Curtain rises on new theater troupe
Filed Under Curtain Rods | Posted on July 26, 2008
Only insomniacs need apply for the kind of schedule Ron Giddings keeps.
Standing O Productions premieres its first play, “On the Twentieth Century” at Anne Arundel Community College on Friday.
“It’s becoming more and more like my own life,” Mr. Giddings joked last weekend before a rehearsal. “We had a year to put this together, and it’s coming down to the last second.”
Mr. Giddings and longtime friend Christina Enoch, 26, formed the company last July, and held auditions for the musical in February. Rehearsals began at the beginning of last month. As if both of their schedules weren’t already full enough, Mr. Giddings is serving as the show’s director and choreographer, and Ms. Enoch, who is also in graduate school, plays the starlet.
The 16 cast members areexperienced performers, and many worked with Mr. Giddings when he directed “Urinetown” and “Sweeney Todd” at Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre. His reputation and the chance to work with a brand new company are main reasons people have signed on to Standing O.
The company has been rehearsing at Chesapeake Academy in Arnold, where the second and third plays of its inaugural season - “john & jen” in August and September, and “The Retreat from Moscow” in November - will be performed. The reason “On the Twentieth Century” isn’t being held there is because the set consists of a giant mock-up of the train, which is a little too large for the school’s black-box theater.
Still, officials at the private school were thrilled to be involved with Mr. Giddings’ project. He also happens to be a graduate of Chesapeake Academy.
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