All kids in 1st-12th grade are invited and encouraged to join. Our first meeting will be on Thursday, May 22nd @ 7 p.m. at Northeast Community Center (Room A) located at 4075 Gordon Stinnett Avenue, Chesapeake Beach, MD 20732. The kids will all have an opportunity to get involved with several productions. Even if they are not to appear onstage, behind the scenes help is always an important part of every production. We will also be offering workshops with talented local artists that the kids will benefit from as well. We only require a $5 membership fee, and a commitment from each child, and their parents to finish any production they commit to. And with auditions and productions of the winning entries of this year’s Kids’ Playwriting Festival, it is a great time to join! If you have any questions, please contact Regan Cashman @ -snipped-. 

• Jana Barberio, The Washington Post (Southern Maryland section):
  ‘Heartstrings’ Plucked at Black Box Theatre
• Pat Ullberg, North County News Column Reports for the The Calvert Recorder:
  Twin Beach Players production is a not-so-funny Valentine
• Dick Wilson, the Bay Weekly: Twin Beach Players’ Heartstrings: North Beach makes a cozy venue for this tug at your heartstrings.
• And of course, our review, just in case you missed it.

Laura: This is the ShowBizRadio.net review of Heartstrings: A Valentine Fable, performed by the Twin Beach Players, in North Beach, Maryland. Mike and I saw the performance on Saturday evening, February 16, 2008.

Mike: This was an ok show. The first act was made up of three different women sharing stories about their love lives and a secret admirer, and how that impacted their lives. The second act is one woman telling her love story. So, it was a little bit jumpy, the first act went a little bit long. The performances themselves were pretty good though.

Laura: Yes, I thought the performers did well. The first act did go a little bit long, I was wondering when it was going to wrap up because every time I thought it was time for intermission, another actor’s light would come up, so I thought it went a little bit long. But I liked the second act because it did wrap it all up.

Mike: Heartstrings: A Valentine Fable is a play by Phillip Grace. Three women, Anna, Elizabeth and Helen share their love stories by a series of monologues. In the second act, Barbara tells her love story as a monologue, explaining her relationship with the other three women.

Laura: The first woman we met was Anna, played by Regan Cashman. She had the hard luck story, she went through a lot of men in her life. Finally, she found the one that she thought was Mr. Right, and he turned out to be Mr. Not-So-Right. I liked her Southern accent, she kept it throughout the performance. She changed, I could see the change in her as the play progressed, her spunkiness came through.

Mike: Elizabeth, played by Clare O’Shea, was a sad woman, in that she retreated to the bottle in order to deal with her husband’s affairs and infidelities. Whenever she seemed to present a strong front, and gather some strength to fix her life, she would retreat back to the bottle. It was pretty effective. Some of her scenes went a little bit long; the drunkenness was wearing a little bit by the end. She did interact with the audience, for example when someone entered the theater late. She did ok with that.

Laura: The third woman, Helen, was played by Joanne McDonald. She was the most composed of the three women. She took things in stride but she was quite nervous when she started getting the valentines, and was upset by them, wasn’t quite sure what was going on because they messed up the flow of life, and how everything went along naturally. The valentines really threw her off.

Mike: These three women were all in the first act, and they would give a small snippet through their monologue of their life. and then lights would go down on them and come up on another of the ladies. And that continued throughout the first act. None of the ladies talked to each directly, they each were giving monologues. I think that was a good device, it was little boring though, and that’s a problem with the play itself, not much they could be done about that. I’m wondering if it would have been more interesting if these three women could’ve been at a reunion together, or a girl’s weekend and they’re sharing their stories with each other. That might have been a little more interesting, and a little more dynamic.

Laura: The second act was much shorter, it was one woman giving a monologue tying in the reason behind the valentines and the lives of the other women. Barbara was played by Marianne Rude. She was very matter of fact. She got quite emotional toward the end which I thought was nicely done, a nice contrast to the other women.

Mike: We really can’t give too much plot away because a lot of the power of this show is in the stories that unfold from each of the women.

Mike: The show lasted two hours, twenty minute with one intermission. It’s playing for one more weekend, Friday the 22nd at 8, and Saturday the 23rd at 7, at the Union Church Education Building in North Beach, Maryland.

Laura: And now, on with the show.

Cast

• Anna: Regan Cashman
• Elizabeth: Clare O’Shea
• Helen: Joanne McDonald
• Barbara: Marianne Rude

Crew:

• Producer: Janine Naus
• Director: Dianne Belanger
• Stage/Prop Manager: Dylan Elliott
• House Manager: Kelly Rodgers-Elliott
• Publicity: Janine Naus
• Program Design: Dianne Belanger and Janine Naus
• Lighting Designer: Danny Beach
• Sound Designer: Dylan Elliott
• Set Construction: Joe Belanger
• Set and Costumer Design: The Cast

• February 13: West Side Story, Port Tobacco Players, La Plata, Maryland
• February 15: Pippin, Young Hearts, Fairfax, Virginia
• February 16: Heartstrings, Twin Beach Players, Chesapeake Beach and North Beach, Maryland
• February 17: Good Night, Desdemona (Good Morning, Juliet), Foundry Players, Washington DC
• February 17: Closer, 2nd Flight Productions, Loudoun, Virginia

Let us know if you’d like us to come out to see your show.