Thank you.

A nice mix of action is coming to the stage. Here is our Youtube enhanced preview

Rhonda Vincent with opening act Newgrass Troubadours

Ticket Prices: $15.00, $20.00, $25.00, $30.00

D.L. Hughley and Friends “Laugh Your A*s Off Comedy Explosion

Ticket Prices: $45.00

Seems a little steep for DL but remember he was an original “King of Comedy” so hopefully he still has some good material.

Here is some classic stuff.  WARNING- We rate this PG13 because much of what he says seems to be pretty common language. Some might give it an R.  But it is hilarious when he starts cracking on the audience.

The Color Purple

Ticket Prices: $47.30, $58.30, $63.80

Michael McDonald

Ticket Prices: $35.00, $45.00, $55.00

There are 4 great shows playing this month.

The Fall of the House

by Robert Ford

April 9 – 25, 2010

The spirit of Edgar Allan Poe haunts this mind-bending new play that brings together magic, betrayal, forbidden love, tragic accidents, secret documents and familial bonds that span 150 years. This production is recommended for mature audiences only due to strong profanity and mature themes

Lettice & Lovage

by Peter Shaffer

April 9 – May 22, 2010

Exuberant, eccentric Lettice Douffet is a tour guide given to exaggerating history to entertain her charges. Lotte Schoen is a buttoned-up, by-the-book boss brought in to fire her. Their confrontation leads to an unlikely friendship filled with drama, laughter and an accidental near-beheading. This very witty, very British comedy is tailor-made for fans of the BBC. Recommended for ages 10+.

Hamlet

by William Shakespeare

April 16 – May 22, 2010

Denmark’s sweet prince suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as he seeks to avenge the murder of his father, poisoned by Hamlet’s conniving uncle. The bodies pile up as his revenge takes its toll on the innocent as well as the guilty. Recommended for ages 10+ for some violence and mature themes.

All’s Well That Ends Well

by William Shakespeare

April 23 – May 22, 2010

Helena is smart, brave, talented…and in love with a man who’s just not that into her. But she’s willing to do whatever it takes to win his heart – be it risk the wrath of a king, cross battle lines or fake her own death. Because after all, all’s well that ends well. Recommended for ages 10+ for mature themes.

This is pretty cool as well as there are plenty of Jasmine Guy fans in Montgomery.

Jasmine Guy joins cast of world premiere at Alabama Shakespeare Festival

By Alec Harvey — The Birmingham News

March 30, 2010, 9:20AM

Jasmine Guy is headed to Alabama.Jasmine Guy, whose career has included notable stints on TV series such as “A Different World” and “The Vampire Diaries,” will be coming to Montgomery’s Alabama Shakespeare Festival in September to star in a world-premiere musical.

Guy has joined the cast of Pearl Cleage’s “The Nacirema Society Requests the Honor of Your Presence at a Celebration of Their First One-Hundred Years.” The world premiere takes place at ASF Sept. 24-Oct. 3 before moving on to Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre Oct. 20-Nov. 14.

Tickets for the show go on sale Thursday at www.asf.net or by calling 800-841-4273.

Set in Montgomery, Cleage’s show is described by ASF as a “joyous and irreverent romp through black debutante society.” Guy will play a New York Times society reporter.

Guy is no stranger to musicals. She has appeared on Broadway in “The Wiz,” Leader of the Pack,” “Grease!” and “Chicago.”

It is the brainchild of medical supply giant Medline who has donated almost a half million dollars in the last five years to provide education and free mammograms to those in need and continues to make contributions every year.

They worked in conjunction with the good people at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR. to make this incredible video that has been viewed over seven million times since its debut.

For the complete story visit their site here

For those that have not seen the original video here it is.

The participants really looked like they had a GREAT time making this video.
After watching it we were truly inspired by the effort and made the remix that you see in the sidebar.

It took a number of hours to do it, but it was something that we could do without help.

Well now we are even more inspired and would like to make a city wide response to this video in order to create even more awareness for the cause. This is something that we can’t do without help.

There are several cancer awareness events in the coming weeks sponsored by these organizations.

Cancer Wellness Foundation

Skippy Golf tournament and other festivities that go with it in late April.

Junior Executive Board of American Cancer Society has a big crawfish boil at Riverwalk Stadium on April 10.

Joy to Life has several events including the Joy to Life walk at Crampton Bowl on Saturday, April 17, 2010.

