#Fran Rubenstein

[eddysocs]

Introducing: Ariella Rubenstein

Fandom: The Nanny

Face Claim: Molly Ringwald

Full Name: Ariella Monica Rubenstein

Nickname/Alias/Pet Names: Ari

Age: 25

Myers Briggs Type: INFP

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Love Interests: Fran Fine, CC Babcock

Occupation: Stage Actress

Collections: Playbills

Style/Clothing: Ariella is the epitome of 80s/90s casual looks. Mom jeans and bright shirts, fun colors and patterns with a focus on comfort.

Signature Quote: "It’s not that I don’t like my life, but on the stage I can live so many others' lives that I could never experience on my own."

Plot Summary: Aspiring Broadway actress, Ariella, thinks she’s in for her big break when she’s approached by CC Babcock to be the star of the next Broadway show Maxwell Sheffield is producing. She’ll be the romantic lead, but what she doesn’t plan on is falling into a love triangle of her own off stage.

Forever Tag: @arrthurpendragon, @borg-queer, @foxesandmagic, @connietheecunning, @chickensarentcheap

#oc: ariella rubenstein #fc: molly ringwald #fd: the nanny

[ramrodd]

Trump set to take down his own party’s speaker

COMMENTARY:

Trump has definitely rxposed the rot at the heart of the Conservative wing of the GOP.

Speaking as an Eisenhower Republian, I've been dealing with assholes lJanuary 6 assholes since I got back from Vietnam in 1971. White male pro-war corporate careerist draft dodgers. Tuberville's Storm Troopers. A driving factor in the suicide rate combat veterans  returning  to the civilianI als community,  I also had to deal with liberal anti0war draft dodgers, but they were culturally more fun and a whole lot less destructive At that time, everybody inside the beltway was like Pete Buttigieg in regards to Affirmative Action except the Plumbers, like Paty Buchanan and Elon Busk.

I mean, they are everywhere. David Rubenstin and Glenn Youngkin, two venture ca capital carpet baggers in tow to steal whatever they can from the DC tax payers whenever the Conservatives have control of the federal government at the budget. The   Sports Authority deal is good for virginia only if the investors trying to steal the Caps and Wizards put up the first %1 billion for infrastructues plus whatever the cost of the frranchise from Ted Leonis, who was a player in the AOL-TimeWarner jug fuck on the AOL side. I tried to warn Kimsey that was going to happen but this was the way they did things with a Harvard MBA and that was good enough for him.

Vietnam came down to a contest between Marxism and the Harvard Business model and Marxism won,

Jhere's the thing: we were a cunt hair away from making the paradigm shfit  from the Starship Capitalism of 1001: A Space Odysssey on January 19, 1981, If Carter had been re=elected, replace the Pan Am logo on the Lunar Shuttled to the permanent United Nations lunar colony , with Spacex and that is where we wouldd have been if Carter had been relected.

The Movement Conservatives that originated with William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater have  been engaged in an insurgency conceived to result in the hostile takeover of America by people like David Rubenstein and Glenn Youngkin and Elon Musk. Atlas Shrugged is all about the hostile take over of America by John Galt, babusinesssed on Ayn Rand's experience with the Russian Revolution that crated the Bolsheviks, The Conservative movement has always been based  on the Trotsky insurgency process we were dealing with in Vietnam before 1962. Tright now, the single greatest economic distortion driving inflation at the retail level is the  bloated executive compensation based on the McKinsey Model. That's  a big reason behind the anti-BEI faction of the Elon Musk . business model defended by the Studio executives in the SAG strike.

