| MATHERS-ROCCA '08: The Beav and Me
That's how much I love Jerry Mathers, aka The Beaver, the former child star and American icon. He's now starring on Broadway as Wilbur Turnblad, Tracey Turnblad's heart-of-gold dad in the musical Hairspray. Mathers is fantastic in the show. I saw the show on Wednesday, which turned out to be a daylong parade of television icons. It started at the matinee of Hairspray. I'd brought the wonderful group of students I mentor from Bayside HS in Queens. (I generally resist the term mentor. I'm many things, including "canny" and "whimsical." But "mentor" is a term reserved for the "wise," something I only aspire to right now.) Anyway, at intermission I stepped outside for some fresh air with the student's teacher, Aida. Aida nudged me and said, "Look! It's the guy from Three's Company." Indeed it was actor Richard Kline, who brilliantly played Jack, Chrissy and Janet's sleazy upstairs neighbor, Larry.
Actors Undergo Public HIV Screening to Encourage 1 Million Black ...
WHAT: In anticipation of National HIV Testing Day, Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation for Television and Radio Artists, the Black AIDS Institute, Artists for a New South Africa, Palms Residential Care Facility and the Beverly Hills/Hollywood branch of the NAACP will launch the "1 in a Million" campaign by hosting an HIV screening event and press conference at the national Screen Actors Guild headquarters featuring A-list Black celebrities being tested for HIV in front of the cameras. The group will call on 1 million Black Americans to get tested for HIV by World AIDS Day '08 (Dec. 1) and will answer questions from reporters. Those who plan to attend and publicly take an HIV test at the press conference include: Jimmy Jean-Louis ("Heroes"); Regina King ("Ray," "24"); Hill Harper ("CSI: New York"); Rockmond Dunbar ("Prison Break," "Heartland"); Alan Rosenberg ("The Guardian," "Cybil"); Jasmine Guy ("A Different World"); Indigo Nichols ("Weeds"); Robi Reed (RR Casting); Meagan Tandy (Miss California USA 2007); Vanessa Williams ("Soul Food"); Regina Taylor ("The Unit"); Sheryl Lee Ralph ("ER," Original "Dreamgirls" on Broadway); Hosea Chanchez ("The Game"); Jamal Weathers ("Shooter"); Antonio Pena ("Young & The Restless"); Angie Stone (recording artist); Darius McCrary ("Transformers"); Sandi McCree ("The Wire"); Anne-Marie Johnson ("CSI," "JAG"); Ovie Mughelli (Atlanta Falcons); Isaac Keys (Arizona Cardinals); Henry Simmons ("Shark"); Tatyana Ali ("The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"); Kym Whitley ("Grey's Anatomy," "Reno 911!"); Samaki Walker, Rob Sommers and Deandre Walker (NBA); Jenifer Lewis ("Strong Medicine"); Alexandra Paul ("Baywatch"); Evan Dexter Parke ("King Kong"); Lamman Rucker ("Half & Half"); Beverly White (KNBC-TV); Yvette Nicole Brown ("The Office"); Gina Belafonte ("Friends"); Colette Divine ("Sarong Song"); J.
Theater Review: Dark of the Moon in New York
Mystery and love, two of the great themes and pleasures of the theater (and life), are also essential foodstuffs for writing about theater. You can smell the love in every molecule of air in a small off- or off-off-Broadway theater, particularly in a staging by a young company of a play with a large cast. These kids aren't doing it for the money, though the production and the acting may be highly professional. They love being with each other and they love the theater. You can't miss that.That love goes a long way towards solving the mystery, too - the mystery of why they are doing it when they obviously aren't getting paid much, if anything. But a deeper question remains: what makes the task of acting out a play such a powerful thing that it induces all that hard work with no promise of material gain, and so beautiful as to foster all that love?Howard Richardson and William Berney's Dark of the Moon, set in 1920s Appalachia, is about the very things that make theater itself such a joyful mystery - love, singing, dancing, fear.
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