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CAMILLE GAVIN: Spotlight keeps itself in game

The Bakersfield Californian | Wednesday, Jan 04 2012 02:31 PM

Last Updated Monday, Jan 16 2012 01:01 PM

A bundle of changes are in store for the Spotlight Theatre, including a switch to a calendar-year season and an entirely new format for the summer months.

"We've done an overhaul to the way we're structured," said Jarred Clowes, artistic director, adding that final details are still being worked out. "The new season will start with 'Into the Woods' on Jan. 20."

He also said "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," previously scheduled to open on Friday, will instead be performed in March, and Clowes will replace Ian Swanson as director of the show.

June, July and August will be devoted to instructing children and teens in theater arts. The only performances during the summer will be done by students in those classes.

"We want to form an education (component) that will be the linchpin of our program," Clowes said. "We are working with the Boys & Girls Club on this."

Plans include establishing a lab for college-age students in the near future. Cost of the new education program, he said, is being funded by a $12,000 grant the nonprofit theater received from The Bakersfield Californian Foundation.

Meanwhile, Spotlight is again extending its reach into Southern California as it has with several of its other shows in recent years. "Zanna, Don't," a musical about a high school where nearly everybody is gay, opens Friday for a limited run in Los Angeles at Theatre Theatre. Alex Neal directs, and the cast includes actors who were in Spotlight's two previous productions of the show at its home venue in downtown Bakersfield.

Portrait artist's exhibit

I was fascinated with Patti Doolittle's 1920s-era portrait of a woman that's on the invitation for the First Friday opening of the artist's exhibit at the Art Center. What impressed me most were the woman's bold expression and the luminous waves in her hair.

Doolittle is well-known for her life-like portraits and I wondered if this particular subject might be one of Doolittle's ancestors. Turns out the artist isn't related to the woman, doesn't even know her name and came upon her image in an unusual way.

"I found her on a piece of antique sheet music from the '20s -- it was just about to fall apart and it was in black and white," Doolittle said. "She was a singer and called the first 'Shimmy Girl,' and I thought she needed to be put in a painting."

Doolittle, known for her keen sense of color, used warm pastels on sandpaper to make the woman come alive.

"It was really fun to do her waves," she said, adding, "I was a hairdresser for many years; don't know if that helped me make those waves."

Also part of the exhibit is Doolittle's portrait of Kathy Schilling, who served the Bakersfield Art Association as president from 2007 to 2011. The display can be seen at the Art Center through Jan. 27. Usual open hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday.

The Empty Space awards

Online voting for The Empty Space awards has ended, and winners will be announced Sunday at the theater's ninth annual awards banquet.

With 28 categories under consideration, it may be a long evening. The majority of the guests are performers, however, so I'm sure they'll provide plenty of impromptu entertainment.

Brian Sivesind, who took over as executive director in August, tells me he's pleased with the pace of the fundraising campaign he started about six months ago.

"We have raised about $500 for improvements," he said "and we are hoping to raise at least $500 more by the end of January."

The theater, which occupies a small space behind Pizzaville in an Oak Street strip mall, has undergone several transformations since Sivesind and others founded it in 2003. At present, priority is being given to remodeling the public restrooms and concession area, with the work expected to be done in March. The director also hopes to secure funding for an additional air conditioning unit by the end of April.

"We plan to revamp the entire audience area during our dark weeks next December so we can open our 11th season with a new and improved audience experience," Sivesind said. "We will need to raise about $5,000 by the end of 2012 to make that happen."

"Boy Gets Girl," directed by Michael Pawloski, is the Empty's first show of 2012 and opens on Jan. 13. More about that next week.

MacNeil at First Presbyterian

Shafter native and internationally known tenor Robert MacNeil, will be in town on Wednesday for a solo concert at First Presbyterian Church.

Meg Wise, the church's resident music director and organist, will accompany MacNeil on the piano. Wise is a Shafter resident and has known the singer since he was a youth.

"We all had heard him sing and we always knew he was going somewhere with it -- and he did," she says now, noting what he's accomplished since 1997 when he was named a National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

In 2010-11 MacNeil sang in the San Francisco Opera Company's productions of "Werther" and "The Marriage of Figaro." Over the years he has soloed with the Los Angeles Opera, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and and has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Sydney (Australia) Opera House and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, China. He also has been a guest artist with the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra.

He now lives in Los Angeles, where he is a member of the voice faculty of World Mission University and also teaches privately.

At First Presbyterian his program will be made up of favorite hymns and sacred songs, including "The Lord is My Light," "If With all Your Hearts," "Panis Angelicus" and "The Lord's Prayer."

The event is one in a series of free midday recitals held on the second Wednesday of the month. Unlike previous years, there will be no pre-concert lunches available for purchase. Those who wish to bring their own lunch may eat on the patio before or after the concert.

Normally the concerts last only 30 minutes but Wise said she wouldn't be surprised if this one lasts at least an hour.