Two Organizations to Call The Grand Home This Season

This post content courtesy of a press release from The Grand Opera House...

 In front of The Grand. Pictured clockwise, top left:
Melissa Bernard, actor & Fearless Improv member;
Grace Tarves, actor; Jana Savini, Fearless Improv Director;
Kerry Kristine McElrone, CTC Interim Artistic Director;
Joe Trainor, CTC Music Director. Photo by Joe del Tufo.

Mark Fields, Executive Director of The Grand, is pleased to announce the addition of two new resident companies to The Grand’s roster of artistic partners in the building. Effective immediately, City Theater Company (CTC) and The Rock Orchestra (TRO) will perform their mainstage seasons at The Grand at 818 North Market Street.

“The non-profit Grand Opera House is a shared asset that we manage on behalf of the residents and citizens that we serve,” says Fields. “Having The Grand now be the artistic home for these organizations gives us the opportunity to more fully connect to the community and share the joy of the performing arts with more members of that community.”

"The Grand Opera House has been the heart of the performing arts scene in Wilmington for as long as I can remember," says The Rock Orchestra co-founder, Matt Urban, "Having TRO present our shows in partnership with this treasured community organization is an incredible opportunity." Co-founder Joe Trainor concurs, "Not only is it an honor to perform in these spaces, but it allows us the flexibility to develop our productions into 'must-see' events and make them available to a wider audience."

"As we head into our 25th year of programming, and my first as Interim Artistic Director, I am excited for the possibilities ahead for City Theater Company as we move to a resident space within The Grand,” says Kerry Kristine McElrone, CTC’s Interim Artistic Director. “The Grand is a community built on relationships, and I'm thrilled to be renewing ours so that our patrons can continue to remain an integral part of the art we do. Our brand of up-close-and-personal theater will be well-served in Studio One, where we can create worlds that immerse our audiences in the emotion and the action right alongside our actors.”

Resident companies are local or regional performing arts groups that make The Grand their primary artistic home, sharing their art on The Grand’s stages and collaborating on marketing initiatives and other projects. City Theater Company and The Rock Orchestra join the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, First State Ballet Theatre, and Opera Delaware are all resident companies of The Grand.

“The Grand is all about partnerships,” says Fields. “We partner intensely throughout each season with numerous arts organizations, individual artists, and other types of business to advance our own mission and benefit the entire community. Our resident companies are even more in-depth partners since we share these stages and this wonderful building.”

Patrons can purchase tickets to upcoming performances of The Rock Orchestra, City Theater Company, First State Ballet Theatre and The Grand’s own music, variety, comedy and Broadway seasons:

Online at TheGrandWilmington.org • 302.652.5577 • 818 North Market Street, Wilmington.

All I Wanna Do Is Have Some...Delaware Fun-A-Day!

Who isn't in the mood for some fun, especially in the midst of a DelMarVa winter? Delaware Fun-A-Day has your winter-blues remedy Friday, February 5, 2016 from 5:00-9:00pm at The Delaware Contemporary (formerly The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts [DCCA]). It promises to be an evening to fill you with art, music, food, comedy and — of course — plenty of F-U-N!

In the past few years, The Delaware Contemporary has successfully positioned itself as the go-to place for all manner of art "events" and cool happenings. It seems the perfect setting for a project like this.

Delaware Fun-A-Day is a multimedia, all-ages, all-inclusive, non-juried art project, which is actually part of a nationwide project. The fifth annual artistic exhibition was launched by local organizers and entries have grown each year. The event is modeled after Philadelphia's Art Clash Collective, which debuted 11 years ago.

The idea is simple: Make something each day in January (with a self-determined theme) and present it in a show during February's Art Loop. Past projects have run the gamut from sculpture to painting to photography to poetry to knitting to song to beading. The Fun-A-Day crew reports a record number of participants this year — with the youngest participant in First Grade.

Friday will deliver the exhibits of 100+ Delaware artists — drone photography, mythical creatures, dogs of Delaware, mandalas, timed abstract paintings, fairies doing yoga, cross-stitched labyrinths and more — but also music by DJ Skinny White; improv comedy from City Theater Company's Fearless Improv (shows at 6:00pm & 8:00pm); and plenty of nosh from the Contemporary's new caterer/food truck partners Plum Bistro by The Plum Pit. The Contemporary's current gallery exhibitions will also be open: Lynda Schmid's Listening to Horses, Amy Stevens' Letting Go and a joint exhibition by studio artists Dan Jackson and Ken Mabrey. In-house artists' studios will also be open for tours.

