Characters

In his brief time in movies, 25-year-old Ryan Gosling has already given stunning performances as the Jewish neo-Nazi in The Believer (2002), the teenage thrill-killer in Murder By Numbers (also 2002), and the wrong-side-of-the-tracks romantic in The Notebook (2004). Now he's reached a new personal best in his portrayal of Dan Dunne, a gifted, coke-addicted history teacher and girls' basketball coach in Half Nelson, which opens Friday in Baltimore. Dunne forms a turbulent friendship with one of his middle-school pupils, Drey (Shareeka Epps)

Chicago--If Will Rogers was the archetypal common man, Keith Carradine is the uncommon man.At least that's the way he seemed before he created the role of the legendary cowboy-philosopher in "The Will Rogers Follies," the Tony Award-winning musical that opens Tuesday at the Lyric Opera House.Before "Will Rogers" came along, words like "loner," "outsider," "laconic" and "enigmatic" were usually used to describe the characters Carradine played -- characters like the harsh, womanizing folk singer in "Nashville" (for which he wrote the Academy Award-winning song, "I'm Easy")

The new face of men's fashion, some say, is soft, pudgy and just a tad lumpen. The eyes are beady, the lips are menacingly curled, the hairline has long crept past the halfway mark of the head. And the belly is recognizable for its unabashedly comfortable droop over the belt. Sure, these are highly unusual elements of a male icon in the fashion world, where those anointed for deification tend to possess the dimensions of an Adonis. But when you're Tony Soprano, a likable mob boss on one of the most popular shows on television -- well, the rules of fashion can be altered.

Benjamin Franklin arrived with a kite outlined in lights. At the flip of a switch, the lights went on and the character listed his many accomplishments. Adolphe Sax, dressed in formal attire, spoke of his career in music. Amelia Earhart expounded on her flying technique, and Ginger Rogers offered details from her life in film. They were, in reality, fifth-graders who each took on a different persona for the annual wax museum at Cromwell Valley Elementary in Towson. Costumed and accessorized historical, literary, sports and entertainment characters filled the school cafeteria and gym Wednesday.

You expect to hear bombs exploding during a musical about the Civil War, but must everything be so bombastic? Composer Frank Wildhorn ("Jekyll & Hyde," "The Scarlet Pimpernel") isn't known for having a light touch, and he goes ballistic in "The Civil War." Currently being fought on stage at the Mechanic Theatre, this musical shouts its history lesson, is populated by character types who never become full characters, rolls out sound-alike songs and then reprises them as it takes you on a deliberately paced journey from 1861 through 1865.

DALLAS - Jim Dale must have a bit of a wizard in him. As the narrator of the Harry Potter audiobooks, how else can he explain his uncanny ability to bring to life such varied characters as Harry, Hermione, Ron and wise, old Professor Dumbledore? Well ... perhaps there is a little magic involved. Dale says he "inhabits" his characters. "That's really what an actor does. He inhabits the character from the description the author has given him," he said. He also likes to conjure up an audience.

In Moving at the Speed of Life, which wrapped up a five-performance run at Towson University's Center for the Arts Studio Theatre on Saturday, Annapolis native Kristen Valerio introduces us to a dozen female characters -- some disconcertingly familiar. She examines them with a humorist's eye and a philosopher's wisdom to reveal what lurks beneath the surface. The 33-year-old Manhattan playwright's one-woman show presents characters who resemble our family members, neighbors, co-workers and friends.

In Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky, a former chorus girl/hooker in 1930s Harlem and a fresh-off-the-farm, churchgoing Southerner engage in a little question-and-answer game to get acquainted on a first date. As directed by Amini Johari-Courts at Arena Players, Janna Small and Douglass Goldman exemplify their disparate roles. Small, as the jaded, sophisticated chorus girl, toys with the innocent affections of Goldman, the naive Alabamian. Although each eventually will be far worse for this encounter, at this moment their lives hold a hint of hope.

"Violet must think we all have a story worth telling," says actress Kate Redway in "Pandora's Box," the one-woman show receiving its world premiere at the Theatre Project. Violet may be right. The problem is that "Pandora's Box" - written by Daria Finn, directed by Jane Mandel and produced by a New Jersey company - is more of a collection of short stories than a cohesive play. Although we never meet Violet, the play takes place in her attic, where one character is scavenging for salable items for a PTA tag sale.

The damsel cast an image of striking beauty: mocha-colored skin, captivating eyes, coiffed hair, posing in a feathery dress and see-through veil. For a character that won't be in an animated movie for another two years, her arrival has been the subject of discussion for years -- long before she was ever drawn. Maddy, a 19-year-old heroine to be featured in the coming film The Frog Princess, will be Disney animation's first black leading lady. That makes her the Sole Sister among a group of cartoon icons that brings out the inner princess in preteen girls worldwide -- characters like Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel and Mulan.