Laura: Sunday afternoon we saw Stage Door Productions’ Lost in Yonkers in Massaponax, Virginia.

Mike: Lost in Yonkers is a play by Neil Simon. It is set during World War II. It focuses on the brothers Arty and Jay. They get left at their grandmother’s house while their father has to be a traveling salesman to pay off some bad debts. Grandma though is not a loving apple pie type grandmother. She is very bitter, and has made her children’s lives just horrible. The kids don’t want to stay with her, but there’s not much of a choice. So Arty and Jay have to learn how to live with their family and make the best of a bad situation. Lost in Yonkers did win a Tony Award for Best Play, also the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding new play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Laura: This show had an intensity that it kept throughout the entire performance. I thought it was very well done. Also some really good comedy lines thrown in there that I thought were really good, too. Everybody seemed comfortable with each other.

Mike: This was a good show. It was very well acted. Jay and Arty were high schoolers and they did a really good job with the rest of the cast. They were on stage pretty much the whole show. I liked how the different family members each had their own problems based on growing up with their mother. You really felt sympathy. All of us has a least one crazy relative somewhere in the family that no one quite gets a long with.

Laura: The two brothers, Jay and Arty, did a really good job together. Jay was the older brother. He was played by Alex Mills. Arty was played by Billy Hutto. They were both well cast for this role. I could see them as brothers. The older brother Jay was a little bit more serious. He was more frustrated with the grandmother, more exasperated. He came upstairs complaining and really exasperated. I felt for him, but at the same time it was really funny. Arty the younger brother, was a little bit more quiet and more reserved. He kept it inside and was silently angry at the grandmother and his situation. He was sort of resentful about everything, but I thought they both did an excellent job.

Mike: Grandma Kurnitz was played by Charlotte Fields. That woman was just so nasty. Not a pleasant bone in her body. You heard her clomping down the hallway with her cane. She did a good portrayal of a nasty woman. There were many examples of how the grandmother was not being fair to her family, both to the grandkids and her children. Every time that would come up, Charlotte Fields would get an expression on her face of almost contempt. There wasn’t a lot of redeeming qualities in the grandmother. At the end of the play everything kind of falls apart. I think she did a good job in that role.

Laura: Grandma Kurnitz’s daughter, Bella was played by Mary O’Dell. She did a very good job. I really felt for her. She was trying to please her mother, but after years of being hit with a cane and being told she was nothing she finally believed that about herself. But she still had good feelings towards Jay and Arty and her brother and wanted to make them happy during their time. I though she did a very good job. She had a scene at the end when she stood up for herself.

Mike: Stage Door Productions is a small community theater and, unfortunately, they don’t have a regular home. We have seen several of their shows in several different places: libraries, and Massaponax High School (where this one was done). Every time they have given a very strong performance and a very good use of space for wherever they’re at has. Because they don’t have a regular home, they have to move everything after each performance and after each rehearsal, so their sets are usually pretty simple. This one did have a few walls and a few larger pieces such as a dining table, a sofa and a china cabinet. One of the problems is they do have to move around a lot. I would encourage you to go see this show. This group is working really hard and doing really good work.

Laura: Lost in Yonkers is playing for one more weekend through May 6th. Friday and Saturday at 8 PM and 2 PM on Sunday at Massaponax High School in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Mike: And now, on with the show.

Cast

• Jay: Alex Mills
• Arty: Billy Hutto
• Eddie: Daniel Bairley
• Bella: Mary O’Dell
• Grandma Kurnitz: Charlotte Fields
• Louie: John Gardner
• Gert: Kim Herlong

Crew

• Director: Kimberly Kemp
• Stage Manager: Eileen Fink
• Assistant Stage Manager: Taylor Ullrich
• Props: Maura Rojeck, Kaitlin Kemp
• Costumes: Tina Morris
• Lights: Richard Ingebretson
• Sound: Taylor Ullrich
• Set Construction: Sean Kemp
• Publicity: Susan Ingebretson
• Grips: Chris Ullrich, Kaitlin Kemp

Laura: This weekend we saw Stage Door Productions‘ performance of Our Town in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Mike: I talked with Charlotte Fields of Stage Door productions. She is Stage Door’s president on their Board of Directors. She also did the costumes for Our Town. We’ve sprinkled her comments throughout our chat about the show.

