Posts tagged with "tony award"

Obie Awards

Are you a theater enthusiast, an experienced playwright, or a talented performer looking for recognition?

The Obie Awards is the perfect stage for both novice and seasoned artists. Thanks to a collaboration between The Village Voice and the American Theatre Wing, the Obie Awards celebrate the highest calibre of off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theater to honor progressive work, support groundbreaking ideas and advance theatrical careers. The event is held every year in New York City, and prizes are given out for outstanding acting and performance, design/music, direction, playwriting, and special citations. Obie accepts applications from competent individuals regardless of where they live. The awards are given to encourage and recognize original performances, as well as to nurture and grow talents. The Obie Awards have given recognition to some of the most well-known playwrights and artists, such as Heidi Schreck, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Benj Pasek. For many years, the Obie awards were thought to be reserved for formal presentations. However, the awards were made informal to provide limitless opportunities for individuals worthy of recognition.

Most Obie Award winners received training at the actor’s studio, through moderated sessions, workshops, and readings. The Actor’s Studio is an important platform to foster creativity. It is an NGO whose members have been influential in many American theaters since World War II. It is one of the best training facilities for the Stanislavsky Method of Acting. The Method, developed by the organization’s founding artistic director Lee Strasberg, is a set of methods and exercises that revolutionized acting across the globe. Artists are encouraged to use their memory and emotional experience to prepare for a significant role. The place offers a conducive environment where actors collaborate without the pressure of commercial agents. Professional actors, directors, and playwrights can improve their craft and discover the range and depth of their talent with the aid of The Actors Studio.

The 66th Annual Obie Awards will take place in November 2022. The 2022 awards will be co-chaired by Obie-winning Director and Producing Artistic Leader David Mendizábal and veteran theatre critic Melissa Rose Bernardo. The judges’ panel includes actor & fight choreographer Dave Anzuelo, actor & playwright Becca Blackwell, scenic designer Wilson Chin, Obie-winning playwright Haruna Lee, theater critic & journalist Soraya McDonald, Obie-winning director & playwright Lisa Peterson, Obie-winning actor Heather Alicia Simms, and Obie-winning costume designer Kaye Voyce.

Article by: Jess Chen

ELTON JOHN × Disney+

‘ELTON JOHN LIVE: FAREWELL FROM DODGER STADIUM’

ELTON JOHN TO TAKE FINAL NORTH AMERICAN BOW
WITH ORIGINAL CONCERT EVENT, LIVE-STREAMED GLOBALLY

AND EXCLUSIVELY ON DISNEY+ ON NOV. 20

Concert Immediately Preceded by LIVE ‘Countdown to Elton Live,’
Also Only on Disney+

Nearly 50 Years After Elton John’s Legendary Performance at Dodger Stadium, The Live Music Event Special from Disney Branded Television Will Serve as Prelude to the Recently Announced 2023 Disney Original Documentary

‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: The Final Elton John Performances and the Years That Made His Legend,’ from Directors RJ Cutler and David Furnish

Live Special Produced by Fulwell 73 Productions (Team behind the
Emmy-winning ‘Adele: One Night Only,’ GRAMMYS^®) and Rocket Entertainment

On this day, exactly 47 years ago, Elton John’s legendary performance at Dodger Stadium launched him into global stardom, and next month, he will come full circle, returning to Dodger Stadium to grace us with his final North American show. Exclusively streamed live on Disney+ on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, “Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium” is a once-in-a-lifetime live, global original concert event that offers fans from around the world a front-row seat to witness the groundbreaking magic of the Rocket Man back at Dodger Stadium.

The historic three-hour livestream, from Disney Branded Television and produced by Fulwell 73 Productions and Rocket Entertainment, will showcase Elton John as audiences have never seen him before, paying tribute to the icon and the seminal moment in 1975 that cemented his global success. The concert will begin with “Countdown to Elton Live” from Dodger Stadium, beginning at 7:30 PST / 10:30 EST.

“To feel the energy from the best fans, not only in Dodger Stadium again, but this time around the world from those watching live at home, will be truly extra special for me,” said Elton John. “I’m thrilled to celebrate this momentous evening globally. I hope everyone feels the power and joy of performing on a stage as iconic as Dodger’s. Just like I did almost 50 years ago.”

“Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium” will commemorate a watershed evening in music history as it unfolds in real-time at Dodger Stadium, giving fans 50,000+ fans in person and countless admirers worldwide, the rare chance to experience his biggest hits from the past 50 years. The extraordinary night also will feature several yet-to-be-announced big-name artists who will honor the legendary megastar on stage.

