GETTING READY TO TURN 100!
Are you interested in helping the Players plan for our 100th
anniversary? In a little less than two years (Fall 2019), the Players
will kick off our 100th Anniversary season. What an amazing
accomplishment--one that few community theatres in the area or across
the country can boast. The Players want to start planning for that
special year now. If you have an idea that you would like to spearhead
or energy to support our centennial year calendar of events, contact
Paul Murphy at paulwmurphy@gmail.com
UPCOMING EVENTS
January 6, 2018 at 7:30 p.m.
Concord
Youth Theatre Cabaret: Lights, Camera Action. A fun-filled evening of
song, skits and dance by high school and college students. Further
information available at concordyouththeatreJanuary 26-27, 2018 at 8:00 p.m.
The Concord Orchestra Winter Concert: Collaborations. Walton's Viola Concerto with Steven Ansell, BSO principal violist. Also on the program
is Brahms' Symphony No. 3 and How the Solar System was Won by Matthew
Browne. Tickets are $25/$10. Call 978 369-4967 to reserve or buy on-line
at
ANDREA ROESSLER
 She
is the one you wish you could be. Serene and competent, beautifully
appointed, composed and unruffled. Chaos retreats in her wake as quickly
as a ripple recedes in a stream. She is Andrea Roessler, chairman of
the Players' Marketing committee with a hand in so much more of the
organization's work.
Since cutting her teeth in the theater as a talking doll in
Santa's workshop for the first grade Christmas play, Andrea has immersed
herself in the craft. "...ever since [that first grade
appearance] I have loved being on-stage and especially wearing
costumes," she confesses. So she set out to stay on the boards. "I grew
up in Sudbury and was destined to be somewhere in the chorus, playing a
Pick-A-Little Lady in The Music Man in 7th grade (Paula Poundstone was 'Winthrop') and a factory worker in The Pajama Game
in 8th grade." She branched out after that, learning how to succeed in
the back and the front of the House. At Lincoln Sudbury H.S. she joined
the Drama Club and learned how to design, build and paint sets along
with trying her hand at make-up, costumes and publicity.
Ardent for history, and with the advantage of having a father who
taught her mechanical drawing and a mother who studied fashion design
(she can boast of having the best-dressed Barbie dolls) she studied
architecture for a while and then switched gears to earn her degree in
Interior Design from Syracuse University. Now a member of the American
Society of Interior Designers, she earns her living at the craft, and
applies it to her love of all things theatre. She's been designing sets
since the 1990s, many for the grand productions of the Sudbury
Savoyards' Gilbert & Sullivan performances, and more recently for
The Concord Players. We'll enjoy an extant example of her talent in the
Players' upcoming production of You Can't Take it With You.
Andrea's calm exterior belies an inexhaustible energy. She's
appeared in 13 consecutive Gilbert & Sullivan choruses, produced
numerous shows, continues in her role as Company Archivist for the
Savoyards and bears the well-deserved honor of "Yeoman of Regard." All
this while dressing sets for the TCAN players in Natick (two DASH
nominations) and taking on the herculean task of marketing for the
Concord Players.
This multi-dimensional woman simply doesn't slow down. Her
special affection for canine friends landed her on the board of Save A Dog of Sudbury,
a non-profit, all-breed rescue organization. She helps with fundraising
and publicity and has even cast one of her pups in a stage performance
at TCAN!
Yard sales and flea markets know her name and she can't resist
their siren call. Her house is filled with vintage everything, which
comes in handy when she's dressing or propping a show. She
confesses to a fetish for tiaras, probably a result of being crowned
Miss Sudbury in 1976. She's
joined the Players in 2015 when she received a flattering email from
Donnie Baillargeon asking for assistance with publicity for Follies. A year later she was recruited to co-produce Blithe Spirit with her long-time friend Kathy Lague. She joined the Board of The Concord Players this year. Never one to rest on her laurels, Andrea is looking ahead to other ways she can serve: "I am very excited to add Set Designer to my CP resume for the February production of You Can't Take It With You
and to work with the great Allen Bantly, and director Kathy Lague,
among so many others. I am also looking forward to working with the
committee to help plan Concord Players' 100th celebration!"
So, what else is there to say when there's a Renaissance woman
like Andrea on your team? Thank you Andrea. Thank you very much! --Linda McConchie
CAPITAL CAMPAIGN
Sunday, January 21, 2018, at 2 p.m.
