Forty-eight showings, 22 productions, four stages, three venues. Burlesque, aerial arts, stand-up, improv, drag queens, dancing and so much more. And at the center of it all, a full-fledged period drama production. With so many enticing options, plotting a personal itinerary for Legacy Stage’s third annual Fringe Festival—which took place Labor Day weekend—was no simple feat.
That task was both complicated and simplified by a toothache that left me unable to attend an early sneak-peek showing of the fest’s main stage production of Mary’s Wedding the previous Thursday (Sept. 3). I wasn’t festival fit until Sunday, and was determined to make the most of Fringe’s final day.
I committed to catching Mary’s Wedding and settled on the 2 p.m. (rather than 7:30 p.m.) showing and decided to bookend it with some simulated violence and a debauched take on a Shakespearean classic. So I strapped in for a wild ride through the outlands of Chico’s theater scene, not realizing what an emotional roller coaster I just boarded…
Winners have been announced for the 2023 BroadwayWorld Sacramento Awards!
The 2023 Regional Awards honor regional productions, touring shows, and more which had their first performance between October 1, 2022 through October 30, 2023. This year the BroadwayWorld Regional Awards were bigger and better than ever, including over 100 cities across America, Canada, Central and South America, Europe, and Asia!
Want to be notified when nominations open for next year?
2023 BroadwayWorld Sacramento Award Winners
Best Choreography Of A Play Or Musical
Sarah Shoemaker – LIZZIE: THE MUSICAL – Legacy Stage
Best Costume Design Of A Play Or Musical
Denise Miles – THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL – Woodland Opera House
Best Direction Of A Musical
Staci Arriaga – THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL – Woodland Opera House
Best Direction Of A Play
Alison Gilbreath – EMILIA – Women’s Theatre Collectivee
Best Ensemble
GUYS & DOLLS – Sierra Stages
Best Lighting Design Of A Play Or Musical
Hunter Reed – THE DROWNING GIRLS – Sierra Stages
Best Music Direction & Orchestra Performance
Olivia Cerullo – LIZZIE: THE MUSICAL – Legacy Stage
Best Musical
LIZZIE: THE MUSICAL – Legacy Stage
Best Performer In A Musical
Sierra Hall – LIZZIE: THE MUSICAL – Legacy Stage
Best Performer In A Play
Judy Merrick – THE MOORS – Sierra Stages
Best Play
THE GHOST OF WOODLAND OPERA HOUSE – Woodland Opera House
Best Scenic Design Of A Play Or Musical
Whitney Lehn Meltz – ELF – THE MUSICAL – Sierra Repertory Theatre
Best Sound Design Of A Play Or Musical
Danny McCammon – THE DROWNING GIRLS – Sierra Stages
Best Supporting Performer In A Musical
Casey Burke – GUYS & DOLLS – Sierra Stages
Best Supporting Performer In A Play
Chase Coney – THE MOORS – Sierra Stages
Best Theatre For Young Audiences Production
ROCK OF AGES – Sacramento Theatre Company
Favorite Local Theatre
Woodland Opera House
Original Article Posted by Broadway World
There’s just 2 weeks left to vote and we have the latest standings as of Monday, December 18th for the 2023 BroadwayWorld Sacramento Awards… Don’t miss out on making sure that your favorite theatres, stars, and shows get the recognition they deserve!
The 2023 Regional Awards honor regional productions, touring shows, and more which had their first performance between October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2023.
Winners will be announced in January!
Don’t miss out on making sure that your favorite theatres, stars, and shows get the recognition they deserve!
This year the BroadwayWorld Regional Awards are bigger and better than ever, including over 100 cities across America, Canada, Central and South America, Europe, and Asia!
VOTE HERE (Voting is open until Dec 31, 2023)
The City of Chico Arts Commission is pleased to announce the 2023-2024 Arts and Culture Grant awardees. The City of Chico allocates 1% of the Transient Occupancy Tax or “Hotel/Motel Tax” to be earmarked for funding for not-for-profit and cultural organizations within the City. The City of Chico is a wonderfully creative community with a rich arts and cultural scene.
