Touchstone Theater Offers Halloween Thrills and Chills

Halloween is coming, and what better way to celebrate it than with a show? Luckily for you, Touchstone Theater on Bethlehem's South Side has you covered!

Touchstone has been a staple of Bethlehem's Theatre scene for more than 30 years, and is perhaps best known for its annual Christmas show, Christmas City Follies. Each year a small group of actors and a director get together near the end of October and begin writing an original show, in the form of a Vaudevillian Revue. Each year the show combines mountains of humor with a relentlessly heartwarming Christmas spirit. I had the chance to be in the show last year as an intern, and it was a blast.

Given the continued success of Follies, it is not surprising that starting this year, Touchstone is adapting that formula to Halloween, creating a new annual tradition in Into The Dark. This Halloween show will be premiering Oct 13 and running through Oct 23rd, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm.

Touchstone's website, www.touchstone.org, describes the show thusly: "As the dry, crumbling leaves of autumn fall and the shadows lengthen, Touchstone proudly presents an eerie evening of experimental theatre. Our chilling cast of characters, suspenseful stories, and haunting vignettes explore the depths of terror that lurk within the human soul."

For those hoping to attend, tickets cost $25 or $15 for students, and all students are pay-what-you-will. This means that you can see the show for a smaller donation, or a larger one if you can afford it. The recommended donation is $5-$10.

This is a great opportunity to see some professional theater at a convenient location for a very reasonable price. Touchstone's ensemble works are always a real treat, and I know I'll be seeing it as soon as I have the opportunity.

Touchstone's productions are often quite popular, so if you intend to go on a Friday or Saturday (Or even one of the other days) it's a good idea to reserve tickets ahead of time, which can be done at 610.867.1689 or at their website, www.touchstone.org.

To Recap:

• When: Oct 13-15 and 20-22 at 8pm, Oct 16 and 23 at 2pm
• Where: Touchstone Theater, 321 E 3rd St Bethlehem PA 18015
• Tickets cost $25, $15 for students, or Pay What You Will on Oct 13 and 20.

It's a great chance to see great professional theater in our humble little town! If there's any theatre company that deserves your attention in Bethlehem, it's Touchstone.

Moravian College presents Good People Oct 14th

Keeping up with Moravian's Staged Reading series, while definitely rewarding, can be tough because they just keep coming!

First there was A Resting Place at Touchstone Theater, the early version of a play we'll be seeing come to life in spring of 2012.

Then we had Tooth And Claw on Oct. 7, which kicked off Moravian's Arena Theater for the season.

Next up we have Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire on Oct. 14, as directed by Music Faculty and resident Moravian Costume Designer Bill Bauman. The reading will feature a cast of Moravian College students who will be in rehearsal next week.

Moravian's season website describes the show thusly:

"Recently fired, single mother, ex-dollar store clerk, Margie, from Southie (aka: South Boston, a working class Irish neighborhood) decides to visit an old flame (Mike), now a married physician, to seek employment. Through a misunderstanding, Margie ends up at Mike's posh suburban home for his cancelled birthday party. The confrontation between Mike, his wife, and Margie leads us to the question: you can take the man out of Southie, but can you take the Southie out of the man?"

David Lindsay-Abaire is a playwright known for matching sharp wit and clever writing with touching looks at a grave reality, occasionally glimpsing absurdity. In 2007 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Rabbit Hole, a beautiful story of how people deal with loss.

In Fall 2010, Bill Bauman directed a reading of Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead which was largely considered to be the most successful of last year's readings due to favorable reviews from students and faculty, and high attendance. This promises to be an interesting reading, as Bill always deliver.

What you need to know:

• When: Friday Oct. 14, 8 p.m.
• Where: The Arena Theater in the Hub.
• Free Admission.
• Arrive Early. It's a good idea to arrive early to ensure you get a seat. Last year, Confessions was almost a full house, and there's a risk of being turned away.
• Stay After if you have time, as there will be a talkback after the show in which you can ask the director or actors questions about the show, the process, or anything else you're interested in knowing. Regarding the play, at any rate.

It's a good chance to enjoy an evening of free Theater, and learn something about the process from those involved. I'll be attending, and will write a wrap up afterwards to let everyone know my thoughts. (Because that's so interesting. ;p )
 






The next scheduled reading is All in the Timing by David Ives, which will be directed by Dan Marrero. The reading will take place Friday Oct. 8 at 8pm. Look for more information here as it gets closer.

Until next time!

Moravian College Tooth and Claw Reading in Review

Friday the reading of Tooth and Claw took place in the Arena Theater on the bottom floor of the HUB building at Moravian College, as previously advertised. The Arena Theater was more than half-way full of people.

Christopher Shorr, the director of the Theater program at Moravian College, presented the blueprints his interpretation with this reading. The reading was semi-staged, which is a term for when a reading is loosely blocked. In a normal reading, actors will sit in a row of a chairs, remaining seated for the course of the show and reading from the script. While a staged reading still means the actors are reading from the script (As opposed to memorizing their lines), the actors are up on their feet whenever they are in a scene, and seated only when they are not involved in the action on stage. In this reading it was mostly fine, but some of the actors appeared to be bored or distracted at times when they were seated, which was distracting for the audience as well.

Accents and Spanish lines, of which there were many, provided some problems for the play as well. Not everyone in the cast knew Spanish, and that showed at times. For the most part the lines were delivered in tact, and some actors made the switches between Spanish and accented English flawlessly (Like Dr. Jones playing Congressman Mendoza). Other actors, however, had very forced accents and pronunciations of Spanish words that left a lot to be desired.

Gianna Miranda, who I interviewed in this previous post, played an excited and determined Dr. Schuyler Baines, Thom Eiser's portrayal of her father Dr. Malcolm Geary was wise and tastefully restrained, and Dr. Jones took the cake for the most powerful actor on the stage. Alanah Cervantes did a good job in multiple roles, always supplying tension and interest to the scenes she was in.

The next reading in the series will be of Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire on Oct 14 at 8PM. More information is available at http://home.moravian.edu/public/eng/theatre/index.htm