The Gallery Players

September 12-27, 2009

By John Guare

“The Gallery Players puts together a lively, visually appealing production that moves with pace and professionalism…an explosion of absurdity that pits startlingly funny lines against the tragic circumstances of mundane, unfulfilled lives.”
-Jo Ann Rosen, nytheatre.com

Producer: Neal J. Freeman and Brian Michael Flanagan for The Gallery Players
Director: Dev Bondarin
Set Designer: Ann Bartek
Costume Designer: Brad Scoggins
Lighting Designer: Ryan Bauer
Sound Designer: Chris Rummel
Props Master: Virginia C. Monte
Production Stage Manager: Jodi Witherell
Assistant Stage Manager: Doug Faulborn

Pictured (l to r): Burke Adams, Nora Vetter, Emilie Soffe, Sharon Hunter, and Stacey Scotte in The Gallery Players’ production of The House of Blue Leaves. Photo by Neal J. Freeman.

The Cast

Artie Shaughnessy: Burke Adams*
Bunny Flingus: Stacey Scotte*
Bananas Shaughnessy: Victoria Bundonis*
Ronnie Shaughnessy: Alex Herrald
Corrinna Stroller: Elizabeth Wood*
Head Nun: Sharon Hunter*
Second Nun: Nora Vetter
Little Nun: Emilie Soffe
Billy Einhorn: Tom Cleary*
MP: David Ojala
White Man: Ronn Burton

*appearing courtesy of AEA

Pictured: Stacey Scotte and Burke Adams in The Gallery Players’ production of The House of Blue Leaves. Photo by Neal J. Freeman.

Artie Shaugnessy is a songwriter with visions of glory. Toiling by day as a zoo-keeper, he suffers in seedy lounges by night, plying his wares at piano bars in Queens, New York where he lives with his wife, Bananas, who is. This is much to the chagrin of Artie’s downstairs mistress, Bunny Flingus, who’ll sleep with him anytime but refuses to cook until they are married. On the day the Pope is making his first visit to the city, Artie’s son Ronny goes AWOL from Fort Dix stowing a home made-bomb intended to blow up the Pope in Yankee Stadium. Also arriving are Artie’s old school chum and now a successful Hollywood producer, Billy Einhorn, with his starlet girlfriend in tow. Billy holds the key to Artie’s dreams of getting out of Queens and away from the life he so despises. But like many dreams, this promise of glory evaporates amid the chaos of ordinary lives. Winner of the 1971 Critics Award and the Obie Award as Best American Play.

Pictured: Burke Adams and Victoria Bundonis in The Gallery Players’ production of The House of Blue Leaves. Photo by Neal J. Freeman.

Performance Schedule
Saturday, September 12 at 8:00 PM – Opening night
Sunday, September 13 at 3:00 PM – matinee
Thursday, September 17 at 8:00 PM
Friday, September 18 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, September 19 at 2:00 PM – matinee
Saturday, September 19 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, September 20 at 3:00 PM – matinee
Thursday, September 24 at 8:00 PM
Friday, September 25 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, September 26 at 2:00 PM – matinee
Saturday, September 26 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, September 27 at 3:00 PM – final performance

by William Shakespeare
July 23-August 2, 2009

“The Tragedy of King Lear is insanely good! The decorated Park Slope troupe pours its heart out on stage, wringing wonderful performances from the cast. Dominic Cuskern portrays Lear with appropriate levels of mania, chastened entitlement and regret. King Lear has extended periods of brilliance.”
-Mike McLaughlin, The Brooklyn Paper

Producing Directors: Sidney Fortner and Dominic Cuskern for the Gallery Players
Production Stage Manager: Kristine Ayers
Set and Costume Designer: Sidney Fortner
Lighting Designer: Emily McGillicuddy
Fight Choreographer: Robert Najarian

The Cast

Albany – Kevin Blackwelder
Kent – John Blaylock*
Curan – Jonah Ramu Cohen
Lear – Dominic Cuskern*
Oswald – Andrew Danish
King of France, Captain, Soldier – Adam Ewer
Fool, Doctor – Andrew Firda*
Goneril – Suzy Kimball
Gentleman 1 – Mark Kinch
Gloucester – Elliott Mayer*
Edgar – Brandon Mears
Herald, Servant 2 – Peter Oliver
Cornwall – Ross Pivec
Regan – Molly Pope
Burgundy, Gentleman 2, Servant 2 – Jerrod Kazumi Popham
Cordelia – Jessica Rothenberg
Edmun – Montgomery Sutton*

*Appearing courtesy of AEA

King Lear (Dominic Cuskern) is amused by his Fool (Andrew Firda) in The Gallery Players’ production of The Tragedy of King Lear. Photo by Joshua Luria.

Players Shakespeare, The Gallery Players’ newly-created Summer Shakespeare Festival, presents Shakespeare’s classic tale of a king’s descent into madness. Dominic Cuskern, a Gallery Players veteran and long-time member of the Pearl Theatre Company’s Resident Acting company, stars as Lear.

Read the nytheatre.com cyber interview with Dominic Cuskern.

King Lear is believed by many to be Shakespeare’s masterpiece. Written as a political and social commentary on post-Elizabethan England, King Lear demonstrates what results when individuals let vanity and greed lead them to trespass the bounds of order and proportion, ignoring their natural responsibility to family, community and country. The chaotic consequences: leaders renounce duty; fathers disown children; children displace fathers; war, homicide, fratricide, suicide, and madness. We join Lear and his counterpart, Gloucester, as they are stripped of position, power, family, and sanity – and in the process, through the unwavering devotion of Kent and the Fool, the filial loves of Edgar and Cordelia – discovering their humanity and what it means to forgive and be forgiven. Lear becomes the antithesis of his former arrogant self; he achieves a life without “lendings” – the accumulated material possessions we cling to for meaning – or the need of them.

