PERFORMANCES
Events take place at Hillside
Performing Arts Studio,
unless otherwise noted.
Arrive 15 minutes early to ensure seating.
“The Clean House”
by Sarah Ruhl
Director: Cynthia Wilson
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
October 18, 19, 20
2 pm
Performing Arts Studio, Hillside
The play takes place in what the author describes as "metaphysical Connecticut," mostly in the home of a married couple who are both doctors. They have hired a housekeeper named Matilde, an aspiring comedian from Brazil who's more interested in coming up with the perfect joke than in house-cleaning. Lane, the lady of the house, has an eccentric sister named Virginia who's just nuts about house-cleaning. She and Matilde become fast friends, and Virginia takes over the cleaning while Matilde works on her jokes. Trouble comes when Lane's husband Charles reveals that he has found his soul mate in a cancer patient named Anna, on whom he has operated. This theatrical and wildly funny play is a whimsical and poignant look at class, comedy and the true nature of love.
The Clean House premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre on September 17, 2004 and at Lincoln Center in 2006. The play was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, one awarded annually to the best English-language play written by a woman.
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“The Skin of Our Teeth” by Thornton Wilder Director: Linda Kelp Friday, Saturday, Sunday June 21, 22, 23 2 pm Performing Arts Studio, Hillside The cast includes Kevin O’Byrne as Mr. Antrobus; Gail Wetherbee as Mrs. Antrobus; Mar Jennings as Gladys, their daughter; Bill Oakley as Henry, their son; and Gay White as Sabrina. Ensemble members of the cast, who will portray 12 different roles, are Roanne Butier, Joe Costella, Jon Rasmussen, and Liz Salen. Linda Kelp is the director and Beverly Mirsky is the producer Meet George and Maggie Antrobus of Excelsior, New Jersey, a suburban, commuter-town couple (married for 5,000 years), who bear more than a casual resemblance to that first husband and wife, Adam and Eve; the two Antrobus children, Gladys (perfect in every way, of course) and Henry (who likes to throw rocks and was formerly known as Cain); and their garrulous maid, Sabina (the eternal seductress), who takes it upon herself to break out of character and interrupt the course of the drama at every opportunity. Whether he is inventing the alphabet or merely saving the world from apocalypse, George and his redoubtable family somehow manage to survive – by the skin of their teeth. Completed by the author less than a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, The Skin of Our Teeth (1942) broke from established theatrical conventions and walked off with the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Combining farce, burlesque, satire, and elements of the comic strip, Thornton Wilder depicts an Everyone family as it narrowly escapes one end-of-the-world disaster after another, from the Ice Age to flood to war. It was directed by Elia Kazan. |
Cast (top) Jon Rasmussen, Roanne Butier, Joe Costella, Liz Salen
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“Social Security”
by Andrew Bergman Director: Edward Kimak Producer: Kevin O'Byrne Friday, Saturday, Sunday March 15, 16, 17 2 pm Performing Arts Studio, Hillside This hilarious Broadway comedy surrounds a married couple who are art dealers. Their domestic tranquility is shattered upon the arrival of the wife’s goody-goody nerd of a sister, her uptight CPA husband, and her archetypal Jewish mother. They are there to try to save their college-student daughter from the horrors of living only for sex. The comic sparks really begin to fly when the mother hits it off with the elderly minimalist artist who is the art dealers’ best client. The six characters include: Barbara and David Kahn: Middle-aged Manhattan art gallery owners whose life is upended when Barbara’s mother makes an unexpected visit. Trudy and Martin Heyman: Barbara’s middle-aged sister and brother-in-law who drop off their mother and head to Buffalo to rescue their sexually precocious daughter. Sophie Greengrass: Barbara and Trudy’s elderly eccentric Jewish mother who is about to have the time of her life. Maurice Koenig: A famous artist who changes Sophie’s outlook and paints a portrait of the new woman she has become. Social Security was originally produced on Broadway by David Geffen and the Schubert Organization at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York City on April 17, 1986. It was directed by Mike Nichols. |
Cast (rear) David Michetti, Vicki Beckerman, Lee Gale Gruen, Jon Rasmussen
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