There's one last chance to see the show -- Saturday, April 20, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10 and are available at the door of the Bok Tech Theater, 8th and Mifflin Streets in South Philadelphia.  Proceeds support COSACOSA youth programs citywide.  Please join us!

Above (from left to right), Spare A Dimers Bruce Fero (Chorus of Liberty), Sherria Watts (Chorus of Liberty), Lourin Plant (The Veteran), Phyllis Chappel (The Farmer), Venissa Santi (The Mother), Julian Coleman (The Immigrant), Khrista White (The Merchant), Brielle Leary (Chorus of Liberty), Victor Rodriguez (The Builder), and Bill Gross (FDR) sing the grand finale to the show at our Friday evening performance.

Spare A Dime's cast works it at the final number of our final dress rehearsal!  Please join us!
If you don't already have your tickets, it's not too late!  Just $10 gets you great entertainment, and supports COSACOSA's youth programs citywide!

Tickets online: www.pifa.org/events/10
Tickets by phone:  215-893-1999
Tickets at the door, starting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week: Bok Tech Theater, 8th and Mifflin Streets in South Philadelphia
For more information, please call COSACOSA at 215.385.2554
We look forward to singing for you!

Less than one week until Spare A Dime is performed at the historic Bok Tech Theater!  We've posted some rough cuts from the forthcoming cast album on SoundCloud – check them out at soundcloud.com/cosacosaartatlarge

Remember to get your tickets to the show today at pifa.org/events/10 –
support the arts and COSACOSA's youth literacy, leadership and life skills programs throughout the city!

It's wonderful to see the great rapport among Spare A Dime's cast and crew – most especially evident in the song cycle's distinctive duets.  Above (left to right), Phyllis Chapell and Julian Coleman (as The Farmer and The Immigrant) rehearse Promised Land, a song about the American dream; Khrista White and Victor Rodriguez (as The Merchant and The Builder) rehearse Change in the Making, a song about life after the Works Progress Administration; and Lourin White and Ken Ulansey (as The Veteran and his whistle-playing shadow) rehearse Citizen Conservation, a song about the Civilian Conservation Corps. Percussionist François Zayas and bassist Jason Fraticelli look on stage right.

Click here to buy Spare A Dime tickets – just $10 general admission!
Proceeds benefit COSACOSA's youth programs citywide!

Illustrations by artist Steve Teare animated by designer Gerardo McGarity-Alegrett create projected backdrops for Spare A Dime singers, while photographic replicas by city residents create visual counterparts to audio stories.  We call this corner store our dimestore, where the character of The Merchant sings Pocket of Blues, a song describing the Great Depression.  The Builder later joins her here to sing a duet, Change in the Making – look for a WPA poster to appear in the window!

Join us for Spare A Dime on April 18, 19, and 20, 2013! 
Get your tickets today!

For over a year, COSACOSA youth, artists, and staff have collected stories of the Great Depression and our current "Great Recession" from community residents citywide.  These interviews created the taproot of Spare A Dime, defining the project's characters and anchoring the storyline through their powerful interplay of hope and hopelessness in times of crisis.

This summer, thanks to the support from the Knight Arts Challenge, the Kresge Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Union Benevolent Association, and other generous funders, these collected stories will also find a home in a new series of Site and Sound Gardens we're is creating with community members in North Philadelphia. Transforming abandoned lots into "sacred" spaces for our city neighborhoods, the new Gardens join COSACOSA's existing Healing Garden.  The Gardens will feature two- and three-dimensional visual art plus temporary sound art exhibitions, including stories, songs, and poetry by neighborhood residents.  Visit COSACOSA's website, www.cosacosa.org, for upcoming dates and times to volunteer to help create and maintain the Site and Sound Gardens.  You can also read about the Gardens and other community-building efforts in the recently published Philadelphia edition of US Airways magazine!

Best of all, hear our collected stories as part of Spare A Dime on April 18, 19, and 20, 2013! 
Get your tickets today!

Brielle Leary, soprano
Leary graduated from the Philadelphia Creative and Performing Arts High School as a vocal major and was a member of the all city choir for four years. She has sung in countless concerts and musicals, as well as performing for many church events and community shows. Under the direction of Victor Rodriguez, Leary appears regularly in musical series at the Rotunda. She recently graduated from Jean Madeline Aveda Institute, soon to be licensed with her own beauty hair care salon.  "I'm a life-long singer," Leary said, "I will sing anywhere, anytime!" 

Andi Rose, soprano
Rose equates singing with marriage...'til death do us part! She was bitten by the singing bug at the age of five when a woman at her school sang “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands." Musical theater is Rose's favorite performance style, and her numerous leading roles include Maria in West Side Story and Annie in Annie Get Your Gun. For three seasons she was a cast member of Lafferty’s Wake at Society Hill Playhouse.  She recently performed Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado with the acclaimed Savoy Company.  Rose is a proud member of Screen Actors Guild.  She is happy to be working with Victor again and is thrilled to be a part of the Chorus of Liberty.  She quotes Calvin Coolidge, "The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have little."

