Everyman

In its 17 years in Baltimore, Everyman Theatre has found a niche in spare sets, even sparer casts and a dedication to modern classics by the likes of Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard and Tennessee Williams. The company has stretched its comfort zone with its share of period pieces, but never further than today as it presents Much Ado About Nothing. It's the Everyman's first full-scale Shakespearean production, the company's coming of age. If you go Much Ado About Nothing at Everyman Theatre, 1727 N. Charles St., runs through Dec. 16. For tickets, call 410-752-2208 or go to everymantheatre.

Mission: Everyman Theatre, a small equity theater with a professional resident repertory company of artists from the Baltimore/Washington area, is dedicated to presenting quality theater that is accessible and affordable to everyone.Latest accomplishments: The theater started its fourth subscription season (1999-2000) with a more than 72 percent increase over the previous season and record attendance for the season opener, the Baltimore premiere of "Nude with Violin." The company's first managing director, H. Laurens Wilson, was hired this year to oversee all financial matters and Ericca Long assumed the position of the theater's first full-time assistant to the artistic director.

"The Price," Arthur Miller's 1968 drama about two estranged brothers, opens a one-month run at Everyman Theatre tomorrow.Under Grover Gardner's direction, J.M. McDonough plays Victor Franz, a police officer, and Nigel Reed plays his brother, Walter, a doctor. Stan Weiman portrays the antiques dealer hired to help them dispose of their late father's possessions.Show times at Everyman, 1727 N. Charles St., are 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays, through March 28. Tickets are $15, except for tonight's pay-what-you-can preview.

Playwright Romulus Linney's "Heathen Valley" -- about the impact of a missionary on a backwoods community in 19th-century North Carolina -- opens at Everyman Theatre tomorrow.Vincent Lancisi directs a cast that features John Benoit, Everyman company members Kyle Prue, Vivienne Shub and Jacqueline Underwood, as well as newcomers Jefferson Russell and Doug Brown, in the role of the missionary determined to convert the mountain people.Show times at Everyman, 1727 N. Charles St., are 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays, through May 23. Tickets are $12-$15, except for a pay-what-you-can preview tonight and tomorrow's gala opening, which is $25. Call 410-752-2208.

ON THE BLEARY morning after last week's glorious reopening of the Charles Theatre, here stood Vincent Lancisi, creative director of the Everyman Theatre, gazing upon the endearing everyday charms of wondrous Charles Street.He saw the Metro Coin-Op Laundromat. Ah, glamour. He saw a brand-new parking lot and an indoor garage next to it. Ah, romance. And there was the Club Charles, and the Zodiac, and the empty remains of the former Joel's Luncheonette with all its potential for new life. Grand, grand, and maybe grand.

How to get a part in a play:Choose an audition piece that the director hasn't heard.Don't choose an audition piece that the director hasn't heard.Choose an audition piece that demonstrates a range of emotions.Don't choose an audition piece that demonstrates too many emotions.Do something so unique that the director remembers you.Don't do anything so unique that the director remembers it, not you.Don't arrive late for your audition.Don't arrive early for your audition. -- Tips gathered from directors and actors at Everyman TheatreIt is the second of three nights of open auditions at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre and Vincent Lancisi is watching a woman die of ovarian cancer.

Alfred Uhry's 1997 Tony Award-winning drama, "The Last Night of Ballyhoo," makes its Baltimore premiere at Everyman Theatre tomorrow night. Set in 1939 Atlanta and focusing on two rival college-age female cousins, the play returns to the world of German-American Jews in the South, which Uhry also explored in his off-Broadway hit, "Driving Miss Daisy."Directed by Vincent Lancisi, Everyman's production features Megan Anderson and Shira Ginsburg as the cousins and Rosemary Knower and Stan Weiman as members of the older generation.

It was tense at the Smith Theater this week in the final days of preparation for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."The technical crew for the co-production of the Tennessee Williams play by Howard County's Rep Stage and Baltimore's Everyman Theater was on edge. The cast and production crew were focused and introspective.But no worry lines crinkled the 8-year-old face of third-grader Zachary J. Brown.In fact, he was taking his world stage premier -- as Gooper's son, Buster -- rather lightly. The experience was, in a word, "neat."

The Royal Shakespeare Company isn't just performing the works of its namesake during its month at the Kennedy Center.Theatergoers can also see one play that preceded Shakespeare (the morality play "Everyman") and one that followed him (Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape").Even the other two Shakespeare plays that are part of the RSC residency are among the master's later, and lesser-known, works - "Cymbeline" and "Henry VIII." Here's the schedule: "Henry VIII," through June 21; "Krapp's Last Tape," June 17 and June 19; "Everyman," June 23-28; and "Cymbeline," June 24-July 5. Tickets range from $15 for "Krapp's Last Tape" to $65 for box seats to "Cymbeline."

