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Press Release
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For Immediate Release
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Chester Theatre Company PresentsAllison McLemore & Joel Ripka  |
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CHESTER -
Thanksgiving,
1953 -- May and Raleigh have settled in for the holiday weekend when the first
in a procession of relatives arrives, setting Gulf View Drive,
the final chapter in Arlene Hutton's Nibroc Trilogy, in motion. Soon, their house will be bursting at the seams, family tensions will
surface, and they will face difficult moral choices. Performances
of Gulf View Drive run at the Town Hall Theatre in Chester from
August 11-22.
CTC Artistic Director Byam
Stevens reminds theatre-goers that, "While Gulf View Drive is
part of a trilogy, each of the three plays stands on its own. If your busy
summer schedule makes it impossible to see all three, you'll still be well
rewarded if you can only see one or two."
Gulf View Drive opens in 1953, but as the calendar rolls over into
1954, family pressures and the turbulence of events in their Florida community
threaten May and Raleigh's dream of a quiet life together. Relatives arrive,
one by one, sharing surprising revelations that bring the nascent civil rights
movement right to May and Raleigh's door. Challenged to the very core of their
beliefs, they must consider unconventional solutions in order to find peace in
a changing world.
This warm, moving and uplifting story, a fitting
climax to the Nibroc Trilogy, is yet another example of Arlene
Hutton's inimitable combination of humor and pathos. Her tale of two young
Kentuckians wondrously conveys a portrait of a changing America in mid-20th
century. Hutton's capacity for capturing the shifting cultural landscape and
couching it in intimate scale drama was praised by The New York Times:
"She seems to possess the ability to weave the epic and the incidental with the
lightest and least obtrusive thread."
THE CAST
The cast of Gulf View
Drive features Allison McLemore as May, Joel Ripka as Raleigh, Carole
Monferdini as Mrs. Gill, Susanne Marley as Mrs. Brummett and Sandra Blaney as
Treva. Directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer. Set Design by Charles Corcoran,
Lighting Design by Lara Dubin, Costume Design by Charles Schoonmaker, Sound
Design by Tom Shread.
Director Daniel Elihu Kramer
is also a playwright and professor at Smith College. He received a 2007 Elliot Norton Award for A Midsummer Night's
Dream at Boston Theatre Works. In
2009, he completed his first feature film, Kitchen Hamlet. In 2010, his play Pride@Prejudice was
produced by Available Light Theatre, and The Story of Babar was produced
by Phoenix Theatre Company, both in Ohio. Daniel was Artistic Director of Salt Lake Shakespeare and Assistant to
the Artistic Director of Circle Repertory Theatre.
Allison McLemore's credits
include: The Madras House at New
York's Mint Theatre Company; The Underpants at The Olney Theatre; Cyrano
de Bergerac at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival; Othello and Jane
Eyre at Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre; Pygmalion (Denver
Post Ovation Award) Antigone Now at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park;
and Little Women at Peterborough Players.
Joel Ripka has performed
extensively theatres in the Pittsburgh area, including The Pittsburgh Public
Theater, City Theatre, Irish and Classical Theater where he appeared in Othello
and the world premiere of Martin Giles' Beautiful Dreamers. With
Pittsburgh Public Theater, he understudied Mozart in Amadeus and played
John in the world premiere of Harry's Friendly Service, both directed by
Ted Pappas.
Carole Monferdini's credits
include the Broadway production of The Misanthrope with Diana Rigg and
the National Tour of Waltz of the Toreadors with Anne Jackson & Eli
Wallach. Off-
Broadway she played Diana
Vreeland in Full Gallop and then toured the show to Williamstown
Theatre Festival,
Philadelphia Theatre Co. and GeVa Theatre. Other off-Broadway credits include The
Club, directed by Tommy Tune, for which she won an OBIE award and Charles
Busch's long-running hit, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.
Susanne Marley has appeared twice
previously at CTC, as Sally Talley in Talley's Folly and as Ma Brummett
in the 2005 production of See Rock City; Most recently she was on
Broadway appearing in the Tony Award winning: August: Osage County. She played Hannah in the National tour of Angels
In America. Her extensive Off-Broadway
credits include: John Malkovich's Balm
in Gilead; Fool For Love; How the Other Half Loves; Other
People's Money; and God's Daughter.
Sandra Blaney is making her
CTC debut, but she is no stranger to Pioneer Valley audiences.
She has appeared in seven
plays at New Century Theatre, including two this summer (Noises Off; Intimate
Apparel); five plays at The Theatre Project in West Springfield including
this season's production of Almost, Maine; Stuff Happens with Pauline
Productions; and Steel Magnolias
with Pioneer Valley Theatre.
 SPECIAL EVENT: THE TRILOGY IN A DAY
The Nibroc Trilogy will culminate on the final
two Saturdays of the season (August 14 & 21) with the presentation of the
complete cycle in one day. Special event tickets for those days will include an
afternoon ice cream social and a country style dinner. The first performance of Last Train to Nibroc will begin at 1pm, followed by an ice cream social; See Rock City will begin at 4pm and be followed by a Kentucky inspired dinner; Gulf View Drive will conclude the day with a performance at 7:30pm. Tickets to individual performances are also available.
SPECIAL EVENT: FREE PRESHOW TALK BY AUTHOR AND YALE UNIVERSITY LECTURER JOHN CROWLEY
CTC will present the final in a
series of Pre-Show talks by eminent professors in conjunction with its production of the NIBROC TRILOGY on August 13 at 7:00pm at CTC's Town
Hall Auditorium. There is no admission charge.
Mr. Crowley is a Senior
Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Yale University. He is the author
of nine novels and two collections of short fiction, including Engine
Summer, nominated for The American Book Award; and Little, Big,
which won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. He received the prestigious
American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature. Recent novels
include The Translator, and Lord Byron's Novel: The
Evening Land. His scripts include The World of Tomorrow
(the 1939 World's Fair), No Place to Hide (the bomb shelter
obsession), The Hindenburg, and FIT: Episodes in the
History of the Body. His field of expertise is the relationship of
literature to history.
Mr. Crowley will be speaking to issues raised in Gulf View Drive, such as life on the Home Front
during World War II, the plight of young men barred from service by medical
complications, the stigma of congenital diseases, the increasing role of
American women in the work force and the early days of the civil rights
movement.
TICKETS
Performances take place at the Chester Town Hall Auditorium, Wednesday
through Saturday at 8:00pm., with matinees Thursday and Sunday at 2:00pm.
Tickets are $28-$32; group rates are available. For tickets, call
1-800-595-4TIX or go to www.chestertheatre.org . For tickets on the day of performance, contact the CTC box office at 413-354-7771.
SPONSORS
CTC performances are supported, in part, by
funds from Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and the Local
Cultural Councils of Blandford, Chester, Cummington, Huntington, Middlefield,
Montgomery, Otis, Russell, Washington, and Worthington.
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ABOUT CHESTER THEATRE COMPANY
Chester
Theatre Company was founded in 1990 by Vincent Dowling and H. Newman Marsh. CTC
produces 4-5 plays each summer and fall, performed by top-flight actors,
directors and designers from across the country. Performances take place in the
intimate setting of the Chester Town Hall. Over the years, The Miniature
Theatre of Chester, as it was then known, grew from "little
miracle of the Berkshires" (The Berkshire Eagle) to a company that "has produced a record that can rival the best
the area has to offer." (The Boston Globe) [More About CTC] |
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Chester Theatre Company
Byam Stevens
Artistic Director
413-354-7770
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Chester Theatre Company
Ingrid Flory
Marketing & Development Services
413-527-6157
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