Charlotte: Our Town is about small town life at the turn of the century. It focuses on two families, the Gibbs and the Webbs. It basically just goes through the lives of these people as they live their everyday existence. It’s a play about joys and sorrows, happiness and malcontent, working hard. It’s just a little snippet of small town life around the turn of the century. That’s what it’s about. It follows the lives of these young people, Emily and George. They are next door neighbors. They go to school together. They then fall in love and eventually marry.

Laura: I’ve not seen Our Town before, although a lot of people have said they did that back in high school. I was pleased with the performance overall. I thought it was very well done. It was a story about any other day back in the life of the turn of the century. It had a down home feel to it and I enjoyed it.

Mike: Our Town was executed with a very simple set which is how it was written by Thornton Wilder. The costumes and acting were very good. There were a few people who were a little nervous; they weren’t quite comfortable with their lines. For the most part the actors did very well with their parts. The show moved along quite well. The show was about two and a half hours long with two intermissions.

Laura: The Stage Manager was played by David Featherston. He was the master of ceremonies throughout the show. He would come on at the beginning and kind of set the stage. He actually had some roles that he played and did a good job with those.

Mike: It was interesting having a cast member of the show named The Stage Manager. He broke out of the fourth wall and talked directly to the audience. He interacted with the audience at one point. That was different and I’m sure when it was written it was very different. He was a minister at one point. He was just a citizen talking with a couple other people in the town. I liked his characterization of the stage manger and the crotchety old farmer/citizen.

The Gibbs family live next door to the Webb family. George Gibbs was a high schooler at the beginning of the show. He was worried about typical high school stuff, the football team and starting to notice girls, things like that. The next door neighbor was Emily and that’s who he noticed. George Gibbs was played by Trevor McFadden. I liked watching the character of George on stage. I liked the emotions that Trevor brought out in the third act of the show. I don’t want to give anything away, but I thought he did a good job with that.

Laura: Next door to the Gibbs family was the Webb family. Emily Webb was played by Rachel Perry. I liked watching her grow up. She was very real in her emotions. I liked the scene especially between her and George when they were studying, supposedly studying, out the window at each other. The dialogue that went on there I really liked that.

Mike: This was a large cast. There were 25-30 people. There was some doubling of roles.

Laura: I liked the costumes for Our Town. The costumes were organized by Charlotte Fields. They were brighter than I was expecting them to be. It helped with the visualization of the show.

Mike: I talked to Charlotte Fields about the costumes for Our Town. It was a very simple set which was how Thornton Wilder had written it. The costumes were really nice actually.

Charlotte: Well thank you.

Mike: You’re welcome. Were there any challenges with the costuming?

Charlotte: Simply that it seems to be a cast of thousands when you’re costuming it. I did all the costumes by myself. I just set out a lot of time about a month ago and started. As soon as they had cast the show I started costuming it. I didn’t wait until the last few weeks as often happens with these kind of shows.

I borrowed some. Our costume closet had some pieces because we had done Music Man several years ago which is the same time period. I was able to use some pieces and mix and match from that show. I borrowed some from a friend, Christine Brandt, who does a lot of dance shows. She has some costumes that I was able to use and then I just made the rest of them.

The costumes for the men at the turn of the century, the 1900’s. Their style was not all that different from what men are wearing today, except for the ties and the hats. Basically the men costumed themselves with the exception of the young men who had knickers. That made that easy. I just supplied the hats and the bow ties and the bits and pieces that they may need to complete their ensemble.

Mike: Thornton Wilder when he wrote the show wanted a very minimal set and minimal of scenery and properties. Almost all of the props were mimed. There were some interesting concepts that were in the script. Such as when George and Emily were studying upstairs and looking and talking with each other through their windows. They actually sat up on the top of step ladders to imply they were up high on the second floor. That actually worked. I thought it would be kind of cheesy, but it actually worked very well.

Laura: Mike wrapped up his interview with Charlotte by asking her about Stage Door Productions.

Mike: How did Stage Door choose this show?

Charlotte: Every year Stage Door does a piece of theater that’s considered a classic. It is something that is taught often in our school systems. Part of our charter is to try to give back to our community. Every year we do a production such as this that is studied in our schools that is to give children and their families an opportunity to see these plays come to life on the stage rather than just to read them in classrooms which can get rather boring. But to see them come to life and learn to appreciate the art form more than just something they have to study in school.

