRODUCTION ANOTHER IN A LONG LINE OF WINNERS FOR HIGHLY REGARDED COMMUNITY
THEATER TROUPE.
Special to The Herald
BY EILEEN SOLER
Paul Rudich of Boynton Beach said he and his friends enjoyed the Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts' May production of Ragtime so much that they bought season tickets for the troupe's 2004-05 performances.
''We're a group of 18 people who don't mind the hour long drive it takes to see good shows,'' Rudich said.
Members of the community acting troupe don't seem to mind the drive, either, said its president, James Cichewicz of Loxahatchee in Palm Beach County.
Founded by Cichewicz's grandmother and the group's artistic director, Florence Andrews of Pembroke Pines, the decade-old group has a base of Pembroke Pines residents, many of whom have little in common except a love for theater. Pembroke Pines teenagers like 16-year-old David Hernandez work easily with Century Village senior citizens like Chick Cicio.
But Cichewicz said many actors in the troupe's current production of the musical drama Carousel come from all over South Florida.
Cichewicz has the lead role of Billy Bigelow. Jay Maxwell of Cooper City plays a policeman; Emiliana and Leon Arteche of Weston are townspeople; and Michele Perkins of Plantation plays the part of Mrs. Mullin.
Carousel is a tale about the power of love. Bigelow, a carefree carnival barker, falls for and marries naive millworker Julie Jordan, played by Rachel Young of Fort Lauderdale. After Julie becomes pregnant, Bigelow loses his job and is coerced into committing a robbery with local bad guy Jigger Craigin (Bob Manza of Tamarac).
Other cast members come from North Broward and parts of Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties and even Central Florida.
''You can only do the travel time if you love the company and the theater,'' Cichewicz said.
Carousel was a favorite of the famous Broadway musical team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the music and lyrics. It's playing weekends through Nov. 21 in the Susan B. Katz Memorial Auditorium in the River of Grass ArtsPark, 17195 Sheridan St., Pembroke Pines.
Raising the curtain on Carousel wasn't easy, Maxwell said. Hurricane Jeanne cut the troupe's preparation time nearly in half, and a cast shake-up caused by the sudden illness of a lead player left the troupe without an understudy for two major roles.
But, as the old adage says, the show must go on.
''The rehearsals were long, busy and fun. Some from the cast put in 10-hour days. Nothing is too much for any of us,'' said Tera Young of Fort Lauderdale, who plays Nettie Fowler.
Posted on Thu, Jul. 22, 2004
BOOT CAMP COMEDY
PEMBROKE PINES THEATRE OF THE PERFORMING ARTS CLOSES
ITS SEASON THIS WEEKEND WITH NEIL SIMON'S FUNNY, YET POIGNANT, `BILOXI BLUES.'
Special to The Herald
Fall in and march to laughs, cheers and potential sing-a-longs Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Art's last performances of Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues.
The show ''has the military, sex and songs between scenes that will bring back lots of memories,'' said Florence Andrews of Pembroke Pines, a founder of the 11-year-old acting troupe and the show's costume designer.
Second in a trilogy of Simon's award-winning semi-autobiographical plays, Biloxi Blues follows the Pembroke Pines troupe's production of Brighton Beach Memoirs in August 2003 and precedes Broadway Bound, set to hit the stage in July 2005.
Simon's trilogy follows life's highlights, pitfalls and pratfalls as told through the diary of Simon's alter ego, Eugene Morris Jerome, said Jay Maxwell, who is producing Biloxi Blues at the Walter C. Young Resource Center's Jim Davidson Theatre in Pembroke Pines.
In Brighton Beach Memoirs, Eugene was a 15-year-old Jewish boy embarrassed and often aghast by the everyday antics of his large Brooklyn family. Eugene shows an honest, hilarious way of interpreting everything from his awakening sexuality to world events leading up to World War II.
Biloxi Blues takes us further.
The show opens in an old railroad car in 1943, with Eugene and other Army recruits headed to basic training camp in Biloxi, Miss. Eugene's first real adventure from home throws him into a world of many cultures and personalities inside a cramped military barracks, a seedy brothel and a dance operated by Catholic nuns.
Andrews, a grandmother and the matriarch of a long list of troupe players, said the play is not for children. Although the show is not graphic, it contains some foul language, several sexual references and a prostitution scene.
Broadway Bound takes the audience to New York City after the war, where Eugene and his brother, Stan (and Simon and his brother, Danny) launch careers as comedy writers.
