“What was the first live theatre performance that you saw?” Several Strauss veterans share their memories. What about yours? Share in the comments below!
Strauss Theatre Center Needs Your Help! Due to the COVID-19 shutdown, STC has missed out on considerable revenue that is needed to keep our theatre running. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our Raise the Curtain Again Campaign. Your donation will help to ensure that we can keep alive the tradition of bringing live local theatre to Northeast Louisiana. Click here to donate today!
Elijah and Clark return for the second installment of STC’s “The Rest of the Broadway Story.” See if you can guess what musical they are talking about this week.
Strauss Theatre Center Needs Your Help! Due to the COVID-19 shutdown, STC has missed out on considerable revenue that is needed to keep our theatre running. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our Raise the Curtain Again Campaign. Your donation will help to ensure that we can keep alive the tradition of bringing live local theatre to Northeast Louisiana. Click here to donate today!
Introducing “The Rest of the Broadway Story”! In this fun new video series, Elijah and Clark talk about a famous Broadway musical, but it’s up to you to guess which musical they are talking about. Every week we’ll bring you a new episode. Here’s the first one… Can you guess the show?
Strauss Theatre Center is preparing for its re-opening with a deep clean of the theatre. A dedicated team of volunteers gathered at Strauss this past weekend to deep clean the theatre, lobby, green room and other areas. We also installed six new hand sanitization stations for our patrons.
We want to thank Ben McQuillin, Scott Stone, Moira O’Connor, Wendy Wilson, Mickey Cannon, Patrick Allen, and Elijah Chambless for all of their hard work in helping to get our theatre ready! However, our work is not done. We are having another deep cleaning session this Saturday, June 6th. We hope YOU can join us this Saturday! Call Donna at 318-323-6681 to volunteer!
Strauss Theatre Center Needs Your Help! Due to the COVID-19 shutdown, STC has missed out on considerable revenue that is needed to keep our theatre running. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our Raise the Curtain Again Campaign. Your donation will help to ensure that we can keep alive the tradition of bringing live local theatre to Northeast Louisiana. Click here to donate today!
In this week’s Five Questions, we sat down with Strauss veteran actress, Jean Hartzog.
1. What first drew you to live theatre?
My sister and I used to do elaborate productions in our big barn. Complete with scenery and costumes. Theatre became my major in college. It gives me such a complete feeling of accomplishment, despite the fact that it scares me a little, even now.
2. What type of theatre are you drawn to?
While I’m a fan of musicals and comedies, I am drawn to theatre that is not frequently done. The old standards that have just been set aside. I enjoy seeing a new spin on an old show.
3. Why Strauss Theatre?
I feel a connection with Strauss — like an old friend.
4. What is your all-time favorite show?
The Wizard of Oz. It’s everything that’s good with theatre. It has all the elements: humor, sadness, good vs evil, hope, redemption. I love that show very much.
5. What is the most absurd thing you’ve seen on stage?
During the production of Murder at the Howard Johnsons, all three of us forgot our lines at the very same time. We were panicked. None of us knew what to do. We just stood there, horrified, looking at each other helpless. Finally, one of us screamed to the stage manager: LINE! He got his line and we all continued. I still have horrible dreams about being on stage and forgetting my lines!
In this Throwback Thursday feature, we’ll revisit a past show we performed on Strauss Theatre Center’s Main Stage.
In the fall of 2017, Strauss Theatre Center presented the classic Agatha Christie mystery play, The Mousetrap. The show was directed by Brandi Albritton Gilmore, and the cast featured (pictured left to right) Natalie Weaver, Kathy Broadnax, Michael Scott Banks, Michael Tran, Jacob Branson, Taylor Nelson, Colin Galloway, and Kevin Branson. Four of the cast members — Broadnax, Nelson, and the father-and-son Branson duo, won Christopher Awards for their performances in this play. The gorgeous set, designed by Joel Willer, also won a Christopher for best set design.
Fun fact: Did you know The Mousetrap is the longest running play in London’s West End history? It first opened in 1952 and has been running continuously until COVID-19 forced it to close down for the first time in March 2020. Not a bad run!
Did you see Strauss’s performance of The Mousetrap? Have you seen any other performances of this play? What was your favorite part of the play? Sound off in the comments below! (And please, don’t give away the ending!)
Calling all Volunteers! Strauss Theatre Center is proactive as we prepare for state guidelines on re-opening our theatre. We need you! This Saturday we are Deep Cleaning our theatre. Shifts of no more than six at a time are being organized to begin our Deep Cleaning of the theatre.
Volunteers can call the theatre at 318-323-6681 or email Donna at bom@strausstheatre.com to volunteer. We will reach out to you on schedules and how you can help.
Today we asked 5 questions of Anita Breen, Strauss Theatre Center’s General Manager, Patron Member, and former performer.
1. What first drew you to live theatre?
When I was a senior in High School, my class traveled to New York City and saw two Broadway Shows: My Fair Lady and Carnival (the original cast!). I was mesmerized. Ever since, I have been totally consumed by theatre.
2. What type of theatre are you drawn to?
A very well-done drama.
