Showtimes: March 5,6,7,8, 9 at 8pm
March 9,10 at 2 pm

This contemporary comedy by writer, Alan Ball, poignantly uncovers the relationships of women in the ubiquitous bridal party and is directed by WCT faculty member David McDonald.

Cast:
Jesse McCaig
Amanda Snyder
Allie Dufford
Karin Bryens
Elana Abt
Bronwyn Whittle

For tickets and information, please call 718-390-3258

Wagner College Theatre invites you to it’s Main Stage production of RENT!! Based loosely on Puccini’s La Boheme, with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, RENT exploded on Broadway as a pop culture phenomenon.

Come see WCT professor and Tony Award winner Michele Pawk, along with Musical Director Brandon Sturiale and Choreographer Ashley Burger, direct this groundbreaking musical.

Featuring:

Robby Haltiwanger
Alex Boniello
Melanie Brook
Jenny Kelly
Dave Resultan
Anthony Colasuonno
Olivia Puckett
Justin Stevens
Liza Colpa
Timmy McMillan
Rhea Francani
Seth Price
Jeff Mills
J.R. Goodman
Concetta Raineri
Paige Howell
Caitlin Beckman

Showtimes:
February 27, 28 and March 1, 2, 6-9 at 8 p.m.
March 2, 9, 10 at 2 p.m.

For tickets call Wagner Box Office 718-390-3259

Last Wednesday, Feb 6th, the cast of Wagner’s RENT, along with director Michele Pawk, assistant director, Brendan Stackhouse, musical director Brandon Sturiale, choreographer and assistant choreographer, Ashley Burger and Tommy Joscelyn, went to the New York Theatre Workshop, where the original Rent cast rehearsed and performed before going to Broadway, to meet and talk with original RENT director, Michael Grief.

Two finalists in the 2013 competition were also announced: Rob Winn Anderson for “The Tenth Son,” and Harold Ellis Clark for “Tour Detour.”

This year’s Stanley Award guest speaker and presenter will be Tony Award-nominated playwright David Ives (“Venus in Fur”).

This year’s award program will be held on Monday, March 18 at 6 p.m. at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South (20^th Street), Manhattan. The award ceremony will be followed by a cocktail reception.

For more information about the Stanley Drama Award program, call Betty McComiskey at 718-420-4014, or e-mail her at emccomis@wagner.edu.

About the Stanley Drama Award

The Stanley Drama Award was established in 1957 by Staten Island philanthropist Alma Guyon Timolat Stanley and endowed through the Stanley-Timolat Foundation to encourage and support aspiring playwrights. The national Stanley Award competition is administered by the Wagner College Theatre program, listed for the last decade among the top five college theater programs in the country in the Princeton Review’s annual Best Colleges Guide. The award carries with it a monetary prize along with the distinction of joining the illustrious list of past Stanley Award winners.

The Stanley Drama Award has a long and distinguished history. Past winners include Terrence McNally’s “This Side of the Door” (aka “Things That Go Bump in the Night”), Lonne Elder III’s “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men,” and Jonathan Larson’s “Rent.” Among those judging for the Stanley Award have been playwrights Edward Albee and Paul Zindel, actresses Geraldine Page and Kim Stanley, and TV producer/pioneer talk-show host David Susskind.

2013 Stanley Drama Award winner: Brian Mulholland’s ‘The Return of Tartuffe’

He’s returned — that 17th century con man whose delicious comic villainy has made him an audience favorite for over 300 years. In this sequel to Molière’s comedy — written, like the original, in rhyming couplets — Tartuffe finds himself exiled to the American colonies, where he meets the target for his next swindle, the eminent author and theologian, Cotton Mather. Tartuffe’s arrival coincides with the debate raging over the controversial concept of inoculation — a debate that Mather, a fierce proponent of the idea, is losing. With one of his typical tall tales, Tartuffe swings the debate in Cotton’s favor, thus ingratiating himself and setting up Cotton as his mark.

Tartuffe also devises a unique seduction based on “inoculation theory,” while a family debate brews over the honesty of his intentions. Traps are planned — and countered; tables are turned — and countered — and finally, turned again. Will Tartuffe’s new and improved flim-flams carry the day? Has the great exploiter of over-piousness found his feeding ground in the heart of the Puritan experiment? Or will “righteousness” prevail? This comic romp will have you guessing right up to the end.

