Dramatic Presentations & John Quimby Theater Events
Theater activities at SUNY at Ulster are open to all students, regardless of their programs of study. Communications and Theater students present several full-scale theatrical productions during the year. They also present original programs of Reader's Theater in December and May. In addition, both student and professional touring groups are invited to the campus.
The 500 seat John Quimby Theater has been the venue for student and professional theatrical productions, concerts, dance presentations, poetry readings, guest lectures and other featured events.
The theater is located in Vanderlyn Hall, VAN 127, 845: 687-5086. Advance purchase of tickets can be arranged through the Box Office, 845: 687-7127.
No news to report at this time.
Jerry Bradley is the new coordinator of SUNY Ulster’s Theater Program, a two-year associate’s degree program in performance and stagecraft. The new Theater Arts Program is geared toward aspiring actors, designers, directors and stage technicians. Jerry Bradley’s professional career began in acting, performing over 200 roles in New York, at leading regional theaters and abroad, and working in production on and off-Broadway ranging from The Fifth of July with Christopher Reeve and Swoosie Kurtz to Torch Song Trilogy with Harvey Fierstein. He produced and directed a New York revival of Neil Simon’s Rumors, the musical Earth Girls Are Easy with Tony-winner Kristin Chenoweth, Bizet’s Carmen and numerous new scripts and classic plays, including Shakespeare. With an MFA in acting and directing from the University of Virginia, the Woodstock resident has taught at Cornell University, SUNY Oswego, Emory & Henry College and Marymount Manhattan College.
A STAGED READING OF CHARLES DICKENS' GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Spring 2008 Visiting Artist
Donald Brenner, Director
April 26, 2008
7:00 pm in the Student Lounge, Vanderlyn Hall
Enjoy a staged reading of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations adapted for the stage and directed by Donald Brenner, the SUNY Ulster Spring 2008 Visiting Artist, who has extensive directing credits including Lincoln Center and City Center in NYC.
This dynamic and evocative theatrical adaptation is a condensed version of the classic novel with Pip and an ensemble of nine players presenting the story.
The suggested donation for tonight's event is $8.
In addition to his staged reading, Mr. Brenner will also conduct an Audition Workshop, work with SUNY Ulster theater classes, and choreograph Dancing At Lughnasa, to be presented by the SUNY Ulster Theater Department April 10 - 13, 2008.
To read more about Donald Brenner, click here.
To view a copy of the program for this presentation, click here.
DANCING AT LUGHNASA
by Brian Friel
Thursday, April 10 at 8:00 pm
Friday, April 11 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, April 12 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, April 13 at 3:00 pm
SUNY ULSTER THEATER PRESENTS DANCING AT LUGHNASA
Experience this extraordinary play about five unmarried sisters and their priest brother in a small village in Ireland in 1936, as remembered by the love child of one of the sisters. Dancing at Lughnasa is a tribute to family love and loyalty and to the resilient human spirit.
Dancing at Lughnasa was written by Brian Friel, and this production is being directed by SUNY Ulster theater arts faculty Jerry Bradley.
All shows in Quimby Theater on the Stone Ridge campus. For more information and ticket prices, call the box office at 688-1959.
FALL 2007
THE FOREIGNER
by Larry Shue
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 15-17 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, Nov. 18 at 3:00 pm
Quimby Theater
SUNY ULSTER THEATER DEPARTMENT PRESENTS THE FOREIGNER, HILARIOUS COMEDY, NOVEMBER 15, 16, 17 AND 18.
FIRST PRODUCTION OF NEW THEATER ARTS COORDINATOR ... What happens when a shy and silent young man is mistaken for a suspicious foreigner who doesn’t understand English? That is the premise of the hilarious American comedy The Foreigner, a production of the Ulster County Community College Theater Department, on November 15, 16, 17 and 18 at Quimby Theater on the Stone Ridge campus of the College.
Evening performances on Thursday, November 15, Friday, November 16, and Saturday, November 17, will be at 8:00 p.m. There is an afternoon performance on Sunday, November 18, at 3:00 p.m. All tickets will be sold at the door, with a suggested donation of $8. High school and college students with ID may attend free of charge.
Some of the cast and crew of The Foreigner (left to right):
front row, Brandon Anders, Jerry Bradley, Matt Condilis;
standing, Isadora Newcombe, Lerone Simon, Mary Small, Amber Rodriguez, James Stokes.
The author Larry Shue was a professional actor and playwright who wrote a number of plays, including his two most popular comedies, The Nerd and The Foreigner. The Foreigner opened Off-Broadway in 1984 and won two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards. It has become popular with college and community theaters.