Tara Robinson, 20, of Pembroke Pines, is a theater major at Emerson University in Boston and she watched Biloxi Blues with two fellow theater students. All agreed the community theater production of Biloxi Blues was far superior to what they expected.
''It was awesome, actually,'' Robinson said. ``There was a lot more detail in the set, great technical work and much better acting talent than I thought we would see.''
Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts, which performs at the Susan B. Katz Theater at the River of Grass Arts Park in Pembroke Pines and the Jim Davidson Theatre, has won a loyal following with such productions as Ragtime and Jekyll & Hyde, which were both held over by popular demand.
''Dedication and chemistry, even among our secondary casts, makes us successful,'' Maxwell said.
May 10, 2004
Playhouse to head downtown in Hollywood
By Jack Zink
The Hollywood Playhouse has a new artistic director, a new direction for its
lineup and a soon-to-be new board of directors. It also has only 18 to 24 months
to make it all work.
In two years, the company should occupy a new 400-seat theater -- as a tenant,
no longer a landlord -- in the heart of the downtown redevelopment around Young
Circle.
But what moves into that space will be the brand name developed and maintained
over the past 58 years. The rest, including the audience, is expected to be
different.
New ticket buyers are a must, and pretty much a given, with Monday's
announcement that John Rodaz has been appointed the permanent artistic director.
Rodaz, who with his wife Maria ran the 48-seat Area Stage on Miami Beach through
the 1990s, signed on as interim chief last month and was given the full title by
the current board at a meeting last week. Maria, meanwhile, has been aboard
since late winter in charge of a diversity program. Their presence guarantees a
break in style and content.
Rodaz spoke briefly at a presentation at the existing playhouse Monday. Duncan
Webb and associate Sarah Jaycox of New York-based Webb Management Services laid
out their findings and business plan recommendations to city officials following
a study of the playhouse organization and the downtown theater project.
The new theater is part of developer Gary Posner and marketer Patricia Peretz's
$13 million HART project, including an arts charter school, a condo tower and
some retail.
Webb's main recommendations are for a $7 million, 350-450-seat theater to be
managed by a new, independent nonprofit corporation. The Hollywood Playhouse
troupe should be its primary tenant. It will use the theater space for slightly
less than 60 percent of its expected annual occupancy. This translates to 190 of
a projected maximum 332 "use days" (rented days) each year.
The venue's board of directors will have to raise about $334,000 annually in
donations, grants and other support to cover expected operating deficits and to
build an endowment.
The Hollywood Playhouse board, already undergoing some change, should be
overhauled with new membership and engage in similar fund raising to cover its
own expected deficits.
The two boards should not be interlocking, but should work together to
coordinate their efforts.
The name of the new downtown theater should not be the Hollywood Playhouse, but
should reflect a broader accessibility to other presenters and local arts
groups. Peretz said naming rights will be tied to a significant capital project
donation.
Webb's management suggestions included a reference to the Broward Center, whose
president Mark Nerenhausen is developing a regional management and box office
network to assist smaller organizations.
The Broward Center manages the new Miniaci theater at Nova Southeastern
University in Davie and runs the Hollywood Playhouse's box office, among others.
The consultants indicate that the theater will be a valuable component of the
downtown development, and that the nonprofit funding requirements [donations]
are "reasonable."
Webb predicts 244 performances in year two, a third of them not involving the
Playhouse troupe. A rehearsal hall will be included in that mix for special
events. Total attendance would be about 64,000.
The troupe was one of South Florida's largest, most successful amateur community
theaters for most of its history. But attendance and support fell through the
1980s.
A half-hearted attempt to turn professional in the early 1990s was an artistic
disaster that further eroded audiences. Andy Rogow was hired as artistic
director in the late '90s to raise the artistic standards, which he did. But the
audience and support base lagged as costs increased.
The location, off the main roads in the heart of a residential neighborhood, was
a positive factor as a community theater but negative as a professional
operation seeking regional audiences and support. The building itself, however,
is a splendid miniature theater.
Webb, Posner and Peretz all stressed the need for the existing Hollywood
Playhouse organization to transform itself in anticipation of the move downtown
two years from now.
Posner, on the board since he bought the property last year, will step down soon
and form a nonprofit company with Peretz to run the new facility.
Rodaz's hiring is the first step in a transformation of the staff. Still open is
an executive director position, for which a national search has begun.
In the meantime, Rod Salomani is being groomed as a business manager in the
current building for eventual transfer to the downtown property as its facility
manager.
The lineup
Rodaz's debut lineup at the current theater will include a few of his former
Area Stage's greatest hits -- an interesting test of his move from hip SoBe to
the 'burbs.
