Producers and Writers Nominate Their Favorite TV Shows

Today, both the Producers Guild and Writers Guild announced nominees for excellence in 2011.

The Producers Guild recognizes achievement in the production of television and film, although only nominees in Documentary Films have been announced thus far. Other film category nominees will be released January 3, according to the PGA schedule. Once those film nominations come in, you'll see a pretty good precursor for the Oscars, as the Producers Guild has a track record of picking the same films the Academy does.


On the TV side, NBC's "30 Rock" and "Parks and Recreation" join CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," Fox's "Glee" and ABC's "Modern Family" as comedy nominees, while dramas like HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" and "Game of Thrones" have earned nominations along with "Dexter" from Showtime, "The Good Wife" on CBS and AMC's "Mad Men." You can see the complete list of nominees here.

Note that "The 64th Annual Tony Awards” earned a spot in the Live Entertainment & Talk Television category, which is kind of fun. Voters have a choice of voting for Stephen Colbert, Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Maher, SNL or the Tonys. I say, go Tonys!

The Writers Guild, meanwhile, has chosen other television shows to honor. "30 Rock," "Parks and Recreation" and "Modern Family" all made the cut, but the WGA rounded out its field with "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Louie." Tough luck, "Big Bang" and "Glee." I have to be honest -- "Community" and "Happy Endgings" would've made my own personal lists, but getting rid of "Big Bang" and especially "Glee" doesn't bother me a bit.

In drama, the WGA kept "Boardwalk Empire," "Game of Thrones" and "The Good Wife," but ignored "Mad Men" and "Dexter" in favor of AMC's "Breaking Bad" and Showtime's "Homeland."

They also recognize New Series, and in that category, they've chosen "Episodes," "Game of Thrones," "Homeland," "The Killing" and then... They went completely off the rails and picked "New Girl." I don't know what to make of that, frankly. It's hard to argue with "Game of Thrones" or "Homeland," but "New Girl"? In what universe can that compete?

Oh well. The other nominations, in categories like Animation and Comedy/Variety, are listed here.

One sad note: The Writers Guild has nominated "All My Children," "General Hospital" and "The Young and the Restless" for outstanding achievement in writing for Daytime Dramas. "All My Children" was canceled earlier this year, while "One Life to Live" bows out shortly, but poor OLTL didn't get nominated, even in its last year. The last ABC soap left, "General Hospital," is widely rumored to be getting the ax sometime soon, so who will be left to nominate next year? Will the WGA get rid of the category completely or just go with the three survivors, "Y & R," "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "Days of Our Lives," as their three nominees?

News & Notes: IWU Spotlight, Auditions All Over, Dapier, Dickens, Kennedy and Contest

Illinois Wesleyan's School of Theatre Arts has been named Broadway World's Spotlight School of the Week. The article linked at broadwayworld.com notes success stories William Duell, Richard Jenkins, James Sutorius, Alison Vesely, Larry Neumann Jr., Lisa Marie Gigante D'Amico, Nic Diamond and Mary Heaton Carrick, all of whom emerged from IWU's theater program, but did not mention the alum currently appearing on Broadway -- Lisa Karlin, appearing in "The Addams Family" -- or the two who'll be there soon. The latter group includes Bryonha Marie Parham in "Porgy and Bess," opening at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on December 17, and Evan Kasprzak in "Newsies," which will open next March at the Nederlander Theatre. Congratulations, IWU Theatre! You can peruse pictures of proud IWU alums here.

The Station Theater in Urbana has informed us that its current production of "My Antonia," adapted from the Willa Cather novel by Jarrett Dapier, is not Dapier's first adaptation for the stage. According to a Facebook post from the Celebration Company, Dapier once wrote an adaptation of a Chris Crutcher novel called "The Sledding Hill," with Crutcher himself attending a performance. I can promise that Willa Cather will not be in attendance at "My Antonia," but you can be. Ticket information here.

Heartland Theatre annual 10-Minute Play contest is well underway, with entries coming in fast and furious. Remember that your play (which must be on the theme "Playing Games") is eligible for revisions if it gets in before January 1. The final deadline is February 1, 2012 for all entries.

