Beth Marshall Opens Her Next Theatrical Season

This sketch of Beth Marshall was done in 2010 while she presented a “Yapinar” which basically educated Directors and Producers on how to promote their shows for the Orlando Fringe Festival. At that time Beth and her husband were recovering from a car accident. Thankfully they both made a full recovery. This year Beth has begun a healthy lifestyle and she is sharing her progress on Facebook. I’m fascinated by her progress and updates.

On August 20th, she got
all her measurements from her costume designer and trainer. The Total
inches on my body lost equaled 48″ in 20 weeks. Biggest body area loss is a tie
for 7″ each on her waist and chest. She was pleased with these results so far. She has
have more energy, and feels physically stronger. She is now working out
3-6 times a week. She didn’t even think she would work out at all
until I was under 300 lbs. This summer, she had relatively moderate to light work load which
allowed her time to put extra focus on her health and hang around juice
bars, farmers markets, whole foods and gyms. This week the new theater season starts
and this means that a full work load and chaos will be in full force. Still her health
goals remain her top priority. She has the entire month of Sept. scheduled
with  personal trainings and boot camp. She hopes to maintain her
hardcore training as the work load triples. Sharing her health goals and achievements is inspiring me to try and improve my own health.

Mark Your Calendars! The 7th Beth Marshall Presents season is about to kick off with Play in a Day which will be staged September 6th at Lake Howell High School (4200 Dike Road, Winter Park Florida).  6:30pm will be a silent Auction and the shows followed by a talk back. Play in a Day has 100 artists write and produce 9 plays with the same theme within a 24 hour time frame. This year a musical is in the works and I hope to sketch the production from inception to birth.

On November 7th Beth will be presenting Beatnik Squared. This is a unique, audience interactive speak-easy 60’s theme One-Night ONLY
event. Whether attending for the first time or returning for seconds,
all audience members will get into the groove of enjoying a flashback of
the 60’s. Many of our usual beats, poets, freaks, geeks and artisans of
every kind will be returning along with some new acts and surprises.
This event is once again in partnership with Blue Star and VarieTEASE taking place at The Venue (511 Virginia Dr., Orlando, Fl).

I am intrigued by THE TRAYVON MARTIN PROJECT because I did a number of sketches of demonstrators at the time.  Part 1, A Tribute will be staged (Oct. 3rd-5th 2014).

This year long socio-political theatrical collaboration and exploration in partnership with Penguin Point Productions, and Valencia College East begins with the World Premiere
of 6 short plays and a poem inspired by the tragic loss of
Trayvon Martin. The works carefully explore race relations and equality
issues within our culture and specifically within the Central Florida
community. Playwrights include: Dennis Neal, Rob Winn Anderson, Janine Klein, James Brendlinger, Paris Crayton lll, Steve Schneider, and poet Rob Gee. Directed by Beth Marshall, Paul Castaneda, and John DiDonna. Each performance will hold a post-show talk back with the audience. Performances will take place at Valencia College Black Box Theatre (701 North Econlockhatchee Trail, Orlando, Fl). Partial proceeds from this event benefit The Travyon Martin Foundation. This production will be presented at Valencia College East Campus
as part of their build up to the world premiere of their own original
devised play centering around the inciting incidents of Trayvon Martin
and Jordan Davis, the 17 year old killed in a Jacksonville gas station
parking lot.  Researched and created by a class led by John DiDonna, this event will premier in Valencia College Theater’s February 2015 slot. Part 2 will be staged in February and Part 3 is yet to be determined.