Hit No. 1 is Brilliant Traces, an edgy two-character romantic fantasy about a
ditzy bride-to-be who shows up at a hermit's arctic cabin in the middle of a
blizzard. Peter Paul DeLeo, who starred in Rodaz's original production a decade
ago, appears with Deborah Sherman May 5-23.
Hit No. 2 opens the 2004-05 season in September: K2, the drama by Patrick Myers
about two mountain climbers stuck on a ledge in the Himalayas. Rodaz's scenic
design on SoBe was as hauntingly effective as Ming Cho Lee's Broadway set.
December will bring Pedro Calderon de la Barca's 17th century "cape and sword"
drama The Phantom Lady. A world premiere is due next February, with Illuminating
Veronica by Roelio Martinez.
Jose Rivera's Cloud Tectonics follows in March and Tom Stoppard's The Real
Inspector Hound closes out the announced schedule next spring.
Posted Sunday, January 4 2004
Pines troupe to perform decade of music at anniversary concert
By Beth Feinstein-Bartl,
Special Correspondent
Musical
numbers from a decade of past productions will be performed when members of the
Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts take the stage to celebrate the
troupe's 10th anniversary.
The concert on Jan. 10 will feature 30 to 35 former and current members of the
group who will dress in tuxedos and gowns, said Alvin Entin, chairman of the
theater's board of directors.
Entin, a lawyer from Pembroke Pines who joined the theater eight years ago, will
perform two solo numbers from Lil' Abner and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way
to the Forum.
Other past productions highlighted at the concert will include songs from
Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver, Jekyl & Hyde, Sweeney Todd and Camelot, Entin said.
Showtime will be at 8 p.m. at the Jim Davidson Theatre in the Walter C. Young
Resource Center at 901 NW 129th Ave., Pembroke Pines. Kristi Krueger, news
anchor at WPLG-Ch.10 and a Pembroke Pines resident, will be hostess of the night
of music, song and dance. Tickets are $30.
Proceeds will help support the nonprofit community theater, which relies solely
on fund-raisers and ticket sales, Entin said.
Since its founding, he said, the troupe has grown professionally.
"Here we are, still going strong," Entin said. "The quality of performances has
gotten much better. As we've gotten older, we've gotten more sophisticated."
Musicals are the most popular shows, drawing an average attendance of 2,500 to
3,500 patrons for each run. Plays, including dramas and comedies, attract 1,000
to 2,000 people.
Over the years, Entin said, the group has "taken on challenges and pushed the
envelope" by doing such musicals as Sweeney Todd, which opened the theater's
2003-04 season in September. A play, Steel Magnolias, ran in November.
The troupe divides its performances between two locations -- the Walter C. Young
Resource Center and the River of Grass Arts Park at 17195 Sheridan St. in
Pembroke Pines. The troupe's first production at the new arts park was Crazy for
You, presented in April.
The season will continue with two more musicals, the Wizard of Oz from Feb. 6 to
29 and Ragtime from April 30 to May 23, and a play, Biloxi Blues, from July 9 to
25.
Florence Andrews, one of the theater's founders, said the group has grown in
popularity because it gives the community professional quality shows at
reasonable ticket prices.
Admission for a single performance is $16 for adults, $13 for seniors, $12 for
students and $6 for children.
"We bring the arts to southwestern Broward," Andrews said. "We're not afraid to
tackle anything."
People from all walks of life and all over South Florida audition for the
various productions. Several of the performers also appear in local professional
shows, she said.
Andrews, a Pembroke Pines resident, established the Pembroke Pines Theatre of
the Performing Arts with her two daughters, Stacey Cichewicz of West Palm Beach
and Sherry Paris of Pembroke Pines; and her grandson, James Cichewicz, and his
wife, Janine, of West Palm Beach.
Other founders were Paul Mendelsohn of Valrico, near Tampa, and his late wife,
Irene, Andrews said.
Andrews and her family were previously involved with a theater group in Hialeah
for 12 years. When the family moved to Pembroke Pines, they decided to start
their own troupe, Andrews said.
James and Janine Cichewicz and Sherry Paris will sing at the 10th anniversary
celebration, along with Andrews' granddaughters, Stacey Marino and Laurrie
Shepard, both of West Palm Beach. Stacey Cichewicz will be working behind the
scenes as the concert's choreographer.
Darlene Sholtis, an interior designer from Weston, said she is looking forward
to reuniting with other troupe members on stage for the anniversary celebration.
Sholtis joined the group seven years ago. The last production she appeared in
was two years ago, when she played Maria in The Sound of Music. Her children,
Lindsay, 15, and Ashley, 12, also have been involved in past productions.
