DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’
Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

The preceding sentences, written in 1897 by then 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon of 115 West 95th Street, bothered by friends who kept telling her there was no such thing as Santa Claus, comprise one of the most famous letters ever written to a newspaper. The story of her Irish immigrant family, and the parallel story of Frank Church, the grieving newspaperman who would answer her letter, form the background for The Playhouse at McConnellstown’s holiday show “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus”, which opens on November 18th.

Television producer-writer Andrew J. Fenady tried for 14 years to interest television executives in a script about the little girl who wrote the famous letter to The New York Sun. While recovering from hip-replacement surgery he came up with the idea of including the newspaperman who answered the girl’s letter in the story - adding the fictional elements that the man’s wife and daughter had died the previous Christmas Eve.

“I thought something just as vital as Virginia’s story is the man who wrote the editorial in response to her question, and that was the gap that was filled and after that we sold it in short order,” said Fenady, who has been writing and producing television shows since the 1950s and whose credits include writing The John Wayne movie “Chisum.” “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus,” written by Fenady with Val DeCrowl, became a 1991 ABC television movie starring Charles Bronson, Ed Asner and Richard Thomas.

“The first scene that we shot was the cemetery when Frank Church was at the grave of his wife and when we shot that scene there wasn’t a dry eye in the crew or the cast,” recalled Fenady.

The Playhouse production, with the creative team of Lawr Leidy, Jeanne Nagurny, Jeanne Allen and Don Deitz is a play for young and old, magically reaffirming life’s highest beauty and joy — “the eternal light with which childhood fills the world”. In the words of Francis Pharcellus Church “Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.”

The cast for the Playhouse production includes; Keith Sutton, George Baumer, Hannah Thompson, Megan Suomela, Nadine Swan, Terry Ayers, Stephanie Swan, Jacqueline Myers, Carston Myers, Clay Glenny Jr., Erica Cooper, Sophia Wood, Samantha Robinson, Jordan Rhodes, Shelby Metz, Rick Lombard, Gregory Allan Garlock, Kevin Donahue, Greg Wood, Logan Centi, Skye Robinson, Craig Myers, and Rick Klotz. Barbara Hughes is running lighting and sound for the production.

Performances are November 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27 and December 2, 3, 4. Friday and Saturday shows are at 8pm, Sunday’s at 2:30pm. The Playhouse is located at 11680 Raystown Road (Rt. 26), five miles south of Huntingdon. Ticket prices are $10.00 for regular admission and $8.00 for any student or senior citizen age 60 or older. For reservations and information call 814-627-0311. You can find them on the web at www.littletheater.com.

The comedy “Unnecessary Farce” will replace the previously scheduled “The Dresser” as the fourth show in The Playhouse at McConnellstown’s summer season. Under the direction of Jeanne Nagurny, the production will run Friday, Saturday and Sunday September 16, 17, 18 and 23, 24, 25. Please note that there will be no Thursday evening performance. Show time is 8 pm on Friday and Saturday and 2:30pm on Sunday afternoon.

“Unnecessary Farce” is a fast-paced comedy by Paul Slade Smith, who began writing the new show in Appleton, Wisconsin as a company member of the national tour of The Phantom of the Opera. As is only fitting — both for the play, and the life of a touring actor - the play was first read aloud in a hotel room in Minneapolis, Minnesota by members of the Phantom cast. The Play received its first staged reading at the Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago, and had its world-premiere at the Boarshead Theater in Lansing, Michigan.

“The laugh-out-loud comedy has everything one can hope for in a modern-day farce: two likeable cops operating way out of their league, a supposedly crooked mayor with impeccable timing, his innocent-acting wife, a shy accountant, … a Scottish hit man whose brogue gets thicker the angrier he gets, two adjoining hotel rooms, simmering … tension and eight doors a slammin’.” Wrote Donald V. Calamia, of “Between the Lines”

Two cops; three crooks; eight doors; Go! In two adjoining rooms in a cheap motel, an embezzling mayor, Rick Klotz of Huntingdon, is supposed to meet with his female accountant, Jeanne Nagurny of Huntingdon. In the room next-door, two undercover cops, Daniel Weston and Lawr Leidy both of Huntingdon, wait to catch the meeting on videotape, but the day is not starting off well. One cop has been spotted by the Mayor in the motel lobby. The other cop and the accountant have just spent the night together, a fact they’re trying to keep secret. However, they are accidentally videotaped, and things begin to unravel.

