Multi-generational Cast to Take the Stage for Holiday Production

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. 


“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.

Oddfellows and CHP have joined forces on various projects in the past including Higher Ground: an original play dramatizing the long struggle of African-Americans for freedom and equality, and the Connecticut Valley Student Playwrighting Competition.  They approach this production with the goal of bringing together various perspectives and members of the community to explore the theme of life in wartime and an examination of our celebration of the Christmas holiday.

“Oddfellows and CHP thought this was a great production to approach with a multigenerational cast because of the age range of characters in the play.  There is a lot to learn as an actor when you are portraying a character your own age, rather than someone 20 or 30 years older.  Equally as important is the different point of views that a cast with different life experiences brings to a production.  It is important that we teach our young people different points of view on the world and on our history as a nation,” said Oddfellows’ Executive Director Matt Pugliese

Auditions will be open to all members of the community and will held be at Oddfellows on September 18 & 19 from 7-9pm. 

Connecticut Heritage Productions was founded in 1981 under the artistic direction of Peter Loffredo.  Its initial project was the documentary film William Gillette: A Connecticut Yankee and the American Stage.  During this period, Connecticut Heritage Productions also produced An Evening in the Theatre of William Gillette, which featured a revival of Gillette’s The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes; Chasing Rainbows, a new musical; and a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Hughie.
 Since then, CHP has presented over 100 stage productions including Faith Healer, The Price, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?   Equus, The Lion in Winter, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and Body & Sold. Also, in association with The Free At Last Players, CHP has produced Marat/Sade, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Madness of George III, The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Laramie Project, Chamber Music, Acts of Recovery, and The Players of Oz. CHP has also developed other original work including  Waiting for Will: The Shakespeare Project, and In the Key of Love, a musical revue.

Additionally, CHP spearheaded development of a theatrical program for the Buttonwood Tree, including staged readings of new works, works in process, one-act plays, and comedy Improv. And, since 2009, CHP has sponsored the playwrighting contest Connecticut Stories on Stage.
 Connecticut Heritage Productions' mission is to inspire, nurture, and sustain an appreciation of the performing arts by entertaining, enlightening, and connecting our audiences to the ever-changing sensibilities of our times. Our work is a collaborative effort of artists, professional staff, board members, and the community.

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).