Tag: Live Active Cultures

Rob Winn Anderson talks about his journey back to Garden Theatre

Rob Winn Anderson has been a professional entertainer since age 13, working his way from Disney’s Kids of the Kingdom to Tokyo Disneyland and back to Universal Orlando. While writing and directing for all the major theme parks, he’s also been contributing creatively to Winter Garden’s Garden Theatre since its opening gala, going on to serve as artistic director until he “burned out” and took a break in 2019. Anderson has returned as the Garden’s consulting producing creative director, following last year’s staff conflagration and season of outsourced shows.

I interviewed Anderson last week ahead of the opening weekend of Pippin (running through Sept. 15) — which incorporates two deaf actors and sign language into Stephen Schwartz’s metaphorical musical — about his journey there and back again, as well as about …

His personal connection to Pippin:

I was in high school, I guess, when it opened on Broadway. It became a favorite of mine at that time, and then two of the songs from the show were sung in our wedding. I had a real affinity for the show, [so] when I was looking at putting together this first season back, it was one I thought I really wanted to explore on my own.

His prior experience with sign language:

I studied ASL in college, and so I was really interested in the language. And then when I came to Disney, I was always enamored by the ASL interpreters for the shows. I felt they were a show unto themselves, [and] I thought to myself, I really would love to see that on stage as part of the show. And so it was in the back of my mind to do this for a very, very long time.

Working with Michelle Mary Schaefer, Director of Artistic Sign Language:

When you translate a script and lyrics into ASL, you take artistic license to do that. … Obviously your goal is still to make sure that your deaf audiences can follow the story and be engaged, but it’s not a direct interpretation. And so Michelle has been working for months now translating the entire show into what she calls her “gloss” [and] also working with our two deaf actors on their translations, because they carry such a huge load in the show.

Casting leading player Treshelle Edmond, who appeared on Broadway in Deaf West Theater’s Spring Awakening revival:

She reached out to me last December or so, interested in All Shook Up. … I wasn’t able to accommodate that, but I told her, “I have a show next season that I’m really interested in. Can I come back to you?” What I am finding out is that there really aren’t that many opportunities around the country for deaf actors. We are one of few that is allowing them to have a chance to do what they love to do and to be on stage.

Increasing audience accessibility:

We are also going to closed-caption the show, because … there are quite a few people in the deaf community who don’t sign and who want to see this show, [so] truly anyone can enjoy the show, whether you’re hearing or deaf. We’ll have one performance that will be ADI , and then there will also be two performances that are ASL interpreted.

It’s an initiative that we want to try to continue, to really bring accessibility to the Garden stage. I feel like when you speak of DEI, A [for accessibility] is kind of left off a lot, and I really want to make sure that we are being truly diverse across the whole great spectrum of what it means to be diverse.

Returning to the Garden Theatre:

I love the theater. I’ve been around it since the beginnings. I’ve had a lot of passion for it and have seen what its potential was, so it broke my heart to see where things went and that people were hurt.

I knew that the board had done some work to really address internally the things that were being said. Also I know Keith Davenport, our CEO, well; I’ve known him for many, many years, I trust him completely. And Rich Taylor, the board president, is someone I’ve known for many decades; he was actually my best man in my wedding, so I know and trust him as well.

I was very clear there were some things that I needed to put into place that made me feel more comfortable with accepting the role again, and everybody agreed to that, and now we’re just in trying to do the work.

Continuing controversy amid the theater community:

I know there’s still a lot of feelings around it. I deal with it every day, when I’m trying to cast, when I’m trying to crew; it is something that we’re all at the Garden extremely aware of. But we’re trying to move forward and do the work, and we feel like that’s going to really tell the story more than anything else. There’s a lot that could be said, but words just don’t really have as much impact as action.

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August 28, 2024
Orlando performer-producer Jaimz Dillman on 10 years of burlesque

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photo courtesy Corsets and Cuties

Corsets and Cuties

After a decade of dancing, decadence and décolletage, Orlando’s award-winning Corsets & Cuties burlesque troupe is taking an extended final bow, kicking off their 10th and final season Sunday, Aug. 26, with a star-studded celebratory show at the Abbey.

I recently talked with founding director-producer Jaimz Dillman about her company’s achievements over the past 10 years, as well as her life before the Cuties and her decision to hang up the corset and move on to the next stage of her career.

