Announcing the 2012 / 2013 Westport Community Theatre Season!

Posted on by AK

We are so pleased to announce WCT’s 2012 / 2013 season! And this announcement has an added bit of intrigue as we’re not quite ready to announce the show that will fill our fourth slot, April 12 – 26, 2013… in the true style of our Bridgeport colleague, P. T. Barnum, whose motto was “keep ‘em guessing”…

Hours and hours went into the selection of next year’s season by our play selection committee, who searched for the right mix of comedy, mystery and drama to present a season subscribers will love. A good season has something old… something new… something funny… something creepy… We’re so pleased to have at the helm some of the best, and most popular, directors in Southern Connecticut – their resumes are awesome, and we know they will bring to the WCT stage outstanding evenings of theatre.

We are also so very pleased with our entire 2011 / 2013 season, critically acclaimed for performances and productions; Moonlight and Magnolias, The Seafarer, A Thousand Clowns and A Picasso brought some of the most talented actors and directors together for – in the words of one of our subscribers – “amazing theatre that rivals professional productions, anywhere.” Eagerly anticipated – our closing production of the season, Company, June 8 – July 1. WCT’s Board of Directors builds on this season’s accomplishments and quality by bringing you:

Laughter image

Laughter on the 23rd Floor by Neil Simon, directed by Lester Colodny


Laughter On The 23rd Floor by Neil Simon
Directed by Lester Colodny
September  14 – 30, 2012

“Old style comedy: fast and furious.”- The Wall Street Journal
“One of [Simon's] funniest…Comedy, comedy all the way.”- Newsweek
“Enough laughs per minute to assure [it] a long run and many happy audiences.”- USA Today
“The funniest comedy on Broadway in years and likely to remain the funniest comedy on Broadway for years.”- Variety

Playwright Neil Simon got his first big break in the early ’50s as a staff writer on Sid Caesar’s fabled television series Your Show of Shows, and this comedy (adapted by Simon from his play) takes a fictionalized look at the backstage chaos that went into producing one of the landmarks of television’s golden age.

We are so pleased to have longtime WCT director Lester Colodny at the helm of this play near and dear to his heart – it is a subject matter he knows very, very well. Lester’s Westport Community Theatre credits span decades – but he is known nationwide as an Emmy-Award-winning writer, producer and director from the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was a co-creator of “The Munsters” and worked on television classics such as “Get Smart,” “My Favorite Martian” and “Beetle Bailey.” In the early 70s, he co-wrote a Broadway play, “Fun City” with Joan Rivers. Later, he went into work in advertising for famed casino chain owner Steve Wynn, winning several CLIOs for his work for the company. To finish out his career, he worked in the eighties for a well-known billionaire New York real estate tycoon. Lester spent his early career working with some of the biggest names in show business, including Frank Sinatra, Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis, Peter Sellers, Florence Henderson, Cary Grant and many more. He was writer, producer and director of “The Baja Marimba Band” for which he won his Emmy. He was a writer on “The Today Show” with original host Dave Garroway, when the show was live and mistakes on the set were broadcast nationally. It was Lester who was ordered to get three barrels of monkeys to be opened live on television at the bequest of Garroway. The results were an instant classic and make up the first chapter of his autobiography, “A Funny Thing Happened,” released in July 2010.

"The Woman In Black" by Stephen Malatratt, directed by Richard Mancini at Westport Community Theatre November 23 – December 9, 2012

"The Woman In Black" by Stephen Malatratt, directed by Richard Mancini


The Woman in Black by Stephen Malatratt
Directed by Richard Mancini
November 23 – December 9, 2012

From comedy to thrills and chills… The framework of this spine tingler is unusual: a lawyer hires an actor to tutor him in recounting to family and friends a story that has long troubled him concerning events that transpired when he attended the funeral of an elderly recluse. There he caught sight of the woman in black, the mere mention of whom terrifies the locals, for she is a specter who haunts the neighborhood where her illegitimate child was accidentally killed. And anyone who sees her… dies. The lawyer has invited some friends to watch as he and the actor recreate the events of that dark and stormy night… and what emerges is a classic thriller that truly defines the genre.

“A real theatrical spine chiller…A truly nerve shredding experience.”- The Daily Mail
“Provides a pleasurable ripple of fear down one’s spine and an uncomfortable lurch in the pit of one’s stomach.”- Time Out New York
“A brilliantly effective spine chiller…The narrative is gripping.”- The Guardian
“A gripping tale, grippingly told.”- The Financial Times

Director Richard Mancini returns to the WCT stage where his numerous credits include last December’s hit “Old Time Radio Christmas” ETC staged reading, The Women, Orson’s Shadow and Broadway Bound among others. Both an actor and director, Richard has directed numerous productions at theatres throughout Fairfield County.

"Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Brian Michael Riley

"Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Brian Michael Riley


Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Brian Michael Riley
February 1 – 17, 2013

Some of our finest productions began as staged readings for our ETC staged reading series – Westport Community Theatre did a staged reading of “Rabbit Hole” a few years ago, and the audience reaction was electric and passionate – we’ve been looking to bring it to our mainstage ever since. The plot is simple… the play complex… and the audience embarks on an evening of laughs and tears, heartbreak and hope. Becca and Howie Corbett have everything a family could want, until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down and leaves the couple drifting perilously apart. “Rabbit Hole” charts their bittersweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day. The play was the winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize, and a recent film starring Nicole Kidman.

We are so pleased to bring Brian Michael Riley to WCT as director of what promises to be one of our most powerful productions. Brian will be remembered by WCT audiences as an actor for several searing roles in ETC staged readings, including the provocative “Orange Flower Water.” Brian has extensive credits on both coasts, and locally has been very involved with the Bridgeport Theatre Company. Critical acclaim for Rabbit Hole includes:

“David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted a drama that’s not just a departure but a revelation—an in-tensely emotional examination of grief, laced with wit, insightfulness, compassion and searing honesty.” —Variety.
“Grade: A! A transcendent and deeply affecting new play, which shifts perfectly from hilarity to grief.” —Entertainment Weekly.
“Rabbit Hole presents a tragedy and its consequences with utter candor, and without sentimentality. The dialogue is most impressive for capturing the awkwardness and pain of thinking people faced with an unthinkable situation—and eventually, their capacity for survival, and even hope.” —USA Today.
“With Rabbit Hole, David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted the most serious, simply told work of his career—a painstakingly beautiful, dramatically resourceful, exquisitely human new play.” —BackStage.
“The highest praise to playwright David Lindsay-Abaire! Rabbit Hole is an entertaining and satisfying play—it might just be the year’s best.” —Show Business Weekly.
“Heartbreaking in its theme and details, Rabbit Hole is a beautifully crafted work of great sensitivity.” —Star Ledger.

"Mr. Pim Passes By" by A. A. Milne at Westport Community Theatre April 12 – 28, 2013

"Mr. Pim Passes By" by A. A. Milne


Mr. Pim Passes By  by A. A. Milne
Director Ruth Anne Baumgartner
April 12 – 28, 2013

A.A. Milne is known primarily for Winnie the Pooh – but he was also a very successful playwright for grownups in the early 20th century, produced as often as colleagues J.M. Barrie and Noel Coward. We’re so excited to debut one of his most beloved plays, Mr. Pim Passes By, directed by Ruth Anne Baumgartner – a rare opportunity to catch one of theatre’s “hidden” gem that earns rave reviews when it is produced. Mr. Pim Passes By is a bright, witty and delightful comedy. When it was originally produced in 1920 London (featuring a young Leslie Howard), The Times of London gushed that it was “one of the best plays in modern drama” with “tremendous implications — a whole philosophy of life and love.” Set in the 1919 drawing room and terrace of an English country home, the plot centers around the Mardens, who learn startling news during a chance visit from the eccentric Mr. Pim that leads to… well, one of the most amusing and entertaining evenings of theatre you’ll have this year. Don’t miss this rarely produced comedy treasure.

“Playgoers who appreciate gentle humor, quaint charm and amusingly drawn characters will enjoy it, too. As refreshing as a walk through Hundred Acre Wood…” —Houston Chronicle
“A. A. Milne wrote for grownups too… this is a farce, and things have a way of turning out so unexpectedly in a farce… Milne asks very thoughtful questions about the silly rules that make society go along smoothly… and Milne has somehow made his turn-of-the-century world feel as refreshing as a walk through Hundred Acre Wood.” —Houston Press
“Milne makes for a pleasant respite from the no-holds barred modern theater in which no expletive is ever deleted… aren’t (a couple) who hardly dare to kiss and hold hands a refreshing change from bar and Internet pickups – at least for a couple of hours?” —CurtainUp

"Frost / Nixon" by Peter Morgan, directed by Bob Johnson at Westport Community Theatre

"Frost / Nixon" by Peter Morgan, directed by Bob Johnson


Frost / Nixon by Peter Morgan
Directed by Bob Johnson
June 7 – 23, 2013

We close next season with Frost / Nixon, the type of play that WCT does so well – and we’re so pleased to bring one of the first productions of this play to Connecticut! We’re also excited to welcome back director Bob Johnson, who has directed some of WCT’s most memorable productions over the past 20 years including Copenhagen, Everything in the Garden, and Requiem for a Heavyweight.

