The Reviews are in for RD

By Billy Christopher Maupin

What some are saying about Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter at Theatre IV:

Mary Burruss (a regular theatre critic for STYLE Weekly) writes on the RichmondVATheater Blog:

"[My seven-year-old daughter and I] both walked out with big smiles on our faces."

"Engaging for kids of a variety of ages and the adults who escort them, funny, enlightening with it's message, politically correct for our time, colorful and just the right length"

"new, well directed, well acted, well designed and crafted set, sound, and lighting, appropriate, fun, well thought out costumes, excellent make-up, choreography that is appropriate for the show and its actors, and wonderfully talented cast who's abilities are utilized properly to make a show that flows seemingly flawlessly across the stage"

"hilariously wicked duo of Jackie Jones and Matt James"

"fell in love with Richard Koch as the King"

"really great theatre"

Susan Haubenstock writes in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch review:

"Dawn A. Westbrook is the director/choreographer, and she brings lots of fun to the show, aided especially by Elizabeth Weiss Hopper's witty costumes and Greig Leach's brightly colored scenic design. Westbrook's dance numbers are especially amusing, and she gives her villains--the hilarious Jacqueline Jones as the Queen Mother and Matthew James as the Duke of Bonfire--loads of funny business to do."

"Richard Koch, who gives a hysterical performance as the King. He's greedy, he's vain, he dresses funny, and he talks silly -- he's a perfect buffoon."

YAY! Congrats to Theatre IV!!! Get your tickets! It closes in only two weeks on February 10.

Also be sure to be on the look out for another free ticket contest and the "An Actor Prepares" blog at http://www.theatreiv.blogspot.com/.

Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the box office at 344-8040. (Or you can purchase tickets through the Barksdale Theatre box office with the same phone call, while you're purchasing tickets for Doubt: A Parable [Starring Duke Lafoon, Irene Ziegler, Maggie Roop, and Katherine Louis]).

An Actor is...Really Behind in Blogging!!!

Post by Billy Christopher Maupin

I just slept about 14 hours which might explain why! It's been a crazy, crazy week! And now there are so many things to talk about. I thought about writing three successive posts, but perhaps I'll throw it all into one!

I promised pictures when I got into the office, but alas a gazillion other projects awaited at the office, but hopefully I'll have them up this evening.

The "preview performance" Friday morning went very well. It was a school matinee so lots and lots of elementary and middle school students. It's been quite a while since I've done a theatre for young audiences show. With the exception of one day of The True Story of Pocahontas on tour when David Janeski was sick and I filled in for him on-book, my last performance of such a production was as the title role in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Theatreworks/USA in New York in early May of 2005 (pictured to the right is an offstage picture [in costume] of Sloan [Tom Sawyer], Ben [Huck's Father], and me [Huck]). I really had forgotten the utter joy of bringing live theatre to children. It was so incredibly moving. And continues to be with each performance. Especially with the ending of the show when a little secret is revealed in the plot (which I won't give away here, because Dawn, Bob, and so many others would probably have my head) I get very misty-eyed and have to try to not shed the tears onstage...which I haven't yet been successful in doing. Hahaha.

Then we opened Friday night! People loved it! It was fantastic! So much fun! Then Theatre IV had an opening night reception, which was also great fun, so we were there for a while.

Then several of us went over to Comfort (a nearby restaurant) and hung out with Dawn since she started vacation with a 4AM flight on Saturday (which I'm told was quite turbulent) and is now enjoying some ski slopes with her husband, Carl, and daughter, Sydney. We had a blast! Mary Burruss came on opening night which was really exciting. I don't think STYLE is going to have an opportunity to run a review of the show, but when I ran into Mary at Pet Shop Days at the Firehouse the Friday before, I told her she had to come anyway. She wrote a really fabulous blog about the show on Dave T's blog at http://www.richmondvatheater.blogspot.com/. So you should definitely check that out.

Two shows yesterday, Saturday. The first at 10AM!!! Wow, that's early. The morning audience seemed relatively quiet, but really enjoyed the show. The afternoon audience was very vocal, which is always fun.

Oh, oh, oh. There is a "Meet and Greet" following each public performance where the audience gets to meet the cast and get their playbills autographed and all that fun stuff. While I was signing a child's program, the woman with the child says, "You write the blog, right?" YAY! It was so exciting! I realize that the TIV blog has a less frequent readership that the Barksdale blog which is sometimes a bit discouraging, even though there are tons of factors that play into that. Anyway...her incredibly wonderful comments about the blog really made my day.

I think I should stop now. On to the hunt for breakfast!