Florida Agenda

BOCA RATON, FL – Relive the most infamous radio broadcast in radio history live on stage at the Caldwell Theatre. Seventy-two years ago, audiences were thrilled and horrified by a radio broadcast that took place Halloween night. Aliens were invading! No one was safe! Only a select few knew it was all a creation of the brilliant Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater.  H.G. Welles’ “War of the Worlds” went down as the most infamous radio drama in history.

South Florida audiences have the opportunity to relive this amazing broadcast — live on stage at the Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton. “War of the Worlds” will be presented at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on October 31 on the Caldwell Theatre’s main stage.  Local favorite Gordon McConnell will direct a cast including Avi Hoffman, Dan Leonard and Laura Turnbull that will not only enact multiple roles, but also recreate the amazing sound effects utilizing authentic devices used in radio drama in the 1930’s. Another aspect of the production is that all the locations will be transferred from New Jersey to Palm Beach County. Thrill to aliens landing in a Delray Beach pineapple grove. Listen in horror as the invasion marches down Clematis Street. It’s the perfect entertainment for Halloween and, best of all, the audience gets to be part of the action with the actors and stage manager cueing you to provide the additional sound effects.

“War of the Worlds” is a presentation of AirPlayz, a company dedicated to the art of radio drama, produced by 2Watts Productions. Admission is $10, and reservations can be made by calling 561-632-0517 or send an email to airplayzartsradio@gmail.com.

BOCA RATON, FL – In honor of LGBT History Month, The Florida Atlantic University LGBTQA Resource Center is holding a special event, “LGBT History at FAU and Beyond: An Evening with Dr. Fred Fejes” on Tuesday, October 25 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the FAU Student Union, Sugar Palm Room sponsored by the LGBTQA Resource Center and Lambda United.

There will be a lively discussion, presentation, book reading and signing with FAU Professor Fred Fejes, author of “Gay Rights and Moral Panic: The Origins of America’s Debate on Homosexuality” and FAU’s first advisor to Lambda United GLBTQIS Alliance.

Fejes authored the book “Gay Rights and Moral Panic,” which tells how in 1977-1978 voters across the county  went to the polls in a series of  referenda  to decide whether  lesbian women and gay men were citizens deserving equal protection under the law – or perverts and outcasts.

BOCA RATON, FL – The Caldwell Theatre Company presents Amy Herzog’s widely-acclaimed family drama, “After the Revolution.” The play was named one of the top ten of the New York Times plays of 2010, and was recently included in the prestigious yearbook, Best Plays of 2010-2011, which sites the top plays of the past New York theater season.

“After the Revolution” is the story of the brilliant, promising Emma Joseph who proudly carries the torch of her family’s Marxist tradition. She devotes her life to the memory of her grandfather, much revered for refusing to “name names” during the McCarthy hearings. But when history reveals a shocking truth about the man himself, the entire family is forced to confront questions of honesty and allegiance they thought had been resolved.

Performances will be held from October 16 through November 20 on Wednesdays through Saturdays and selected Tuesdays at 8 p.m. There will also be matinee performances on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $27 to $50 depending on performance and seat location.  $10 students with I.D. For tickets or more information, call 561-241-7432 or visit www.caldwelltheatre.com. The Caldwell Theatre Company is located at 7901 N Federal Highway in Boca Raton.

Theatre Is Alive and Well In Boca Raton

by Warren Day

Sometimes you want a burger.  Sometimes you want a steak. And this is also true when we attend live theater or the movies.
On occasion, we just want an evening of diversion, a fast meal of entertainment where the goal is simply to relax.  And yet, too many of those evenings can have the same effect on our minds and souls as fast food does on our bodies.

The wonderful and highly professional Caldwell Theatre Company in Boca Raton is offering us the chance to have both, a brisk comedy that gives us some substance to chew on and leaves us with some nutrition for the effort.

