KALLIOPE HAPPENINGS
John Paul Boukis, former executive director of Kalliope Stage in Cleveland Heights, returns this weekend for a staged reading of his new musical, Dearest Friend.
The reading will be at 8 tonight (June 1) and Saturday. Call 216-321-0870 for the complimentary event. Boukis’ musical, which he has been working on for years, reveals the passionate private lives of John and Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson, through their personal letters. The story of the Adams family’s struggle with power and sacrifice is told through the eyes of son John Quincy Adams. It’s a tale of father-son presidents that reveals both a historical love affair and friendship.
It’s encouraging to see Kalliope forging ahead after the six months of upheaval the theater has been through. Boukis, who founded Kalliope in March, 2003 with artistic director Paul Gurgol, resigned from the theater in November.
According to Gurgol, the theater’s books were in disarray, bills were unopened and Kalliope had only canceled checks for receipts. Boukis had been in over his head, maxing out all of his credit cards in an effort to keep the theater afloat.
”Thiis became an overwhelming experience for both of us,” said Gurgol, who said he concentrated solely on the artistic end and was not aware of the problems with the books until Boukis resigned.
”There were many times in the process where we had zero in the bank and, if by some miracle, money (donations) would show up.”
Boukis’ resignation came just as Nite Club Confidential was about to open. With actors, rights and artistic team members to pay, a $10,000 family loan was the only thing that kept Gurgol from shutting down the theater.
”It’s hard to believe, but we’re really thrilled to still be standing here,” Gurgol said in an introductory curtain speech last month at Chevalier: Maurice and Me.
The theater is now getting its books in order, with the help of new board of trustees member Rex Snider. John Eustace also has joined the board.
The goal is to have audited financials ASAP so the nonprofit Kalliope, which is devoted to the musical theater artform, is eligible to apply for grants. With Cuyahoga County’s Issue 18 grants, small organizations can get 25 percent of their operating costs covered for three years. That would allow Kalliope to bring someone in for development and grant writing.
In the meantime, Kalliope was financially unable to mount the full-fledged musical Dear World in April. International chanteur Tony Sandler stepped in in the nick of time, offering to do his Chevalier show in the intimate space. That way, Kalliope satisfied its subscribers and didn’t have to provide refunds.
Gurgol expected to break even on the Sandler show, which didn’t carry any fees for rights or Equity contracts.
He insists there are no hard feelings between himself and Boukis, who has relocated to Florida. Judging that Boukis is presenting his original musical at Kalliope this weekend, that appears to be true.
The theater has a full schedule set for 2007-2008, beginning with a new verson of Jerry Herman’s Dear World Sept. 27-Oct. 21, followed by the regional premiere of Fanny Hill Feb. 14-March 9, 2008. The musical is based on the naughty novel by John Cleland about the infamous prostitute.
The final musical will transform Kalliope into the Moulin Rouge with Cole Porter’s Can Can April 24-May 18, 2008. Other special events will be the theater’s fifth-season birthday celebration, featuring songs from its past 17 productions, Sept. 7-9. That will be followed by the holiday cabaret Reflections, as well as a New Voices festival of new musical readings, workshops and cabarets in June 2008.
NOT SO FAR FROM REALITY
Cleveland Heights playwright Eric Coble’s new piece The Dead Guy, based on an extreme verson of a reality show, may be more rooted in reality than we’d like to believe.
The show, which will run in September/October at the Bang and the Clatter Theatre in Akron, tells a tale of a contestant who is awarded $1 milion to spend over a nationally televised seven days. The only catch is, at the end of the week, he has to die. And viewers get to choose the manner of his death.
”Does America have the stomach for this much reality?” the play asks.
Well, the Netherlands seems to. For real.
A 37-year-old Netherlands woman suffering from an inoperable brain tumor will donate a kidney before she dies to one of three contestants on Dutch national television today (June 1). The TV network BNN says it wants to highlight a crisis in organ donations.
The Dutch government has chosen not to intervene. It’s unknown whether the woman is a medical match to any of the contestants, or whether the winner would be capable of receiving her organ.
Now that’s really pushing the limits of tastelessness. Plenty of folks find a public contest for a life-saving organ disgustingly unethical. Viewers even get to vote for a candidate via text message, but the ultimate decision will be made by the donor on The Big Donor Show.
MAGICAL THEATER PRODUCTION THOROUGHLY ADORABLE
My six-year-old and I and the rest of the kindergartners from her school thoroughly enjoyed Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business recently at Magical Theatre Company. Heroine Junie has a comical misunderstanding about her new baby brother, mistaking her grandmother’s verbal expression to mean that the baby is really a newborn monkey.
It was a cute, funny lesson in semantics for my daughter and her classmates. Especially lovable was Sarah Hineline as Junie. We have been delighted in the past to see her in both Snow White and Madeline (what a cute dog Genevieve she was) at Weathervane.
The bespectacled little actress had just the right touch as the spunky, outspoken Junie. The show couldn’t have been more timely for my kindergartner, who is eagerly awaiting the birth of her own new baby brother or sister.
My daughter was quite intrigued by how naughty Junie could be. My little one later talked about both the ”d” word (dumb) and the ‘’s” word (stupid) that Junie used, words we’re not allowed to use in our house. Thank God for lessons that stick with my little angel.
