Ragtime

Learn about life in turn-of-the-century America and enjoy many musical styles at "Ragtime," opening Friday, May 25 at 8 p.m. at Laurel Mill Playhouse, 508 Main St. This musical intertwines the stories of three extraordinary families, as they confront history's timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair, and what it means to live in America. The musical score draws on Ragtime rhythms of Harlem and Tin Pan Alley to the klezmer of the Lower East Side, from bold brass band marches to delicate waltzes, from up-tempo banjo tunes to period parlor songs and expansive anthems.

Learn about life in turn-of-the-century America and enjoy many musical styles at "Ragtime," opening Friday, May 25 at 8 p.m. at Laurel Mill Playhouse, 508 Main St. This musical intertwines the stories of three extraordinary families, as they confront history's timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair, and what it means to live in America. The musical score draws on Ragtime rhythms of Harlem and Tin Pan Alley to the klezmer of the Lower East Side, from bold brass band marches to delicate waltzes, from up-tempo banjo tunes to period parlor songs and expansive anthems.

THE HEYDAY OF RAGTIME, from about 1890 to 1920, is already shorter than rock 'n roll's history. More's the pity.Woven from African and European strains, ragtime was a black-born Midwest music that quickly became interracial among composers but, typically, didn't move most Americans until white Europeans began playing it.With its simultaneously happy and sad face and its absolute insistence on pure melody, it was as American as the cakewalk that preceded it...

The nine young adult performers who participated in the Howard County Arts Council's Rising Star competition all deserve to be considered winners, but only one of them went home with the $5,000 first prize. It was awarded to Samantha McEwen at the 15th annual Celebration of the Arts in Howard County March 24 in the Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center at Howard Community College. The 500 audience members acknowledged all nine performances with enthusiastic applause and also filled out ballots that were tabulated at the end of the event.

The musical "Ragtime" interweaves the stories of three fictitious families with various historical figures. Here's a rundown of some of the real-life characters: Henry Ford (1863-1947). Automobile manufacturer who pioneered the assembly line, on which 15 million affordable Model T cars were mass-produced between 1908 and 1928. Ford Motor Co. became the world's largest automobile manufacturer; the company's founder kept unions out of his plant until 1941. Emma Goldman (1869-1940). Russian-born anarchist who immigrated to the United States in 1886.

Four stars of the touring production of "Ragtime" at the Mechanic Theatre will take part in a chat on The Sun's Web site, SunSpot.net, this week: Lawrence Hamilton ("Coalhouse") reprises the role he played on Broadway. He has also appeared in the Broadway productions of "Jelly's Last Jam," "Porgy and Bess" and "Sophisticated Ladies." Jim Corti ("Tateh") originally played Harry Houdini in "Ragtime." He has also performed in "A Chorus Line" and "Candide" in New York, as well as in the touring production of "Cabaret" with Joel Grey.

WASHINGTON -- In "Ragtime," now showing at the National Theatre here, the doomed Coalhouse Walker Jr. -- doomed because he's a black man who expected a fair shake, doomed because it's the dawning of the 20th century and he should have known better, and doomed because it's America and they're still figuring things out by blowing things up -- sings to his compatriots:"Go out and tell our storyLet it echo far and wide.Make them hear you.Make them hear you."But Americans are a people sometimes too busy to hear, or too preoccupied to remember for very long what's shouted in our faces, or so breathless to keep up with the present that we neglect the past, until it strikes us what the past resembles: This precise hour of today, when we're still inventing ourselves, still fighting among ourselves, still blaming each other because we think the country's going to hell and then pausing at odd moments to celebrate the country beyond all sane measure.

Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers brought to life the musical drama Ragtime, which adds a syncopated score to E.L. Doctorow's 1975 novel chronicling the impact people of color and immigrants had on the upper-middle class in early 20th-century America. This sweeping historical drama looks back to 1906 and can be a challenging show to produce. But it proved within the grasp of Moonlight Troupers director Barbara Marder. Describing the show as involving "more notes than we have tackled before, the plot more stories and many characters," Marder focused on the strengths of her 44-member cast of students and seasoned actors.

The 8-ton steel set that fills the stage for the Kennedy Center's new production of Ragtime, with its four levels of scaffolding adorned with lacy, Gothic arches, becomes a visual metaphor for the relentless forward thrust of history. Each level is crowded with actors portraying the different social groups and celebrity figures in the U.S. in 1906 - a Jewish immigrant and his daughter; an upper-middle-class Victorian family; an African-American jazz pianist, his sweetheart and their child.

If there were such a genre as ragtime theater, it would probably look a lot like Eric Overmyer's "The Heliotrope Bouquet by Scott Joplin & Louis Chauvin," which is receiving its world premiere in Center Stage's new Head Theater.What Mr. Overmyer has done is the tricky task of translating one art form into another. Specifically, he has taken a collaborative composition, "The Heliotrope Bouquet," by Joplin and his little-known contemporary, Louis Chauvin, and sought out the equivalent words and images for the notes and music.

