MAD MEN Will Be Back April 7

The premiere date for Mad Men's 6th season has been a subject of much speculation since Season 5 took its curtain call back in June 2012. I'm a big fan of this spiffy period drama about the advertising men and women who once haunted Madison Avenue, so I've been eagerly awaiting news of its return.

And now we have it!

AMC has announced that Mad Men will be back April 7 with a special two-hour premiere, giving us a look at Don Draper and Company as they move into the latter part of the 60s. You can see from this promotional still that sideburns are in (see Vincent Kartheiser's Pete Campbell on the far right), some people are hanging onto earlier fashion trends (John Slattery's Roger Sterling and Jon Hamm's Don Draper are wearing small bow ties and cummerbunds, while Christina Hendricks' Joan Harris has a gown that doesn't exactly look like a flower child) and the alcohol and cigarettes are still free-flowing.

In this one, we can see that Miss Zou Bisou Bisou is down with the big hair 60s in the fashion of Sharon Tate, Sally, her flip and her white gloves are more Tricia Nixon, and Betty still exists. Oh, and she isn't fat anymore. But all the ladyfolk are still circling Don, of course. I could do without either Megan or Betty, so I'm a little sorry to see them. Sally, I love. You go, Little White Glove Girl.

Although there haven't been a whole lot of spoilers yet for the new season, we do know that it will start in late 1967, that Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) is definitely back, even though she won't necessarily be at Don's agency, that Jon Hamm directed an episode, that the finale episode of Season 5 contains important info about where Season 6 will go, and that creator Matthew Weiner thinks "a lot has changed when the season opens up."

Let the speculation begin! And let April 7 (or some sneak peeks at the premiere episode) hurry up and get here!

News and Reminders for 1-29

Just a few notes before today gets away from us:

Auditions for Community Players' production of To Kill a Mockingbird continue tonight at the theater on Robinhood Lane in Bloomington. Tonight's session begins at 7 pm. To read more about the play and the novel it's based on, click here. Performances are scheduled for March 15-17 and 21-24. No prepared monologues necessary; auditioning actors will do cold readings from the script. For more information, email director Marcia Weiss at mlcweiss@yahoo.com. But be quick about it! Auditions will be finished after tonight.

Also tonight, Mathew Green's one-act play Vacation will be given a reading at the Station Theatre in Urbana. Katie Baldwin directs this romantic boy-meets-boy comedy starring Tanino Minneci and Maxwell Tomaszewski. This reading is free and open to the public. It begins at 7:30 pm tonight, with a brief musical introduction beginning at 7.

Tomorrow night is your one chance to see the film that goes behind the scenes at New York's "Create a Play in a Day" project. It will be showing on January 30 only at selected movie theaters. The closest theaters airing this cinema event are Willow Knolls 14 in Peoria and the Savoy 16 near Champaign. Tomorrow night only!

Masters students in theatre at Illinois State University are selling merchandise with a dancing Shakespeare and/or the ISU School of Theatre and Dance logo on them this week and next in the vicinity of the Airport Lounge between Centennial East and West. This is a fundraiser to help send the masters students to a conference this spring. But it means you can get your hands on t-shirts, caps, sweatpants, tote bags and fleece with ISU Theatre and Dance all over it. Find a masters student to get an order form, or hang out in the the Airport Lounge and you should see one.

I Love a Surprise: ARGO Wins Again at the Screen Actors Guild Awards

Last night's Screen Actors Guild Awards honored many of the usual suspects -- Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones from Lincoln and Anne Hathaway for her performance in Les Misérables on the movie side, and ABC's Modern Family, Claire Danes from Homeland, Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad, Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey from NBC's 30 Rock , Kevin Costner (Hatfields and McCoys) and Julianne Moore (Game Change) for mini-series or TV movies -- with a few surprises as well.

Argo, the clever little thriller directed by (and starring) Ben Affleck about breaking a handful of Americans out of Iraq, took the trophy for Ooustanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, the SAG equivalent of Best Picture, upsetting Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook and Les Misérables and taking the lead in Oscar predictions. Don't forget, however, that The Help won in that category at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last year, while The Artist took Best Picture at the Oscars. You just never know...

