Josie & Grace, a mostly historical cabaret dream play by Tod Kimbro

Tickets

Cost: $29.00
Find tickets: here

This event is in the Triple Threat Theatre Series and Josephine Double Feature.
A Dynamite Lunchbox production
Created by Tymisha Harris and Michael Marinaccio
Original songs and score by Tod Kimbro
Performed by Tymisha Harris and Rachel Comeau

The hit biographical show about the legendary singer, dancer, actress, activist, and spy Josephine Baker is returning to Surrey Civic Theatres—and this time she’s bringing a friend. The latest offering from the creative team behind the hit off-Broadway and international touring show Josephine, a burlesque cabaret dream play brings together the stories of the iconic first African American international superstar, Josephine Baker, with one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th Century, Academy Award winning actress and Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly.

In Josie & Grace, Tymisha Harris reprises the role of Josephine Baker from her award-winning hit solo show, this time focusing on the more mature and wisened Baker. The story begins in 1951 at New York City’s famous Stork Club, where an incident of racial discrimination and Josephine’s public denouncement leads her to be destroyed by the media, exiled from her country of birth, and branded a communist—a label that would tarnish and diminish her career from that point forward.

Here she meets a young and beautiful aspiring actress named Grace Kelly, who walks out of the exclusive Stork Club in solidarity with Josephine. Played with depth, humour, and icy power by actress Rachel Comeau (The Right Stuff on Disney+), Grace begins a lifelong friendship with “Josie” that lasts until Baker’s death in 1975.

Josie & Grace combines cabaret-style songs, cinematic scenes, and narration, giving audiences a peek behind the curtain of Josephine’s Chateau Millandes in France, and The Royal Palace of Monaco. Watch as these iconic women navigate their meteoric rise to success, and challenge the limits placed on them by society and powerful men, all the while forging an incredible friendship. This new show is one you will want to gather your friends for!

Showtimes
Wednesday, October 5 at 7:30pm
Friday, October 7 at 8pm
Saturday, October 8 at 2pm

About the Josie & Grace Creative Team
Tymisha Harris, Performer/Costume Designer/Choreographer
Tymisha Harris (aka “Tush”) has been performing professionally for over 20 years. Her early credits include assistant choreographer and backup dancing for the 90’s pop group N*SYNC, backup dancer for LFO, multiple roles at Universal Studios Orlando, and a featured role in the hit movie series Bring It On. More recent endeavors include the national tour of Rock of Ages, a European tour with the innovative and world-renowned Pilobulus Dance Theater Company and founding member and Assistant Director/Choreographer of the successful Orlando based troupe, VarieTease. Since 2016, she has been touring the world playing Josephine Baker in her solo-show Josephine: A Burlesque Cabaret Dream Play. For her performance, she has received 10 Awards for “Outstanding Performer” and was nominated for a Vivian Robinson AUDELCO Award for her 2018 off-Broadway run at Soho Playhouse in NYC.

Rachel Comeau, Performer
Rachel Comeau holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Rollins College where she attended on a performance scholarship. Since graduating, she has had a diverse career from stage to screen. On television she recently played the flirty Patricia on The Right Stuff on Disney+, and in film she starred as Mona in the award-winning 2020 feature Some Southern Waters. Over the last decade she has worked in dozens of professional live theatrical productions. Favourites include Three Sisters, The Whale, A View from the Bridge, and girl. She is currently taking courses with Class Act Studios and is represented by Lock Talent. When she’s not acting, she enjoys yoga, reading autobiographies, and swimming around in her mermaid tail.

Aradhana Twari, Director
Aradhana Tiwari has an MA in Theatre from the University of Central Florida. Tiwari has been directing since 2004 for a myriad of production companies and regional theaters. Titles include: Steel Magnolias, Crimes Of The Heart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Diviners, 33Variations, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Words We Wear, Connected, The Way Of The Cards, Bombs Babes & Bingo, Patient X, Julius Caesar, The Singing Christmas Trees, The War Of The Worlds, Peter Pan, The Little Foxes, The Pink Ribbon Project, The Road To Mecca, Enchanted April, The Clean House, Little Women, Other Desert Cities, Cock, The Light In The Piazza, I and You, Tribes, The Secret Garden, Constellations, Next To Normal, A Tennessee Walk & The Birds. Currently Tiwari is a professor at Valencia College where she teaches theatre and movement.

Michael Marinaccio, Producer/Creator
Michael has been a successful Producer, Director, Actor and Teacher for over 20 years. A BFA Theatre Performance graduate of The University of Central Florida, Michael has participated directly in hundreds of theatrical productions. As a collaborator, he has helped create over 20 original theatre pieces, and has produced and directed dozens of new works. He is known to many as the former Festival Producer of Orlando Fringe from 2011–2019, where he oversaw the largest period of growth in the organization’s history.

Tod Kimbro, Playwright/Composer/Lyricist
Tod Kimbro has written over 25 plays and musicals since 1997, including My Illustrious Wasteland, which was presented Off-Broadway at the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival. His 2000 musical LOUD was nominated for the M Elizabeth Osborn Award, a national prize for emerging playwrights. Tod is the Playwright and co-Creator of Josephine: A Burlesque Cabaret Dream Play, which played off-Broadway in 2018 and has won dozens of awards across the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. He is also an accomplished pianist and singer and has released two albums of original music.
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