Donnie Hammond, alto
Hammond always wanted to be a performer; her mother laughingly claims she could dance before she could walk.  Hammond graduated from Bishop McDevitt High School and spent one year in college before she decided to work at her chosen craft full time. She has appeared with in Philadelphia venues including at the Society Hill Playhouse in Motherhood: The Musical and at the Prince Theater in Jamaica.  She was featured in the German tour of the Original U.S.A. Gospel Singers. "I love singing and playing different people," Hammond said, "so musical theater is what I always enjoy the most."

Sherria Watts, alto
Sherria Watts, Philadelphia native is no stranger to the stage. She has appeared in numerous musical theater productions including Grease (Rizzo), Hair (Dionne), and Alice in Wonderland (the Duchess).  Watts holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Theater from West Chester University where she was a starring member of a finalist team participating in the Kennedy Center's American College Theater Festival.  Watts has taught dance and musical theater throughout the region and now uses her skills as the Children's Program Coordinator for a major martial arts company in the Delaware Valley.  "I'm excited for this project," Watts said, "and for the opportunity to perform again."

Joanne Joella, contralto
Joella is a voice acting and voice development coach and founder of JoellaArts Voice and Speech at Sherman Mills in East Falls. Over the years, she has been a consultant for Philadelphia Magazine, Men’s Health, Phillyfit Magazine, and the Philadelphia Inquirer as well as appearing on Marty Moss-Coan’s Radio Times an expert on Philadelphia regional sounds and accent reduction.  Joanne has also performed in various Musical Theater productions throughout the region and has fronted or lent her powerful vocals to an array of rock bands. “Being part of Spare A Dime is an opportunity of a lifetime to feel the virtual presence of the history of my parents and grandparents," Joella said. "I know more about myself, my family, my country, and what my future may hold.  Words cannot express how awesome it is to perform in the Bok High School Auditorium and to know that the spirit we honor was the force behind the creation of the Bok.  Thank you, Brothers and Sisters of the WPA! We will share your time.” For more information about classes and private coaching at JoellaArts, please visit her website, www.joellaarts.com

Brian S. Rothman, tenor
Rothman is a second grade teacher at Forrest Elementary School.  He holds  a Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology from Albright University and a Master of Elementary Education from Holy Family University.  Brian has been performing in regional community theater for more years than he would like to count.  Favorite roles over the years have been in Little Shop of Horrors (The Dentist), The Fantasticks (Matt), Once Upon a Mattress (Prince Dauntless),  Honk! (Ugly), Beauty and the Beast (Cogsworth), The Drowsy Chaperone (Feldzieg), Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? (Louie), Grease (Kenickie), Annie (Oliver Warbucks), Cabaret (Cliff), and Godspell (Judas).  When not performing or teaching, Brian spends time training his Australian shepherds, Beezie and Topper, and his Dachshund, Tawney.  "Thanks to all my friends and family for their support over the years, especially Victor Rodgriguez for getting him involved with Spare A Dime!  Spread Kindness..."

Bruce Fero, baritone
Fero is a member and soloist in the Philadelphia Gospel Seminar Choir and One Faith Gospel Music Ministry.  A resident of Philadelphia's Olney neighborhood, he is also active in the choir at St. Paul's Evangelical Church.  Among his extensive musical theater credits are performances in Come Blow Your Horn, Gypsy, The Chalk Garden, and The Azuza Street Revival.  Fero is also a veteran, having served in the United States Air Force in England.  He shared his stories for Spare A Dime's character of The Veteran, and helped COSACOSA staff recreate modern-day versions of WPA photographs of veterans.  "When politicians didn't (or don't) care," Fero said, "change needs to come from within our communities, from people working and struggling for something better."

Gary Bullock, bass
Bullock has been singing in organized choirs since he was in third grade (sometime during the Harding Administration), and is presently a bass in the St. George’s Episcopal Church Choir, where he began over fifty years ago. In recent years, he has appeared in a significant number of local theater productions including Macbeth (Banquo), Cabaret (Herr Schultz), Adrift in Macao (Mitch), Don’t Drink the Water (Krojak), Jesus Christ Superstar (Bartholomew), and Sweeney Todd.  "Many thanks to Kim, Victor, and particularly Joanne Joella for the confidence to include him in this wonderful production. As always, special thanks to the Bullock family for their love and support, especially Marlee, for whom I have been a work in progress for thirty-four years and without whom none of this would be possible.  Life is a journey, not a destination.”

From left: Spare A Dime Production Coordinator Rodney Whittenberg; Victor Rodriguez leads the Chorus of Liberty – Gary Bullock, Bruce Fero, Brian Rothman, Joanne Joella, Sherria Watts, Donnie Hammond, and Briele Leary (Andi Rose not pictured) – at Melodyvision Studio.

Spare A Dime's Chorus of Liberty took their turn recording songs for the cast album today. Led by Victor Rodriguez (who is also singing the role of The Builder), the Chorus performs two songs, one  celebrating freedom and civic responsibility, the other lauding work as progress.

See our work in progress!  Stay tuned for news about more open rehearsals and other public events leading up to our live performances – and get your tickets today on the PIFA 13 website!