Darryl Maximilian Robinson Shares His "Into The Woods" 10th Anniversary Photo Scrapbook
Monday, December 02, 2024 - 12:00 AM
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For The 10th Anniversary Of His Professional Debut In A Work By Stephen Sondheim, 2019 Broadwayworld Chicago Award Nominee for Best Performer In A Musical Or Revue for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" and 2022 Making The World Happening Award Winner for His Numerous Online Theatre Related Endeavors At Allevents.in, Darryl Maximilian Robinson Opens His 2014 "Into The Woods" Photo Scrapbook!
Darryl Maximilian Robinson, Founder, Artistic Director and Producer of Both The Multiracial Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and The Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project, Is Pleased And Delighted To Share His Photo Scrapbook & Notes On The 2014 Burbank Community Theatre Revival of Stephen Sondheim's & James Lapine's "Into The Woods" Presented At The Forest Lawn Cemetery In The Hollywood Hills!
Believe It Or Not - A Ride Through And From The Woods of One of The World's Most Famous Final Resting Places Helped To Create The Mood Of The Burbank Community Theatre's Final And Most Memorable Production: A Revival of Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's wonderful Into The Woods!
Most people think ( and to be fair the majority of The American Population ignores or has no knowledge of The Stage due to a complete disregard for funding the arts in our public school systems ), that the best, most enjoyable, and memorable theatre in this country can only be found on Broadway. This is a great misconception.
And, for those individuals around the country who have spent their lives as actors, actresses, playwrights directors, choreographers, composers, lyricists designers, teachers and producers creating magic on stage in local and regional theatre productions throughout the rest of this fine democracy, a great lie!
Broadway is merely the place where the most expensively produced, shamelessly commercialized and highly over-publicized stage productions are mounted.
Performing artists, theatre educators, experienced audience members and TRUE LOVERS OF THE ART OF THEATRE know the TRUTH!
The greatest stage art and the finest stage performances and productions have occurred where those with the skill and talent (not the budget and paycheck) have chosen TO MAKE THE ART HAPPEN!
Broadway is a symbol of the best The Theatre has to offer, but it is merely the tip of the iceberg. There is great theatre, quality theatre, professional-level theatre ( sans union cards ), being performed on stages throughout this country seven days and nights per week. Sometimes not in what one would recognize as a conventional sort of public performance venue at all.
Without question, Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's Into The Woods is a Broadway Tony Award-winning musical theatre masterpiece that turns our perceptions of established, heroic figures from famed fairy tales upside down. And, as opposed to giving us anything that resembles "Happily Ever After" shows us the darkness, despair, loneliness and DEATH lurking deep within the human condition.
Without question, one of the most beautiful, lush, green, tranquil and well-known final resting places IN THE WORLD is The Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles California ( directly across the road from Warner Brothers Burbank Studios where such musical film classics as James Cagney's Yankee Doodle Dandy and Lerner and Lowe's My Fair Lady were shot ).
In December of 2014, a group of unpaid volunteer performers - actors, singers, musicians, technicians, designers ( many with numerous and paid professional stage, television, film and concert touring credits ) donated their time, energy and talent to create a small miracle that intrigued audiences had to travel to-and-fro past hundreds of gravestones and tombs to see ( which incidentally contributed mightily to the ultimate mood of the work ).
Musical Theatre Pros Robert Laurita and Mary Zastrow truly impressed and touched theatergoers as The Baker and The Baker's Wife.
Opera Pros Jessica Mamey as The Witch and Jay Stephenson as The Wolf delivered strong renditions of their solos in the score.
And...ONCE UPON A TIME...Making his first appearance in a Sondheim work in his more than five-decade-long performance career, Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago and Excaliber Shakespeare Company Los Angeles Archival Project Founder, 1997 Chicago Joseph Jefferson Citation Award-winning stage actor for The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago revival of Athol Fugard's "Master Harold And The Boys," 2019 Broadwayworld Chicago Award Nominee for Best Performer In A Musical or Revue for "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" and 2022 Making The World Happening Award Winner for his numerous online theatre-related offerings at Allevents.in, Darryl Maximilian Robinson delivered to audiences both the humor and sadness found in his dual roles of The Narrator & The Mysterious Man.
Under the strong leadership of dilligent and hardworking Founder and Producer Julia Swanwick and the truly gifted and inspired Director and Designer Josh Shaw, a short-lived but well-remembered and received non-Equity professional theatre company known as The Burbank Community Theatre ( with charming and highly-effective choreography by Broadway Performer Heather Pond and dazzling 22-piece orchestra under the baton of skilled musical director Ryan Luevano ) presented it's final and most memorable production Into The Woods on the stage of The 1200-Seat Historic Hall Of Liberty at Forest Lawn Cemetery in LA!
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Now celebrating his 50th anniversary as an American Stage Performer, Darryl Maximilian Robinson has become noted as the very first black actor in American Theatre History to portray on stage a trio of classic dramatic roles including: Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt's "A Man For All Seasons" ( in a 1984 revival presented by The University Players of The University of Missouri-St. Louis and directed by AEA Member John Grassilli at The Benton Hall Theater ); King Henry II in a 1992 multiracial cast revival of James Goldman's "The Lion In Winter" ( directed by Mr. Robinson for his chamber theatre Excaliber Productions, Ltd in St. Louis and staged at The Wabash Triangle Cafe ); and Andrew Wyke ( opposite the talented actor Sean Nix as Milo Tindle ) in a 2000, 30th Anniversary, all-black cast revival of Anthony Shaffer's "Sleuth" presented under Mr. Robinson's direction by his chamber theatre The Excaliber Shakespeare Company of Chicago at The Harrison Street Galleries Studio Theatre of Oak Park, Illinois. Most recently, Darryl Maximilian Robinson was named a winner of a 2022 Making The World Happening Award for his numerous online theatre-related offerings at Allevents.in during the early years of The Covid-19 pandemic.
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