The multitalented Malcolm Gets—actor, dancer, singer, composer, pianist and choreographer—returns this year as part of the Master Artist Series at Santa Fe College, capping his residency with a performance featuring melodies from well-known Broadway musicals at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015, in the Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus, 3000 NW 83rd Street, Gainesville.
Tickets are $15 for the orchestra and mezzanine, $12 for the balcony, and $9 for seniors, children, and University of Florida and SF College students. For ticket information, call the Box Office at 352-395-4181. Tickets may be purchased online at http://www.sfcollege.edu/finearts.
Santa Fe’s Master Artist Series brings arts professionals to campus to teach and mentor students in dance, music and theatre. The Master Artists then conclude their residencies with a performance.
For Gets, the series is an opportunity to return to Gainesville, where he grew up and attended Buchholz High School and the University of Florida. His concert in September 2014 was peppered with sightings of old friends and stories about his Gainesville years interspersed with music, songs, and performances by several students Gets mentored as part of his Master Artist’s activities.
“Malcolm wants to do more with the students this year,” said Fine Arts Department Chairperson Alora Haynes. “He really enjoyed the teaching aspect of being a Master Artist last year, so he will come in on Tuesday and work with our students until Saturday’s show, when he will highlight the students even more than he did last year.”
Best known for his role as Richard in the television situation comedy “Caroline in the City,” Gets is a classically trained pianist who began taking lessons at age nine and used his piano skills to help pay his way through college. He has often said that his career happened because of the record cabinet in his parents’ living room—specifically, the cast albums of the 1950s and 1960s that were stored there. Instead of practicing classical selections, he would often switch to playing selections by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
At the University of Florida, Gets won a Best Newcomer’s Award in acting and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre in 1989. He went on to complete a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Yale University School of Drama.
In addition to his work in television, Gets acted in the films “A Flash of Green” and “Sex and the City.” He played Gould in the 2009 HBO film “Grey Gardens” opposite Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. PS Classics released his first solo album, “The Journey Home,” in 2009. On Broadway, Gets appeared in “Dreamgirls,” “The Story of My Life” and “Amour,” for which he was nominated in 2003 for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. Gets won an Obie Award for his off-Broadway work in “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Two Gentlemen of Verona” in 1995.
This event is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and Visit Gainesville, a Tourist Development Tax Grant from the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners in conjunction with the Alachua County Tourist Development Council.
For more information, call Alora Haynes at 352-395-5296.
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