Frost / Nixon is probably best known for its 2008 award-winning film treatment – which only came as a result of the play’s award-winning runs in London and New York. Riveting, compelling, funny, thought-provoking – and historical – the plot revoloves around British talk-show host David Frost, who has become a lowbrow laughing-stock – and Richard M. Nixon, who has just resigned the United States presidency in total disgrace over Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. Determined to resurrect his career, Frost risks everything on a series of in-depth interviews in order to extract an apology from Nixon. The cagey Nixon, however, is equally bent on redeeming himself in his nation’s eyes. In the television age, image is king, and both men are desperate to out-talk and upstage each other as the cameras roll. The result is the interview that sealed a president’s legacy.

“Structured as a prize fight between two starkly ambitious men in professional crisis, “Frost / Nixon” makes it clear that the competitor who controls the camera reaps the spoils.” —NY Times.
“…a thoroughly modern Shakespearean tragedy…Peter Morgan has given us a behind the scenes look at a well-publicized event, and used his imagination to create a riveting entertainment…most notably, the midnight phone call from an inebriated Nixon to Frost that, like a show stopping song in a musical or an outstanding opera aria, has the audience bursting into applause.” —CurtainUp.
“…ripe entertainment…The cheerily oblivious limey lightweight and the brooding, mortally wounded political animal: Austin Powers vs. Macbeth.” —Washington Post.
“…nails the political, media and cultural fever of that era…” —AisleSay.com.

The Seafarer Director’s Blog #6: the fleeting joys of the performing arts

Posted on by Ruth Anne Baumgartner

It’s wrong to call a production like The Seafarer a “fleeting joy” except in the most literal sense, but this week that’s the sense I’m experiencing. Sunday was our last performance.

What makes the performing arts so special, of course, is the very thing that makes their joys ephemeral. They are real at the moment of performance, and they are about the moment of performance. In that moment, the script and the actors’ embodiment of the characters and the place and time created by the set and costumes and the mood created by the lighting coalesce with each other and with the particular energies of the people sitting in the seats, the audience, to make truth, reality, passion…to make theater. (I have played in orchestras and sung in choirs, and have been part of the audience of dance performances, and I know the same can be said of those experiences too, all the performing arts—but here I’m speaking specifically of theater. The others will have to speak for themselves.)

That’s why every performance is different, to a greater or lesser extent, from every other performance. The energies are different; different moments emerge more brightly or resonate more deeply as a consequence. Every performance is itself; after every performance, we say “Wow, that was exciting,” or “Act 2 just flew tonight,” or “I’ve never seen that look in your eyes before,” or “let’s keep that new gesture.” There were people who came to see our production of The Seafarer three or four times, and remarked on the different textures of the various performances.

The production as a whole is ephemeral, too, alas. Whether it’s a term production in a community or repertory theater, or a show that will run for as many performances as there are ticket sales, it will eventually come to an end. The intense world of the play, the passionate collaboration of the actors, will dissolve. The set will come down. The props and costumes will be cleaned, sorted, and stored. There is a kind of post partum depression that hits me at the end of a show. All this focused energy, all this purposeful activity, all this love, become a page that is turned. I step out of the theater and feel as though I’m stepping off an unexpected curb: Oh! Where am I?

Some actors will roll into another production almost immediately (our Mr. Lockhart, Will Jeffries, has already begun to prepare for his upcoming role in Death of a Salesman although it is several months distant); others will move back into their ordinary lives and try to catch up on various domestic or work projects that were put on hold for the duration of the show (I’ll grade some back papers and prepare to administer final exams, and think about trying to clean the house, for example). The family and friends we portrayed, the house they lived in, all vanish.

We held our closing party on the set, in the home of Richard and Sharky Harkin, where the poker games and the family arguments and the moments of despair and redemption had taken place. It felt like home. And then we packed our makeup kits and party leftovers and gifts…and drove off in the directions of our actual homes. There will never be this experience again. But there will be other experiences.

At the end of every production I’ve ever been part of, I think, well, this is one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve ever had. At the end of this one, though, I can say that I am certain this has been one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve ever had—possibly the most wonderful. I’m so grateful to everyone involved, and to Conor McPherson, that this could happen. Could have happened.