Heartland has also announced that auditions for its upcoming productions, Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius" and Tracy Letts' "Superior Donuts," are coming up soon. The "Superior Donuts" audition schedule is already posted here. (Note that the auditions page currently erroneously says that performances are in September when "Superior Donuts" is really scheduled for April 12-29.) "Mauritius" details should be forthcoming any day, now that director Sandi Zielinski has completed her work on the ISU MFA showcase production of "Three Sisters."

Speaking of auditions... IWU has finished auditions and announced casting for their winter and spring performances. That includes Chase Miller as Tartuffe in "Tartuffe," Kirsten Anderson, Lizzie Rainville, Annie Simpson, Allison Sutton and Laura Williams playing five of the first women to trod the boards in Restoration England in "Playhouse Creatures," and Will Henke and Isaac Sherman as prisoners 105 and 106 in Maria Irene Fornes' "Promenade."

ISU is in the midst of its own winter/spring auditions, with callbacks happening for Sarah Ruhl's "Passion Play," Caryl Churchill's "Cloud 9," William Inge's "Picnic," Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," and "La Boheme," the Puccini opera that spawned "Rent." Good luck and congrats to all those called back. (Tickets to all of those shows, as well as ISU's spring dance, symphony and choral concerts, are available at Ticketmaster if you want a jump on the best seats.)

In other news (or if you like to keep track of these things, which I do), you might be interested to hear that the Kennedy Center Honorees for 2011 are Barbara Cook, Neil Diamond, Sonny Rollins, Meryl Streep and Yo-Yo Ma. The gala at which they are celebrated has already been taped and will be broadcast on CBS on Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 9 pm Eastern/8 Central. I'm thrilled I got to see Barbara Cook in person last year in "Sondheim on Sondheim" and am probably the most excited about her being honored.

In book news (or really coin news), Britain's Royal Mint has announced a Charles Dickens commemorative coin to honor the 200th anniversary of his birth. "The £2 coin...boasts a remarkable and inventive reverse design by Matthew Dent. A profile outline, immediately recognisable as Dickens has been painstakingly created from the titles of Dickens’ famous works," the Mint tells us. It really is cool to see Dickens' head created out of his titles, all fitting onto a £2 coin, even if it does look a bit like a map of South America. (See below.) If you look closely, "CAROL" and "COPPERFIELD" will pop out. I'm still looking for my own favorite, "Nicholas Nickleby." There is also a local connection to this story, since ISU's Milner Library's Special Collections Department has some nifty Dickens items.

"Follies" New Cast Recording Is Simply Wonderful

As I've said before, the musical "Follies" has taken on mythic significance for me. It's a show I would go to see every day if I could, a show whose productions I will forgive a great deal just for the chance to see it, and a show that isn't produced nearly often enough.

Within the past ten years, however, the number of "Follies" productions has picked up. I saw the Broadway revival in 2001, the one with Gregory Harrison and Blythe Danner as Ben and Phyllis and Polly Bergen as Carlotta, and I liked it far better than most critics. That was followed by a well-received Paper Mill Playhouse production with Donna McKechnie, and a 2007 version from City Center Encores! directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw that starred Donna Murphy and Victoria Clark, along with Victor Garber, Michael McGrath, Christine Baranski, Philip Bosco, Mimi Hines and Joanne Worley.

This year, we've seen the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre production with lots of Chicago stars doing great work in their courtyard space, and a big, beautiful Kennedy Center production directed with all the bells and whistles by Eric Shaeffer that was successful enough to transfer from DC to Broadway, opening at the Marquis Theatre on September 12, 2011, forty years and five months after it opened the first time at the Winter Garden.

Luckily for those of us who are besotted with "Follies" in all its incarnations, Tommy Krasker of PS Classics is just as smitten as we are. That means when he got the assignment to do a cast recording of the current Broadway production, he decided to (in his own words, in the album notes), "do an expansive recording that not only conveyed the glories of the score, but captured the experience of the show itself." To that end, Krasker has included pieces of dialogue to segue between songs or set up songs, to showcase the emotional context and character shadings of this exceptionally emotional, character-driven show.