The Mayor is accompanied by Agent Frank, – the head of Town Hall security – Gregory Allen of Petersburg. Though he presents the confident, gruff exterior of a secret service agent, he is an impressively nervous man, and he warns the officers that anyone who dares to try to find the missing money will incur the wrath of the local mafia. Agent Frank speaks with particular fear of a man called – “the Highland hit man” – a formidable villain, William Daniel Daup of Burnham. Meanwhile, the Mayor’s wife has arrived, Barbara Hughes of Huntingdon. She seems to be very concerned about her husband, but why?

There is lots of confusion as to who’s in which room, who’s being videotaped, who’s taken the money, who’s hired a hit man, and why the accountant keeps getting HOT! Can the cops manage to capture the crooks without resorting to… Unnecessary Farce? The Playhouse ensemble also features Kriss Klotz of Huntingdon as stage manager and prompter, and Terry Ayers of Petersburg and Kris Glad of State College on lights and sound.

The Playhouse is located at 11680 Raystown Road (Rt. 26), five miles south of Huntingdon. Ticket prices are $10.00 for regular admission and $8.00 for any student or senior citizen age 60 or older. For reservations and information call 814-627-0311. You can find them on the web at www.littletheater.com.

The Playhouse at McConnellstown continues its 29th season with the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, “Wit” by Margaret Edson. The story centers on Dr. Vivian Bearing, an accomplished professor of 17th Century poetry specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne (most famous for his sonnet “Death be not proud”), who finds herself confronting her own mortality and embarking on a brave journey when she is diagnosed with advanced metastatic ovarian cancer.

Winner of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for “Best New Play”, “Wit” is an exhilarating and harrowing 90-minute revelation, and has been called “A thrilling, exciting evening in the theater . . . an extraordinary and most moving play.” - Clive Barnes, New York Post. Because of subject matter and situations, this play is intended for mature audiences. There is also small amount of language that some may find offensive.

Author Margaret Edson is an American playwright who graduated with a B.A. in Renaissance History from Smith College, and received a master’s in English literature from Georgetown University. Her jobs have included being a bicycle shop sales clerk and a volunteer ESL teacher. At the time of Wit’s first New York production in late 1998, Edson was a kindergarten teacher; she currently teaches 6th grade social studies at Inman Middle School in Atlanta, Georgia. According to Edson, there is more to the play than most of the critical response has acknowledged. “The play is about redemption, and I’m surprised no one mentions it,” she clarifies, “Grace is the opportunity to experience God in spite of yourself, which is what Dr. Bearing ultimately achieves.”

Cast Member Dr. Patrick Rice puts it this way; “This is one of the most moving and powerful plays I have seen or been privileged to be a part of. It is a beautiful portrayal of grace and redemption as all that which we thought important, all the fluff we use to define ourselves, is stripped away and we are laid bare with no place to hide. You will laugh, you will cry, you will rejoice. I hope to see you there”

“When I first read Edson’s play, I was engrossed,” Playhouse Artistic Director Daniel Weston said in a recent interview. “‘Wit’ in other hands could have simply been a play about cancer, but Edson accomplishes a great deal more — it is actually a play about scholarship, medicine, redemption, and even Grace. But the Grace is subtle, so beautifully, beautifully subtle. When I attend a wonderfully realized production at Penn State almost ten years ago, I left the theatre in awe. I was by turns happy and sad — but most of all I had a profound feeling of having been uplifted. It was a journey unlike any other I have ever had in a theatre.”

“What is, perhaps, unexpected,” Weston continues, “is that there is humor in ‘Wit’, some of it simple, some of it very um… witty. This ability to laugh at our situation, no matter how hard, no matter how dire, is part of our humanity. ‘Itchy outbreaks of far-fetched wit,’ as Donne himself said.”

Playing the role of Vivian Bearing is Jeanne Nagurny, a veteran of a wide variety of plays, musicals, and operas in central Pennsylvania. “It’s a thrilling and slightly overwhelming role of a life-time for an actress,” says Nagurny, “It is a rare privilege to be given the opportunity to embody a character in a work with such exquisite depth and language. The wonderful thing is, it is a play you can study, indeed spend a lot of time with. ‘Wit’ offers plenty to think about.”

The doctors who run the study that Vivian becomes involved with are played by Kristofor Glad and Dr. Patrick Rice. Meghan Glad and Tara Lee Donahue, who share the role of Susie the unit nurse, are responsible for Vivian’s care. Jeanne Allen plays Vivian’s professor E.M. Ashford and George Baumer her father.