I don’t care how many theories are put forward about the “person who REALLY wrote Shakespeare’s plays”: they’re all a bunch of hooey. Only someone for whom the theater was the most intense part of his life could have written those plays. Only someone who knew the joy and pain of the ephemeral, living theater could have written this:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors
(As I foretold you) were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air,
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial pageant faded
Leave not a rack behind.…

 

 

The Seafarer. Director’s blog #5: Ensemble

Posted on by Ruth Anne Baumgartner
"The Seafarer" at Westport Community Theatre

Cast of "The Seafarer" at Westport Community Theatre

As I noted in my blog on auditions, I always say I cast “to ensemble.” That means I cast to get good combinations onstage, not to get a collection of shiny individual actors. One of the categories in the SAG (Screen Actors’ Guild) Awards is “best ensemble,” meaning best cast as a whole, and I think that’s a category that should be included for all awards.

The world of a play is just that: a world. The set is the physical expression of that world; the costumes reveal the time, place, and socioeconomic class of the world; the lights create its day, night, and shifting shadows. The sounds are its sounds, and the actors create its people. Some of those people may be loners or egotists, but the actors mustn’t be. After all, the characters in a play know each other in that world, have relationships, have reactions, have histories separately and together. A good ensemble cast communicates that collective reality to the audience and thereby makes the experience of the play real, credible, substantial.

I do what I can to foster a strong sense of ensemble (French, after all, for “together”) in every cast I work with. We talk together about the play, about the scenes, about the characters, about the relationships, about the emotional and narrative arc. We relax together as ourselves before and after rehearsals when time permits. The more the actors bring to this endeavor, the more interesting the rehearsals are, at least for me, and the more genuine the performance ultimately is.

I have always been fortunate in my casts. Perhaps the fact that I choose serious or otherwise significant plays draws serious and intelligent actors, people who are more interested in the work than in the social life offstage. Not that they’re not “fun” people; but my college theater director, David Brubaker, used to begin the first rehearsal of a play with this: “If you’ve come here to have a good time, please leave now. We won’t have a good time until the second performance. Before that, we work; and if we don’t work, we’ll never have a good time.” This is a good message for college students who aren’t theater majors: don’t horse around. But it’s the truth too, I do believe—except that working hard together on a worthwhile project is its own kind of fun. The process is fun, intellectually, emotionally, artistically, personally. Those are the kinds of actors I get, the ones who value that kind of fun.

I’ve worked with a lot of effective ensembles, but I have to say that the ensemble of The Seafarer is one of the very best. They respect, like, and support one another. They work out ideas together and show them to me. They give my ideas their serious effort. At rehearsals they seem both easy and intense with one another. And they all love this play and its world.

A lot of audience members have spoken with me after the show and specifically mentioned the actors as an ensemble. They’re drawn into the play because the actors so fully inhabit it as the people they embody. They express the characters’ relationships, affections, grudges, dependencies just as fully as they portray them as individuals. They’re alive up there all the time, expressing with subtle glances as well as larger gestures the characters’ inner lives, inner narratives, bonds. I’m crazy about them.

I hope everyone in the world sees this show. I think it’s very good. The script is strong; the story is compelling and real; the craftsmanship in the lighting, set, costumes, props, and backstage management is smooth, and so good it seems to just be.

And the ensemble, superb.

This is theater.

 

Director’s blog #4: “It’s a Theater Miracle!”

Posted on by Ruth Anne Baumgartner

That’s one of my niece’s sayings. For many years in her childhood and early teens she spent a week to ten days with me in the summer, helping to get my summer show up. She learned to sew hems and buttons, to paint textures, to sponge paint on, to take rehearsal notes, to be “on book” for the actors, and to hold my hand when the amount of work remaining seemed impossible to fit into the tiny amount of time remaining. On opening night she’d smile and say, “It’s a theater miracle!”

The community theater “model” depends heavily on the work of volunteers, and thus depends heavily on the existence of a supply of volunteers. In the late ‘forties, ‘fifties, and ‘sixties, when community theater was in its heyday in the U.S., whole families participated in productions, with daddy on the building crew, the kids helping to manage the stage or run the lights, mommy in the cast…or daddy in the cast, mommy working on costumes, the kids doing gofer work…or any other of a large number of variations. Of course the company would also include retired professionals, college grads with extracurricular theater experience, and people new in town wanting to get involved in the life of the community.

Nowadays we’re looking at a different picture. If the kids have time left over from the organized activities designed to get them into a good college, they want a paying job. Mommy and daddy might also need to use their “extra” time to make some extra money, or their employers may expect more than 40 hours’ work a week from them. College grads and youngish adults who enjoy acting may be doing paid work as film extras or trying to break into professional theater. On top of that, there are more community theaters, at least in this part of Connecticut, than there used to be, so the people with time and energy to volunteer are hot commodities, with companies competing for their help.

