Music hall performers Judy Staber and Ted Pugh
(SPENCERTOWN, N.Y.) – A fun-filled “Evening of British Music Hall,” featuring an evening of British vaudeville with music, jokes, and skits, takes place at the Spencertown Academy Arts Center on Saturday, October 3 at 7pm and Sunday, October 4, at 2pm, in an event presented by PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century. The program, featuring a half-dozen of the region’s top talents, including Lincoln Mayorga, Sheri Bauer-Mayorga, Amanda Boyd-Grout, Ted Pugh, John Roberts and Judy Staber, will include a tribute to Noel Coward.
The British Music Hall is a 19th– and early-20th-century entertainment of rousing songs, jokes and skits kept alive today in small theaters all over England. The six performers in this production are all aficionados of the style, either by nationality or inclination – or both. All live in the Columbia County/Berkshire area and have performed regularly in various local venues over the years. They are Miss Sheri Bauer-Mayorga, Miss Amanda Boyd-Grout, Maestro Lincoln Mayorga, Mr. Ted Pugh, Mr. John Roberts and Miss Judy Staber. (The titles of address are customary for Music Hall performers.)
- Sheri Bauer-Mayorga is locally well known as a jazz-vocalist, pianist and teacher. She is founder and director of The Good Globe Singing School.
- Amanda Boyd-Grout trained at the Guild Hall School of Music and Drama in London and went on to further her career as an opera singer both in Europe and the United States. She is a frequent soloist at many venues in the region.
- Lincoln Mayorga, pianist, composer, and arranger, has toured internationally with a highly versatile repertoire. He has performed and recorded with a wide range of artists including Arnold Steinhardt, Barbara Streisand, Phil Ochs, the Four Preps, Itzhak Perlman, Mel Torme, and Frank Zappa.
- Ted Pugh has appeared on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theatres in the US. Ted is co-founder and co-artistic director of The Actors’ Ensemble of New York.
- John Roberts is an English-born musician and a folk singer who, with Tony Barrand, has been performing traditional English folk music for more than forty years. He is a member of the four-man troupe Nowell Sing We Clear. His recording company is Golden Hind Music.
- Judy Staber was born into a theatrical family in England. For the past 15 years she wrote, produced and performed in an original Pantomime with The Pantoloons, first at the Spencertown Academy and later at the Ghent Playhouse.