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“Get your phones out — you’re gonna wanna film this!”

In the theater world, the sentiment would normally be a form of sacrilege. It’s distracting to actors onstage. It impedes the view of fellow audience members. It’s antithetical to the immediate, communal, ephemeral nature of the art form.

But with “Six,” the scintillating stage show that reimagines the wives of Henry VIII as a chart-topping girl group, it’s practically a requirement, kicking off a closing number written specifically to be recorded and shared on social media.

Audiences film while dancing by their seats, singing along and cheering with excitement. Spotlights swoop from side to side. Confetti falls from above. And each of the six actors — dressed in jewel-toned Tudor fits, fishnet stockings and bedazzled boots — reprise the catchiest sections of their characters’ signature songs for the crowd and their phones. The “Megasix,” as the number has come to be called, turns musical theater into a full-on pop concert.

The three-minute arrangement has helped transform a scrappy Edinburgh Fringe Festival act with no set changes, no intermission and no stars into an international phenomenon, capturing the attention of an elusive demographic in ways theatrical producers usually only dream of.

“Like a lot of ‘Six,’ that was not intended to be a huge, colossal thing,” said the show’s co-creator Toby Marlow. “We really were not thinking, ‘How can we take over social media with Megasix videos?’”

Evolving from a mellower medley attempted after the production’s 2017 debut, the Megasix picked up its defining feature from producer Kenny Wax. His suggestion that viewers record the number was both a dramaturgical choice and a form of affordable grassroots marketing.

“Our show is supposed to feel like a pop concert,” said “Six” co-creator Lucy Moss. “So getting people filming made sense because it’s within the genre, it’s connected inherently to the concept.”

Soon enough, attendees began to post their footage online, forging community with other “Six” fans, supporting the show’s revolving door of actors and promoting the cause of theater accessibility amid high ticket prices and, later, COVID-19 risks. A number of actors also embraced it as a digital souvenir, one that preserves their onstage successes and snafus and allows fans to feel more connected to performers than ever before.

On Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok — at the time a nascent social media platform gaining steam with Gen Z users — the proliferation of Megasix clips teased “Six” as a musical with a hypervisual aesthetic, self-deprecating humor and unapologetic pop sound.

“It looks like a concert but it clearly isn’t; it looks like the place to be,” said Trevor Boffone, author of the forthcoming book “TikTok Broadway: Musical Theatre Fandom in the Digital Age.” “This is not your grandparents’ musical theater.”

Each subsequent staging yielded more Megasix uploads — except in the United States, where filming the performance is against union rules. Moss and Marlow could easily have considered its burgeoning social media popularity a risk: “Most of the time, creators are a little bit hesitant getting that [intellectual property] out there without the greater context of the show,” said Jonathan Breitbart, a 20-year-old Colorado theatergoer who came across “Six” videos in late 2018 and became a fan.

Instead, in an industry still dominated by print ads and billboards, the Megasix turned into the most organic, continuous and occasionally intense social media marketing campaign in recent memory — “a form of free publicity that has allowed for a greater amount of visibility and accessibility for the show than most professional theaters can boast,” wrote Samantha Eve Marchiony in her University of Houston master’s thesis.

Tara Dawn Schwartz, 38, hadn’t heard of “Six” before watching Megasix videos while at home in Long Island, N.Y., during the pandemic. “I remember thinking, ‘I want to see this in person. I really want to see it live and hear it live and connect with this music on a new level.’”

“Six” now spans open-ended runs on Broadway and the West End, two concurrent U.S. tours, a United Kingdom and Ireland tour, two ongoing cruise line productions and a staging in Asia, plus a recently wrapped stint in Australia and performances in Canada and Holland starting later this year. And because “Six” casts its royal characters diversely across ethnicities, body types and vocal tones, “the content is continually interesting,” Boffone noted.

“They created fan-driven marketing that doesn’t really cost the show any money. People are paying to see them, and then marketing their show for them.”

(Rebekka Dunlap / For The Times)

In “Six,” which follows a competition among the queens to be their group’s lead singer based on how terrible their lives were while married to Henry VIII, the cast is onstage nearly the entire 85-minute run time — and “every single tiny little beat is very, very planned,” said Moss, who also co-directed the show.

