CT Humanities Grant Helps Bring Middletown Story to Life

Oddfellows Playhouse is pleased to announce that is has received a $225 quick grant from the Connecticut Humanities in support of its production of Hear What’s In the Heart: A Shoemaker’s Tale.  The play stars Middletown native Steve Scionti.  Scionti co-wrote the show with Tony Award -winner Anthony Crivello, also the director, who recently completed a run on Broadway of Clifford Odet’s Golden Boy.

Hear What’s in the Heart is set against the backdrop of a post-funeral gathering to celebrate the life of Scionti’s grandfather, Angelo Morello (who owned Angelo’s Shoe Repair on Main Street in Middletown.)  Taking us through the funeral day’s events, Scionti paints a theatrical family portrait in a series of humorous and poignant vignettes, transforming himself into various family members and friends.

 

“The support from the Connecticut Humanities allows us to reach out to a broader audience,” says Executive Director Matthew Pugliese. “The show is so interesting because it brings us back to a different time and generation.  It deals with the immigrant experience and adjusting to living in a new country, which so many people have experienced as first and second generation immigrant families.  I know this show will connect with so many people.”

As part of the production, the evening of Thursday June 13 will have post-show discussions led by the Executive Director of the Middlesex Historical Society Deborah Shapiro and Steven Scionti.  Deborah Shapiro will talk about the Italian and Sicilian Immigrant experience in Middletown, and Steven will talk about his family’s roots in Middletown and the development of the show. 

This family tale began on Thursday May 16, 2013.  The show will continue weekly on Thursday nights through June 20, 2013.  All performances are set for 7:30pm.  Tickets are $20. Tickets can be purchased online at www.oddfellows.orghttp://oddfellowsplayhouse.ticketleap.com/, or call 860-347-6143 for more information.

The show, which has played to sold-out houses at the Zephyr Theater in Los Angeles, as well as shows in Westchester and New York City.  It was selected to be in the 2009 NY Fringe Festival. The show played two nights at the Wesleyan University Center for the Arts in the summer of 2012.

 Connecticut Humanities (CTH) is a non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities that funds, creates and collaborates on hundreds of cultural programs across Connecticut each year. Connecticut Humanities brings together people of all ages and backgrounds to express, share and explore ideas in thoughtful and productive ways. From local discussion groups to major exhibitions on important historical events, CTH programs engage, enlighten and educate. Learn more by visiting http://www.cthumanities.org.

A Unique Holiday Celebration

This is not a review.  This is not a press release.  Just an invitation. 
 
 A Civil War Christmas:An American Musical Celebration opened on Thursday night at Oddfellows Playhouse.  The production is a collaboration between CT Heritage Productions and Oddfellows Playhouse, bringing a multi-generational cast together to tell this story.

It is a different show than you might expect to see onstage around the holidays.  It is a play, with music - not a musical. Traditional carols and other popular folk songs and hymns of the time serve to weave together a series of vignettes of characters, both historical and fictional, to tell the story of Christmas 1864. 

It is a play that contains history, thought, heartbreak and humor.  It is not saccharine sweet holiday-fare, but thoughtful and thought-provoking.  It is history, so yes, you might be cynical and say "I know how it ends", but what it does offer in ending is not fact, but hope.  And isn't hope something we all could use a little more of these days?

We hope you'll join us.

A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration
by Paula Vogel
Music by Daryl Waters
Made possible by CT Humanities, 
Middletown Commission on the Arts 
Eli Cannon's Tap Room & many CT Heritage Production Donors
Friday December 7 - 7:30pm
Saturday December 8 - 7:30pm
Thursday December 13 - 7:30pm - JUST ADDED!
Friday December 14 - 7:30pm
Saturday December 15 - 7:30pm
$15 Adults / $8 Students & Seniors
860-347-6143 or www.oddfellows.org

The reservations are getting pretty full.  So we recommend calling in advance to order tickets.  860-347-6143. 

Holiday Season Offerings at Oddfellows

With the holiday season approaching, there are multiple chance to take the family out to see some live theater here in Middletown. So you better start planning!

Huck Finn
by Mark Twain

Adapted by Eric Coble from the novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" 
November 29, 30 and December 1 - 7:00pm

Oddfellows Playhouse’s Junior Repertory Company will present Huck Finn by Eric Coble, Adapted from the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. 

Huck Finn flees the claws of "civilization" for the freedom of the mighty Mississippi, only to find himself running from mobs, getting shot at, stealing gold, digging escape tunnels and dressing as a woman. And perhaps his greatest adventure: unexpectedly finding his own moral compass in a world of corruption and hypocrisy.  This highly-theatrical adaptation presented by the Junior Repertory Company and directed by Lorra Webb, is the second of Coble’s work produced at the Playhouse, following 2006’s Gold in the Bones.  This classic tale of adventure is great for families and students of all ages.

The production runs Thursday thru Saturday, November 29, 30 and December 1  All performances begin at 7:00 p.m.  Tickets are $15 for Adults and $8 for Students/Seniors.  Anyone brining a canned food item for Amazing Grace Food Pantry will receive a $2 discount on their ticket.  Tickets are available online at www.oddfellows.org or by calling 860-347-6143. 
A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration
by Paula Vogel, Music by Daryl Waters
December 6,7,8, 14, 15 - 7:30pm

The play, directed by Peter Loffedo, will feature a multigenerational cast of actors from the community, including members of Oddfellows’ Teen Repertory Company and CT Heritage Productions.  The Connecticut Humanities Council and Middletown Commission on the Arts is generously helping to fund this production because of its unique combination of historical significance, audience appeal, and educational storytelling.  

