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IN
THE NEWS
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'Floyd
Collins' a musical with a message
By Tim Shellberg, The Times, July 3, 2009
Director John D. Glover points to the lyrics in "Floyd Collins,"
opening Thursday at Towle Community Theater, for the moral of the story.
"There's
a couple numbers in the show that talk about 'where a man belongs,'"
he said.
A
stage for songwriters-Hammond theater welcomes young, gifted singer/composers.
By Bob Kostanczuk, Post-Tribune, June 5, 2009, post-trib.com
For an 18-year-old singer/songwriter, Lindsay Jurek has taken a
big stride or two. In a Nashville mode, she's opened for Chris Cagle
and the Wreckers, the latter of whom feature Michelle Branch and Jessica
Harp.
Jurek served
as a warm-up for both of those country acts at Ohio State University.
Arts
chief John Cain stars as rascally writer in one-man Capote show
By Molly Woulfe, The Times, April 24, 2009
He was a tiny terror, giant talent and jet-set pet in the '60s and '70s.But
Truman Capote, one of post-war America's leading writers, bit the bejeweled
hand that fed him. Slapped away, he never recovered. The short, high-pitched
charmer and talk-show darling died in 1984. He was 59.
John Cain,
portraying the mercurial scribe in the one-man play "Tru"
at the Towle Theater, regards his pill-popping, alter ego as a flawed
genius.
Cain
stars in 'Tru,' a salute to Truman Capote
By Bob Kostanczuk, Post-Tribune, April 23, 2009, post-trib.com
If you're going to play Truman Capote, it helps to look like him.John
Cain has been told that he does. He's also well aware that he sounds
like the late, great colorful writer. Capote's laugh is even reflected
a bit in Cain, executive director of South Shore Arts and the Northwest
Indiana Symphony Orchestra.
Celebrate
group's 10th anniversary with a concert at Towle Community Theater
By Rob Earnshaw, The Times, March 21, 2009
A 25-minute piece about a romance that blossomed at a Whiting soda
fountain during the 1950s will highlight Generation Dance Theatre's
10th Anniversary Concert at Towle Community Theater in Hammond. "It's
about my mother who was a soda jerk in the '50s in Whiting," said
Kathleen Dominiak, Generations Dance Theatre Director.
Arts
chief John Cain stars as rascally writer in one-man Capote show
By Molly Woulfe, The Times, April 24, 2009
He was a tiny terror, giant talent and jet-set pet in the '60s and '70s.But
Truman Capote, one of post-war America's leading writers, bit the bejeweled
hand that fed him. Slapped away, he never recovered. The short, high-pitched
charmer and talk-show darling died in 1984. He was 59.
John Cain,
portraying the mercurial scribe in the one-man play "Tru"
at the Towle Theater, regards his pill-popping, alter ego as a flawed
genius.
Cain
stars in 'Tru,' a salute to Truman Capote
By Bob Kostanczuk, Post-Tribune, April 23, 2009, post-trib.com
If you're going to play Truman Capote, it helps to look like him.John
Cain has been told that he does. He's also well aware that he sounds
like the late, great colorful writer. Capote's laugh is even reflected
a bit in Cain, executive director of South Shore Arts and the Northwest
Indiana Symphony Orchestra.
Celebrate
group's 10th anniversary with a concert at Towle Community Theater
By Rob Earnshaw, The Times, March 21, 2009
A 25-minute piece about a romance that blossomed at a Whiting soda
fountain during the 1950s will highlight Generation Dance Theatre's
10th Anniversary Concert at Towle Community Theater in Hammond. "It's
about my mother who was a soda jerk in the '50s in Whiting," said
Kathleen Dominiak, Generations Dance Theatre Director.
Local
productions leave audiences laughing
By Carol Moore, The Times, March 6, 2009, nwi.com
Hammond's Towle Theatre opens its 2009 season with a different but
humorous show, "Gutenberg! The Musical!" Doug Simon (Tom Farley)
and Bud Davenport (Bill Danko) are performing the first reading of their
new musical, hoping one of the Broadway producers in the audience will
give them a contract.
'Gutenberg!
The Musical!' a clever, crazy spoof of a backers' audition
By Rob Earnshaw, The Times, February 20, 2009, nwi.com
Did you ever think the story of the man who invented the printing
press in 1450 would lend itself to a big, splashy Broadway musical in
2009?