Tennessee Williams always objected to the original Broadway production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," in which director Elia Kazan injected a note of hope into the third act.In his 1955 published script, the playwright explained that he felt the "moral paralysis" of Brick, the male lead, "was a root thing in his tragedy," unlikely to undergo a sudden change of heart.With that in mind, one of the most impressive aspects of the powerful production at Everyman Theatre is that director Vincent Lancisi has managed to have it both ways.

"I don't know where you want this discussion to go." Anyone in any relationship has said such words at some point, trying to gauge the safest response, struggling to figure out what the other person wants to hear, wondering if it is better to be elusive than honest. But when that line is spoken by a husband to his wife in David Lindsay-Abaire's 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, "Rabbit Hole," it registers with a deep pain. For these characters, every word is a land mine, capable of setting off the most dreadful reactions; every conversation, even on the most mundane of topics, can trigger a dangerous mood.

Like the two garbagemen who are the main characters in his newest play, David Emerson Toney spends his days picking through the discarded remnants of his own and other people's lives. Whether he's standing on stage or writing for it, Toney finds jewels in the junk heap. He'll find a small act of everyday heroism and polish it until it gleams. He'll discover a dream that has been become rickety with long use and refurbish it until it's once again sturdy and strong. It's no coincidence that Toney, a Washington-based playwright and actor, calls his newest work The Soul Collector.

Everyman Theatre announced a 2009-2010 season that bucks a national trend by staging at least one large-cast show, and by increasing the theatrical "extras" available to customers. Highlights of the next subscription season include: * Rabbit Hole, Sept. 9-Oct. 11. The Baltimore premiere of David Lindsey-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is a harrowing look at how the death of a child can pull a family apart. * The Mystery of Irma Vep, Nov. 11-Dec. 13. This satire of penny dreadfuls by playwright Charles Ludlam will feature actor Bruce Nelson.

All-star tribute to Pete Seeger Emmylou Harris, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, John Mellencamp, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez and dozens of other musicians will perform Sunday at New York's Madison Square Garden in a tribute concert to folk legend Pete Seeger on his 90th birthday. Seeger has been an anti-war activist and is credited for popularizing the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome." His leftist politics got him blacklisted during the 1950s. Actor promoted Actor Clinton Brandhagen was named Friday as a member of Everyman Theatre's resident company of actors.

The actress with the refined features and tentative smile takes us by surprise every time. No matter how often we've watched Deborah Hazlett on stage, we never see it coming. She excels in portrayals of sensitive, intelligent, brittle women in their 40s, and in productions from Hedda Gabler to S ight Unseen to Rabbit Hole, there's usually a moment when these characters have been stressed beyond endurance. Suddenly, explosively, the characters break down. Such is the strength of Hazlett's commitment that she seems almost dangerous - at least, to herself.

Ian Tresselt, the new managing director of Everyman Theatre, is a Maryland native who has come home from New York, where he most recently served as director of Theater Operations at The New Victory Theater, a $7 million Broadway presenting house for children and families. Tresselt, 36, has held top administrative positions at Classic Stage Company in New York City and The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama, Tresselt lives in Mount Vernon.

Theater The Taming of the Shrew : 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 7 p.m. Sundays, through Aug. 3. Evergreen House, 4545 N. Charles St. $15-$25. Call 410-366-8594 or go to baltimore shakespeare.org. Talk about a Dream Team. For the Bard's classic, comic battle of the sexes, the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival has signed on some of the area's top acting talent. James Kinstle, the festival's former artistic director and a gifted comic actor, will play the role of the hyper-macho Petruchio.

For its 15th season, Everyman Theatre will produce its first world premiere -- a wildly imaginative comedy by a regional African-American playwright and actor. "When I read The Soul Collector by David Emerson Toney, I just fell in love with it," says Vincent Lancisi, Everyman's founder and artistic director. "It gets funnier and funnier as it goes along. The play is about an uncle and a nephew who are African-American garbage collectors in a wealthy neighborhood. They both have dreams, but their dreams are flawed.

In a shaky economy, we all know what the financial experts advise: cancel your cable, drop your season tickets and start staying in. In essence, stop having fun. But being frugal and being cultured don't have to be mutually exclusive. Richard Anderson The Sun's critics and arts writers offer up their best advice on now to enjoy the Baltimore arts scene on a budget. THEATER Go on a weeknight: If you've been to the Charles Theatre in the past year, chances are you've seen commercials featuring Irene Lewis, Center Stage's artistic director.

The tiny boat that Citizen Barlow cups in his hands is made from a sheet of yellow, folded parchment. The craft, named The Gem of the Ocean, would dissolve the second it made contact with actual water. Nonetheless, the seemingly fragile vessel is sturdy enough to transport a man in anguish on the voyage of a lifetime, a journey that cleanses his soul. Can there by a stronger statement of playwright August Wilson's faith in the power of paper, and the words written upon them? If you go Gem of the Ocean runs through April 27 at Everyman Theatre, 1727 N. Charles St. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 p.m., 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m., 7 p.m. Sundays.