Playwright Brian Mulholland, a Rhode Island native, now lives in Cincinnati. “The Return of Tartuffe” is his first play. Mulholland’s previous theatrical experience has been as an actor. He has appeared in leading roles at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Montana Rep, Southwest Shakespeare Festival, Dartmouth Summer Repertory and Seattle’s Palace and Cirque theaters, among others.

2013 Stanley Drama Award finalist: Rob Winn Anderson’s ‘The Tenth Son’

It is the summer of 1722. The heat of the day pales in comparison to the turbulent relationship 16-year old Benjamin Franklin has with his older brother, James, and the intense passion he has found in the arms of a somewhat older Mary Beekman.

When James attempts to restrain what he considers Ben’s growing arrogance, Ben challenges him, with Mary’s help. In so doing, Ben becomes embroiled in a battle of medicine, religion and political manipulations. He must rely on all of his instincts to stealthily maneuver his way onto the pages of James’ newspaper, The New England Courant, stand toe-to-toe with an influential Puritan minister and outwit two men determined to stir the pot and control not only the paper but Boston as well.

Fall arrives, and with it comes a glimpse into the man Benjamin Franklin is destined to become. As his life is turned upside down, Ben discovers that silence is no longer an effective tool, and that in order to have a voice you must use your voice.

“The Tenth Son” also won the 2012 Brian Christopher Wolk Award from Manhattan’s Abingdon Theatre.

Playwright Rob Winn Anderson, of Orlando, Fla., is also a freelance director and choreographer. In addition to his writing and directing for the stage, he is a noted theme park director for such clients as Walt Disney World, Busch Gardens and Sea World. Upcoming productions of his award-winning work include “A Tennessee Walk” at the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre and Jacksonville State University, and “A Fine Line” at the Clockwise Theatre. Other award-winning plays by Anderson include “The Locker” and “Broad Strokes.” Anderson was a resident playwright at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in October 2003 under Master Artist Eric Bogosian. Anderson is also an alumnus of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and the Great Plains Theatre Conference.

2013 Stanley Drama Award finalist: Harold Ellis Clark’s ‘Tour Detour’

Set four months before the 2008 U.S. presidential election, a son, just prior to embarking on his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan, visits his father who’s serving a life sentence at a Central Louisiana prison. They haven’t seen each other in twenty-six years.

Playwright Harold Ellis Clark of Gretna, La., began writing plays in 2010 at the suggestion of a local New Orleans actor who was impressed with the dialogue in one of his unpublished novels, “Marrero Action,” a finalist for the 2007 William Faulkner-William Wisdom by the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society. “Marrero Action” opened in March 2011 at the Anthony Bean Community Theater in New Orleans. Among his other work is the screenplay “Urban Realities” (2000), and the play “Fishers of Men,” which opened in June 2012 at Dillard University’s Cook Theatre in New Orleans. His current work-in-progress is titled “We Live Here.”

For nearly 10 years, Clark has been the host and producer of WYLD-FM’s “Sunday Journal with Hal Clark,” a four-time winner of the Best Radio Talk Show award at the annual Press Club of New Orleans Excellence in Journalism competition. Clark also works as executive associate to the chancellor at Southern University at New Orleans.

Guest presenter David Ives was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play last year for “Venus in Fur.” He is otherwise perhaps best known for his evening of one-act comedies, “All in the Timing,” winner of the Outer Critics Circle Playwriting Award, and “Time Flies.” Other plays include: “New Jerusalem,” winner of the Hull-Warriner Award; “The Liar,” adapted from Corneille, and winner of the Charles MacArthur Award; “The School for Lies,” adapted from Molière’s “The Misanthrope”; “The Heir Apparent,” adapted from J-F. Regnard; “Is He Dead?”, adapted from Mark Twain, and “Polish Joke.” He has translated Feydeau’s “A Flea In Her Ear,” winner of a Joseph Jefferson Award, and has adapted 33 musicals for the New York City Center’s celebrated “Encores!” series. A former Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting, David Ives lives in New York City.

Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012
Students & Sondheim: ‘Putting it Together’
on Staten Island’s Main Stage
by MICHAEL J. FRESSOLA

There are simpler ways to ease into a theater season than with a Stephen Sondheim revue, but a less challenging start would be a mistake, according to Drew Scott Harris and Lauri Young, director and music director of Wagner College’s upcoming “Putting It Together.”

