Mission
Sonnet Repertory Theatre, Inc., is dedicated to classic theatre for the modern planet. SRT promotes classic plays and adaptations, providing forums for collaboration between emerging artists and established professionals. With Classics in the Classroom, SRT aims not only to entertain, but also to educate young people by engaging them with timeless literature through expressive theatre.
Special Announcement
SONNET SINGS THE BARD
Special thanks to 2009’s contributors, performers, sponsors, donors, friends, and all who brought Sonnet Sings the Bard 2009 to life.
Visit Sonnet Sings 09 Event Gallery
Sonnet Sings the Bard
SRT’s Eighth Annual Cabaret Benefit Event
An Evening of Original Songs Inspired by the Work of William Shakespeare
SONNET SINGS THE BARD is an evening of musical performances inspired by the writings of William Shakespeare. Each year, this highly-anticipated event features some of the most celebrated artists in musical theater, and this year was no exception.
2009’s benefit was hosted on Monday, November 16, in Manhattan’s brand new arts and entertainment complex: 92YTribeca. Academy and Tony Award-winning participants contributed, and the event featured a raffle bonanza, full of NYC’s best.
2009’s contributors included Tony, Grammy, Emmy and Drama Desk Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated composers and lyricists MARC SHAIMAN and SCOTT WITTMAN (Hairspray, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Patti LuPone on Broadway), Tony, Grammy and Emmy-nominated and Academy Award-winning composer DAVID SHIRE (Baby, Closer Than Ever, Big, Saturday Night Fever), GEORGIA STITT (This Ordinary Thursday: The Songs Of Georgia Stitt with Sara Ramirez, Kelli O’Hara, Faith Prince, and many more), RAY LESLEE (Avenue X, Standup Shakespeare, Shakespeare Sings), KARL MANSFIELD (conductor and keyboardist for Broadway’s Xanadu, La Boheme, 13, Dracula, Corum Boy, Sweet Charity, and Off-Broadway’s Grey Gardens, Toxic Avenger, Shafrika the White Girl and Alter Boyz) with STEVE ROUTMAN (in Broadway’s latest The Fantasticks), and WADE McCOLLUM (composer and lyricist for ONE, and award-winning performance in Hedwig and the Angry Inch).
09 Benefit Host Seth Rudetsky
2009’s Benefit Host was SETH RUDETSKY. Seth is THE Broadway host, seven days a week, on Sirius Satellite Radio and he currently writes a weekly column on Playbill.com. He was the artistic producer/music director for the first five annual Actors Fund Fall Concerts including Dreamgirls with Audra MacDonald and Hair with Jennifer Hudson. His Broadway acting debut was playing Sheldon (singing “Magic to Do” in a devastating unitard) in The Ritz directed by Joe Mantello for The Roundabout. Off-Broadway, Seth wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed Rhapsody In Seth, directed by Peter Flynn at the Actors Playhouse. As an author, Seth has penned the books “The Q Guide to Broadway”, and the recently published “Broadway Nights” which was released as an audio book, featuring Andrea Martin, Jonathan Groff and Kristin Chenoweth. Recently, Seth was the vocal coach on MTV’s Legally Blonde reality show.
Celia Keenan-Bolger
Performers Included: Tony, Drama Desk and Theatre World Award-winning actress CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER (Les Miserables, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), TITUSS BURGESS (Guys and Dolls, The Little Mermaid, Jersey Boys, Good Vibrations), LAWRENCE CLAYTON (Bells Are Ringing, The Civil War, Once Upon A Mattress, Dreamgirls), JENN COLELLA (High Fidelity, Urban Cowboy), SARAH JOY KABANUCK (Baz Luhrmann’s Tony Award-winning La Boheme, and “Three Graces” with Decca/Universal Records), JULIA MURNEY (Wicked, Lennon, Drama Desk-nominated for The Wild Party), JIM STANEK (Lestat, Little Women, The Rivals, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Indiscretions), CELINA CARVAJAL (Tarzan, Dracula, 42nd Street, and Cats; film includes The Big Gay Musical, Sex and the City, and The Stepford Wives, as well as TV’s “All My Children” and MTV’s “Legally Blonde: the Search for the Next Elle Woods”), and MARSHALL COID (Chicago’s onstage violinist).
Music director and contributing composer for the evening was RICK HIP-FLORES (composer and lyricist for Neon Mirage, A Tooth Fairy Tale, My New York, Dido and Aeneas, Tartuffe and As You Like It; music director for High School Musical, Singin’ in the Rain, Jacques Brel, Breaking Up is Hard to Do, Shakespeare on Broadway, 8 by Tenn, Henry and Mudge, A Christmas Carol, The Last Smoke in America, and numerous productions for Musicals Tonight!; orchestra performance in Broadway’s Billy Elliot, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and Spelling Bee).
Thank You, Sponsors
Actors Connection, Angel Feet, Apple Core Hotels, Bar Americain, Breakthrough Studios, Bradford Shreve, Bumble and bumble, C. Mingo Long, Christine Pedi, David Sabella-Mills, James Saba, Joe Allen Restaurant, Le Pain Quotidian, MCC Theater, Memphis the musical, Peter Hurley Photography, Red Flower Custom Botanicals, Tim Simmons, the little owl, Victoria Gordan, V.P. Boyle.
Event photography: Jason Woodruff Photography and D. Cuevas Photography.
History
Who we are, how it happened and where we’re headed now…
Sonnet Repertory Theatre was founded in 2002 by Robyne Parrish and Katrina Thomas Kent, fellow graduates of the School of Drama at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (www.ncarts.edu). Fellow UNCSA alumni Ben Cherry, Monica Francisco, and Sean Kent formed SRT’s original core acting ensemble.
Since then, SRT has produced seven consecutive seasons of classic works and several specialty series including The Bard’s Backyard, ShakesBARE, The Collaborative Series, and Plays in Progress, a forum for new work based on classic themes. SRT has grown into a state-supported, not-for-profit theatre company, incorporating and sustaining artists and creators from very diverse backgrounds and styles.
In June of 2007, SRT welcomed Todd Loyd and Tiffany Little Canfield as its new Co-Artistic Directors, and the company continues to evolve. At its core, SRT remains supremely dedicated to classic theatre and continues the pursuit of excellence on the stage.