“Sir Elton John’s impact on music and culture is unparalleled, and this concert event is sure to be one for the history books,” said Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television. “We’re thrilled to bring this exclusive, up-close, backstage-to-front-row-seat experience to audiences around the world, live on Disney+.”

“Having grown up in England in the 1980s and 90s, we like everyone else of our generation, can think of countless moments where Elton’s music was the soundtrack to our lives” said Fulwell 73 Productions’ Gabe Turner and Ben Winston, in a joint statement. “To be able to work with Sir Elton and the Disney team on what will undoubtedly become a cultural milestone is both a personal and professional highlight that we are so thankful for.”

This spectacular evening will serve as a prelude to the highly anticipated 2023 Disney Original Documentary “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: The Final Elton John Performances and the Years That Made His Legend,” from Academy Award^® nominee R.J. Cutler and filmmaker David Furnish. As the official feature on Elton John, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” will unveil unseen rehearsal and concert footage over the last 50 years, along with exclusive personal archives and interviews. The definitive portrait of Elton John also will spotlight his final months on the road and a look back at the extraordinary first five years of his career between 1970 and 1975, when he released 10 iconic albums, seven of which went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts to become a global phenomenon. The film will play festivals and have a theatrical run before it streams on Disney+.

“Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium” is produced by Fulwell 73 Productions and Rocket Entertainment. Fulwell 73 Productions has executed and captured some of the biggest moments in music history, including Elton John’s AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Party, “Adele: One Night Only,” “Bruno Mars: 24K Magic Live at The Apollo,” “GRAMMYS^®,” and many more. Executive producers for Fulwell 73 Productions are Gabe Turner, Ben Winston, Emma Conway and Sally Wood, who also serves as showrunner. For Rocket Entertainment, Elton John, David Furnish and Luke Lloyd Davies are executive producers. RJ Cutler is executive producer. For Disney Branded Television, Marc Buhaj is vice president, unscripted and nonfiction, and Nicole Silveira is vice president, unscripted.

ABOUT ELTON JOHN:

Elton’s career achievements to date are unsurpassed in their breadth and longevity. Elton is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time. In the UK and US charts alone he has 1 diamond, 32 platinum or multi-platinum, and 21 gold albums as well as over 70 Top 40 hits. He has sold more than 300 million records worldwide.

He holds the record for the biggest-selling single of all time, “Candle in the Wind 1997”, which sold over 33 million copies. Released in 2017 ‘Diamonds’ the Ultimate Greatest Hits album, became Elton’s 40th UK Top 40 album and has spent over 200 consecutive weeks in the top 75 of the UK album charts, over 110 of these in the top 20, and in August 2022 surpassed the threshold for 1 million combined chart unites in the UK. This release celebrated 50 years of his songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin. August 2018 saw Elton named as the most successful male solo artist in Billboard Hot 100 chart history. At present, he has logged 70 Billboard Hot 100 entries, including nine No. 1s and 28 Top 10s. ‘The Lockdown Sessions’, an album of collaborations recorded during the COVID-19 Pandemic, was released in October 2021 and went straight to number 1 in the UK album Charts, becoming Elton’s 8th UK number 1 album in the process. It’s lead single “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) with Dua Lipa” became a bona fide global hit, reaching number 1 in the UK and Australian singles charts. Its success meant that Elton became the first ever solo artist to score a UK Top 10 hit single in 6 consecutive decades. His most recent release, “Hold Me Closer,” featuring Britney Spears debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, providing Elton with his tenth Top 10 hit. The song also climbed to #1 in Australia and Canada, #3 in the UK, and most notable, #1 on iTunes in over 40 countries upon release. In America, Elton John holds the record for longest span between Billboard top 40 hits at 50 years.

Elton announced the ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour at New York’s Gotham Hall in January 2018. Encompassing 5 continents, and over 350 dates, this 5-year-long tour started in September 2018 and marks his retirement from touring after more than 50 years on the road. In 2019 it was named Billboard’s Top Rock Tour and Pollstar’s Major Tour Of The Year. To date, Elton has delivered more than 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries since launching his first tour in 1970. 2019 also saw the release of ‘Rocketman’ and global bestselling autobiography, ‘ME’. An epic fantasy musical motion picture of Elton’s life, ‘Rocketman’ has been a commercial and critical hit, taking close to $200m at the box office. It has won an Oscar, two Golden Globe Awards and a Critics’ Choice Award and garnered BAFTA nominations. Its soundtrack was also nominated for a GRAMMY Award.