The director of this production is Jerry Bradley, the new coordinator of SUNY Ulster’s Theater Program, a two-year associate’s degree program in performance and stagecraft. The new Theater Arts Program is geared toward aspiring actors, designers, directors and stage technicians. Through part-time or full-time study, students can earn an A.A. degree and prepare for transfer to a 4-year program. Spring classes begin January 22. Those interested should call the Admissions Office at 800-724-0833 for information.
Jerry Bradley’s professional career began in acting, performing over 200 roles in New York, at leading regional theaters and abroad, and working in production on and off-Broadway ranging from The Fifth of July with Christopher Reeve and Swoosie Kurtz to Torch Song Trilogy with Harvey Fierstein. He produced and directed a New York revival of Neil Simon’s Rumors, the musical Earth Girls Are Easy with Tony-winner Kristin Chenoweth, Bizet’s Carmen and numerous new scripts and classic plays, including Shakespeare. With an MFA in acting and directing from the University of Virginia, the Woodstock resident has taught at Cornell University, SUNY Oswego, Emory & Henry College and Marymount Manhattan College.
Members of the cast (left to right): Adele Calcavecchio, James Stokes,
Tony Curtis, Brandon Anders, Ashlee Bakey, Michael Belluzzi, Maxim von Eikh.
The participating staff, students and community members are listed under the towns in which they live:
Kingston: Brandon Anders, cast as Reverend David Marshall Lee; Adele Calcavecchio, local community cast member, playing Betty Meeks; Maxim von Eikh, cast as Ellard Simms; Ashlee Bakey, cast as Catherine Simms. Max Lydy, SUNY Ulster professional staff, scene and lighting designer; Lerone Simon, assistant stage Manager; Isadora Newcombe, lights; Anthony “Nick” D’Alberto, props; Grace Jarrold, wardrobe; Courtney Constantino, props.
Margaretville: Mary Small, props.
New Paltz: Aletta Vett, professional guest costume designer.
Rosendale: Mike Belluzzi, cast as Owen Musser.
Saugerties: Anthony Curtis, cast as Charlie Baker; Angela Perez, production stage manager; Ryan Hunlock, company manager; Amber Rodriguez, wardrobe; Mike Prezioso, props; Matt Condilis, sound.
Ulster Park: Biz Goldhammer, set construction and painting.
Wallkill: James Stokes, cast as Froggy le Seur.
FALL 2006
A TRIO OF MODERN CLASSICS
by Strindberg, Synge and O'Neill
Friday and Saturday, Nov. 10-11 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, Nov. 12 at 3:00 pm
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 16-18 at 8:00 pm
Quimby Theater
A TRIO OF MODERN CLASSICS BY STRINDBERG, SYNGE, AND O'NEILL ... PERFORMANCES ON NOV. 10, 11, 12 AND NOV. 16, 17, 18 ... A program of three one-act plays will be presented by the Ulster County Community College Theater Department in the Studio Theater, Vanderlyn Hall, Room 137, on the college’s Stone Ridge campus on Friday, November 10, and Saturday, November 11, at 8:00 p.m. and on Sunday, November 12, at 3:00 p.m. The program will be repeated on Thursday, November 16, Friday, November 17, and Saturday, November 18, all at 8:00 p.m. All performances are free and open to the public.
The theme of the evening of one-act plays, titled “O’Neill and His Precursors,” is the influence of the European modern theater movement on the work of America’s first great playwright, Eugene O’Neill. The first half of the program will consist of plays by two major European dramatists—Strindberg and Synge—whose work inspired O’Neill.
The program begins with August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, the story of a tragic relationship between an aristocratic woman and a family servant, set in Sweden of the 1880s. The realism of the play is augmented by several symbolist elements, which are more evident in the second play, Riders to the Sea, by Irish playwright, J.M. Synge. The influence of Synge and Strindberg on O’Neill can be seen in his expressionist play The Hairy Ape, written in 1921, which will be presented in the second half of the program.
The three plays are directed by Frank Boyer, adjunct instructor in Visual and Performing Arts and Communication, with costume design by Greta Baker. The production design is by Robert Pucci, chair of the SUNY Ulster department of Visual and Performing Arts and Communication.
