The Little Theatre of Alexandria

"I am an attorney in Alexandria with a staff of 9.   For over 20 years I have kept my office closed on January 8 (Elvis' Birthday) and have treated it as a legal holiday.   People think we're nuts when they call and are told we'll be closed "for the Holiday", but that's their problem. I believe that some day Elvis' Birthday will be officially recognized as a federal holiday, as it should be.   It helps break up that long holiday gap (3 weeks) between New Year's and Martin Luther King Day." -Tom Gorman "I just have to enter my daughter (Francesca) in this contest! Although she is only 12, out of a million topics she could have picked for her history fair project, she and her friend (Kirsten) picked "Elvis, The King!" They spent months researching, writing, planning, and learning about Elvis and how he changed the world. Their project was selected from their school to move on to the County! Even if we don't win tickets, I pla

What do you find appealing about this play? I think this show is theatre “magic” at its best. I saw this play in London in 2005 and I thought it was one of the smartest plays I had ever seen. It was very minimalistic in set, costumes, actors, etc… and I wasn’t sure what to expect when it started. I didn’t know anything about it going in and went on the recommendation of the ticket seller. After a couple of minutes, I was intrigued by the story and the way it was performed. A few moments after that, I was completely sucked in. It’s a simple show and a simple ghost story but it delivers big moments. It’s a show that you can’t easily predict so it was fun to go along for the ride and be a little scared along the way. I would watch it over and over again. Even just thinking about it now, takes me back to that London theatre and the emotions I felt being in the audience. Not many shows I’ve seen have done that. When I saw this show on the LTA season calendar last year, I knew I had to

Woman in Black, at its core, is about creating a tangible expression of our worst fears. Every one of us has something that terrifies us, whether spiders, drowning, small spaces, or heights. The play, like the ghost stories we tell around campfires and the creepy movies we watch, allows us to feel and face our terror without having to actually experience it. There are no blood spattering murders, no profanity-laced tirades, no zombies eating bodies, and no instruments of torture. Just the combination of light, sound, words, and movement weaving a true horror story that will make you much less…comfortable than you would like to be. Its most frightening elements are those that are most plausible, told in a way that brings each audience member, and even those of us on stage, far closer to the source of our personal terrors than we generally care to travel. And then we all go out for a drink. What have you learned about yourself in playing the role of “The Actor”? The Acto

Erik Harrison, playing Arthur Kipps in The Woman in Black, shares some of his insight in his experience so far with this season's late night show!  Erik is a LTA veteran who has performed in several shows on our stage.  You may remember seeing him in Move Over Mrs. Markham, The Visit, and A Christmas Carol here at LTA. What do you find appealing about your character and this play? One, this show is just bloody good. It's a joy to rip into a script so high quality with a cast and crew that are so top notch. It's also just different - "The Woman In Black" is a ghost story, and aside from "Hamlet" and "A Christmas Carol" there aren't that many ghost stories for the stage. But I think my favorite part of the show is how challenging it is. Arthur Kipps is so different from anything I have played before, and the show puts so much weight on the performances that I have to dig extra deep to keep up. What have you learned about yourself in

In conjunction with our upcoming show at LTA, All the King's Women, LTA is proud to announce it's first ever LTA blog contest! What does Elvis mean to you? Do you have an interesting Elvis story to tell?   Has “The King” affected your life in some way?   Or are you just a die-hard Elvis fan?   How would you like to win tickets for The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s production of All the King’s Women ?   Tell us “What Elvis means to you” and you just might! In 300 words or less, send us your entry via email to tina@thelittletheatre.com .   Entries will be posted on LTA’s blog for Elvis and theatre fans to enjoy!   A winner will be selected at random and awarded a pair of tickets to LTA’s production of All the King’s Women !    LTA will not post inappropriate or lewd submissions and hold the right to review submissions before posting to the LTA blog.   Please include your name, phone number, email address and Twitter handle (if you have one) with your submission.   We also

by Robin Parker (@rparker18us) Congress designated May as Mental Health Month in 1949 to illustrate the importance of mental health issues to the overall health and well being of American citizens.    One of the goals is to decrease the stigma about mental health issues, and discuss strategies for making lasting lifestyle and behavior changes that promote overall health and wellness. ( YourMindYourBody blog ) I hear a small chuckle ripple through the crowd as I mention mental health in the same blog as theatre and artists.   However, I posit that maybe the eccentric actor perception may be the very part of our creative personalities that keeps us sane, and gives us the outlet to express and purge our emotions, much like we would in a therapists office – we just do it with an audience! I am currently completing graduate school, and I’ve written my masters’ thesis on conflict management and artistic temperaments.   What I’ve found in the study of the creative individual may speak