Gossip: Seven Stages seventh, Upside Arts first and PerSeverance expands – Foster's Daily Democrat

By Jeanné McCartin

Seventh season for Seven Stages

Seven Stages Shakespeare Co. Artistic Director Dan Beaulieu called to lay out the company’s upcoming season. The seventh for Seven Stages.

“We finally got all the pieces put together,” Beaulieu says. “So, a big part of what we want to do for the seventh year – of Seven Stages – is go above and beyond, and blow every project out of the water. … We want to take everything we’ve done in seven years and put it all together.”

7SSC will produce three mainstage productions, up one from previous years.

“Othello” is in May, directed by Alex Hernandez, who played Hamlet in last year’s production. (“He’s just finished starring/filming across from Van Diesel in his upcoming film.”)

“As You Like It,” the second, is the first to be produced in Brooklyn, New York; up in August at the Old Stone House.

The third title is yet to be announced. It will be special, and for the Halloween season, Beaulieu says. “So, we’ll enjoy dropping hints over the next two months.”

There’s changes afoot for the much loved Shakesbeerience as well (which returned to the Press Room in November, its original home).

“Due to the inclement weather of January, we’ve pushed Shakesbeerience back, so we have February through April; three more to come,” he says. “When we finish this year’s Shakesbeerience, we will have done all of Shakespeare’s plays on the Seacoast. It’s very exciting. I think it says more about the audience than us. … We’re very grateful.”

The current season will again be topped off by Shakesbeerience Encore at Throwback Brewery in June.

The 2019-2020 Shakesbeerience season, which starts in September, will grow to six rather than five events, “but still not in December and January.”

Auditions for the entire 7SSC season will be held at PPMtv on Feb. 17 from 12:30 to 5 p.m. People interested can email [email protected].

And there is yet another special to come. The company has an event in mind to celebrate completing the entire Shakespeare canon. “It will be something pretty big,” Beaulieu says. “… Seven Seasons. Seven Stages. Seems like a great year for parties!”

Busy first season for Upside Arts

Upside Arts, the new theater company founded by Miles Burns, Seraphina Caligiure and Alden Caple, has a number of projects in the works. There’s new camps, followed by still more, and its first stand-alone production.

“Now, it’s on,” says Burns. “The big thing we’ve got coming up right away is February and April vacation camps; one-week camps like little mini theater boot camps.”

Each will be held at the Portsmouth’s South Church Old Parish Hall. The performances will be held at the church proper.

“And this is important. We’re offering camps for both Maine and New Hampshire vacations,” he said.

The first camp is “The Show Must Go On.”

It’s classic Broadway songs, and we’ll do scenes … improv games, all that sort of different creative stuff, to learn about being on stage,” Burns says. “There will be a showcase at the end.”

“Vacation Rocks,” April’s camp,” is the same deal, same space,” he says. Find dates and info at Upside Arts’ Facebook page and at www.theupsideartscompanhy.org.

This summer, the company will collaborate with Prescott Park Arts Festival’s Camp Encore. Caligiure will direct, Burns will do the music direction.

The pair will oversee productions of “Mary Poppins’ Junior,” and “Once on This Island Junior.” There’s also a new, one-week, teen intensive camp, which will present “The Addams Family.”

“The next part is we will be running our own camp. … We’re trying to lock down our space,” he says. “It will be a pretty crazy summer.”

Burns will direct the Upside Arts Camp, which will focus on original works for the kids.

“We’re working on the schedule so I can do my job in both places,” he says. “Luckily, they’ll be down the street form each other.”

And, yet another camp is in the works, “an overnight camp for Upside,” he says. “We’re checking out different camps all over New Hampshire and Maine. We’ll be getting information out on that in a couple of months or so.”

The most immediate project is a teen production, “Rock of Ages, The Middle School Edition.” It’s already in the works, and will be presented at Dover’s Strand Ballroom. First auditions are done. More will be scheduled. Contact [email protected] for audition slots. Show runs March 29 and 30, and again in the summer at PPAF “with the same cast.”

“I’m also music directing ‘Matilda’ at the Rochester Opera House (this summer),” Burns says. “I’m not doing too shabby right now.”

PerSeverance expanding its horizons

Scott Severance, PerSeverance Production owner, returned from his company’s winter tour of “Christmas Carol” and “didn’t take a beat.”

“I’m struggling with so many projects, so many balls in the air, I don’t know where I am or what day it is, which is normally how it feels on tour,” Severance says.

The projects “in no particular order” include year two of summer theater at the Rochester Opera House. Severance produced “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To The Forum” the inaugural “attempt” in reviving the season.

“‘Forum’ was a really good show, though not as well attended as we hoped, … but, it raised awareness,” he says. “So, we are going to take another stab at it with two royalty free shows, because we’re watching the budget really carefully.”

First up, “From Sea To Shining Sea,” an original written by Severance, in July. The show will be a cabaret review based on USO shows, “a celebration of 100 years of American music, dance and comedy from around the WWI to Vietnam,” he says. “The music will be in the public domain, .. .hopefully with some really clever twists.”

The second is Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance.”

“We’ll try to create as wacky a physical comedy as we did last summer, but with that extraordinary music of Gilbert and Sullivan,” he says. “It will have one piano accompaniment, with William Asher. … We’re hopeful that if we watch the budget, we’ll stick around for a third year.”

Meanwhile Severance is gearing up for a two-theater run of “Stones in His Pocket.” The PerSeverance production runs at Concord’s Hatbox Theatre March 1-17, and at Rochester Performance and Arts Center March 22 to 31. “It’s very funny, very tragic. … Two men playing 15 characters.”

There are changes to the “Christmas Carol” tour as well.

Rehearsals will continue at ROH, but tech week and a public performance will move to the Stockbridge Theatre at Pinkerton Academy in Derry.

“‘Carol’ is a big, giant unwieldy beast and didn’t fit that well in House,” he says. “We need a place to spread out and become more efficient in the show.”

It’s more crucial with the tour’s 2019 expansion. The coming run will be largely performed in the Southwest; three of the tour’s four weeks.

The expansion opens markets and the possibility of two separate productions in the future, he says. “One for the East Coast, and one to the West.”

There’s no timetable for expansion, he adds. Re-building the entire show is costly. “But the more we do the show, the more the market grows nationally, and I would not be surprised if we’re taking out the same show with two completely different itineraries.”

Auditions for both ROH’s summer season and “Christmas Carol” are at Rochester Performance and Art Center on March 30 and 31. Contact Scott Severance at [email protected] or (603) 275-0605 for slots.

Jeanné McCartin keeps her eyes and ears open for gossip at [email protected].

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