Mike: When and where is Our Town playing?

Charlotte: Our Town is being presented at the Rappahannock Regional Library in the City of Fredericksburg on Caroline Street. It’s at 8 PM on the 9th and 10th, 16th and 17th, and 23rd and 24th of February. Friday and Saturday nights.

Mike: What is your organization’s website?

Charlotte: It’s www.stagedoorproductions.org.

Laura: And now, on with the show.

Mike: Welcome to the ShowBizRadio Spotlight. Today we’re talking with Todd Blose.

Laura: We saw Todd as Mickey and Lucious in Greetings! and the dentist Mr. Dussel in The Diary of Anne Frank and as Johnny Casino and and a high schooler in Grease. All of these shows were with Stage Door Productions in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Mike: So thank you for coming to talk with us Todd.

Todd: Thanks for having me. It’s my pleasure to be here.

Mike: We’ve seen you a few times and after we saw Greetings!, that was the first time we saw you in a show. We said,” Wow, we’ve got to get to know a little bit about Todd.” That’s such a neat character. Tell us a little bit about Greetings! and the character of Mickey and Lucious and what it was like. Maybe do a little recap of the show because most people probably haven’t seen it.

Todd: Greetings! is a show about a family that has sort of fallen, not fallen apart, but has fallen distant from each other. The family consists of the mother, the father, Mickey and his brother. It takes place at Christmastime. Everyone is coming together for the holidays. Mickey’s brother is bringing his fiance home to meet everyone. Mickey’s mother is excited because he (Mickey) is somewhat retarded in a sense. He’s lived at home his whole life. He is actually the older brother of the two. He’s starting to show signs of clarity if you will. Speaking intelligently and having an intelligent look on his face, whereas the normal Mickey has an absentminded look on his face. And so this has started and his brother is coming home for the holidays.

Everyone comes together and the father, Phil is his name. He’s kind of the cantankerous old man. He was in minor league baseball. Then he was in an accident and broke his hip and so he had to stop playing. So he’s rough and gruff and grumpy. Then he and Andy, Andy is the brother’s name, they sort of butt heads. Everyone comes home for Christmas and things are going as normal. As they usually do with this family. It’s fine at first, but then somebody says something that sets everyone off and it’s like firecrackers. Like,”pow, pow, pow” and everyone’s yelling at each other. Then the mother is talking about Mickey’s behavior and then Phil and Andy get into an argument and all of a sudden Lucious appears, now in the form of Mickey.

Lucious happens to be a 2000 year old spirit who has graduated from the classroom that is life. And he’s come to shed light on this family, to shed light on that there’s more to life and living than what you all see here. Mickey has in a sense has contacted Lucious by a cry of help saying can you please help my family. The time is drawing near is what I got the impression of, Mickey was probably going to be leaving soon and so he wanted to leave them with the message that there’s more to life in the end and Phil, the father, he’s sort of the antithesis, I guess of the show. He’s a hard core Catholic and he doesn’t believe in any of the stuff and it’s just nonsense.

Toward the end of the play he sort of comes to terms with the message that Lucious is giving. It turns out that everyone is all happy in the end. I mean it’s a good ending, it’s a good ending. But the play itself, it was hard core in a lot of parts. It made you think a lot. It was not billed as a Christmas play although it took place at Christmas and we showed it at Christmas. But it definitely was not a happy go lucky, feel good play. It was an awesome play to work with. I liked the message that it gave about how there is more to life than what we see around us.

Mike: So when you were doing Mickey, the slightly retarded child, person, man. When you were doing Mickey, the slightly retarded man, was that hard to do? Because you were siting there. You were distracted with a piece of wrapping paper and things like that. Watching you it was just fascinating to watch because it seemed very real.

Todd: What I like to do is I like to sit back and think about the character that I’m playing and try and draw from real life things and attitudes and mannerisms and ways of speech that I’ve experienced that would fit this character. First and foremost I didn’t want to offend anyone because I am not retarded. I don’t know first hand how to be that way. I have a friend, Shelly Valentine, whose sister is mentally challenged. I remember interacting with her on a number of occasions. I remember some of her mannerisms. Squeezing of the fingers. Rubbing of the fingers together, rocking back and forth. It’s nothing like outrageous, it’s just mild mannerisms and stuff. I talked with Shelly and said, “I’m doing this play. Can I sit with your sister or talk about her with you and get some pointers?”

