Friday, May 28, 2010

Keeping up with Julia Jones - The Boston Globe




‘Twilight’ actress Jones-ing to return to Wheelock

‘Twilight’ actress Jones-ing to return to Wheelock

Jill Radsken in the Boston Herlad

The Boston Herald ran this wonderful interview with Jill Radsken and Julia Jones on Wednesday May 26. Thank you Jill!

http://bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/view.bg?articleid=1257558

Pebbles' Twilight Blog - 10 Thing to Love About Julia Jones!

Julia and I made it over to the Jam'n 94.5 so that she and Boston's #1 ECLIPSE fan, Pebbles (extraordinaire!) could meet. Sweetest and funniest crew over there and Pebbles made it over here to WFT!

ahem, the report!

Pebbles' Twilight Blog - 10 Thing to Love About Julia Jones!

Really, the day shines brighter and brighter with a real gem in our midst. Wheelock Family Theatre is so proud to have Ms. Julia Jones represent us for the beautiful evening that was Before the Eclipse.

Keeping up with Julia Jones - The Boston Globe

Keeping up with Julia Jones - The Boston Globe

Local woman Julia Jones gets big break in new Twilight movie

Local woman Julia Jones gets big break in new Twilight movie

‘Twilight’ star Julia Jones speaks to 7NEWS

‘Twilight’ star Julia Jones speaks to 7NEWS

Monday, May 17, 2010

Before the ECLIPSE; Julia Jones returns home to WFT


Wheelock Family Theatre’s 2010 Fundraiser will feature the first opportunity to meet Julia Jones, a WFT alum, who plays Leah Clearwater in the Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
You may not know Julia…. yet, but our good friend is on the verge of mega-stardom!

To celebrate Wheelock Family Theatre’s commitment to youth, education, and the community, our benefit this year acknowledges the successful career of working actress Julia Jones. Ms. Jones attended classes at Wheelock Family Theatre as a child and performed onstage in Aladdin, Charlotte’s Web, and played Jo in Little Women. Ms. Jones has pursued a professional career and has appeared in a number of independent movies, the television program E.R., and will play Leah Clearwater in the Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Jared Bowen of WGBH will hold an onstage Interview with Ms. Jones on Thursday May 27 at 7:00pm. Tickets will be sold for the interview which will take place at Wheelock Family Theatre. In addition, a Private Reception with Ms. Jones will happen onstage prior to the Interview. The reception will be catered by Choice Events. Books will be available for Ms. Jones to sign.

Ms. Jones has also agreed to attend an exclusive Dinner on the 27th at the South End hot spot, 28 Degrees. This intimate Dinner (for up to 6) will be auctioned off to the highest bidder (minimum bid is set at $2500.) with all proceeds to benefit WFT. Join Ms. Jones, Jared Bowen, and WFT founders Susan Kosoff & Jane Staab, for a bright, once-in-a-lifetime evening with this rising star – an unforgettable opportunity!

TWILIGHT at WFT on Thursday May 27
6:00: Private Reception with Ms. Jones onstage at WFT
7:00: Onstage Interview with Jared Bowen of WGBH
8:00: Dinner at 28 Degrees

$100 – Adult Ticket for the Private Reception & Priority Seating at the Interview
$50 – Youth Ticket (under 18) for the Private Reception & Priority Seating at the Interview
$25 – General Admission for the Onstage Interview

617-879-2300; tickets@wheelock.edu

AUCTION: Exclusive Dinner with Julia Jones at 28 Degrees on Thursday May 27
Minimum bid: $2500.
To bid on this Dinner, please contact Kay Elliott at 617-879-2252 kelliott@wheelock.edu

For additional information about TWILIGHT at WFT, please contact Charles Baldwin 617-879-2147 cbaldwin@wheelock.edu

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Shimmers with Stars - Sheila Barth review of The Little Mermaid


Wheelock Family Theatre’s lavish production of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” isn’t the Disney song-and-dance version that catapulted animated mermaid Ariel to international stardom. The Boston theater production of the original Andersen fairy tale, which he wrote in the mid-1800s, has been rewritten by Linda Daugherty, and is cleverly modernized and adapted for today’s audiences, exploding with its own star power, handsome sets, stunning costumes. The delightful, fanciful story, unlike Andersen’s, ends jubilantly.