Among the many awards and honors bestowed upon him are six GRAMMYs, including a GRAMMY Legend award, a Tony and two Oscars, a Best British Male Artist BRIT Award, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Kennedy Center Honor, Legend of Live Award, 13 Ivor Novello Awards between 1973 and 2001 and a knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II for “services to music and charitable services”. Most recently, Elton was awarded the 2021 iHeartRadio “Golden Icon” Award in recognition of his incredible influence on music and pop culture. In February 2022, he topped the inaugural Pollstar Artist Power Index, a weekly rank of the world’s most popular artists based on streaming, touring, airplay, and social media metrics.

In 1992, Elton established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which today is one of the leading non-profit HIV/AIDS organizations and has raised over $515 million to date in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. In June 2019 President Emmanuel Macron presented Elton the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest award, for his lifetime contribution to the arts and the fight against HIV/AIDS. Elton was awarded the Companion of Honor in the 2021 New Year Honors list. The highest acknowledgement in the list, Elton became one of only 64 people to hold the honor. September 2019 saw The Royal Mail issue a set of 12 stamps as a tribute to Elton being one of the most popular and enduring music artists of all time. Elton was only the second individual music artist to be featured in a dedicated stamp issue. In July 2020 the Royal Mint released an Elton John commemorative coin, the second in their music legends series to celebrate ‘one of the most successful and enduring artists of all time’. Always a tireless champion of new artists, Elton has been a leading industry voice in lobbying the government for young artists visa-free touring rights in Europe post Brexit.

About Disney+

Disney+ is the dedicated streaming home for movies and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic, along with The Simpsons and much more. In select international markets, it also includes the general entertainment content brand, Star. The flagship direct-to-consumer streaming service from The Walt Disney Company, Disney+ is part of the Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution segment. The service offers an ever-growing collection of exclusive originals, including feature-length films, documentaries, live-action and animated series, and short-form content. With unprecedented access to Disney’s long history of incredible film and television entertainment, Disney+ is also the exclusive streaming home for the newest releases from The Walt Disney Studios. Disney+ is available as a standalone streaming service, as part of the Disney Bundle in the U.S. that gives subscribers access to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, or as part of Combo+ in Latin America with Star+, the standalone general entertainment and sports streaming service in the region. For more, visit disneyplus.com, or find the Disney+ app on most mobile and connected TV devices.

About Disney Branded Television

Disney Branded Television encompasses the creative storytellers, and production and marketing teams responsible for Disney-branded television series, movies and other programming spanning live-action, animated and unscripted formats. The group helps fuel the Disney+ streaming platform and Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior linear networks with content geared toward kids, tweens, teens and families, with stories that are imaginative, aspirational and reflective of their world and experiences. Recent projects include “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” “Monsters at Work,” “The Mysterious Benedict Society,” “Growing Up,” and “Marvel’s Spidey and his Amazing Friends,” as well as upcoming “Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium.” Disney Branded Television has created some of the most iconic and award-winning properties and franchises, including Peabody Award winners “Doc McStuffins” and “The Owl House”; Emmy^® Award winners “Big City Greens,” “Turning the Tables with Robin Roberts,” and “Elena of Avalor”; the beloved “Mickey Mouse” cartoon shorts plus the Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) franchise, comprised of more than 100 titles.

About Fulwell 73 Productions

Fulwell 73 Productions is a London- and Los Angeles-based production company making top-quality television programs and motion pictures that both entertain and inform. Born in 2005 from a lifelong friendship between founding partners Ben Winston, Leo Pearlman, Ben Turner and Gabe Turner, Fulwell 73 expanded in 2017 with the addition of partner James Corden.

On the television side, Fulwell 73 produces the AppleTV+ multi-Emmy Award-winning “Carpool Karaoke The Series,” Emmy and Critics Choice Award-winning “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and the hit Hulu series “The Kardashians.” They also produced the Emmy Award-winning CBS special “Adele: One Night Only” and BAFTA-nominated “An Audience with Adele,” for ITV, the Disney+ space series “Among the Stars” and Netflix unscripted series “Sex Unzipped,” hosted by Saweetie. For the second consecutive year Fulwell 73 produced the GRAMMY Awards, the biggest musical celebration on television, and are credited with revitalizing the awards program.

