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| a | Students--please let me know when you have a performance coming up, are in a show, have won a competition, or have some other interesting news regarding your singing. trilletta@msn.com NEW STUDIO NEWS COVERING 2010-2011 (to the best of my knowledge) Well, friends and students, I haven’t been receiving many posts regarding your activities, so I had to go on a “seek and ye shall find” mission to document your performing activities. This is the most recent news I have as of October 5, 2011: Patricia Ivey (that’s me) took a break from performing after a health scare in the summer of 2010. I am feeling great now and about 60 lbs. lighter (although still more to go). I have continued teaching in my studio, working on my stamina and teaching several classes at S.T.A.G.E. In addition to several sessions of my Music Theater Audition Song Class, I participated with three other fabulous teachers in the first ever S.T.A.G.E. youth theater workshop for teens and kids. It was a great success! I’m looking forward to resuming auditioning for roles in the future. I miss performing, just want to be in top form when I do it! Cristina Eustace has a new CD out on the Fonovisa label, “Con Golpes de Pecho”. She’s been doing public appearances, and also is involved in talks for another exciting project. I’ll keep you informed on that news! Bendetta Hosney has been performing as a valued member of the Dallas Women’s Chorus (they are going to Carnegie Hall in the Spring). She is also still working on her stand-up comedy. Rachel Hall, who holds a degree in theater from Sam Houston State University, has had a busy year. She was an ensemble member in “Once on This Island” with Unity Players, and played a Voodoo Woman in “Oh, Brother Werewolf, Where Art Thou” at the Pocket Sandwich Theater. She was signed with Core Talent Agency, and was made a company member of Richardson Center Theater. So far, with RCT, she has performed in “Broadway’s Best 6” as a singer and dancer, and in the role of “Addaperle” in “The Wiz”. Coming up is their production of “Hairspray”. Rachel is also working hard in dance classes at Contemporary Ballet Dallas. Thanks for sending me your info, Rachel. Kelcey Sartain was cast in the role of “Bambi” in the Hillcrest High School production of Kander and Ebb’s “Curtains”. Three students from my S.T.A.G.E. Music Theater Audition Class at S.T.A.G.E. were cast in “The Sound of Music” at the Art Centre Theater in Plano. Adgie Lou Davidson played the role of the “Mother Abbess”, her daughter, Lena Davidson, played the role of “Sister Sophia”, and Rachel Lawson was in the beautiful ensemble of nuns. Adgie and Lena also study privately. To hone her acting skills, Adgie took the Meisner Class at Watertower Theater, while Lena continues to study theater and choir in school. I DID receive this paragraph from Laurie Johnson, who is staying very busy. Thank you, Laurie. “Laurie Johnson has been hooked on theater performing for the past several years, and her most current project is playing “Lady Beaconsfield” in Theatre Coppell’s production of “Jekyll and Hyde, the Musical”. Other roles with Coppell include “Madame Nelda” in “Dearly Beloved”, “Fraulein Schneider” in “Cabaret”, and “Felicity” in “Shadowbox”. With other local theaters, Laurie has performed in “Anything Goes” as “Mrs. Harcourt”, in “Big River” as “Widow Douglas”, in “Just Desserts” as “Edna Mae Carter”, in “Scrooge” as “Mrs. Fezziwig”, as well as other roles in local productions. Laurie is also an avid choir member with Singing Unity at the Unity Church of Dallas. Talented Abigail Jackson has now graduated (2011) from the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and she has gone off to college at Southwestern University in Georgetown where she won a voice scholarship, in addition to academic awards. In 2010-2011, Abigail was a senior, who proved herself to be a talented singer who could sing equally well in classical, music theater, pop, and jazz styles. She sang in the Concert Choir at Booker T. Washington, and also in the Jazz Choir and the Madrigal Singers. She scored a “1” on her solo at the local solo and ensemble contest, thereby advancing to the state contest, where she also scored a “1”. Abigail performed a moving rendition of “It’s Our Time” in the school’s “Abbondanza” in 2011. Adios, Abigail! I will miss you a lot and hope to hear all the wonderful progress you are making, in the future. Abigail’s mom, professional actress and singer, Amy Mills Jackson, utilized her powerful and expressive voice, as well as her fine musicality and formidable acting skills in two tremendously different roles in Theatre Three’s riveting production of Michael John La Chiusa’s “See What I Wanna See”. It was the best production I have seen in a loooonnngg time. Steve Riley has been auditioning in NYC. At the end of his audition for “Wicked”, after he had sung his big final note, the earthquake happened. Now that IS a big ending! Sylvia Turner is now a designated lay worship leader for a small Jewish congregation at Ft. Hood, where she will lead the music at the Yom Kippur services. Sylvia also feels honored to be designated lay leader for a small group of Jewish sailors on her son’s Navy ship, who otherwise would not have a Rosh Hashanah service. In 2011, Rami Ackerman, who is a music major at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, sang in the All Region Choir. He also scored a “1” on his solo at solo and ensemble competition, thus advancing to the state competition, where he also scored a “1”. Rami is a versatile performer who, in addition to playing guitar extremely well, sings in the concert choir at school. He is also a member of the Jazz Singers and the R&B ensemble. In 2011, he performed solo and in a group in the school “Abbondanza”. His band, “The Thundercats” won the Carrollton, TX, “Battle of the Bands”. During the summer of 2011, Rami studied in Switzerland.
