Summer Series at Vermont Coffee Company Playhouse
Presented by Company Be,
MCP’s theatrical wing devoted to smaller, intimate plays.
Church & State
by Jason Odell Williams
Performances of Church & State are:
8:00pm, Thursday and Friday, August 16 & 17
Vermont Coffee Company Playhouse
1197 Exchange Street, Middlebury
8:00pm, Saturday, August 18
Holley Hall
1 South Street, downtown Bristol
2:00pm, Sunday matinee, August 19
Vermont Coffee Company Playhouse
1197 Exchange Street, Middlebury
As a reminder, tickets are $10 cash or check at the door only.
We are unable to take reservations,
however, the theaters seat 75 or more comfortably,
and there has never been a problem accommodating everyone.
MCP's Company Be presents a new play that is taking the country by storm by lifting the curtain behind our political system and revealing the very human people who make the decisions that shape our society and affect our lives. Three days before his bid for reelection, in the wake of a school shooting in his hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina, a Republican U.S. senator makes an off-the-cuff comment to a blogger that gets leaked on “the Twitter,” calling into question the senator's stance on guns and God. As his devoutly Christian wife and liberal Jewish campaign manager try to contain the damage, this look at how religion influences politics and how politics has become a religion is simultaneously funny, heartbreaking and uplifting.
CAST
Senator Charles Whitmore: Christopher Ross
Sara Whitmore: Valerie Smith-Hastings
Alex Klein: Kerianne Severy
Tom/Marshall/Security Guy: Victoria Luksch
Director: Leigh Guptill
Stage Manager: Chris Frappier
Produced by Kevin Commins for 'Company Be'
CHURCH & STATE is presented by special arrangement
with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., NY
Thanks to all who attended!
Proof
by David Auburn
Directed by Alex Nicosia
On the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, Catherine, a troubled young woman, has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician. Now, following his death, she must deal with her own volatile emotions; the arrival of her estranged sister, Claire, and the attentions of Hal, a former student of her father’s who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that her father left behind. Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine into the most difficult problem of all: How much of her father’s madness—or genius—will she inherit? Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play.
CAST (in order of appearance)
Catherine: Sophie Lefkoe
Robert: Kevin Commins
Hal: Asa Wagner
Claire: Erica Furgiuele
Director: Alex Nicosia
Stage Managers: Tina Friml & Tom Noble
Produced by Kevin Commins for 'Company Be'
PROOF was presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., NY
Thanks to all who attended!
Boston Marriage
by David Mamet
Photo by Buzz Kuhns
Directed by Diana Bigelow
Cast (L-R): Kendra Gratton, Gretchen Cole, Susanne Peck
Produced by Kevin Commins for 'Company Be'
Anna and Claire are two scheming Victorian “women of fashion” who have long lived together on the fringes of upper-class New England society. Anna has just become the mistress of a wealthy man, from whom she has received an enormous emerald necklace and an income to match. Claire, meanwhile, is infatuated with a respectable young lady and wants to enlist Anna’s help for an assignation. As the two women exchange barbs and take turns taunting Anna’s hapless Scottish parlor maid, Catherine, Claire’s young inamorata suddenly appears, setting off a crisis that puts both the valuable emerald and the women’s futures at risk. To this wickedly funny comedy, Mamet brings his trademark tart dialogue and impeccable plotting..
Click HERE and scroll down to read the Director's Notes.
BOSTON MARRIAGE was presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., NY
The Drowsy Chaperone
Music and Lyrics: Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison
Book: Bob Martin and Don McKellar
Thanks to all who auditioned!
The cast will be announced soon.
Director: Kevin Commins
Producers: Maria Stockman, Eileen Corcoran
Music Director: Harper Michaels
Choreographer: Kendra Gratton
Stage Manager: Dora Greven
The Drowsy Chaperone is presented to the audience by The Man in the Armchair, an agoraphobic theater-lover who regularly cheers himself up by playing an LP from his box of Broadway albums. He puts the record of his favorite show, the 1928 hit The Drowsy Chaperone, on the stereo and when the needle hits the groove, an hilarious pastiche of 1920s’ musicals begins, constantly broken by the interruptions, critiques, and explanations of The Man in the Armchair.
The play-within-a-play uses all the clichéd plot devices of a 1920s musical, including mistaken identity, comedy schtick, phony accents, and dance numbers that don’t quite go with the plot. All the while, the Man in Chair comments, interrupts, and even back-cues Janet at one point. The first act ends with Janet calling the wedding off, to Robert’s dismay and Feldzieg’s delight. But by the time we reach the end of Chaperone, all misunderstandings have been cleared up, not only is Janet’s marriage back on, but she’s joined by three other couples, and everyone dances the big finale.
The Drowsy Chaperone is presented by special arrangement with Music Theater International, Inc., NY, NY. mtishows.com