The Megasix, by contrast, is “more about having fun with the audience,” she added. “It’s not a full free-for-all, but there are moments where [the actors] can have their bit of self-expression. You can play with intonation and rhythm, or play with a different attitude. We encourage them to do their own thing.”

After a spirited roll call of the four-person band, the cast amps up the reprise with personalized vocal riffs — provided they’ve been approved by the show’s musical director — along with spontaneous dance moves and reactions to fellow actors and the audience.

“You can’t lock it in, which keeps you on your toes,” said Gabriela Carrillo, who plays Catherine Parr on the West Coast tour. “It’s less improv and more listening and responding to each other. And even though we’re supposed to always keep moving, there are still five other people onstage. If you deviate too much from any spot you’re supposed to stand in at any moment, there will be a collision.”

“Six” fans watch Megasix videos the way sports fans catch the highlights from a winning game — even though you already know the outcome, you want to see how it happened this time. Justin Smith, a 25-year-old fan in Texas, searches daily for clips of all the ongoing productions and pays attention to the vocals — particularly, the overlapping hooks between Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, as “the Boleyns have a loose interpretation of the melody there, and the Australian cast especially riffed the heck out of it.”

Aimee Stern, a 30-year-old New York City resident, eyes the choreographic choices: Did Katherine Howard do that helicopter move with her high ponytail? How far did Catherine Parr bend backward on her big note? And Carly Baker, a 20-year-old New York City theatergoer, looks out for the actors’ interactions: the smiles, the laughs, the nudges. “It’s entertaining to watch because every day is different for them based on the energy and the camaraderie on that stage.”

This is especially true when a “Six” performance features an alternate, a circumstance celebrated in “Six” more than other productions. “Our creatives do not prefer to do what typical musical theater does with alternates, which is to do a carbon copy of what the [principal actor] has already done,” said Cassie Silva, the dance captain and an alternate on one of the show’s two concurrent U.S. tours. “In fact, it’s the exact opposite. They’re very passionate about us building our own authentic version of each queen. So when you get to see an alternate go on, it really shakes things up.”

Fans like Stern regularly buy last-minute tickets upon notice of an alternate, specifically with the intention of filming the Megasix and sharing it online. “I try to think about how happy I feel when I get to see a Megasix of somebody who I don’t think I’m gonna have a chance to see, and I try to bring that joy to fans who either can’t afford theater or maybe don’t live around where ‘Six’ is right now,” says the New York City resident. “Of course, it’s not the full show, and it’s not the same thing as being there. But it’s a really cool way for people to at least experience a little bit of that person’s performance as that queen.”

“Six” actors are often tagged in viewers’ Megasix uploads on social media. “[Alternates] never got professional pictures on Broadway; we never got any B-roll of us performing,” said Courtney Mack, who has covered nearly every role across multiple “Six” productions and is playing Katherine Howard on the West Coast tour. “And some of these videos that they got are really nice! There’s stuff from fans that I’m probably going to keep forever.”

The influx of Megasix clips has prompted some viewers to come back again. And again. And again. Stern has seen “Six” 89 times across five different productions. Helen Sullivan, a 23-year-old Brooklyn resident who discovered the show while studying abroad in London, has seen it 97 times in the name of “swingo,” or seeing an alternate play every queen: “I told my mom it’s cheaper than therapy.”

The videos also whet fans’ appetite for new “Six” stagings. “My friends have already sent me a Tiktok of the first Megasix with the Seoul cast,” said Marlow days after the South Korea production opened. “Seeing the view counts, [it] hit me that people are seeking out these videos.”

“I’d be interested to see what it’s like for the actors, though,” Marlow added. “I’m sure they’ll have different experiences with it because they’re the ones that are immortalized every night in these videos.”

(Rebekka Dunlap / For The Times)

So is the “Six” cast supposed to play to the in-person audience or the phones in their hands?

“Both,” said Moss. “It’s very much for everyone there, but also having those little moments with the cameras. And it’s also for the people in the room to see these famous pop-star queens playing to the cameras.”

Close-up Megasix videos feature these actor-audience interactions — another routine “Six” occurrence that would be a rarity in any other show. “As time went on and the fan base grew, I definitely got more used to putting my face in a few people’s cameras,” said Natalie Paris, who played Jane Seymour in multiple U.K. productions and is now on the show’s West Coast tour. “Once I got used to breaking that barrier, I had more fun with it and was a bit more playful.”

The clips show the cast looking directly at certain cameras, pointing, winking, smiling and dancing toward them as if they’re the only phones there. Some actors even grab a viewer’s phone for a selfie video — an idea attributed to Maiya Quansah-Breed, who played Catherine Parr when the upbeat Megasix was first added to the production.

“We want people to be hooting and hollering and cheering at this show,” noted Mack. “If you don’t have a high-energy audience, it’s hard to keep the energy up the whole time. So if there’s someone giving you their positive energy the whole time, interacting with them is almost like a thank you.”

As with any collection of fan content, not all Megasix videos are uploaded in good faith. “There are all of these comparison videos that make it an issue when someone strays from certain characterizations or how someone says a certain line,” observed longtime fan Breitbart. “Posting opinions on social media can impact the actors, they can see it all. And it’s like, is this productive? Is that really what you want to take away from that experience?”

When the decision to encourage audience filming was first made, members of the creative team told the cast that the choreography and the vocals “need to be so hot now because it’s gonna be on camera,” recalled Paris. “As a performer, what’s so special about theater is that you get to leave everything you’ve got on the stage. It’s a daunting thought to know that a lot of people can capture that moment forever and put it straight onto social media.”

The added pressure also means “Six” actors carry some reservations about the practice. “You do a mental shift because it isn’t just live theater, it’s live theater plus whoever gets to see this,” Carrillo said. “People will make a judgment about the way someone plays a character from one video, when they don’t realize it’s so much more. And if a video ever got out there where I wasn’t a perfect human being, well, I can’t control that.”

“That expectation is so much higher as an alternate,” added Silva, who likened an alternate’s Megasix debut video to a rookie player’s baseball card. Since joining the cast, Silva hasn’t been shy about asking fans to remove videos of onstage snafus. “They don’t typically post stuff if it’s bad, and if it is, they’re usually pretty decent about taking it down. I’ll reach out even if it’s of other people but doesn’t show them in the right way. Like, let’s not do that.”

Paris tries not to watch too many Megasix videos of herself — “sometimes even it comes down to a bad camera angle,” she said — and many of the “Six” actors who spoke to The Times avoid reading the comments on the uploads. “Most of the fans are pretty supportive, but somebody on Instagram once wrote in all caps ‘HORRIBLE,’” said Mack.

“I don’t care because those people are not in my position. They don’t know how hard the show is, or how heavy those costumes are. They don’t know what I’m going through mentally, physically, vocally. I could have bad allergies, I could be just recovering from a sickness. So even if it’s not our best night, they don’t know what’s going on with us at all.”

(Rebekka Dunlap / For The Times)

On Broadway and on the two U.S. tours, where filming the Megasix is prohibited, the aforementioned lyric has been changed to “Stay on your feet! I wanna see everybody clap your hands!”

That’s a tough reality to face for some audience members, especially those who might have bought a ticket specifically after watching the clips. Many sneak recordings anyway, to the dismay of ushers across the country. Others, like a number of the “Six” superfans who spoke to The Times, have been willing to travel abroad to experience the Megasix in its intended form.

“When we were asking for permission to have the filming, I was like, ‘It’s part of the show,’” said Moss. “It’s really important to respect their rules. But in some ways, it’s a shame that U.S. audiences don’t get to experience that.” Added Marlow, “There’s something nice about that audience getting the experience of watching and dancing and feeling like you’re at a pop concert in a different way.”

Such was the case for Smith who, after years of watching Megasix videos daily, finally nabbed a front-row seat for the Christmas Eve performance. “One thing I didn’t expect is just how shiny and gorgeous their costumes are up close,” he recalled.

“The energy, the confetti flying everywhere, it was amazing. And not having to squint to see their facial expressions, because they were just right there. No phones, no heads, no hands — nothing blocking my view.”

Just whiling away the hours ’til the next episode of “Succession” because there’s nothing like watching callow rich people subvert democracy. I’m Carolina A. Miranda, art and design columnist at the Los Angeles Times, with the week’s essential art news — and Japanese omelets:

Warhol vs. Goldsmith

In a 7-2 decision issued this week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of photographer Lynn Goldsmith in her copyright battle with the Andy Warhol Foundation. At the center of the case is a photographic portrait of Prince that Goldsmith made for Newsweek in 1981. The newsweekly never ran the photo, but three years later, Vanity Fair licensed the image so that Warhol could use it as source material for a purple silkscreen painting of Prince that ran in the magazine. Goldsmith was paid a $400 license fee and given a published credit.

At the time, Warhol also created 13 other silkscreens and two pencil drawings based on Goldsmith’s image (unbeknownst to Goldsmith). After the artist died in 1987, most of the works ended up in the hands of collectors, with a few going to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Andy Warhol in New York City in 1976.

(Richard Drew / Associated Press)

The problems began in 2016, when Condé Nast (Vanity Fair’s parent company) approached the Andy Warhol Foundation about licensing the image of Prince for a standalone issue on the singer, who died in April of that year. Rather than using the purple portrait, they opted for another image in the series, which shows Prince rendered in orange. Condé Nast paid the Warhol Foundation $10,000 to license the image but did not remunerate or credit Goldsmith.

At that point, Goldsmith registered her image for copyright and the foundation filed a preemptive suit against her, arguing that Warhol’s use of “Orange Prince” qualified as fair use since the work is transformative. Since then, the case has ping-ponged through the courts, landing on the Supreme Court’s docket last year. (The last time the court heard a case related to fair use was in 1994.) In the majority ruling, the court stated that the two works share “substantially the same purpose and the use is commercial in nature” and that the Warhol Foundation had “no persuasive justification for its unauthorized use of the photograph.”

How will this affect fair use?

Boston attorney Nicholas O’Donnell told my colleague David Savage that the decision may have a limited impact since the court’s opinion “carefully avoids many of the broader questions about the limits of fair use in visual art.”

New York University law professor Amy Adler, who filed an amicus brief in support of the Warhol Foundation on behalf of art law professors, saw it differently. “I think it’s a significant contraction of where the court was,” she tells Artnet’s Sarah Cascone. “I think it’s going to significantly limit the amount of borrowing and building on previous works that artists will engage in. The court seems less interested now in the artistic contribution of the second work and much more interested in commercial concerns.”

To her point, the justices were less focused on whether Warhol’s work was transformative than on the way it was used.

Bruce Ewing, an attorney specializing in intellectual property cases at Dorsey & Whitney in Minneapolis, has a thorough analysis of the case (blessedly written in plain English) over at JD Supra. He notes that the court specifically zeroed in on the commercial use of both works. (In its decision, the court cites the first fair-use factor, which is “the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.”)

“The Court emphasized that a use of the ‘Orange Prince’ for non-commercial purposes might qualify as fair,” he writes, “but that Condé Nast’s use of that work was not fair insofar as the first factor was concerned, in part because the work was used for commercial purposes.”

What does this mean for the other editions of the Prince works that are floating around the art world? It could put them out of circulation. In an analysis written before the court reached its verdict, Bruce E. Boyden, a law professor specializing in intellectual property at Marquette University, writes, “Anyone holding one of the Prince series works would have to feel nervous about publicly displaying it, or selling it, if Goldsmith wins.”

Sotheby’s staff adjust a self-portrait by Andy Warhol in London last year.

(Alberto Pezzali / Associated Press)

Need more reading?

I recommend hitting Greg Allen‘s Artnews dispatch from October, when he attended oral arguments in the case. (Worth it for the weirdo sidebar by Clarence Thomas.)

Also peep the Supreme Court’s decision, which is illustrated — in color! — and features a discussion about, among other things, Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Can series. Take that, art critics!

In and out of the galleries

Christopher Knight has been poking through LACMA‘s records and noted an interesting trend: The West’s biggest encyclopedic museum is not so encyclopedic. “Most of the museum’s program of exhibitions and installations is limited to art made between the mid-19th century, when the rambunctious emergence of Modernism in Europe began to upend everything, and the present day. And most of that has been dedicated to art since 1945. LACMA has transitioned into a de facto museum of contemporary art.” (Don’t miss the amazing graphic on this story.)

At the Cheech in Riverside, the fifth installment of the MexiCali Biennial, “Land of Milk and Honey,” brings together 40 mostly U.S. and Mexican artists. Curated by Ed Gomez, April Lillard-Gomez and Rosalía Romero, the show’s theme is California agriculture. Christopher Knight writes that its biblical title frames “the Golden State as part fertile and utopian paradise, part huckster marketing dystopia.” Also, check out that Hot Cheetos floor sculpture.

“No one expected me to survive as an artist,” painter Virginia Jaramillo tells Times contributor Eva Recinos. Well, she not only survived, she thrived. The painter is now the subject of a solo show at Pace in Los Angeles and is about to open a retrospective at the Kemper Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., in June. For the artist, the Pace show — “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” — represents a homecoming: Jaramillo grew up in East L.A. and showed one of her earliest paintings at LACMA in the late 1950s.

Virginia Jaramillo’s solo show, “East of the Sun, West of the Moon,” is on view at Pace Gallery in L.A.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Photographer Dawoud Bey is having an L.A. moment. The artist is part of “Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: In Dialogue” at the Getty Center and “Dawoud Bey: Pictures 1976-2019” at Sean Kelly. “When I started out photographing in Harlem in the 1970s, I was very conscious of the fact that I was not only making work in order to shape perceptions about that community and the Black people that lived in it, I was also making work in response to my sense of the history of Black representation in photography,” he tells Times contributor Leigh-Ann Jackson. “I am now working to include a Black voice within the history of the landscape tradition in photography.”

On and off the stage

Ben Platt already has one Tony Award under his belt for his performance in “Dear Evan Hansen” and is now up for another for his role in “Parade” as Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman who faces violent injustice. “I’ve played characters who would feel isolated wherever they were,” he tells Times theater critic Charles McNulty. “With Leo, there’s a bit of indignation and the frustration of ‘It’s not me, it’s them,’ which is an aggression that I’ve not gotten to play before.”

Actor, singer and songwriter Ben Platt at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in New York.

(Justin Jun Lee / For The Times)

Speaking of the Tony Awards: The ongoing Writers Guild strike is affecting their presentation. Late last week, it was announced that the live telecast would be canceled over concerns that performers would be unwilling to cross picket lines to attend the ceremony. But on Monday, the guild announced that the telecast would proceed — “albeit in an altered form,” reports The Times’ Ashley Lee. The changes have not been disclosed, but an anonymous source tells the New York Times that awards presentations and performances would proceed, albeit without “any scripted material by screenwriters.”

On a nightly basis, Michael Shayan transforms into his mother in the one-man show “Avaaz” at South Coast Repertory. Shayan says the act is “every gay man’s dream or nightmare, depending on how you feel about your mother.” The play, which was written by Shayan and directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, emerged from a fellowship at the Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices in 2017. My colleague Steven Vargas reports on how it came together.

California’s performing arts sector lost a decade’s worth of jobs within a two-year period during the pandemic, according to a new report produced by CVL Economics. “When I saw the report, I just started weeping, because it validated the suffering of the community that I care about and represent,” Martha Demson, president of the Theatre Producers of Southern California and artistic director of Open Fist Theatre Company, told Jessica Gelt.

Classical notes

L.A. Opera has opened its last production of the season: Verdi’s “Otello,” with tenor Russell Thomas in the title role, as well as Igor Golovatenko as Iago and soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Desdemona. Thomas’ voice doesn’t always fill the hall, writes Times classical music critic Mark Swed, but “what he does reveal in the Chandler is impressive. He dominates not by having the loudest voice onstage but by the far great power of expressivity.”

Russell Thomas in the title role of L.A. Opera’s “Otello.”

(Cory Weaver / L.A. Opera)

Design time

Jessica Gelt has a delicious report on the reopening of the Huntington’s 1911 tea room. The space has received a thorough renovation courtesy of Architectural Resources Group, a multicity firm that specializes in historic sites. “Our marching orders were to preserve the building but then to develop additional dining spaces,” says founding principal Stephen J. Farneth. “And we really wanted some outdoor dining because the pandemic made it clear that was the direction of the future.”

The Huntington Library’s 1911 Tea Room is back after a three-year closure with deviled egg salad in phyllo cups, among other morsels.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Essential happenings

Steven Vargas rounds up the must-sees in his weekly L.A. Goes Out newsletter, including three shows at Jeffrey Deitch featuring work by Karon Davis, Judith F. Baca and Faith Ringgold.

On Saturday afternoon, arts org L.A. Freewaves is presenting “Heal Hear Here,” at Los Angeles State Historic Park, which will bring together 30 artist groups for an event centered on healing. This includes performances, an ancestral walking tour and a soundscape labyrinth presented by organizations such as Metabolic Studio, GYOPO and the Armory Center for the Arts, among many others.

Moves

Edgar Miramontes has been named the new director of CAP UCLA. Miramontes, who previously served as deputy director at REDCAT, is the first person of color to lead the organization. “I think the challenge is to think about how we connect with immigrants in a city that has over 200 languages spoken,” he tells Jessica Gelt.

Edgar Miramontes, seen here in 2020, has organized numerous performance festivals around Los Angeles.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Another big move: The L.A. Phil’s Chad Smith is leaving to take over the Boston Symphony as president and chief executive. Mark Swed reports that Smith “has played an outsize role in the progressive ambition of the orchestra, which now has the largest budget, the broadest range of musical and educational activities and the most extensive community engagement of any orchestra in the world.” But, as Smith tells Swed, he is ready for a new challenge.

David Ellenstein has been named artistic director of the Laguna Playhouse, while Bill Kerlin assumes the role of managing director. Ellenstein had been interim artistic director since last August.

Jonathan Fox is departing Santa Barbara’s Ensemble Theatre Company after holding the position of artistic director for 17 years.

Passages

Slava Zaitsev, a Soviet-era fashion designer once dubbed “Red Dior” by Western media, has died at 85.

In the news

— Francisco Cantú reviews Héctor Tobar‘s new book, “Our Migrant Souls,” and what it means to be Latino.
— Digging these lamps by Julie Jackson.
— A good profile of Jibz Cameron (otherwise known as Dynasty Handbag) and her surreal take on the Titanic.
— Greg.org has me obsessing over Pompon, the dog that may have belonged to Marie Antoinette.
— How architect Juan José Santibañez designs buildings that speak to Oaxaca’s traditional practices.
— Workers at architecture firm Snøhetta (which designed the expansion at SFMOMA) have announced their intention to form a union.
— Speaking of SFMOMA: The museum has a new membership program that offers discounts to working artists. Nice, but what about some free admission, which would make the museum more accessible to everyone?
— Ghanaian workers who contributed to the Venice Architecture Biennale have been denied visas by the Italian government to attend the opening and related events.
— The San Francisco-bashing continues on CNN and the Financial Times.

And last but not least …

Omurice, amirite?

Supporting Milwaukee’s theater arts community

Next Act Theatre holding Beatle’s inspired fundraiser

Updated: 9:02 AM CDT May 20, 2023

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AND FRIDAY. GABRIELLA ALL RIGHT, MOLLY, THANK YOU. WELL, TODAY ON ARTS AVENUE, WE’RE TALKING ABOUT GIVING BACK TO THE AMAZING LOCAL ARTS SCENE HERE. JOINING US LIVE IN STUDIO AS A MARKETING DIRECTOR FOR NEXT ACT THEATER, AJ MAGOON. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING IN THIS MORNING. THANK YOU FOR HAVING ME. SO PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT THIS GREAT FUNDRAISER YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR NEXT WEEK? IT’S BEATLES THEMED. IT IS BEATLES THEMED. SO WE HAVE AN ANNUAL FUNDRAISER CALLED BRAVO. NEXT ACT, WHICH WE DO EVERY YEAR. THIS YEAR IT’S NEXT THURSDAY, THE 25TH AT STARTING AT 6 P.M. AND IT IS INDEED BEATLES THEMED. SO WE’RE GOING TO HAVE PEOPLE DRESSING UP IN THEIR GROOVIEST OUTFITS. WE’RE INVITING PEOPLE TO GET FUN, GET A LITTLE PSYCHEDELIC WITH IT. WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A DJ SPINNING EVERYONE’S FAVORITE BEATLES SONGS. THERE’S GOING TO BE DANCING AS WELL AS DRINKS AND FOOD. ENTERTAIN MENT AND THE OPPORTUNITY TO TO BID ON RAFFLE BASKETS, BID ON LIVE AUCTION ITEMS, THE OPPORTUNITY BASICALLY TO SUPPORT NEXT ACT. THIS IS AN EVENT THAT IT NOT ONLY CELEBRATES THE PAST 12 MONTHS OF OUR OUR ARTISTIC AND OUR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMING. WHAT WE’VE ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED, BUT IT SORT OF SETS THE GROUNDWORK FOR FOR WHAT WE’VE STILL GOT TO COME, DEFINITELY. AND I THINK MILWAUKEE HAS SUCH A GREAT ART SCENE HERE AND IT’S GREAT THAT THE THERE ARE THESE EVENTS THAT CAN CALL THE COMMUNITY TO KIND OF SUPPORT. SO WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO KIND OF BE ABLE TO HOST THIS AND THEN SEE THE TURNOUT AND WATCH THE COMMUNITY GIVE BACK AND THEN IN TURN GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY? IT IS IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT, YOU KNOW, IT’S ONE OF THESE GREAT WAYS. I MEAN, PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS SAYING, OKAY, YOU KNOW, HOW CAN I DO MORE TO SUPPORT THE ARTS? AND, YOU KNOW, OTHER THAN JUST SHOWING UP AND BEING IN THE SEATS, THIS IS THAT KIND OF THING, RIGHT? WHERE IT’S AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PEOPLE TO SHOW UP AND AND GIVE US A LITTLE SUPPORT. BUT THEN ALSO TO TO ENJOY A LITTLE BIT OF THAT GIVE BACK AS WELL. RIGHT? I MEAN, IT’S NOT JUST, YOU KNOW, SHOW UP AND GIVE US SUPPORT, BUT IT’S ALSO, YOU KNOW, BIT ON THESE ITEMS. WE’VE GOT THESE GREAT LIVE AUCTION ITEMS. THERE’S A CHANCE TO TO WIN A FULL HIKE WITH LLAMAS ON A LLAMA FARM. THERE’S A CHANCE TO GET A PONTOON CRUISE OUT ON FRIESS LAKE. WE’VE GOT VIP SEATING TO THE FIREWORKS AT THE LAKEFRONT ON JULY THIRD, AND WE’VE GOT A SPECIAL VIP PACKAGE FOR NEXT ACT THEATER ITSELF, WHERE YOU CAN GET TICKETS TO OUR SHOWS, BUT ALSO EITHER PRE SHOW OR POST-SHOW DINNER, DRINKS, EXPERIENCE ACES TO SORT OF MAKE IT AN EVEN BETTER TIME FOR YOURSELF. DEFINITELY. SO WHERE CAN FOLKS GET THAT INFORMATION FOR THE EVENT? YEAH, IF THEY GO TO NEXT DAWG OR IF THEY CALL. FOR 142780765, THEY CAN GET INFORMATION ON HOW TO GET TICKETS TO JOIN

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Supporting Milwaukee’s theater arts community

Next Act Theatre holding Beatle’s inspired fundraiser

Updated: 9:02 AM CDT May 20, 2023

Grooving to the Beatles while helping grow local art — that’s the plan for Next Act Theatre.The organization is holding on its “Bravo, Next Act 2023” fundraiser on May 25.Next Act’s marketing director A.J. Magoon joined Arts Avenue on 12 News This Morning to talk about all the fun planned for the event and how the money will help future plans for the theater.You can find tickets and more information here.

MILWAUKEE —

Grooving to the Beatles while helping grow local art — that’s the plan for Next Act Theatre.

The organization is holding on its “Bravo, Next Act 2023” fundraiser on May 25.

Advertisement

Next Act’s marketing director A.J. Magoon joined Arts Avenue on 12 News This Morning to talk about all the fun planned for the event and how the money will help future plans for the theater.

You can find tickets and more information here.

PORT TOWNSEND — Paintings on silk, canvas and wood, mixed-media work, plein air art made with a tablet: All were installed this week at Jefferson Healthcare hospital in Port Townsend.

“Every public reception area has art, on all of the floors,” said Ken Hulick, manager of Northwind Art’s Showcase program.

“The good news,” he added, “is the public can go in and see the art,” now that COVID restrictions have been lifted.

People benefit from this program, said Amy Yaley, Jefferson Healthcare marketing and communications director. The color-drenched paintings in the main lobby and in the waiting rooms contribute to a more supportive and uplifting environment, she said.

The new installation of 40 works will stay up through mid-August, said Hulick. The artists with work on display include silk painter Evette Allerdings of Port Angeles, Roberta DeLeo Krause, Larry Crockett and the late Jay Haskins of Port Townsend, Vivian Chesterley of Bainbridge Island and Roger Morris of Sequim.

The purpose of Northwind Art’s hospital program — which has existed for several years — is to make the day a little easier for staff and patients, Hulick said.

Each work of art is available for sale.

If purchased, it will still stay on display for the three-month rotation, he noted.

Hulick will install work by a whole new set of artists in late August.

Those looking for information about the artwork and artists can contact Northwind Art at info@northwindart.org.

“For staff, the art creates a welcoming and inspiring environment. They enjoy the rotation,” Yaley said.

“Showcasing our local artists’ work fosters a sense of community pride and connection among staff members … many of us know the artists on display.”

Allerdings, whose art at the hospital includes the silk paintings “Dappled” and “Spicy,” is a teaching artist at the Northwind Art School at Fort Worden. She offers silk painting courses and open studios.

For details, see northwindart.org and click on Courses.

The art of Marie Mattos is on display at the Sterling Heights Community Center.

Catholic themes are prominent in Mattos’ art. These two pieces are “The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth” and “The Wedding Feast at Cana.”

Photo by Patricia O’Blenes

STERLING HEIGHTS — Sterling Heights resident Marie Mattos has a unique way of making prominent saints in Catholic Church history stick in your mind.

Mattos is the city of Sterling Heights’ Featured Artist for May and June. Her collection of religious illustrations — as well as her sticker designs of Catholic saints, known as SaintSprouts — are on display during that period in a showcase on the Sterling Heights Community Center’s second floor.   

Mattos said she saw a notice in the newspaper about the program and decided to apply. She said she heard back a couple of months later.

“I was really floored that they gave me an opportunity,” she said. “It’s a huge opportunity, so I thought someone else might be picked.”

SaintSprouts is Mattos’ collection of illustrated vinyl stickers that depict Catholic saints. The stickers are meant to be durable and weatherproof, so they can stick and stay on laptops, water bottles and more and not easily corrode if wet.

Mattos said her designs are meant to appeal to kids and adults to teach them about prominent people in church history in a fun, friendly way. Examples include saints Therese of Lisieux, Francis Xavier, Josephine Bakhita, Kateri Tekakwitha and Juan Diego.

Mattos said she initially started drawing the most popular, well-known saints. Then she started to explore and intentionally pick lesser-known saints from around the world, including from Asia and Africa. She said one of her favorite saints in the SaintSprouts collection is Kateri Tekakwitha, a Native American saint.

“She was probably the most fun for me to make,” she said.

Mattos said she has been successful in marketing and selling the SaintSprouts stickers. She explained that she has sold them on Etsy all across the U.S. She added that she also has sold them at local craft shows and some Catholic retail shops.

“I initially started in downtown Detroit at Our Lady of the Rosary,” she said. “They had a little artist market over there.”

Mattos was raised in metro Detroit and graduated from Michigan State University in studio art with a graphic design focus. When she’s not making stickers, she is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer.

As an artist, she said she takes inspiration from diverse artistic styles, including Christian iconography, chibi-style anime and vibrant tattoo art.

“Just pursue your passion,” she said. “I think that’s what is really going to drive you. … That’s what’s going to get you moving. You’ll want to do it.”

Jeanne Schabath-Lewis, from the Sterling Heights Arts Commission, commented on Mattos’ art.

“It’s an unusual medium, the little stickers,” Schabath-Lewis said. “I was really excited. So many people think about art in the traditional sense, like portraits. … I’m definitely glad we brought this different dimension to the city.”

Find out more about artist Marie Mattos by visiting mariemattos.com. To learn more about the SaintSprouts stickers, visit Saintsprouts.com or follow @SaintSprouts on Instagram.