The cast of Miss Julie includes Amber Cunzio (Saugerties), Jessica Lopez (Mount Marion) and Yarey Sanchez-Aponte (Kingston). Actors appearing in Riders to the Sea include Danine Lareau (Saugerties), Ashley Amell (Kingston), Lindsay Michaels (Woodstock) and Steven King (Napanoch). The cast of The Hairy Ape includes Michael Werner (Hurley), Steven King, Ian Kane (Kingston), Yarey Sanchez-Aponte, Lindsay Michaels, Olson Martinez and Heather Mikesh (Kingston).
For further information, call Robert Pucci at (845) 687-4985.
SPRING 2006
AMERICAN BUFFALO
by David Mamet
Friday, Apr. 21 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, Apr. 22 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, Apr. 23 at 2:00 pm
Quimby Theater
THE WATER ENGINE
by David Mamet
Friday, Apr. 28 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, Apr. 29 at 8:00 pm
Sunday, Apr. 30 at 2:00 pm
(Note: A curtain-opener, "Mr. Happiness," will precede the play.)
Quimby Theater
Admission Prices
General Admission: $7
Senior Citizens: $5
Students: $2
TWO PLAYS BY DAVID MAMET AT SUNY ULSTER APRIL 21-30 ... The SUNY Ulster Theater Department will present two acclaimed dramas by Pulitzer prize-winning American playwright David Mamet on two separate weekends in April. The performances will be held at Quimby Theater on the Stone Ridge campus. Ticket prices are $7 for general admission; $5 for senior citizens; and $2 for students.
American Buffalo will be performed on Friday, April 21, at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 22, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, April 23, at 2 p.m. This drama of three small-time crooks planning a heist takes place at “Don’s Resale Shop,” a.k.a. junk store, where Don enlists two friends to steal back a valuable buffalo-head nickel he unwittingly sold to a customer. Mamet’s characters are marginal and isolated men whose friendship is filled with doubt and suspicion. American Buffalo appeared on Broadway in 1977 and was named Best American Play of that year. It was made into a film in 1996 starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall and Sean Penn.
Rehearsal for The Water Engine
(l. to r.) Brian elliot, Sheena Heinitz, Robert Pucci, and Shawn Haran
The second bill features The Water Engine, on Friday, April 28, at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 29 at 4 p.m., and Sunday, April 30, at 4 p.m. This play, set in the 1930s, focuses on Charles Lang, who invents an engine that runs on water for fuel. Lang is faced with protecting his invention from big oil companies who want to destroy it. The Water Engine was written for television in 1992 and starred William Macy. A curtain-opener, “Mr. Happiness,” will precede the play.
American Buffalo features SUNY Ulster students Ian Kane, Matt Eakins, and Lenny Camperlango, all of Kingston. Artist-in-Residence Charles Pistone is the director.
Rehearsal for The Water Engine
Heather Mikesh
Students appearing in The Water Engine include Shawn Haran, Jeff Haber, Heather Mikesh, Erica Brown, and Jenna Gilliland of Kingston; Brian Elliot of Saugerties; and Sheena Marie Heinitz of Accord.
The cast of The Water Engine and Mr. Happiness
“Mr. Happiness” is portrayed by Jack O’Connor of Stone Ridge. Professor Robert Pucci, chairperson of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts and Communications, plays a role in The Water Engine and directed both plays on this bill.
For more information and to reserve tickets, call 845-687-4985.
SPRING 2005
SUNY ULSTER THEATER PRESENTS
SHAKESPEARE'S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S
DREAM
Friday -Sunday, April 15-17 and Thursady - Saturday,
April 21-23, 2005
8:00 pm on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays
2:00 pm Matinee on Sunday
Quimby Theater, Stone Ridge campus
Shakespeare’s comedy about love and enchantment, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, will be presented at Ulster County Community College on Friday through Sunday, April 15-17, and Thursday through Saturday, April 21-23, at Quimby Theater on the college’s Stone Ridge campus. All performances begin at 8:00 p.m. except for the matinee at 2:00 p.m on Sunday, April 17.
Robert Pucci, department chair of Visual and Performing Arts and Communications, directs the play with a student cast. This light-hearted tale follows two couples in love with the wrong partners, who in the end find their true mates. In the forest where the action of the play takes place, a conflict is raging between the King and Queen of the fairies. A comical band of laborers has also come to the forest to rehearse an unintentionally hilarious play. These plot lines intertwine when a forest sprite named Puck creates chaos with a flower that causes people to fall in love with the first creature seen upon waking. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a perennial favorite with audiences of all ages.
Tickets are $7 for general admission, $5 for senior citizens, and $2 for students, faculty and staff. There is limited seating, and reservations are suggested. Call 845: 687-4985 for reservations.