"I think it's great," said Sholtis, about the concert. "I'm looking forward to
seeing everyone."
Entin said he, too, is looking forward to sharing the stage with past members,
including Terry Stewart, former assistant city manager of Pembroke Pines and now
city manager of Cape Coral.
Entin didn't expect to be on stage when he initially got involved with the
troupe. His children, now grown, had roles and they talked him into auditioning,
he said.
His last show with the group, in 2002, was as lead in the drama The Man Who Came
to Dinner.
"There's a lot of families involved," Sholtis said. "There's a lot of
camaraderie."
Posted on Sunday, Nov.
09, 2003
Women strong as 'Steel Magnolias'
BY EILEEN SOLER, Special to The Herald
The women of the Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts are no bunch of
shrinking violets. In fact, the cast and crew of the 11-year-old nonprofit
acting troupe's latest offering are 99 percent Steel Magnolias. ''It's an
estrogen fest,'' actress Nicole Niefeld said of her female cohorts and the play,
now showing at The River of Grass Arts Park. Steel Magnolias, a humorous
drama about six Louisiana women with disparate personalities and goals, opened
at the Pembroke Pines theater at 172nd Avenue and Sheridan Street on Oct. 24. It
will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. today, Saturday and
Nov. 16. Remembered as a 1989 film starring Sally Field, Dolly Parton,
Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, Julia Roberts and a handful of
male actors, the movie was directed, produced and filmed by men. The
Pembroke Pines stage adaptation is directed, produced, costumed and engineered
by women who hail from Lighthouse Point to Coconut Grove. Only one part,
the radio announcer whose 20-second asides between the third and fourth acts set
a time line, is played by a man: Jonathan Baltz. ''I just stay out of their way
as much as possible,'' Baltz said. All agree, including an enthusiastic
audience at last week's Sunday matinee, that the impressive production reflects
the cast's professionalism, grasp of female issues, ability to handle stress,
and the importance of girlfriends. ''Think about the title, Steel
Magnolias. We're tender, we love, but if things go wrong, we are very tough,''
said actress Heather Lavan, who plays M'Lynn. Director Kimberly Finnegan
said the production is running smoothly, despite the absence of the troupe's
dominate male leadership. ''We get along so much easier without
testosterone throwing its weight around,'' Finnegan said. The cast and
crew, who are friends offstage as well, do not really disparage the men of the
troupe. The show's producer, Florence Andrews, is the grandmother of the
troupe's president, James Cichewicz. The president's wife, Janine, is the
executive director. Finnegan said ''the girls'' merely poke fun now and
then at a novel situation. ''Seriously, men should come see the play. They
could learn a lot about women,'' said actress Jessica Galinas, who plays Shelby.
Posted on Friday, Dec 7, 2001
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COMMUNITY TROUPES HAVE THE RIGHT MIX |
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JACK ZINK Theater Writer. South Florida Sun - Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: |
An era seemed to
close a few weeks ago when the Fort Lauderdale Players folded its tent. But that
latest evidence of the region's shrinking amateur, community theater pool is a
bit misleading.
The Players' departure is indeed the latest example of a decades- long trend
that's wilted a once-vibrant community theater scene among South Florida's
coastal towns. Yet dozens of pumped-up volunteers and performers (and several
hundred enthusiastic patrons) in the Walter C. Young Resource Center's Jim
Davidson Theatre in Pembroke Pines last weekend were powerful evidence that
community theater is moving west, with the community itself.
The occasion was an extended weekend for the pop-rock musical Jekyll & Hyde,
staged by the Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts.
The troupe's moniker is both hyperbolic and a misnomer of sorts. The TOPA
acronym is one normally reserved for vaunted arts center buildings themselves,
as the Gleason Theater on Miami Beach was dubbed for years.
PPTOPA reflects both the ambition and pride of this troupe. The staging of
Jekyll & Hyde tends to back up the claim. This was a slick, entertaining
production whose community theater laurels were clearly and passionately
displayed, and needed no caveats. The Young Center, though barnlike for plays,
musicals and concerts, is adequate to solve grassroots arts organizations' most
vexing problem: a place to play.
In the east, the only remaining community theater institutions are the Lake
Worth and Delray Beach playhouses. A few scattered companies continue to try to
make do in older neighborhoods in Broward and Miami-Dade, whose changed
demographics long since cut the foundations out from beneath them.
A few others chose to convert to professional theater, an unfortunate trend
that's mired in mediocrity. In some cases, the attempt to go professional
actually plunged the troupes' quality below their previous community theater
standards.
