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Editor's note: This review is of the original I.D.10-T production of "Bouncers," staged last fall. The version presented at the Orlando Fringe Festival will be condensed to 55 minutes.

Florida Hospital's Gourmet Soiree: Dining to a Healthy 100 at Rosen Shingle Creek (9939 Universal Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32817) 5:30-9:30pm June 3, 2012. The event features Food...

We’ve already seen most of the footage in this latest clip shared by Pixar, but I can’t get enough of the family at the center of Brave. What about you?

Who else would like to see a ‘walk-around’ Fergus in the parks?

New Clip from Pixar’s Brave – Fergus Shares A Legend originally posted on
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

The Orlando Fringe Festival started Wednesday evening. Its a huge insane annual and (sometimes) family-friendly theatre festival. We encourage you to explore it on our Orlando Fringe Guide and...

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“I’ve learned that there are a lot of interesting people out there.”

Orlando Theater Blog

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ABC had a few misses with its most recent batch of fall series (PanAm, The River). I remember being excited about both of those shows last year this time, alas they failed to live up to their promise. As I continue to look at the next batch of fall series, Nashville looks like one of those shows that I really like the idea of, but I’m worried about its staying power.

That said, this preview trailer is fantastic.

Chart-topping Rayna James (Connie Britton) is a country legend who’s had a career any singer would envy, though lately her popularity is starting to wane. Fans still line up to get her autograph, but she’s not packing the arenas like she used to. Rayna’s record label thinks a concert tour, opening for up-and-comer Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere), the young and sexy future of country music, is just what Rayna needs. But scheming Juliette can’t wait to steal Rayna’s spotlight. Sharing a stage with that disrespectful, untalented, little vixen is the last thing Rayna wants to do, which sets up a power struggle for popularity. Could the undiscovered songwriting talent of Scarlett O’Connor (Clare Bowen) be the key to helping Rayna resurrect her career?

Complicating matters, Rayna’s wealthy but estranged father, Lamar Hampton (Powers Boothe), is a powerful force in business, Tennessee politics, and the lives of his two grown daughters. His drive for power results in a scheme to back Rayna’s handsome husband, Teddy, in a run for Mayor of Nashville, against Rayna’s wishes.

“Nashville” stars Connie Britton (“Friday Night Lights,” “American Horror Story”) as Rayna, Hayden Panettiere (“Heroes”) as Juliette, Powers Boothe (“MacGruber,” “24”) as Lamar, Charles Esten (“Enlightened,” “Big Love”) as Deacon, Eric Close (“Chaos,” “Without a Trace”) as Teddy, Clare Bowen as Scarlett, Jonathan Jackson (“General Hospital”) as Avery, Sam Palladio as Gunnar and Robert Wisdom as Coleman.

“Nashville” was written by Callie Khouri (“Thelma & Louise”) who is an executive producer along with R.J. Cutler (“The September Issue,” “The War Room,” “Flip That House,” “A Perfect Candidate”) and Steve Buchanan. The pilot for “Nashville” was directed by R.J. Cutler. The series is produced by Lionsgate, ABC Studios and Gaylord Entertainment.

Nashville is currently scheduled to cap ABC’s very successful Wednesday night comedy block. That means it will get a great lead in. Will you be watching?

ABC New Fall Series Preview – Nashville originally posted on
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

Latest Events – Downtown Arts District of Orlando

“A professional development program for New York City special education teachers is reminding them of one basic principle: students like to have fun. And when students are having fun, chances are they will be more engaged with the lesson at hand.

With that in mind, the city’s Education Department and the Manhattan New Music Project, a nonprofit arts organization, are using a $ 4.6 million federal grant to implement EASE (Everyday Arts for Special Education).

The United States Department of Education awarded the grant in 2010 as one of 49 Investing in Innovation Fund awards. EASE was one of three grants focused on the arts, and it was the only one geared toward special education students.

The program is training teachers in District 75, the city’s special education district, to incorporate movement, music, visual arts, and drama into regular academic work.

Jennifer Raine, director of special programs for the Manhattan New Music Project, said the multidisciplinary approach was important for all students, but especially for those who are not succeeding in traditional classrooms.

‘Behaviors get in the way of education,’ she said. ‘I mean, it’s pretty hard to do a math lesson when someone’s throwing a chair.’