The future has always been Fran Drescher's Quality Assurance business model, going back to the Declaration of Independence. The necessity of  BEI is measured directly by the opposition to BEI, The Bill Ackman anti-BEI campaign is based on what he describes as "Merit" which is Conservative disinformation for soft-porn Apartheid. Newt Gingrich's GOPC politics of personal destruction,

Let me put this another wayL the :reality game show: Survivor is based on the anti=BEI corporate culture  of Management by Confusion. Think of all the team building Fortune 500 employees have gone through since W. Edwards Deming came back from Japan with Quality Assurance protocols for Starship Capitalism. What anti[BEI CEO's saw was an opportunity  to lot the payrolls with layoffs thanks to increased worker efficacy, Quality Assurance seeme to justify the McKinsey model for excessive executive compensation., the Jack Welch CIO Master Looter. Virtually all the bullshit going on in commercial aviation is a consequence of PATCO and McKinsey. Any CEO being compensated at more than 60 - 80 times the floor wage is what Arn Rand calls a "Looter" in Atlas Shrugged. She just didn't understand that it applied mostly to her heros, the captains of industry. The Elon Musks of the world. .

#youtube

[abcnewspr]

ABC NEWS’ ‘SUPERSTAR’ SERIES PROFILES LEGENDARY ACTRESS ELIZABETH TAYLOR 

Star-Studded Program Features Interviews With Fran Drescher, Rosie O’Donnell and More 

‘Superstar: Elizabeth Taylor’ Airs Sunday, May 14 (10:00-11:00 p.m. EDT), on ABC  

ABC News* 

Legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor is the blueprint for modern celebrity culture. She was the original influencer ― the first to use her fame to create a fragrance empire and forge frontiers in social activism. On and off the screen, she was larger than life. Known for her striking beauty, she was married eight times to seven different men, pursued by paparazzi around the globe, and even denounced by the Vatican. She also broke the glass ceiling by negotiating the first million-dollar salary in Hollywood. In an exclusive interview with Barbara Walters, she once said, “I know I’ve had an extraordinary life. I realized that it’s like a soap opera. It’s not like an ordinary life at all.” Over a decade after her death, ABC News’ “Superstar” series explores the iconic figure’s life, career and marriages. 

The star-studded television event features interviews with celebrities such as Fran Drescher, Rosie O’Donnell, Camilla Belle, Melissa Rivers, Dita von Teese and Kathy Ireland, a close friend of Taylor who still considers her a mentor. The program also includes conversations with Kate Andersen Brower, who wrote Taylor’s biography; Larry Hackett, the former editor of People and an ABC News contributor; Hal Rubenstein, the former fashion editor at InStyle; and José Eber, celebrity hairstylist and friend of Taylor. “Superstar: Elizabeth Taylor” airs Sunday, May 14 (10:00-11:00 p.m. EDT), on ABC and available next day on Hulu. 

“Superstar” is produced by ABC News. David Sloan is senior executive producer. Muriel Pearson is executive producer. 

*COPYRIGHT ©2023 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All photography is copyrighted material and is for editorial use only. Images are not to be archived, altered, duplicated, resold, retransmitted or used for any other purposes without written permission of ABC. Images are distributed to the press to publicize current programming. Any other usage must be licensed.  

ABC News Media Relations  

For more information, follow ABC News PR on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

-- ABC -- 

[larryland]

REVIEW: "Breakwater" at Barrington Public Theater

REVIEW: “Breakwater” at Barrington Public Theater

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#Anne Undeland #Barbara Waldinger #Bard College at Simon&039;s Rock #Barrington Public Theater #BPT #Breakwater #Brittney Belz #Carl Sprague #Daniel Arts Center #David Joseph #Deann Simmons Halper #Fran Rubenstein #Great Barrington MA #Jason Brown #Jim Frangione #John Musal #Kelly Galvin #Leigh Strimbeck #McConnell Theatre #Raya Malcom #Ryan Winkles #Simon&039;s Rock

[aion-rsa]

The Stand: Trailer Drops for New Stephen King Miniseries

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

We’re just over two months away from the Dec.17 premiere of The Stand miniseries on CBS All Access, and a full-length trailer has surfaced at last following a brief teaser last month.