A native of Winter Springs, Florida, Dillman graduated from Seminole High School and studied improvisation at Sak Comedy Lab before becoming an entertainer at Universal Orlando, performing as a Ghostbuster in the streets and inside Nickelodeon’s Game Lab. She worked her way up through special events like Halloween Horror Nights and Grinchmas into stage management, and acted as an audience warm-up host for iVillage tapings.

After leaving Universal and Sak, Dillman says she and fellow actress Lori Babson Jessup were looking for a regular outlet for performing, and encountered “a void.”

click to enlarge

Photo courtesy Corsets and Cuties

Jaimz Dillman

“We found … women who maybe didn’t fit the princess role anymore, because we’ve grown out of that ingenue stage,” Dillman says. “We were now moms; we were not quite in the fairy godmother stage. There was a need, but there was no opportunity.”

Through Wade Hair’s Breakthrough Theatre, they presented Red Light: The Bad Girls of Broadway, a cabaret of risqué showtunes that was a hit of the 2012 Orlando Fringe. Dillman wasn’t originally supposed to appear in that show, but when a performer dropped out, Hair encouraged her to go on stage.

“I was over the moon,” Dillman recalls. “It was a really, really happy accident. He knew that I had the passion to perform. I just had never been given the opportunity, because I wasn’t cookie-cutter … I was always the comedy, the comic relief, [so] to be included in something that’s kind of sultry and burlesque and bawdy, I was like, ‘Yes, give it to me!’”

That sold-out run eventually led to the birth of Corsets & Cuties, which debuted in 2014. Early members who came from Red Light included Risa Risque of Blacklist Babes and Jax, who is still with the cast today. “The goal was to give people who had a passion and a talent for performing, but no place to do it, that very outlet.”

Corsets & Cuties sold out their very first weekend before ever having a performance, which Dillman says “reinforced our belief that there was something needed in this community that we seem to hit on that wasn’t being already provided. … We were very proud of being able to present all body types, all levels of talent, men, female, trans performers. We’ve had gay, straight, bi — everything on the rainbow. I’m very proud of [our] representation, and opening stages to those who want to perform.”

When Dillman’s co-founder moved away, she was unexpectedly handed the reins and has since guided the troupe beyond Fringe to performances at spots including the Venue (R.I.P.) and Theater West End in Sanford. Corsets & Cuties also supported the community with fundraising for breast cancer awareness, victims of the Pulse shooting and victims of a warehouse fire.

After a decade observing burlesque audiences, Dillman says they’ve “become a little bit more educated as to what burlesque is. When we first started, I remember some of the first shows at the Venue that the crowd was just crazy, hooting and hollering and screaming, and sometimes they were just talking amongst themselves,” she recalls. “I think the audiences have kind of gone along with us on the ride, and maybe evolved and grown up a little bit along the way with us.”

Given her troupe’s long history with the Fringe, it’s no surprise that Dillman has some sharp words regarding Gov. Ron DeSantis’ scapegoating of the Festival for his veto of all state arts funding.

“It hurt my heart to hear him belittle Fringe and reduce it to such a nasty, dirty sentence,” she says. “Bringing it down and reducing it to something that’s ugly and dirty takes so much away from the talent and the passion and the empowerment that a show like we do gives to these performers. … We are much more than what reductive statements like that make us out to be.”

Since the Cuties began, Orlando has spawned nearly a dozen other burlesque groups, so Dillman says she no longer feels like she’s hosting the only platform for “misfits,” noting that “the theme parks have taken a huge step in going outside their their boxes that they used to keep everybody in, and that has been a huge thing, I think, in the scene.” So, Dillman says she simply decided that “10 years sounds good,” calling it both “a nice round number” and “a long time to herd cats.”

Directing The Vagina Monologues “showed me that there’s more I can and more I want to do,” says Dillman, adding that she’s interesting in creating “more socially conscious theater” when not occupied by her day job in catering sales. But she promises Corsets & Cuties will live on in amateur shows and community-fostering all-star productions. “I can’t see what the future holds. I just know that it looks pretty great.”

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Seth Kubersky

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August 23, 2024
The Bureau on International Drive rolls out the Underground Game Show, a brand-new entertainment offering fiendishly difficult questions

When you watch a game show on television, do you have a habit of shouting out the answers ahead of the onscreen contestants — to the point that your friends and family tell you to either audition yourself, or shut up? The Bureau on International Drive is branching out their escape room and adventure game options, and I recently got to be a beta tester for The Underground Game Show, a brand-new offering that officially launched last weekend. It might not quite cure your jones to go on Jeopardy or fulfill all your Double Dare dreams, but going Underground proved to be an engaging upgrade over my usual family game night arguments over Reagan-era Trivial Pursuit answers.