The result is one extraordinary cast recording.

"I hope this new recording will speak both to audiences who've had the chance to see this glorious new production and to folks who might never get to see a Follies at all," Krasker writes. I fall into a middle category, with a few "Follies" under my belt, but not this one. Still, this cd captures the production very well, well enough that is almost a recreation, filling in the gaps for those of us who haven't made it to the Marquis for this "Follies."

It feels like a complete experience because of the added lines of dialogue, lots of pictures in the booklet that accompanies this two-disc set, and liner notes from Krasker and arts journalist Patrick Pacheco on the significance of the show. Pacheco's theory that "Follies" and its crumbling theater are metaphors for America and its crumbling financial structures and institutions (or, as he puts it, "the deflated dreams and tarnished hopes now loosed throughout the land") goes a bit farther than I would, but the idea is definitely intriguing.

Aside from all the lovely supporting materials, the score of "Follies," with Stephen Sondheim's searing lyrics and sweet, sad music, sells the cd all by itself. "Losing My Mind," "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs," "Too Many Mornings," "One More Kiss," "Beautiful Girls," "Broadway Baby," "Who's That Woman?" and "The Road You Didn't Take" all sound sensational here, with beautiful, emotional vocals that I can't listen to enough.

And once again, from the first notes of the plaintive soprano saxophone (thank you, Jon Alan Conrad, for the information that it is a soprano sax and not an oboe so I sound like I know what I'm talking about) at the very beginning, I am hooked, transfixed and under the "Follies" spell. Its messages of bittersweet memory, early promise turned to disappointment, youthful passion marked by betrayal and delusion, are simply devastating. Beautiful, but devastating.

Jan Maxwell and Danny Burstein both jump out in the best possible way, with Maxwell a silky, snarky Phyllis, the one who studied and read and walked her feet off at museums in order to be good enough for Ben, and Burstein giving vulnerability and a special spark to Buddy, the traveling salesmen who only wants the things he can't have.

Bernadette Peters starts out sounding like the saucer-eyed, cutie pie Bernadette of days long past, like her "Dames at Sea" persona, convincing me she's right for Sally Durant, once a fun girl who ate Baby Ruths for breakfast, now "still playing games, acting crazy." I still don't like the way she goes up for the final note of "Losing My Mind," but otherwise, she honestly sounds awesome.

At first listen, Ron Raines left me a little cold as Ben, the man who despises his own success, but then I listened again, and I can't imagine what I was missing. His voice sounds rich and resonant, as well as world-weary, on "The Road You Didn't Take" and his half of "Too Many Mornings" and right where he needs to be on "Live, Laugh, Love." Once again, I'm smitten.

"Rain on the Roof" and "Ah, Paris!" are delightful from Susan Watson, Don Correia and Mary Peth Peil (quite the most elegant Solange ever), while I absolutely adore Jayne Houdyshell's cheery, no-nonsense trouper take on "Broadway Baby."

Rosalind Elias and Leah Horowitz and are a perfect pair as the older and younger Heidi on "One More Kiss," really selling the "ravages of time" notion that Heidi's young voice can sing circles around her older one. I catch my breath every time when Young Heidi does exactly that.

"Who's That Woman?" (complete with taps) also sounds great, but it's one of two places where no two-dimensional booklet is enough to fully communicate the experience of in-person performance. The dance is so important here, with the aged Follies ladies mirrored by the ghosts of their young selves, and I'm not sure that "wow" moment can come across in any cast recording. Pictures of the Mirror Dance (complete with ghosts) in the liner notes might've helped, but I'm still not sure it'd be enough.

The other place I wanted more visual help is the young Ben/Buddy/Phyllis/Sally quartet. "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" and "Love Will See Us Through" sound as spiffy as ever, but there is only a hazy image of the four behind the lyrics for those songs, and it's tough to tell what they look like or what era of costumes they're dressed in. I want more.

Those are very minor quibbles, however, with what is, overall, an amazing package. I don't see how any other cast recording can do as much to recreate the experience of seeing "Follies" live. For musical theater aficionados, this "Follies" is a must-have. For anybody who ever loved "Follies," this is a godsend.

