Theatre

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.

Spirited show The lowdown -- Join a small cast of student soloists and an orchestra of 13 when they perform Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw -- A Ghost Story as part of the Peabody Opera Theatre. The story follows a young governess when she is hired to look after two orphaned children at an isolated country home. As things begin to go horribly wrong, the governess begins to see spirits; but are the spirits real or are they simply figments of her imagination? Miss If you go -- Performances are at 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Miriam A. Friedberg Hall, 17 E. Mount Vernon Place.

Howard County Summer Theatre. Silver anniversary production, "Hello, Dolly!" 7 p.m. to 9: 30 p.m. April 29, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 1 at Mount Hebron High School, St. John's Lane and Route 99, Ellicott City. Take music and be prepared to sing. Call 410-465-8623.F. Scott Black's Towson Dinner Theatre. Replacement auditions for "Pageant." Replacements needed for Miss West Coast and the "Bert Parks"-style master of ceremonies. 7: 30 p.m. April 27 at the theater, 100 E. Chesapeake Ave. Call 410-321-6595.

Mission: To nurture the talents of Maryland playwrights by offering public readings, discussions, critiques and new-play workshops. Readings are held September through March. During the summer, the newly developed works are premiered at participating theaters. Since its first production in 1982, the Baltimore Playwrights Festival has produced 145 plays by Maryland playwrights.Latest accomplishments: This year, the number of production organizations participating in the BPF increased from two to seven -- Spotlighters Theatre, Director's Choice Theatre, Fells Point Corner Theatre, Vagabond Players, Baltimore Street Players, Uncommon Voices Theatre Company and Mobtown Players.

The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee will present a video screening of "Sounder" tonight at 7: 30 p.m. Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield star in Martin Ritt's classic 1972 drama about a sharecropper family living in Louisiana during the Depression. The video will be shown at the American Friends Service Committee, 4806 York Road. Doors open at 7 p.m. Admission is free, and refreshments will be served. For more information call 410-377-7987.It's `Wonderful' to giveIf it's the holiday season, it must be time for the Senator to dust off a print of "It's a Wonderful Life," Frank Capra's classic Christmas tale starring Jimmy Stewart.

Alumni Theatre Company. Needed are a director, musical director, technical staff and running crew for the fall production of "Back to Bacharach and David." Director with musical experience preferred. Also needed are stage manager, light and sound technicians, prop person and costumer. Some positions are paid. Call 410-455-4400.Fell's Point Corner Theatre. John Patrick Shanley's wacky comedy "Psychopathia Sexualis." 7: 30 p.m. July 5-6 at the theater, 251 S. Ann St. Needed are three men -- one, age 30-45, and two, late 20s to mid-30s; and two women, late 20s to mid-30s.

Baltimore Theatre Alliance. Auditions for BTA members and the general public. On-stage performers, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 15, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. May 17; off-stage talent exchange, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. May 8. Both events at Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St. Call 410-783-0777.Burtonsville Players Summer Teen Theatre. "Macbeth Did It." 2 p.m. May 16 and 7 p.m. May 19 at the theater, near the cinema in back of the Laurel Lakes shopping center complex, U.S. 1 in Laurel. Call 301-879-8603.Harford Dance Theatre.

Attention must be paid," Linda Loman says of her husband Willy in one of the most famous speeches in "Death of a Salesman." That line was first spoken on stage a half century ago, but thanks to a powerful new Broadway revival starring Brian Dennehy, attention is once again centering on Arthur Miller's modern classic.The reason isn't merely because of the strength of the production. It's because in this monumental drama, Miller introduced themes that would resonate not only with audiences 50 years later, but throughout much of his subsequent work.

Fell's Point Corner Theatre. "Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde." 7: 30 p.m. tomorrow at the theater, 251 S. Ann St. Needed are several men ages 18 to 25, and one man to play Oscar Wilde in his 40s. Be prepared to read from script. Call 410-466-8341.Movie extras. For John Waters' new feature film "Cecil B. DeMented," starring Melanie Griffith and Stephen Dorff. The film will be shot entirely on location in Baltimore, beginning the first week of October. Though all ages are needed, teen-agers through early 20s are especially being sought.

Baltimore Theatre Alliance. Auditions for BTA members and the general public. On-stage performers, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 15, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. May 17; off-stage talent exchange, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. May 8. Both events at Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St. Call 410-783-0777.Burtonsville Players Summer Teen Theatre. "Macbeth Did It." 2 p.m. May 16 and 7 p.m. May 19 at the theater, near the cinema in back of the Laurel Lakes shopping center complex, U.S. 1 in Laurel. Call 301-879-8603.Liberty Showcase Theatre.