Other SAG winners included Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook, lauded for her Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture. (Best Actress is so much easier, isn't it?) Lawrence and Jessica Chastain, nominated for Zero Dark Thirty, have been considered the top contenders for Oscar's Best Actress for quite a while, and they both won at the Golden Globes. Does this SAG Award mean Lawrence is edging ahead in that race? I kind of think so, considering how many SAG members also vote for the Academy Awards.

The other big upset of the evening was on the television side of the aisle, as the Downton Abbey cast took top honors for TV dramas. That meant a win over the likes of the much-lauded Homeland, Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire actors. I'm not sure that's warranted, honestly. As much as I love Downton Abbey, I found myself straying last season because of the contrivances involving Matthew and Mary and much of the murder plot. I think Homeland and its stars had a better year, Mad Men was pretty good except for that Too Much Megan problem, and Breaking Bad was as riveting as ever. Boardwalk Empire is too violent for me (looking at you, Gyp Rosetti) so I'd put it in last place on this list, but any of the other casts could've edged out Downton and I wouldn't have complained.

The Screen Actors Guild also honors stunt ensembles, and those awards went to Skyfall, the James Bond movie, and TV's Game of Thrones.

Best dressed? Tina Fey looked great in a snazzy black Oscar de la Renta gown with movie star hair, and Kerry Washington was a stunner in a sparkly white-and-silver Rodarte dress.

But for my money, Marion Cotillard walked away with the fashion prize in Dior Haute Couture, mixing a creamy white bodice with a full skirt (with pockets!) in a lovely shade of blue. French blue, of course. Cotillard may not be picking up as many awards as Lawrence and Chastain for her performance in Rust and Bone, but she's certainly setting the fashion standard.

And speaking of Jennifer Lawrence... Uh oh on the wardrobe malfunction, when her navy Christian Dior dress split apart at a thigh-level tier when she got up to accept her award. Oh well. A see-through pants suit on Oscar night didn't hurt Barbra Streisand all that much in the long run.

SHAKESPEARE UNCOVERED Takes a Look Behind the Page

A new PBS series called Shakespeare Uncovered began last night, with episodes hosted by Ethan Hawke (on Macbeth) and Joely Richardson (on Twelfth Night and As You Like It). Both hosts talked to actors, directors and scholars to get at a better understanding of the plays, their characters and how they related to Shakespeare's life. I especially enjoyed Richardson taking a look at her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, performing Rosalind in As You Like It. It's lovely.

This is a six-part series, with the next two scheduled for Friday, February 1. Those two will be an examination of Richard II with Derek Jacobi (at 8 pm Central time) and a look at Henry IV and V with Jeremy Irons (at 9 pm).

Jacobi is an odd choice for this kind of show; he's a wonderful actor but he persists in believing that Shakespeare didn't write his own plays, which flies in the face of all the info from parts I and II of Shakespeare Uncovered about Shakespeare's stage twins relating to his owns twins, Judith and Hamnet, and other textual connections drawn within the programs to the actual Will Shakespeare in Stratford. I suppose that's why they didn't give Jacobi Hamlet (it's a biggie for the Oxfordians), but he bring up his Oxfordian beliefs in his discussion of Richard II.

Notes on this program tell us that Jacobi will work with actors on the Globe stage and give them a lesson on the Earl of Essex, a plot to topple Queen Elizabeth, and how Richard II and its author fit into that conspiracy. Better news is that this piece of Shakespeare Uncovered will show clips of Patrick Stewart and Ben Whishaw in an upcoming Great Performances version of Richard II.

Jeremy Irons, host of the 4th slice of Shakespeare Uncovered, has recently created controversy, as well, comparing Downton Abbey to a Ford Fiesta when he was doing press for Shakespeare Uncovered, and thereby incurring the wrath of Downton fans as well as the Ford Fiesta people. Irons's segment includes a visit to Agincourt to learn more about the history behind the events in the plays, and he will go behind the scenes of the new Great Performances adaptation where he plays Henry IV with Tom Hiddleston (Loki in The Avengers) as his son, Prince Hal, who becomes Henry V.

