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February 1, 2006

 

 

A MESSAGE FROM THE CONCORD PLAYERS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The January meeting of the Concord Players Board was a lively and interesting one. High on our agenda these days is our project to renovate 51 Walden Street. The architect, Dan Broggi, attended the meeting with his drawings and answered our remaining questons.

Soon we will be launching a fundraising campaign for this expensive renovation, and we beg the cooperation and efforts of the entire Concord Players' membership! There's lots of work to be done, and we'll be needing all available hands and talents!

Our current project, The Spitfire Grill, is coming along very well. Most weekends we’re working on the set. Drop in to see our progress or help out! The Cinderella production crew is in place and for such a large undertaking we'll be needing lots and lots of help. These long winter months are a great time to join us for some social activity! To volunteer your help, contact Concord Players President Judith Broggi at jbroggi@middlesex.edu, or (978) 369-8782.

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Ten days and counting to opening night of our first of back to back musicals, The Spitfire Grill, a mosaic of Americana and a modern folk tale. A tale of redemption and acceptance, leavened with comedic charm, The Spitfire Grill is a heartwarming and spirited foray into what follows when missteps in the past are transformed into paving stones to the future.

The Concord Players offer their congratulations to the cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, opening on April 21. Eliza Xenakis will lose the glass slipper with the support of Lisa Astbury, Ann Carey, Rachelle Vachon, Mary Fischer, Hal Houston, Ben Layman, Chuck Holleman, Linda McConchie, Paula McNabb, Suzanne Singer, Pilar Broggi, Emily Stark, Stephanie Malis, Caroline Delaney, Miranda Xenakis, Sheilah Bell, Sarah Bishop, Mark Elliot, Teresa Degan, Ilene Boucher, Peggy Elliot, Susanna Ronalds-Hannon, Charles Streff, Liz Hutchinson, Beth Meehan, Margaret Stone, Susan London, Annalee Mulhall, and Hayley Watson. It only seems like a cast of thousands.

John Small will play one of the two Venticelli in “Amadeus” at the Vokes Theatre. Performance dates are March 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, and 18. Visit Vokes' web site, www.vokesplayers.org, or call (508) 358-4034, for additional information.

John will also appear, along with Christopher Lockheardt, Thomas Caron, Lida McGirr, and Myron Feld, in this summer’s free outdoor presentation by The Town Cow Theater Company of Concord, Massachusetts, Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure,” to be directed by Pamela Dritt. Go to thetowncow.org to learn more.

Perennial Concord Player Bill Smith designed the sound for “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” for Your Theatre, Inc. in New Bedford.


In Memoriam

Longtime subscriber and member, Francis "Pat" Moulton died on January 2nd.  The Concord Players wish to express their condolences to his wife, Alice, and their family. Gifts in Pat's name may be made to the Massachusetts Audubon Society, 208 South Great Road, Lincoln, MA 01773 or to The Decordova Museum, 51 Sandy Pond Road, Lincoln, MA 01773.


Membership Update

Two names to add to your CP Directory for 2005 -2006: Catherine Cooper, 134 Belknap St., Concord, MA 01742, and Sherman P. Laire, 491 Lexington Rd., Concord, MA 01742


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“The actor must first of all believe in everything that takes place on the stage, and most of all he must believe in what he himself is doing. And one can believe only in the truth. Therefore it is necessary to feel this truth at all times, to know how to find it, and for this it is inescapable to develop one’s artistic sensitivity to truth. It will be said, ‘But what kind of truth can this be, when all on the stage is a lie, an imitation, scenery, cardboard, paint, make-up, properties, wooden goblets, swords and spears. Is all this truth?’ But it is not of this truth I speak. I speak of the truth of emotions, of the truth of inner creative urges which strain forward to find expression, of the truth of the memories of bodily and physical perceptions. I am not interested in a truth that is without myself; I am interested in the truth that is within myself, the truth of my relation to this or that event on the stage, to the properties, the scenery, and above all to the other actors who play parts in the drama with me, to their thoughts and emotions.

The actor says to himself:

‘All these properties, make-ups, costumes, the scenery, the publicness of the performance, are lies. I know they are lies, I know I do not need any of them. But if they were true, then I would do this and this, and I would behave in this manner and this way towards this and this event.’

Creativeness begins from that moment when in the soul and imagination of the actor there appears the magical, creative as if, the imagined truth which the actor can believe as sincerely and with greater enthusiasm then he believes practical truth, just as a child believes in the existence of its doll and of all life in and around it. From the moment of the appearance of the as if the actor passes from the plane of actual reality into the plane of another life, created and imagined by himself. Believing in this life, the actor can begin to create.”


- Constantin Stanislavsky

 

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The deadline for In The Wings is the third Tuesday of every month.

Thomas Caron, editor