Ever since opening in 2020 during the peak of the pandemic, the Bureau has survived and thrived, establishing itself as one of Orlando’s most polished independent escape room operations with imaginative missions involving puppets and cryptids. Competitors opting for the Underground Game Show still get to enter through the same speakeasy-style anteroom, which is disguised as an antique travel agency, before being ushered into a retro-futurist lobby (think Bioshock’s Rapture meets Loki‘s TVA).

The Underground Game Show takes place inside a room previously used as a VIP lounge, which has now been outfitted with a pair of long podiums with buttons for players to buzz in and a large vertical video screen for displaying questions and scores. While lacking the elaborate scenic detail of the adjoining escape rooms, it sets the stage sufficiently for a six-on-six showdown; as few as two people can play, and larger groups may be accommodated using a smartphone app. Completing the package is an in-person emcee, and Zac Adelson, our velvet-tuxed host, proved adept at accompanying the hourlong contest with a constant commentary track of snarky patter, keeping the show rolling despite some minor technical bugs with the custom-designed iPad control system.

Since our group was largely comprised of attractions employees and observers (like myself) we naturally picked Theme Parks as our first trivia topic, out of categories including Sports, Theater and Science. That’s how we quickly discovered that the Underground’s questions are both cleverly composed and fiendishly difficult, even for self-proclaimed experts in a field. Not all the categories proved quite as challenging, but I frequently found myself having to wait for the multiple choice answers to appear before hazarding a guess.

In between rounds of trivia, members of each team are pitted against each other in a mixed bag of physical challenges, which are less like Survivor and more like middle-school party games. Players may have to try to pass a stack of metal nuts back and forth on a handheld plate, balance an egg on a spoon while wearing distorting goggles, or eat a cookie balanced on their forehead without using their hands. These interactive interludes provide a welcome change of pace, and the best bits (like a blindfolded riff on Pictionary) got the entire room animated, but several stunts seemed clunky or undercooked.

I’ve always feared that if I were to appear on a game show, I’d be stuck knowing the answers but unable to work the buzzer. Initially the Underground appeared insistent on manifesting my recurring nightmare in real life, because no matter how fast I pounded the plastic dome in front of me, the other side was quicker. It wasn’t until almost halfway through that I realized you have to wait for the end of the question — signaled by the light that shines in players’ faces extinguishing — or else your button will be frozen out.

Once I learned that trick, I was able to help my side eke out a narrow victory, which was ultimately sealed with a surprising lack of fanfare. I was hoping to see a finale bonus round, or a farewell message from the Director (portrayed in videos by local actor Steve Hurst) to pay off the training exercise framing device that supposedly ties this game show into the metaverse connecting the Bureau’s other experiences. Don’t expect to take home a pile of cash or a new car, either; the only prizes you’ll win are souvenir buttons and bragging rights.

To begin, the Underground Game Show is currently featuring its first “season” of questions, with plans to add additional trivia and challenges in the future. The creators seemed receptive to our constructive critiques, so I’m confident they can bring it up to match the high bar set by their escape rooms. And although this experience isn’t quite as intense and immersive as battling Dr. Braingood or hatching Nessie in a bathtub, for some audiences that can actually be a good thing. My spouse enjoyed playing the game show far more than any of the escape rooms I’ve invited her to endure over the years, and I suspect that many others who find the genre anxiety-inducing will feel the same way. With a little more tweaking, this could turn into a terrific alternative to yet another tear-filled family fight over the Monopoly board.

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Seth Kubersky

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April 30, 2024
Dancer-choreographer Clymene Aldinger left for NYC over a decade ago, but her work retains a deep Orlando connection

In the last few years, I’ve written a depressing number of columns bidding farewell to Central Floridan artists who have departed our state seeking bluer pastures. So I’m always delighted for the opportunity to reconnect with an old friend who has found success in the big city, yet still remembers their roots. It’s been well over a decade since dancer-choreographer Clymene Aldinger left Orlando for New York City, where she performed as a principal dancer with the acclaimed Elisa Monte Dance before founding the nonprofit Clymove Dance in 2019. On April 2, her company held their 2024 gala at the prestigious Ailey Citigroup Theater, where they debuted the latest in her long line of collaborations with veteran local DJ Nigel John, as his stage alias Kurt Rambus. I recently caught up with the pair — whom I’ve known since they first met in 2009 through my wife’s company, Voci Dance — to hear why and how they’ve maintained their productive long-distance partnership.

