The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA

Entertainment

Discussion

July 5, 2012

Theater company bringing “Canaries Sometimes Sing” to Lewisburg

Staff Writer The Daily Item

LEWISBURG — The Actors Company Theatre returns to Lewisburg this month for a benefit performance of Frederick Lonsdale’s “Canaries Sometimes Sing.”

The 2012 Drama Desk-nominated theater group, which is based in New York, also will conduct workshops for students participating in the TRiO Upward Bound program at Bloomsburg University.

The theatrical event takes place on July 21 in the Campus Theatre in downtown Lewisburg. The evening will feature a reception, a buffet dinner catered by Elizabeth’s American Bistro and the performance.

TACT has a long association with the Lewisburg community, bringing summer performances to town over the past 15 years.

“The Pennsylvania connection is fantastic,” TACT Co-Artistic and Executive Director Scott Alan Evans said. “They’ve really become part of our family over the years. We’re very connected to this community.”

This year, the company is performing a staged reading of Frederick Lonsdale’s 1929 comedy, “Canaries Sometimes Sing,” described as a “jovial and effervescent play replete with drawing room love affairs and overheard confessions that will get you thinking about everyone’s ‘happily ever after’ in a whole new way.”

Evans said it is “incredibly charming, funny and remarkably modern.” It was originally performed as part of TACT’s Salon Series last fall.

TACT was founded 20 years ago as “a readers’ theater,” Evans said. “Our mission is to present language-based works that haven’t been seen for a significant amount of time.”

Susan Mathias, of Lewisburg, has been involved with TACT since the group first visited Lewisburg for a retreat 15 years ago.

“They’ve really created a whole new presentation style,” she said.

The “staged readings” of plays, where actors appear on stage, scripts-in-hand, is what Evans described as “a great format. It’s kind of a hybrid format that people seem to respond to well.”

Mathias echoed that sentiment. “It’s just a wonderful night of entertainment,” she said. “It’s a pleasure to be in the audience — a chance to be part of something innovative, the way TACT approaches the art of theater.”

Since 2005, TACT also has participated in TRiO Upward Bound at Bloomsburg University, a program for high school students designed to give them better opportunities for attending college. TACT will visit TRiO on July 19.

Tickets for the show at the Campus Theatre are available for a contribution of $100 and must be reserved by July 14. Proceeds support TACT’s productions, workshops, education and outreach programs.

For information, visit www.tactnyc.org/events. For reservations, call 524-7974 or 713-9607.

Text Only
Entertainment
The Daily Marquee
Entertainment Video
Parade
Magazine
Click HERE to read all your Parade favorites including Hollywood Wire, Celebrity interviews and photo galleries, Food recipes and cooking tips, Games and lots more.