“Bang! Productions independent presentation captures the mood so well, with a bevy of compelling ensemble performances… It’s a well-told story, and a fine, intense evening of both music and drama.” BEST BET!! "SIDE MAN's a risk for a brand-new company as well. The memory play spans decades as fast as Brown scales octaves. Newly formed Bang! Productions, however, has made an impressive debut. Director Scott Striegel replicates jazz musicians’ total gone devotion — like a secular religion." "The essence of jazz is improvisation, where musicians riff on a core melody and take it wherever the muse strikes them... These twists keep "SIDE MAN" interesting in its mostly solid local premiere with Bang! Productions at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights." BEST BET!! "SIDE MAN is partly a memory play, partly a domestic drama, and partly a melancholy look back at an era in jazz history that is now long gone. It is at its best as a piece of theater when jazz is in the forefront, and Bang!'s production shares this strength." JAZZ 88.3 Partners with Bang! Productions KSDS is a full-time mainstream/traditional Jazz radio station, licensed to the San Diego Community College District, broadcasting 24 hours a day from the campus of San Diego City College. Founded in 1951, the station began programming Jazz in 1973 and became San Diego’s only full-time Jazz station in 1985. KSDS is free of commercial clutter, and mainly staffed by announcers who have a passion for the music and a deep knowledge that they share with the audience. Jazz is educational, energizing, multi-textured and mind-broadening. Jazz is a true Art form, and it's presented live and spontaneously on KSDS, a rarity in the current entertainment scene. KSDS remains one of the few radio stations in America to offer full-time, undiluted Jazz programming, acknowledging the heritage of this wonderful music while helping it live on through today’s artists. Bang! has provided tickets to Jazz 88.3 for their promotional give-aways and, if you are not a winner, Jazz 88.3 members get $4 off the regular ticket price. So tune in or logon to Jazz 88.3. Bang! Tuning Up for Next Show Jazz historian and pianist/ composer, Marc Steinberg of New York will be Cyber-Dramaturge! Co-producer, Michael McKeon, will be arranging the cyber chats with the cast during the first week of rehearsal. "It's pretty cool!" says McKeon, "Why not take advantage of the technology available to us. He (Steinberg) will be able to speak to the cast and play recordings live and in real time." Co-producer and director Scott Striegel, a long time friend of Mr. Steinberg says, "This will be very valuable during the important table work period of rehearsals. Marc can give us what we could never glean by doing book or online research. He has lived a lot of these characters stories. That’s gold to an actor!" Mr. Steinberg has just written a thesis for New York University entitled Bebop: An Improvised and Audacious Attempt to Make the Most Out of a Bad Situation. "The big elephant in the room when talking about early Jazz in America," says Steinberg, "is racism and the unequal treatment of African American musicians. New technologies like the phonograph and radio collapsed distance, allowing regional styles to travel without having to leave home. They were color-blind technologies. Jazz was an abstraction that captured the imagination of musicians, bypassing racism. SIDE MAN subtly portrays how white musicians idolized many black musicians with whom they could not share the same stage." |
A New "Opening" at the Diversionary Theatre
OFFICIAL ARTS PARTNER |
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