Fresh Loaf

THREE WISE MEN: Hugh Adams (left), Barry Stoltze and Brik Berkes in Theatrical Outfit's 'It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.'

Something about radio seems particularly suited to the holidays, perhaps because we grow up with the tradition of radio stations switching to all-Christmas formats after Thanksgiving. Several theaters, including Theatrical Outfit and the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, are staging holiday plays that tap into the live radio format. Even if a performance isn’t going out over the airwaves, the audience still feels a charge when that “ON THE AIR” sign lights up.

The 1940s Radio Hour, for years a perennial holiday show at Marietta’s Theatre in the Square and playing this year at Dahlonega’s Holly Theater, evokes the spirit, songs and commercials of the WW II era. From Dec. 3-21, Theatrical Outfit harks back to roughly the same period with a remount of last year’s Christmas show, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, which imagines Frank Capra’s classic film performed for an audience by five actors. (more…)

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It’s that time of year again folks - Fiction Contest time! And we know that given the current economic situation (there’s some serious cash at stake here people), there are more starving artists out there than ever.

So, submit a manuscript of no more than 3,000 words either as a hard copy to our offices or online. All works of fiction must in some way incorporate the word “pop” — as a theme, a metaphor, whatever. You can use the word as any way you like; just use it well. Originality is encouraged, and the word count is enforced.

Click on the image below for more details or to submit an entry.

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This week CL Charlotte’s Matt Brunson discusses the DVD releases of the Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection, Hellboy II: The Golden Army and more.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PREMIERE COLLECTION (1927-1947). The home entertainment arms of Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures released their own Hitchcock collections in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and now here’s 20th Century Fox belatedly joining the party with their own resplendent box set.

Hitchcock had already directed a couple of films before helming The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), but this is the movie that was commonly called (even by the Master himself) “the first Alfred Hitchcock picture.” Read the rest here.

(Photo Courtesy MGM)

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Bestselling author and National Public Radio commentator Bailey White speaks in a throaty but quavering drawl that’s so distinctive, you can imagine her spinning leisurely yarns for hours on a front porch in her hometown of Thomasville, Ga. Her voice can be a little misleading, however. White sounds so grandmotherly that a listener may underestimate her as merely quaint, when her writing can reveal unexpected precision and perceptiveness. (more…)

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Here are some of the titles that come out on DVD today. For more, see Matt Brunson’s View from the Couch column tomorrow.

“Bones” Season 3

Encounters at the End of the World

Garden Party

“Hannah Montana” Season 1

Live at Wembley Stadium: The Foo Fighters

Mister Lonely

Priceless

Tropic Thunder

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

Wall-E

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Laura Bush (left), YEA member Kamil McFadden, YEA executive director Debi Barber, PCAH representative Caren Prothro

The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities recognized the local African-American youth theater company last Fri., Nov. 14 with $10,000 and a ceremony at the White House.

From the press release:

The Coming Up Taller Awards recognize and support outstanding community arts and humanities programs that celebrate the creativity of America’s young people, and provide them with new learning opportunities and a chance to contribute to their communities. … “The connection between YEA participation and academic success is a testament to the power of the arts for motivating young people to be their very best,” said Adair Margo, chairman of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

This is the second Coming Up Taller award for YEA. They were first recognized in 1998.

Catch the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta Dec. 11-21 at the 14th Street Playhouse when it stages its annual holiday performance Urban Holiday Soup. The video below shows YEA’s performance of “Soweto!” at the Trumpet Awards, and should give you a little pre-show taste of what the group has to offer.

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Gangly, charmingly quirky character actor and blogger James Urbaniak became a familiar face to indie movie audiences thanks to breakthrough roles in American Splendor and Hal Hartley’s Henry Fool. He’s most respected for his Drama Desk-nominated turn in the acclaimed one-man show Thom Pain (Based on Nothing), but may be most beloved as one of the lead voice actors on Adult Swim’s “The Venture Brothers,” a parody of vintage cartoon adventure shows along the lines of “Johnny Quest.” Local fans will get the chance to see Urbaniak in the flesh at Atlanta Supercon, Nov. 21-23. He’ll also has a guest spot on “CSI: Miami” on Mon., Nov. 24.

Since 2005 you’ve kept the urbaniak blog on Livejournal. Why do you blog?
I started because Jackson Publick, creator of “The Venture Brothers,” had a Livejournal account. He inspired me to start one. I was doing Thom Pain: Based on Nothing, which was a one-man show that lasted about an hour. I developed this routine where every night I’d come home from the theater and go on the “Venture Brothers” fan site, The People’s Republic of Venture. I used to write in anonymously and I got hooked on that kind of dialogue. When the play ended, I thought, “Well, why not blog as myself?” I was a little hesitant at first, but it’s an enjoyable way to communicate thoughts and ideas. Plus, if there’s a topic that interests me, blogging provides an excuse to research it. I’m not aware of the blog specifically affecting my acting career, but I have gotten some attention to it from larger media outlets. I guess in that sense, it’s raised my profile a notch or two.