I want to do this right and not embarrass myself or anyone else that’s working on this with me. So just from observation, from what I pretty much chew on. It’s mostly just observation and I like to take on what I see and internalize it and make it my own. I think that’s the best way to create your character.

Laura: So how then did you become Lucious? When we saw the play everything changed. Your accent changed. Everything. It was like a whole transformation. It was really good, but I’m sitting here thinking, “How in the world do you do something like that?”

Todd: During the rehearsal for the play, the director, Marcie Shaver, she would have us sit down and she would tell us, “I want you to become that character. I want you to become Mickey. Or I want you to become Lucious. Or I want you to become Andy.” Like Lucious, he’s a three thousand year old spirit. To you, what does someone who has been around that long. What would they sound like? What would they look like in their mannerisms, they’re holding themselves? I chose the guy who was like an ancient roman philosopher or statesman or someone of knowledge or substance back then because that’s just the image I got. Someone who’s almost regal in a sense.

It took a lot of practice and a lot of one on one coaching sessions with Marcie to just sit there and think about the message that he’s giving. Where is he coming from with it? How can he take something that is as cosmic as there’s more to life than what we see and put it in terms that this simple family in the suburbs of Pittsburgh can understand. It just took a lot of thinking and internalizing and contemplating and a lot of one on one sessions with Marcie.

Mike: So then, how does that vary with learning to be a dentist in Anne Frank?

Todd: I would have to say it was almost a complete 180. In Greetings! you have opposite ends of the spectrum with Lucious and Mickey. With the Diary of Anne Frank, I researched Mr. Dussel. The whole cast researched as we rehearsed. People would bring clips from Internet books in to show us what the costumes looked like. Blurbs on their personality. A couple of us also took a trip up to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC to get a more emotional connection with the story we were telling. That I think helped a lot because it really put into perspective what we were portraying. In a sense how you should portray it. Mr. Dussel was not as difficult as training for Lucious. It was more natural for me.

Laura: Johnny Casino in Grease. Was that a fun role to play?

Todd: Oh my gosh, yes it was. It was fun and hard at the same time. If you take the uptightedness of Mr. Dussel. Everything has to be just so so. And then you go to something like Johnny Casino in Grease who is the leader of the local boy band if you will, of the high school. It’s a complete, another 180 degree turn. I actually had to sing live for that role. Which, luckily, I can hold a tune every now and then so that part wasn’t as difficult. It was giving up being so stiff on stage and just getting into the role. You have to be larger than life up there. I mean, not only as the actor in the musical Grease, but as Johnny Casino who in the musical is a larger than life persona. That I actually had to get some help with from the outside.

My friend Vicki Washington, who also starred as the mother in Greetings! I asked her opinion because I like her take on characters and what not. I’m like, “How do you see Johnny Casino?” And she even helped me with my costume. She helped put it together because I’m like, “I don’t know where to go with this.” I researched on the Internet. I looked at pictures from various productions of Grease. And just again she told me, “I see him as larger than life.”

There’s this one scene in the beginning where Ben Stiller, as a camp counselor or camp director comes out at the beginning of the camp and is just dynamic and just to the point of obnoxious, you know. I watched it and I came back and I told her, ” You want me to act like that? That is crazy.” And she said, “No, not exactly like that. But take qualities that fit with you and incorporate them.” It was a fun role. It was hard because I’m not usually outgoing and larger than life. But it worked out.

Mike: And then you were also a high schooler in that when you weren’t being Johnny Casino. What was that like working with 20 or 30 other people?

Todd: I was one of the older people in the cast. I’ll admit that. It was weird. Once the set was built, and once we had our costumes, like during dress rehearsal. I think that’s, for me, that’s when it finally clicked. You kind of have to detach yourself from reality to any kind of show. But especially to portray a high schooler when you’re not a high schooler. You’ve been out in the real world. You’re in the sense an adult. It helps a lot just to detach yourself. Most of the other actors and what not were high school kids at the time. Some were in college. But just being around those people. Feeling their vibes, the set. Just thinking, just imagining yourself. What were you like back then? Just incorporating that into your role. It wasn’t really that hard for me. I don’t know if that says a lot. But it was, you know, once everything is in place, everything just kind of clicks and so you just kind of become the role that you’re in.