EASE runs on the premise, she said, that an arts-based approach to instruction will keep students engaged and will provide a hands-on, step-by-step process to guide students through a lesson.”

Americans for the Arts | Local, National, and International Arts News

vrigsbee

The Outer Critics Circle Award winners have been announced. The ceremony will be held on May 24 at 4 PM. The winners are: OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL Bonnie & Clyde Newsies Once Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY The Lyons One Man, Two Guvnors Seminar Stick Fly OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY Blood [...]
The Broadway Musical Blog – Musical theater news and gossip from the Great White Way

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“I’ve learned that there are a lot of interesting people out there.”

Orlando Arts Blog

While the Magic Kingdom’s is getting an expanded Fantasyland, it’s not the first version of Fantasyland to get an upgrade. In 1983 Disneyland’s Fantasyland went from Medieval Festival to the more Medieval City setting we have now.

To help make the public aware of the changes Disneyland produced a TV special that starred the late Heather O’Rourke (Poltergeist) and also the late comedian Morey Amsterdam.

Thankfully YouTube user PokeyVision has preserved the 1 hour special. The story is a bit lite, but it works as a big commercial for the new Fantasyland giving audiences a sneak peak into the new attractions.

I vaguely remember seeing this on TV (how could you forget Morey Amsterdam’s outfit). If you want to see more of the show, it’s below the jump. It gets pretty weird down in Part 4:

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

And the final section, part 5

1983 New Fantasyland TV Special originally posted on
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

In this video, Disney treats us to a behind the scenes glimpse into the recording studio with Bill Cantos. Cantos is the music arranger of all the tunes that you’ll hear in the new Carthay Circle Restaurant in Disney California Adventure. His task was to arrange classic Disney music and give it a timeless sound that blends into the atmosphere of the restaurant.

Music is such an important part of the dining experience, I love that Disney is going out of their way to make sure they have the best musicians doing such beautiful arrangements of these songs. What do you think?

Composing the Music of Carthay Circle Restaurant at Disney California Adventure originally posted on
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

Here's Friday's schedule for the Orlando Fringe Festival. Shows are arranged chronologically. The format for each line is Time: Venue: Title: Price: Rating: Length in Minutes. To read the Sentinel review of a show, click on its title.

As soon as WDW Marathon weekend 2012 came to a close, runDisney has been hinting that the Walt Disney World Marathon in 2013 will have some big surprises in store for those ready to “go the distance” and tackle the 26.2 mile race on its 20th anniversary. Today, runners all over the world are excited to have some of those big surprises revealed, thanks to a special video run-through of a new course created for this special event.

Some new highlights of the new course include running on the race track of the Walt Disney World Speedway, as well as through Champion Stadium at the Wide World of Sports Complex. Champion Stadium, while known to most as the center of spring training for the Atlanta Braves, will also be the center of the “Mile 20 Spectacular” for the 20th anniversary race. Although the mile 20 celebration isn’t described in great detail, some special on-course entertainment is alluded to in the video.

WDW marathon vets will also be happy to see that this new course has runners arriving at the Magic Kingdom much earlier than previous years, while still maintaining the tradition of running through all four theme parks in the Walt Disney World Resort. In previous years, runners reached the Magic Kingdom around Mile 10, while this coming year, runners will be following an initial route similar to the Half-Marathon course, putting them at the Magic Kingdom around Mile 5.

For comparison, here are links to PDFs of the new 2013 Map and last year’s 2012 Map.

For those interested in running the special 20th Anniversary of the Walt Disney World Marathon on Sunday, January 13th, 2013, registration is $150 ($135 for Disney Visa Cardholders) now through 6/19/2012. Registration jumps to $170 between 6/20/2012 & 9/25/2012, and goes up again to $190 as of 9/26/2012 until the race sells out. If 26.2 miles isn’t long enough for you to get your run on, you can also register for Goofy’s Race & a Half Challenge, which will have you running both the Half-Marathon on Saturday, January 12th as well as the 20th Anniversary Marathon race on Sunday, January 13th for a whopping 39.3 miles of runDisney fun. Registration fees for Goofy’s Race & a Half Challenge are $320 ($290 for Disney Visa Cardholders) now through 6/29/2012, when they go up to $350 from 6/20/2012-9/25/2012, and top off at $380 as of 9/26/2012, if the race doesn’t sell out before that. (Runners beware: Goofy’s Race & a Half Challenge always sells out quickly- it is already 61% full, 7 months out from Marathon Weekend 2013!)