Robert Pucci ~ Director and Designer for Set and Lighting
Greta Baker ~ Costume Designer
To view a copy of the poster, click here.
(Note: Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to download the PDF versions. If you do not have it installed on your computer, click here to download a free copy.)
ARTIST-in-RESIDENCE THEATER PRESENTATIONS
SPRING 2005
Saturday, Mar. 5, 2005, 8:00 pm, Vanderlyn Student Lounge.
Dear Knipschitz: The Love
Letters of Anton Tchekhov to his Wife Olga Knipper and Her
Replies
8:00 pm, Vanderlyn Student Lounge, Stone Ridge campus
Attend this performance by SUNY Ulster's Artist-in-Residence, actor and director Anthony Giaimo, based on the love letters between Anton Chekov and his wife Olga Knipper, the leading lady of the Moscow Art Theater, who would star in his greatest roles in The Seagull, The Cherry Orchard and The Three Sisters.
Award-winning playwright Cheryl Royce, who adapted
the letters for the stage, also plays Chekov's wife.
Suggested donation: $8
Saturday, Mar. 19, 2005, 8:00 pm, Quimby Theater
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well
and Living in Paris: A Concert Version
Artist-in-Residence Anthony
Giaimo presents an evening of musical theater. Enter
the wonderful world of beloved composer and troubador Jacques
Brel, known for his poetic, reflective, bittersweet
and even caustic songs.
This concert version of selected songs from the international
hit show will be performed by Anthony Giaimo and
his fellow Broadway performers Susan Cella, Hillary
Daw, and Charles Pistone.
Suggested donation: $8.
FALL 2004
ARTHUR MILLER'S A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE AT SUNY ULSTER THEATER, NOVEMBER 12-14 AND 18-20 ... SUNY Ulster Theater Department will present A View From the Bridge, an explosive drama by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Arthur Miller, on November 12-14 and 18-20. Performances are at 8 p.m., except the Sunday matinee at 2 p.m., at the Quimby Theater on the SUNY Ulster Stone Ridge campus. Tickets are general admission $7, seniors $5, and faculty, staff and students $2.
Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge has been called “heartbreaking, agonizing and exciting” and “a dramatic bonfire” by critics. The play, based on a true story, is set on the rough-and-tumble Brooklyn waterfront in a working-class Italian-American family of the late 1940s. It details violent happenings when a longshoreman’s family harbors two Sicilian cousins who have illegally entered the United States. The central character, Eddie Carbone, becomes caught in a web of tragedy when his 17-year-old niece falls in love with one of the immigrants. The explosive ending brings the conflicts in the Carbone family to a tragic and shocking conclusion.
The play is directed by Charles Pistone, an actor, director and teacher with extensive credits on and off Broadway, the London stage, regional and stock theater, television and film. Mr. Pistone teaches as a part-time faculty member in the theater department at SUNY Ulster and assisted in the college’s July 2004 musical production of Victor Victoria. Robert Pucci, chair of the Visual and Performing Arts and Communications department at the college, designed the set and lighting and will play Mr. Alfieri, the lawyer who acts as narrator in the drama. The leading role of Eddie Carbone is played by Matthew Eakins. Nina Wootan is his wife, Beatrice, and Aurora DeCrosta is his niece, Catherine. Kevin Nordstrom plays Rodolpho and Eric Beesmer plays Marco, the immigrant brothers.
SUMMER 2004
SUMMER 2004
VICTOR VICTORIA
Summer Music Theater
Directed by Nick Avossa
and
The Game of Love and Chance
by Marivaux
Directed by Robert Pucci
SUNY ULSTER SUMMER THEATER PRESENTS: THE GAME OF LOVE AND CHANCE ... The SUNY Ulster Summer Theater series will present Marivaux's classical comedy THE GAME OF LOVE AND CHANCE translated by Adrienne and Oscar Mandel at the Quimby Theater on the Stone Ridge campus starting on Friday, July 30 with a performance at 8 PM.
The play will be presented for two weekends with performances at 8 PM on July 31, and August 5, 6, 7, plus 2 PM matinees on Sunday, August 1, and Saturday, August 7. Tickets may be purchased at the door for $15 for adults and $13 for seniors and students, or may be reserved by calling the SUNY Ulster Box Office at 845: 687-7127.
Based on characters derived from the Comedia del Arte and in the tradition of Moliere, THE GAME OF LOVE AND CHANCE is a nearly three hundred year young comedy that explores the battle between reason and passion through the trials of two pairs of lovers.