Rounding out the ensemble, and portraying fellows, medical technicians, and college students are; Erica Cooper, Clay Glenny, Samuel Reitman, William Renninger, and Kylee Roles. Lighting design is by Keith Sutton, and Barbara Hughes and Hunter McVey comprise the run-crew.

“Wit” opens at The Playhouse, McConnellstown on Friday, July 22. It will enjoy four more 8 p.m. performances July 23, 28, 29 and 30. There are two Sunday matinees; July 24th and 31st at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices are $10.00 for regular admission and $8.00 for any student or senior citizen age 60 or older. As a reminder, this play is intended for MATURE AUDIENCES.

The Playhouse is located at 11680 Raystown Road (Rt. 26), five miles south of Huntingdon. For reservations and information call 814-627-0311. On the web at www.littletheater.com.

Wit

July 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31

By Margaret Edson

In this extraordinary play, Margaret Edson has created a work that is as intellectually challenging as it is emotionally immediate. At the start of Wit, Vivian Bearing, a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the brilliantly difficult Holy Sonnets of the metaphysical poet John Donne, has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Her approach to her illness is not unlike her approach to the study of Donne: aggressively probing and intensely rational. But during the course of her illness — and her stint as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy program at a major teaching hospital — Vivian comes to reassess her life and her work with a profundity and humor that are transformative both for her and for the audience.

“A dazzling and humane play you will remember till your dying day.” — John Simon, New York magazine

“An original and urgent work of art . . . among the finest plays of the decade.” — Donald Lyons, The Wall Street Journal

“[A] brutally human and beautifully layered new play . . . you feel both enlightened and, in a strange way, enormously comforted.” — Peter Marks, The New York Times

“A dazzling and humane play you will remember till your dying day.”—John Simon, New York magazine

“A one-of-a-kind experience: wise, thoughtful, witty and wrenching.”—Vincent Canby, The New York Times Year in Review

“A thrilling, exciting evening in the theater . . . [Wit is] an extraordinary and most moving play.”—Clive Barnes, New York Post

“Edson writes superbly . . . [A] moving, enthralling and challenging experience that reminds you what theater is for.”—Fintan O’Toole, New York Daily News

The Playhouse at McConnellstown presents the hysterically funny American farce “Sex Please, We’re Sixty” by Michael and Susan Parker. The production is directed by Terry Ayers, and performances run May 27, 28, June 2, 3, and 4 at 8pm and May 29 and June 5 at 2:30pm.

“Several years ago, we produced the play ‘The Amorous Ambassador,’ by playwright Michael Parker,” said director Ayers. “It was a smash hit with our audiences, and it was popular with our cast because of its snappy dialogue and fast-paced antics. Really very funny stuff! Mr. Parker has successfully re-imaged the venerable British farce for American audiences. There are hints of the Newhart (Bob) television series (think New England county inn), as well as a little “Golden Girls” in the play.. As one critic wrote, “…a good giggle fest, especially for, well, ‘women of a certain age.’”

Mrs. Stancliffe’s Rose Cottage Bed & Breakfast has been successful for many years. Her guests (nearly all middle-aged women) return year after year. Her next door neighbor, the older, silver-tongued, Bud “Bud the
Stud” Davis believes they come to spend time with him in romantic liaisons.

The prim and proper Mrs. Stancliffe (Barbara Hughes of Huntingdon) steadfastly denies this, but really doesn’t do anything to prevent it. She reluctantly accepts the fact that “Bud the Stud” (Rick Lombard of Huntingdon) is, in fact, good for business.

Her other neighbor and would-be suitor Henry Mitchell (Gregory DeMetrick of State College) is a retired chemist who has developed a little blue pill called “Venusia,” after Venus the goddess of love, to increase the libido of menopausal women. The pill however, has not been tested.

Also in residence at the cottage are three other women: Victoria Ambrose (Sally Best-Finberg, of Stormstown), a romance novelist whose personal life seems to be lacking in romance; Hillary Hudson (Susan DeMetrick of State College) a friend of Henry’s who has agreed to test the Venusia: and Charmaine Beauregard (Shelby Metz of Petersburg), a “Southern Belle” whose libido does not need to be increased!

