Concert of Hello Again at Richmond Triangle Players

This past September, I played the role of 'The Soldier' in an acclaimed concert performance of Michael John Lachiusa's Hello Again at Richmond Triangle Players Theatre. I appeared opposite fellow AEA member and VCU Alum Marisa Guida (in the role of 'The Whore'). The concert was directed by RTP associate artist (and cast member from RTP's recent production of Yank!) Keith Fitzgerald.

For more information on Richmond Triangle Players please visit www.rtriangle.org

South Pacific at Virginia Repertory Theatre

This past summer I had the great pleasure of playing Luther Billis in "South Pacific" at Virginia Repertory Theatre in Richmond.

                                                  (with Matt Zimmerman as Lt. Cable)

The production was directed by VRT's Associate Artistic Director Chase Kniffen (who directed last summer's critically-acclaimed and award-winning "The Color Purple"). It featured music direction by Sandy Dacus and choreography by Brad Willcuts. The production starred Branch Fields (who appeared in the Lincoln Center Broadway Revival of the show), Amy Jo Phillips (who appeared in the National Tour of the show, starring Robert Goulet, as well as Broadway's "Showboat") and Stacey Caboj (fellow VCU MFA grad and RTCC Award winner for her performance as Eliza Doolittle in VRT's "My Fair Lady"). The production ran at the November Theatre from June 26-August 9th.

REVIEWS

"James Stover, as sweaty Luther Billis, presides over the show's high comic moments while still deftly steering the show through many of the story's key emotional turning points"
     -Richmond Times Dispatch

"James Stover plays Luther Billis...to great comic effect. His sweet and funny Luther provided the perfect balance between the more serious themes."
     -Richmond Family Magazine

"...adding gravitas but also humor...opportunistic comic relief character sailor Luther Billis."
     -Style Weekly

 "James Stover was also a standout playing Luther Billis. At first, he was more than a little rough around the edges, but as the show progressed his character developed more and more and he became one of my favorite characters by the end."
      -Richmond's Macaroni Kid

YANK! at Richmond Triangle Players

I directed the Mid-Atlantic premiere of the musical YANK!. The Production opened this past May and had a healthy five-week run at Richmond Triangle Players. YANK! tells the story of gays in the military in WWII incorporating both a love story and a band of brothers journey through the War in the Pacific.

I had previously performed in the Off-Off Broadway production of the show (which starred Tony Nominee Bobby Steggert and Olivier Nominee Nancy Anderson and won the NYIT Award for Best Musical) in 2007. It was a great experience to return to this beautiful show. For more information on the show visit: www.yankthemusical.com

The RTP production featured musical direction by Kim Fox, choreography by Rebecca Frost Mayer and designs by Michael Jarrett, Grenville Burgess, Curt Miller and Alex Valentine.

Our show received very strong reviews, from both critics and audience:

"Directed winningly by James Stover...Yank! succeeds most when the men share their frank quiet moments of reckoning. The young and winning cast members bring heart to Yank's broader theme..."
        -Richmond Times Dispatch

"Director James Stover and Choreographer Rebecca Frost Mayer have mounted the show with fun and flair. This appealing musical offers a lively, entertaining and sometimes touching gay angle on wartime history."
        -Sifter

"There is never a dull moment in Richmond Triangle Players exciting production of David and Joseph Zellnik's YANK!... What attracts me to the direction and movement aspects of a play most is that I can see that there are strong choices being made, and this play had a number of powerful moments that added layers to the play's meaning."
         -GAY RVA

"Director James Stover was in an early incarnation of YANK and has come to Richmond as a student and leaves his mark as an assured director. His pacing is tight and he has allowed his actors to create strong characters that entertain us while enlightening the audience about a struggle we need to remember."

           -John Porter, WCVE

Man of La Mancha at VCU & Mame at Virginia Repertory Theatre

For the past few months, I've been assisting Director/Choreographer Patti D'Beck (along with my fellow VCU graduate students Brad Willcuts and Rebecca Frost Mayer) on two productions that opened within two weeks of each other.

I worked as Associate Director for Man of La Mancha at VCU. The show opened on November 7th at Hodges Theatre. It starred Guest Artist James Taylor (the opera singer, not the folk singer) as well as a slew of talented VCU students. The show ran for three weeks. I assisted in staging as well as coaching the actors and helping to shape the production.


I was also an assistant for "Mame" at Virginia Repertory Theatre, starring Tony Nominee Emily Skinner. The show opened at Virginia Repertory Theatre's November Theatre on November 21st. I worked creating blocking and choreography during pre-production and rejoined the creative team following the opening of "La Mancha" to assist in notes, staging and story. "Mame" runs through January 11th. For more information please visit
www.va-rep.org



(above, James Taylor and the cast of VCU's "Man of La Mancha". Below, Tony Nominee Emily Skinner and the cast of Virginia Repertory Theatre's "Mame")

Graduate School at Virginia Commonwealth University

This fall, I will begin my second year as a MFA Theatre Pedagogy (movement track) student. I will also be working as an adjunct professor at the school, teaching 'Intro to Acting I' (Acting for Freshman performance majors) and 'Movement for the Actor' (Movement for Sophomore performance majors).

I will again be working with renowned Broadway performer and Director/Choreographer Patti D'Beck as both her teaching assistant for 'Musical Theatre Performance' and as her associate director for Theatre VCU's Man of La Mancha.

The Renegade Company presents the world premiere of "Grimm's Juniper Tree"

My new full-length play, Grimm's Juniper Tree, received its' world premiere in February 2014. The play was produced by The Renegade Company in Philadelphia. 

Grimm's Juniper Tree is in part an adaptation of the Grimm's fairy tale "The Juniper Tree", but it also mashes with it a contemporary re-telling of "Hansel and Gretel" and features several other characters from various Grimm's tales. The production was directed by M. Craig Getting (director of the critically-acclaimed Heroes at the Lantern Theatre) and starred Renegade's Associate Artistic Director Griffin Stanton-Ameisen (recently featured in Delaware Shakespeare Festival's Two Gentlemen of Verona).


For more information on the production, please visit www.therenegadecompany.org

                             Rebecca Vail and Matthew Mastronardi in "Grimm's Juniper Tree"

"The Amish Project" Nominated for Brown Martin Award

The production of The Amish Project that I directed earlier this year in Philadelphia, has been nominated for the Brown Martin Award for Outstanding Production. The show was a co-production between The Renegade Company and Simpatico Theatre Project. It starred Janice Rowland and featured designs by Daniel Kontz, K. Moriah Smith, Dany Guy and Chris Haig.

Brown Martin Philadelphia Award seeks to honor those plays that best lead audiences to a better understanding of the unique experience of particular segments of our global community. The fellow nominees include productions from the Wilma Theatre, Arden Theatre and 1812 Productions.

The Amish Project is a one-woman show by Jessica Dickey that fictionally recounts the shooting at an Amish School House that occurred in 2006 in Nickle Mines, PA.

For a complete list of honorees at this year's Theatre Philadelphia event, please visit:
 http://www.theatrealliance.org/barrymore-awards

Below are some excerpts from the production's reviews:

"A deeply moving production and a performance that's not to be missed"

-Stage Magazine

"It is the kind of seriously strong performance that, along with James Stover's sharp direction....makes this production of 'The Amish Project' a provocative and memorable work"

-Philadelphia Daily News

"Incisive. I felt stricken and disturbed-in a good way"

-City Paper

"Under Stover's direction, Rowland invests fully in her characters...reveals the resiliency of the human spirt".

-Philadelphia Weekly

"A stunning performance, directed with care by James Stover"

-Talkin' Broadway