Mr. Humphrey (Douglas Koop) has arranged for the marriage for his daughter Sylvia (Michelle Du Val). But Sylvia is leery of men and wishes to observe and evaluate her suitor by switching places with her maid, Lisa (Victoria Larkin). Humphrey agrees to this plan as he knows that the proposed groom Dorian (Kevin Nordstrom) has decided to switch places with his servant Trivet (J. B. Poguelin) to observe his future bride. Masters and Servants predictably fall in love with all the twists and consequences that test the resolve of the lovers and the sanity of the household, including Sylvia's brother Thomas (Phillip Siblo-Landsman).
(front) J. B Poguelin of Dover Plains and Victoria Larkin
of New York City.
(back) Kevin Nordstrom of Kingston, Phillip Siblo- Landsman
of Saugerties, Michelle Du Val of Kingston, Douglas Koop of
Kingston.
THE GAME OF LOVE AND CHANCE is directed by SUNY Ulster's Chair of Visual and Performing Arts, Robert Pucci. Mr. Pucci has also designed the setting and the lighting for the production. The period 18th century costumes for the play were designed by Greta Baker.
SUNY ULSTER SUMMER THEATER PRESENTS "VICTOR VICTORIA" JULY 15-24 ... The first of two productions in the 29th season of summer theater at Ulster County Community College will be the sophisticated musical Victor Victoria, with songs by Leslie Bricusse and Henry Mancini and book by Blake Edwards. The hilarious show combines a penniless soprano singer turned star female impersonator with macho gangster figures, unexpected coincidences and show-stopping performances in the elegant nightclubs of Parisian café society.
The cast includes Emily Hart, Alex Fletcher and Mario Benincasa of Kingston, Jack O'Connor of Rifton, Michael McCord of Albany, Matt Eakins of Hurley and, in the double role of Victoria and Victor, Christina Gorman of Ruby.
Emily Hart and Christina Gorman rehearsing “Victor
Victoria.”
Director of “Victor Victoria” is Nick Avossa. Vocal director is Jon DelGado; Dan Shaut will conduct the orchestra. Danny Paul is choreographer; Chris Borger, technical director; Zach Jacobs, lighting director. Sets have been designed by Joseph Happeny and costumes by June Wolfersteig. Charles Pistone is character coach and Patty Gilpatric is properties director.
Performances will be July 15-17 and 22-24 at 8:00 p.m. with a matinee on Sunday, July 18, at 2:00 p.m. All performances are in the Quimby Theater on the college’s Stone Ridge campus. Tickets are $15, $13 for students and seniors. Both summer theater shows can be seen at a special rate of $25. For reservations phone (845) 687-7127, Monday through Friday, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., and one hour before all performances.
The Summer Theater’s second production, 18th century French playwright Pierre de Marivaux’s The Game of Love and Chance, will run July 30 through August 7.
Here are some more photographs from "Victor Victoria." Enjoy!
SPRING 2004
SUNY ULSTER THEATER SERIES PRESENTS "WINGS" APRIL 17-24, 2004 ... The SUNY Ulster Theater series presented Arthur Kopit’s play WINGS at the Quimby Theater on Ulster County Community College’s Stone Ridge Campus. Performances were given on Saturday and Sunday, April 17 - 18 and Thursday through Saturday, April 22- 24.
WINGS is a surreal adventure into the world of a stroke victim, Emily Stillson, played by Victoria Larkin of New York City, who suffers from aphasia and struggles to regain her identify and her ability to express herself. In her 20s, Mrs. Stillson was a flyer and barnstorming wing walker. In the play a 70-something Emily summons all of her strength and determination to recover from her most challenging accident. The play is a voyage from her mind’s perspective.
Cast members of the SUNY Ulster production of Wings:
(seated) Victoria Larkin (back row, from left) Dominic Simmons, Michelle
Duval, Kevin Nordstrom, Max Gluck, Robyn
Lukaszewski, Yarey Sanchez-Aponte.
The production was presented in an intimate black-box space with live music and sound effects. The cast of WINGS included Michelle Duval, Robyn Lukaszewski and Kevin Nordstrom of Kingston, Max Gluck of New Paltz, Josh Tyler of Saugerties, Dominic Simmons of Port Ewen, Yarey Sanchez-Aponte of Rifton and Anna Fleck of Boiceville. The production was directed and designed by Robert Pucci, chair of Visual and Performing Arts at SUNY Ulster.
