MacDougall returns to Seacoast
Musician and thespian Adam MacDougall is returning to his old haunts to perform, after a year-and-a-half away.
MacDougall will handle the music for “Peter and the Star Catcher,” a rather unique score to the award-winning play about Peter Pan’s earlier years, and harrowing adventures (Aug. 14 to 31, hackmatack.org).
Hackmatack Playhouse’s Artistic Director (and show director) Crystal Lisbon asked MacDougall just as he was making a transition in his life – so perfect timing, he says.
MacDougall made his living as a theater musician and piano instructor at the time he and partner Jerard-James Craven (former Technical Director at Seacoast Rep, now Associate Production and Rentals Manager at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre) left the Seacoast for Pittsburgh. He decided against setting up a studio immediately, unsure how long they’d be staying.
The musician returned to his old profession as baker for the first year.
“I’d worked at Ceres Bakery and loved it. … So, then it came to ‘Yes, we’re staying, and I’m not happy with this bakery. So, I’m making the transition to piano,” he says. “I was also thinking of coming back to the Seacoast (for a visit) and this could be the reason to take the trip home. It was perfect.”
Hackmatack is “a special place” for MacDougall who started in its children’s theater program at age 9. He left for a while then returned in his twenties to be its music director for 10 seasons. He’s also acted, and directed music at a number of Seacoast theaters.
“So, it’s a really nice chance to come home and visit, but also to have work to do, and justify a month off here, and I get to work a great project.”
“And I love working with Crystal. So, having the chance to connect and work with her is a big part of it.”
The gig itself is enticing, the project unique, he says. “Peter and the Star Catcher” is a play with music, not the usual musical. It has a score, but invites interpretation. “With most (musicals), you can’t cut or change anything. This invites that type of creativity.”
The “band” will consist of MacDougall on keyboard, and the actors.
“That’s part of Crystal’s vision, and I think why she asked me. She wanted someone doing music that can be in the production.”
The piece is scored for piano and percussion, which will prove challenging in this case, and much of the percussion is sound effects.
“So, it kind of has a foley aspect to it. One of my challenges is, while I’m doing the piano music scenes I’m in as an actor, and we’ll be using some of the actors to do percussion and sound effects,” MacDougall says. “So, figuring out where we can adapt is part of the challenge.”
“I’m trying to plan ahead, but it’s hard to force-feed the contexts that’s going to come up – will they need to be in this scene or costume change? I think it will prove to be really cool.”
‘The Caldwell Sisters’ opens Aug. 30
Jeff Kinghorn will launch the Players’ Ring 2019/2020 season on Aug. 30 (playersring.org) season with “The Caldwell Sisters,” the second in his “Siblings Trilogy,” produced by RMJ Donald Productions, Kinghorn and Deborah Kinghorn’s company.
The series’ “The Asperger Twins” opened the Ring’s season in 2017. “The Meredith Brothers,” yet to be scheduled, completes the trio.
“Caldwell’s” performers are Deborah Kinghorn and Raina Ames.
“Our lighting designer is Lih-Hwa Yu. Our movement/dance choreographer is Assaf Benchetrit. All are highly respected members of the faculty in the Department of Theater and Dance, at UNH,” Kinghorn says. “We did not set out to woo such heavy hitters all from the same playground, but we sure ended up lucky in each ones coming onboard in support of his/her colleagues. Already, we are reaping the rewards of a company who have a rich history of working together.”
The writing process began with ‘The Meredith Brothers,” a conversation between two brothers at a table. “It rolled out of me from there,” he says. “I wrote the three plays quickly in succession in and around 2015.”
Kinghorn is from a family with five siblings, “Not perfect. But forever bonded and, well, tight!” The sibling relationship is one of the more enduring, foundational of relationships, he says.
“Brother-to-brother was everything to me. Brother-to-sister was mysterious and magical. Sister-to-sister (as I imagine it) is marrow and bone and sinew,” Kinghorn, says. “My experience in theater and in drama is that the sibling relationship is most often (generality) addressed in subplot, second banana, lesser position, while the romantic love relationship takes center stage. As I feel about friendship, the bond between siblings becomes more than words can convey. They each needed their own play to convey it.”
“Caldwell” is the “middle child;” “Meredith,” the first; “Asperger,” last.
“But in terms of how they play, I believe they can be played in any order. I offered ‘The Asperger Twins’ first because it really inhabited the kind of dramatic world through which I want to tell stories: simple, interesting space in which unfolds an imagined dramatic universe. Sounds awfully writerly,” he says. “I just wanted empty space where imagination had free rein.”
Studio 319 opens Aug. 17
When you feel like something’s missing, find it or make it happen which is exactly what Nikki Hentz (a Lady Luck Burlesque performer) has done. And now the entire Seacoast can join her for a dream-come-true: Studio 319, a Studio 54 Immersive Dance Experience, which is set for 3S Artspace on Saturday, Aug. 17 (www.3sarts.org) ‘Cause nothing says “night out” like glitz, glamour and flashy attire at the disco.
“It was like the middle of February and I was watching the Studio 54 documentary on Netlfix, and I just realized I wanted a night of dancing that was all glitter, wearing gold and great music,” says Hentz. “So, I posted something on Facebook that some one should just throw a disco party.”
Tim Fife, a mutual friend of Hentz and Knate Higgins, suggested she connect with Higgins, the newly appointed program manager at 3S Artspace. Higgins was most receptive, and suggested they make it an immersive dance experience, and offered to help bring her vision “to the next level,” she says.
“So, we’ll really try to transport people,” Hentz says. “We’ll have people dressed up as celebrities from the era, and we’re going to have a couple performances sprinkled throughout the evening to really create the theatrical, vibrant feeling we imagine Studio 54 was like.”
A faux Liza Minelli and Andy Warhol will make an appearance, and Steve Rubell, a Studio co-founder, will be at the door to let people in.
“There will also be a little burlesque, a little interpretive dance,” she says.
But the best part: dressing for the event.
“I have a couple of outfits, and will probably buy some at the last minute. I’ll probably change a couple of times – let’s say it will be a lot of gold and silver,” Hentz says. “So (organizing) is really fun – daunting – but fun … and creative.”
Jeann McCartin keeps her eyes and ears open for gossip at maskmakernh@gmail.com.
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