Central Square Theater presents
The Cabaret Series
Three Performances by The Circle Project
Tickets: https://web.ovationtix.com/
More information: http://www.facebook.com/events/320303664662501/
CAMBRIDGE, MA – Central Square Theater presents The Cabaret Series by The Circle Project. The three scheduled performances are:
Journey Home – December12, 2011 at 7:30pm
Just in time for the holidays, six young, talented friends and artists join each other to riff on the universal theme of “returning home” through reflections on their own growth and personal stories intermixed with contemporary songs by Beyonce, John Legend, and Adele and musical theater pieces by Scot Alan. Come home to Central Square Theater and be introduced to the members of The Circle Project.
You & I – February 13, 2012 at 7:30pm
One way or another, every song is a love song. Either it’s exultation and happiness or heartbreak and devastation. Are we miserable because we’ve listened to all these heartbreakingly romantic love songs or we heartbroken because we have idealized love from letting our emotions take us away? Share the joy and laugh away at the pain with songs by Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, as well as American Classics like “Stormy Weather”, “Stranger in Paradise” and “It Had to Be You”.
Get Ready – May 21, 2012 at 7:30pm
Spring. The time of renewal and reenergizing takes full bloom as the change in the season invokes a mood, calling us to act upon winter hibernation and realize our dreams in the spring. Join The Circle Project for songs by Meredith Brooks and Sam Cooke and musical theater pieces by Leonard Bernstein, Michael John Lachuisa, and William Finn.
In continuing with the tradition begun first with summer 2010’s award-winning production of The Hound of the Baskervilles and last summer’s Matt & Ben, The Cabaret Series is part of Central Square Theater’s Leadership Program, which engages the region’s brightest emerging artists for dynamic collaborations and the creation of new work. When Kami Rushell Smith and De’Lon Grant approached Central Square Theater about presenting The Cabaret Series, it naturally aligned with one of the CST Leadership Program goals to provide a theatrical home for some of greater Boston’s theater artists and encourage the incubation of new theatrical projects. Kami Rushell Smith and De’Lon Grant first collaborated in the Fall 2007 on Life Cycle: A Cabaret at The Boston Conservatory. They acted as co-directors, producers, collaborators, and performers on the critically acclaimed piece. Their next cabaret-style ventures included their independent thesis projects Harlem.Song and Wayward Sons, also at The Boston Conservatory. They both served as lead actor, director, creator, writer, producer, and designer for these pieces. Their next joint venture included a Youtube web series entitled Appartement Dix Neuf, The 2009 Boston Conservatory Graduate Showcase in both Boston and New York, and the self-titled inaugural performance of Love, Etc. Cabaret Series. The first incarnation of The Cabaret Series was performed at the Charles Playhouse Lounge in the downtown Boston last August. The evening featured arrangements, musical direction, and accompaniment on the piano by Tim Maurice who collaborates on the Series at Central Square Theater. The five theater artists, Cheo Bourne, Jennifer Ellis, De’Lon Grant, Brian Richard Robinson, Kami Rushell Smith performed to an enthusiastic audience.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Cheo Bourne’s Boston credits include Passing Strange, Hot Mikado, Cabaret (New Rep); Of Mice and Men and Animal Farm (New Rep On Tour); Jerry Springer The Opera (Speakeasy Stage); Harriet Jacobs (Underground Railway Theater); HONK! (Wheelock Family Theatre) and The Comedy of Errors (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company.) He has studied acting at Connecticut College and the British American Drama Academy. This spring Cheo is thrilled to return to Speakeasy’s stage in XANADU!
Jennifer Ellis has been a company member of Shear Madness since 2007 and recently was involved in a reading of David Grimm’s They Don’t Make ‘Em Like That No More at the Huntington Theater Company. Recent credits include: The Most Happy Fella (Gloucester Stage); Nine; Sorry, Wrong Number (Speakeasy Stage Company), Comedy of Errors, The Skin of Our Teeth (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), Urinetown, 1776 (Lyric Stage).
De’Lon Grant (co-creator The Circle Project) began acting, singing, and performing regionally in Boston and New York in Fall 2006. He attended the University of Michigan where he studied Acting and his graduate studies in Musical Theatre were at The Boston Conservatory of Music. Most recently De’Lon was seen as Jim in the Lyric Stage Company’s production of Big River, for which he received critical acclaim. For more information go to: www.delongrant.com.
Brian Richard Robinson has been a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, and a longtime member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, performing in Symphony Hall, Tanglewood, Carnegie Hall, and numerous international venues. Regionally, he has appeared in productions at SpeakEasy Stage, The Lyric Stage, New Repertory Theater, Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston Midsummer Opera, Opera Boston, and American Classics. Brian received an IRNE award for “Best Supporting Actor in a Musical” for his work in Side Show and When Pigs Fly.
Kami Rushell Smith (co-creator The Circle Project) is a native of Tupelo, Mississippi. Boston credits include: – Harriet Jacobs (Underground Railway Theater, IRNE nomination: Best Actress); Big River (Lyric Stage); Nine (SpeakEasy Stage); Hairspray (Reagle Music Theatre); Passing Strange, New Rep’s Darling Divas Deck the Holidays, Dessa Rose (New RepertoryTheatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); – The Little Mermaid, The Phantom Tollbooth (Wheelock Family Theatre) Macbeth (Shakespeare Now!) Upcoming: Xanadu (SpeakEasy Stage) www.KamiRushellSmith.com.
Tim Maurice (pianist/composer) has written and recorded music for a number of independent film projects in New England, including short films, feature length films, contests, and web series. He studied piano at Bates College in Lewiston, ME and holds a Bachelor’s in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music in Boston. Tim is the recipient of the 2009 BMI Film Scoring Scholarship. He has performed with the Boston New Music Initiative, recorded at WGBH’s Fraser Studio, and was part of the music preparation team for the NBC television movie Captain Drake. Independent films compositions include Karma’s Choice and Lyrics of My Life (screened Cannes in 2007). He also scored the mystery/crime drama web series, “Gavin Lance,” and is an arranger for the educational iPad app, “Piano Player Plus.”
Central Square Theater (CST) is a four-year old nonprofit organization, created through a groundbreaking partnership between The Nora Theatre Company (The Nora) and Underground Railway Theater (URT). This collaboration has been called a model for the arts community (The Boston Foundation, Culture is our Commonwealth and The National Collaboration Prize), as it has paired two like-minded performing arts organizations in a strategic alliance with the City of Cambridge and MIT, resulting in the development of a state-of-the-art performing arts center in the heart of Central Square. CST has a mission to support its two theaters-in-residence while maintaining a shared vision of artists and audiences creating theater vital to their communities. The Nora and URT have a combined 52-year track record of producing award-winning theater. Located in Central Square, Cambridge, and steeped in its multiracial, inter-generational, ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods, the CST theater experience exudes a democratic energy where classes, races and age groups come together to be inspired, entertained and energized.
all copy from press release
