Up next: Tom Jones and Coriolanus at PacRep
This fall, Elyse joins the casts of The Lusty Adventures of Tom Jones and Coriolanus at Pacific Repertory Theatre in Carmel, CA.
Based on the 1963 Academy Award for Best Picture-winning film, directed by Ken Kelleher, and performed in the historic outdoor Forest Theater, Jon Jory’s The Lusty Adventures of Tom Jones is a rollicking and naughty adaptation of Henry Fielding’s ribald classic Tom Jones. Abandoned as a child to the care of Squire Allworthy, Tom Jones is now all grown up and launched into the bewildering romantic world. He falls madly in love with the virtuous Sophia Western -- but Sophia's father is determined to keep the two apart.
In his pursuit of true love, the well-intentioned Tom finds himself the object of female attention and romantic complication. But will these misadventures permanently jeopardize his chances with Sophia? Tom Jones is a bawdy and rollicking comedy for the stage that will have the audience in stitches.
Also directed by Kelleher and performed in the intimate Circle Theatre, Shakespeare’s Coriolanus continues PacRep’s exploration of Shakespeare’s Roman plays with a reimagined timely political piece surrounding class politics and the nature of patriotism.
Caius Martius Coriolanus is a fearless soldier but a reluctant leader. His ambitious mother attempts to carve him a path to power yet he struggles to change his nature and do what is required to achieve greatness. Now he must decide who he really is and where his allegiances lie in a new city state struggling to find its feet, where the gap between rich and poor widens every day.
Tom Jones opens September 28, 2018 and runs through October 14, 2018. Coriolanus opens October 19, 2018 and runs through November 4, 2018. For more information, visit PacRep’s website, here.
Playwrights’ Revolution at Capital Stage
Elyse will appear in Capital Stage’s annual new works festival, Playwrights’ Revolution, in GREAT WHITE by Deborah Yarchun.
GREAT WHITE
by Deborah Yarchun
Directed by Imani Mitchell
Thursday, July 26 at 7:00 pm
E. Claire Raley Studios for the Performing Arts – Studio 1
Fourteen-year-old Brooke is in trouble. Her sixteen-year-old sister, Ivy, is manic and increasingly violent, and their mother, Gail, refuses to acknowledge the danger. As Brooke struggles to hold her family together, she copes by tracking a great white shark. This leads her to Luis, a troubled fifteen-year-old boy intent on swimming out to meet the shark in the ocean. As their friendship deepens, Brooke becomes increasingly aware of the shark drawing closer in her own life: that her sister, in a manic fit, might kill her. Set in present-day southern Florida, between coastal floods, Great White is a coming-of-age drama that explores unremitting love for family, and the consequences of inaction.
As Sacramento’s leader of bold, thought-provoking theatre, Capital Stage created PLAYWRIGHTS’ REVOLUTION to identify and develop new plays and playwrights. Each year, a handful of plays are carefully selected from hundreds of submissions. Directors and actors are selected, and audiences are invited to participate in post-reading discussions to contribute to the development of the world’s newest plays.
Click here for more information.
Elyse to appear in B Street Theatre’s Inaugural NEW COMEDIES FESTIVAL
B Street Theatre presents staged readings of four new plays: MORE BETTER BEAUTIFUL by Robert Caisley, SMALL STEPS by Briandaniel Ogelsby, THE FOREVER QUESTION by Jim Christy and BABY CAKES by Leila Teitelman. The plays will feature B Street acting company members and the winner of the Festival will have a spot in B Street Theatre's 2019 Mainstage Season!
Elyse will appear in BABY CAKES. Click the link below for more info
Interview with B Street B Engaged Blog
Elyse sat down with other members of the B Street Fantasy Festival School Tour and B Street Artistic Associate, Sean Patrick Nill, to talk about life on tour. Read the interview here:
https://bstreetbengaged.wordpress.com/2018/05/16/fantasy-festival-xxxii-keeping-the-tradition-alive/
Elyse joins the B Street Fantasy Festival
This spring, Elyse Sharp will join the B Street School Tour for the 32nd Fantasy Festival.
