Brand New Musical Aboard Disney Cruise Line Brings
Disney•Pixar’s “Toy Story” to the Stage for the First Time From the Big Screen to Consumer Products to Theme Park Attractions – the enduring story of Woody and Buzz now comes to life at Sea
CELEBRATION, Fla. – Disney Cruise Line transforms one of the most beloved animated features of all time into a stage spectacular at the Walt Disney Theatre aboard the Disney Wonder cruise ship with the debut of “Toy Story-The Musical.” This is the first time the popular Disney•Pixar classic has been adapted for the stage.

Preserving the humor and heart of the original “Toy Story” film from Pixar Animation Studios, “Toy Story-The Musical” explores the true meaning of friendship as Buzz Lightyear and Woody transform from jealous adversaries to best friends with an unbreakable bond. The show’s elaborate costumes capture the vibrant colors and playfulness of the animated characters. Guests of all ages will delight in an original collection of show tunes that retell the story in a fun and energizing way.

“World-class Disney entertainment is an important hallmark of Disney Cruise Line that sets us apart from the rest of the cruise industry and one of the reasons guests sail with us again and again,” said Disney Cruise Line President Tom McAlpin. “ ‘Toy Story-The Musical’ represents the next generation of staged entertainment for Disney Cruise Line and a great enhancement to our incredible array of entertainment aboard the Disney Wonder.”

Following the storyline of the original Disney•Pixar film, “Toy Story-The Musical” gives guests a toy’s eye-view of life in Andy’s room. The musical opens with an introduction to Woody, a pull-string talking cowboy who has long been six-year-old Andy’s favorite toy.

But Andy’s birthday brings a new arrival – Buzz Lightyear, the coolest action figure in the universe. Woody’s jealousy gets the better of him and he schemes to get rid of his new rival, but things go dreadfully awry. Woody and Buzz find themselves outside of Andy’s room and in a hostile world. Working together and overcoming their differences, they find their way back to Andy – along the way developing an appreciation of one another and creating a friendship.

“The ‘Toy Story’ film offered us a rich story and some incredible visual elements to build upon,” noted Jim Urry, vice president of Entertainment for Disney Cruise Line. “The team we assembled created costumes, set designs and a whole new musical score to literally transport our guests into the middle of the whimsical world of Buzz and Woody.”

Taking audiences into that world was no small task. Larger-than-life show sets help transform the 977-seat Walt Disney Theatre into a toy-sized world of fun and adventure.

Using Randy Newman’s Oscar nominated hit song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” as a departure point, this production has a new seven-song score that brings the story to life. New York-based Valerie Vigoda and Brendan Milburn from the band GrooveLily blended together pop, rock and folk music to create a contemporary score that truly captures the heartfelt whimsy of the animated tale.

The costumes for “Toy Story-The Musical” are some of the most complex ever developed for a Disney Cruise Line production. Costume designer Ann Closs-Farley created an extraordinary vision for what the characters would look like on stage. With a combination of articulated puppets and inflatable costumes, the “Toy Story” characters come to life – including a nearly 9-foot-tall version of Rex the dinosaur and a 4-foot-round Hamm the piggybank.

In all, “Toy Story-The Musical” represents one of the largest productions ever developed for a cruise ship. This is just the second time a Pixar animated feature has been adapted for the stage by Disney Creative Entertainment. In early 2007, “Finding Nemo-The Musical” debuted at Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort and has been a tremendous success.

“When we first thought of bringing ‘Toy Story’ to the stage, there was a great deal of excitement about the project,” said Anne Hamburger, Disney Creative Entertainment executive vice president. “Everyone on our team could immediately see how the heart and comedy of these characters could come alive in a memorable way that is unique to musical theatre.”

““Toy Story-The Musical” compliments an already stellar lineup of entertainment performed every voyage on the Disney Wonder, joining stage shows “The Golden Mickeys” and the award-winning “Disney Dreams.”

Since its 1995 debut as a groundbreaking animated feature, the Toy Story franchise has come to life in so many ways throughout The Walt Disney Company as “only Disney can do” noted Jay Rasulo, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

“From the big screen to consumer products to theme park attractions and now a live stage show at sea, Toy Story is a great example of what The Walt Disney Company does best – and how we can take an enduring story and truly bring it to life in new and unique ways across the entire company,” said Rasulo.

In addition to the musical, Rasulo noted that ‘Toy Story’ will be featured in parades at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, as well as in an innovative 4-D interactive attraction called Toy Story Mania that will fully immerse Guests in the Toy Story world. The attractions will open at both Walt Disney World and Disney’s California Adventure later this summer.

A leader in the family cruise segment, Disney Cruise Line offers three-, four- and seven-night itineraries to the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Land/sea vacation packages that include a stay at Walt Disney World Resort are also available.

To learn more about Disney Cruise Line or to book a vacation, guests can contact their travel agent, visit disneycruise.com or call Disney Cruise Line at 888/DCL-2500. Travel agents can call Disney Cruise Line at 888/325-2500 or visit disneytravelagents.com.

