Dear Diary,
My teenage angst bullsh*t now has a body count. But what’s your damage, Heather? Is your name even Heather? Just in case it isn’t, Third Wall Productions has a whole bunch of them (three to be in fact) with their fiery production of the screen-to-stage musical Heathers, now playing through April 14th 2024. Directed by Jake Schwarts with Musical Direction by Anton Van De Motter and Choreography by Kelly Williams Carlson,
Delicious, well-seasoned, and rare. And a big enough portion to share! Bring me all of the heartache, a small side of woe— that flavor of longing that I long to know— yes I’d order love! Well, maybe that’s a tall order for a— *gasp* First Date! But it happens. Sometimes. Almost never. But sometimes!! The fairytales we all grew up on, the soap operas and prime-time dramas we’re all addicted to— the fiction books and even the musical librettos.
First impressions, wearing the right thing, not saying the wrong thing, and all the butterflies, nausea, and chaos that typically accompanies a first date. We’ve had them. (Most of the waking world that is.) Most of us can even remember a disastrous first date. And now Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, for it’s mid-season musical, is premiering First Date that low-key musical that debuted on Broadway a decade ago, starring that young girl who had just finished originating Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family musical.
Summer is sizzling up a creativity storm down in North Beach as the 11th Annual Kids’ Playwriting Festival gets underway at the Twin Beach Players. With two dozen scripts submitted from area youth playwrights, six winners were selected for performance in this year’s festival. Festival Director Sherry Lehnen brought six groups of young actors and directors— many of whom have participated in previous KPF events through the years, some of whom have even had their plays produced— together in addition to a series of volunteers of all ages to help run tech and crew for an amazing opportunity for these young and gifted writers.
There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor. Mr. Dickens spoke it best when he put this sentiment into the ether at the holidays in his classic novella A Christmas Carol. And although everyone has their own version, their own retelling, are we not all but fellow passengers this time of year on our way to finding the laughter and good humor of the holiday season?