Monthly Archives: July 2021

The Hope Mill Theater Summer Festival of Arts and Culture will close with four evenings celebrating the best in musical theater featuring a troupe of stellar performing artists.

Written and designed by Chris Burgess and directed by Kirk Jameson, A Celebration of Musical Theater is a new show that will take audiences on a musical journey of song and dance featuring some of the best songs ever written for the stage. It has a choreography of Tosh Wanogo-Maud, musical orchestrations by Nick Barstow and musical direction by Greg Last.

The show will feature a selection of some of the genre’s most beloved songs, including mixtures of classics from Gilbert & Sullivan and Rodgers & Hammerstein, to more recent hits like You Will Be Found by Dear Evan Hansen.

Other favorites featured will include I Dreamed a Dream (Les Misérables), You could Drive A Person Crazy (Company), Tradition (Fiddler on the Roof), One (A Chorus Line), I Don’t Know How to Love Him (Jesus Christ Superstar) and many more.

A range of local products from Ancoats Gin, 7 Brothers, Shin Digger and Paradiso Authentic Desserts is offered. There’s also an on-site barbecue and stone-baked pizzas available with vegan and vegetarian options.

The bar has a garden / forest facility provided by Charity GROUND WORKS.

Hope Fest follows all Covid safety guidelines in place at the time, and was designed with social distancing in mind – guests will be asked to book in groups of 2, 4 or 6 seated at tables (individual tickets also available on request) – meaning the event will run regardless of any further delay in easing restrictions.

For more information or to book a group of 2, 4 or 6 seated at the table, please visit www.hopemilltheatre.co.uk. Reservations of 6 get a 10% discount. To book an individual ticket, please contact the ticket office on 0161 257 9141 or [email protected]

The Théâtre du Parc will reopen its doors for a special one-day event, on Saturday July 31, for a free concert “A Good Day – A Concert of Musical Theater Songs by Eric B. Sirota“, with an open day, a reopened gallery in the park and an overview of the ongoing renovation project.

The Park Theater (also known as the Park Performing Arts Center) is located at 560 32nd Street in Union City, New Jersey 07087.

The theater and art gallery will open at 1 p.m. and the concert will start at 2 p.m.
Applicable protocols related to NJ State COVID will be followed and published.

The Park Theater, a house with over 1,300 seats, was built in 1931 and had been an active performing arts venue, made famous by The Passion Play. In recent years, it had fallen into disuse and needed to be restored. Over the past 2 years, a group of passionate volunteers / donors and art professionals have worked tirelessly to restore the park to a viable art venue. Clean, repair, repaint, replace carpet, modernize lighting. . . and restore the park, while organizing numerous shows and events to make the park a financially autonomous place, looking to the future and honoring its past.

In early March 2020, a ribbon cutting took place, with a grand opening of the Art Gallery (Gallery at the Park) with an exhibition of paintings by New Jersey artist Cara London. There was an open house, theater tours and musical performances in the mezzanine hall which has been transformed into a lounge and second performance space. The main theater was due to open a month later and exciting performances were scheduled until spring.

Just days after opening, the pandemic brought it to a halt.
As life begins to return to normal, we are excited to reintroduce the Park Theater to the community.

The concert will feature songs from Eric Sirota’s new musical, A Good Day. The program will also include songs from Sirota Frankenstein’s off-Broadway hit, Your Name On My Lips and Go, My Child. This event is produced by Jean Lant and Tamra pica in association with Write Act Repertory.

Eric B. Sirota is a New Jersey-based composer / playwright (and highly published research physicist). Five of his musicals have appeared on New York stages including Frankenstein who played Off-Broadway for 3 years. He is also one of the group of dedicated volunteers and arts professionals who have worked to preserve and restore the Park Theater.

Sirota’s new musical in development is A good day.

Music, memory, an old flame and Alzheimer’s – You’re just hoping for a good day.
Widowed artist, finds himself in the life of his childhood girlfriend, his first love, his muse, who despised him more than 50 years ago, and who today has Alzheimer’s disease.
Songs from A Good Day will be created and presented in the concert.

“My dad had Alzheimer’s disease, and in his later years the only way to get it was through music, singing songs he knew earlier in life. I decided to write. a musical about the power of music to rekindle memory and awaken the mind. ” – Eric B. Sirota

Sirota’s Frankenstein is a romantic musical about the human need for love and companionship, based on Marie shelleyclassic novel by. He has been playing Off-Broadway in New York for three years, until the pandemic. It was slated to be the inaugural production of the restored Park Theater in the spring of 2020, but has been postponed due to the pandemic. It will be coming to the Park Theater this coming season with performances on weekends and morning performances on weekdays for schools. (www.TheFrankensteinMusical.com)

His musical Your Name On My Lips, a romance about following his passion with obsession and commitment, had two productions at the Theater for the New City in New York. (YourNameOnMyLips.com)

Go, My Child, is the abandonment of his parents, infertility and the search for the truth, against a background of xenophobia; Set in ancient Mesopotamia, it is an original account of the early lives of familiar biblical figures. It was presented as a staged readings at the Actors Temple Theater in New York City, and will be produced at the Park Theater as a mass-market musical and as part of the park’s community outreach programs. (www.EricSirota.com/go-my-child/)

The cast of this concert includes Dylan biving, Daniel Robert Burns, Jay Chacon, Lauren Coccaro, Grace Juhe, Andrew Leonforte, Rebecca Monk & Devyn White.
The musical director Kent Jeong Eun Kim is a composer and pianist with an MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. As Music Director, recent Off-Broadway credits include: “Frankenstein” and “Swing”.

Eric B. Sirota is a composer / playwright, having written 5 complete musicals. He studied musical composition at Brown University. He is also a highly published research physicist with a PhD from Harvard. His musical, Frankenstein, played Off-Broadway at St. Luke’s Theater for 3 years, after earlier development at NYMF. Your Name On My Lips with previous development at EAT and MITF, had two productions at the Theater for the New City, where Sirota was a resident playwright. Go, My Child had organized readings at the Actor’s Temple Theater before COVID. In 2019, he received the Denis Diderot Artists in Residence grant to participate in the Château Orquevaux residency where he wrote A Good Day. As a composer (with librettist Vin Morreale Jr.) he wrote A Day at the White House, which was recently recorded as a radio podcast. Other works include The Flemington Oratorio and a dramatic set to music by Unetane Tokef. (www.EricSirota.com)

Artist Cara London obtained a BA in Art History from Brandeis University and an MFA from the Parsons School of Design. She studied sculpture at the New York Studio School and painting with John adams Griefen, who deeply shaped his direction as an artist. London has participated in many international professional workshops, including Triangle Artists’ Workshop, Vermont Studio School, Emma Lake, the Leighton Foundation and most recently Chateau Orquevaux, where she received the Diderot Artist-in-Residence Fellowship.
She was a founding member of the SOMI Fine Art Gallery in Flemington. She regularly exhibits her work and is part of many collections. She also teaches drawing and painting to students of all ages and experience levels. Ms. London is known for her work in pictorial representation. Cara London was part of the team that helped restore the Park Theater and turned the space into a viable gallery. (website: CaraLondon.com)