Those standards, though technically labeled amateur (in the sense that the cast
is not paid for their performances), represent a broad blend of talent and
resources.
Community theater brings together young aspiring performers (including students
at magnet schools and colleges), seasoned retired performers and artists from
other disciplines seeking to either expand or augment their careers. Here in
South Florida, the creative design and technical crew, and musical direction,
often are a paid professional team working side by side with the amateurs. That
environment is an artistic petri dish for all involved.
In Jekyll & Hyde, for instance, Deanna Peden (who played Emma, Jekyll's fiancee)
has performed with small opera companies around the country and is a faculty
member at Miami's New World School of the Arts. Wendy Wood (as the luckless
prostitute Lucy) has a professional- quality pop singing voice that's hauntingly
similar to Linda Eder, Jekyll & Hyde's Broadway star (and wife of composer Frank
Wildhorn). Chick Cicio is a former concert and nightclub performer. Musical
director Michael Day has performed in jazz and big bands internationally (and in
international waters on cruise ships) as well as directed the Montreal Opera
Society.
In Jekyll & Hyde, Day had a full-sized pit orchestra behind him consisting
mostly of what appeared to be music students. His arrangements allowed them to
color the performance without taxing their abilities, while his well-structured
keyboard work provided the bulk of the show's instrumental underpinning.
Lawyer Alvin Entin, the organization's chairman, mercilessly tub- thumped Jekyll
& Hyde throughout its run as an example of just how far a community theater can
go. Pundits may scoff at Jekyll & Hyde as the vehicle, but the show that critics
have loved to hate is just the kind to scare up the supposedly lost audiences
those same critics fret about. Entin has 'em.
Last Saturday night, young suburbanites, working couples, kids borrowing the
family car and a smattering of grandparents gathered in the Davidson Theatre for
a whooping pulp-fiction good time. They weren't at the Broward Center for South
Pacific last month. But they might be next time, because they obviously liked
their experience at the theater this time.
James Cichewicz, in the title role, also has an accomplished voice. He's the
troupe's president and the show's producer; his wife, Janine, is Jekyll & Hyde's
director, and mother Stacey is its choreographer.
This is a family with a powerful one-track determination that's helped the
organization to dwarf a sizable number of the region's professional arts groups
-- who, if not already, should expect to someday inherit the talent developed at
PPTOPA.
Perhaps right now is the time for the pros to take a look at what PPTOPA (and
the Lake Worth and Delray playhouses) is still doing right, things that some
pros have forgotten how to do at all.
Posted on Sunday, Oct 3, 1993
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PINES MAN FINDS DREAM BY STAGING `KING AND I' |
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DAVID CAZARES Staff Writer. Sun Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale |
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When James Cichewicz was a child, his relatives didn't have to ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up. They needed only to look at the special relationship he had with his great-grandfather, Ralf Sinclair, who was involved in community, church and Broadway theater productions for 60 years before his death in 1979. "I used to organize (family) shows at Christmas," said Cichewicz, an assistant manager at a local record store. This month, Cichewicz, 22, is fulfilling a dream by producing Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I at the Walter C. Young Resource Center. The musical is performed by the Pembroke Pines Theatre of the Performing Arts Inc., a non-profit group that Cichewicz, friends and family members recently formed to bring community theater to the city. Their first show was on Friday. Cichewicz won the city's support in March, after approaching City Manager Charles Dodge with the idea for a theater group and inviting city officials to a performance of Fiddler on the Roof in Hialeah, in which he was the lead actor. Dodge said the city has had community theater before and wanted someone to offer performances again. He said city officials agreed to Cichewicz's idea because they were impressed with his plan - and his performance. The city is letting the theater group use the center at 901 NW 129th Ave. this month in exchange for 30 percent of the door receipts after expenses, Dodge said. If the arrangement works out, he said, the group can schedule more shows. For Cichewicz, a 1989 graduate of Miramar High School, the production is also a family affair. His mother, Stacy Cichewicz, is the show's choreographer and his grandmother, Florence Andrews, is in charge of costumes. Andrews, who directed her grandson in Fiddler on the Roof, said that based on his performance in that play, his debut as a producer should be a good one. "He stepped in and took the lead two weeks before the show," she said. "It's unbelievable." Tickets to The King and I are $15 for adults, $12 for senior citizens and students and $7.50 for children under age 12. For ticket information and group rates, call 437-4884. Shows begin at 8:15 p.m. on Oct. 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22 and 23; and at 2:15 p.m. Oct. 10 and 17. |
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