For the past 32 years, B Street School Tour’s goal has been to foster an appreciation for live professional theatre in as many school children as possible. To that end, B Street School Tour performs 12 times per week, 36 weeks per year in schools, hospitals, and public places reaching approximately 200,000 children annually. B Street develops shows that relate directly to the curriculum, exploring themes in math, science, technology, history and literature. Free study guides are provided to help teachers connect theatre to Common Core State Standards. With many of the shows written by students, these performances are a great way to introduce children to the art of playwriting and the excitement of live theatre!
Sacramento News & Review Gives Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley 4 Stars!
"Sharp and Kitchin are so endearing as the nerds in love that...you can’t help but cheer them on"
by Patti Roberts
Holiday family gatherings bring together presents, as well as pasts and futures. And that’s exactly what happens when the famous Bennet sisters celebrate the season in a new holiday play at Capital Stage.
Miss Bennet is a sweet, sassy sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice by modern-day playwrights Lauren Gunderson (who wrote Silent Sky—recently staged locally by Big Idea Theatre) and Margot Melcon. This adaptation features many of the familiar characters from Austen’s iconic novel, including the Bennet sisters: Elizabeth, Jane, Mary and Lydia, as well as Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley—and introduces us to a new character/suitor (since you can’t have an Austen storyline without a suitor), Arthur de Bourgh.
The story cleverly incorporates a bit of modern-day feminism by focusing on the bookish and oft-forgotten middle sister Mary—a self-proclaimed young spinster who loves books and knowledge and yearns for a bigger life outside the societal expectations of 18th century women. But have no fear—the playwrights skillfully preserve Austen’s wry wit and parlor-appropriate manners and language.
The gist of the story is the awkward a-dork-able courtship between Mary (Elyse Sharp), who bemoans another holiday as the sad single sister, and the socially clumsy academic de Bourgh (Aaron Kitchin) who reluctantly has been pulled into the family dynamics. Sharp and Kitchin are so endearing as the nerds in love that, though the ending is obvious from the start, you can’t help but cheer them on through the hills and dales of parlor parleys.
The courting couple is surrounded by equally talented cast members that bring the heart and soul to familiar characters, even the bit-too-shrill youngest sister Lydia. Capital Stage’s production elements are pitch perfect—from the finely furnished parlor to the handsome costumes, and from the clever piano that provides mood music to the beautiful lighting that captures emotions.
Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley is a delight and a most-welcome reprieve in this season of endless holiday theater retreads.
Capital Stage’s New Holiday Play is Great Theater
"Miss Bennet: Christmas as Pemberley is a perfect Christmas play"
If you are a fan of Jane Austen and have a special fondness for “Pride and Prejudice,” the current production at Capital Stage should be a must for you. “Miss Bennet: Christmas as Pemberley” is a perfect Christmas play and a perfect sequel to the story of the Bennet sisters that was introduced in Austen’s much-beloved novel. And the Cap Stage production, expertly directed by Peter Mohrmann, and with an excellent eight-member cast, beautifully delivers the continuing saga told in this sequel.
The play is the creation of playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Margo Melcon. Ms. Gunderson has the honor of being the most-produced living playwright in America for the current theater season. She has penned 20 plays and is still only 35 years old. She and Ms. Melcon reportedly drafted “Miss Bennet” on a six-hour drive from San Francisco to Ashland, Oregon. The play had a rolling world premiere last year during the holidays, and it has been highly praised and well-received wherever it has been produced. And now Sacramento can be added to that list, as the play should be exceedingly popular here, perhaps even becoming a perennial in local theaters after this four week run.
The original story, for those who are unfamiliar with it or who, like me, read the novel decades ago, primarily concerns Lizzy, the second eldest of the five Bennet sisters, whose pride and prejudice almost destroy her chance for romance and marriage before a series of Austenesque coincidences set things right and reveal to her the true worth of her ultimate mate, Mr. Darcy. Along the way, the oldest Bennet sister, Jane, finds love in the person of Charles Bingley, and the novel ends happily with the marriage of both couples.
(I must digress here to say that “Pride and Prejudice” is a great book that is worth a read or a re-read at any point in life. As I mentioned, I read it in high school, dreading the assignment at first, but absolutely enchanted by the book by the time I had completed it. It has stayed with me for all the years since, in both my head and my heart.)