The fun soon begins; Bud gets his hands on some of the Venusia pills. He attempts to entertain all three women, only to be “found out”! The women take their revenge on the “three-timing” Bud by swapping his Viagra for Venusia, and we soon discover the peculiar and hilarious effects that Venusia has on men. When the extremely funny mayhem settles down, all the women find their lives moving in new and surprising directions.

Stage manager for the production is Meghan Whitesel of Huntingdon and running lights and sound is Kristofor Glad of Huntingdon.

The Playhouse is located on Route 26, five miles south of Huntingdon in the village of McConnellstown, at 11680 Raystown Road, Huntingdon, PA. For reservations and information call 814-627-0311. Information is on the web at www.littletheater.com.

SPECIAL TO NORTH AMERICA ONLY
By Mrs. Y. Y. Flerch

The madcap geniuses who comprise The Playhouse at McConnellstown’s wildly creative theatre company have done it again: brought forth—thrashing and caterwauling—a trifling but hilarious comedy-mystery-farce written by that barmy Britisher Peter Gordon. It answers to the name “Murdered to Death”.

Billed here as a “Comedy-Mystery-Spoof of Agatha Christie,” it opens the Playhouse’s 29th season Friday April 8th and runs through April 17th.

“Murdered to Death” is directed by Michael Norell, the venerable Three Springs writer and oracle. Mr. Norell, a Broadway, regional theatre and television vet, has trod the Playhouse boards as Elwood P. Dowd in “Harvey” and as Willie Clarke in “The Sunshine Boys”.

“I’ll try to sum this thing up for you,” he says none too confidently, digressing by spewing coffee as he demonstrates the time-honored, idiot-proof “spit-take” for a reporter. “First of all, it’s a morality play,” he says. “The moral is: don’t send an imbecile to do an idiot’s job. Is the plot important? Desperately. If you fail to grasp any of it, will it matter? Um … no.”

“Listen carefully,” he goes on, warming to his topic.

“We have an sweetly inept country-estate Englishwoman who is shot right in the dinette (Jeanne Nagurny of Huntingdon); her niece, an efficient companion but an inept crook (Kati Sutton Oltyan of State College); a bombastic, inept but soulful Colonel Blimp (Keith Sutton of Huntingdon); his inept, sex-crazed wife (a woman who, if she were a country, would be North Korea) (Shelby Metz of Petersburg); a dotty, far-from-inept old lady sleuth (any similarity to a certain famous old lady sleuth created by Agatha Christie is strictly intended) (Jeanne Allen of Huntingdon); an insanely eccentric, inept butler, who may or may not have “done it” (William Daniel Daup of Burnham); an inept French crook (Kristofor Glad of Huntingdon); his hoity-toity, inept henchwoman (Meghan Whitesel of Huntingdon); a long-suffering Constable named Thompkins, who is actually fairly bright but prone to being shot in the foot (Patrick Rice of Hollidaysburg); and, finally, Inspector Pratt, the most incompetent, egotistical police inspector—played by Dan Weston of Huntingdon — who ever malapropped his way through a case he hasn’t a clue how to solve (picture a stunning mutation of Basil Faulty, Barney Fife and Maxwell Smart). And I think that’s all ten characters,” Mr. Norell says, “I hope you’re impressed.”

Behind the scenes are toiling these McConnellstown stalwarts: Jeanne Allen, dialogue coach; Don Dietz of Williamsburg, scenic designer; Jeanne Nagurny, costume designer; Keith Sutton, lighting designer; Rick Brown, sound design; Barbara Hughes of Huntingdon, technical director; Erin Bark of Alexandria, stage manager; Hunter McVey lighting technician. Also involved in the production are Rick and Kriss Klotz.

“Murdered to Death” is the first in the fabulously successful Pratt Trilogy from the clever Mr. Gordon. The other pair of plays—“Secondary Cause of Death” and “Death by Fatal Murder”—reprise the much-loved Inspector, who evidently gets no smarter. With more than 650 productions—many professional and just as many amateur, Mr. Gordon ought by now to be every bit as rich as Neil Simon. There have been two national tours in the U.K.; It has also become popular dinner-theatre fare in the U.S., with unanimously adoring notices.

Here is what one metaphor-challenged American reviewer wrote: “For ‘Murdered to Death’, mix a murmuration of murder victims, a skein of unsuspecting suspects and a gaggle of idiot sleuths, with some farce DNA and a few steroids, and you have a foolproof recipe for high hysteria on the stage.” Purple prose, worthy of the play itself!

