The long-running hit comedy whodunit, “Shear Madness” is set to begin performances this Friday, May 31st through June 16th at Totem Pole Playhouse, America’s summer theatre, located in Caledonia State Park between Gettysburg and Chambersburg, PA. Totem Pole is one of the first theatres in the country to be granted a limited performance rights license to present the show, which has been running continuously at the Charles Playhouse in Boston since 1980 and at the Kennedy Center in D.C. for over 30 years. The play has the distinction of being one of the longest-running stage comedies in the world.
Totem Pole audience favorite, Shane Partlow, who had a supporting role in this year’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, Green Book, plays the operator of a local (Chambersburg, PA) beauty salon where the murder takes place. Zack Powell, who has appeared regularly in the Kennedy Center production, will reprise his role of ‘Mikey’, the young detective and Craig Benton, a veteran of the Kansas City production will play the lead detective, Nick Rossetti, who leads the audience in solving the murder mystery. Rounding out the suspects are Lisa McMillian from the show’s national tour, reprising her role as socialite ‘Mrs. Shubert’, and New York actors, MaryAnne Piccolo and Christian Cardoza as the other stylist in the salon and a handsome antiques dealer. The production will feature many humorous references to Franklin and Adams County area attractions. The audience joins in the fun by voting at every performance on who the
The long-running hit comedy whodunit, “Shear Madness” is set to begin performances this Friday, May 31st through June 16th at Totem Pole Playhouse, America’s summer theatre, located in Caledonia State Park between Gettysburg and Chambersburg, PA. Totem Pole is one of the first theatres in the country to be granted a limited performance rights license to present the show, which has been running continuously at the Charles Playhouse in Boston since 1980 and at the Kennedy Center in D.C. for over 30 years. The play has the distinction of being one of the longest-running stage comedies in the world.
Totem Pole audience favorite, Shane Partlow, who had a supporting role in this year’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, Green Book, plays the operator of a local (Chambersburg, PA) beauty salon where the murder takes place. Zack Powell, who has appeared regularly in the Kennedy Center production, will reprise his role of ‘Mikey’, the young detective and Craig Benton, a veteran of the Kansas City production will play the lead detective, Nick Rossetti, who leads the audience in solving the murder mystery. Rounding out the suspects are Lisa McMillian from the show’s national tour, reprising her role as socialite ‘Mrs. Shubert’, and New York actors, MaryAnne Piccolo and Christian Cardoza as the other stylist in the salon and a handsome antiques dealer. The production will feature many humorous references to Franklin and Adams County area attractions. The audience joins in the fun by voting at every performance on who the murderer is with the cast then performing that particular ending, which can change from one performance to the next. Totem Pole’s Producing Artistic Director, Rowan Joseph directs. The set is designed by D.C. scenic designer Jonathan Dahm Robertson with lighting design by Jeremy Mayo. Gettysburg College’s Juls Buehrer is the costume designer for the production.
As with all Totem Pole’s productions the first three performances are half-price previews with tickets $25.00 and seating general admission. Additionally; this summer, Totem Pole instituted a new “Date Night Special” with patrons offered 50% off a second pair of tickets when they purchase one pair at full-price.
The production opens this Sunday at 2 pm with the audience invited to greet the cast and enjoy some summer refreshments after the show as part of admission.
Tickets, gift certificates and a variety of subscriptions packages are on sale now by calling the Totem Pole Playhouse Box Office Monday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at (717) 352-2164. Or purchase tickets online here.
Totem Pole Playhouse in Caledonia State Park announced 58 nominations in 11 categories for the sixth annual Totem Pole Playhouse Awards to recognize outstanding achievement in musical theater production and performance by high school students in the counties surrounding the Playhouse.