That’s why so many community theaters find themselves scrambling for personnel, especially backstage personnel, when production time rolls around. Good designers and crews are hard to find.

I was lucky with The Seafarer to have a truly great set designer, Al Kulcsar. He’s done a lot of sets for shows of mine, and they are always genuine places of habitation for the characters in the play, inviting art works for the audience, and good working environments for the actors. He himself also acts (he’s in The Seafarer!) and directs, so he knows what the needs of a cast and a show are. I also was fortunate to have an offer from Jeff Klein to design lights. Jeff is both experienced and in demand, but what I prize most are his artistic eye and collaborative grace. He was inspired by one of the moments in the play to design a special lighting effect that deepens the emotion and effectiveness of the scene in a way that we could not have otherwise accomplished. And I had a wonderful costumer, in the person of Al’s sister, Mary Kulcsar. We’ve done more shows together than I can count, and it’s always a good experience. Rob Pawlikowski, also in the cast, collected and created necessary sound effects, something he is good at and enjoys. My young neighbor Gregory was also helping me at rehearsals, following the script for the actors and helping to deal with props.

Late in the process Joan Lasprogato stepped in to serve as producer for the show. I often work in tandem with my producer, because I like some of the tasks myself, but it’s great to have somebody good to oversee the whole endeavor, support the cast and me, supplement my efforts in the Props department, and sometimes just be there with a cheerful resourcefulness.

But ten days out, there we were. No Stage Manager. No one to execute Sound and Light cues. No one to run props during the show. Needless to say, those people are really important!

Cindy Hartog, who’s on the WCT Board, contacted me to say she could run props for some of the performances and her husband Marc could run lights and sound for those same performances. She also gave me the name of someone who might be able to do lights and sound for the rehearsals and other performances, Kristian Correa. Paul Lenhart came in and loaded the Sound cues and merged them with the Light cues Jeff had written so that everything could be run from one board, by one operator. Ray Stephens came in for some extra help with the board. Cindy also sent me Rachel Rothman Cohen to fill in on Props at the dress/technical rehearsals. And I woke up in the middle of the night just a few days before opening and exclaimed, “Ward Whipple!” Ward has acted in a few shows with me, and I’ve known him for many years. He had asked, when auditions were being held for The Seafarer, if there was anything I needed help with. Aha. I flew down to the computer and sent him an e-mail. He had never done backstage work before, but he said he’d give it a try. As it turns out, he seems to be a natural Props master, and he was able to fill almost all the gaps in the schedule. And then…we got Bethany Schalow. She was another “find” of Cindy’s. She has a solid theater education, good experience managing stage, and a calm and efficient demeanor. Best of all, she was available for most of our performances, plus our tech rehearsals.

So scant days before opening, I had nobody backstage, and now I have a competent and cooperative crew doing as wonderful a job backstage as my actors are doing onstage. The program had to be printed before many of these people materialized, so I wanted to be sure to celebrate them here.

Believe me, it’s a Theater Miracle.

P.S. Opening weekend went smoothly, with three fine performances presented to enthusiastic audiences and me thrilled in the shadows. Seven performances remain. I really think this is a production not to be missed.

Director’s Post #3: publicity photos

Posted on by Ruth Anne Baumgartner

Always before we hold the publicity shoot I feel somewhat resentful that I’m going to be more or less sacrificing a rehearsal for the sake of some photos. But then on the night, I realize that with the right photographer and with proper preparation by all involved, the shoot can actually push the production forward in important ways.

…

Our set designer, Al Kulcsar, expedited part of the set, and I did a partial set-dressing (a job I love and always grab for myself) so the photos would be in a setting.

Mary Kulcsar had already been working with the actors on costumes, trying on various possibilities, talking about the characters’ personalities and histories with the actors and with me (wearing director’s hat); so we knew everyone would look good.

Our photographer, Michael Stanley, who’s been photographing my shows since back in the days when he was in some of them, has a wonderful eye and a lot of patience. I planned a number of shots and knew he would supplement with ideas of his own.

And on the night, as the actors came down from the dressing room in costume and took positions in the scene moments we had decided on, the characters began to take on body in a more substantial way than we had yet achieved in regular rehearsals. Playing the photo moments, amplifying the brief relevant script passage with ad-libbed conversation, the actors settled comfortably into the roles they are playing, and I could see the whole play take a giant step closer to the moment when it can be offered as reality to an audience.

Today I looked at the photos. What I saw was a world peopled not so much by my actors as by Richard, Sharky, Ivan, Nicky, and Mr. Lockhart. They are real: I have the pictures.

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