Bud Davenport
and Doug Simon certainly did.
Towle
announces first director of education
By Bob Craig, Post-Tribune, February 6, 2009, post-trib.com
Shelley Crosby, former artistic director for American Girl Theatre
in Chicago, has joined the staff at the Towle Theatre in Hammond as
its first director of education.
Crosby is in charge of increasing educational programs and creating
new opportunities...
Towle
Theater expands popular Christmas program
By Joan Dittmann, Post-Tribune, November 27, 2008, post-trib.com
Happy Thanksgiving! The holidays are a time of gatherings, traditions
and reminiscing, and that's also what this season is about at the Towle
Community Theater.
Over the last five years, its nostalgic "A Fabulous '50s Christmas"
has played to many sold-out audiences and, with so many repeat patrons,
the show has become a tradition for some.
'Red
Dirt,' 'Amadeus' two different but compelling must-sees
By Carol Moore, The Times, Sept. 19, 2008, nwi.com
The Towle Community Theater in Hammond closes its fifth season with
the world premiere of "Red Dirt." An adaptation of Tag Purvis'
independent movie of the same name, "Red Dirt" is reminiscent
of Tennessee Williams' plays with its dysfunctional family story and
southern setting.
Summer (Leslie A. Evans), who seems to be suffering from melancholia
and/or agoraphobia, spends most of her time...
Affecting
tale was a film first; Towle's Jeff Casey pushed screenwriter to make
it into a play
By Walter Skiba, The Times, Sept. 14, 2008, nwi.com
"The Fix" was, arguably, the best summer musical production
to date at the Towle Theater, even though the work itself may not be
as good as "Parade" or "Urinetown." The acting,
singing and staging showed the most consistent quality, style, tightness
and sense of purpose.
As a contrast
to the theatrical, presentational style of "The Fix," "Red
Dirt," running this weekend and next, unfolds as a realistic, slice-of-life
drama set in rural Mississippi.
Towle
provides 'The Fix'
By Walter Skiba, The Times, July 9, 2008, nwi.com
The lights come up on a Presidential candidate having sex with his mistress
and dying suddenly from a heart attack. He gets up to sing the after
death vaudeville number "Let the Games Begin," and the plot
sprints ahead.
The candidate's
widow joins with his polio-challenged older brother, who would like
to have his moment in the spotlight, to groom her son Cal for the Presidency.
Fun,
witty, poignant 'Jeffery'
By Tim Shellberg, The Times, June 7, 2008, nwi.com
John Glover, director of Hammond's Towle Community Theater's production
of "Jeffery," thinks viewers will be able to identify with
the emotions the characters in the play exhibit regardless of their
sexual preference.
"There
are universal themes that I think play out really well in the show,"
he said. "There's friendship, there's romance, there's coming of
age and there's the idea of not giving up that I think applies to a
lot of people."
Towle
knows how to treat 'Lady'
By Tim Shellberg, The Times, May 16, 2008, nwi.com
Jeff Casey knows some people can be taken aback when learning the basic
premise of the play "No Way to Treat a Lady."
"When
you tell people that it's a musical about a serial killer, some people
are put off by that immediately," said Casey, director of "No
Way to Treat a Lady" at Hammond's Towle Community Theater. "It's
not your typical musical theater fare, but it's really a lot of fun
and has a lot of great humor."
Come
to the cabaret -- in Hammond
By Carol Moore, The Times, Apr. 27, 2008, nwi.com
Lauren Molina and Benjamin Magnuson who star as Johanna and Anthony
in the 2005 Broadway revival of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber
of Fleet Street," will perform in a cabaret-style concert at the
Towle Community Theater Monday.
On a rare
night off, Molina and Magnuson, in Chicago with the national tour of
"Sweeney Todd," will perform an eclectic mix of rarely heard
covers...
Lynette
Louise mixes humor and serious topics in one woman show
By Tim Shellberg, The Times, Mar.28, 2008, nwi.com
Entertainer and autism therapist Lynette Louise laughs when recalling
one of the more memorable compliments she has received for her one-woman
show, "From Thing to Thing to Thing." My
ex-husband said 'You're really funny. That was really good,'" she
said. "I thought 'Yeah. And you never noticed until now.'"
