CSJ Presents LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

Audrey II (Puppeteer Billy McLean) and Seymour (Tony Boling)

Little Shop of Horrors opens this Friday in the Baughman Theatre in the Potter Center on the Jackson Community College Campus and plays for two weekends.. Here's a link to an article that will appear in the Jackson Citizen Patriot tomorrow! It has all the details you need.

Town Hall Players Production of RENT Opening May 13th

Center Stage performers Stephanie Pierce, TR Krupa and Mike Cicirelli appear with the Town Hall Players this weekend and next in Jonathan Larsen's rock opera RENT! Opening night is May 13th (tomorrow) at 7:30 pm at the Historic Stockbridge Town Hall, 125 S. Clinton Street in the heart of Stockbridge, Michigan!

Tickets $10 at the door - $8 in advance (at the Stockbridge Pharmacy)

Show times: Friday and Saturday, May 13, 14, 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 15 at 3 p.m. - Sunday, May 22 at 5 p.m.

RENT tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists and musicians struggling to survive in New York under the shadow of AIDS. RENT brings controversial topics to the stage and speaks to Generation X the way that the musical Hair spoke to the baby boomers. It’s a rock opera for our time, a Hair for the 21st century.

· This play contains profanity and adult situations.
· 15 years and younger must be accompanied by an adult.

You have six chances to see this show and to support community theatre in our area!

Encore Musical Theatre Presents . . .Encore on the Edge Series

Mark your calendar!  The Encore will be continuing its Encore on the Edge series with a show that might be new to our audience, but has quickly developed a huge following in many theatre circles, and you won't want to miss it!

The Last Five Years is an emotionally powerful and intimate musical about two New Yorkers in their twenties who fall in and out of love over the course of five years. The show's unconventional structure consists of Cathy, the woman (played by Thalia Schramm), telling her story backwards while Jamie, the man (played by Steve DeBruyne), tells his story chronologically; the two characters only meet once, at their wedding in the middle of the show.

Composer of The Last Five Years, Jason Robert Brown, won Drama Desk Awards for the music and the lyrics after the Off-Broadway premiere in 2002. The show has since been produced at almost every major regional theater in the US, and has been seen in Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Spain.

The Encore's production of The Last Five Years will run for 8 performances only, May 26 through June 5. Tickets are on sale now by visiting our website at http://theencoretheatre.org or by calling our box office at (734) 268-6200.

BON TON ROOM CLOSED - April 30, 2011

Bon Ton Room, Jackson, Michigan

Last night was the farewell celebration of the closing of Matt Davis's Bon Ton Room. Full of comedy improv, solo performers, and moments from the six shows presented over the last few years, it had the audience on their feet by the end of the evening. There were many tears and the realization that this venue, which many performers in Jackson felt was their home, would no longer exist.

The closing of the BTR will impact CSJ in a number of ways. The Youth Singing Competition has been held there since its inception. Three years of Miscast cabarets were presented there. With that space in mind, the Readings from the Second Stage series was born several years ago. Even our Annual Meeting and Awards Night has been held at the BTR.

Watch our webpage, calendar, sign up for our e-newsletter, or follow this blog for details on where we will be holding events in the future. Or if you have suggestions for locations, please e-mail us with your ideas at info@centerstagejackson.org.

And finallly, a space like the BTR is only special because of the people who made it welcoming, inspiring, and a safe place to learn and grow. Matt Davis created the environment and gathered talented people around him who believed in his vision. Matt, for everything you contributed to Jackson's performing community, for all the opportunitites you created, for everything you shared with us, THANK YOU doesn't say enough. WITH LOVE.