“The Venture Brothers” has always struck me as appealing to slightly older fans more so than most of the Adult Swim shows. Do you think that’s the case?
The fans are definitely all ages. The initial audience for my blog was “Venture Brothers” fans, and a lot of them are pretty young, in high school or college. I just did an episode of “CSI: Miami,” and the director was this guy in his 50s who said, “I love ‘The Venture Brothers,’ and so does my son!” He asked me to call his son on his cell phone, and when the son picked up, I said “Hi, it’s Dr. Thaddeus Venture!” When we were done talking, the father got back on the phone and said “You owe me one.”

(more…)

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Today’s Watch Your Head comic strip sums up the cinematic body of work of Atlanta’s Tyler Perry:

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It’s that time of year again folks - Fiction Contest time! And we know that given the current economic situation (there’s some serious cash at stake here people), there are more starving artists out there than ever.

So, submit a manuscript of no more than 3,000 words either as a hard copy to our offices or online. All works of fiction must in some way incorporate the word “pop” — as a theme, a metaphor, whatever. You can use the word as any way you like; just use it well. Originality is encouraged, and the word count is enforced.

Click on the image below for more details or to submit an entry.

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Seriously, why didn’t I know about this guy before the election? His name appears to be Iman, he’s part of a Mad.TV contest, and he’s got Obama down. I especially like his version of Obama doing De Niro. (”Saturday Night Live’s” Fred Armisen tries, but has always sounded more like Tiger Woods.)

If anyone knows of any others, please let me know.

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The program for Theatrical Outfit’s production of A Lesson Before Dying (Romulus Linney’s theatrical adaptation of Ernest J. Gaines’ acclaimed novel) features a note from executive artistic director Tom Key, in which he remarks:

A Lesson Before Dying takes place in 1948 Louisiana. Sixty years later, as I write this in Georgia on Sep. 22, 2008, in less than 24 hours, Troy Davis maybe put to death by lethal injection fo rhe 1989 murder of Savanahh Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail — a murder which many believe he may not have commited. For Officer MacPhail, Mr. Davis, for their families, and for all of us, I pray that a day will come when no one would find the treatment of the character Jefferson in Ernest Gaines’ novel dramatically plausible — when there would no longer be an audience for this kind of tragedy. In the meantime, I must have hope, and I have not found another place in which it can be learned other than in this particular classroom.

(On Oct. 24 Troy Davis received a stay of execution pending an appeal before a federal appeals court.)

Although A Lesson Before Dying involves a black man convicted for a crime he probably did not commit, it’s not a race to save Jefferson from the electric chair, like A Time to Kill. Nor does it explore the racist Southern legal system of the era along the lines of To Kill a Mockingbird — the racial injustice of the system is taken as a disheartening given. Instead, it’s most like the movie Dead Man Walking, in which an outsider tries to prepare a condemned man to be executed.

(more…)

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The Cartoon Network goes back “not long ago, in a galaxy not far enough way” with “Robot Chicken: Star Wars, Episode II,” the second all-Star Wars themed episode of the animated comedy series. Created by actor Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, “Robot Chicken” uses stop-motion animation — frequently of familiar action figures and product tie-ins — to lampoon pop culture. In 2007, “Robot Chicken’s” its first wide-ranging goof on the Star Wars franchise earned the some of the show’s greatest acclaim, and even an Emmy nomination.

Airing Nov. 16 on Adult Swim, “Episode II” offers more sketches and “one-liner” gags about Jedi, the Galactic Empire and even the maligned Ewoks (who someone escaped direct assault the first time around). In addition to comedy voice talents like Green and Bob Bergen, the special features cameos from Star Wars alumni, including Carrie Fisher and Ahmed Best (the voice of Jar-Jar Binks). Billy Dee Williams offers a particularly amusing lampoon of his own performance as Lando Calrissian. Part of what makes the “Robot Chicken” treatment so amusing is the way Green and company have such a good grasp on how to mock George Lucas’s iconic characters. Middle finger gags, for instance, prove hilariously “wrong” in a context of robots, Sith Lords and space stations. Evil Emperor Palpatine comes across like the most jerky, exasperated boss imaginable, while bounty hunter Boba Fett is like a cocky braggart at a sports bar. This new promo gives a taste of how the show treats Darth Vader.

(more…)

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CNN’s Anderson Cooper was on Jay Leno last night and admitted to watching “junk” on the tube, specifically namechecking a particular show we hold dear in our hearts, “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”

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It’s that time of year again folks - Fiction Contest time! And we know that given the current economic situation (there’s some serious cash at stake here people), there are more starving artists out there than ever.

So, submit a manuscript of no more than 3,000 words either as a hard copy to our offices or online. All works of fiction must in some way incorporate the word “pop” — as a theme, a metaphor, whatever. You can use the word as any way you like; just use it well. Originality is encouraged, and the word count is enforced.

Click on the image below for more details or to submit an entry.

Bookmark It