The following art organizations submitted grant applications and will be awarded funds totaling over $28,000:
1078 Gallery – $2,591.70 for the “Project x Process (PxP)” project
Blue Room Theatre – $2,100.00 for the “Blue Room Theater Stage and Risers” project
Chico Art Center – $5,000.00 for the “Digital Arts Lab” project
Friends of Chico Ballet – $5,000.00 for the “A Very Chico Nutcracker” project
Legacy Stage – $5,000.00 for the “Shakespeare in the Park” project
MONCA – $5,000.00 for the “Securing the Art” project
Pedal Press – $3,750.00 for the “Youth Shop” project
The City would like to thank the North Valley Community Foundation for their management of the application and grant award process. For more information about the City of Chico arts grants please visit the North Valley Community Foundation website.
VIEW PRESS RELEASE
Excerpt from Chico News & Review (article by Ken Smith)
Photography Credit: Heller Images
Legacy Stage will bring Lizzie: The Musical—a rock-’n’-roll retelling of the legend of America’s favorite alleged axe murderess—to The Barn at Meriam Park for one extended weekend this month (Oct. 18-22). It’s a significant step away from the troupe’s best-known work to date—the Shakespeare productions in Bidwell Park—and its first full-fledged musical, as well as the first theatrical production to be staged at the The Barn.
The play features a four-woman ensemble cast made up of local theater luminaries Ashiah Bird, Kellen Staub, Alyssa Jade and Sierra Hall (playing the titular role) backed by a full, live rock band.
Read full article here
Excerpt from Chico News and Review (article by Ken Smith)
Photography by Heller Images
William Shakespeare’s words are so deeply woven into modern culture that everyone, regardless of whether they’ve read his plays or seen them performed, is more familiar with The Bard than they may credit themselves. That was proven June 9 the moment a stream of well-known words sprang from the lips of actor David Lindstrom (playing Jacques) during Legacy Stage’s penultimate performance of As You Like It: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players …”
The audience let loose a collective “Ahhhh!” as heads nodded, smiles were exchanged and the sparse stage-lighting was (metaphorically) drowned by the flash of several dozen imaginary light bulbs of recognition igniting above the crowd. It was a thrilling theater-going moment, a palpable testament to Shakespeare’s legacy and the enduring power of words well-written and well-delivered.
Read full article here
Legacy Stage would like to thank each and every one of you who voted or considered us for the Chico News & Review annual Best of Chico awards. This year we received third place for Best Theater Company! Also thank you to the editor’s of Chico News & Review for giving us an Editor’s Choice award for our summer production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
View the full edition of Best of Chico 2022 here
Excerpt from Chico News & Review (article by Ken Smith)
Photography Credit: Martin Svec, Blackpoint Photography
Midway through the opening-night performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as the sun set on a makeshift stage area at the edge of Bidwell Park’s Cedar Grove, the Bard’s words were momentarily drowned out by familiar and very un-Shakespearean sound: Van Halen.
The music grew louder, then quickly ebbed, as a few dozen cyclists passed by on the road on the opposite side of the clearing, some of their bikes decorated with glowing LED lights.
This isn’t mentioned in any way to diminish the quality of the production, or as a warning to potential audience members for the latest local incarnation of Shakespeare in the Park. Quite the contrary, the players didn’t skip a beat or drop a single line, and a few audience members just smiled and quickly forgot about the distraction. Such disruptions are part of the risk, and in this case the beauty, of staging a play in a public place, outside of four walls. If anything, the ride-by only contributed to the overall feeling of the evening—a magical and distinctly Chico experience.
Legacy Stage, the troupe behind the production, couldn’t have chosen a better work for their second foray into the park than A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The tale of three groups—the aristocratic Athenians, mysterious fairy folk and working class “Rude Mechanicals”—whose worlds chaotically and hilariously collide one long night was a perfect fit for Cedar Grove. The play starts before sundown and ends well into the dark night.
Read the full article here.
Excerpt from Chico News & Review (article by Ken Smith)
There is a tradition dating back decades of the Bard’s works being performed in Bidwell Park, overseen by generations of local thespians and multiple theater companies. Shakespeare’s last appearance in the park was in 2019, when then-new company Legacy Stage produced Macbeth, with the intent of making Shakespeare in the Park an annual event. Then COVID came along.
Legacy Stage is returning to the park in June with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The play will be directed by Erin Horst, who is also a Legacy Stage co-founder and president of the theater company’s board of directors.