“Miss Bennet” opens with the two couples uniting in the drawing room of the Darcy’s mansion. Also with them, visiting for the holidays, is the third of the sisters, Mary. She remains unmarried and happily so, or so it would appear. Mary, you see, is the introverted Bennet sister, the book lover who also excels at pianoforte, which she practices daily. If pride and prejudice describe Lizzy, prim and proper is how Mary appears. She suffers social banter and mundane trivia greatly, being far happier with a good book or an atlas of maps than with the idle companionship of a forced interpersonal relationship. She is not so much standoffish as she is disinterested, albeit the two traits can be indistinguishable to those observing the person.
In any event, it is in this state that we find Mary Bennet as her sisters and their husbands arrive at Pemberley to celebrate the Christmas holiday together. Another sister, Liddy (the fourth of the five) subsequently arrives, she without her husband. Their marriage, also consummated in the original novel, has not gone well, and despite her outwardly upbeat attitude, it soon becomes apparent that she is far less happy than she appears. Also soon to arrive at the estate is Arthur de Bourgh, an old friend of Darcy’s, who has recently become a wealthy estate owner by virtue of the death of his aunt.
Arthur is a perfect match for Mary, if perfection in a relationship is measured by similar interests and desires. The attraction between the two is quickly established as they are both reading the same book on metaphysics. The story could end there (and the play would then be a very short one-act) but, of course, in true Austen fashion, complications develop. And there I will leave the story-telling, for how the complications are resolved is the real joy of this wonderful confection. (Suffice it to say, I chuckled and teared up; the play is loaded with witty dialogue, and the story’s resolution is touchingly poignant.)
Mr. Mohrmann’s excellent cast, a true ensemble, is led by Elyse Sharp as Mary and Aaron Kitchin as Arthur. Both characters are recessive personalities, but the actors convey their characters’ reserve powerfully. They quickly become the center of audience attention, even as the other family members have more lines and are given more time to fret and plot and otherwise devise ways to bring the two together. Ms. Sharp grows into her role over the course of the play, which is another way of saying that she reflects Mary’s growth as a fully realized woman. Mr. Kitchin similarly turns his character from a caricature to a real-life young adult who struggles with his own fears and uncertainties.
The rest of the cast is equally strong. Brittni Barger recalls a young Katherine Hepburn (more so than a staid Greer Garson) as Lizzy, and J.R. Yancher is the warmer version of Laurence Olivier as Darcy. Both are excellent as the linchpins of the gathering. Andrea J. Love and Kevin Gish play the other married couple. Her character is pregnant and near term; his is an overly excited father-to-be. Both project their love and anticipation in full measure.
Rounding out the cast are Sarah Brazier as the younger sister, Lydia (the fifth Bennet sister, Kitty, is travelling abroad in this tale and thus is never seen), and Lyndsy Kail as Mr. de Bourgh’s cousin. Ms. Brazier provides comic relief with an over-the-top performance that is just right for her character, and Ms. Kail captures the effete snobbishness of her character with just the right mix of nastiness and egotism as the role requires.
The production is immensely aided by a set design (by Eric Broadwater) that makes Pemberley in 1815 look just like it must have then, right down to the Christmas tree that Lizzy shockingly has placed in the middle of the family room. (The Christmas tree concept, according to the script, was unheard of in England at that time.) Also noteworthy are the period costumes (exquisitely designed in intimate detail by Maggie Morgan) and the sound design (by the always impressive Ed Lee) that for this show features the piano etudes Ms. Austen herself played in her day (heavy on Beethoven’s sonatas). One of the wonders of the production is how perfectly timed the recorded piano playing is with Ms. Sharp’s appearance of playing in those scenes where she takes to the instrument. You expect nothing less in a professional production, but it is no less impressive where it works perfectly each time.
“Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley” is unusual fare for Capital Stage. It contains no cursing, no faux sex, no violence, no deep-thought message or avant garde conceits, indeed, nothing for which the company has built its brand and reputation, other than the very high quality of the production. That it is delivered lovingly and with a spirit that is very much, well, Christmas, and that it is, after all, a sequel that I’m convinced Jane Austen would have endorsed, are reasons to see it. That it will make you feel the joy of the season is just icing on the cake.
