Sign-up for Apple Tree NOW!!!

The Score and Libretto are now available for download. Please email entractepdx@gmail.com to request links to each.

Cast sign-up is online as well. Go here to sign up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/theapple - I'm trying this service out, we'll see how it goes.

NOTE: I have decided to split the female lead into three parts (it's a demanding role to play all three, and we have lots more women than men wanting to sing). In addition, the role of Snake, Balladeer, Narrator can be played by a man or woman.

For those who want to come, but don't want to play a featured role, consider signing up for the ensemble (there are a few small one-line roles not listed which will be given out the night of the reading).

Harnick & Bock's THE APPLE TREE set for January 24

We'll be kicking off our 2010 readings with the 1966 musical comedy, "The Apple Tree." The team of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, after their phenomenal success with "Fiddler on the Roof" in 1964, wrote "The Apple Tree," which, at that time, was considered a unique musical due to its structure of 3 separate one-act plays. As in "Fiddler," they were fond of stories about man and morality, how you learn life's lessons through experience. The original production of this show starred Barbara Harris, Larry Blyden, and (following in his father's footsteps as a Broadway leading man) Alan Alda.

Here's the breakdown of the show: Act I - The Diary of Adam and Eve. Based on a story by Mark Twain, this chronicle is infused with incomparable wit and a homespun sense of humor that identified Twain as the genius that he was. It starts at the very beginning and takes us from Adam and Eve's awakening through their 'married' lives with sons Cain and Abel through to the end with Eve's death. It is simplicity at the core which makes this yarn work with all of its inferences to what makes man and woman tick, their differences and idiosyncrasies - and the simplest message of all: true love.

Act II - The Lady or the Tiger? Based on material by Frank R. Stockton, this short and satirical look at early civilization akin to the Roman Empire, deliciously shows man's obsession with power, control and greed. No more the innocence of Adam and Eve. When a prisoner is punished, he must choose one of 2 doors, a temptress waiting behind one and a ferocious tiger behind the other. But like The Price Is Right- it, too, was like a game, a sport, after all - each door represents the unknown. Captain Sanjar and Princess Barbara are put to the test of love, when their clandestine affair is discovered and he is arrested. To save him, the Princess finds out behind which door the tiger lies, but when she learns that her lovely servant Najira is the lady behind the other door, her jealousy consumes her. She will lose her lover either way.

Act III - Passionella. Based on a story by Jules Feiffer, who adores the cartoon to show the foibles of humanity and does it to perfection, this is life contemporary, where greed is king and the winner takes it all. A parody of Cinderella, a hardworking chimney sweep Ella, wants more than life to be a glamorous movie star and gets her wish thanks to fairy godfather (or, perhaps in our case, godmother), the narrator, who appears to her through a TV set. Passionella is turned into a star, but just for a few hours, of course. Life is grande until Passionella realizes how lonely she is. She meets rock star Flip who prefers his women 'down-to-earth.' With a clever reversal to the fairy tale's ending, the 2 lovebirds become...well, I won't spoil the surprise! Let's just say, the message reverts to Adam and Eve: true love wins out when life is unadorned, in its purest form.

A "casting" sign-up sheet will be posted soon. So get a copy of the recording to listen to now! Copies of the script and score can be obtained soon by request from David Baer (entractepdx@gmail.com) for you to learn the roles once you've signed-up.

Help Plan Entr'acte PDX for 2010

We'll be holding a planning and brainstorming meeting on Tuesday, Dec 8 at 7pm to discuss the following:

1) Picking shows and dates for early 2010 2) Finding more accompanists able to help support our sing-thrus 3) Identifying sources for scripts and scores For location and to RSVP, email davidbaer@gmail.com or call 914-522-9363.

Terrific Kick-Off

Thanks to the small, but eager group at last night's Entr'acte PDX opening night! We had a ball singing through most of the "Starting Here, Starting Now" score - and major kudos go out to our truly fantastic accompanist, Susan Peck who stepped in at the last minute.

A few solos were performed, but much of the evening was spent site reading the score together as a group. We all agreed that it was a very safe environment to experiment, explore, and perform with the encouragement of our peers and without any judgement. As we "cast" for future readings, we think it only right to do so non-traditionally, so those who may not have a chance to perform certain roles in a full production can do so in our company.

In our first gathering, we accomplished several of the goals we had in mind for this project: 1) We got a group together to sing through a show that many did not know beforehand - and got to discuss the work a bit; 2) new professional connections were made; 3) ideas were shared about how to further and better explore musical theatre literature in order to enrich the Portland area theatre community.