This week's high drama at the Senator Theatre reminded me that owning and maintaining an old entertainment palace is not easy. Put your name on a theatrical mortgage at your own financial and mental peril. The lights of the marquee may impart excitement and glamour. But the anxiety involved with keeping up a roof, walls, furnace and upholstery in a house that seats hundreds of people is a killer. And what about the bank that holds the deed? Two summers ago, I was walking along Baltimore Street and spotted an open door at the Morris Mechanic Theatre, which, at that point, had ceased being an operating entertainment venue.

The owner of the financially troubled Senator Theatre held a town meeting yesterday to discuss his plans for seeking nonprofit status, a move that could open up the single-screen movie house to local plays, concerts and other productions. Tom Kiefaber said he envisions the Senator as a multipurpose entertainment and education venue if it is granted nonprofit designation, and that he no longer will run the day-to-day operations. Officials from Mayfair Consulting, a service firm helping with the transition, said it usually takes about 18 to 24 months for a business to turn nonprofit, and that the theater will continue to show movies in the interim.

ARTS 'Labyrinth of Peace' Living Labyrinth for Peace by visionary artist and labyrinth builder Sandra Wasko-Flood runs through Jan. 10 at the Sub-Basement Artists Studios, 118 N. Howard St. Unlike mazes, labyrinths have one path that leads to the center and back. Wasko-Flood's Rainbow Labyrinth of Peace is an interactive installation of computer-programmed lights, designed to be walked. The exhibit also includes a labyrinth workshop Saturday, a peace workshop Dec. 20, a poetry reading Dec. 27 and a "peace panel" Jan. 3. Go to sbastudios.

The Pasadena Theatre Company has an affinity for Godspell, which it first performed in 1999, became its most successful show ever when it ran for the second time in 2000 and was a strong crowd-pleaser when it was last revived in April 2005. Now the troupe is rehearsing the musical a fourth time around for a one-weekend run at the Anne Arundel Community College Humanities Recital Hall. "This show is back by popular demand," director Chuck Dick said before rehearsal last week at Unity by the Bay Church in Severna Park.

JEFFERSON A. RUSSELL ACTOR JEFFERSON A. RUSSELL worked as a Baltimore police officer for four years, then as a juvenile probation officer, before giving up law enforcement to pursue his first love of acting. He currently is performing with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in the role of the King of Morocco in Tamburlaine, and is playing Levune in Edward II. In March, he will be at Everyman Theatre as Citizen Barlow in Gem of the Ocean. Although acting might seem like a drastic shift from police work, Russell says it really isn't.

Spirited show The lowdown -- Join a small cast of student soloists and an orchestra of 13 when they perform Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw -- A Ghost Story as part of the Peabody Opera Theatre. The story follows a young governess when she is hired to look after two orphaned children at an isolated country home. As things begin to go horribly wrong, the governess begins to see spirits; but are the spirits real or are they simply figments of her imagination? Miss If you go -- Performances are at 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Miriam A. Friedberg Hall, 17 E. Mount Vernon Place.

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.

Camelot was an instant hit when it opened on Broadway in 1960, boasting a tuneful score by Frederick Loewe set to the witty lyrics of Alan Jay Lerner. Almost 50 years later, this musical retains much of its luster, as shown by Pasadena Theatre Company's current production of the classic tale of King Arthur, Guinevere and the Knights of the Round Table. It benefits from the efforts of co-directors Chuck Dick and Beverly Van Joolen, music director Tom Jackson and the skills of 35 local performers and behind-the-scenes craftsmen and technicians.

A series of wooden African masks hangs on the walls of a handsome colonial home in an unnamed country in Western Africa. The mouths and eyes are carved in formal expressions of horror and surprise. How fitting. If you go The Unmentionables runs at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 641 D St. N.W. through Sept. 30. Show times: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m., 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets cost $32-$52. Call 202-393-3939 or go to woollymammoth.net.

Carrots probably don't do much to improve vision. But a new theater troupe taking its name from the orange veggie might help Baltimore audiences see the world with fresh eyes. The inaugural production of Single Carrot Theatre, a company composed of recent college graduates, is brimming with potential. But not every ingredient in Adam Rapp's Red Light Winter is ready for consumption. Elements of the mixture have been unevenly diced. Some are cooked through, while others are nearly raw. If You Go Red Light Winter continues through Aug. 19 at Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St. Show times are 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays.