America’s favorite little red head, Orphan Annie, takes to the Banyan Bowl Stage in the Broadway Musical Annie JR.
Pinecrest Gardens’ first theatrical performance of the season will delight audiences of all ages when Miami Childrens Theater presents the junior version of Broadway’s beloved musical Annie.
Based on the popular comic strip and adapted from the Tony Award-winning Best Musical written and scored by Tony Award-winners Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin, Annie JR. features everyone’s favorite heroine and her four legged sidekick, Sandy, in her very first adventure.
With equal measures of courage and positivity, Little Orphan Annie charms everyone’s hearts despite a next-to-nothing start in 1930’s New York City. Annie is determined to find the parents who abandoned her years ago on the doorstep of an orphanage run by the cruel Miss Hannigan. Annie and her lovable mutt eventually foil Miss Hannigan’s evil machinations, finding a new home and family with billionaire Oliver (Daddy) Warbucks and his personal secretary, Grace Farrell. Performances are Friday, September 30 at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, October 1 at 3:00 and 7:00 p.m. The Saturday matinee is Sensory Friendly (a slightly edited down version with lower sound levels) for children on the autism spectrum, and the ticket price for the Saturday matinee is $5. Tickets for the Friday and Saturday evening performances are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and children. Tickets can be purchased at the gate one hour in advance of the performance.
Jazz up your Sunday Afternoon
Sunday, September 25 you can enjoy an afternoon jazz concert in the Banyan Bowl when talented singer, violinist and jazz educator Nicole Yarling presents a performance by the Jazz Educators Community Coalition at 1:00 p.m.
This performance is part of an ongoing workshop where Yarling coaches young jazz performers on the finer nuances of being performing artists. She is quick to point out that while the Miami area has many excellent programs in schools and outside teaching youngsters to play, there aren’t as many opportunities for them to learn how to be successful musicians and performers.
Aside from these workshops, Nicole Yarling is quite the “in demand” jazz artist herself. She is a seasoned performing jazz vocalist, a jazz violinist and a respected faculty member at Florida Memorial University. As a long-time educator, Yarling notes that aspiring musicians, while able to play, lack knowledge of “the etiquette of performance.”
So with that in mind, her workshops focus on how to “work” as a musician, learning things like how to prepare for the auditions that get them into the elite music programs and schools, how to stand on stage, how to plan a music program for a given audience and so much more. Her workshops are called the Jazz Educators Community Coalition Boot Camp and we look forward to welcoming her group this Sunday to the Banyan Bowl Stage. The performance is free with the regular park admission of $5 for adults or $3 for seniors and full park amenities are included.
For the Love of Gardening
The Pinecrest Garden Club is an organization dedicated to the encouragement of good landscaping, excellence in horticulture, talent in artistic design, and interest in our environment and ecology. If you are a person that shares their love of all things green and would like learn more about membership, please call Patsy Rodriguez at 786-280-0988. The club meets the second Tuesday of every month, September-May.
For more information on the Pinecrest Gardens Season of the Arts and the 2016-2017 South Motors Jazz Series visit www.pinecrestgardens.org or call 305-669-6990.