“Murdered to Death” opens in McConnellstown Friday April 8. It will enjoy four more 8-pm performances April 9, 14, 15 and 16. There are two Sunday matinees, April 10 and April 17, 2:30 p.m. curtain. Ticket prices are $10.00 for regular admission and $8.00 for any student or senior citizen age 60 or older.

The Playhouse is located at 11680 Raystown Road (Rt. 26), five miles south of Huntingdon. For reservations and information call 814-627-0311 or log on to www.littletheater.com.

Written By; By Peter Gordon

This spoof of the best of Agatha Christie traditions is set in a country manor house in the 1930’s, with an assembled cast of characters guaranteed to delight, including Bunting the butler, an English Colonel with the prerequisite stiff upper lip, a shady French art dealer and his moll, the bumbling police inspector and a well meaning local sleuth who seems to attract murder wherever she goes. They are all there and all are caught up in the side splitting antics which follow the death of the owner of the house. It soon becomes clear the murderer isn’t finished yet, but will the murderer be unmasked before everyone else has met their doom?

Cast
Mildred — Jeanne Nagurny
Dorothy — Kati Oltyan
Bunting — William Daniel Daup
Colonel Craddock — Keith Sutton
Margaret Craddock — Shelby Metz
Pierre Marceau — Kristofor Glad
Elizabeth Hartley — Meghan Whitesel
Joan Maple — Jeanne Allen
Inspector Pratt — Daniel Weston
Const Thompkins — Patrick Rice

Director — Michael Norell

Crew
Barb Hughes
Erin Bark
Tara Donahue

April 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17

The first of Peter Gordon’s popular trilogy of murder mysteries revolving around the bumbling sleuth, aptly named Inspector Pratt. Set in the 1930’s, a hilarious spoof based on the typical Agatha Christie plot ~ murder in a country mansion with an assembled group of eccentric house guests/suspects! The household consists of the hostess Mildred, her downtrodden niece Dorothy, and the unconventional butler Bunting. The initial guests are Colonel Craddock, who was an old flame of Mildred’s and she is keen to re-ignite their earlier passion, and his wife Margaret. Followed shortly by the dapper but shady French art dealer Pierre Marceau and his accomplice Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington. Last to arrive, is an inquisitive neighbor Joan Maple who cajoles an invitation to join the party for lunch, and she has a penchant for murder scenes! Following a sudden death at the house, the incompetent Inspector is called, along with his young Constable Thompkins, and the ensuing hours see him interrogate and try to piece the evidence together.

With over 650 productions, this comedy has proved to be a hit with audiences world-wide. “An enjoyable night out, and did the Butler do it ? You’ll have to go along and find out.”

We are pleased to announce our 2011 Theatre Season

All Shows and dates are subject to change

Murdered To Death

April 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17

By Peter Gordon
The first of Peter Gordon’s popular trilogy of murder mysteries revolving around the bumbling sleuth, aptly named Inspector Pratt. Set in the 1930’s, a hilarious spoof based on the typical Agatha Christie plot ~ murder in a country mansion with an assembled group of eccentric house guests/suspects! The household consists of the hostess Mildred, her downtrodden niece Dorothy, and the unconventional butler Bunting. The initial guests are Colonel Craddock, who was an old flame of Mildred’s and she is keen to re-ignite their earlier passion, and his wife Margaret. Followed shortly by the dapper but shady French art dealer Pierre Marceau and his accomplice Elizabeth Hartley-Trumpington. Last to arrive, is an inquisitive neighbor Joan Maple who cajoles an invitation to join the party for lunch, and she has a penchant for murder scenes! Following a sudden death at the house, the incompetent Inspector is called, along with his young Constable Thompkins, and the ensuing hours see him interrogate and try to piece the evidence together.

With over 650 productions, this comedy has proved to be a hit with audiences world-wide. “An enjoyable night out, and did the Butler do it ? You’ll have to go along and find out.”