We also discussed some possible options for future shows to explore. Some which were lobbied hard for include: "I Do! I Do!," "Fiorello," and "Lady in the Dark" (though the possibilities are endless).

Next up: brainstorming meeting in early December to discuss our next event (any and all are invited to participate - details to follow soon). We plan to get together in January for our next gathering.

Time Change for Nov 15...

Due to a change with our accompanist, we have to delay the start time on Sunday, 11/15 by a half-hour. We will now start at 5:30pm at Sherman Clay Pianos in the Pearl District.

Starting Where? Starting When?

SHERMAN CLAY PIANOS (131 NW 13th Avenue, PDX).

Sunday, November 15 at 5pm.

Mark your calendars and start learning the SHSN score... Our first meeting will be on November 15 @ Sherman Clay Pianos.

Although we expect to "cast" future readings in advance, this time we'll just wing it and try to get everyone who is interested on their feet to perform at least one song from this review.

If you need a copy of the score, please contact us (or visit the discussion board at our Google Group for a link to download it). And please be sure to bring you own copy with you on 11/15.

Score Now Available

For those of you interested in participating in our first gathering, I now have a copy of the show score I can provide to you. Please email me (use the "Contact Us" link) if you'd like me to send you access to it download it.

It is also my hope to have secured both a date and place for our November gathering within the next couple of weeks.

Planning our first meeting for early/mid November '09

We plan to kick things off in November '09 with a sing-thru of "Starting Here, Starting Now" by Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire. It's not a traditional book musical, but it does fit very nicely with our mission - to explore underproduced works and lesser-known works by well known artists.

In the case of Maltby and Shire, they met at Yale and starting writing together in the 1950s. They continued to write several musical, but never got any produced. Shire went off to Hollywood to write some major film scores including "All the President's Men" and "The Conversation." Maltby turned to directing, and, while he has been involved in lots of major works for the theatre, his best known work probably remains "Ain't Misbehavin'," which he conceived, co-wrote, and directed.

"Starting Here, Starting Now," ironically, was the first full show of Maltby and Shire's works to be produced. Ironically, because it was a retrospective of work that had gone mostly unproduced. It was produced off-Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1977, and, subsequently transferred for a commercial run. It was a great success - both popular and critical, and it remains an important piece of American Musical Theatre history.

SO HOW WILL THIS WORK?

The immediate answer is "we're not exactly sure, but we'll make it work somehow." If you want to participate in our first gathering, we invite you to get a copy of the show's recording and learn the score. We'll sing thru the vocal selections of the show (and maybe the full score if we can manage to get our hands on it). In the future, we'll plan to "cast" shows in advance, but in this instance, we'll simply take turns singing through the score and see how it goes.

WHEN AND WHERE?

That's a really good question. We'd like to aim for a Sunday late afternoon (5pm?) as it's a time we think theatre folks should have the fewest conflicts. But we need a space (with or without a piano - as we can bring a keyboard). Do you have or know of a no-cost space centrally located in Portland we could use either November 8, 15, or 22? Once the date and space are locked in, it will be announced.

WHAT ABOUT AN RSVP? We will work out a mechanism to confirm who will be coming at some point soon.

I think that's enough for now. Questions can be posted in the comments section or emailed to entractepdx@gmail.com.

Introducing Entr'acte PDX

Entr'acte PDX was conceived in a Portland, OR living room by a group of musical theatre professionals and enthusiasts looking for a way to explore the rich history and tradition of American Musicals in an informal setting. Instead of creating a new theatre production company, or even presenting musicals-in-concert, we've chosen a different path we think will be both fun and enriching for everyone who participates.

The idea is both simple and, we hope, powerful: bring together musical theatre performers and artists periodically to read and sing through lost gems of American Musical literature. There is a treasure-trove of great works out there which, for many reasons, don't get revived. We hope to explore a diverse set of works from great composers like Harold Arlen, Vincent Youmans, Jule Styne, Burton Lane, William Finn, Cy Coleman, and Burt Bacharach, just to name a few. We also hope to explore lesser-known works of some of the masters of the genre like Loesser, Adler, Rodgers, Bock, and Sondheim.

Much like a book club, we envision having participants read and learn the work in advance and gather for a single read/sing-thru of each piece. Not only do we think this is a great way to connect with our Musical Theatre heritage, but it's also a great networking opportunity for Portland-area artists, and, we hope, may become an incubator for producing more Musical Theatre in our community.