We will be in contact with these organizations during the upcoming week to gauge their response and willingness to participate in the project.

Although it is our intention to film various scenes at several of the events it doesnt have to be limited to ONLY these events.  Anyone who would like to be part of this campaign to increase cancer awareness and show the world what Montgomery is all about is invited to DANCE with us.
If your company or organization would like to receive some well deserved publicity for supporting the cause send an email to Editor@GreatNewsMomtgomery.com and we can discuss including you all in the video.  If there is enough response we would consider making 2 videos.

The video will be edited in late April and be ready to be uploaded to Youtube and other file sharing sites by May the 1st.

Updated April 8

Sometimes you dont have to do anything to inspire others to do it. We are glad that our willingness to participate has contributed to someone else taking the bulls by the horn to promote this concept on a bigger scale.

This is great because they are in a better position than us to do something of this magnitude. Look out for videos being produced by the good people of BIg Dreamz Creative in the upcoming weeks.
They have been providing quality video work to Montgomery charities and nonprofits for around 10 years now.

The Crawfish Boil, the Joy to Life Walk and the Skippy events for the Cancer Wellness Foundation are all Great NEWS Montgomery!

Soul Sessions Volume 1 is the first in a series of concerts promoting Old School- New Soul Music and is headlined by River Region supertalents Eric Nettles and Rodney Wilkerson.

Emcee Tonya Terry states:

It was the best tribute they could give to those artists who paved the way for them. Eric and Rodney delivered powerhouse performances and proved that you don’t have to leave Montgomery to find some of the best talent anywhere! Bravo!!

Mega-voiced Eric Nettles  can perform Luther Vandross with the best of them.
His versions of Never Too Much and If Only for One Night were superb and garnered much love from the enthusiastic crowd.
This is the best video we could find that captures the true power of his voice.

Here are a couple reasons  why ANY serious musician or artist should have at least 1 video on Youtube, not only does it make your music available to fans but it also allows writers, promoters and such a way to link or embed that video in a blog or other website.
We could write all day about how awesome a performer is but a video lets people SEE and HEAR it for themselves.

Our standing offer to excellent musicians in the area is this. If you are playing at an event we are attending contact – editor@GreatNewsMontgomery.com – and he will record and post one video to our You-tube channel completely free of charge and feature that video in a future post on this site.

If we are not attending the event and you would like someone to record  a song in full HD, edit in name and titles, optimize it for internet  search engines and then upload it to multiple video sharing sites including Youtube and Google videos  our sister company GreatNews Video will do it for a nominal fee of $49 as our way of showing appreciation to local talent.

This is a very time consuming  service that is valued at $200 minimum.

Rodney Wilkerson AKA the Candy Man was up next up to keep the party going. He showed his dynamic musical range by performing a mix of
R and B, Blues, and Gospel. His rendition of A Song for You by musical legend Donnie Hathaway was off the charts.

Here is a video of him singing an original song off his debut album Serious.

The video  is part of a Culture Shock webisode. Check out some of their work at CultureShock.ws.
Musical director  Terrence Baldwin from Culture Shock with partner in rhyme Jamar Muhammed on left

One of the surprises of the show occured just after the intermission when

Sammy “Flea Market Montgomery” Stephens made an apperance to ham it up with Tonya.

Very Funny stuff

Now lets not forget the back up singers and band. As a group they were top notch and added serious production values to the show. Eddie could not get everyone’s name, but here is the deal. IF you were in the show and want credit for it, just write a comment below telling us your name and who you are.

We are looking forward to Soul Sessions 2 coming in the near future as this series is destined to keep “Good Music” playing for years to come.

Soul Sessions is Great News Montgomery.

Here is the link to the auction page where you can check out all the stuff that’s available. Looks like alot of great items and we will take a look at some of the winning bids next week. The two most intriguing items to Eddie are listed under the “one of a kind” tab.

Item Information

Estimated Value Priceless

Item Number OAK1

Item Description

The Scot Bruce Up Close and Personal package includes four premium house seats to Elvis: The Early Years starring Scot Bruce at ASF on August 16, 2010. This sure-to-be-sold-out concert is actually on the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death 33 years ago! You and your guests will also enjoy getting up close and personal with Scot and the band during an intimate backstage cocktail dinner and photo op before the The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll takes the stage.

The concert is August 16, 2010.  Dinner is at 6:30pm and the concert begins at 7:30pm.