One-woman
show offers insight into autism
By Janet Moran, The Times, Mar.24, 2008, nwi.com
On the eve of April as National Autism Awareness Month, the Towle
Community Theater in downtown Hammond is hosting Lynette Louise and
her production of "Thing to Thing to Thing - From Crazy to Sane
With Autism, Biofeedback and The Brain."
'Sweeney'
actors bound for Hammond
By Bob Kostanczuk, The Post Tribune, Mar.14, 2008,
post-trib.com
Two key cast members from the Broadway production of "Sweeney Todd"
will share their musical skills at Towle Community Theater. Lauren Molina
(Johanna) and Benjamin Magnuson (Anthony) will take a break from their
roles in the musical thriller in order to perform an eclectic, cabaret-flavored
concert at the Hammond venue on Monday, April 28.
Energetic
trio to perform at Towle Community Theater
By Tim Shellberg, The Times, Mar.14, 2008, nwi.com
Mark Janiga, one third of the local acoustic ensemble String Fever,
says he, as well as his audiences, would be lost onstage without his
fellow bandmates. "These guys are just the most fun to perform
with, and it's not just the one person in the group that makes the group
work," he said. "I really believe that if one piece of the
puzzle were missing, it would not be the same."
Satiric,
clever off-Broadway 'Musical of Musicals' at Towle Theater
By Walter Skiba, The Times, Feb. 22, 2008, nwi.com
Over the past four years, the Towle Community Theater has established
a reputation for its excellent productions of adventurous, off-the-beaten-path
shows, interspersed with American classics, like "Man of La Mancha"
and "The Fantasticks, and the nostalgic, fun-filled "Fabulous
'50s Christmas" revue.
Downtown Hammond's No. 1 attraction, the theater opens its fifth
season Thursday night with Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart's 2003 Off-Broadway
musical success, "The Musical of Musicals: The Musical."
Irish
Dancers Join String Fever
The
Shopper Online, Feb. 5, 2008, myshopper.biz
Tickets are now on sale for the March 16 String Fever concerts with
special guest the Mayer School of Irish Dance at Towle Community Theater...
Ship
of Fools sails forth to Hammond's Towle Theater
The
Times, Feb. 1, 2008, nwi.com
The comedy boat is about to drop anchor in Hammond, specifically
the port known as Towle Theater. Deckhands include Rene? "Kamikaze"
Reyburn, Eric "Beard" Talbot and Steven "Angel Hair"
Saltsman. Every ship needs a captain, so ahoy to Kyle "Sweet Speak"
DeJute, whose main job is said to be "Pirate-to-English" translation.
They're the Ship of Fools—docked in Lafayette as Purdue University's
official improvisational comedy student organization.
The
Towle makes its mark at 5
By Michelle L. Quinn, Post-Tribune, Jan. 20, 2008, post-trib.com
Jeff Casey never doubted that the Towle Community Theater would
achieve a modicum of success when he signed on as its first managing
director five years ago.
In his mind, the theater at 5205 Hohman Ave. would just be hitting its
stride at the five-year mark. People finally would be paying attention
to the little theater downtown, and it would start breaking even after
years spent building its reputation.
Casey never envisioned the theater's popularity would come so soon....
Arts
Group Offers FREE Family Enrichment Program
The Times, Dec. 31, 2007, nwi.com
This January, South Shore Arts and its partners will conduct an
art and literature program at five Lake County Libraries. Making Memories
n A Family Enrichment Program brings families together through reading
and the arts: bookmaking, writing, music visual art and drama....
Towle
Theater kicks off fifth season with a NWI premiere
By Bob Craig, Post Tribune, Dec. 21, 2007, post-trib.com
The Towle Community Theater in Hammond will celebrate its fifth
anniversary in 2008. A special preview of its next season will be presented
on Jan. 11, 12 and 13. Highlights will include songs or scenes from
each of the subscription series productions....
Christmas
is 'fabulous' at Hammond's Towle Theater
The Times, Nov. 25, 2007, nwi.com
Jeff Casey, director of Hammond's Towle Community Theater's "A
Fabulous '50s Christmas," suggests to those who wish to see next
year's musical performance to strike early. Real early. "We've
had people who attend our annual season preview in January....
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