Sex Please, We’re Sixty

May 27, 28, 29, June 2, 3, 4, 5

By Michael Parker and Susan Parker
Mrs. Stancliffe’s Rose Cottage Bed & Breakfast has been successful for many years. Her Guests (nearly all women) return year after year. Her next door neighbor, the elderly, silver-tongued, Bud “Bud the Stud” Davis believes they come to spend time with him in romantic liaisons. The prim and proper Mrs. Stancliffe steadfastly denies this, but really doesn’t do anything to prevent it. She reluctantly accepts the fact that “Bud the Stud” is, in fact, good for business. Her other neighbor and would-be suitor Henry Mitchell is a retired chemist who has developed a blue pill called “Venusia,” after Venus the goddess of love, to increase the libido of menopausal women. The pill has not been tested. Add to the guest list three older women: Victoria Ambrose, a romance novelist whose personal life seems to be lacking in romance; Hillary Hudson a friend of Henry’s who has agreed to test the Venusia: and Charmaine Beauregard, a “Southern Belle” whose libido does not need to be increased! Bud gets his hands on some of the Venusia pills and the fun begins, as he attempts to entertain all three of the women! The women mix up Bud’s Viagra pills with the Venusia, and we soon discover that it has a strange effect on men: it gives them all the symptoms of menopausal women, complete with hot flashes, mood swings, weeping and irritability! When the mayhem settles down, all the women find their lives moving in new and surprising directions.

Wit

July 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31

By Margaret Edson
Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
In this extraordinary play, Margaret Edson has created a work that is as intellectually challenging as it is emotionally immediate. At the start of Wit, Vivian Bearing, a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the brilliantly difficult Holy Sonnets of the metaphysical poet John Donne, has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Her approach to her illness is not unlike her approach to the study of Donne: aggressively probing and intensely rational. But during the course of her illness — and her stint as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy program at a major teaching hospital — Vivian comes to reassess her life and her work with a profundity and humor that are transformative both for her and for the audience.

“A dazzling and humane play you will remember till your dying day.” — John Simon, New York magazine

“An original and urgent work of art . . . among the finest plays of the decade.” — Donald Lyons, The Wall Street Journal

“[A] brutally human and beautifully layered new play . . . you feel both enlightened and, in a strange way, enormously comforted.” — Peter Marks, The New York Times

“A dazzling and humane play you will remember till your dying day.”—John Simon, New York magazine

“A one-of-a-kind experience: wise, thoughtful, witty and wrenching.”—Vincent Canby, The New York Times Year in Review

“A thrilling, exciting evening in the theater . . . [Wit is] an extraordinary and most moving play.”—Clive Barnes, New York Post

“Edson writes superbly . . . [A] moving, enthralling and challenging experience that reminds you what theater is for.”—Fintan O’Toole, New York Daily News

This show does contain adult language and situations.

The Dresser

September 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25

By Ronald Harwood
Harwood based the play on his experiences as dresser to distinguished English Shakespearean actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit, whose character is represented by “Sir” in the play. The last of the great breed of English actor-managers, “Sir” is in a bad way tonight. As his dresser tries valiantly to prepare him to go on stage as King Lear, he is having great difficulty remembering who and where he is, let alone Lear’s lines. His dresser, Norman, is a fussbudgit who has served the actor faithfully for 16 years. His job is not only to dress the man but to massage his ego, remind him of his opening lines, and even provide the sound effects for the storm scene.

The play was first presented in London, and was nominated for Best Play at the Laurence Olivier Awards for 1980. The play opened on Broadway the next year and was nominated for the 1982 Tony Award for Best Play. This play has it all, drama, comedy, rich in witty and often bitchy one-liners.

“A stirring evening [that] … burns with a love of the theatre that conquers all…. Perfectly observed, devilishly entertaining backstage lore.” —New York Times. “The Dresser” also stands as a not-so-subtle metaphor for how theater types will struggle against any hardship – actual ordnance, or just budgetary bombshells like the ones currently rocking the economy – to make sure the show goes on. “Being part of a company is a rare and wonderful thing, a quality that this play captures. It makes you want to try harder and climb higher to be worthy of it.”

Holiday Show (To Be Announced)

November 18, 19, 20, 25, 26,27, December 2, 3, 4

Shows and dates are subject to change

By: Kristofor Glad

You better watch out; you better not cry because Santa Claus is coming to the McConnellstown Playhouse for Valentine Davies “Miracle on 34th Street.” Kris Kringle’s annual run is in jeopardy when he is put on trial and must prove he is the real Santa Claus. The play under the direction of Jeanne Nagurny assisted by Meghan Whitesel opens Friday November 19th.

When a kindly gentleman takes a job as Santa Claus in the iconic Macy’s Manhattan department store, he helps the patrons begin to experience the once lost feeling of Christmas all over again. Despite his best efforts to bring joy to everyone he is put on trial for lunacy. With the help of his lawyer, Mr. Fred Gailey (Patrick Rice of Hollidaysburg), Kris Kringle (George Baumer of State College) will need all the help he can get if there is any chance to save Christmas.