Item Information

Estimated Value Priceless

Item Number OAK3

Item Description

Step on stage! Win a walk-on role in ASF’s 2010 holiday show. You’ll give one star-making performance after a little rehearsal time with the cast and crew.

Good for ASF’s 2010 holiday play only

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Harriet’s Return is a one woman show based upon the life of Harriet Tubman.

It will be playing at ASF  from  Fri Feb 05 to Sun Feb 28

Excerpt from Wikipedia

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross; c. 1822 – March 10, 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. After escaping from slavery, into which she was born, she made thirteen missions to rescue over seventy slaves[1] using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry, and in the post-war era struggled for women’s suffrage.

Karen Jones Meadows is a mega talent and we will have an exclusive interview with her  sometime next week.

In the meantime check out her website and see what people are saying about the show.

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Updated 15 Feb 2010

We would like to thank the very gracious staff at the King Parsonage Museum for allowing us the opportunity to film there. Karen was very excited  about being there and that enthusiasm helped   inspire some of the great footage that we obtained.

Eddie saw the show last weekend and it didnt disappoint. Because a full exclusive  review will appear in the next issue of RSVP Magazine we will keep this short. The show was awesome and a

Marvel in Modern Day Storytelling

For those interested this full album is available at RiverRegionOnline.

This is the best social media forum for businesses and business people in the River Region.

There is one image that appears in the collage that does not appear in the video montage above. We will be giving away something that is very unique and valuable to one of our readers who spots the difference

A signed copy of Henry Winkler’s book My Dog’s a Scaredy Cat. This is from his best selling Hank Zipzer series and was obtained at the 50th Anniversay Celebration of the Family Guidance Center.

It is signed “You are Great”, Henry Winkler 09.

Just comment below as to which picture on the collage does not appear in the video and also which picture in the video is not on the collage. A winner will be selected at random in about 2 weeks.

Living legend Willie Nelson, Master Illusionist David Copperfield, 14 time Grammy winning Bluegrass performer Ricky Skaggs  and a Comedy Central favorite  comedian Brian Regan will all perform on the MPAC stage in January.

Here is a preview of each artist:

Willie Nelson created this video himself. Guess you don’t have to have a big studio to make a cool video!

Although Willie skips the original intro in the Tom T Hall classic:

Well I met the man in Montgomery, Alabama
I was waiting on a bus and he was shining shoes
And I heard him say:

listen to the lyrics at about 24 seconds for a Montgomery reference. Maybe he will sing the original intro at the show.

David Copperfield is probably the most recognized magician in the world.Here is a mentalist trick that you can actually play along with.

From “I Walked on the Moon”. Hilarious clip about food and their  labels.

It doesnt get any more vintage than this. A seven year old Skaggs performing with Lester Flatt and Earl Tubbs

Visit MPAC online for tickets and more info

The stage version of the play will be performed at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival now through 24  December 2009.

Get your tickets at ASF.net

Here is a GreatNews Video edited using some original footage mashed with an official ASF  commerical. This video also appears on a sidebar channel

This is our Jib-Jab created version of the show staring Eddieographer, Meg Lewis, Jt and Leanne and Scot Bruce

Hopefully we will have a chance to see the show soon.

In the meantime here is a killer  review from Michael Howley of TheatreMontgomery Blog.

– “What do you want for Christmas?”
– “..a legendary official Red Ryder 200-shot carbine action range model air rifle with a compass and this thing which tells time built into the stock.”
– “You’ll shoot your eye out!”

These lines are repeated frequently in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s delightful production of Jean Shepherd’s “A Christmas Story” adapted for the stage by Philip Grecian, and brought to life under Geoffrey Sherman’s clever direction by a company of professional actors and local students recruited from many Montgomery schools.

Anyone who has seen the television movie version — and there were plenty in the audience for its sold out opening performance — anticipates this dialogue and many of the signal moments in the life of nine-year-old Ralphie Parker: his imaginative adventures as a cowboy, his school friends and the local bully, the friend who gets his tongue stuck to an icy lamppost, the delivery of a leg lamp, an outrageous pink bunny pajama set, the unchanging meat-loaf and red cabbage dinner, and numerous exploits and anticipation on the way to Christmas morning’s opening of presents.

And we see all of this through the lens of the grown up Ralphie reminiscing on his childhood in Depression Era Indiana, as he vividly conjurs his family, friends, teachers, and local characters for us to see…but more on this later.