Laura: How and why did you get started in theater?

Todd: How and why? Well the how I can say went back to. . . . I was in elementary school. I was in the fourth or fifth grade. I was living overseas and did a church musical, or a holiday musical if you will. I played the donkey that carried Mary to the stable before she gave birth to baby Jesus. The premise of that play, of course it was my very first one. It was the birth. It was Christmas Eve and all the animals in the stable were talking about it. The angels were talking about it. That was a musical as well and that’s how I got started. And ever since then I’ve just loved pretending. Playacting. Just imagining you’re someone else and going off in that world for that amount of time is just fun for me. It was just a lot of fun.

And why? I like to read a lot of books. And when I read I totally immerse myself in the world that’s being created in the book. For me, acting does the same thing, but on a more intense level. Because you’re not just using your imagination when you’re reading something. When you’re acting, you become that person. You take yourself and you go there. I think a lot of people when they come to see plays, they want to have that feeling, too. When you go see a movie or see a play or read a book, you kind of want to get away from the real world for an hour and a half to two hours and just enjoy being here and stuff. I like to think that I help contribute to that. Somehow in my own little way. So that’s probably the why.

Mike: Do you have any plans to work backstage, like directing or producing or do you want to stay on stage?

Todd: I think for now I’ll just stay on stage. I haven’t received any formal training in producing or directing so I wouldn’t know where to begin at all. Whereas with being on stage, I just have so much fun doing it. And I’m definitely learning. Especially with directing styles. I’ve worked under three directors so far and each one’s style is distinctly their own and so I think by working on stage, I learn a lot by observing and just picking up little pieces here and there. I think being on stage you get a feel for what goes into making a production. You get a feel for the directing. The technical side, set building, the costumes. So I think being on stage is a good place if you want to get a very basic elementary look at what goes on into making a play. And if you feel better doing something more specific, you can go get training.

Laura: What are your long range plans or goals?

Todd: Now that I have the acting bug again, and I think I’ve made the decision to start doing stuff that I like to do as opposed to what I should do. Because I really love acting and doing that. So I’m going to start taking classes, acting classes. I’m moving up to Washington DC next month in September. And I know the opportunities up there are just abounding. It’s just crazy. And I hope, you know, get my foot in the water and see what’s out there. If I have to start from the bottom and work my way up again. I’ve done that many times in my life before with other things in my life. You know I’m no stranger to it. So, yeah, I just hope to get my feet in the water up in the big city and then see where that takes me.

Laura: What would you consider is the value of theater or why does theater matter?

Todd: It matters because it allows you to express yourself as an artist expresses themselves. A painter or a sculptor or even a music artist express themselves in their own venue and talent. For me, and I think with a lot of actors it works this way. On a personal level, it allows you to escape for some X amount of time and another place. It allows you to learn. For my role as Mr. Dussel and Johnny Casino, I had to learn about the Holocaust. I had to learn what it was like to live back in World War II. Or I had to learn to sing as a rock star as opposed to singing in a choir.

It’s important because it allows you to express yourself in ways that maybe you can’t express being your own person or through music or through what not. It lets you learn about so much, so many things. You can take on any kind of role. And if you just apply yourself and work at it, any one can do any kind of role I think. You just have to be dedicated to it. It provides an escape for people and the actors and the directors that provide that for people are just providing a great service to our society I think. I would forever want to be involved in that now that I realize what I personally want to do and what I know I can do.

Mike: Back to the dream role. Let me say that again. What would your dream role be if you could be any character in any show, what would it be?

Todd: I really like the show West Wing. The fast paced nature of the show. How everyone was bouncing off of each other. I just really loved the dynamics. I watched the series finale and they had specials where they had the actors sort of reminiscing. I think being on a drama show, something that would let me work and express and really deliver a good show, a good presentation. Maybe not so much as an action film because that’s a lot of flash and bang and sometimes the acting wasn’t that great, but the action shots were awesome. I’d want something that would allow me to show, to become better as an actor. That would let me grow.