Wheelock is among the most audience-friendly theaters anywhere, with its dual on-stage monitors projecting all dialogue. Also, the actors are continually within reach of the audience, as performers prance, swish, and swagger, and in this case, swim, along the side, main aisles, and on stage, mesmerizing little ones.

Most people know the story of mermaid Pearl, Neptune’s curious daughter, who couldn’t wait for her 18th birthday and wanders close to the surface, to the sun’s radiating warmth on the water, revealing an unknown world and strange creatures - humans- beyond her watery realm. Besides being lovely like her older sisters, Luna, Coral and Anemone, Pearl is blessed with a special gift - a lilting, melodic voice. When she encounters drowning, handsome human Prince Stefan, Pearl swims him to safety, to shore, where they meet beautiful princess Marianna, (to whom the unaware prince is betrothed, and incorrectly credits with saving his life). Pearl feels impelled to return the prince to his homeland and falls in love with him. She makes a pact with the evil, verboten Sea Witch in exchange for becoming human to relinquish her voice and her life if the prince doesn’t fall in love with her. A tumultuous sea battle and revealed shared secret between the Sea Witch and Pearl’s powerful grandmother, Great Mother, save Pearl’s voice, romance, and her life, creating a happy, fairytale ending.

Wheelock Family Theatre, aptly led by director-set designer James P. Byrne in this production, has created a spectacular vision of sight, sound and movement that would have challenged Hans Christian Andersen’s vivid imagination and surpassed his dreams. A stunning, multi-level aquatic set, awash in shades of blues and aqua, undulates through calm and stormy seas. Ubiquitous Stacey Stephens, whose costume designs are enhancing several Boston and area stages simultaneously, has created an underwater kingdom of graceful mermaids, shocking electric eels, lobsters, crabs, jellyfish; a murky, kelpy, Sea Witch; commanding, kindly king of the sea; and ethereal, gracious Queen Mother. The set teems with multi-colored, swimming fish, creatures, and humans.

Franklin teen-ager Andrea Ross, who has graced many stages professionally, is enchanting as Pearl. Others in this star-studded cast include opera singer Johnny Lee Davenport, who doesn’t sing as the Sea King; Margaret Ann Brady, who is deliciously evil as the Sea Witch, thwarted by her foil, Great Mother, graciously portrayed by Jane Staab, (she penned the show’s sole song). Kami Rushell Smith, who recently starred in several Boston productions, is charming as Marianna; and David Kaim is fine as Prince Stefan. The entire cast adds luster, as does lighting designer Karen Perlow’s eye-popping swirling strobes and J. Hagenbuckle’s sound effects.

Fish Tales at Wheelock - HubReview of The Little Mermaid



Margaret Ann Brady and Andrea Ross cavort amid Stacey Stephens's terrific costumes in The Little Mermaid.

The
Wheelock Family Theatre's new production of The Little Mermaid gets so much right that I felt a little guilty about not liking it more. Director/designer James P. Byrne's solutions to the problems of evoking swirling schools of fish and scuttling squads of crabs, not to mention the shimmering, sinuous tails of the titular heroine and her friends, were always delightful, and the armies of kids impersonating these undersea denizens always charmed. Indeed, the show's at its strongest in the imaginative extravaganzas between its scenes, when iridescent fish swim about the auditorium, their tails twirling like kites as they poke about audience members as if they were so many stands of coral.

And you couldn't fault the production's adult cast, either: Andrea Ross made an appealing "Pearl" (
not "Ariel," more on that later), and Margaret Ann Brady chewed the reefery just as she should as the Sea Witch. There were also hilarious pratfalls from Ricardo Engermann, and generally the performances were lightly comic and gently graceful.