Shippensburg Area Senior High School in Franklin County, led all schools with a nomination in each of the 10 categories for their production of “Legally Blonde.” Three area high schools tied with 9 nominations each, two from Adams County, Gettysburg Area High School’s production of “Mamma Mia!’ and Biglerville High School’s staging of Stephen Sondheim’s, “Sunday in the Park with George” and James Buchanan High School in Franklin County for “She Loves Me.”
The remaining 13 nominations were shared between St. Maria Goretti High School in Hagerstown, MD, Forbes Road Junior/Senior High School in Fulton County, McConnellsburg High School and Waynesboro Area Senior High School in Franklin County.
All schools participating in the awards are also eligible for the best musical award named after Totem Pole Playhouse’s long-serving Producing Artistic Director, Carl Schurr.
The awards ceremony will be held this year on the stage of the Totem Pole Playhouse in Fayetteville, PA. Totem Pole’s Producing Artistic Director, Rowan Joseph, will host the awards ceremony, Sunday, May 19th at 5PM which will include a the presentation of a production number from each of the participating high schools as well as performances from the nominated female and male soloists.
Ticket prices are $10 for adults and $5 for students 18 and younger. Seating is very limited and on a
first come, first serve basis. Tickets may be purchased on-line or by calling the Totem Pole Playhouse at (717) 352-2164.
Totem Pole Playhouse, America’s beloved summer theatre, located in Caledonia State Park between Chambersburg and Gettysburg, PA, has announced that the Playhouse’s production of the mega-hit Broadway musical Mamma Mia! set a new box office record for advance ticket sales in the Playhouse’s 68-year history. To date, over $280,000.00 in tickets have been sold putting the show on track to surpass last season’s box office record-breaking production of Million Dollar Quartet. Due to the high demand for tickets, Totem Pole is reopening the 42-seat Club Section in the rear of the historic theatre which was removed several seasons ago. Mamma Mia! will begin performances this Friday at 8PM and Saturday at 2PM and 8PM with three low cost $20.00 general admission previews followed by the official Opening Sunday afternoon at 2PM. The production is scheduled to run through August 19th, a week longer than the previous three shows in the summer season.
Set on a colorful Greek island, the plot centers on a 20-year old bride-to-be, Sophie, who while reading her mother’s diary discovers the names of three of her mother’s former partners, Sam, Harry, and Bill. She decides to invite all three to the wedding without telling her mother, Donna. Sophie is convinced that she will recognize which one of the men is her father once she meets them. Donna, who was once the lead singer of a musical group, “Donna and the Dynamos,” invites her two former back-up singers, Rosie and Tanya. They all descend on the quaint rustic hotel Donna operates only to end up at a wedding that none of them could have expected.
Emily Ashton Meredith, who starred in Totem Pole’s 2015 production of Shenandoah, returns as Sophie. Playing her mother, Donna, will be Amy Decker who previously appeared at the Playhouse in several shows, most recently last season’s The Drowsy Chaperone. The three fathers will be played by Gil Brady as Sam, Ken Allen Neely as Harry, and Shawn Martin, who starred in last season’s Irving Berlin Revue, I Love a Piano, as Bill. Alexandra Melrose and Erica Hanrahan-Ball will appear as Donna’s former back-up singers, Rosie and Tanya. Playing Sophie’s fiancé, Sky, will be Max Falls with Breanna Ogaldez playing Lisa and Camila Paquet playing Ali, Sophie’s best friends. Taylor Kellas Warren, who played the Pharaoh in the season opener, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, returns as Pepper, and Stavros Koumbaros, who starred in the 2016 production of Forever Plaid, will play Eddie. Rounding out the ensemble are: Leah Hassett, Mary Beth Donahoe, Morgan Southwell, Alison Rose Munn, Hank von Kolnitz, Elijah King, Nathan Richardson, and Cody Parson.
