It's almost time for the curtain to rise for "Broadway Cares Variety on the Hill," the locally-organized variety show to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
The show will be presented at the Phyllis A. Beneke Theatre in Wheeling Park High School at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14. Tickets will go on sale at the theater box office at 6 p.m. that day; the doors to the theater will be opened at 6:30 p.m.
Because of road construction under way to accommodate the school's planned J.B. Chambers Performing Arts Center, everyone attending the Broadway Cares show will have to use the back entrance at the high school, said Justin Misenhelder, the Park graduate who is organizing the event.
About 30 people - young performers from the Wheeling area - are participating in the variety show, Misenhelder said. Many of the performers will be familiar to audience members from past musical-theatrical productions in the region.
Misenhelder, who has performed in New York and on national tours, is serving as director and producer of the show. Wheeling native Chelsey Keding is back to serve as co-director and co-producer. Jeremy Richter (who is developing his own troupe, the Independent Theatre Collective, in Center Wheeling) is on board as music director. Erin Harold is the choreographer and Dottie Hanson is the production supervisor.
Sponsors for "Broadway Cares Variety on the Hill" include Ohio Valley Medical Center, Bellaire Chiropractic, Dr. Jason Misenhelder, Kathy's Kountry Oven, Independent Theatre Collective and Park Players. All proceeds from the show will be given to the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS fund.
Robert Tinnell, a West Virginia film director, screenwriter, producer and author, is slated to present a free program at the Moundsville-Marshall County Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12.
One of Tinnell's literary works is "Feast of the Seven Fishes," which tells the story of the traditional Christmas feast for an Italian-American family in a small West Virginia town. According to an old custom, many Italian-American families prepare a meal featuring "seven fishes" on Christmas Eve. The book includes recipes from Tinnell's wife, Shannon.
Filming for a movie version of "Feast of the Seven Fishes" is supposed to begin later this year in Follansbee. Tinnell is the director and screenwriter for the project.
Library spokeswoman Catherine Feryok said that during Tinnell's appearance in Moundsville, he will read from his work, describe how "Feast of the Seven Fishes" came to fruition and "offer the latest news on the film project." The library is located at Fifth Street and Tomlinson Avenue.
At least three Northern Panhandle attractions are featured in producer Rick Sebak's newest documentary in the Pittsburgh History Series. The documentary, titled "Right Beside The River," is set to air on WQED-TV at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20.
George Hazimanolis, senior director of corporate communications for WQED Pittsburgh, said the featured sites include the Official Marx Toy Museum and the Native American burial mound, both in Moundsville, and the Cockayne House in Glen Dale.
Western Pennsylvania sites profiled in "Right Beside The River" include Verona, Ambridge, Vandergrift, Old Economy village, the Fredericktown Ferry, the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale and Fiddle's Confectionery in Brownsville, Hazimanolis said.
Sebak and his team of collaborators "are celebrating our rivers and all sorts of things you can find relatively close to them" in this new program, the WQED spokesman stated.
Congratulations go out to U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and his wife, Sharon, on the birth of their sixth grandchild, Davison Oliver Wayne, who carries the senator's middle name.
The senator and his wife announced that the baby, who's being called Davis, was born Monday, July 27. He is the third child of their daughter, Valerie, and her husband, Steve Wayne. The couple also has two daughters, Percy Abigail, who will turn 4 in November, and Lucy Natalia, who turns 2 this month.
The Rockefellers also are the grandparents of Laura Chandler, Sophia Percy and John D. Rockefeller VI, the children of their son, John, and his wife, Emily.
Linda Comins can be reached via e-mail at: Comins@news-register.net