As the trial continues, this simple act of belief convinces a divorced, cynical single mother (Sally Best-Finberg from Stormstown), her somber daughter (Madeline Suba of Huntingdon), and the entire state of New York that Santa Claus is no myth. The 1947 film version of Miracle on 34th Street is a perennial holiday favorite. Starring a young Natalie Wood with Maureen O’Hara, the film won three Academy Awards in 1948.

The cast includes George Baumer, Sally Best-Finberg, William Daniel Daup, Rick Klotz, Lawr Leidy, Shelby Metz, Patrick Rice, and Madeline Suba. The company includes: Jeanne Allen, Terry Ayers, Erin Bark, Luke Beaver, Tara Lee Donahue, Kristofor Glad, Kriss Klotz, Keith Sutton, Daniel Weston, and Meghan Whitesel. Making their debut at the Playhouse are, Eamonn Hunter, Carston Myers, Jackie Myers, Jordan Rhodes, Samantha Robinson, Megan Suomela, and Sophia Wood. Barbara Hughes runs Lights and Sound, and Don Dietz contributed to the setting finish.

“Miracle on 34th Street” will begin its run on Friday November 19th at 8pm. Evening performances will continue November 20th, 26th, 27th and December 3rd and 4th. Sunday Matinee showings are at 2:30 pm November 21st and 28th and the final performance will be on December 5th. Ticket prices are $10.00 for regular admission and $8.00 for any student or senior citizen age 60 or older. Opening night (November 19th) is sold out and there are only a few seats left for November 20th and 21st. Reservations are highly recommended as seats are filling quickly for the other performances as well.

The Playhouse is located at 11680 Raystown Road (Rt. 26), five miles south of Huntingdon. For reservations and information call 814-627-0311 or log on to www.littletheater.com.

The Playhouse in Concert
Special to South-central Pennsylvania
By Mrs. Y. Y. Flerch

Music, maestro, please!

And music it shall be, when the Playhouse at McConnellstown offers its limited run of a splendid concoction called “The Playhouse in Concert: An Evening of Broadway and Other Musical Delights”, beginning Friday, September 24.

A cast of 23 local singers, many of them tried-and-true Playhouse veterans, will perform songs from such Broadway shows as Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma” and “South Pacific”, Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” and “Into the Woods”; Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” and Stephen Schwartz’s “Wicked”.

Also numbers from Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man”, Kander and Ebb’s “Cabaret”, Lerner & Loewe’s “My Fair Lady”, Jonathan Larson’s “Rent”, Jerry Ragne & Galt McDermott’s iconic “Hair”, Jerry Herman, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s “Dear World”, plus a touch of Simon and Garfunkel.

“The Playhouse in Concert” was conceived by musician and Playhouse co-founder Dan Weston, who arranged some of the backgrounds (both Synth and live piano) and has staged the production. “This was a labor of love,” Weston says. “I know it’s not our usual fare in McConnellstown, but we have some wonderful singers in our midst around here, some fabulous voices, some who are real professionals, and we have had plenty of audience requests to hear them. I’m pretty darned proud of this production. It’s been terrific fun to do.”

The performers, in no particular order, are Jeanne Nagurny, Keith Sutton. Jeanne Allen, Charles Jackson, Jeremy Santos, Barb Hughes, Kay Rossman, Lawr Leidy, Katie Stevens, Mr. Weston, Rosalie Rodriguez, Robert Lamey, Rick Klotz and Kriss Klotz, all of Huntingdon.

In addition: Terry Ayers of Petersburg, Patrick Rice of Altoona, Azure Montaig of Hollidaysburg, Erin Bark of Alexandria, Sally Best of Stormstown, Tara Lee Donahue of Mount Union, and Meghan Whitesel, also of Mount Union.

“The Playhouse in Concert” will open Friday at 8 pm. Evening performances continue September 25, September 30, October 1 and October 2. Sunday Matinees will be presented September 26 and Oct 3. Curtain time is 8pm except for the Sunday matinees when it is 2:30pm. Ticket prices are $10.00 for regular admission and $8.00 for any student or senior citizen age 60 or older. The Playhouse is located at 11680 Raystown Road (Rt. 26), five miles south of Huntingdon. For reservations and information call 814-627-0311