When legendary silent-film comedian Buster Keaton portrayed a clumsy university athlete trying to impress a girl, saving the day by becoming a human rudder for his rowing team, his flair for the sight gag was undeniable. Perhaps not as evident to most modern-day viewers of the 1927 movie "College" or any of Keaton's classic motion pictures, is the major role the musical score plays. But that's not the case with Andrew Greene. Since the 2009 graduate of Broadneck High School discovered ragtime music during private piano lessons several years ago, he has immersed himself in it and never looked back.

NEW YORK - For weeks before a new Broadway production of "Ragtime" began previews, Christopher Cox and Sarah Rosenthal kept coming up with creative excuses to sneak a peek inside the Neil Simon Theatre in Manhattan. Even though Chris and Sarah are child actors in the show, they weren't allowed inside the building while the set was being constructed. But quite often, the backstage door was left open, and Chris could catch glimpses of boxes of props and lighting equipment being hauled inside.

As she was setting love poems from different eras to music, Paula Diesel Farina kept one thing in mind: Never end a concert on a mournful note. A music teacher, singer and amateur composer, Farina had written music for a pair of contrasting pieces of poetry, one about first love and the other about the torment love can bring. "In the second one, 'Love is a Sickness,' the left hand plays this thumping heartbeat that you desperately wish would stop," she said, referring to the elegiac piano accompaniment.

The 8-ton steel set that fills the stage for the Kennedy Center's new production of Ragtime, with its four levels of scaffolding adorned with lacy, Gothic arches, becomes a visual metaphor for the relentless forward thrust of history. Each level is crowded with actors portraying the different social groups and celebrity figures in the U.S. in 1906 - a Jewish immigrant and his daughter; an upper-middle-class Victorian family; an African-American jazz pianist, his sweetheart and their child.

CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. - I suppose a week's worth of lectures on writing might be considered a busman's holiday for someone like me, but when the lecturers are Billy Collins, E.L. Doctorow, Joyce Carol Oates, Amy Tan and Garry Trudeau, it's a bus you want to be on. To hear these masters in the "institutional sublimity" of Chautauqua is to be at least twice blessed. For me it was thrice. I hear all these stars and I begin, as I do every summer, thinking about how to start doing the things that really matter.

The Cappies of Baltimore Awards Gala was held at the Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center in Baltimore on Sunday. Here are the winners: Critic Team: Glenelg Country Senior Critic: Maya Munoz, Glenelg Country Junior Critic: Liz Savopoulos, Reservoir Rising Critic: Chris Donaldson, River Hill Sound: Zach Brown, Wilde Lake, Moby Dick! The Musical Lighting: Dustin Doloff, Glenelg Country, Aesop's Foibles Sets: Scott Myers, Loren Scolaro, Atholton, The Diary of Anne Frank (revised)

The national tour of "Ragtime," a new musical based on E. L. Doctorow's popular novel, will be launched at the National Theatre in Washington April 14. The announcement was made Wednesday, more than 10 weeks before the production's official opening on Broadway Jan. 18.Advance group bookings for theater parties of 20 or more will be accepted beginning Nov. 17. Single tickets become available Feb. 2."Ragtime" ran its world premiere engagement December through August in Toronto and was proclaimed "Best Musical of the Year" by USA Today.

It used to be that jazz was music of the moment, and that once a style (or the musicians responsible for it) died out, it was gone forever -- except on record.These days, though, there's increasing interest in a sort of repertory approach, in which well-trained musicians revive the rhythmic idioms and improvisational approaches of the '20s, '30s and '40s. In New York, for instance, there's the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra; in Boston, the New England Conservatory Jazz Repertory Orchestra; and in Baltimore, we have the Peabody Ragtime Ensemble.

Two-act play The lowdown -- William Mastrosimone's play The Woolgatherer is the tale of two strange people who fall in love. The two-act play takes place entirely within an apartment, as Rose and Cliff navigate their conflicts and loneliness. The play is at the Fell's Point Corner Theatre starting tomorrow. If you go -- Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, tomorrow through May 4. No show April 26. Tickets $15-$17. The Fell's Point Corner Theatre is at 251 S. Ann St. Call 410-276-7837 or go to fpct.

Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers brought to life the musical drama Ragtime, which adds a syncopated score to E.L. Doctorow's 1975 novel chronicling the impact people of color and immigrants had on the upper-middle class in early 20th-century America. This sweeping historical drama looks back to 1906 and can be a challenging show to produce. But it proved within the grasp of Moonlight Troupers director Barbara Marder. Describing the show as involving "more notes than we have tackled before, the plot more stories and many characters," Marder focused on the strengths of her 44-member cast of students and seasoned actors.