Parts V and VI of Shakespeare Uncovered air February 8, with David Tennant taking on Hamlet (including a visit to the gift shop at the Globe) and Trevor Nunn on The Tempest, a play he directed for the stage last year with Ralph Fiennes as Prospero.

You can find out more about all of these episodes, plus play What Shakespeare Character Are You? on the PBS site for Shakespeare Uncovered. (Psst... I'm Rosaline. Score!)

Get Your "Parcel or Package" 10-Minute Play in Now!

We are perilously close to the deadline for Heartland Theatre's 10-minute play contest. Which means you still have one week left to work on your "Parcel, Package or Present" play, but you'd better be quick. Heartland will accept ten-minute plays involving a package, parcel or present of some sort (and, yes, they're looking for a physical package like the ones you see in the banner above, anything larger than a ring box and smaller than a microwave oven) until February 1, and after that... Well, you'll have to wait till summer, after this year's eight winning Parcel, Package and Present plays have been performed at Heartland Theatre, to see what next year's theme is going to be.

But for now... If you have a parcel play that's ten pages or less, following Heartland's stylesheet, you'll need to send it in before Friday, February 1.

Here's what the "Parcel/Package/Present" theme is all about:

"The Misdelivered Package is a plot staple, whether the parcel in question contains the Maltese Falcon, a bomb about to go off, the names of all the spies in Poland, or a kilo of cocaine from Colombia. There have been more packages used as McGuffins in plays, movies and TV shows than you can fit inside the largest box UPS will deliver.

When you have a parcel, when you don’t know what’s inside, when the recipient is suspicious of the giver or the sender, when the giver can’t rely on how the recipient will react, there’s plenty of dramatic potential.

Your 10-minute play can center on a tiny blue box from Tiffany & Co., a beautifully wrapped birthday present, a weird old shoebox with breathing holes poked in the top, a wooden crate full of albums from the 70s, a plastic “cremains” container, a makeup case with Barbie stickers on the outside, or a strange, lumpy parcel covered in stained brown paper and secured with string, bearing no return address but postage from Ulan Bator.

It can be any kind of parcel, package, packet, box, bundle, case, carton or container, as long as it’s no smaller than a ring box and no bigger than an orange crate. Anything in the middle is just fine. And what’s inside this mysterious parcel is completely up to you.

You have:
…No more than 4 characters…
…No more than 10 minutes…
…And unlimited possibilities to write a winning play for Heartland Theatre’s Parcel, Package or Present 10-Minute Play Festival."

Rules and guidelines are here and the all-important stylesheet is here. Don't be late! February 1!

Breezy BLOOMER GIRL a Worthy Revival for IWU Music Theatre Society

Although Bloomer Girl was revived in 2001 as part of New York's City Center Encores! series, it is not a show that gets produced very much. There are various theories advanced for that. Does it have too many characters and too difficult a costume plot -- with a parade of increasingly large and outlandish hoop skirts -- for regional theaters to stage? Or was it something to do with E. Y. "Yip" Harburg, the unapologetic leftist who wrote the lyrics to Harold Arlen's music for Bloomer Girl, since Harburg was blacklisted for his political views during the Hollywood witchhunt of the 50s and early 60s?

Scott Susong, who directed Bloomer Girl last weekend as a staged concert reading for Illinois Wesleyan University's Music Theatre Society, wanted to revive Bloomer Girl because he felt its messages of equality -- both gender and racial equality -- were as fresh and important as ever.

Those views are certainly on display in Bloomer Girl, which involves a young woman named Evalina Applegate, who is the youngest daughter of a prosperous Yankee hoop-skirt manufacturer at a time just before America's Civil War. Our heroine resists both the marriage her father has planned for her, to a handsome slave-owner from Kentucky, and the hoops Dad is peddling. Evalina isn't sure about marriage at all, but especially not to someone who owns a slave, plus she prefers the more practical bloomers (i.e., pants) championed by her suffragette Aunt Dolly in the feminist newspaper she puts out.

