Live, in-person theater will return to the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center in 2022.

Specifically, patrons can look forward to a professional, three-show series next year. Those musicals are Grease, Sister Act, and Guys and Dolls. They will comprise the inaugural Broadway at LPAC series at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center.

Grease will run from Jan. 14-30, Sister Act will occupy the stage from Feb. 18-March 6, while Guys and Dolls will settle in for an April 1-17 run.  Tickets and subscriptions to Broadway at LPAC will be on sale soon. Also, various subscription packages will be available.

MNM Theatre Company will partner with North End Theatre Company to produce the series. MNM, which previously staged shows at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, is an award-winning, not-for-profit theater company founded in 2014. Its mission is to produce high-quality professional live theater that inspires audiences and enriches the cultural life of the community. In addition, MNM’s mission is to create Florida-based jobs in the arts. The company has produced large scale musicals, as well as smaller, intimate productions.

Meanwhile, North End Theater Company is the production division of Arts Center Management (ACM), a a multi-faceted theatre management, consulting, and production company whose main focus is to help theatres and theatre companies improve their programming and operations.

ACM recently signed a long-term contract with the City of Lauderhill to produce the LPAC series.

“We are extremely excited to begin working with the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center and North End Theater Company,” said Marcie Gorman, MNM’s Producing Artistic Director and CEO. She added that her company is looking forward to bringing musical theater to Lauderhill and Broward County.

Kevin Barrett founded ACM in 2014, and is the company’s president.

“It’s an honor to work with Marcie Gorman and her award-winning MNM Theatre Company,” Barrett said. “During the last year, we have been working behind the scenes, formulating our plans, and there’s no one I would want leading this exciting new venture more than Marcie. She is one of the most respected regional theater producers in Florida.”

The Lauderhill Performing Arts Center’s location is 3800 NW 11^th Place. More specifically, the center is in the Central Broward Regional Park on the Northeast corner of Sunrise Boulevard and State Road 7.

“After a year of being dark due to COVID-19, we are thrilled to bring light and life back to the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center,” Lauderhill City Manager Desorae Giles-Smith said.

For more information about the LPAC, visit https://www.lpacfl.com.

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In other news, MNM Theatre Company will partner with King of Cats Theatre Company to bring Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) to the area. King of Cats is the official educational outreach theater of MNM Theatre Co. And TYA’s purpose is to bring arts education and arts exposure to often-overlooked and underserved communities in South Florida.

King of Cats Artistic Director Devin Tupler, together with MNM Theatre Company, have created a program “that will be available to audiences who might not otherwise have the opportunity to experience live theater,” reads a prepared statement. “The company’s pricing and business model are predicated on the premise that schools and families should be able to afford to experience theater regardless of their socio-economic circumstances.”

“MNM has always been about community – we cast and hire within our South Florida community,” Gorman said. “This is one project that fits our mission statement to a tee.”

Tupler said she credits theater for giving her passion, work ethic, love of reading “and almost every other trait I consider positive within myself. So, when I heard from teacher friends that schools’ arts and theater budgets kept getting cut, I knew I had to do something.  TYA’s focus is “inspiring the next generation through the arts, and that mission truly resonates with me.”

King of Cats Theatre Company’s name comes from the character Tybalt in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. That is one of the plays the company will tackle in 2022.

Tybalt is “the big brother everyone wishes they had,” Tupler said. “He’s protective, he loves his family with all of his heart, and his headstrong and fiery nature only show itself when he feels his family being slandered.”

King of Cats will mount a four-show season beginning in the fall, and bring those shows to three venues in three counties during the 2021-22 school year. Specifically, they are Pinecrest Gardens in Miami-Dade County; Miramar Cultural Center in Broward County, and FAU’s Barry Kaye Auditorium in Palm Beach County.

King of Cats’ season will open with the world premiere of Robin Hood: How a Hero Came to Be, by local playwright/actor Robyn Eli Brenner. Local performer Seth Trucks will direct the show, which will run from late October through November. It is a “devised work that is zany, quirky, fun, and full of heart,”  according to publicity.

Meanwhile, Tupler will helm the January production of the world premiere of a new version of Treasure Island. South Florida and New York-based playwright Luis Roberto Herrera penned this version. It is a “swashbuckling, heart-stopping pirate adventure designed for middle schoolers, but has been approved for advanced elementary and 9^th and 10^th grade students.”

King of Cats’ third production will be a new adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Samantha Kaufman.

This newly adapted version will retain Shakespeare’s classic language. At the same time, it will add modern music, anachronistic costuming, stunt work, and an innovative use of multimedia. High school students are the target audience for this version of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Romeo and Juliet will run from early February through the first week of April.

King of Cats’ season will conclude with Awaken!, an adaptation of the Sleeping Beauty story by David and Paul Rigano. They are an award-winning cabaret and musical theater song-writing team. The brothers will direct and musical direct Awaken!, which will run in April and May. The show’s intended audience is elementary school students.

For more information about King of Cats Theatre Company, visit https://www.kingofcatstheatreco.org.