America's most uncoordinated childhood ballet and tap student before discovering that her talents were music and writing, Marakay Rogers finally traded in her violin for law school when she realized that she might make more money in law than she did performing with the Potomac Symphony and in orchestra pits around the mid-Atlantic. Unfortunately, she forgot to factor in the student loan repayments! She has never recovered from being chewed out by Terrence Mann in public for hanging up her bow.
A graduate of Wilson College (PA), Marakay is also a writer, film reviewer and interviewer. Additionally, as of 2014, she serves as vice-chair of the Advisory Board of the Beaux Arts Society, Inc. and is a member of GALECA.
She's also taught college-level communications, writing, theatre criticism and English literature classes, has received multiple writing awards for several small-press novels, and is listed in Marquis' "Who's Who in America". She has done additional post-collegiate English and drama studies coursework with Open University (UK) in drama and literature.
Her junior high English teacher was Broadway star Katrina Yaukey's mother, Kay Yaukey. (Her high school math teacher was Ordean Yaukey, Katrina Yaukey's father, but between Marakay's mother, an editor, and Katrina's mother, English won out.) Marakay is senior theatre critic for Central Pennsylvania and a senior editor for BWWBooksWorld as well as a classical music reviewer. In her free time, Marakay practices law and often gets it right.
Dammit, Janet, let’s put on a show!
Grab your motorcycle jackets, your Brylcream and your poodle skirts and come hand jive with the best along the river.
Legendary but forgotten belter Sophie Tucker is revived in a big way in this adoring new musical
NOISES OFF at BCP is directed by Hunter Foster, stars Marilu Henner, and is a guaranteed winner for a late spring weekend.
The Bucks County production of WHITE CHRISTMAS, starring Broadway performer Jeremiah James, is the stuff Christmas - and earworms - are made of.
Philly has always done Christmas big. The Gimbels and Lit Brothers windows. The Wanamaker organ and light show. Jason Kelce Christmas music, from the Eagles to you. And now, following Kelce's releasing of annual Christmas songs, our own No Name Pops and dynamic conductor Enrico Lopez-Yañez present a big, even huge, on-stage Christmas extravaganza at Verizon Hall.
The Union League of Philadelphia was the beautiful and historic setting for a presentation of the songs and music for the upcoming musical, A BETTER WORLD... WHERE EAGLES FLY on November 8. With producer Michael Durkin and composer John Anderson present to answer questions and discuss their hopes for the show, a packed house received the concert enthusiastically. The full production is scheduled to open in Philadelphia in 2024 with a national tour immediately following.
Smart, stylish, sexy, intelligent. The perfect date? Yes, especially at Prima's delicious new Christmas event. A dark room illuminated with candles, a grand piano, and singers and dancers.
Lancaster’s Prima Theatre puts on a show that will send JoJo looking for Pennsylvania grass
Wednesday Addams is in love with an ordinary guy, and now he has to face the family. Will anyone survive?
When Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg put THE WIZARD OF OZ together, they knew they had a good thing. So did the studio. And audiences knew it, too. There's still a crowd that will show for any public performance of the movie, especially if it's a sing-along. It's this popularity that turned the movie into a stage musical, to keep the magic going.
What did our critic think of THE MUSIC OF QUEEN+JOURNEY at Prima Theatre? It's true that Prima Theatre's own music shows can be its best productions. This one, THE MUSIC OF QUEEN+JOURNEY, is no exception to that rule. This was performed outdoors in 3021; now, post-pandemic, it comes to Prima's stage, tuneful all the way. Executive Artistic Producer Mitch Nugent directs this delightful musical mayhem for a warm summer evening with evident pleasure. Your pleasure will be equally evident.
Goths, not hippies, spread the buzz about Lindsay Bretz-Morgan’s Jesus at Rock Lititz venue. The casting works perfectly, and offers some insights. Read our critic's review.
The one-act rock musical promises, and delivers, on murder. This is not your grandmother's Agatha Christie drawing-room whodunit.
Violin, dance, opera singers and the sounds of Nina Simone are just a few possible experiences you can have at one time at The Blue Building.
The oft- performed theatrical concert at the Junction Center is as cheering as the new weather coming in with it.
Anthony Roth Costanzo is taking a break from rehearsing Handel's RHODELINDA at the Metropolitan Opera. He has a few minutes to talk about singing countertenor both in opera and in popular music. 'Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi all wrote for countertenor - they were composing for castrati.' Fortunately the creation of castrati ended, but, alas, so did composing for countertenor. 'All the roles are before 1750 and after 1950.'
Love Harry Potter? Loathe Harry Potter? Take a trip to the Allenberry Playhouse to see Keystone Theatrics' production of PUFFS: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic.
Caroling around the Christmas tree never gets tired, especially when it’s a whole song and dance show.
Videos