See you for the FUN! See www.delawarefunaday.com.

City Theater Company's "Barely Legal" is All About Improv

This review is reposted courtesy of The News Journal. Original article by Holly Quinn published 2/2/14. 

Photo by Joe del Tufo

City Theater Company is celebrating its 21st birthday, and you can join the party at the Black Box at OperaDelaware (still set up Irish Pub style from CTC's recent production of 'James Joyce's The Dead'). 'Barely Legal' is an evening of improv, featuring CTC's own Fearless Improv troupe and a rotation of Philadelphia improv acts, for an unpredictable night of entertainment. READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW >>>

A Fearless Weekend of Comedy Started with a Buzz

By Guest Blogger, Michelle DiMarino

Playing to an intimate crowd, City Theater Company’s Fearless Improv kicked off their busy four-show weekend at the Buzz Ware Village Center on Friday night.

The group welcomed the audience with beat boxing and freestyling in a delightfully “Bad Rap,” immediately reassuring the crowd that they had made the correct decision in spending their Friday evening with Wilmington’s only improv team. 

After soliciting a series of adjectives and professions from the audience (the improv favorite “proctologist” included), the group began a round of “Party Quirks.” The party host hilariously struggled to guess her eclectic guest list: a dyslexic bongo player, kinky engineer and damp proctologist. In the skit “New Choice,” two members of Fearless Improv conversed and were interrupted by a third member who shouted new choice when the spoken word was not to his liking. Beginning as two women talking about their children playing in a treehouse, the conversation skipped from bananas to boogers to Red Robin’s endless fries. 

At this point in the show, the audience was ready and willing to follow the improv team down any winding road they wandered. A song which began as an ode to retirement and ended as a request for cream cheese at a bagel shop. In one skit, a couple describing scenes from their vacation to snow covered Buffalo, NY transitioned from a football huddle to a stampede at Walmart. Starting as a scene from an Olympic volleyball game, a round of “Freeze Tag” jumped to the conjuring of magic spells. However, the skit “La Ronde” perfectly encapsulated the raucous randomness of the evening.

In “La Ronde,” characters move in and out the scene, but never change as in other improv skits such as “Freeze Tag.” This allows the characters to develop and the team to illustrate their ability to play off each other, which Fearless Improv achieved with much success. Two members began as birds, contemplating the lack of freedom yet comfort found within the bars of their cage. Others floated in and out of the scene as the birds’ owner and son, a disgruntled neighbor, and animal right’s activist/Grammy-winning musician Sarah McLachlan. The audience learned of one bird’s compulsion to eat when anxious and the limits of the songstress’ love of animals. Truly, the skit was the climax of the show.

By the final skit, a recap of the evening sung over the chords of a blues tune, it was apparent that the show was filled with unanticipated swerves in topic. However, that is the essence of great improv, which Fearless Improv skillfully accomplished.

For information about Fearless Improv’s upcoming performances, visit http://city-theater.org/fearlessimprov.

A Fearless New Season of Comedy in Arden...Plus CTC's Big 20th Kickoff

As City Theater Company prepares to launch its landmark 20th season — leading with an electric, one-night-only, in-concert version of Jesus Christ Superstar at World Cafe Live at the Queen, directed/produced Joe Trainor and featuring a full band and cast of CTC fan-favorites —its wildly popular comedy improv troupe, FEARLESS IMPROV, is gearing up for a side-splitting new season as well.

Fearless Improv brought the funny to Penn's Place this summer.

Following last year's successful debut of regular gigs at Wilmington's Chris White Gallery, and a fantastic summer run at Penn's Place in old New Castle, the troupe now moves to the larger space of the Buzz Ware Village Center in Arden for regular shows on the 3rd Friday of each month, beginning September 20.

"All shows are at 8:00pm and will provide you with an hour of endless laughs and tears of joy," says the troupe's Facebook page.  And judging by the crowds and "buzz" the group has consistently drawn, that's absolutely true.  Plus, it's a very affordable $5 admission at the door, with drinks and snacks available for purchase, and free parking.  So, you've really got no excuse NOT to come giggle, participate and make'em up with some of City Theater Company's finest.

See www.city-theater.org.
See www.facebook.com/CTCIMPROV.