That sets up three different conflicts: Skirts vs. Pants, Women's Rights vs. Being Controlled by Dad, and Abolition vs. Slavery. You will note that all three issues center on freedom. The fact that this is all played as a musical comedy, complete with a second-act show-within-the-show version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, probably seems strange to 21st century audiences.

The sprightly tone of Bloomer Girl is sometimes at odds with its serious message, and the Arlen/Harburg score doesn't contain anything as memorable as "Over the Rainbow" or "Stormy Weather," other Arlen tunes. Still, it's a sweet little show with its heart in the right place, and it deserves to be taken off the "forgotten musicals" list and put back into repertory by theaters who can pull out all the stops with those outrageous hoop skirts.

For IWU, director Scott Susong worked with limited choreography (no extended Civil War Ballet) and simple accompaniment (apparently the full orchestrations were lost/gone/not available, so Susong had to go with what he could pull together for piano and percussion) as well as stripped-down costumes (with hoops over leotards and a whole lot of plaid bloomers). For this kind of concert setting, that all worked well, but it would be fun to see the real, full-blown version.

Heather Priedhorsky made a lovely and spirited Evalina in this concert staging, while Jordan Lipes was quite charming as her Southern beau, Jefferson Calhoun. I also enjoyed Chloe Bluml and Josh Levinson as Mom and Dad Applegate, Erica Werner as pesky Aunt Dolly, Reggie Cooke as Pompey, the escaped slave, and Patsita Jiratipayabood as Daisy, a housemaid with decided opinions on women and love.

Other standouts included Natalie Howard, Halimah Nurullah, Ian Stewart and Kayla White, who combined with Cooke to bring energy and life to "I Got a Song," a folksy second-act anthem to freedom that brought home the show's themes.

BLOOMER GIRL
Music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, and book by Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy.

IWU Music Theatre Society
Young Main Lounge in the Memorial Building

Director: Scott Susong
Musical Director: Michelle Brecunier
Choreographer: Sheri Marley
Accompanist: Charles Berggren
Assistant Producer/Assistant Director: Anna Klemperer
Assistant Music Director: Chloe Bluml
Assistant Accompanist: Megan Win
Assistant Choreographer: Josh Levinson
Costumers: Rosalie Alspach, Elizabeth Albers and Patsita Jiratipayabood
Hair/Make Up: Erica Werner
Sound: Joey Chu
Stage Manager/Properties: Cathy Coburn

Cast: Elizabeth Albers, Rosalie Alspach, Kelsey Bearman, Chloe Bluml, Julia Cicchino, Reggie Cooke, Steven Czajkowski, Bucky Emmerling, Evan Dolan, Emily Hanlet, Lydia Hartlaub, Natalie Howard, Patsita Jiratipayabood, Annie Kehler, Josh Levinson, Jordan Lipes, Forrest Loeffler, Chris Long, Carlos Medina, Halimah Nurullah, Heather Priedhorsky, Ian Stewart, Alec Sutton, Kelsey Vonder Haar, Caroline Wagner, Erica Werner, Kayla White and Megan Win.

Performances took place January 19 and 20, 2013.

New Play Reading at the Station -- One Night Only January 29

Mathew Green

Mathew Green, the actor and director who often plies both trades at Urbana's Station Theatre, will be showcasing the playwright side of his talents next week. Green will offer a reading of his new play Vacation at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, January 29, at the Station on Broadway in Urbana.

Green describes the play as a "classic boy-meets-boy (or, rather, boy-confronts-his-feelings-about-boy) tale." This reading will be performed by Tanino Minneci and Maxwell Tomaszewski, with Green's frequent collaborator Katie Baldwin directing.

Previous projects involving the two of them include Rajiv Joseph's Gruesome Playground Injuries, with Green directing Baldin, and Alan Ayckbourn's Absurd Person Singular and John Holvenbach's Love Song, in which they acted opposite each other.

The reading of Vacation is free of charge and open to the public. Although it's scheduled to begin at 7:30, Green notes that it will be preceded by an acoustic set by Brittany Helfrich, which will start at 7 pm.

For information about the Station Theatre, including a map, click here or here. For all the details about the Vacation reading, visit the Facebook event page here.