Here are some great links to see some video of this show:

http://www.cdbproductions.com/TSMReleasePodREV3.mov
http://www.cdbproductions.com/TSCostumeDeSpudRev2.mov
> http://www.cdbproductions.com/TSComposerDeSpudRev2.mov
> http://www.cdbproductions.com/TSMcAlpinUrryDeSpudRev2.mov
> http://www.cdbproductions.com/TSSetDesignDeSpudRev4.mov
> http://www.cdbproductions.com/TSBuzzWoodyDeSpudRev2.mov

Titus the Clownicus
August 22, 2007
By Jeff Favre

It takes a lot of guts, creativity, and plenty of big foam noses to turn Shakespeare’s most violent play into a family-friendly comedy. But Angela Berliner and the Actors’ Gang have done so with this 50-minute adaptation of Titus Andronicus. Berliner’s script is easy for children to follow while including many jokes meant for adults. The cast and director-percussionist Justin Zsebe expertly mix clown-style physical comedy with solid storytelling theatre to create a funny and thoughtful performance.

Berliner strips the story to its essence, retaining only the major characters and crucial plot points. In her world, where everyone is dressed in oversized shoes and wacky wigs, Titus (Ethan Kogan) is a hero of the red-nosed clowns who have defeated Tamora Clown (Melanie Lewis) and the green-nosed clowns. Tamora Clown is to wed the red-nosed emperor Sillyninus (George Ketsios), but she swears revenge on Titus and his red-nosed family, including daughter Laughinia (Emilia Herman). Tamora Clown is aided by her sons, Cheeron (Seth Compton) and Dummytrius (Dillon Bush), as well as her lover, Aaron the Bore (R.J. Jones). Things get messy with water balloons, flying rubber chickens, and a slow-motion pie fight that replaces mass murder.

Kogan, as Titus, serves as the head clown. With a boisterous line delivery and an ability to nail a corny joke, he provides the foundation for the production. Herman’s Laughinia is equally funny, in particular when she can speak only Spanish after eating peanut butter (in Shakespeare’s version, the character’s tongue is cut off). The cast includes a few school-age members from the Gang’s educational outreach program, including Jorge Manuel, who during the production is “forced” to perform an advertisement for the company’s current production of Gulliver’s Travels.

Zsebe is able to convey a somewhat complex series of events in a style that is easy to follow. And his cast never overacts, never goes for laughs by sacrificing content. The costumes, by Ann Closs-Farley, are a key to the production’s success. The red-nosed-clown outfits include yellow raincoats and what appear to be red-checked tablecloths, while the green-nosed clowns are wearing suits of what look like black garbage bags. The contrast helps to easily identify the families — as well as simply being enjoyable.

Who knew Titus could be so funny? Apparently the Actors’ Gang did.

Presented by the Actors’ Gang at Media Park,

9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City.

Sat.-Sun. 11 a.m. Aug. 11-Sep. 2.

(310) 838-4264. www.theactorsgang.com.

Take a look at the LA Times review of the Actors’ Gang production of “Titus Clownicus” I costumed currently playing at “Media Park” in Culver City.
WITH THE KIDS
A lot of pies, no lopped-off hands in Actors’ Gang’s ‘Titus the Clownicus’
In the kid-friendly adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, violence begets violence, but nobody gets seriously hurt.

Just desserts
(Ken Hively / LAT)

HOW to turn Shakespeare’s goriest play into a family romp? The Actors’ Gang approach: Throw in rubber chickens, water balloons and clowns.

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Shakespeare’s vengeful epic “Titus Andronicus” is truly nasty, with mass murder, mutilation, cannibalism and blood galore. The Actors’ Gang, the edgy, well-regarded small theater company co-founded by actor Tim Robbins, has reimagined the tale as “Titus the Clownicus,” defanging it with comedy and a moral: Violence — even if it comes as a pie in the face — begets violence.

The show runs weekend mornings in free outdoor performances through Sept. 9 in Media Park in Culver City, adjacent to the company’s home base at the Ivy Substation.

In the original, conquering Roman general Titus returns home with the defeated queen of the Goths and her sons in tow. The older son is killed at Titus’ order, and then Titus’ daughter Lavinia is assaulted by Queen Tamora’s surviving sons, who cut out her tongue and lop off her hands for good measure. Ick. And that’s just for starters.

The Gang’s commedia dell’arte version, loosely adapted by playwright Angela Berliner, pits Titus’ Red Nose clowns against the Queen’s Green Nose clowns.

“The first challenge was in not making it terrifying for families,” yet still delivering the moral of the tale, said director Justin Zsebe, who also recorded a comic pastiche of pop songs as a score for the show.

Costume designer Ann Closs-Farley and set designer François-Pierre Couture contributed found-object visual humor, enhancing the feel of a troupe of ragtag traveling players — portrayed by adult professionals, plus three students from the company’s education program for grade school through high school (and a few key puppets). They perform on a small stage resembling a cutout of the Ivy Substation behind them.

“Once we found the ‘in’ into the play, making it a clown show,” Berliner said, “it almost wrote itself. Instead of violence and hands being lopped off and killings, you have pie fights or water balloon fights.”