Movies are big. You get a lot for it and it requires a lot, but it’s like you do that movie and then you take a break and then if you become successful you move on to that, on to the next one. I love watching TV. So I think being on TV would be a lot of fun for me because you get, especially if you’re in a series that lasts for say seven years, as most good series tend to last. You develop bonds with the cast. They become your family. I think a comedy or drama role would be fun for me. I’d like to do that the most. I like to think I’m funny sometimes. I think I can be if need be. I’m not a natural born comedian.

Laura: Anything else you’d like to share with us today?

Todd: Just that I appreciate this opportunity to come and talk. This is my first time doing an interview like this and I think it’s really cool. Again I guess just to tell people you know. Follow what you want to do, not what other people tell you you should do because in the end it’s what you yourself tell yourself that what matters and will probably make you the most happy.

Mike: Ok. We’ve been talking with Todd Blose.

Laura: And now, on with the show.

Todd’s web site: http://www.myspace.com/56228140

Interview recorded on August 20, 2006.

Mike: And we saw The Diary of Anne Frank performed by Stage Door Productions in Fredericksburg, Virginia today.

Laura: The Diary of Anne Frank is the story written by Anne Frank. It’s the story of two families and a single gentleman who go into hiding because they’re Jewish to escape the Nazi’s.

Mike: It’s a very touching story.

Laura: Yes, it’s very powerful.

Mike: It’s been done a lot. It’s a fairly popular show to do. The basic story is one that nobody can imagine themselves being in. Having to live in an attic for a year and a half. Knowing that if you get discovered up there you’re going to be killed. It’s a small area. You hear sirens, and you hear screams, and gunshots, and the country’s at war. Nobody can identify with that. Well, maybe not nobody, but most of us can’t identify with that so it’s a pretty powerful show to do. I think Stage Door did a pretty good job with it.

Laura: I think they did really well with it. It takes place in an attic. I liked the secret bookcase because that is what kept them in hiding and the rest of the world out.

Mike: The set was really well done when you first get to the theater. They don’t have a curtain and you get to see the set. It’s pretty simple. Two by fours represent the walls. There are some beds. There’s a central area that’s the dining area and the kitchen. There’s a small area off to the back that’s the water closet or bathroom. And that’s the whole place where these people are going to live for a year and a half. They take you through the year and a half pretty well. Stage Door did pretty well with the time sequencing.

Laura: Yes, they did a Hanukah celebration.

Mike: Anne Frank is played by Sarah Stepahin. She did a really good job with it. I assume she’s in high school somewhere down in Fredericksburg. There were points where she had a voice over. Her voice was pre-recorded her reading from her diary. But most of it was on stage action and she did really well.

Laura: I think they all kept in character really well. No one ever went off stage because of course they couldn’t because they were in hiding. So any kind of prop change or scene changes were all done on stage.

Mike: It was all done with lighting. The lighting was really effective. They had separate lights aimed at separate sections of the staging area. If Anne was in her bedroom writing in her diary, the light was just on her. When it was a time to be quiet, the lights were on the entire stage and everyone was sitting in place without their shoes on reading or writing or whatever they could do to be quiet. The other thing that was really cool was during the intermission a year passed. When they came back on stage, Anne had aged. She had a different outfit on.

Laura: Her hair was no longer in pigtails. It was down.

Mike: She definitely loooked a year older and that was a really good effect that they got away with on that. The one comment I had was at the end of the play, three men come in to the hiding place and arrest the family and the people. It was kind of anti climatic in that they just kind of appeared. There was no screaming. Everyone was kind of in shock. It didn’t feel like the right fear they had. Maybe they were really worn down after a year and a half of being up there. That was one nit pick.

Laura: I thought Anne and her sister Margot and their friend Peter played it petty well. They weren’t overly surprised, but they were taken aback.

Mike: So all in all it was a good show.

Laura: Yes, I definitely recommend it.

Mike: It will make you think and be thankful for what we have. It’s amazing that people went through that and much worse. At the end of the play Otto Frank who was played by Roy Jarnecke gave a summary of what happened after their arrests. It was sobering at the end. You didn’t quite want to clap once they came out and took their bows because it felt funny to applaud. But you’re applauding their effort not what happened to the family and the people.