Additional television credits include Amazon documentary “All or Nothing Juventus,” Netflix documentary “Sunderland ‘til I Die,” BBC’s “Jack Whitehall’s Sporting Nation” and BAFTA winning feature doc “Bros: After the Screaming Stops,” Channel 4’s “Auschwitz Untold: In Colour,” the hit “Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special” for BBC One and the UK’s “Stand Up to Cancer” special, which raised more than 31 million pounds.

Film credits include Amazon’s retelling of “Cinderella,” starring Camila Cabello, which debuted as the number one streaming film on its opening weekend, and upcoming “Real Pigeons Fight Crime” for Nickelodeon. Additional film credits include Lionsgate’s critically acclaimed “In the Hands of God,” Universal Pictures’ football documentary “The Class of 92,” Sony Pictures’ box office hit “One Direction 3D: This is Us,” and Universal Pictures’ Usain Bolt documentary “I Am Bolt.” www.fulwell73.com

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MET GALA: Cynthia Erivo

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Cynthia Erivo at The Met Gala wearing Roberto Coin jewelry valued at $436,000 and Louis Vuitton Dress

As the Met Gala returns to the first Monday in May, “Fashions Biggest Night Out” certainly didn’t disappoint. The fearless fashion icon Cynthia Erivo was red hot in her 327-carat Fire Opal and 40-carat Diamond Choker ($140,000.00) from Roberto Coin. The necklace was created exclusively for Cynthia for the “Guilded Age” theme of the evening.

In addition, she was wearing the Diamond and Emerald Snake Bangle ($71,000.00), Dahlia Cento Diamond Bracelet ($130,000.00), Marquesa Diamond Bracelet ($12,800.00), Fiore Couture Cento Diamond Ring ($15,280.00), Pink Sapphire and Cento Diamond Band ($38,000.00), Rosette Cento Diamond Ring, ($8,920.00), Dolce 3-stone Cento Pear-shaped Diamond Ring ($14,740.00), Diamond Princess Tassel Ring ($5,250).

For more information on the Roberto Coin jewelry, please go HERE.

ABOUT ROBERTO COIN

Roberto Coin has been an icon in the jewelry industry for more than 30 years. His designs include his signature Appassionata Collection, the new Pois Moi Collection and the Roberto Coin Cento Diamond Collection. His collection is available in Roberto Coin Boutiques and over 400 stores nationwide including guild jewelry and specialty stores.

Since 1977 Venetian jewelry designer, Roberto Coin, has devoted his life to a passion for innovative design, based on a deep knowledge of Italian art and craftsmanship tradition. Finding inspiration in the most unlikely of places, experimenting with light, texture, color and pattern, Coin’s style is ever evolving. His diverse collection, designed to fit every woman’s uniqueness, is defined by a common thread—a thoughtful balance of elegance and creativity. Included in every piece of Roberto Coin jewelry is his signature ruby. The ruby symbolizes peace, prosperity and happiness and is a special wish from the designer.

*Images courtesy of Getty × Katie Kinsella

Slave Play

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By Krish Narsinghani

As of late, 360 Magazine joined Center Theatre Group’s grand post-pandemic reopening of LA’s Mark Taper Forum. What better way to kickoff the return of the arts than with the highly acclaimed drama, Slave Play. Featuring moments of explicit content, the play has sparked controversy amongst the theater community. The diverse seven hundred or so person crowd watched as the playwright, Jeremy O. Harris, primed the show sharing how he started his journey in LA as an actor, and how his first finished work at Yale is currently being watched across the nation. This Broadway hit has planted itself in Downtown Los Angeles and is here to stay, stirring heads in the entertainment space as the city continues to expand in theatricals.

Guests experiencing the play for the first time were quickly drawn in with the opening scene set on a plantation field. To have a thickening plot is an understatement. Slave Play is a must-watch for everyone of all colors and backgrounds. A perfect release during Black History Month, this art can be used for pleasure or as an educational tool to celebrate and learn about ones Blackness in a relationship. Overall, the acting and curves in the storyline had the crowd at the edge of their seat and left us in awe. The minimal stage production and use of lighting surprisingly didn’t hinder the story and allowed the acting to shine through. The intimate theater actually improved the atmosphere where attendees could better hear and witness the grit and raw emotions of the leads, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy and Paul Alexander Nolan, without the need for traditional smoke and mirrors. The two played an interracial couple that expressed a wife’s frustration with viewpoints I’d never heard. The profanity did make me feel uncomfortable at times, but it’s needed to fully encapsulate one within the character conflict plus it pushes the script to feel more alive. It’s interesting how subtle some of the dialogue is between characters and still have fans pondering days later. The play is already a hot topic of pop culture conversations amongst Angelenos and it’s only the beginning.