FALL 2003
Savage in Limbo
SUNY ULSTER THEATER DEPARTMENT PRESENTS
JOHN PATRICK SHANLEY'S "SAVAGE IN LIMBO" ... The Ulster County Community College Theater Department presentedJohn
Patrick Shanley's Savage in Limbo at Quimby
Theater on the Stone Ridge Campus Friday, November 7, through
Saturday, November 15, 2003.
Rehearsing Savage in Limbo are (from left) Matthew
Kruger, Caitlin Cahill, Jason Abrams, Victoria
Larkin and Tara Cahill.
Directed by SUNY Ulster’s chair of Visual and Performing Arts Robert Pucci, Savage in Limbo is a serious comedy exploring the possibilities for change and love in the lives of five people who gather in a seedy Bronx bar, portrayed by SUNY Ulster students and graduates. Denise Savage, played by Victoria Larkin of New York City, arrives at Scales, a down-and-out watering hole managed by a taciturn and somewhat surly bartender, Murk, portrayed by Jason Abrams of Woodstock. Ignoring the resident barfly, April, played by Tara Cahill of Kingston, Savage declares, “Where is anybody?” Savage is in a limbo seeking action, companionship and love.
The possibilities for all three emerge with the tearful entries of jilted lover Linda Rotunda, portrayed by Caitlin Cahill of Kingston, and her wayward boyfriend, Tony Aronica, played by Matthew Kruger of Kingston. The dialogue, which is often sprinkled with adult language, has its farcical and serious turns, revealing the characters’ secrets and desires. Playwright John Patrick Shanley won the Academy Award for his screenplay for Moonstruck. Musical accompaniment will be provided by Josh Taylor on drums.
SUMMER 2003 Three Viewings
July 24-August 3, 2003 ~ Three Viewings
SUNY ULSTER'S SUMMER THEATER PRESENTATION: THREE VIEWINGS OPENS JULY 24 ... The Ulster County Community College Theater
Department presented its summer production of Three Viewings by Jeffrey Hatcher, July 24-August 3, with an opening
performance on Thursday, July 24.
Actors in the production were Anthony Spinelli of Ulster Park, Stefanie Hatfield of Kingston and Amy Vane of Accord. The director was Bill Salzmann. Megan Boyd was scenic designer and technical director. Lighting designer was Jason Boyd, with costumes by Kristin Stokes. Leo Kintner was production stage manager.
"You always know when you're in love. Knowing isn't
the point.
The point is action!"
Anthony Spinelli as Emil in "Tell-Tale"
Three Viewings consists of three dark comedies about the lengths to which people go to hold on to memories, money, life and love: Tell-Tale is the story of Emil, a mild-mannered undertaker who wants to confess his unspoken passion for a woman who comes to all his funerals, before time-and bodies-run out. The Thief of Tears is Mac, who makes her living stealing jewelry from corpses. When her wealthy grandmother dies, leaving her nothing, Mac returns to her hometown and attempts to pry loose her inheritance, a diamond ring her grandmother promised to give her. Mac finds there are more obstacles to getting the ring than she imagined, and more revelations about her own past than she bargained for. Thirteen Things About Ed Carpolotti is the story of Virginia, widow of a wheeler-dealer contractor, who discovers that her husband has left her in debt to the banks, her family, and the mob. As she struggles to escape her creditors and understand how her husband could have left her in such pain and doubt, a mysterious list of “thirteen things” embarrassing to Ed is offered to her-if she can come up with one million dollars in two days. Virginia is saved by an unseen benefactor. As the play ends, the benefactor is revealed, along with the mysterious “thirteen things”- revelations that resurrect the love and trust she thought were lost forever.
"There are so many things you can't get or hold on to.
Like color, and facets, and light."
Stefanie Hatfield as Mac in "Thief of Tears"
Three Viewings was developed by Illusion Theater of Minneapolis, and produced in New York by Manhattan Theater Club in 1995, with Buck Henry as Emil. New York Magazine called the play “essential viewing.” Variety described it as “Beautifully spun tales that have the cumulative impact - and surprise payoff… of one of the season’s small indisputable triumphs.” The New York Daily News wrote: “Nowadays it is rare to encounter a genuine writer in the theater - someone, that is, who thinks about such things as character and structure, someone who has a genuine feel for language. So when such a thing comes along it’s exciting. Jeffrey Hatcher [’s] ... Three Viewings is the genuine article.... Hatcher’s voice is one I want to hear again soon.”
"I wanted to tell Debbie,
but she's listening to Prozac and I don't want to interrupt."
Amy Vane as Virginia in "Thirteen Things
About Ed Carpolotti"
The following is a review of the production which appeared in the Daily Freeman (Kingston), and is reprinted with their permission.