3. What is your all-time favorite show?
Carnival. Partly because if was my first. Also because it is a great show.
4. Why Strauss Theatre?
The first show I ever saw at Strauss was Bye Bye Birdie (not long after my NYC trip) and couldn’t believe how well it was done! My first production to be in was My Fair Lady. Such a thrill! The Strauss family has done so much for the community and for the local theatre scene. The Monroe area is very fortunate to have benefited from their vision and their support.
5. What is the most absurd thing you’ve seen on stage?
I have two. The first one was a nude version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I’ve wondered what Tennessee Williams would have thought of such a production. And the second one involves the late George Brian, long time professor and Strauss theatre director/actor, who became aware of an actress trying desperately to upstage him during a show. He took matters into his own hands and taught her a drama trick or two by standing upstage of her and continually zipping and unzipping his pants. No one upstages George Brian!
It’s been over a decade now since my friend invited me over to his home to watch the movie How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying and instantly I fell in love. The characters, music and story arc were wonderful. Thus began my crusade to get the show performed on stage at the Strauss Theater.
Year after year I approached Directors, General Managers, Board Members and even Presidents with the request for How to Succeed and each time I got nowhere.
2 years ago I joined the Board and had the honor of serving on the Production committee, the first show I recommended? You guessed it. How to Succeed. You know how this story ended and the show was scheduled for our 2019-2020 season.
When auditions came up, I was content to get any role. The show has such a strong set of characters and I would’ve been happy to be cast as anyone. I was blessed to receive my first starring role ever in a show playing Pierpont Finch. A young man looking to climb his way up the corporate ladder!
Practices started in early January and as each week passed my anticipation grew. My co-stars, supporting cast and ensemble are some of the best people I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. Through the last few months they worked tirelessly to put on the greatest show of the season….then along came COVID-19.
The State shut down and we’ve been on stand-by ever since. A few days shy of our premiere. Truth be told, if the show had started a week early there’s a good chance we would’ve been able to complete our run the weekend before the virus was in full effect.
But now we wait.
Wait for the State to give us the greenlight so we can pick up where we left off and continue working on this great show. When will that be? No one knows. But as we slowly move forward with re-opening the State that time is coming closer each day.
What have I been up to in the meantime? I practice.
3 times out of the week I rehearse my lines and songs from the play. I do it so much now that my wife is tired of her husband’s one man performance, yet my 12 month old twin girls clap for their poor insane Daddy, so at least I have their support.
I love this show and I know you will too. It’s been 13 long years in making to get this far…and with a show this good, I can wait few more weeks. I hope you can too.
It’s been almost two months now since the opening of Strauss Theatre Center’s production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying was delayed by the COVID-19 outbreak. After weeks of hard work, the cast and crew were only a week away from opening when we all realized we would have to postpone the show. Since then, social distancing restrictions have prevented them from gathering for rehearsals, but they’ve still been hard at work rehearsing on their own while we wait for restrictions to be lifted. We decided to ask some of our cast members what they’ve been doing to prepare for the eventual opening of our show while on lockdown. Here’s what they had to say:
“Bud has been relaxing by the pool at the country club, yelling at the wait staff and not tipping. Benjamin has been in a depressive spiral sprinkled with panic attacks and the occasional manic episode.”-Ben McQuillin (“Bud Frump”)
“I’ve been working hard on my Gatch ‘stache. I’ve also been running line my lines in my head. I want to make sure I remember them and continue to work on my accent.”-Scott Asa Stone (“Mr. Gatch”)
“I’m already ready for How To Succeed! What I HAVE been doing, to appease the theater nerd demon that dwells within, is teaching myself the tap dance from 42nd Street. I’ve also been working very hard trying to learn ALL the lyrics to Hamilton (poor Scott Asa Stone haha). So if we want to have Hedy LaRue rap about ‘the ten-dollar, founding father without a father’ and then break into a show stopping tap number then I guess you could say I’ve been spending my quarantine getting ready for H2$. Also, I’ve been working, because I’m essential yo.” -Moira O’Connor (“Hedy LaRue”)
“To keep everything fresh in my mind, I’ve been mentally going through my lines, acting out the scenes in my head while going about my day. It has led to a couple of awkward occasions of me breaking out in singing ‘A Secretary is Not a Toy’ at random while at work, but my coworkers don’t seem to mind. Although, some of them do seem to be socially distancing themselves from me by a lot more than six feet lately.”-Glenn Williams (“Bert Bratt”)
“I’ve been singing the entire track in front of the mirror while styling my hair. So far my best song is Paris Original.”-Blane Evans (“Mr. Tackaberry”)
“I’ve binged a few episodes of ‘The Office’ to hone my pompous ignorance. I’ve also broken out the crochet hooks to keep calm. My songs run through my head pretty much on a constant loop, but line refreshers are the next step for me.”-Mickey Cannon (“J.B. Biggley”)
So there you have it! Our cast looks forward to bringing you How To Succeed whenever this pesky pandemic starts dying down. We’ll keep monitoring the situation and let you know as soon as the new show dates have been determined. Stay tuned!