"Follies," the new Broadway cast recording, is now available for order at PS Classics as well as other stores and vendors. (I prefer to get it direct from PS Classics myself so they don't have to share any of the profits, however modest they are.)

Charm for the Holidays in "The Shop Around the Corner"

When you think Jimmy Stewart and holiday movies, you probably come up with "It's a Wonderful Life" first and foremost. But there is another choice. There's Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 charmer "The Shop Around the Corner."

This one is less sentimental, but still warm and sweet, more romantic, more Continental. I mean, when was the last time you watched a movie set in Budapest, where the holiday cash registers are ringing up pengő and the shop's cigarette boxes play "Ochi Chyornye"?

"The Shop Around the Corner" is based on a 1937 play called "Parfumerie" written by Miklós László (also known as Nikolaus Laszlo or Laszlo Miklos in some credits.) The play was, obviously, set in a perfume store, while screenwriter Samson Raphaelson turned it into more of a gift shop, selling leather goods, cigarette lighters and music boxes, for "The Shop Around the Corner."

László's play has been adapted and reimagined more than once, with "In the Good Old Summertime" (1949) moving its pen-pal lovers to turn-of-the-century Chicago and a music shop (offering star Judy Garland a chance to sing), "You've Got Mail" (1998) with Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, computers and rival bookstores, and the Broadway musical "She Loves Me," which keeps the same basic characters and plot while adding a lovely Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick score.

Of those adaptations, "The Shop Around the Corner" and "She Loves Me" are at the top of the class for me. Which is why it's such good news to hear that the Normal Theater is offering "The Shop Around the Corner," in glorious black and white, on screen tomorrow and Sunday nights at 7 pm. (Now we just need one of our local musical theater companies to take on "She Loves Me," which they haven't, in my memory. Why not?)

For now, "The Shop Around the Corner" will have to be enough. It's plenty, really. Director Lubitsch is known for the light, mischievous tone of his films, for all those clever "Lubitsch touches," and he delivers beautifully with this film. James Stewart is at his best as hard-working, no-nonsense Alfred Kralik, who has a romantic side he hides very well at work. Looking tall and lanky in a spiffy 40s wardrobe, Stewart has never been more natural or more appealing. Margaret Sullavan (famous for being married to Henry Fonda for a couple of months as well as being one of the subjects of "Haywire," a biographical tell-all by Sullavan's daughter Brooke Hayward) is less attractive, to me, but she and her throaty voice and impish ways do manage to create an interesting heroine. And, again, she brings out the best in Stewart.

The supporting cast is quite marvelous, chock full of character actors you can never see enough of, with the wonderful Felix Bressart bringing life to every scene he's in, Joseph Schildkraut doing excellent work as oily villain and ladies man Vadas, and Frank Morgan quite touching as Mr. Matuschek, the mercurial owner of the shop. Morgan shows he more dramatic chops than you might expect if all you know him from is "The Wizard of Oz," giving "The Shop Around the Corner" a good part of its heart and soul.

"The Shop Around the Corner" is, yes, a romance, with a light, charming tone carried along by snow falling on the street in Budapest, pen pals who share their innermost thoughts and fall in love through words, and the plot device that keeps them prickly in person but still clearly meant for each other. But there is a message here about friendship and connection, too, about how life outside the walls of Matuschek and Co. may disappoint, but the family of co-workers inside can still be there when Mr. Matuschek needs them. It makes for a lovely holiday message.

You may be able to catch "The Shop Around the Corner" somewhere on your television dial this Christmas season, but that is no substitute for seeing it at the Normal Theater this weekend. So.. 7 pm. Saturday and Sunday. It can be your gift to yourself.

There's also a fun trailer for the movie, with a little cameo at the end by Mr. Lubitsch himself, available on youtube.

Magnificent Melancholy: "The Three Sisters" Showcases ISU's MFA Actors

I have been thinking about all things Russian recently – a friend I met in Russian 101 passed away unexpectedly last week, so I’ve been musing over the years I spent and the friends I made while immersed in Russian language and literature in college – which makes “The Three Sisters” especially poignant for me right now.

