With the movie Casino Royale opening this week, Daniel Craig becomes the sixth actor to have portrayed James Bond in the official series. Welsh actor Timothy Dalton (pictured above) was the fourth, starring in The Living Daylights and License to Kill. A classically trained Shakespearean actor, Dalton has more than once stepped into roles played by other actors. In 1970 he followed Laurence Olivier in a new version of Wuthering Heights, and in 1994 he was Rhett Butler in the mini-series Scarlett. Dalton made his first American film in 1978, the comedy Sextette with Mae West. Back in 1991, he starred opposite Whoopi Goldberg in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, the first interracial production of the play.

Joyce Carolyn has on her agenda a production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with an all-black cast. Produced by Down In My Soul Productions, the show is scheduled for later in the season. So far, Willie Judson and Hugh Davis have been mentioned for the cast.

Over the next few months Torn Space Theatre will present Ovations!, a series of staged readings under the direction of Chris Standart. The series begins with Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig which will be performed on Sunday, November 19 and Monday, November 20 at 7:30pm. Fat Pig will feature Michael Votta, Kerrykate Abel, Katie Hart and Andy Moss. The readings will be held at the Adam Mickiewicz Dramatic Circle, where Sarah Kane’s Cleansed is now being performed through December 2.

Jonathan Larson’s Broadway hit Rent returns to Shea’s Buffalo December 5-10. Before composing and writing Rent, his most popular and well known work, Larson wrote a variety of early pieces which had different degrees of success. Larson died in 1996, shortly before turning 36, on the day of Rent’s off-Broadway opening at the New York Theatre Workshop. One of Larson’s earlier pieces, the 1991 Tick…Tick…Boom! will be presented by MusicalFare February 28-April . Directed by Randall Kramer, the production will star Louis Colaiacovo, Michele Marie Roberts and Marc Sacco. The show has a very successful Los Angeles premiere earlier this year.

At the annual conference of the New York State Theatre Education Association in New York last month, Roger Paolini, Drama Director at Williamsville South H.S. was re-elected as president for a third consecutive two-year term. Kate Olena, Drama Teacher at Nichols Middle School, was elected vice-president.

On December 8 and 9, BUA will present Questionable Behavior, An Evening of Solo Performance that will feature two one person shows: Thanks for the Scabies, Jerkface written and performed by Dan Bernitt, and The Casual Sex Diary written and performed by Matthew Crehan Higgins. This past summer Bernitt toured his play in six theater festivals around the country. The following week BUA will present The Brazen-Faced Varlets in A Night of Double Dyke Drama, featuring Terry Baum’s Dos Lesbos, and the return of Ramona and Juliet, a hit at this year’s Buffalo Infringement Festival.

Theatre of Youth (now in its 35th season) will bring back the very popular A Little House Christmas, based on the book by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Directed by Meg Quinn, the show will star Todd Benzin, Susan Drozd, Kaila Rose Proulx, Mary Keenan-Brown, Jeffrey Coyle, Kevin Keleher, Linda Stein, Clare Cannon and Patrick White. Opening night is December 8 at 7pm.

Also, just in time for the holidays, O’Connell & Company will present A Big Band Christmas, November 30-December 17, featuring The Colored Musicians Club All-Star Big Band, and In Concert Quartet, comprised of Mary Kate O’Connell, Pamela Rose Mangus, Tom Doyle and Tom Owen.

Bring a nonperishable food or personal care item to the Studio Arena Theatre box office tomorrow, November 17 between 9am and 8pm and get a half price ticket for The Fourth Wise Man (valid for performances November 24-26). Studio Arena and Catholic Charities are partnering on a food drive for Catholic Charities pantries.

A.R. Gurney’s new comedy Post-Mortem has been extended at the the Flea Theatre in New York. The show will now run through December 16. This is the second of three world premieres which Gurney has in New York this season. Coming up in May at Playwright Horizon, Crazy Mary starring Sigourney Weaver.