A handful of celebrities attended the opening night including Tracee Ellis Ross, Mara Brock Akil, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Logan Browning, Ashley Blaine Featherson, Samira Wiley, Ashley Park, Sofia Boutella, Patrick Fabian, Wade Allain-Marcus and Malia Obama. The evening finished with a standing ovation and a toast with the Taper team. Slave Play is refreshing in taste and is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys progressive media in general.

More About Slave Play

It’s the most Tony Award®-nominated play in history. It stunned off-Broadway. Then it shocked Broadway. Now, Jeremy O. Harris, “a major new voice in the American theater” (Chicago Tribune), brings his “raw, revelatory, and revolutionary play” (The Daily Beast) to the Taper, in the same production that roiled New York. Directed by two-time NAACP and Obie Award® winner Robert O’Hara, Slave Play is “one of the best and most provocative new works to show up in years” (The New York Times).

At the MacGregor Plantation, nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems. It’s an antebellum fever-dream as three interracial couples converge to rip open history at the intersection of race, love, and sexuality in 21st-century America. It’s a world where the sex is as raw as the emotions, and the twists as salacious as the truth. Don’t dare shy away from this production that “reimagines the possibilities of what theatre can give us” (The New York Times).

About Jeremy O. Harris

Full-length plays include: Slave Play (Broadway, New York Theatre Workshop, NYT Critics Pick, Winner of the 2018 Kennedy Center Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, and The Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences), DADDY (Vineyard Theatre/The New Group, Almeida Theatre). In 2018, Jeremy co-wrote A24’s film Zola with director Janicza Bravo. He is the 11th recipient of the Vineyard Theatre’s Paula Vogel Playwrighting Award, a 2016 MacDowell Colony Fellow, an Orchard Project Greenhouse artist, a resident playwright with Colt Coeur, and is under commission from Lincoln Center Theater and Playwrights Horizons. Jeremy is a graduate of the Yale MFA Playwrighting Program. Jeremy is currently developing a pilot with A24 for HBO.

For info on tickets to the Slave Play, head to the Center Theatre Group’s website.

Slave Play Actors — Photo credit: Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging

Slave Play Actors Opening Night — Photo credit: Craig Schwartz Photography

Andre De Shields – Sarah Siddons Society

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ANDRE DE SHIELDS TO RECEIVE SARAH SIDDONS SOCIETY 66th ANNUAL ACTOR OF THE YEAR AWARD

Tony Award Winner and multi-Tony nominee André De Shields will be honored by the Sarah Siddons Society when he is presented the organization’s 66th Annual Actor of the Year Award at their benefit on October 25 in Chicago.

The 2021 benefit will include an interview between André De Shields and Chicago Midwest Emmy-Award recipient Ed Tracy, congratulatory messages from influential individuals in his life, musical selections from many of his memorable shows performed by some of Chicago’s most talented rising stars under the musical direction of David Fiorello and the induction of the Sarah Siddons Society 2021 Scholarship Recipients. The event is being produced by Board Member and long-time Chicago event producer Denise McGowan Tracy.

It will be filmed at The Edge Theater in Chicago. Proof of vaccine and masks will be required for this intimate, live filming. The event will be streamed on November 28. For more information visit the Society’s website.

“We feel it is especially meaningful that Chicago’s oldest and most prestigious theater award is going to such a deserving and accomplished actor as André De Shields in the city where he made his professional debut and has given stellar performances with so many legendary theater companies over the years.” Martin Balogh, President, Sarah Siddons Society.

A showstopper at age 75, André De Shields was the triple-crown winner of the 2019 award season, garnering Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk and Grammy Awards for his universally praised role as Messenger to the Gods, Hermes, in Hadestown. In an unparalleled career spanning more than half a century, De Shields has distinguished himself as an actor, director, philanthropist and educator. His defining theatrical performances include roles in the original Broadway productions of The Full Monty (Tony Award nomination), Play On! (Tony Award nomination), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Emmy Award) and the titular role in The Wiz. Ubuntu!

Since its inception in 1952, the mission of the Society has been to fund scholarships to promising theater arts students at top Chicago area universities including; The Theater Department, Columbia College; The Theatre School at DePaul University; Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Communications.

