About
the Show (and Cast List)
That's Absurd
June 23-25, 2000
About the Shows/Cast List · Crew
List · From the Director
About
the Show (and Cast List)
Recognizing that the Theatre of the Absurd is a new experience for Bradford, we’re offering this cheat sheet for folks who might think they need a little primer. It’ll give you a hint of what to look for in each of the performances.
The Bush Woman Angela RamageDid you even recognize this as theatre? If not, think again: There is a performer (the Bush Man) performing (jumping out from behind the bush) for an audience (you) to ellicit a reaction (surprise). It is theatre at its most immediate and in the rough.
The Bush Man Shawn Spindler
***
The Silver Folk Andrea, Betty, & Nicole SpindlerThis is theatre for the same reason the Bush Man was, although elliciting a different reaction.
***
Breath by Samuel Beckett
Directed by Chris Mackowski
Chris MackowskiForget traditional theatrical elements like character and plot and look at how Beckett captured the essence of an experience. There is character and conflict, but not presented in a "traditional" manner.
***
Toast by Amy Godfrey (pictured)
Directed by Chris Mackowski
Man Josh BridgeThe Absurdity of everyday life.
Girl Jill Bluhm
***
Illumination by Chris Mackowski
Directed by Chris Mackowski
Man Rich PedineDon’t try and interpret the play as a metaphor. Instead, as with Breath, look at the stage image as a whole. Chris is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. He dedicates Illumination to Mark Van Tilburg.
***
Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett
Directed by Chris Mackowski
Krapp Dick MarcottBeckett often wrote about the act of waiting and how much that dominates our lives. He is also concerned in this play with the past and present: how the past informs--and is interpreted by--the present.
***
The Zoo Story by Edward Albee
Directed by Mark J. Dibble
Peter Steve MosherWhat underlies the battle for the park bench? At what point does life lose its meaning and thus becomes Absurd? Is this everyday life…or something darker?
Jerry Michael Templeton
Crew and Credits
Sound Pottsy Fredeen
Lights Mark Dibble
Stage Manager Chris Mackowski
Box Office Betsy Matz
Hospitality Marlene Kijowski
Properties Julie Dykstra, Betty Spindler, Pottsy
Artwork Design Studio 4 East
Program Printing Ferguson Printing
I’ll
tell you right up front: The Zoo Story is not a "warm-and-fuzzy."
So why do such a dark and serious play in Bradford in the summer? Several
reasons, actually—some personal and some not so much.
Although my theatre career began at Archbishop Walsh H.S. in Olean, it was taught, challenged and nurtured on "the Swarts Hall stage at UPB" by Patty Bianco, from 1975 through 1977. Now, things have changed: It’s the "O’Kain Auditorium at Pitt-Bradford;" Patty is no longer a speech and theatre instructor, she is a (suitably) lauded icon of the arts history at Pitt-Bradford, whose name will someday be mentioned in the same breath with Bob Laing and Dick McDowell, all of whom I consider friends to this very day.
But one thing hasn’t changed. The first time I stepped back on this stage several weeks ago, I felt the same type of rush I felt as a green freshman in 1975. True, I have worked on many better stages since, but the love of theatre that I will take to my grave is due to the experiences and lessons I learned on the carpet, on the wood, in the dressing rooms and in the booth of this theatre.
When Chris Mackowski asked me to be part of an evening of "absurd theatre," and he began to describe the things he had seen in San Francisco recently and had subsequently convinced the BLT board to offer to its audience, my immediate answer was YES. And I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
Back in my time with Patty, we were exposed to and participated in happenings. Born out of the ‘beatnik’ generation and the desire of the theatre to "push the envelope" and leave the comfortable confines of "Arthur Miller/Rodgers & Hammerstein Broadway," these performance pieces created tough, ugly, wonderfully intimate theatre that dissolved the "4th wall" and drew the audience into an experience. Whether they liked the experience or not, they were asked to be involved and performers were invited to "take a step and watch the reaction." The Zoo Story, which Albee wrote in 1959, is an outcropping of that push. It was one of the first pieces I ever worked on under Patty in a class and I knew that it was the perfect ending to an evening designed to expose people to a side of theatre that is not safe and is far from trite.
Why sit and watch, as Albee once called it, "an hour-long grumpy play about two guys?" To allow yourself to be stretched. To allow yourself to experience a battle over a park bench in Central Park that is really a battle of two men keeping their own identities. I just finished directing Annie with a high school in Wellsville; The Zoo Story is as far away from that as you can get. Steve Mosher, who was Daddy Warbucks, plays Peter; Jerry is played by Michael Templeton, a recent SBU graduate who was my vocal director for Annie. Theatre should be an experience AND experienced, by actor and audience. This play will definitely provide you with an experience that will make you uncomfortable.... IT SHOULD. It will provide you with a reason to think about the people around you.
One classic definition of theatre is " a group of people sitting in the dark telling and listening to stories." We hope this show, and in fact this evening, will help illuminate a dark room for you.
(In the Photo: Michael Templeton and Steve Mosher in The Zoo Story. Photo by Glenn Melvin)
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