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LONG Update: April, May, June Recap

Soooo... it's been A WHILE! Yes. My fault. However, for a very good reason: I was working!

That's always good right?

Maybe I was seeing Beyoncé too... guilty!

I want to give you a quick rundown of what I've been up to for the past few months, (Since April. Eek!).

APRIL

April was quite frankly a planning month. With the phenomenal shows and events slated for May and June, April was more a time when my team and I were hunkering down to prepare for what was coming.

At La-Ti-Do, we closed out March with our Annual Trans Artist Celebration and then had a wonderful feature in local actor Mikey Cafarelli (see him here) throughout April. With the unfortunate passing of THE Prince that month, we dedicated a show in his honor on Monday, April 25th. We even had a group number! (see that here)

We also had our final La-Ti-Do NYC performance at The Bowery Poetry Club. We've had a wonderful three year run there, but we came to a point where we outgrew the space and needed to move forward. More on this later, so keep reading!

MAY

On to May. This month began the whirlwind that is Summer 2016. While the season didn't officially start until June 21st, we kicked into high gear with our first production: The Man of the District Competition (see more on that here).

For "MOTD" - as we called it - we were given the opportunity to take an already established competition and take it to the next level. We introduced a sponsor for our competitors with a partnership with Avenue Jack (buy their clothes here), brought in a special Broadway guest performer Nicholas Rodriguez (see him here), and booked local celebrities and personalities to be our judges which included Karen Maria Alston - CEO of AM+G Communications, Anastasia Dellaccio - Founder of Dolci Gelati, Kirstin Franko - Director of Media Relations at Arena Stage, and of course Wendy Rieger - Local News Anchor from NBC4-Washington.

The event was a such rousing success that we've been asked to come back and continue our work next year.

Meanwhile, at La-Ti-Do, we featured local actor Ian Anthony Coleman (see him here) and partnered with The Alexandria Singers. We also supported the American Pops Orchestra and the National Broadway Chorus for their show A 60's Cocktail Party that featured some of our well-known alumni such as Nova Y. Payton and the ever-lovely Nicholas Rodriguez, (see them do a duet, but from another show).

We also acquired a new parent 501(c)3 organization as our parent/umbrella not-for-profit: Winter's Lane Productions (learn about WLP here). Lead by Anya Randall Nebel - La-Ti-Do's Managing Director - we now sit as a program of her company, which opens the door for us to do bigger and better things in the future.

And so, all of this catapulted us into June...

JUNE

JUNE IS (was) BUSTIN' OUT ALL OVER!!! And bust it did.

We kicked off the month supporting Capital Pride when Joanna Chilcoat-Fellows (She was in the movie CAMP. It's a big deal.) and I participated in the annual cabaret called Music in the Night with a quirky duet no one knows called Bop to the Top from the lesser known movie High School Musical.

A great part about that night was Joanna was also La-Ti-Do's featured performer for June, so it was an amazing promotion opportunity. Special thanks to Joshua Morgan (He is in Les Miserable on Broadway!), the host, for including us.

However, I do have to say the coolest part was the musical theatre nerd in me ran AMOK because this year they featured two of my most favorite Broadway performers: Kyle Dean Massey (See him here in PIPPIN) and Wesley Taylor (See him here on SMASH) pictured on the left and right below, respectively. Getting to meet and work with them I have to say was one dream come true.

After this, La-Ti-Do was packed with excitement as we curated our own Pride celebration, put together an evening of songs that are overdone - or never done - in the audition room, and partnered with Lean & Hungry Theater (learn more about them here) to bring in monologues/theatrical spoken word for the first time ever!

Now, the BIG NEWS!!!

Remember how I said La-Ti-Do NYC ended our performances at Bowery Poetry Club? Well, La-Ti-Do NYC was adopted by The Dramatists Guild Fund, Inc. (learn more about them here) who agreed to become our location sponsor for as long as we present programming featuring new work.

Yes, this changes our concept for the show there, but it is a new and exciting opportunity to explore a whole new arena of music and spoken word artistry.

Our first show with them is Sunday, July 24th at 11am and we couldn't be more excited. Yes, folks. 11am. Why? BECAUSE MIMOSAS AND MUSICAL THEATRE! #yaaas RSVP HERE

Now, shall I talk about July?

WELL TOO BAD!

You'll have to check back again.

Till next time, and the return of Thoughtful Thursday tomorrow,

Don Mike

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