“Being in Orlando and being with Voci was kind of a saving grace for me, because I had done the New York thing and it was pretty stressful,” Aldinger recalls of her arrival here in the aughts, after training at NYC’s Fordham University. “It was a lot to take in as a young person, and I needed a mental health check and emotional [and] physical break from that life.” While pursuing her master’s degree in mental health counseling at Rollins, she began dancing with Voci, which she says “was perfect for me, because it was more about the inspiration and the development of character, and just your whole self — your real self, whatever that is, it doesn’t matter what it looks like. … I just got to investigate a lot of different things … there was a lightness to it, but it was also depth-oriented at the same time.”

During this “magical time,” she first met John, who was contributing music to a Voci production. “His music is ultimately what we connected over, and his collaboration with dance was what I was inspired by, so when I needed a new composer he was in my mind just a perfect fit,” says Aldinger.

“I was originally attracted to his music because, while I am a classically trained dancer, there is a darkness to me; there is a funkiness, a soulfulness and he seems like a kindred spirit, in that we’re both sort of paradoxical,” says Aldinger. “It’s dark, and yet it’s upbeat; it’s depth-oriented, but then it’s funky and fun; it’s like being at a party, but also you’re thinking about really deep things.”

For his part, John — who is studying cognitive neuroscience at UCF when not dropping beats — explains that he and Aldinger were drawn to work together because they are both “unconventional,” adding, “That’s where we fit. We kind of like to experiment; she experiments, and I experiment.” Aldinger echoes that, saying, “When I’m inspired, I can say some pretty weird things and ideas, and he’s never been like, ‘What the F are you talking about?’”

Aldinger creates all her postmodern choreography without any music at all, and then sends Rambus suggestions of sonic inspirations that he turns into an original soundtrack. On their first collaboration, Rambus remembers Aldinger referencing a Big Boi song and asking for something “that BPM, that speed, that kind of vibe. So I listened to it, and then I kind of did my own thing.” Since then, he says, they’ve developed a routine of working back and forth over the internet.

Aldinger calls “Hips,” their eighth and newest joint piece, their “most collaborative yet.” Rambus’ contributions haven’t gone unnoticed by Clymove’s audiences, according to Aldinger, who reports that “at every show someone asked me like, ‘Where’s the vinyl? Where can I get the record?’” And she’s looking forward to this Orlando connection continuing, saying, “I’m not going to mess with something that isn’t broken. It’s literally perfect for what I’m trying to achieve.”

Although she recalls her move back to New York as being “really, really, really hard, because I had found a life in Florida,” Aldinger was able to achieve her dream of dancing professionally until her retirement in 2017. Today, she’s focused on being her company’s artistic director, which she calls “really stress-inducing [and] anxiety-provoking.” She credits her delegation skills for her success: “When I was a dancer, I had to do everything I did. [Now] I’m able to listen to other people’s advice, and rely on my board, and follow those who’ve done it before me.”

Manhattan may seem a world away from Orlando’s comparatively minuscule market, but Aldinger has some advice for fellow artists that rings true regardless of their city’s size. “You need to find your angel investors, and there’s really no other way to get started without money. You rely initially on your donors and patrons and sponsors,” she says. “Fundraising is the only thing that saves art. Ticket sales are the lowest hierarchy of where you make your money. Everything comes from people actually caring and giving their money over for a good cause.”

Many artists in the area may dream of escaping to NYC, but Aldinger isn’t closing the book on her life here by a long shot. “I love Orlando, and in fact, when my husband and I discussed where we move when we’re done with New York, that’s one of my top votes,” she says. “I’m always gonna have a spot in my heart for Orlando.”

Seth Kubersky

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April 12, 2024
MSC cruises have an intimate, Eurocentric approach to leisure sailing

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photo by Seth Kubersky

A selfie, Live Active Cruising-style

During the depths of the pandemic, Florida’s cruise industry was arguably impacted more severely than any other aspect of our tourism-focused economy. The Italian family-owned shipping container company Mediterranean Shipping Co. S.A. used that crisis as an opportunity, leveraging market share for its fast-growing leisure line within our lucrative market.

Back in late 2021, when COVID tests and face masks were still a thing in Central Florida, MSC invited me for a short sailing aboard the MSC Divina. I returned safely from that first trip impressed by their product’s potential as a value-priced alternative to Disney and Royal Caribbean, if only they could iron out some irritations.