NOTE: This show is an addendum to the regular season and is not part of our subscription packages.

Lear (Dominic Cuskern) mourns his youngest daughter, Cordelia (Jessica Rothenberg) in The Gallery Players’ production of The Tragedy of King Lear. Photo by Joshua Luria.

Performance Schedule
Thursday, July 23rd at 8pm
Friday, July 24th at 8pm
Saturday, July 25th at 2pm – matinee
Saturday, July 25th at 8pm
Sunday, July 26th at 3pm – matinee
Monday, July 27th at 7:30pm (Pay What You Can – cash at the door only)
Wednesday, July 29th at 8pm
Thursday, July 30th at 8pm
Friday, July 31st at 8pm
Saturday, August 1st at 2pm – matinee
Saturday, August 1st at 8pm
Sunday, August 2nd at 3pm – matinee, final performance

June 10-27th, 2010

Where can a playwright find an outlet? Where can an audience see new works? The Gallery Players provides both of these in this Festival. Over the years of producing the Festival, we have developed works by countless playwrights, many of whom continue to work with The Gallery Players each year to incubate their new ideas. More than 300 plays have appeared in the Black Box New Play Festival since its inception and this year will bring even more writing and acting talent to the stage. Who knows what you’ll discover in the Box?

May 1-23, 2010

Music by Cy Coleman
Lyrics by David Zippel
Book by Larry Gelbart

Producer – Becca Goland-Van Ryn/The Gallery Players
Director – Trey Compton
Music Director – Jeffrey Campos
Choreographer – Brian Swasey
Set Designer – Eli Kaplan-Wildmann
Lighting Designer – John P. Woodey
Costume Designer – TBA
Sound Designer – Julianne Merrill
Production Stage Manager – Kyle Atkins*
Assistant Stage Managers – TBA

*courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association

City of Angels is two shows in one. It is the interweaving of two plots, one dealing with the writing of a screenplay in the legendary Hollywood of the ’40’s; the other, the enactment of that screenplay. This double feature quality leads to many other unique production values, the most notable being the fact that City of Angels is perhaps the only “color coded” show any theatre audience is likely to see. The movie scenes appear in shades of black and white, and the real life scenes are in technicolor. The show boasts two musical scores. One provides the cast with numbers to help reveal certain emotions or to celebrate particular moments in the way that only music can. The “other” score was written to emulate pure movie soundtrack music, 1940’s vintage. It is entirely appropriate, then, that the final curtain comes down on two happy endings.

Winner of 6 Tony Awards in 1989.

Performance Schedule
Saturday, May 1 at 8:00 PM – Opening night
Sunday, May 2 at 3:00 PM – matinee
Thursday, May 6 at 8:00 PM
Friday, May 7 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, May 8 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, May 9 at 3:00 PM – matinee
Thursday, May 13 at 8:00 PM
Friday, May 14 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, May 15 at 2:00 PM – matinee
Saturday, May 15 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, May 16 at 3:00 PM – matinee
Thursday, May 20 at 8:00 PM
Friday, May 21 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, May 22 at 2:00 PM – matinee
Saturday, May 22 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, May 23 at 3:00 PM – final performance

Check back often to view a list of our current news and special announcements!

September 2009
The Gallery Players recently received two New York Innovative Theatre Awards for productions in its 2008-2009 season. Like You Like Itreceived the award for Best Musical Production marking the third year in a row that The Gallery Players has received this award. The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots, a part of the 2008 Black Box New Play Festival, received the award for Best Play.

July 2009
Just weeks after announcing their 43rd season, The Gallery Players is proud to announce nominations for nine New York Innovative Theatre Awards for productions in its 2008-2009 season, including two for Outstanding Production of a Musical and one for Outstanding Production of a Play. This marks the third consecutive season The New York Innovative Theatre Awards has recognized The Gallery Players, who have received the honor of Outstanding Production of a Musical for the past two seasons.

The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots (June 2008) premiered in The 11th Annual Black Box New Play Festival and is nominated for three awards in playwrighting, performance and production: Outstanding Full Length Script, Nat Cassidy; Outstanding Leading Actor, David Ian Lee and Outstanding Production of a Play. The Reckoning of Kit & Little Boots was co-produced with Engine37.

The Gallery Players’ production of the new hit musical, Like You Like It (November, 2008) is nominated for five awards in production, design and performance: Outstanding Choreography, Keith Andrews; Outstanding Featured Actress, Brynn Curry; Outstanding Costume Design, Hunter Kaczorowski; Outstanding Featured Actor, Clint Morris and Outstanding Production of a Musical.

The Gallery Players’ production of The Who’s Tommy (May 2009) is nominated for Outstanding Production of a Musical.

May 2009
The Gallery Players was proud to nominate Adam Wieckowski of Adam’s Wines and Liquors for the ART/NY DeWitt Stern Local Hero Award for 2009. In a recent ceremony with keynote address by Bill Irwin, Adam was presented with the award! Congratulations Adam, and thank you for your continuing support of The Gallery Players.

Pictured (l to r): Artistic Director Heather Siobhan Curran with Brooklyn business owner Adam Wieckowski.