The production is staged and directed by veteran Totem Pole director, David Caldwell, and choreographed by Christine O’Grady, her fifth consecutive summer choreographing shows at the Playhouse. Darren Server, Totem Pole’s perennial musical director, serves in the same capacity for this final production in the Playhouse’s four-show summer season. Jim Fouchard, who has designed sets at the Playhouse since 1982, is the set designer, Stephanie Jones is designing costumes, Kate Wecker is the show’s sound designer, and Jonathan Dunkle is designing the lighting, with Ryan Gibbs serving as the show’s stage manager for the three-week run.
Single ticket reserved seat prices are $50.00 with $35.00 tickets available for groups of 10 or more. Groups of 30 or more pay half-price at just $25.00 a ticket.
Club section tickets are only available by calling the Totem Pole Playhouse Box Office Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at (717) 352-2164; all other seats may be purchased on line at www.totempoleplayhouse.org.
Totem Pole Playhouse will offer a special benefit screening of the feature film Johnny Got His Gun this Sunday, July 15th at 7PM at the Playhouse in Fayetteville, PA. The film stars actor Ben McKenzie from the current FOX television series Gotham, as well as past TV series Southland and The O.C. Totem Pole’s Producing Artistic Director, Rowan Joseph, directed the movie which was produced through his film production company Greenwood Hill Productions.
The movie is a filmed version of the 1982 Off-Broadway play based on the Award-winning novel, rather than a remake of the 1971 movie which Trumbo wrote and directed himself. Trumbo’s version won the Grand Jury Prize and FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Clips of the film were used by the group Metallica in their 1989 music video for the song “One” which was based on the novel as well.
“What appealed to me about the project was not only its anti-war theme but the fact that the screenplay is very pro-soldier. While it does a great job presenting the book’s most famous anti-war passages, it gets just as much power, if not more, from the main character’s unflinching resolve to overcome his situation,” said McKenzie. “Even though the film takes place in World War I, it is sadly still relevant today. The movie demonstrates so beautifully the fact that you can be both for the soldiers and against the war; that they are not two opposing points of view.”
Joseph noted that the dedication at the end of the movie reads: This film is a testament to the noble sacrifice of those who fight our wars for us and a reminder of the solemn responsibility of those who choose to send them. “Unlike the original film which showed the main character’s world from the outside looking in; this version of the story, like the novel itself, is presented entirely in the first person,” Joseph explained. “From the beginning and throughout the film we see him as he sees himself; in his mind’s eye, healthy, youthful, trapped.”
McKenzie plays Joe Bonham, a young American soldier hit by an artillery shell on the last day of the First World War. As a quadruple amputee who has lost his eyes, ears, nose and mouth, he lies in a hospital bed but remains conscious and able to reason. He struggles to find some way to communicate with the outside world. Tapping his head in Morse code, he breaks through and pleads with his caretakers to be put on display as a living example of the cost of war. The film explores the interplay between science, medicine, religion, and politics.
Marshall Fine, former four-time chairman of the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle wrote in his review of the film, “Joseph’s version, while packing the same emotional power, is a more poetic, more imaginative version.” Dennis Harvey writing for Variety called the movie, “a thrilling accomplishment.”
Bradley Rand Smith adapted the play from Trumbo’s 1939 novel, which has sold over a hundred million copies worldwide and had several major reissues since it was first published just two days after the outbreak of World War II. The stage play was first presented Off-Broadway in 1982 at the Circle Repertory Theatre where it starred Jeff Daniels who won an Obie Award for his performance.
Joseph will conduct a question and answer session with the audience after the screening. McKenzie is currently working on the fifth and final season of Gotham and will not attend.
All general admission seats are $25.00 with the proceeds will go towards Totem Pole’s ongoing Capital Campaign. Tickets are on sale now by calling the Totem Pole Playhouse Box Office Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at (717) 352-2164 or online at www.totempoleplayhouse.org
Totem Pole Playhouse, America’s beloved summer theatre, located in Caledonia State Park between Gettysburg and Chambersburg, PA, will present the Tony Award-winning musical Ain’t Misbehavin’ (more…)