The troupe’s last show in the park was an ambitious and (literally) moving production, which took place at various locations around Cedar Grove and adjacent natural areas. Small audiences went with the players from location to location, lighting the action with handheld flashlights. The route covered roughly two miles and had attendees on their feet for roughly two hours, and any exertion did nothing to dampen praise for the event, which the CN&R described as “nothing short of a revelation—one of the most gratifying theatrical experiences.”
Horst said this year’s main setup will be more traditional but that overall there will be several elements making Legacy’s production completely unique.
“This time they’ll be sitting on blankets and chairs and the action will surround them and go through them,” Horst said. “As fun as the moving version was, it led to smaller audience sizes, and we want this to be accessible and easy for all to attend.”
Read the full article here.
November is National American Indian Heritage Month and Legacy Stage joins in paying tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Indigenous Americans and to learn about Indigenous history of our own community. We acknowledge and are mindful that Legacy Stage creates and produces theatre in venues that stand on lands that were originally occupied by the first people of this area, the Mechoopda. Without them, we would not have access to the facilities and community resources we do today. Legacy Stage Board of Directors member Marquita Goodman sat down with local actor Nalani Geary, to discuss her experiences in the arts as a Native person and her hopes for the future.
Legacy Stage (Marquita):
Hi! Please introduce yourself and tell us about your tribe.
Nalani:
My name is Nalani Geary from El-Em Indian Colony. We are Southeastern Pomo. Our reservation is located in Clearlake, California.
Marquita:
What do you love most about being Native?
Nalani:
The food, Haha. I’ve been surrounded by such great food and abundance my whole life thanks to my family and I’ve always been thankful for that. But in all realness, I love the vibrant culture and traditions. I just recently danced for the first time in over 10 years and I thought that I had lost that part of myself, but she was just waiting for me. It was a very emotional and comforting experience to be welcomed back and I definitely won’t let it go another decade before I dance again. What we do is beautiful and connects us to the land, our people and the ancestors that paved the way for us.
Marquita:
How did you first get involved with theater and music?
Nalani:
I’d always been a quiet and shy kid, but one day my elementary school put on a singing competition and I convinced a couple of my friends to do it with me. We did a little Destiny’s Child number and I think everyone who knew me didn’t expect shy little Nalani to perform as well as I did. From that moment I was hooked. I took drama in middle school and my teacher convinced me to audition for my first musical. Since then I’ve been involved in performing arts any time I could. I was in show choir, I won a couple singing competitions in high school, I did a charity show when I worked at Disneyland and I really hit my stride here in Chico.
Marquita:
Have you faced any difficulty in the arts due to being Native?
Nalani:
I definitely think I have. When it comes to theater, if you’re a person of color you’re usually tucked away until they’re doing a show like West Side Story or Hairspray where they need you to be highlighted. It never really feels like you’re considered for the protagonist, especially for bigger women of color. I usually feel resigned to matronly or villainous parts, which can be amazing and fun to play, but when they’re the only parts you feel like you can get, you start to wonder about what that says about you and your body image.
It’s also difficult being from such a small, underrepresented group. While people say I may look “ethnically ambiguous” I often feel weird about any role I play. There are an incredibly small number of roles for indigenous people, especially on the stage. No matter what part I play, I think about how I might be judged for not being the correct race. Even though, technically I am part white, I’m too dark to play white characters and I’m not black or Latina. All shows that I connect with as a person of color will never fully connect to me as an indigenous actress.
Marquita:
What role did/do the arts play within the culture of your tribe?
Nalani:
It’s funny, because growing up doing tribal dances, I now connect it a lot with performing. The dressing room banter, the community you feel with the people you’re dancing or performing with. It’s an amazing sense of togetherness in both places. When I dance, people see me telling the story of my culture, family and traditions. When I perform in theatre, I’m telling stories of shared human experiences. Whether the song ends in an “Oh!” or an applause I always feel proud to be where I am.
Marquita:
What is your favorite thing about the arts?
Nalani:
I think my favorite thing about the arts are the people that do it. I have met so many great people and I am so lucky to have become incredibly close with these individuals who have the same goals. Theater people are friendly, endlessly talented and always down to have the best time. Even if I have issues with society and it’s role it has in theater, I always find comfort in the people next to me onstage.
Marquita:
How would you like to see the arts changed, if at all?
Nalani:
I would love to see more indigenous people get involved in theater! It’s such a great outlet and the more we participate, the bigger impression we can have on the arts. We can create new content, make our stories heard, and give other Native people a chance to shine!