The
Access 51 capital campaign officially kicks off! Join us for a
ribbon-cutting announcing the public phase of the Access 51 Capital
Campaign. Local officials and representatives from the resident groups
will join together to mark the occasion with cake and Champagne.
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Mix
together snakes, fireworks and steamy stage scripts. Add a gawky
ballerina, a xylophone, a bohemian grandfather, and a stuffy
industrialist. Now you have it: You Can't Take it With You,
George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning play and
timeless treasure. But you can take it with you when The Concord
Players' production opens on February 9, 2018! Yes, you can take all the
laughs right home with you and the memory of a merry night of
theatre. The play asks and answers some of the existential
questions that have dogged the human condition for as long as there have
been humans. Can money buy happiness? Can we live without our personal
truth? Where, how and with whom do we really find
fulfillment?
Oh wait, we said laughs, right? That's right. It's funny. Very
funny. All those heady subjects give way to improbable, absurd,
impossibly funny scenes. It's exactly like real life.
Grandfather Vanderhoff turned his back on a conventional
lifestyle long ago, choosing instead to follow his bliss, which includes
not paying taxes. His daughter, Penny Sycamore, finds her truth by
writing plays with too much sex and not enough story. Her daughter,
Essie, is a wannabe ballerina who makes and sells candy in between
performing clumsy
pirouettes in the dining room. Her other daughter, Alice, works an
ordinary day job and has doubts about the life-style of her eccentric
family. She falls in love with the boss' son, and that's where the story
unfolds. Worlds collide and reality bites. Truths are laid bare and the
very meaning of a meaningful life is thrown on its crucible in the
middle of a madcap household.
Director Kathy Lague has cast the show with some of the Players'
most talented regulars and has welcomed some new talent to the stage at
51 Walden. Chuck Holleman, David Berti, Ed Bernard, Kate Mahoney, Anne
Damon, David Dooks, and "Boot" Boutwell are some of the familiar faces
who will cross the boards, while Melissa Stine, Julia Kennedy and Ryan
Leverone are among those making their debut on the Players' stage. Other
talented thespians populate this jewel of a show with exactly the right
mix of comedic pauses and dramatic effects.
A set designed by the talented Andrea Roessler will give us a
cozy welcome to the Vanderhoff-Sycamore home and lights by inveterate
designer Susan Tucker will set exactly the right mood for every scene.
February is the shortest month of the year, but always feels like the longest. Buy your tickets at the Players website, put on your coat, come see You Can't Take it With You
and laugh the cold away.
--Linda McConchie
MEMBER NEWS
We have two new members and would like to welcome them from the cast of You Can't
Take it With You: Kate Mahoney and Lynn Vaillancourt.
The spring musical, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is cast! You'll see some familiar faces as well as some new ones. Check out concordplayers
to see the complete list. In addition, we have cast the Choir of Notre
Dame, but are still looking for a few good men. Know of any celestial
voices out there? Contact Tracy at concordplayers@gmail.com The show runs April 27 through May 12. Tickets go on sale soon.
THE CONCORD TRAVELING PLAYERS
The Concord Traveling Players have reorganized and beefed up the
performer list, now including Sandy Armstrong, Katy Blair, Betty Cloud,
Joanne Hines, Paul Gill, Bill Maxwell, Rik Pierce and Tom Ruggles. Under
the organizing hand of Sandy Armstrong, assisted by stage manager and
performer Joanne Hines, they have put together a brand-new program of
light-hearted and entertaining staged readings to add some spice to the
holiday season.
They have made entertainment the aim and fun the game as a senior
group of actors putting together a selection of staged readings that
takes a look inside some Council on Aging groups, as well as some
classic entertainment like our own comical version of The Christmas Carol "Radio Show" with sound man, etc., performed to rave revues!
Interspersed with entertaining songs from our own Tom Ruggles,
and ending with a carol sing which we encouraged our audiences to join
in with us, we left to resounding calls of "more"! We have now removed
the holiday items and have replaced them with some more seasonal stuff
to be used to welcome 2018!
We all look for clever pieces to do, we all choose to be
involved, and I can truthfully say we are all having as much fun as our
audiences, if not more! Come see us if you get a chance and I dare you
not to have a good time!
--Sandy Armstrong
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