Greetings, Players!
In case you haven’t heard the fabulous news, the Concord Players
were the big winners at The
New England Festival of the American Association of Community Theaters
with our production of Jacques
Brel...! In addition to winning "best show",
we also won "best ensemble", Kirsten
Gould won "best director", Shana
Dirik won "best actress", and John
Murtagh won "best stage manager". Congratulations
to Team Brel for an outstanding job. Now it’s on to Harrisburg,
PA for the national competition on June 30!
Here’s a note from Kirsten Gould: "I want to pass along
my sincere thanks to all who supported our efforts at the Regional
Theatre competition. It was a glorious weekend (although not without
its tense moments), and the win of Jacques Brel is Alive and
Well and Living in Paris was simply thrilling. I can’t help
but reflect upon how and why it all happened. Brel’s music is magical,
and so is Susan Minor.
Her skill and sensitivity as a musician are mind-boggling. We were
blessed to have her as our Musical Director and accompanist. And
she’s fabulous on stage to boot. Merci also to Neil Tischler, our
ace percussionist. It became obvious after auditions last fall that
we had found an exceptional cast; five very talented individual
performers who also became one as an ensemble. Special "thank
yous" go to Carissa
Burkhart, Lewis Blair,
Tom Dinger, Shana
Dirik, and Larry Peterson
for their wonderful gifts. They have given us a show to remember
always. Our producer, Gisele
Ganz, was tireless, attending to every detail and anticipating
problems no one else had thought of. She’s a wonder of a woman who
kept us informed, fed us, ran errands, and even drove the truck.
Our three original producers, Claiborne
Dawes, Sally Bull and
Peggy Elliott, stayed
in touch, helped out when they could, and cheered us on. The idea
of going to the EMACT Festival at
Brandeis, was that of John
Murtagh, our stage manager extraordinaire. His professionalism
and expertise in virtually every area of theatre proved to be an
invaluable advantage at both competitions.
Susan Tucker deserves
extra-special kudos as our Lighting Designer. She had
the task of translating our original light cues into the festival
format with its many restrictions, all without ever seeing her design
before our performance. Special thanks also go to D.
Schweppe for stepping in to help with lighting at Regionals
while Susan Tucker was away. Our costumers, Pat
Kane and Kathy Booth
kept tabs on our costumes, and scurried around at the last minute
finding new shirts for the guys. Thanks, gals, it made a difference.
Bob Peters, designer
of our original set, provided us with set alterations not once but
twice. His adaptation of our four scrims allowed the actors to move
them, which gained us points with the adjudicators. Artty
Kinsman redesigned our large Jacques portrait so we could
get it through the smaller Bromfield School doors. And I can’t tell
you how proud I was as I watched our crews in action. At one or
both festivals we had help on some
kind of crew from Mike
Salerno, Rik Pierce,
Kate Blair, Rick
Shamel, Jackson Royal,
Ronda Yeomans, Dianne
Statkus, Mike Gowing,
Sara Ballard, David
Gould, Charlie Atherton,
Joe DiCorpo, Peter
Yensen, John Hutchins,
Artty Kinsman, Frank
Gill, Corinne Kinsman,
Lynn Devitt, and none other
than our devoted Concord Players president, Marlene
Mandel. (My apologies if I missed anyone at all). It was truly
a "Team Brel" effort. Lastly I want to thank all who came
to support us. We did have the largest and most enthusiastic
audience of any of the contenders, definitely a boost for the cast.
Thank you Concord Players for being such an outstanding organization.
The opportunities for artistry and involvement provided by the Players
set the standard for what community theatre should be. I am so proud
to be a part of it all."
Congratulations to those who were cast in our fall production of
Private Eyes.
The cast includes Shana Dirik,
Debra Butler, Larry
Peterson, Rik Pierce,
and Robert Hannon. The production
team is: David Atwood
and Bob Carter, Producers;
Bob Stachel, Director;
Cathie Regan, Stage Manager,
with Peter Yensen assisting;
Heddie Kent, Props; Chuck
Eldridge, Lights; Mark
Elliott and Paul Gill,
Sound; Artty Kinsman, Set
Design; Dolores Carabillo,
Costumes; Charlie Atherton,
Makeup; Stefanie Cloutier,
Publicity; Judith Broggi,
Photography, and Iain Bason,
Program. We’re sure they’ll do a great job!
Here’s a request from Shana Dirik: "I’m heading up the fundraising
committee for the Nationals for Jacques Brel and am
looking for a few good men and women to join my team for a fun filled
year of events that will help us to fund some of our trip to the
Nationals in June. The first event is a semiformal dinner theater
evening at the theater tentatively set for January 13th and I’ll
need lots of people to help coordinate the evening and to help on
future fund raising projects as well. Please contact me via E-mail
at shanadirik@yahoo.com
so we can make this a memorable year leading us to the nationals!!"
Last month I reported that Katie
Blair and Lida McGirr,
will be performing with Waltham’s
Hovey Players in Blithe Spirit, but I didn’t
know that Pam Schweppe
is also in the production, playing Madame Arcati. Performance dates
are Sept. 22, 23, 29, 30; Oct. 1, 5, 6, and 7. Call 781-893-9171
for info or tickets.
Stephanie Cloutier
will be performing in a one act play that she also collaborated
on writing called The MOMologues. This is presented as part of the
Underground Series of the Footlight Club in Jamaica Plain. Performance
dates are October 13 and 14; call 617-524-6506 for more information.
Nancy Curran Willis
is directing Kinder Transport for the Winchester Players;
Carole Daniels is in
the cast.
The Belmont Dramatic Club’s production of Company is being directed
by Lewis Blair.
Joseph Zamparelli Jr.
is appearing as Johnny Tarleton in Misalliance at
the Lyric West Theater at Mass. Bay Community College, 50 Oakland
St. in Wellesly. Performances are Oct. 6 - 22, with evening performances
on Wed. - Sat., and matinees on Wed., Sat. and Sun. Call 617-288-7889
for times and ticket info.
That’s all the news for now! Please send your news to me at: Sara
Ballard,
34 Aurora Lane, Concord, MA 01742, or E-mail me at <sara@sb.org>.
The next
newsletter deadline is October 20.