Penned by two of Broadway’s newest voices in Georgia Stitt and David Kirshenbaum, “Sing Me a Happy Song” is a contemporary musical revue about finding heart in material times. With songs about modern-day relationships, searching for yourself on the Internet, striving to have everything but never having enough, love, family and your gay best friend, this five-character show is at once comic and poignant, smart and silly, emotional and timely.

By participating in the Festival of New American Musicals students will have the unique opportunity to learn from an accomplished composer-lyricist, as they work alongside Stitt and PAC professionals to produce a new song cycle and take part in the various aspects of putting on a production.

“Providing our students with the opportunity to participate in performing arts-based events like The Festival of New American Musicals is definitely one of our missions at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center,” said Adam Philipson, PAC managing director. “Working with Georgia and David to help shape their piece is a great honor for us all.”

Running throughout the spring and summer months, the Festival of New American Musicals celebrates the return of the American musical by showcasing full productions, staged readings, concerts, master classes and other performance-based events in conjunction with performance arts organizations in cities across Southern California.

Debuting at this year’s festival, the PAC-produced workshop production of “Sing Me a Happy Song” will be cast entirely with students who enroll in the college’s course Theatre 193: Summer Theatre Workshop. In addition to working on “Sing Me a Happy Song,” students will participate in a series of master classes conducted by industry professionals.

“For the 2008 Festival of New American Musicals, we produced a five-day workshop of this piece. Now we will have a full five weeks to help take this production to the next level,” said COC adjunct theatre instructor Andrea Slominski, director of the production. “This is a very exciting opportunity for everyone involved. I’m looking forward to working with Georgia again.”

Auditions for “Sing Me a Happy Song” will be held at 12 p.m., Saturday, June 5, and 6:30 p.m., Monday June 7, in Pico Hall room 202, on the Valencia campus.

Performers are asked to prepare 16 to 32 bars from no more than two musical theatre songs. Audition material should be no more than three minutes in length, and should be accompanied by sheet music in the correct key. Music in CD form will not be accepted.

All selected cast members will need to register for the Theatre 193: Summer Theatre Workshop course. Those who are not cast will be offered additional opportunities to participate in the production.

Rehearsals will begin at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday June 8. Performances will be held July 9-10 in the PAC Black Box Theatre.

“It is so very rare for a college or university to offer this kind of opportunity for students to put together all aspects of a professional musical from scratch! I’d be surprised if you could name three,” said Bob Klein, co-executive producer of the Festival of New American Musicals. “The Festival is thrilled to be working with College of the Canyons and the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center to offer this unique course.”

The PAC/COC theatre department workshop production of “Sing Me a Happy Song” is part of the college’s ongoing 40th Anniversary celebration.

For more information about auditions for “Sing me a Happy Song” or the course Theatre 193: Summer Theatre Workshop, please contact COC theatre department chair Paul Wickline (661) 362-3152.

The Canyon Theatre Guild is “flaunting” one of the funniest shows ever to hit Broadway!  Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” is live on stage in Santa Clarita for a five-weekend run.  “The Producers” is outrageous, hilarious, off-the-wall, and the winner of a record 12 Tony Awards. You will be holding your sides with laughter as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom sing and dance their way through the greatest show business scam that there ever was.

“The Producers,” which opens May 29, has 8:00 PM performances on Friday and Saturday evenings, and 2:00 PM matinees on Saturdays and Sundays through June 27.  Tickets are $15-$17 for Adults, and $12 – $15 for Juniors (under 18) and Seniors (over 62).  The Canyon Theatre Guild is located at 24242 Main Street, in Old Town Newhall.  For reservations, call the box office at (661) 799-2702.  Tickets go on sale for season ticket holders on May 4 and for the general public on May 11.

Now Playing at the Canyon Theatre Guild is a show that makes all the kids scream.  And some grown-ups, too.  Disney’s popular “High School Musical” movie has found it’s way to the stage in Downtown Newhall’s Arts and Theatre District in the making, and the guild has shared some great photos of the production.  Click through to enjoy a few stills by Neil Harris.

Photos by Neil Harris

Video from the CalArts “Arts in the One World” Conference.  See Photos Here

Video by Scott Groller

That was really very confusing.  I’m talking about the Santa Clarita City Council meeting tonight, not the headline of this post which is also somewhat confusing if you haven’t been paying attention to what has been going on between the City and Colllege of the Canyons regarding the Performing Arts Center Memorandum of Understanding.  What the dickens went wrong?  The City Manager and the folks at COC had a little talk a while back, and even though Ken Pulskamp had already basically changed the city’s relationship status to ‘single,’ apparently the COC Board of Trustees does not feel like breaking up just yet.  So for now, lets just say ‘it’s complicated.’  

The City Council decided to delay the decision to end the MOU so that the City Manager and COC can resume negotiations and come to an agreement.  Stay tuned.

On the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting is an item that is worrying many of the performing arts groups in the valley.  The council will consider ending the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the City of Santa Clarita (COSC) has with College of the Canyons (COC) regarding the Performing Arts Center (PAC).  The current MOU guarantees the City and community  arts groups 32% of weekend days, which is great for local performing artists who pay a lower use rate, but does not allow the college to book as many acts at the higher market rate.  COC would naturally like to be able to earn more money to support the facility, and is having trouble under the current arrangement.  The City spent 2.4 million in the year 2000 to bring the number of seats in the space from 450 to 950, and while the current percentage of community use is laid out in the MOU, there is nothing to legally bind COC to those terms.  The question is – would the community benefit more from continued exposure to local performing arts groups, or from exposure to small outside acts like those in the PAC’s current lineup.  If you have something to say about the issue, show up on Tuesday and speak your mind. You can find the agenda item here, along with the MOU.

The CalArts School of Theater hosted its fourth “Arts in the One World” international conference concentrating on the theme of ”Motherhood and Revolution: How women, and mothers in particular, are innovating in conflict and post conflict circumstances, and expanding the models for ways in which one is an artist in the world.”  Big theme.  The five-day event dealt to a large extent with esthetic diversity, and each full day was dedicated to one region of the world facing hardship: Rwanda, Palestine and Kurdistan.  The conference was full of lectures and performances – click through to view some great photos of the event, and check their site for more information.

UPDATE: Video now online

Photos by Scott Groller