The play is set is Washington, D.C., on Christmas Eve 1864, during the Civil War.  President Lincoln has just been reelected and General Sherman is marching troops into battle.  Interweaving historical figures with fictional characters, A Civil War Christmas not only entertains but inspires the audience by portraying the real-life struggles that occurred and the human spirit that endured during one of the most difficult times in our history. Moving swiftly from scene to scene, it chronicles many aspects of the period, from something of the private life of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln to the moving story of an African-American soldier whose wife has been cruelly kidnapped.  Christmas carols and folk songs are sung throughout by the ensemble, with additional period music performed by a group of instrumentalists. 

The production runs December 6, 7, 8, 14, 15 at Oddfellows Playhouse.  All performances are at 7:30pm.  Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for students and seniors. Thursday December 6 is a Pay-What-You-Can Performance.  Please bring a non-perishable food item to donate to Amazing Grace Food Pantry.  Tickets are available online at ww.oddfellows.org or by calling860-347-6143.  The performance is made possible through special funding from the Connecticut Humanities Council, The Middletown Commission on the Arts, and Eli Cannon’s Tap Room.

Auditions for Oddfellows Teen Repertory Company

Oddfellows Playhouse is pleased to announce its Fall 2012 auditions for William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead: a True Account of the 1599 Zombie Plague by John Heimbuch and A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration by Paula Vogel, with music by Daryl Waters.

The season will begin with a “historical” piece by John Heimbuch, William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead: A True Account of the Zombie Plague of 1599, takes the stage in November.  This play from the NY Fringe Festival takes place backstage on the opening night of Shakespeare’s Henry V.   Dealing with drama behind the scenes becomes more complicated when an afflicted madman enters the Globe and attacks.  As the affliction spreads through London, the Globe is placed in quarantine and the survivors within must fight for their lives.   This production is being produced by the generous support of Beverley and Tony Bellisio.

“This play is fun.  That is what initially drew me to it.  But the genre of horror is a reflection of our society, and it says a great deal about where our fears are today that we have become recently fixated on zombies and the risk of some pandemic outbreak.  During the Elizabethan era, the term “afflicted” was used synonymously for madness, illness or even demonic possession.  This play is about the fear of others,” said Pugliese.

Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater and Connecticut Heritage Productions are joining creative forces this holiday season with a co-production of A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel.  The play will perform at Oddfellows Playhouse from December 6-15.  A Civil War Christmas received its world premiere at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven in 2008.  The play is by Paula Vogel, with music by Daryl Waters.  Special funding from the CT Humanities Council helps make this production possible.

“One of Paula Vogel’s original sources of inspiration for writing this play was to create a truly, unique American Christmas production.  So many of our standard holiday cultural pieces are imported from other countries – A Christmas Carol, the Nutcracker and so forth,” said Peter Loffredo, artistic director of Connecticut Heritage Productions. 

The play, directed by Loffedo, will feature a multigenerational cast of actors from the community.  The play is set in Washington, D.C., and along the Potomac during a Christmastime near the end of the Civil War. Vogel weaves together notable historical facts and figures with fictional characters and events to explore the celebration of Christmas and the state of our nation during wartime.

Pre-audition workshops, recommended for student actors, to learn more about the Playhouse, the plays and to sharpen audition skills are held from 7-9pm on Tuesday and Wednesday September 11 and 12. Auditions will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday September 18 and 19 from 7-9pm.  There is no charge to audition.  There is a tuition fee for the Teen Repertory Company.

Oddfellows programming is made possible through the generous support of the American Savings Foundation, the CDBG Scholarship Program, the CT Department of Economic and Community Development, the CT Department of Education, Daphne Seybolt Culpeper Memorial Fund, Elizabeth Carse Foundation, the Fund for Greater Hartford, the George A. and Grace L. Long Foundation, the Irving Kohn Foundation, the J. Walton Bissell Foundation, Liberty Bank Foundation, Maximilian E. & Marion O. Hoffman Foundation, Middlesex County Community Foundation, Middlesex United Way, the Middletown Commission on the Arts, Middletown YSB, the National Endowment for the Arts, Northern Middlesex Cable Advisory Council, Pratt & Whitney—Middletown, Price Chopper Golub Foundation, the Stare Fund, Stop and Shop Foundation, Thomas J. Atkins Foundation, Triple Frog, LLC and WESU (88.1FM).

Bruce Fraser Passes

I was saddened to read this morning in the Hartford Courant of the passing of Bruce Fraser.  Fraser, the executive director of the Connecticut Humanities Council, worked tirelessly for the organization and for the role of the humanities in everyday life.  Joining the CHC in 1977, Fraser became its head in 1983 and continued in that role until his death. 

A historian, Fraser spent a good deal of his time working to find funding for the myriad projects the CHC supported.  I remember chatting with him on several occasions after day-long meetings at the state capital during which he advocated for more money for projects such as Cultural Heritage Development Fund, reading programs for children and adults as well as resources for teachers (go to www.ctculture.org to see just how much the Council does.) He may have been frustrated, at times, at the snail's pace of the legislature vis-a-vis funding, but always proud of what his organization accomplished.

Bruce Fraser worked every day to create an environment where every person in this state could have access to the history, literature and culture of Connecticut.  His is a quiet yet very impressive legacy.   He will be sorely missed by family and colleagues.