The sisters in Chekhov’s play, as well as the characters who interact with them, spend a good deal of their time and conversation on what life means, what we can aspire to as human beings, and how we all fit into the larger tableau of history and progress. The question “What difference does it make?” comes up frequently, and Olga’s plaintive “If only we knew” ends the play.

As the three Prozorov sisters yearn to move back to Moscow and the life of music and books and art they remember from their youth, they also hope for a better future with more choices and more life for the generations who follow them. It seems so very Russian (or maybe just so very Chekhov) to have characters who jump headlong into hopeless love affairs, who mourn the passing of the aristocracy even as they look forward to a more egalitarian future, who, when all else fails, try desperately to find meaning in work. They go on. There may not be a reason, they may not make a difference, but they go on. That’s what they do.

The ISU/Heartland Theatre production of “The Three Sisters” is intended as a showcase for the acting talents of Illinois State’s graduate acting class. The play offers strong roles for those eight actors, succeeding nicely on the “showcase” front, but it also succeeds as a play, as a story, as a moving, emotional examination of how human beings, even smart, funny, talented ones (or maybe especially smart, funny, talented ones) can aspire to so much, achieve none of their goals, but still try to maintain a glimmer of hope. Director Sandra Zielinski and her actors establish a warm, engaging mood from the start, pulling us in to the Prozorov family and their world and bringing us along on their so-very-human journey.

Allison Schencker’s scenic design, with its autumnal colors and bare-birches backdrop, adds nicely to the general tableau, making “The Three Sisters” seem like a natural for an intimate setting like Heartland Theatre.

The three actors who portray the sisters – Kate McDermott-Swanson as dutiful Olga, Jessie Dean as tempestuous Masha and Melisa Pereyra as youthful, sweet Irina – are the heart of the play, and all three deliver nicely. (Pictured above, top to bottom, are McDermott-Swanson, Dean and Pereyra, in character as Olga, Masha and Irina. Photo credit: Pete Guither.)

Molly Rose Lewis plays against type as their vulgar, pushy sister-in-law, awful Natasha, and Michael Gamache adds the proper note of regret and overwhelming disappointment as Andrei, the one who brings her into the family.

Josh Innerst does fine work with the pivotal role of Vershinin, the dashing (and married) army commander who blows into their lives like a Buran wind, while Zack Powell is simply perfect as Tuzenbach, cynical and idealistic at the same time, who adores Irina whether she loves him back or not. Well, not perfect. He’s much better looking than the script says, but very appealing and sympathetic in his doomed pursuit of Irina, anyway. Jeb Burris is another one who is cast against type, playing Masha’s somewhat ridiculous husband, a schoolmaster who isn’t really that bright and bores her silly. Burris makes Kulygin a whole person, too, not just a foil, so that you feel for him and wish he’d had better sense than to marry Masha in the first place.

Among the rest of the cast, Henry Woronicz shines as Chebutykin, the doctor (there’s always a doctor in Chekhov) who once loved the sisters’ mother, but now drinks too much and bothers to save lives too little, and Len Childers is quite excellent as moody, insufferable Solyony, the one who looks like Lermontov (the author of “A Hero of Our Time,” one of my favorite books) and keeps poisoning the atmosphere with his dark humors.

In smaller roles, Sarah Stone Innerst, Ann White, Dean Brown, Tommy Malouf and David Krostal all make a good impression.

After this “Three Sisters,” it’s hard to shake the sad, yearning mood the play and its performances create. Why do they go on? If only we knew.

THE THREE SISTERS
By Anton Chekhov.
From a translation by Paul Schmidt.

A presentation of Heartland Theatre Company and
the Illinois State University School of Theatre.

Director: Sandra Zielinski
Scenic Designer/Prop Master/Charge Artist: Allison Schenker
Costume Designer: Lauren Lowell
Lighting Designer: Jeremy Lane

Stage Manager: Jesse Cannady
Technical Director: Michael Pullin
Assistant Directors: Sarah Salazar, Brandon Ray
Assistant to the Director: Kathleen Weir
Assistant Stage Manager, Scenic Assistant: Michelle Stahl

Cast: Jeb Burris, Jessie Dean, Michael Gamache, Josh Innerst, Molly Rose Lewis, Kate McDermott-Swanson, Melisa Pereyra, Zach Powell, Dean Brown, Len Childers, Sarah Stone Innerst, David Krostal, Tommy Malouf, Ann White and Henry Woronicz.