The young student ensemble is top notch: from Hailey Covington’s unnerving depiction of Helen — the science wiz who can also fight like a boy; to MaryKathryn Samelson as Ralphie’s younger brother Randy who always “has to go wee-wee” and hides in the most unlikely places; to Jackson Massey’s bully, Scut Farcas, who gets his comeuppance in right good fashion; to Riley Segars’ portrayal of Flick — the bully’s victim; to Claudia Hubbard’s always patient Esther Jane, and to Schwartz [Nathan Looney], Sarah [Helen Taylor], and Bob [Matthew Sailors] who participate fully in each scene.

But attention must be paid to Seth Meriwether as Ralphie. No stranger to the ASF stage [he has appeared in "A Christmas Carol: the Musical", and made a significant impression in both "Over the Tavern" and "Richard III"], this young actor is in the process of mastering a comic technique and complex characterizations and already exhibits a high degree of proficiency and maturity. — In “A Christmas Story”, he is so natural in the role, and such a likeable personality, that we are continually engaged in his dilemmas and cheer him on to success.

The adults in Ralphie’s life — his Mother [Sandy York], his Father, the “old man” [Bryant Mason], and his teacher, Miss Shields [Jennifer Lyon] — are more than cut-out versions of adults that children often perceive. Yes, they do have their foibles and peculiarities, yet: Ms. York is so unassuming in the role of the Mother, that we are delighted when she can supply answers to the trivia her husband is attempting to discover, and admire her ability to be the real strength in the family; Ms. Lyon’s magical portrayal of the ever-optimistic teacher is a scene-stealer; and Mr. Mason’s pompous “old man” with his “catalogue of invective…and…lexicon of curses” belies his compassionate treatment of his wife and children.

In a tour de force performance as the narrator — Ralphie’s grown-up self who can “triple-dog-dare you” to not love this show –Rodney Clark pulls out all the stops as the lively and masterful storyteller, a man who realizes the impact his childhood experiences had on him, an understanding of the adults who molded him with their love, an ability to see both the serious and the comic in life’s everyday occurrences, and an actor’s flexibility in developing each of these parts so completely and believably.

Thanks to Shepherd’s [and Grecian's] wonderfully descriptive and insightful and imaginative dialogue, to a design team that provide the illusion of a nostalgic past, and to Sherman’s sense of the comic proportion of this story, the stellar performances usher in a delightful Christmas season in Montgomery.

Joy Lambert of WAKA channel 8 told us that…

ASF’s A Christmas Story was like being a fly on the wall in the classic movie, every moment executed just as you remember it, it really brings you into the story… and really made me want a leg lamp!

A Christmas Story at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival is Great News Montgomery.

A Day of Gratitude

As I was sitting back thinking of what my Mom was going to prepare for “Turkey Day” this year – the only meal of the year that can be eaten, literally guilt free – I also began thinking of the many reasons why we’ve become so fond of this Day of Thanksgiving.

I believe it’s because, along with the usual turkey, stuffing, mashed-potatoes, corn, green beans and Mom’s famous pecan pie (just to name a few of the excellent dishes prepared that day), that we also serve up hefty portions of:

Gratitude – for having a country to appreciate, a family to honor and a loving home to visit over the holidays;
Happiness – from opening our hearts in unison to family, friends and strangers alike;
Pride – not only in who we are now, but also in who we have the potential to become;
Forgiveness – towards others, because we’ve all done something that needs forgiving;
Hope – that we can all share another blessed Thanksgiving dinner together next year;
Faith – In knowing that no matter what obstacles lie before us, we have the God-given inner strength to pull through
Love – to remember that this is the greatest gift you can give mankind.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, these positive feelings come easy, and are a huge reason why this day is so cherished and celebrated. The true test of perpetuation, however, comes after the leftovers are stored away in the refirgerator and the last china dish is returned safely to its proper place in the cupboard.

Although grateful and humbled that we can all appreciate this remarkable day – a day that brings us all closer to the Oneness that we truly are – imagine how quickly we could transform this community, this town, and even our world if we just preserved those positive attitudes in our prevalent minds and transferred them into acts of kindness in our daily lives.

So, on this 388th year of celebrating Thanksgiving, we extend an invitation to you to continue expressing these feelings of “thanksgiving-ness” for more than just one Thursday in November. Let’s see how quickly we can transform the world by sharing one genuine act of kindness at a time – and if we’re successful, we could very well be celebrating this Day of Gratitude year-round.

Debra Dynes
The People of GreatNewsMontgomery.com