‘Three Viewings’ a triple
treat at UCCC
By KITTY MONTGOMERY
Reviewer
STONE RIDGE - Death is something most of us will experience in this life, so playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s subject matter in “Three Viewings” is not necessarily macabre and nothing out of the ordinary. What is extraordinary about these dramatic monologues offered as summer fare at Ulster County Community College are performances by three actors encouraged to explore and incarnate their characters’ interiors by director Bill Salzmann.
The setting, a funeral parlor backstage in Quimby Auditorium, represents a switch from exuberant showbiz to intimate theater at UCCC, and you would have to travel, say, to some actor’s studio in Manhattan to encounter scene work of this depth.
NO PLAYING out across the footlights, Anthony Spinelli, Stephanie Hatfield and Amy Vane draw us into the reality of private worlds. Their reflections, occasioned by the death of a loved one, treat the tragedies and loves of the living with the human comedy coincidentally celebrated. They speak to us from a tastefully appointed parlor of a funeral home somewhere in the coal country of western Pennsylvania where a bare-limbed tree, standing against a backlit blue translucent scrim, indicates a winter season or perhaps the durative winter of death.
Assistant funeral director Emil, who attends the bereaved, changing cut flowers in a vase for each viewing, is the first to share a story of love and loss in “Tell-Tale.” Spinelli, who played the beered-up, rage-filled ‘nam vet Roy in Salzmann’s production of “Lone Star” last spring, does total turnabout here as a nerdish, sweet young undertaker smitten with unrequited love for a hustling real-estate agent named Tessie.
NEVER MIND the exploitive character of this woman we know only through Emil’s eyes, she is the Dulcinea to whom he mouths, “I love you, I love you, I love you,” and he is as absurdly and nobly infatuated with her as ever Don Quixote was by his fair lady. Spinelli makes us feel Emil’s ecstasy, vulnerability and ultimate grief, contained like the professional he is, even as he creates a comedic, totally realistic portrait of a repressed, compulsive geek. You will laugh at Emil and cry for him as he relates his tale.
Hatfield comes on moll tough as Mac — think Mac the Knife — in “Thief of Tears.” An ex-actress and mother turned professional robber of jewelry from the deceased, she has come east from L.A. for the funeral of her coal-baroness grandma, old as Methuselah, richer than Croesus, loved by none. Mac, it turns out, has an account to settle with the old woman, left over from an unfulfilled promise in childhood when she learned her first lesson in ruthlessness and betrayal at granny’s hands.
Mac’s character fascinates as it repels, drawing us deeper and deeper into a con artist’s life. She was married once and had two children. When relations ask about her family, she parries the question with what seems like glib dismissal: “My husband forgot to fix the kitchen door.”
A memory turn here, a truth there and a told dream bring character and audience to a moment of shattering tragic epiphany.
AFTER Hatfield’s revelations rip our hearts, Vane’s saga as the widowed Virginia make them soar. What a love story with a twist, amazing as a Guy deMaupassant tale but way nicer. Gin, as the “wise guy” who loaned money to her husband at 100 percent interest for his struggling construction business familiarly calls her, looked forward to comfortable widowhood. She would naturally miss her taciturn but loving husband, who had a series of heart attacks and went dotty at the end, but she had her house, the business assets, a clever married daughter. Minutes after his funeral, the calls come in. Her husband owes the bank half a mil, some relative another half — he’ll take her well-appointed house for his newly married son in lieu — and a whole million to the wise guy.
TO TOP all, comes a note written in pasted up newsprint threatening to tell “Thirteen Things About Ed Carpolotti” (the title of this monologue) unless she immediately comes up with another enormous sum. At bay, Virginia places her china and silver on the dining table, thinking they’ll scarcely make a dent in her crushing debts, then in desperation calls and tells all to a distant gossiping best friend called Toody.
Known in life as a wheeler-dealer, Carpolotti reaches from the grave — well, he prepared things ahead of time — in a last act of love. Vane relates the widow’s lament with grace and equanimity, giving up nothing as a clue to the conclusion of her plight. You will love this woman and her clever husband, both.
SPRING 2003 Lone Star
ONSTAGE AT SUNY ULSTER: LONE STAR ... What do you get when you mix two Texas brothers, a 1959 pink Thunderbird convertible, and all the junk food a guy could ever want? James McLure’s comedy, Lone Star, presented by the SUNY Ulster Thearter Department at Quimby Theater on Ulster County Community College’s Stone Ridge campus, at 8:00 p.m. on April 25 and 26 and May 2 and 3, 2003, and at 3:00 p.m. on April 27 and May 4, 2003.
