RUMOURS VARIETY SHOWCASE

Posted by Rumors on December 8, 2011 in Artists, events | 0 comments

JOE STAATS presents

RUMOURS VARIETY SHOWCASE

Thursday, 12/08/2011, 8:00-11:00 pm

Our new RUMOURS Variety SHOWCASE, now at The Lodge (1600 Ocean Park Blvd.) in Santa Monica, spotlights five invited, featured performers in shorter sets on one Thursday night each month. Our aim is to inspire, amuse, delight, and entertain you. Performers are carefully selected for their creativity, dedication, passion and excellence at what they do, and each program will variously include singers, musicians, spoken word/literary performers, comics, dancers, and actors/actresses with original theatre pieces. We want you to come and make an evening of it in a supper club/dinner theatre/concert atmosphere. Each performer on these programs is there for a reason and is very much worth seeing. Tickets are to the show are $10. Table reservations are available. There is a full bar. There is a stage with professional lighting and all of the sightlines are excellent. Free parking is available behind the Lodge, or in the parking lot across the street.

Please enter from the front of the building.

ANDREW KELSEY is a compelling singer/songwriter with roots in folk, rock, and funk music, who has often drawn comparison to singers like James Taylor, Dave Matthews, and Jason Mraz. Well-versed as a solo acoustic artist (as he will be performing here), Andrew writes transcendent original songs from his own life that his audiences find easy to relate to their own lives and experience. The songs you will hear tonight will be on Andrew’s upcoming (second) solo CD and display the range of his style and versatility, with sounds ranging from mellow to funky and a variety of moods and musical flavors from romantic sentiment to sexy grooving. A mainstay on the Los Angeles music scene, he is well-known as the lead singer/guitarist for the rock band Uncle Charlie. He will open his set with a dramatic spoken-word recitation from George Burns’ Gracie: A Love Story. DEANA BARONE writes poetry, short stories, essays, stage plays, and screenplays. Her co-authored play “A Match Made in Manhattan,” ran for a year in New York City, and her play “Kiss” will be produced in Los Angeles next year. She is currently co-writing a screenplay and has another one in pre-production. She coaches acting, directs, edits, tutors and has produced plays in both NYC and Los Angeles. Deana has also acted in off-Broadway plays, LA theatre, independent films, television, and in commercials. She is a member of two theatre companies, The Road Theatre and The Elephant Theatre, has won “Best Featured Actress in a Play, 2009-2010 Season” (Stage Scene LA) as well as “Best Ensemble 2008″ (LA Weekly). Deana is currently working on an original solo show called, “the little girl and lalu.” She most recently appeared, triumphantly, in the play Lady Liberty, which recently closed its world premiere run at the Actors Art Theatre here in Los Angeles. BRENDAN CONSTANTINE is a poet based in Hollywood. His work has appeared in numerous journals, most notably Ploughshares, Ninth Letter, The Los Angeles Review, The Courtland Review, RUNES, and in the LA Times Bestseller, The Underground Guide to Los Angeles. His collection, Letters To Guns, was released in 2009 from Red Hen Press. New work is forthcoming in Ducts, Chaparral, Black Crow, Luvina, and the anthology Bright Wings. A nominee for poet laureate of California in 2002, he holds an MFA from Vermont College and is currently poet in residence at Loyola Marymount University Extension and the Windward School. Mr. Constantine also regularly leads classes in hospitals, elder care centers, and shelters for the homeless. A two-time alumni of WANTED: WRITERS! (and just returned from book tour), Brendan will be reading from and signing copies of his new book, Birthday Girl with Possum. He is one of the best poets–and the very best performance poet–that we know. If you haven’t seen him, you are in for a revelation and his performance should be anticipated as one of the highlights of tonight’s show. MANISHA SHAHANE is an independent artist, singer/songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist who plays piano, guitar, and frame drum. Her voice is a thing of beauty, her singing honest and soulful, and her concerts are a balm to the spirit. Her performances are a musical collage of folk, jazz, and Indian traditions, featuring original songs and compositions, as well as covers and special arrangements, as perhaps befits one who combines a coming-of-age in southern Virginia with her Maharashtrian heritage. Manisha is a luminous musical presence and storyteller who is passionate, entertaining and thought-provoking all at once. She is a recipient of the ASCAPlus Award in the Jazz and Popular Division for each of the past four years. “Fresh, uncluttered and right from the heart with a true universal vibe.”-MastRadio.com/ “A vocalist with lots of perspective and a strong sense of adventure”-O’s Place Jazz/ “A lilting, gentle, eastern sound that is kind to western ears”-Lokvani/ “Intricate multilingual folk”-Americana-UK/ “Her pristine vocals only prove that this sublime blending of sounds and tones is no accident…a global voyage with no limits”-I Hear Sparks/BlogCritics Her first CD, Peace in Progress, and her latest, When Parallel Lines Meet, will be available for purchase this evening. Do yourself, and others on your holiday gift list a favor and buy a CD or two directly from Manisha. She will be singing and playing for you tonight from 9:30-10:00 pm.

General Admission tickets to the show are $10 only.

*18-and-above.

DINNER UPDATE: The Lodge’s resident chef, Tony, got a full-time job elsewhere (and congrats to him). However, he is consequently no longer available to cook for events at the Lodge, including for SHOWCASE. Several close dinner options are available, however, for those who want to eat during or before the show. (As we are now not cooking for this event, it’s okay if you want to step out and bring something back into the venue to eat at your table.) Just a few doors down from the Lodge on the same side of the street is a lovely restaurant called Thyme. Those in the know in the neighborhood also patronize Bob’s Market at the opposite end of the block, which has an excellent, inexpensive takeout deli. You can also grab pizza by the slice from Grigorio, closer yet to the Lodge. For those of you who feel like walking, there is Café Bolivar at 1741 Ocean Park Blvd., which is two blocks down on the opposite side of the street. (Give our greetings to Alejandro.) We ask that you do not bring alcohol onto the premises, as the Lodge has a full bar. Please tip Ashley and Pam, your bartenders.

YOU are invited. Music, Food, Theatre, Comedy. A Little Magic in the Night!

Presented by JOE STAATS at: THE LODGE, 1600 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica (Southeast Corner of 16^th & Ocean Park)  FREE PARKING behind building or in lot directly across the street.