Over the two-plus years since then, I’ve paid out of pocket for an additional pair of trips on the newer MSC Meraviglia, with mixed-to-marvelous results. In the meantime, MSC’s competitors have bounced back with a vengeance, introducing massive new mega-ships that are essentially floating theme parks; travel agents will tell you that staterooms on Disney’s upcoming Treasure are hotter tickets than any Walt Disney World hotel right now. So when I was invited to experience a four-night Valentine’s Day voyage aboard the MSC Seashore out of nearby Port Canaveral, I was curious to see how one of their latest vessels compares in this increasing crowded ocean.

The strict health precautions that formed first impressions on my first MSC sailing are obviously all long gone. However, MSC’s opulent yet not overbearing design aesthetic has been largely consistent across all three ships I’ve visited, with Divina’s old-Hollywood elegance and Meraviglia’s EPCOT influence leading up to Seashore’s Manhattan-via-Las Vegas vibe. Although it’s longer and has a larger passenger capacity, this Seashore EVO-class design is somewhat of a lateral shift from its Vista Project predecessor. For example, the Seashore multistory atrium — with massive video walls framed by Swarovski-studded staircases and panoramic elevators — is a sight to behold, but I didn’t feel it made as effective an activity hub or navigational thoroughfare as Meraviglia’s LED-domed promenade.

Speaking of floating theme parks, Seashore sports a Lego-branded kids club, a video arcade with a VR rafting simulator, and a pirate-themed splash pad with a few water slides and rope bridges. But it has nothing to match Meraviglia’s invigorating climbing trail, or its sister ship Seascape’s Robotron thrill ride, much less rival the roller coasters and full-scale water parks found aboard other lines.

Likewise, in lieu of Broadway-quality mainstage shows, or even the classical opera I enjoyed on my earlier MSC sailings, Seashore’s plotless song-and-dance revues feature talented performers gamely executing eyebrow-raising material; doubling down on Divina’s Caucasian Tina Turner impersonator, there’s an entire Black divas tribute mostly starring white women. Excellent live musicians enliven every lounge, and I enjoyed the Cabaret Rouge rotating variety acts, but I missed Meraviglia’s Cirque-style Carousel productions.

On the other hand, for adults who crave what MSC does best — dining, drinking and decompression — the Seashore can frequently shine, especially if you are staying in Yacht Club, MSC’s elevated “ship within a ship” section. An oasis of exceptional service, it includes access to an exclusive restaurant and pool deck, along with butler service and bottomless beverages. While food in the main dining room and buffet is unmemorable (stick with the fresh pizza and pastas), it’s good enough in Yacht Club that you don’t need to visit the specialty restaurants. Even so, it’s worth springing for Kaito teppanyaki, whose egg-tossing chefs outdo Kobe’s in showmanship.

More importantly, Yacht Club’s friendly, attentive staff cheerfully counterbalances the ship’s frequent inefficiencies, solving snafus and serving as human Lightning Lanes around any lines. We pissed off queuing passengers we passed by, but it’s well worth the upcharge for ease of embarkation and exit alone. The only thing Yacht Club couldn’t cure was the “smart” elevators, which were seemingly controlled by an evil AI intent on never arriving at my destination.

MSC’s Yacht Club is so cozy I was tempted to never leave its confines, with a couple of exceptions. Ocean Cay, the private island that I raved about last time, remains just as pristine, and the opportunity to stay there overnight on select sailings is still the best reason to sail MSC in any class. I also disembarked in Nassau, where friends from the Bahamas ministry of tourism introduced me to some eye-opening cultural treasures that lie only a short walk from the newly redeveloped cruise port and popular shopping district.

Roberta Garzaroli showed me her family’s Graycliff Hotel (graycliff.com), a former pirate’s mansion turned 5-star restaurant with onsite chocolate and cigar factories, and a labyrinthine 250,000-bottle wine cellar bested in the Western Hemisphere only by Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa. And Arlene Nash Ferguson welcomed us into her former childhood home, which is now the interactive Educulture Junkanoo Museum, celebrating the Afro-Caribbean festival of elaborate handmade paper costumes. Although Nassau has received bad press recently, I sailed away impressed by a port I’d previously only associated with straw markets and tourist bars.

This time next year, MSC will launch their massive World America from Florida, going head-to-head with supersized ships like Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas. Until then, they need to continue adapting to the American market by improving English-language communications and adding a broader variety of daily activities. But as they do so, I’m hoping they don’t discard the intimacy and Eurocentric eccentricities that made MSC so appealing in the first place.

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Seth Kubersky

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April 4, 2024