Laura: The Diary of Anne Frank is playing next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday by Stage Door Productions down in Fredericksburg. I recommend seeing it.

Mike: Definitely would go see it. it’s at Massaponax High School. And now, on with the show.

Cast

• Anne Frank: Sarah Stepahin
• Otto Frank: Roy Jarnecke
• Edith Frank: Kimberly Kemp
• Margot Frank: Kaitlin Kemp
• Miep Gies: Sarah Headley
• Peter van Daan: Martin Wetterauer
• Mr. Kraler: Jeff Small
• Mrs. Van Daan: Charlotte Fields
• Mr. Van Daan: Gene Nesbitt
• Mr. Dussel: Todd Blose
• First Man: Andrew Jarnecke
• Second Man: Robert Maness
• Third Man: Michael Foreman

Crew

• Director: Susan Ingebretsen
• Stage Manager: Kristin Keveney
• Sound: Carla Joseph
• Lights: Christopher Armentrout
• Costumes: Charlotte Fields
• Props: Sue Sargeant
• Set Design: Sean Kemp
• Publicity: Susan Ingebretsen, Lynn McFaddden

Mike: We are discussing the Stage Door Production of Greetings!, a play by Tom Dudzick. The story is a couple coming home to visit his parents and brother for the first time, and to announce that they are engaged. They have a strong Christian background where as she is a Jewish athiest. The brother is mentally retarded and the mother thinks she heard him talk. Turns out he is actually some kind of spirit thing and challenges everything that everybody believes and there is a lot of stuff going on.

Laura: Yes, a lot of controversy. It would make good sermon topics. It was a good show.

Mike: It was a good show. The basic premise is a little scary sounding, but they did a really good job with it. For five people, five actors they pulled off a really good show.

Laura: Yes, they had good use of the stage. The opening scene actually took place out in the audience. Randy and Andi sitting out in the audience miming their flight to Pittsburgh.

Mike: The actual room that the show took place in was a lecture hall at Germanna Community College. The stage area was used really effectively. They had a really nice set. Several entrances gave a lot of flexibility. The basement door, the front door. They had some windows for the Christmas lights to be visible.

Laura: It was a small set, but it didn’t feel crowded. They made good use of the areas.

Mike: They made real good use of the areas. I think of all the shows we’ve seen so far, that is up there as one of the best uses of what they’ve got for staging. It wasn’t crowded like you were saying. They had room for a dining table on the one side. A living room on the one side and it was really good. The cast was five people total. Plus some various people doing voice overs and things. There were three men and two women. They worked together really well. I liked how the whole show took place in an afternoon. So there weren’t costume changes or anything complex. Lights go down for a couple seconds and then they came back up and time had changed. They did that really well. I liked how they did that. One of the characters name’s was Mickey. He had to pull off a couple different accents for his character. I would have loved to know more about him. Maybe it wasn’t an accent, maybe it was just the way he spoke in real life.

Laura: I would have liked to have known more about Mickey’s characters, too. I wish they had put in biographies of the actors in the play bill, but they didn’t with this cover.

Mike: The biographies help me at least to feel what these people are like, what are they interested in. I feel like I’ve seen one of those people before. Probably not, since StageDoor is down in Frederickburg. I feel like I have seen the actress playing the mother before, but I doubt it.

Laura: The actor playing Andy I thought looked familiar. That I had seen him in something.

Mike: So we don’t know. We didn’t get a chance to talk to them afterwards they were changing and stuff. I would say if you’re in the Fredericksburg area, it’s less than an hour from Woodbridge. It’s definitely a doable trip. We went up to Sterling that’s an hour and a half, an hour fifteen so definitely if you’ve got some time free next weekend, Friday or Saturday, down at Germanna Community College near Fredericksburg to check out the show. Greetings! is a fun show. It will make you think. There is a little bit of language so young children probably shouldn’t come. It is also a little complex so kids could get confused. It’s not a Christmas play. It’s also very brave of Stage Door to do a December play that’s not Christmas.

Laura: They talked about Christmas and going to midnight Mass and that kind of thing, but it’s not the main focus.

Mike: It’s not a Christmas Carol. It’s not A Christmas Story. It’s not Santa Claus is Coming to Town. It’s taking place at Christmas, but it’s not the central theme to the play at all.

Laura: And now, on with the show.