[front cover]
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Act I Costumes Designed by Lucinda Albano
Act II Costumes Designed and Constructed by Dianna L. Bourke
The Narrator.................Larissa L. Long
Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
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Reader.............................Larissa L. Long
Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc..
There will be one ten-minute intermission between acts.
Audience members are requested to refrain from taking flash photographs during the performance, as it is dangerous and may disorient the actors.
Warning: a strobe light will be used during the performance, and a gun will be fired.
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Lucinda Albano (Costume Designer, Act I) is a native of Hazleton. Though now a Human Development and Family Studies major, Cindy has a background of four years of Commercial Art in high school and college. On campus, she is president of the Student Union Board, the secretary for WHCB Radio, and a Student Government Senator.
Cyndi Chase (Eleanora Duse) is a freshman Communications major from Hillsborough, NJ. She is making her stage debut with The Actor's Nightmare.
Keith Fernsler (Bob Barclay/George Spelvin) is a sophomore from Bloomsburg, PA in the process of changing his major from Chemical Engineering to Theatre Arts. Keith is president or the Fantasy/Science Fiction Club and the Society of the Arts. He made his acting debut as Sergeant Match in the Spring production of What the Butler Saw.
Natalie Griffiths (Publicity Director) is a freshman from Montrose, PA majoring in Human Development and Family Studies. In high school Natalie played various small parts, including Witch Wigglewort/Lucretia Looney in The Adventures of Raggedy Ann And Andy. She is also treasurer of SOTA and a DJ. on WHCB radio.
Alisandra Heinz (Asst. Director, Act II/President's Wife), from Yardley, PA is a freshman majoring in Science. In high school she directed The Powers Of Invention and acted in My Fair Lady and Godspell. She is also a runner and a soccer player.
John Lazo (Bellboy/President), from Conyngham Valley, is a sophomore majoring in Administration of Justice. He is new to the world of acting. John plays tennis for recreation.
Lynn Laurence (Miss Presson) is a sophomore from Summit, NJ, majoring in Communications.
Jared M. Leitzel (Man/lst Fireman/Henry Irving) A sophomore studying Anthropology, Jared is secretary/treasurer of the Fantasy/Science Fiction Club and is involved in the Student Government Association, the Student Union Board, WHCB radio and SOTA. In high school, he performed in Guys 'N' Dolls.
Colleen Joy Leyden (Meg the Stage Manager) is a sophomore Health and Human Development major. While in high school, Colleen performed in Good News, The Sound of Music and The King and I. Last spring she worked on stage crew and helped construct the set.
Larissa L. Long (Narrator) is a freshmen from Lehighton majoring in Agriculture. She has performed in South Pacific, Here's Love, The Most Happy Fella, Dracula and M*A*S*H. Larissa also attended Carbon Lehigh Regional Summer School of the Arts in 1991, majoring in music.
Stacey Love (Speaker)is a sophomore from Wilkes-Barre, PA, majoring in Advertising. In high school, she appeared in both Grease and Dracula: The Musical. Stacey also played Mrs. Prentice in last spring's What The Butler Saw.
Allison LoPresti (Stage Manager) is a freshman majoring in Nursing. In her high school in Easton, PA, Allison performed in Bye Bye Birdie and Fiddler on the Roof, and also helped with the tech crew. She is currently secretary of SOTA.
Chad M. Lynn (Ed) is a sophomore from Los Angeles, CA majoring in Economics. He once played Don Ho in a Cal-State University Northridge theatre production.
Kelly McBean (Sarah Siddons) is a freshman Integrative Arts/Geology major from West Chester, PA. Previous roles for Kelly include Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest, Arsinoe in The Misanthrope and HotLips in M*A*S*H.
Lela Mertz (Ellen Terry) is a freshman from White Haven, and continues to weigh her options for a major (she is undecided). Previously, Lela played a Gypsy in Frankenstein at the Sherman Theatre in Stroudsburg, PA.
David Raizen (2nd Flreman), a freshman Computer Engineering major from Philadelphia, attended a small music high school where he gained much performing experience. Among his credits he lists being a pit band member for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Godspell.
David A. Scopinich (Window Washer/Executioner), a freshman majoring in broadcasting/Journalism, is also a sportswriter for the Hazleton Collegian. In his high school in Philadelphia, David performed in Sally and Sam and The Teen Age.
Robin Williams (Assistant Director, Act I), from Numidia, PA, is a freshman liberal arts major. In high school, Robin served as Assistant Director for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and also directed a production of The Games That People Play.
Steve Schrum (Director) is, while teaching theatre courses here on the Hazleton campus, finishing his dissertation for a Ph.D. in Directing from the University of California, Berkeley's Department of Dramatic Art. His other directing credits include Moliere's The Misanthrope and Joe Orton's What The butler Saw (both here on the Hazleton campus), as well as The Importance of Being Earnest at the York Little Theatre and, at Berkeley, plays by Sam Shepard, Shakespeare and Shaw.
Dianna L. Bourke, Ph.D. (Costume Designer, Act II), although an assistant professor of Biology here at the Hazleton campus, still finds time to design costumes. Late night production meetings are considerably easier to schedule since she is conveniently married to the director! While a University park undergraduate, Dianna "minored" in Theatre with a concentration in costume design and construction. She has designed costumes for The King and I at the White Barn Theatre in Irwin, PA, and for The Misanthrope and What The Butler Saw.
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Several things lie behind the choice of these particular plays for this year. First, I wanted to present an evening of one--acts to give as many students as possible a chance to participate, both onstage and backstage. Second, by doing only American plays we immediately have something of a theme‹and it seemed time to do American plays, since in the past two years I have directed plays by non-American writers.
Finally, I wanted to show how much things have changed, and are continuing to change. as we near the end of the Twentieth Century, a century that has seen an incredible flurry of scientific and technological developments, as well as drastic changes in the attitudes of people toward themselves, each other, and their world.
In this evening of one-acts, we see comic theatrical "snapshots" of different eras the 1920s, the so-called decade of normalcy; 1968, a time of political and social upheaval; and the results of that upheaval in the '80s ant '90s that have left us in a fragmented PostModern world of anxiety, uncertainty and unrest, where things seem to be out of control around us.
We do not wish to leave you in an anxious state about the future, however, and in the spring we will present On The Verge by Eric Overmyer; that production will complete this cycle of American plays and point the way to a positive world the future may bring to us-- if we choose to take control of our lives and of our world, and work for a better future.
Please join us for ON THE VERGE here in the Commons next semester.