2018-2019 Flyer
The Other Place
Part medical thriller and part domestic drama: Juliana Smithton is a successful neurologist whose life seems to be coming unhinged. Her husband has filed for divorce, her daughter has eloped with a much older man and her own health is in jeopardy. But in this brilliantly crafted work, nothing is as it seems. Piece by piece, a mystery unfolds as fact blurs with fiction, past collides with present and the elusive truth about Juliana boils to the surface.
Rabbit Hole
Becca and Howie Corbett have a picture perfect family life in the suburbs of New York until a random, tragic accident takes the life of their four-year old son. Soon after, Becca’s younger, irresponsible sister, Izzy, announces that she is pregnant: there will now be a new child in the family. As Becca and Howie grow apart, Becca’s mother, Nat, badgers Becca about her grieving process, and Jason, the young driver who killed their son, continually shows up to ask forgiveness, the group is on a bumpy road to healing with no road map in sight. Rabbit Hole delves into the complexity of a family navigating deep grief, and learning what it means to live a fruitful life when things fall apart.
Cast:
Becca: Teresa Gordon
Howie: Matt Benzing
Izzy: Jen Holan
Nat: Deb Richardson
Jason: Tony Giuffre
The Gin Game
This winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which originally starred Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn and was later revived with Julie Harris and Charles Durning, uses a card game as a metaphor for life. Weller Martin is playing solitaire on the porch of a seedy nursing home. Enter Fonsia Dorsey, a prim, self righteous lady. They discover they both dislike the home and enjoy gin rummy, so they begin to play and to reveal intimate details of their lives. What follows is a witty and compelling exploration of love, loss, bitterness, and desire.
2017-2018 Flyer
Four by Two (by Four)
Four Plays by Two Authors Staged by Four Directors.
Graceland takes place outside the front entrance of Graceland, at 5 a.m. three days before the estate is to be opened to the public. Two ardent Presley fans, middle-aged Bev and young Rootie, have arrived at the sacred gates, each desiring to be the first to enter the grounds, and each believing that she is the one most deserving of the honor. Wary at first, the two soon progress from dispute to shared confidences and a touching resolution. Asleep on the Wind serves as a “prequel” to Graceland, taking place 10 years earlier in Bayou Teche, Louisiana, where adolescent Rootie and her favorite brother, Beau, come to talk in private and to escape the harassment of her other brothers. This time Beau has a double purpose for their meeting: to persuade Rootie to try to stick it out at home and in school and to reach beyond him for companionship; and also to tell her that he has enlisted in the army and has requested service in Vietnam.
Birding with Aunt Nancy, winner of the Fitton Center New Play competition, finds two sisters, Ellie and Mim, as they have traveled to their favorite Aunt’s favorite bird watching spot to spread her ashes. With the assistance of their Aunt’s favorite bottle of Scotch, left to them in her will, they use humor to celebrate her life, mourn her death, and grapple with the legacy of painful family relationships. Strawberry Island provides us insight into the past that has brought these characters to where they are, finding the two sisters as children on vacation in Michigan, visiting their favorite aunt. Having rowed to the small, uninhabited island in Lake Huron where Nancy has built a bird blind to monitor the migrations of bald eagles, they encounter another pair of young siblings, locals who challenge the sisters to a competition—who can collect the most wild strawberries in 10 minutes. But the game reveals much more than simple competitiveness, as the sisters begin to confront the impending divorce of their parents and their growing understanding of their own feelings about generosity, loyalty, and fairness, with both humor and frustration.
Art
Described by Newsweek as sounding “like a marriage of Moliere and Woody Allen,” Art won the 1998 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1996 Olivier Award for Best Comedy. Navigating the complexities of aesthetics, maturity, and evolving friendships, Art concerns three long-time friends, Serge, Marc, and Yvan. Serge, indulging his penchant for modern art, buys a large, expensive, completely white painting. Marc is horrified, and their friendship is challenged as a result of their differing opinions about what constitutes “art.” Yvan, caught in the middle of the conflict, tries to please and mollify them both to preserve the friendship.
Talley’s Folly
Winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award as best play of the season, Talley’s Folly is the story of one night in the lives of two unlikely sweethearts, Matt Friedman and Sally Talley. The play takes place in a dilapidated boathouse on the Talley farm in Missouri on the Fourth of July, 1944. Matt gradually awakens Sally to the possibilities of a life together until, in the final, touching moments of the play, it is clear that they are two kindred spirits who have truly found each other—two “lame ducks” who, in their union, will find a wholeness rare in human relationships.
Directed by Virgil Seger
Cast:
Matt Friedman – Matt Benzing
Sally Talley – Heidi Bortel
2016-2017 Flyer
2015-2016 Flyer