Oceanside native Bops into town

By PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, August 6, 2008 3:55 PM PDT ∞

When Kidz Bop bops into the Spreckels Theatre on Aug. 10, a local teen will be dancing and singing in the cast.

Oceanside native Jade Gilley, a 15-year-old student at Seaside Academy, is featured in the cast of the popular preteen concert attraction.

Kidz Bop CDs have sold more than 10.5 million copies. They feature children and preteens performing high-energy covers of pop songs with G-rated lyrics. The touring Kidz Bop show, designed for children ages 4 to 11, features six young singer/dancers performing the music from the CDs, such as Fergie's "Glamorous" and Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend."

Gilley has been performing since age 2, when she started taking dance classes at Oceanside's Dance Unlimited. She performed in her first dance competition at age 5. Since then, she has won multiple regional and national honors in hip-hop, jazz, lyrical and tap dance contests.

She was a featured dancer Missy Elliott's "Pass That Dutch" video and Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" video, and has appeared in various television commercials for Limited Too, Target and Kellogg's. Gilley was one of the original members of TSquad, a Disney pop group that spent the last two years touring across North America, opening for acts such as the Jonas Brothers, Cheetah Girls, EverLife and Hannah Montana, as well as headlining their own summer tour.

In her Kidz Bop biography, Gilley said she enjoys dancing, singing, surfing and snowboarding.

Kidz Bop will be presented at 4 p.m. Aug. 10 at the Spreckels Theatre, 121 Broadway in San Diego. Tickets are $30 to $36. To order, visit kidzbop.com.

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"Peter and the Starcatchers," a Peter Pan-themed play being developed by Disney's theatrical division, will be produced by the La Jolla Playhouse next February as part of the theater's Page to Stage workshop program.

The stage play is being adapted by Rick Elice (co-writer of the Playhouse-born "Jersey Boys") from the novel "Peter and the Starcatchers" by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. The story is a prequel to J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" and it tells the backstory of how Peter and his friends sail aboard the Never Land in a high-seas adventure, battling pirates to keep secret a mysterious and dangerous cargo.

The Playhouse workshop will be directed by actor Roger Rees with co-direction by Alex Timbers. It is being produced by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Productions. As a workshop, the play will be developed in front of an audience with nightly talkbacks and feedback sessions, running Feb. 13-March 8, 2009.

"La Jolla really knows how to encourage everyone who works in theater, from the directors to the writers to the actors and the entire creative team, to the producers, to the interns," Elice said. "I've been the beneficiary of that support on 'Jersey Boys' and I can't wait to come back to the Playhouse for 'Peter.' It just feels like coming home."

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Renovations are under way on the Old Town Theatre, the long-shuttered barnlike space leased early this year by San Diego's Cygnet Theatre.

Cygnet has raised $840,000 of the $975,000 budgeted for the revamp, that will include handicapped accessible bathrooms, new carpeting and seats, a state-of-the-art lighting and sound system, as well as an operating reserve for the city-owned space on Twiggs Street in Old Town San Diego. The theater will reopen in November with a new name ---- Cygnet Theatre at the Old Town Theatre ---- and a new production of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," with a book adapted by Cygnet artistic director Sean Murray, a Palomar Mountain resident.

Meanwhile, Cygnet has announced that Francis Gercke, former artistic director of Carlsbad's New Village Arts Theatre, has joined the Cygnet staff as associate artistic director. And Nick Fouch, an award-winning San Diego-based set designer, has been appointed Cygnet's technical director.

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When Moonlight Stage Productions presented a free reading of the Alfred Uhry drama "Driving Miss Daisy" at the Avo Playhouse in Vista last May, the event attracted an almost full house and a standing ovation.

Now comes news that a full production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play ---- once again starring Antonio "TJ" Johnson and Sandra Ellis-Troy ---- will open Moonlight's winter season at the Avo in November.

The just-announced lineup kicks off with "Daisy," running Nov. 13-30. Next up is "Pump Boys and Dinettes," a nostalgic musical revue featuring singing gas pump jockeys and waitresses along Highway 57, running Jan. 29 through Feb. 22. It will feature some of the same actors from Moonlight's "Route 66," which was a surprise smash last winter.

Closing the winter season will be John Bishop's comedy, "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940," a nonmusical murder-mystery that pokes fun at the corny movie thrillers of Hollywood's heyday. It will run March 5-22, 2009.

Single tickets go on sale Oct. 4.

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Two North County theaters collected a combined 27 awards at the 43rd annual Aubrey Awards, held last month in San Diego. The Aubreys, administered by the Associated Community Theatres of San Diego, honor achievements in nonprofessional theater.

Escondido's Patio Playhouse won 14 awards and PowPAC, Poway's Community Theatre, won 13.

PowPAC was most honored for its production of the drama "Rabbit Hole," with four awards to its lead and supporting actors and awards for director, production and house manager. Other PowPAC honors went to the costumer and actors in "Jerry's Girls," the ensemble in "Agnes of God" and production and acting awards for "Barefoot in the Park."

Patio's "Five Women Wearing the Same Dress" won for direction and ensemble. Acting awards were given for "The Man Who Came to Dinner," "Plaza Suite," "Hedda Gabler" and "The Miracle Worker." And "The King and I" won multiple honors, including for production, set design, lighting, sound and lead actress.

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Former La Jolla Playhouse artistic director Des McAnuff will return to Broadway next spring as the stage director for a revival of the 1950 musical "Guys and Dolls." McAnuff, who left the Playhouse last year to assume the leadership of Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival, will be joined on the "Guys and Dolls" project by choreographer Sergio Trujillo (who choreographed McAnuff's "Jersey Boys"). Casting has not been announced.

Pam Kragen is the arts and features editor of the North County Times.