Everyone involved, students and profs, is learning.

“I can listen to this music over and over and find new things to appreciate,” said Young, “I look forward to rehearsal every night. As the accompanist, I am approaching the score the way I would a chamber music recital: Practice, practice, practice and pay attention to details.”

“Putting It Together” extracts songs from lesser-known Sondheim works like “Frogs,” as well as better-known material like “Company,” “A Little Night Music” and “Sunday in the Park with George.”

The first version of the revue opened 20 years ago in London; a different assortment surfaced on Broadway in 1999.

Wagner’s Wednesday through Oct. 14 production represents yet another variation, approved last month by the composer/lyricist himself.

The cast of nine includes Wagner faculty member Amy Williams and seniors Elana Abt, Alex Boniello, Eric Petillo, Michael Garamoni, Robert Haltiwanger and Olivia Puckett. They’ll handle 30 songs. The show will inaugurate the newly refurbished Main Stage theater.

Director Drew Scott Harris discussed his theory of revues, his dealings with Sondheim, and his favorite number:

Q: Calling “Putting It Together” a revue seems almost sadistic. Revues are breezy and fun. This show seems to gather up all the tricky numbers from 10 shows, but even then, it has to come off without visible strain, shouldn’t it?

A: For me, sitting through a “breezy and fun” revue, say something like “The Lawrence Welk Show” or a cruise ship, high-voltage revue — where songs modulate up a half-step with every repetition — is as close to the Marquis de Sade as I would ever want to be.

The numbers in “Putting It Together” are complex and sometimes labyrinthine, but I wouldn’t call them tricky. Doing this show has shown me how remarkably beautiful and emotionally moving Sondheim’s work really is, and, that the generalizations about his writing being only intellectual are just that — generalizations.

There are a couple of songs in this show that regularly move me to tears, for the right reasons. And don’t ask me which ones. A director must retain some shred of mystery in his life.

Q: Which version are you doing — London or Broadway — and why?

A: We’re doing a combination of both the London and Broadway versions. Through Music Theatre International, I was in contact with Sondheim and sent a proposal of changes to the show especially conceived for this Wagner production.

Overall there were about a dozen changes that dealt with the fact that this is a college show and the material will be presented by 19 to 21 year olds.

He was kind enough to read through all the material, consider it and surprisingly for me — because I’ve worked with several established and famous Broadway writers/composers who are, shall we say, less than flexible — agreed to all the changes.

The only thing he asked was that we not make a cut in “Country House,” a number I believed at the time to be way over the heads of the students because it deals with a middle-aged (or older) couple whose marriage is going down the tubes.

Ironically, this number has become one of my favorites and the students get it completely. Sadly, disillusionment and loss of love are not only restricted to the over-40 crowd.

Q: Would you say that the advantage of the austere piano arrangement makes the beauty of the music/sparkle of the lyrics that much clearer?

A: Both an austere piano arrangement and a full symphonic arrangement work beautifully with Sondheim’s work. Listening to recordings of both has proven this to me. What’s more important than the arrangement, is the performer’s understanding of the material and the ability to present it with emotional connection and depth without any schmaltz.

Q: The Sondheim state of mind seems so cocktail hour/grown up. Is it an easy fit for 21-year-old actor-singer-dancers in 2012?

A: Nothing is easy about Sondheim. He challenges, and the challenge pays off. We put these kids through a grueling audition process to see who could sight read, hold onto a complex harmony line and bring emotion to a song that they understood on an intellectual level. They were also asked what they liked about Sondheim’s work and why (a la “A Chorus Line”). Students, even in 2012, love to give as good as they get.

Q: Some acting/singing teachers have been known to say that doing justice to Sondheim is a very big hurdle and that most other assignments won’t be so challenging (unless its Wagner or Rossini). What do you say?

A: If you’ve got talent, challenging material is your chocolate cake. But the truth of the matter is, even a supposedly simple tune like “Amazing Grace,” to be presented simply and beautifully is a very, very hard and rare accomplishment — I’m thinking now of Judy Collins.   As for Wagner — the composer, not the college — personally, in the case of “Das Rheingold,” I prefer to leave after the overture. For me that’s earth-shakingly wonderful, gorgeous and moving, and all that follows is downhill.

Q: Are your personal faves in the “Putting it Together” mix?

A: One is. I asked if we could include “I Remember” (from “Evening Primrose”). The composer said yes. My life is full.