The trouble is that the script, by Linda Daugherty, isn't quite seaworthy. Parents should note that this is
not the popular Disney musical - despite a single song and a variety of music cues - but rather an attempt to meld its family-friendly revisionism with some of the dark drama of the Hans Christian Andersen original. Like the Brothers Grimm, Andersen favored tales that are grim indeed by modern standards, and often end with suffering (and explicit moralizing). Indeed, in her first incarnation, the Little Mermaid not only didn't get the Prince, but died for her efforts and dissolved into sea-foam. This turned out to be a bit much even for Andersen; he later revised the story to allow her some Little-Match-Girl-like redemption in the afterlife.

Adapter Daugherty clearly wants to temper the feel-good, you-
can-have-it-all vibe of the Disney version with the sense of sacrifice (if not the religiosity) of the original. Which is certainly a laudable goal. The trouble is that beat by stumbling beat, Daugherty can't really pull it off, and she basically tries to keep the Disney tone (and pump up a gentle environmentalism) while smuggling in some of Andersen's old-school sexual vengeance without ever really harming - or even touching - "Pearl." It doesn't quite work, but the kids probably won't notice that. You may notice, however, that their focus tends to drift in between the appearances of the scary eels and the rainbow fish.

Still, there
are those scary eels and those rainbow fish. And of course the good folks at Wheelock are also keeping a large number of local actors working. And is The Little Mermaid better than another trip to the multiplex? Yes, it is. You could do worse on a rainy day than taking a dip in this gentle, well-intentioned effort.

Monday, May 3, 2010

A Shimmering Water World



Reviews by Beverly Creasey


In my theater rounds of late, I’ve seen some delightful shows---with some standout performances I’d like to trumpet before they disappear: James Tallach is supplying plenty of suspense and sex appeal as the charismatic villain in the Concord Players’ THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL Timothy John Smith in Stoneham Theatre’s MY FAIR LADY gives a powerful, visceral performance as an unconventional Henry Higgins. Eric Hamel, in the same show, fiddles and whistles his way around Covent Garden, making the chorus numbers pop…And Ricardo Engermann adds hilarious pratfalls to the Wheelock Family Theatre’s energetic THE LITTLE MERMAID.


A fairy tale about humans and sea creatures living in harmony could not be more timely, given the current British Petroleum disaster which threatens the Gulf Coast. Linda Daugherty has fashioned the Hans Christian Anderson tale of THE LITTLE MERMAID into a sweet love story in a Shimmering Water World, and Wheelock makes the production kid friendly with lots of puppet fish and tiny lobster children to flesh out the story. (The Wheelock Family Theatre production swims through May 16th.)


Director/ set designer James P. Byrne’s clever ocean ripples with gossamer silk waves and billowing winds through which sail schools of silvery fish and a colony of mer-people. One particular mermaid dreams of becoming human and experiencing life “above.” Wheelock’s inventive production stars the charming Andrea Ross as the adventurous girl who saves a Prince from drowning and then makes a bargain with a witch to join him on land.


What makes WFT’s version work is the humor. The wee audience loved the sillier elements (like Ross splashing the humans or Ricardo Engermann’s spectacular pratfalls) and the older crowd giggled with admiration for Margaret Ann Brady’s spot on whale sounds. Jane Staab supplies the emotional heart of the story as the Great Sea Mother and Johnny Lee Davenport cuts quite a swath as the powerful King. Stacey Stephens’ imaginative costumes seem to flutter and float as the little mermaid and her sisters cavort in the water.


"The Little Mermaid" (16 April - 16 May)
WHEELOCK FAMILY THEATRE
@ 200 The Riverway, BOSTON MA
1(617)879-2300

Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Water is Fine at The Little Mermaid


The Little Mermaid at Wheelock Family Theatre
now through May 16
performances are Friday nights at 7pm
Saturday & Sunday matinees at 3pm
617-879-2300
tickets@wheelock.edu

pictured: Margaret Ann Brady as the Sea Witch and Andrea Ross as Pearl, the little mermaid.