NOW APPEARING!
in excerpts from
Adventures of a Wizard
in fireside chats
with live performance demonstrations of
Vaudeville song and dance,
slapstick mime and verbal comedy.
The real story behind the times of
the Laurice Vaudeville family
against the backdrop of
the Golden Age of Broadway
in the Victorian-Edwardian Gilded Era.
Please call 212-665-6544 for
tickets, reservations, and bookings.
______________________________________________________________
NOW APPEARING!
in excerpts from
Adventures of a Wizard
in fireside chats
with live performance demonstrations of
Vaudeville song and dance
with banjo, guitar, piano and concertina,
and magic, illusion, and daring escape.
The real story behind the times of
the Laurice Vaudeville family
against the backdrop of the Golden Age of Broadway
in the Victorian-Edwardian Gilded Era.
Please call 212-665-6544 for
tickets, reservations, and bookings.
_________________________________________________________________
Laurice
in excerpts from
Adventures of a Wizard
In Concert
Story and Soaring Song with Powerful Interpretations
accompanied by English Concertina
Singer and Multi-instrumentalist Laurice, studied under virtuosi
Sergei Matusevitch, Edward Lee Tyler, and Morty Mintz
The Wilburton Historic Resort
Manchester, VT
March 27, 2023 at 7 PM
For reservations, please call 212-665-6544.
View our Newsletter (pdf)
Individual selected stories from our Newsletter
The President’s Report:
3,000 Children Served by 15 Artists in 2 Years (pdf)
100% Success:
Homelessness Prevention of Foster Youth – By Magic! (pdf)
Off-Broadway Vaudeville Theater for Children (pdf)
Serving Victims of the World Trade Center Tragedy (pdf)
Now You See It…Eye-Hand Coordination Helps
Children with Brain Tumors & Cancer (pdf)
Laurice Takes Breath-Taking Risks For Underprivileged Youth (pdf)
News Articles
NY Nonprofit, Excerpted, Issue 8 (pdf)
New and Expanding Programs
A volunteer-driven nonprofit community organization founded by Irving Laurice, Portals Of Wonder has brought pioneering programs such as Dr. C.G. Jung-informed magic, mime, music and myth to over 10,000 critically ill children, disadvantaged and homeless youth, frail elderly and Holocaust survivors, as well as social work advocacy, arts education workshops, cultural and educational edutainment enrichment to communities, and other special projects and programs at no cost to these individuals and families.
We express our appreciation for video clips of our past programs generously edited by Robert DeNiro’s company, Danny Goldberg, Nice Shoes Post Production, and Metro Post, available at www.PortalsOfWonder.org.
Portals Of Wonder has created, built and delivered pioneering cultural arts education workshops, consultations, trainings, and performance programs to hospitals, homeless shelters, places of worship, schools, foster-care agencies, theaters, community centers and corporations.
Please feel free to reach out today. We need your support and always welcome your participation.
From Broadway to Hollywood
The Legendary Ziegfeld Follies
National Ziegfeld Club Letter (pdf)
Irving Laurice with Broadway Ziegfeld Girl and silent screen actress, Doris Eaton, starring [at 98 years young] on Broadway in the annual Equity Fights AIDS show.
Joining Doris and Laurice, are Nils Hanson, The National Ziegfeld Club Administrator, former Chairman of the Westchester, New York Republican Party, and consultant to U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, U.S. President Richard Nixon, and NY Gov. Thomas Dewey; and Sandra Nordgren, former Executive Director of Portals Of Wonder, and Portals Of Wonder performing therapy dog Sheeba Jewel, ‘the Baby Lassie’.
At 101 years old, Doris Eaton was the world’s last living legendary Broadway Ziegfeld Girl. Doris, a fan of Laurice [it was a mutual fan club], danced the Charleston on Broadway leading a chorus of 60, once a year from the 1990’s through the early 2000’s for the Equity Fights AIDS benefit show. She appeared to standing ovations at the New Amsterdam Theater at 42nd Street and Broadway, the same theater she appeared at in 1919, 1920 & 1921 with great artists such as Fred Astaire, Adele Astaire, WC Fields, and Fanny Brice. Doris was the inspiration for the song, “Singing In The Rain”, with lyrics by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown. Doris Eaton Travis introduced the song on Broadway in The Hollywood Music Box Revue in 1929. In 1952, it was choreographed, danced and sung by Gene Kelly in what is considered to be the greatest MGM romantic musical comedy.
Doris Eaton was Chairperson of the National Ziegfeld Club, which chose Laurice, founder of Portals Of Wonder, as the visionary and pioneering artist to carry on in the spirit of the Ziegfeld family. Mrs. Ziegfeld, AKA Billie Burke, best known as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz [1939], founded the club.
Laurice’s pioneering performing arts and philanthropic work has been acknowledged by the families of Broadway and Hollywood royalty from Flo Ziegfeld, Fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin and Harry Houdini, to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Pete Seeger, LaToya Jackson, and by notable political and philanthropic figures from several NY Governors, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg Media, and Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, sister of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and from Gilded Age family foundations from the Annenberg Foundation to the Cornell Foundation, as well as organizations that range from the NYC Board of Education, NJ education systems, and the NYC Dept of Youth and Community Development, Hunter College School of Social Work-CUNY, Yeshiva University Wurzweiler School of Social Work, NYU, and The New School University, to the foster care systems of NYC and Hanover, Germany, the United Nations diplomatic corps, and many other notable governmental agencies, corporations and foundations internationally.
Irving Laurice and his team are humbled and wish to express their gratitude to all those who have found value in support of their work.
Thank you.
Acknowledging and Appreciating
Jeffrey and Suzanne Citron
Vonage Communications founder
Laurice and the Portals Of Wonder family wish to express our deepest appreciation to Jeffrey and Suzanne Citron and their Vonage team for on-going support and community partnership since 2005.
Vonage’s vital support provides community outreach telecommunications for Portals Of Wonder.
Vonage.com