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Stage: hot ticket
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published October 24, 2002
All things Draculean
[Photo: Alley Cat Players]
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Playwright Mac Wellman is a favorite among Tampa Bay avant-garde theatricals. In 1994, Wellman wrote a site-specific work called Why the Y (in Ybor)? that was premiered at the Italian Club in Ybor City. There was a production three years ago of a rock musical adapted from Wellman's Whirligig at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.
Now the Alley Cat Players are taking on Wellman's vampire-themed play, Swoop, with a cast that includes, above, Steve Mountan and Arrianna Thompson. Jo Averill-Snell directs the play about all things Draculean. An epigraph on the company's Web site (www.alleycatplayers.org) reads:
"There is nothing they are more afraid of than a young girl, who is very pretty, very wanton and knows exactly what she wants. Particularly, when she is dead."
Swoop opens Friday and runs through Nov. 9 at Viva La Frida, 5901 N Florida Ave. (between Hillsborough and Sligh), Tampa. Tickets: $5, $7. (813) 231-8478. Two more plays pitched for the Halloween trade are up and running in the bay area: Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare's bloodthirsty tragedy, by Jobsite Theater in the Shimberg Playhouse of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center (813-229-7827), and Macabaret, a spoofy musical at Central Stage Theatre (727-327-7529), which has special Halloween performances at 8 and 10:30 p.m Oct. 31, costumes recommended.
A Barrage of violins
[Publicity photo]
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Think high concept. Stomp: percussion. Riverdance: Irish step dance. Blast!: marching bands.
Now the violin has its own concept show by a group called Barrage, which begins a 20-city tour this weekend at Mahaffey Theater, where last season's edition also appeared. With seven violinists and five other musicians, the new program ranges from Sing, Sing, Sing to Old Joe Clark.
A program note about Barrage, which originated in 1996 in Calgary, Alberta, describes it as a "visual and aural fusion of music, dance, theater and song centered around an ageless and powerful instrument -- the violin."
Barrage performs at 8 p.m. Friday at Mahaffey. Tickets: $20-$40. (727) 892-5767.
Classics in the park
The cannon will sound again for Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture when the Florida Orchestra gives its annual free concert on the St. Petersburg waterfront. Last year, about 15,000 attended, many with picnic hampers and children in tow. This year's program will be conducted by Scott Speck, above, the first in a series of guest conductors in line as a possible successor to Thomas Wilkins as resident conductor. The concert of light classics begins at 7 p.m. Saturday in Vinoy Park, with fireworks to follow. Canned goods will be collected to benefit Tampa Bay Harvest.
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