Cristina Eustace is back from Puerto Rico and her year as the winner of "Objetivo Fama 5" (the singing contest on Telefutura). She is preparing for her upcoming CD which will be on the label Fonovisa. She is now under the management of Sara Soto.
Cristina says:
Coming in July 2008 Vicki Cravens is rehearsing for a production of The Music Man with The McKinney Summer Musicals. Vicki will have a lot of fun and BE a lot of fun as one of the “Pick-a-little” ladies. Performances will be July 5, 6, & 11-13. Times, location and further details can be found at www.mckinneysummermusicals.com. Coming in June 2008 In the upcoming production of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, presented by Spirit Expressing Theater Company of Unity Church Dallas, Steve Lovett will surely be hilarious playing the role of Moonface Martin, Public Enemy #13. Laurie Johnson has been cast in the same production as Mrs. Wadsworth T. Harcourt (oh, my). The show runs June 26, 27, 28 and 29. Laurie Johnson has also just been cast in the juicy role of Frau Schneider in the Coppell Community Theater’s upcoming production of Cabaret. Details later. May 2008 Cristina Eustace was the winner of Objetivo Fama V, 2008, on the Telefutura network. Out of a field of very talented singers who were competing, Cristina proved that she was a truly exceptional artist, with a uniquely beautiful and powerful voice and a talent for touching the hearts of listeners with her emotional vulnerability. Cristina now has a recording contract with Univision. Best wishes in your career, Cristina. I hope it brings you all that you have wished for. If anyone would like to hear Cristina in concert, she will be performing at the Gran Plaza located at 4200 South Freeway in Fort Worth. The concert will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, 2008. Abigail Jackson, who will be a sophomore at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Fall 2008, auditioned for and was accepted into the Lab Singers, which is the Booker T. Washington small vocal jazz ensemble. Congratulations, Abigail! Janis Roeton is on tour again with Menopause, the Musical. At present, she is reprising her role of “The Earth Mother” with this fun show in Omaha, Nebraska. Jan Roeton is still on the road with Menopause, the Musical. At the present time, she is in Anchorage, Alaska. THEN, her tour has been extended for a couple of weeks and she goes on April 6th to Honolulu, Hawaii. Some people have such sad lives! We will all be thinking about you, Jan--soaking up the sun and watching the waves and the palm trees. You poor, poor thing. February 2008 Laurie Johnson is much in demand, nowadays, as a singer and an actress. Here are some upcoming performances:
Spring Concert, Singing Unity Choir, May 18, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. I miss seeing Cristina Eustace, but the good news is that she has gone to Puerto Rico to participate in the finals of a singing competition on Spanish language television. Cristina looked and sounded wonderful last night on Channel 49 (KSTR) in an airing of clips from the auditions of Objetivo Fama, which is a singing contest for Spanish language pop singers, very similar to the American Idol Contest. There were clips of Cristina singing “Open Arms” in Spanish and “La gata bajo la lluvia” (the cat under the rain). I believe the shows are going to air on Sunday evenings on Channel 49 and go on for several months, as contestants are eliminated one by one. Even though my Spanish is not good, I enjoyed watching the show last night and hearing a lot of very good singers. Best of luck to Cristina in her journey. January 2008 Jan Roeton is on the road again playing the role of the Earth Mother in a tour of Menopause the Musical. The cities she is playing include Albuquerque, New Mexico, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Anchorage, Alaska. Chuck Day from Greenville is rehearsing for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum which opens February 15, 2008, at the Kaufman County Community Theater in Terrell, Texas. Chuck is having a lot of fun playing the role of Senex. Amy Smith from Greenville, TX, has just been cast in the role of Cecily Cardew in the Rockwall Community Playhouse production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