VIDEO: Meet the Bennet Sisters of Capital Stage's MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY
This Winter: MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY
This holiday season, Elyse will be starring as Mary Bennet in Capital Stage Company's special holiday production of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, directed by Capital Stage co-founder, Peter Mohrmann.
In this charmingly imagined sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennet is growing tired of her role as dutiful middle sister in the face of her siblings’ romantic escapades. When the family gathers for Christmas at Pemberley, an unexpected guest sparks Mary’s hopes for independence, an intellectual match, and possibly even love. This romantic comedy picks up two years after Jane Austen’s beloved tale ended, with a clever and captivating style that will delight Austen aficionados and newcomers alike!
Tickets are available now at:
http://capstage.org/the-plays/miss-bennet-christmas-at-pemberley/
Hamlet is "engagingly provocative...unmissable"--Sierra Lodestar
Elyse Sharp "skillfully disintegrates from love-struck to grief-stricken and finally goes insane in a breathtakingly chilling scene [...] Overall, the production at Brice Station is an engagingly provocative stop on any lifelong “Hamlet” journey, an unmissable production for anyone who cares about theater, and a truly fine introduction for the Shakespearean newbie."
Elyse Sharp "skillfully disintegrates from love-struck to grief-stricken and finally goes insane in a breathtakingly chilling scene [...] Overall, the production at Brice Station is an engagingly provocative stop on any lifelong “Hamlet” journey, an unmissable production for anyone who cares about theater, and a truly fine introduction for the Shakespearean newbie."
Read more at http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/sierra_lodestar/article_8778f3ee-77b2-11e7-970e-5f9e2ace5486.html
Up Next: HAMLET, July 20-August 19
This summer, Elyse will be seen as Ophelia in SHAKESPEARE ON THE VINE's production of William Shakespeare's HAMLET.
Directed by Tara Kayton and performed under the moonlight on Brice Station Winery's Arden Stage, this production will transport audiences from the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas to Elsinore, circa 1933.
This production marks Elyse's second season with SHAKESPEARE ON THE VINE after appearing as Oliver in last season's production of AS YOU LIKE IT.
ONE NIGHT ONLY SHAKESPEARE IN SACRAMENTO JANUARY 18, 2017
Elyse will be in Sacramento for a limited engagement with upstart theatre company, HUNGRY MOTH PLAYERS, for their debut production of Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
Elyse joins a cast filled with some of Sacramento's most up-and-coming young actors as Verges in a fresh take on Shakespeare's classic story about deception, corruption, exploitation, adultery, and treachery...Oh—and love! Mostly love, of course! This Shakespearean comedy is a favorite for its snappy banter and layers of intrigue that can either bring lovers together or tear them apart.
Appearing for ONE NIGHT ONLY at Kupros Crafthouse, this production embraces its contemporary setting and transports the action of the play to the heart of today's Midtown Sacramento. This company of innovative theatre artists invites its audience to join the party at Leonato's artist lofts to drink with the technorati of Aragon and root for the most unlikely of heroes in an immersive theatrical event.
Elyse will be in Sacramento for a limited engagement with upstart theatre company, HUNGRY MOTH PLAYERS, for their debut production of Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
Elyse joins a cast filled with some of Sacramento's most up-and-coming young actors as Verges in a fresh take on Shakespeare's classic story about deception, corruption, exploitation, adultery, and treachery...Oh—and love! Mostly love, of course! This Shakespearean comedy is a favorite for its snappy banter and layers of intrigue that can either bring lovers together or tear them apart.
Appearing for ONE NIGHT ONLY at Kupros Crafthouse, this production embraces its contemporary setting and transports the action of the play to the heart of today's Midtown Sacramento. This company of innovative theatre artists invites its audience to join the party at Leonato's artist lofts to drink with the technorati of Aragon and root for the most unlikely of heroes in an immersive theatrical event.
Up next: DOUBT
Elyse will be returning to Sacramento to play Sister James in DOUBT with EMH Productions. Doubt performs November 3-19, 2016 at the Geery Theatre. Click here for tickets and more information.
Elyse will be returning to Sacramento to play Sister James in DOUBT with EMH Productions. Doubt performs November 3-19, 2016 at the Geery Theatre. Click here for tickets and more information.