CALUM SCOTT – RISE

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CALUM SCOTT SHARES TRIUMPHANT NEW SINGLE “RISE”

LISTEN HERE & WATCH THE LYRIC VIDEO HERE

SCOTT PERFORMS “RISE” ON “LIVE WITH KELLY AND RYAN” OCTOBER 7^TH

Today, multi-platinum-selling singer/songwriter Calum Scott premieres his triumphant new single “Rise”, a timely and exhilarating anthem of resilience. Go HERE to stream/download “Rise” now and watch the lyric video HERE .

Produced by Gabe Simon and Jon Maguire, “Rise” offers exactly the kind of reassurance needed in difficult times. As the song unfolds in a joyful and majestic sound: pounding drums, glorious harmonies, urgent piano work. Calum delivers a spirited vocal performance that perfectly captures the uplifting message at the heart of “Rise”. Tune in to see Calum perform the song on October 7^th on “Live with Kelly and Ryan.”

“Rise celebrates overcoming, defeating the odds, and prevailing despite the obstacles or the knock-backs you face along the way,” says Calum. “We’ve all faced it during our lifetimes: feeling demotivated or uninspired, feeling like life is out to get you, that it’s easier to stay on the ground when life throws its punches. I wanted to write a song that would empower people to chase down their dreams and to try to embrace life, no matter what they are going through or what their circumstances are. We all have the opportunity to do it our way, to put our best foot forward and to rise.”

At turns wildly soaring and gently reflective, “Rise” marks a bold departure from the soulful minimalism of Calum’s recent single “Biblical”. After performing the heart-on-sleeve ballad on “The TODAY Show”, and releasing its breathtaking video back in June, last month Calum unveiled an American Sign Language (ASL) version of “Biblical” made in collaboration with the Tony Award-winning Deaf West Theatre. Check out the powerfully moving visual HERE.

Calum also featured on Lost Frequencies’ new track, “Where Are You Now” which has already amassed over 50 million global streams. With the official video for “Rise” coming soon, Calum is now gearing up for the release of his eagerly anticipated sophomore album. Due out in early 2022, the album will follow his 2018 full-length debut a widely acclaimed release that hit No. 1 on the iTunes album chart in 21 countries across the globe, in addition to selling more than 3.6 million in adjusted album sales and amassing over 7.5 billion combined streams.

PA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP TRANSITION

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Today, Patrick Mulcahy who has served as Producing Artistic Director of Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (PSF) since 2003, announced that he will step down from his role at the Festival at the end of the summer 2022 season.

Mulcahy will work with the Festival’s Board of Directors, staff, and the Festival’s parent company DeSales University to support a seamless transition to its next artistic leader, determined through a national search in the coming year. PSF is the professional Equity theatre at DeSales University.

“While my professional roots are in Shakespeare and the theatre industry, I shifted in the 1990s to pursue a career in academia,” said Mulcahy, who joined the DeSales faculty as Head of Acting in 1996. “When PSF came knocking in 2001 and then again in 2003, I was reluctant because I was happy living my passion for education as faculty.” Mulcahy eventually accepted the leadership position at PSF, reducing his faculty role, and has led the Festival for longer than any previous leader, including the founder Rev. Gerard J. Schubert, OSFS.

“Leading the Festival has been the honor of my life and has provided me with countless opportunities to continue to learn. A few years back, my wife and I began to talk about my returning to the faculty full-time. The timing is right for us, and we will continue to champion PSF to ‘ascend the brightest heaven of invention’ as patrons and fans.” He added: “PSF has never been in a stronger position. In the arts, we’re in the ‘humanity business’ and I’m proud of all we’ve accomplished at PSF – artistically, institutionally, and in our communities — and am confident our stakeholders and staff will continue to ensure the Festival’s ongoing success. I look forward to continuing to lead PSF through the 2022 season and then bringing what I’ve learned in these nearly two decades back to our students at DeSales.”

Under Mulcahy’s leadership, PSF attracted its first Tony Award-winning artists to its summer seasons, expanded its offerings to include musicals, productions in repertory, and as many as three Shakespeare plays per summer season. The Festival doubled its attendance, served its one-millionth patron, quintupled its endowment, eliminated its debt, created a modest cash reserve, grew and diversified its Board of Directors and company, and secured its first and subsequent grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and other major arts grant makers. In the last decade, PSF has become just one of a handful of professional theatres on the continent offering this range of programming to destination patrons in a single summer season. He also supported added accessibility programming, championed PSF’s education programs, increased the reach of its school tours, and created a Shakespeare for Kids production each season. Recently, PSF successfully pivoted in the pandemic to offer a broad range of indoor, outdoor, and virtual programming for the 2021 season.

