April 1, 2005

The third and final show our 85th Season, The Memory of Water, boasts an extraordinary cast, helmed by the capable hand of director Fred Robbins. Concord Players veterans Shana Dirik (Jaques Brel, Evita, Sylvia, Private Eyes), Lida McGirr (Side Man, Shadowlands, The Madwoman of Chaillot), John McAuliffe (The Rivals, Deathtrap, The Crucible, Arms and the Man, The Glass Menagerie), and Kent Miller (1776), along with accomplished newcomers Liz Robbins and Frances Vella, will personify the droll pathos of Shelagh Stevenson’s award winning play in a uniquely intimate presentation. Set designer Tom Sikina (Twelfth Night), has put the stage far forward of the proscenium and lowered it into the lap of the audience, the better to savor the actors’ every nuance. For the connoisseur of artistic excellence, The Memory of Water promises to be an epiphany of ensemble playing.

The May 1 matinee performance of The Memory of Water will be followed by a discussion with The Theater Mirror’s Larry Stark. Larry hopes to lead the audience in a bracing give and take about the role of the theater in the community, as entertainment, educator, inspiration and provocateur. Don’t miss this opportunity to publicly express your likes, dislikes, hopes and expectations for the future of the theater in Concord!

Doug Cooper is directing “The Saloonkeeper’s Daughter” for The Nashoba Players in Westford. Caberet-style performances are April 29 and 30, and May 6 and 7, at 8 pm, at the Parish Center for the Arts in Westford. Next season at The Concord Players, Doug will design the sets for both Cinderella and The Spitfire Grill.

Tillie Sweet has been cast as Mrs. Northrop, the Irish cook, in The Winchester Players’ production of “When We Are Married.” Performances are April 29 and 30, and May 1, 6, and 7, at the Winchester Unitarian Church. For details visit the theater's web site at http://www.winchesterplayers.org.

The Town Cow Theater Company of Concord, Massachusetts, in collaboration with members of The Concord Orchestra, will reprise last fall’s performance of Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale,” on June 14 at 8 pm, at North Andover High School. The cast of Concord Players consists of Myron Feld, Jay Newlon, Giselle Ganz, and Thomas Caron. In August, Jay will play Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Myron Edgar Allan Poe, along with Christopher Lockheardt as the Earl of Essex, and Peter Yensen as Deacon Trott, in “Two Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe,” adapted and directed by Thomas Caron. Following The Town Cow’s annual summer shows in Chamberlin Park, “Two Tales” will be performed at The Wayside, Hawthorne’s home, on Labor Day weekend, September 3, 4, and 5, at 2 pm. For further info go to http://www.thetowncow.org.

ERRATUM

The 2004 - 2005 edition of The Concord Players Yearbook incorrectly lists the e-mail address of Peg Elliot. The correct address is TexasPeg@comcast.net.

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“You must have the unconscious gift of being able, while creating on stage, to grab the audience in a way that makes them watch what you are doing and care about what you are doing. This indefinable gift is what no one can teach. I have stood on the stage with actors, knowing they were really living through their situation truthfully and seeming to find the expressive means to dramatize that truthful experience. Yet it would turn out that the audience couldn’t have cared less. It was as if, somewhere between the stage and the auditorium, an invisible curtain existed that sifted and diluted those actors’ creative powers. But I have also sat in theatres where I could actually feel waves of welcome greet the efforts of certain other performers. Personality, you say? I don’t know. I only know that if you don’t have it, no one can help you get it. Sorry.”

- Robert Lewis
“Advice to The Players”

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Thomas Caron, editor