November 30 – December 16, 2007 James Kille utilized his singing and guitar-playing skills in his haunting portrayal of Uncle George in the Dallas Children’s Theater production of A Little House Christmas. Niki Britten played the role of Belle in the Rockwall Community Playhouse production of A Christmas Carol. Christina Eustace is working hard on her audition material for the semi-finals of the singing contest on Univision, Objetivo Fama. The contestants are all singers of Spanish language popular music and come from the U.S. and from countries in Central and South America. The forty contestants who have made it to the semi-finals in mid-December, will be narrowed to a final twenty who will appear in a reality show on Univision. Laurie Johnson is rehearsing with a new professional theater, Life Song Studio in Grapevine, TX, for a December production of the musical Scrooge. Laurie is playing multiple roles, among them Mrs. Fezziwig and Mrs. Dilbert. October 26 – November 11, 2007 James Kille and Janis Roeton are both performing roles in the Casa Manana Children’s Playhouse production of the musical version of Charlotte’s Web, in which they both give outstanding performances (true professionals that they are). James is a children’s favorite in the role of Templeton, the rat, in which he displays true rat-like qualities. Jan is cute, feisty, funny and full of energy as Mrs. Zuckerman, the farmer’s wife. Saturday November 10, 2007 Abigail Jackson performed in a concert as 6th Chair in the Alto Section of the DISD Freshman Treble Honors Choir. Abigail is a freshman in the music program at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Nikki Britten will be playing the role of Helena in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at Rockwall-Heath High School the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 16th and 17th, 2007. October 26-28 Shellie Lynch sang and acted beautifully as Marian the Librarian in the Waxahachie Community Playhouse production of The Music Man. In fact, her singing was so flawless that an audience member asked if she was lip-syncing to a recording. Please! October seems to have been the month for The Music Man with several local theaters. At Rockwall Community Playhouse, Amy Smith was cast in the singing/dancing ensemble, but when the leading lady (Marian the Librarian) became ill and totally lost her voice for the final Saturday performances (October 14), Amy was called in by the director to sing the lead role for the matinee and the evening performance, which she did with great success. Congratulations, Amy! You are much braver than I am. It is an interesting coincidence that Shellie and Amy have been doing the same roles in the same time frame at theaters on opposite ends of the Metroplex. Both of you are very talented. October 19-21 and 26-28 Laurie Johnson demonstrated her versatility by portraying a wide variety of characters, most notably Grace the mill worker, in a production of the musical Working at Unity Church of Dallas’ Creekside on Forest. Nikki Britten was accepted into a pre-college music theater program at Carnegie-Mellon Institute where she spent July and August of 2007 studying dance, acting, singing and music theater literature, coming home with a veritable suitcase full of new audition songs. Sept. 24, 2007: An email from Sharon O'Rourke, about her competition in Oklahoma City:
August 26, 2007: An email from Janis Roeton, who's "on the road":
July 24 – August 2, 2007 Sylvia Turner participated in Mifgash Musicale, a training workshop for cantors and cantorial soloists at Hebrew Union College. This workshop, which was sponsored by the Guild of Temple Musicians, included sessions by Bonia Shur and Samuel Adler, among others. June 5 – July 1, 2007 I (Patricia) had the privilege of working at her favorite theater, Theatre Three in Dallas, with her favorite director, Jac Alder. I was cast in the role of Grandma Gellman in a wonderful production of Caroline, or Change. It was an honor to be a part of this powerful show and to work with such a talented cast and crew. In May, 2007, two area theaters on opposite ends of D/FW presented the popular music, Oklahoma! At Waxahachie Community Theater, feisty Shellie Lynch performed the role of “Laurie”, while, at Rockwall Community Playhouse, Amy Smith portrayed “Laurie” with equal success. Charles Day transformed himself into a very funny “Ali Hakim”. Loved the suit, Chuck!
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