Link to register for Disney Visa Cardholders

Link to register for Non-Disney Visa registration

Will you be going Goofy, or is 26.2 enough for you? Personally, I think I’ll be sticking with the Half-Marathons for the moment, but a girl can dream about going Goofy one day…

Walt Disney World Marathon to Celebrate 20th Event with New Course originally posted on
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

TJ Dawe's show "Medicine", whose shows are always based on real life, where he talks about self-discovery on a Peruvian tea, complete with Shamans. This would have been much much higher on the list if he had not run over time. I bet it won't happen for the remainder of the festival, though.

Sangria Soda - sold by the pizza vendor in the corner of the Green Lawn of Fabulousness

Wood Fired Pizza - several varieties available, though I don't remember seeing any with meat. This is one of 4 such mobile wood-burning ovens in the state, and I'm told.

Fried Peanut Butter and Jelly "Clouds" from Peg and Pete's food truck.

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Imagine if the original Star Wars trilogy took place in the 1980′s – and it was a musical! That’s what this Fringe stage production is all about. The lyric from some of the most memorable songs from the eighties were changed up to re-tell, in detail, one of the most known and beloved stories of modern times. I first learned of this production when I took a required course at Full Sail called "Using Improve in the Classroom." Simon MacDonald was one of the instructors and the class was a blast. Simon is directing "The Eighties Strike Back."

A dress rehearsal was held at Lake Howell High School. It poured on the drive over. I ran under awnings and started searching the hallways for the auditorium.  A student finally lead me there. A band concert was going on and the audience was full of adoring parents. Trumpet solos blasted notes off tune but still the audience went wild. I started to think I was in the wrong place but then the concert ended. I watched the mad shuffle to move orchestra chairs and music stands. Then the stage stood empty with only a few students still posing for photos in the isles. Then Cody Donaldson stepped out on the stage dressed all in gold with a golden Frisbee on his chest. There could be no denying that he was an 80's version of C3PO. Kelly Dunn Lowenberg skated on stage as a roller derby version of R2D2.

The cast assembled and then they did a full run through of the show. The production certainly pulled out the Star Wars geek in me. Richard Barados rendition of Chewie in one of the musical numbers had me laughing out loud. Emily Cutting added some new dance moves to one of the numbers and as Leia, she will earn any fan boy's attention. Matthew Mendel as Luke was dressed as Marty McFly from "Back to the Future." He wanted to be sure I captured his hair wave accurately in the sketch. Adam Bellas had a fun rebel punk attitude as Vader and Simon was particularly hilarious as Yoda. I was bobbing my head and ended up singing along as I sketched. They get my vote for a super awesome, fun, Fringe show!


Show times are:
Saturday, May 19th, 11:15 am
Sunday, May 20th, 3:00 pm
Wednesday, May 23rd, 7:30 pm
Friday, May 25th, 5:00 pm
Saturday, May 26th, 7:45 pm
Sunday, May 27th, 1:45 pm

Tickets are available on the Orlando Fringe website. Prices are $10 per show and there is a $1 handling cost. (If you are a card carrying member of the 501st or Rebel Legion you get a $1 discount.) It is also required that in order to see a Fringe performance that you have a Fringe button which is $8. All information is available on the Orlando Fringe Website.Thorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03590800758325814585noreply@blogger.com0

They may be out of the Summer Olympics, but the U.S. Men’s National soccer team is still competing. And the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex has scored another soccer related coup with the team training there at through May 24 in preparation for an exhibition match against Scotland in Jacksonville on May 26.

The team’s roster includes Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Tim Howard and Carlos Bocanegra, among others. The team is practicing at the complex each day but the only training session open to the public is Sunday afternoon May 20 starting at 5 p.m.

The US team’s appearance at the complex further underscores the complex’s stature as one of the leading venues for youth and world-class soccer in the nation. The complex is the official winter training home of the AS Roma club and hosts Disney’s Soccer Showcase, which features the top high school soccer talent in America. Also, marquee European soccer stars such as Kaka and Leo Messi have also trained at the complex.

US Men’s National Soccer Team to Train at ESPN WWOS Complex originally posted on
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

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