Running time: 2:45, including one 15-minute intermission

Remaining performances: December 1-3 at 7:30 pm; December 3-4 at 2 pm.

All tickets are $10 and all performances are at Heartland Theatre

Much Ado About December

No, as far as I know, no one is putting on "Much Ado About Nothing." It's just that there's always so much to see and do in December, as so many organizations put on holiday shows.

Chris Jones, theater critic at the Chicago Tribune, has put together a list of the top 10 Christmas show options in Chicago. I thought I'd include that here, since so many people make trips to the city to do their Christmas shopping or look at the department store windows. Jones has included the Goodman Theatre's annual "Christmas Carol," which he found extra-specially good this year, as well as "A Christmas Story: The Musical" at the Chicago Theatre, a new show based on the film favorite that is headed for New York next Christmas, Alan Ayckbourn's dysfunctional family comedy "Seasons Greetings" at Northlight, and "The Christmas Schooner" at the Mercury Theatre, in which Jones loved the cast and said that the performers "take charge and make a show pulse with life and heart."

Back here at home, you can start your December by heading over to Heartland Theatre to catch Anton Chekhov's "The Three Sisters," with a marvelous cast of ISU graduate students in acting augmented by Henry Woronicz (a world-class actor and head of that graduate acting program at ISU), Ann White, Dave Krostal and Dean White from Heartland productions past, and an actor named Lee Childers I personally haven't seen on local stages who is a most welcome addition. It's a wonderfully warm, sad production directed by ISU professor Sandi Zielinski. No, there's no Christmas celebration in "The Three Sisters," but we're talking Russia here, so there's a definite chill in the air. "The Three Sisters" officially opens tonight, with performances through the Sunday Matinee at 2 pm.

One of my favorite movies, holiday or otherwise, comes to the Normal Theater on Saturday and Sunday. That would be "The Shop Around the Corner," director Ernst Lubitsch's lighter-than-air confection about two clerks at a small store who can't stand each other in person, but fall in love by letter as anonymous pen pals. Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are lovely as the boy and girl, and Samson Raphaelson's screenplay is a charmer. You may recognize the secret-pen-pals/love-by-letter plot in "The Shop Around the Corner" from its other iterations. It all started with a play called "Parfumerie," by Miklós László, which has been turned into "The Shop Around the Corner," "In the Good Old Summertime" and "You've Got Mail," as well as the musical "She Loves Me." I guess when you have a good thing going...

After "Shop," the Normal Theater keeps the holiday spirit going with wall-to-wall Christmas movies, showing perennial favorite "White Christmas" on the 8th and 9th, the more irreverent "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" on the 15th and 16th, "A Christmas Story," complete with Red Ryder BB gun and leg lamp, on the 17th and 18th, and finishing up with Frank Capra's sentimental "What if you were never born?" tale, "It's a Wonderful Life," from December 23 to 25.

Less Christmasy (and with a completely different mood than Chekhov, Lubitsch, Bing Crosby or Frank Capra): "Murder at the Howard Johnson's" at Community Players, playing as part of their Lab Theatre program. "Murder at the Howard Johnson's" is exactly what its title promises, although I don't think the murder ever comes off. It's more like "Plaza Suite" by way of "Clue," with a farcical tone underlining a love triangle with murderous intent. In the three scenes of the play, two sides of the triangle keep conspiring to knock the other one off. The key is that the alliances and targets keep shifting. I saw the plays years ago, and I don't think I will ever get that trademark orange-and-turquoise color scheme out of my head.

In Urbana, the Station Theatre opens its new adaptation of Willa Cather's "My Antonia" tonight, as well. Celebration Company member Jarrett Dapier has adapted the novel for the stage, with Gary Ambler and Joi Hoffsommer directing. Performances of "My Antonia" run from December 1-4, 7-11 and 14-17, with all shows at 8 pm and ticket prices ranging from $10-15.