Yasmina Reza’s 2009 Tony winning play, “God of Carnage,” is, if you will allow me to torture this metaphor a bit more, a kind of Beef Wellington. On the surface it can seem to be just pastry, but inside there is real meat.

As one of the world’s most acclaimed playwrights working today, Ms. Reza’s particular gift is to find so much comedy and drama within everyday events.  Whereas other writers might need a salesman who is dying or an indecisive prince avenging the murder of his father, Reza brings her characters together for an ordinary reason and allows them, while leaving us laughing, to reveal extraordinary things about us human beings.

In her earlier play “Art,” which was also an international hit, the plot was simply one man inviting two of his
closest friends over to see something he had purchased and was very proud of.

In that case, it was an abstract painting, but in their reactions to this work of art, Reza explores the meaning of friendship and how our different tastes in art, music, politics or whatever can simultaneously draw us together and drive us apart.

In “God of Carnage,” two couples meet to discuss a schoolyard incident where one of their boys has struck the other with a stick. The comedy comes from their wildly different reactions to this simple and commonplace event, but Ms. Reza uses it to explore how people who pride themselves on their civilized behavior can rather quickly become primeval in their reactions to others and themselves. Even beneath a veneer of what passes as quite successful lives (great careers, big salaries, some envy-inspiring possessions), most people, as Henry David Thoreau famously said, “lead lives of quiet desperation,” except this foursome is anything but quiet.

And in a brilliant set designed by Tim Bennett, the living room in which all this takes place suggests a sandbox, which underlines how we grownups may have left childhood, but not its childish responses.

Now if you think a comedy about two straight couples fighting over their children has nothing to do with you, just imagine it involves two beloved and pampered dogs, and then you can see how such things can divulge our true and universal human nature.
The Caldwell Theatre Company is an Actors Equity playhouse, which means its cast has earned, by training and experience, their union cards, and that means you can see a production equal to a Broadway touring show. From the building itself and the work on its stage, there is nothing “little theater” about them. And they don’t present mummified productions of Neil Simon plays or the umpteenth revival of some 1950s musical, either.

Directed by Kenneth Kay, “God of Carnage” is live theater that truly lives up to that claim.

“God of Carnage” plays until May 15.  For showtimes and ticket prices go to www.caldwelltheatre.com or call
561-241-7432. The theater is located at 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, FL

Shane Michael Thompson, 20 of Boca Raton, was arrested on October 20 on charges of animal cruelty according to the Palm Beach County Sherriff ’s Office.

According to the PBSO, Thompson took the deceased dog, “Moonshine” to the Cole Animal Clinic on October 17. Thompson told them that the dog died earlier that morning, possibly of a seizure. Staff at the clinic noticed that the dog’s body was bloody with indications of blunt trauma. An autopsy on the dog indicated that it suffered blunt force trauma prior to death and the cause of death was suspected to be asphyxiation. The dog’s left ear was also missing. The clinic reported the suspected abuse to the county’s Animal Care and Control who in turn contacted PBSO to investigate for suspected animal abuse.

Detectives interviewed several witnesses that told them that they had witnessed Thompson ‘hit’ the dog on several occasions. Thompson’s roommate, who along with Thompson bought Moonshine this past February, told detectives that Thompson had told him that he had bitten off a portion of the dog’s ear for disciplinary purposes. When Thompson was interviewed, he told detectives that the described events were in all part of the disciplinary process and that the “wolf pup needs to be disciplined or they will be uncontrollable in the future.” The PBSO determined that Thompson “inflicted excessive, repeated, and unnecessary pain and suffering to the dog Moonshine which may possibly have resulted in its death.”

Thompson faces one felony count of animal cruelty and was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on October 20. Thompson is currently being held without bail. Thompson was also known as Jason Creed, a porn star that appeared in several gay porn websites include Bait Bus and Circle Jerk Boys.

“We talked many times,” said another porn star who knew Thompson on a professional basis and wishes to remain anonymous. “He’s really a sweet guy who just needed the work. But I’m sure that Michael Vick seemed like a nice guy to some people, too.” – BK