HERE, for instance Titus’ daughter, “Laughinia,” fares markedly better: In a Punch-and-Judy-style burlesque, she’s pelted with water balloons and fed peanut butter — causing her to speak only Spanish — and her hands are stuck in one of those little woven Chinese finger traps.

“Adults who happen to know the play will pick up on the references,” Zsebe said. “A lot of them we fly through with a line reference or a staging reference” — such as the suspicious birth of the Queen’s “no-nose” baby — “and then keep it going.”

Two clown-nosed pies stand in for the play’s cannibalistic feast. The scene comes with a disclaimer referring to a certain ubiquitous fairy tale. The gentle reminder of a theme common to such childhood fare is meant to deflect any parental dismay.

“I thought that baking the sons into pies would be a problem,” Berliner said, “but then I remembered ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ and I didn’t think I needed to cut that out.”

The gooey, slapstick end to this clown war, delivered with “a sort of Actors’ Gang-style timeliness,” Berliner said, points up how “the ridiculous and irrational fear of the other can breed a cycle of violence.”

This is the company’s second unlikely Shakespearean family outing. Last year, “Pericles” (incest, violence, prostitution) became “Pericles on the High Seas,” a G-rated vaudeville also written by Berliner. She’s already plotting next year’s romp — based on “King Lear.”

lynne.heffley@latimes.com

‘Titus the Clownicus’
Where: Media Park,

9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City

When: 11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Ends: Sept. 9

Price: Free

Running time: 45 minutes

Contact: (310) 838-4264, www.theactorsgang.com

I am hosting a Headdress Workshop at the Getty Villa on June 3rd, 2007. It will be during the Oudry exihibit. Come Down and Play. It’s a beautiful place to spend the afternoon.

Family Art Lab
Thursdays - Sundays May 26 - July 15, 2007
11 am - 3:30 pm
Family Room Patio, Getty Center

Join your children in an outdoor, drop-in workshop designed to exercise the imagination. Visit the exhibition Oudry’s Painted Menagerie and then make your own animal-inspired masterpiece! Offered in English and Spanish. Drop in anytime between 11:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

I am currently scheduled to host a recycling fashion Workshop at the Santa Monica Arts Festival on May 20th. I will be teaching three classes on Paper, Plastic, and Remoldeling of old clothes. Participants will be able to show off their creations in high fashion style in a runway show at the Festival. Come on down.

This is a picture of Steven Leigh Morris hosting the 2006 L.A. Weekly Theater Awards in a suit I made entirely of L.A. Weeklies.

Here’s the L.A. Weekly article, with a picture of me playing the hoochie mama:

Costume designer Ann Closs-Farley is in the basement of the Evidence Room theater holding up a little orphan “Annie dress,” as she calls it, made from bright-red plastic tablecloths reinforced on either side by clear, glossy packing tape. With a sweet Peter Pan collar made from coffee filters, the 3-foot-tall dress is so stiff it nearly stands up by itself.

“Packing tape is a major part of these costumes. We have a thousand-dollar budget from the theater, and half of that goes to tape,” says Closs-Farley, who this year will oversee the design and construction of all 89 costumes for Ken Roht’s annual musical Christmas pageant, “Route 99”: Orange Star Dinner Show.

The way the light bounces off the tape makes each actor look like a present, Closs-Farley says. [Each costume] has to be sealed on both sides,” she explains. “The first year we discovered if you don’t [tape] the back, the cast’s sweat dissolves the tablecloths.”

Closs-Farley, an award-winning 10-year veteran of the Evidence Room — and a 12-year veteran of the Actors’ Gang — has been designing the costumes for Roht’s 99-cent-store extravaganza for the past four years.

What originally began as an ambitious one-woman affair has now ballooned into a 17-person costume team, which this year includes: Mark Crowell, former personal hairdresser to tap legend Ann Miller; Audry Fisher of the Mark Taper Forum’s design team; Tina Zimmerman, a tow-truck company owner from Sunland who, after seeing last year’s show, begged to help out; and 7-year-old Isabelle Adams, daughter of Evidence Room owners Jason Adams and Alicia Hoge.

“It’s really becoming a community,” Closs-Farley says of her ever-expanding crew. “Once people start with ‘the 99’ they get addicted,” she winks, nodding toward Crowell, who is brushing out a black wig in the corner.

Made entirely from items purchased from, or donated by, the 99 Cents Only Stores chain, Closs-Farley’s Seussian costumes have such a witty sophistication, they seem like a new-millennial twist on Marcel Duchamp’s notions of ready-made or found art.

“The 99-cent store gave us a donation and that was worth quite a bit. I’m not quite sure how much — they gave us boxes and boxes of stuff. I have to say we have more money this year than ever before, and less people in the cast. I give each designer all their basics, like tablecloths and tape, and different elements that I think the character should have, and then I give them 25 bucks to play with.

“A package of combs and some tinsel goes a long way,” adds Closs-Farley, illustrating her point while pulling out a top hat from last year’s production. The costume prop is made from pink, white, and black plastic combs sealed in clear packing tape.