“Patrick’s leadership of PSF is a fitting testament to his talents as a Renaissance man – – a courageous strategist, thoughtful visionary, attentive fundraiser, effective manager, artist, motivator, and friend. Rarely have I witnessed so many successes of a leader during his or her tenure of any organization, be it a diversified for-profit business or a nonprofit arts organization,” says PSF Board President Judy Harris. “We hold enormous gratitude for all that Patrick has built and nurtured while leading PSF to the brightest of futures. We bear equal gratitude to DeSales University for having fostered the creation and growth of PSF, and for ensuring that Patrick return full-time to its esteemed faculty.”

Mulcahy led the 2009 strategic planning process that resulted in PSF’s Vision 2030, a commitment to world-class professional theatre, and a body of work that garnered coverage in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playbill magazine, and The Washington Post. He led The Campaign for PSF in 2013-2015, which raised more than $4 million, primarily for endowment growth to support PSF artistic and education programming. Mulcahy also stewards PSF’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism Working Group and, with the support of the entire PSF team, has achieved increasingly diverse programming and summer staffing of artists and artisans.

In addition to having worked closely with Festival founder Fr. Schubert, and having acted and directed at the Festival in the late 1990s, Mulcahy’s tenure as leader of the Festival represents nearly two-thirds of the company’s 30-year history. In his dual role as producing artistic director of PSF and head of acting for DeSales University, Mulcahy has supported the career progression of both emerging leaders and developing artists, including many alumni who are now enjoying successful performing careers or leadership positions at other theatres.

“It’s truly been an honor to work so closely with so many great artists, Board members, and staff. I will continue to support the Festival in any way I can,” says Mulcahy, “once I shift the focus of my attention to serving the students and the DeSales University Theatre Department. It will be a joy to come back full time to this Department, which is rich with distinctive offerings, and to working more closely once again with my gifted colleagues there.”

DeSales University President Rev. James A. Greenfield, OSFS, shared, “on behalf of DeSales University, I thank Patrick for his visionary and transformative leadership of PSF. Its founder, Fr. Jerry Schubert, was famous for his exhortation: ‘Give beauty back.’ Patrick’s work at PSF’s helm has ensured that we will be giving beauty back to countless people for generations to come. I am confident that Patrick’s creative collaboration with the PSF board has fortified the Festival for a transition that will greatly strengthen our future.”

Jessie J × Billy Porter – I Want Love

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Today, GRAMMY Award-nominated multi-platinum pop superstar Jessie J joins forces with GRAMMY, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning Billy Porter to release I Want Love (twocolors Remix) via LAVA/Republic Records.

I Want Love sets the stage for Jessie J’s anxiously awaited fifth full-length album, coming later this year, co-written with and executive produced by GRAMMY® Award-winning mega-producer Ryan Tedder, who has also worked with music legends such as Beyoncé and Adele.

“The post-pandemic dance-track boom is real, and it’s rarely sounded as massive as on Jessie J’s return single I Want Love.” – MTV

“At long last, vocal powerhouse Jessie J returns.” – Billboard

“Jessie J’s I Want Love Is A Candidate for Big Gay Song of the Summer.” – Towleroad

ABOUT JESSIE J

Jessie J, born Jessie Ellen Cornish, is an English singer/songwriter raised in London. She, like her collaborator Porter, began her career singing in the theatre. She appeared on the West End at age 11 in the musical Whistle Down The Road, before shifting toward pop music and R&B as she got older. She became very popular in her 20s with smash hits like Price Tag, Flash Light, Do It Like A Dude, and Domino – the latter of which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Top 100 chart. 2012 saw Jessie J reach a higher echelon of success when she performed for the Queen of England at her Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace, or when she performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She has since appeared as a coach on the television series, The Voice, as well as its counterparts The Voice UK, The Voice Australia, and The Voice Kids UK. After releasing her last album, R.O.S.E., in 2018, Jessie J finally returns to the scene with a surefire hit I Want Love (twocolors remix) featuring Billy Porter.

ABOUT BILLIE PORTER

Billy Porter is an American actor, singer, director, and style icon. The Carnegie Mellon School of Drama graduate became famous while working on Broadway before embarking on a solo career as an actor and singer. Porter won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for performing as Lola in Kinky Boots, for which he was also awarded the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album. He later won a Golden Globe for starring in the hit television series, Pose, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He was the first openly gay Black man to be nominated for and win an acting category at the Primetime Emmy’s. In 2020, Porter was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

Bruce Springsteen × AARP

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Music legend Bruce Springsteen, known for hits including “Born To Run,” “Thunder Road,” and “Badlands,” as well as five decades of exhilarating live performances, is making an exciting return to his native genre with a new rock album, “Letter To You,” releasing Oct. 23. The 71-year-old welcomed AARP The Magazine to his New Jersey farmhouse overlooking 378 acres of beautiful horse country, for a socially distanced conversation on his career, family, marriage, friendships, new album and more.