The annual Holiday Spectacular comes to the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts December 9-11, with its usual large cast (over 300?) and tuneful tidings of good cheer. Once again, it features a script written by Nancy Steele Brokaw and is directed by Lori Adams. New this year is a Facebook page devoted to the Holiday Spectacular, where you can get up-to-the-minute updates. Tickets are $23 for adults or $11 for those 13 and under. Group discounts are also available.

A movie that Oscar-watchers have been waiting for, "The Descendants," starring George Clooney as a wealthy man in Hawaii trying to reconnect with his daughters and figure out what happened to his marriage, comes to Champaign's Art Theatre starting December 9, followed by that rare commodity, a Christmas horror movie. This one is "Rare Exports," about which Roger Ebert said: "This is a superior horror film, a spot-on parody of movies about dead beings brought back to life."

For more traditional holiday offerings, try C-U's Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, where there is a "Nutcracker," performed by the Champaign-Urbana Ballet Company and Sinfonia da Camera, from December 2-4, a Carol Concert on the 4th, and "Sleigh Bells Ring," a concert from the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra with special guests The Chorale, led by Julie Beyler, and the Parkland Singers, led by Barbara Zachow, on December 8th.

Happy holidays!

"The Three Sisters" Collaboration (ISU/Heartland) Opens Tomorrow

As I understand it, Illinois State University's School of Theatre needed a venue to showcase its grad students in acting, and they chose Heartland Theatre in Normal. So, for the first time, Heartland will host a play starring ISU's entire group of MFA actors. A few of them have done shows together at ISU and almost all of them played roles in last summer's Illinois Shakespeare Festival. But all together? Nope. This showcase means that interested theater-goers will get the chance to see these actors before they break big. This is a very good group, and they've each turned in powerhouse performances, meaning they could very well end up in major companies or on the big screen. Will one among them be the next John Malkovich, Laurie Metcalf or Rondi Reed? Only time will tell, but you can see what you think this week.

The play is Chekhov's "The Three Sisters," directed by ISU professor Sandi Zielinski, with Jessie Dean, Kate McDermott and Melisa Pereyra as the titular sisters, and their fellow grad students Jeb Burris, Michael Gamache, Josh Innerst, Molly Rose Lewis and Zach Powell taking on other major roles in the Chekhov classic. Frequent Heartland actors Dean Brown ("Proof"), David Krostal ("A Tuna Christmas") and Ann B. White ("Too Many Air Conditioners") will join them, as will Henry Woronicz, Head of Graduate Acting at ISU.

"The Three Sisters" has been done many times with celebrity casts, like Judith Anderson, Katherine Cornell and Ruth Gordon on Broadway back in 1942, or Amy Irving, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Lili Taylor back on Broadway in 1997. (For trivia lovers, that last production also featured Justin Theroux, Jennifer Aniston's current beau, in a small role.) There have been other productions memorable for their casting, as well, with Vanessa, Lynn and Jemma Redgrave playing the sisters in London in 1991 and Sorcha, Sinead and Niamh Cusack taking the roles in Dublin in 1990.

This ISU MFA "Three Sisters" promises to focus on the acting and the characters, as our three girls marooned in the provinces yearn for Moscow and the more cultured life they remember when they lived there. Oldest sister Olga is a teacher who has reluctantly given up on the idea of marriage or romance, while moody Masha remains artistic and passionate, even though she lives in an unhappy marriage. Youngest sister Irina is more naive and the object of several crushes in the men around her. Their lives are complicated when an army artillery battery comes to town and stays awhile, with the dashing Vershinin, someone Masha finds fascinating, as commanding officer.

Although there is a special "students only" preview performance tonight, official performances begin tomorrow night at Heartland Theatre. This production is not part of Heartland's regular season, so season passes may not be used. All tickets are $10. For reservations, email boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org or call 309-452-8709.

Performances are: Thursday, December 1, Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3 at 7:30 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, December 3 and 4, at 2 pm. That's five performances only of this classic play with a fabulous cast.