Lone Star is a hilarious look at a pair of Texas “good ol’ boys” on a Saturday night at Angel’s Bar in Maynard, Texas. Roy struggles to get his life back on track after a tour in Vietnam. Ray struggles with his brother Roy (not to mention a few bags of popcorn, some peanuts, Cracker Jack, a couple of Mars Bars, and a Baby Ruth or two). When Junior Chamber of Commerce member Cletis T. Fullernoy arrives, Roy’s world is changed forever.
Lone Star premiered in 1979 at the Humana Festival of the Actors Theater of Louisville and was produced off-Broadway in New York later that year. The following year Lone Star and McLure’s follow-up piece Laundry and Bourbon were debuted together at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey. McLure’s Wild Oats was produced at Los Angeles’ Mark Taper Forum as an official entry for the 1984 Olympics Arts Festival. McLure has also been produced extensively at the Denver Center Theater.
The New York Times said that “Lone Star is an uproarious comedy about two bawdily rambunctious Texas brothers peppered with the playwright's own special brand of cascading, spontaneous wit.” The New Yorker commented: “What an auspicious Broadway debut this amounts to!” and the Hollywood Reporter said: “The evening unveiled a major comedic writing talent.”
The student cast of Lone Star includes Anthony Spinelli of New Paltz as Roy, Dominic Simmons of Port Ewen as Ray, and Jason Abrams of Woodstock as Cletis.
This show ran for two weekends in April and May.
FALL 2002 The Trials of Sojourner Truth,
Part 2: The Abolitionist Years 1828 -1850
This new play is the second installment of a trilogy that follows the life of freed slave and women's rights advocate Sojourner Truth.
Part 2 chronicles the years 1828-1850, including Truth's involvement with the religious group the Kingdom of Matthias and the abolitionist movement with Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.
The play, written by Gillian Farrell and Steve Gottlieb, features original music by Consuelo Hill.
Presented by the Truth Project and SUNY Ulster in the Quimby Theater.
This show ran for two weekends in October.
FALL 2002
THE RISE AND FALL OF DANIEL ROCKET
BOY FLIES AT SUNY ULSTER! .. THE RISE
AND RISE OF DANIEL ROCKET ... The SUNY Ulster Theater
Department presented The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket,
November 8-10 and November 15-17, 2002, at Quimby Theater,
Ulster County Community College in Stone Ridge.
The story of a boy who has the secret gift of flight was written for Academy Award nominee Tom Hulce (Best Actor, Amadeus). The playwright, Peter Parnell, is currently a writer and executive story editor for NBC’s The West Wing. Originally produced Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, the production was re-staged for film and aired on PBS in January of 1986.
The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket examines the struggles of a 12-year-old boy who doesn’t fit in with his classmates, largely because of his constant assertion that he can fly. The fact that Daniel makes good on his promise by flying off Hatch’s Cliff only makes his tormentors hate him more.
The play may have deeper meaning in today’s world of school violence and hate crimes, but Daniel does not succumb to violence or hatred. Still just a boy, he sets out on his own and goes on to become the most famous person in the world. (In fact, he’s been Time Magazine’s Man of The Year three years running!) His bittersweet return home after 20 years, to find what he has lost, teaches young and old alike something about “celebrity” and what’s really valuable in life.
The production is directed by new faculty member Bill Salzmann. Sets and costumes will be designed and executed by another new faculty member, Megan Boyd. Salzmann and Boyd have been brought in this fall as part of the college’s plan to revitalize and expand SUNY Ulster’s theater program.
The cast is made up entirely of SUNY Ulster students and includes: Daniel Rocket - Erich Perry, Esopus; Richard - Kevin Nordstrom, Kingston; Alice - Michelle Duval, Kingston; Roger - Dominic Simmons, Port Ewen; Judy - Sarah Damon, Pine Bush; Mrs. Rice - Sarah Kahn, New Paltz; Jeffrey - Yarey Sanchez-Aponte, Rifton; Penny - Michelle Justine Castillo, Plattekill; Steven - James Mahoney, Kingston; Claudia - Dannie Copeland, Hurley.
Production stage manager is SUNY Ulster student Marielle Rosola of High Falls. Technical support is provided by another recent addition to the SUNY Ulster staff, Todd “Hick” Renadette.
This show ran for two weekends in November.
For further information on the theater and dramatic presentations, contact:
Department Chair of Visual and Performing
Arts
800: 724-0833, extension 5093 or 845: 687-5093.