With 20 GRAMMYs, two Golden Globes, a Tony Award, an Oscar, inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and more than 150 million records sold worldwide, Bruce Springsteen is a music icon. In his 20^th studio album, “Letter To You,” the esteemed songwriter and the E Street Band make a powerful return to rock ‘n’ roll with 12 new tracks that touch on the great mysteries of life and death, the shedding of past lives, the passage of time and looking forward.

The following are excerpts from ATM’s October/November 2020 cover story featuring Bruce Springsteen, written by Editor in Chief Bob Love. The issue is available in homes starting in October and available online now at www.aarp.org/magazine/.

On his return to writing rock and roll songs:

“It’s part of the anxiety and mystery of the job that I do – which is a magic trick, because you take something out of the air that isn’t there… You can go for long periods without picking up anything significant. Or you’ll just pick up different things. It’s like you’re in a mine and one vein has gone dry, so you tap into another. A pop vein or a folk vein, and so you start working there. … But because I am primarily a rock ‘n’ roll musician when I’m operating sort of at my peak—I like to…every once in a while, come up with some rock songs.”

On his long career:

“I heard something of mine from 1975 on a record the other day, and I said, ‘That was about seven or eight lives ago. It was a full and entire life of its own.’ And I lived that one, and it was a great one, and now I’m living another one. I lived a life where we raised our children. That life is gone now. Now Patti and I are living another life. So, you live a lot of lives over the course of your one life.”

On loss of loved ones:

“So, this idea is you don’t lose everything when someone dies. You do lose their physical presence, but their physical presence is not all of them, and it never was all of them, even when they were alive. Spirit is very strong. Emotion is very strong. Their energy is very strong. And a lot of this, particularly for people who are very powerful, really carries over after death. It’s like my friend George passes away and leaves me with all of these songs. Clarence passes away and leaves me with these songs. Danny passes away, leaves me with these songs. And what are songs but dreams, at the end of the day? It really is all my dreams that I put down on paper and on tape.”

On finding inspiration in today’s economic climate:

“You have your antenna out. You’re just walking through the world and you’re picking up these signals of emotions and spirit and history and events, today’s events and past remembrances. These things you divine from the air are all intangible elements: spirit, emotion, history. These are the tools of the songwriter’s trade before he even picks up the pen.”

On recording new album, “Letter To You”:

“We spent one week in the studio—five days—and cut the entire record. It was all live, no overdub vocals and just a few overdub instruments. It’s the first truly live, in-the-studio record of the band we’ve ever made.”

On self-care and therapy:

“The talking cure—it works. But you’ve got to commit yourself to a process. And I was pretty good at doing that. I enjoyed the investigative examination of issues in my life that I didn’t understand. I learned a lot and therefore was able to exploit what I had learned and turn it into a real life.”

On his post-pandemic plans:

“All I can tell you is, when this experience is over, I am going to throw the wildest party you’ve ever seen. And you, my friends, are all invited.”

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About AARP

AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence and nearly 38 million members, AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation’s largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org or follow @AARP and @AARPadvocates on social media.

Bruce Springsteen’s Official Site

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Sophia Anne Caruso Debuts Single

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Award-winning Broadway actress and singer-songwriter Sophia Anne Caruso premiered her debut single “Toys” today via V Magazine. The single marks Sophia’s first release off of her upcoming EP. Sophia has teamed up with artist and producer, Nick Littlemore, from notable electronic-pop duo Empire of the Sun for this project.

Sophia Anne Caruso had her breakout performance in New York Theater Workshop’s critically acclaimed run of David Bowie’s hit musical Lazarus. Her portrayal as “Girl” garnered both Outer Critics Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award nominations for “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical.”

She most recently starred as “Lydia” in the Tony-Nominated Broadway production of Warner Bros’ cult favorite, Beetlejuice, directed by Alex Timbers. Sophia received a Theater World Award and a Clive Barnes Award Nomination for her performance, and Ben Brantley of the New York Times hailed her as “an incandescent presence.”

Click here to listen to “Toys” and check out Sophia Anne Caruso on Instagram.