The trailer dropped this morning at the end of a 30-minute digital NYCC panel. The Josh Boone-helmed, nine-part series looks — from the scenes we saw — pretty damn faithful to Stephen King’s epic novel, which was originally published in 1978 and filmed once before as a four-part ABC miniseries back in 1994. Take a look:

The book begins with the escape of a biological weapon — a virulent form of plague — from a government lab and its destructive path across the United States and the world. With most of humanity wiped out, two distinct sides form in what’s left of the US: a group of righteous, basically decent folks who gather in Boulder, Colorado around a mystical old woman named Mother Abagail (played here by Whoopi Goldberg) and a collection of criminals, malcontents, and the weak-hearted in Las Vegas, gathered around an evil entity in human form known as Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård).

The trailer gives us our first extended look at a number of scenes and images that appear to be directly lifted from the novel, including the streets of New York City clogged with abandoned cars, hero Stu Redman (James Marsden) making his escape from a lab where he’s kept while the last remaining scientists try to discover why he’s immune to the virus, the initial meeting between Stu and world-weary pop star Larry Underwood (Jovan Adepo), and the first gathering of the Boulder community.

CBS All Access

We also see Larry and drug-addled socialite Rita Blakemoor (Heather Graham) surveying New York from a penthouse apartment in which they hole up before making their fateful decision to leave the deserted city, and there are glimpses of the dreams that Stu, the pregnant Fran Goldsmith (Odessa Young), and the deaf mute Nick Andros (New Mutants’ Henry Zaga) all have in which Abagail calls to them to come together in Boulder.

And then there’s Flagg, a.k.a. the Dark Man: we watch as he intrudes on the dreams of the Boulder folks, before gradually recruiting others to his side, including petty thief Lloyd Henreid (Nat Wolff) and the jealous, sociopathic Harold Lauder (Owen Teague), who will start out in Boulder but betray the people there in horrific fashion with the help of the conflicted Nadine Cross (Amber Heard).

This version of Flagg’s Vegas seems even more circus-like than the book or the 1994 adaptation portrayed it, with Flagg heard in voiceover exhorting his followers, “In the world that was, they told you it was wrong to want more — their time is at an end. Our time has begun!”

The final image of the trailer is an iconic one to fans of King’s book, which is generally regarded as his masterpiece: Stu, Larry, sociology professor Glen Bateman (Greg Kinnear), and Ray Brentner (formerly Ralph Brentner, gender-swapped from the book and played here by Irene Bedard) walking down a desert highway on their way to Vegas, where they will make their stand against Flagg.

The panel itself was largely uneventful, with Marsden, Heard, Young, Goldberg, Kinnear, Adepo, and Teague — alongside showrunner Benjamin Cavell and executive producer Taylor Elmore — going through some basic exposition about their characters and the story, and how this version modernizes both (Whoopi Goldberg, for example, is adamant that Abagail not be portrayed as a “magic Negro”). It was also noted how eerily relevant King’s 42-year-old tale — with an unstoppable virus and an evil leader wreaking havoc in the US — still is in 2020.

We’ve heard that this version of The Stand will rearrange events to some degree and not necessarily begin or end in the same way that the book does, but as one of those readers for whom the novel is a revered text, the trailer today was full of promise.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Boone (New Mutants) has directed the first and last episode (the latter featuring a new ending written by Stephen King and his son Owen), while the rest of the directors have yet to be announced. Writers on the show include Boone, his frequent collaborator Knate Lee, Cavell, and others, with the Kings, Boone, and original The Stand producer Richard P. Rubenstein also on the list of executive producers.

The Stand debuts on CBS All Access on Dec. 17.

The post The Stand: Trailer Drops for New Stephen King Miniseries appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3iMNj7Y

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[nicolemaiines]

hey, victoria! do you have any suggestions for parents, a grandmother and a similar age brother for julia garner? thank you!!

mother: patricia arquette, helena bonham carter, julia louis-dreyfus, jennifer grey, lisa kudrow, jamie lee curtis,  fran drescher,

father: jon favreau, josh malina, ian ziering, daniel day-lewis, rick moranis, mandy patinkin, jack black, jason isaacs

grandmother: goldie hawn, bette midler, barbra streisand, rhea perlman, ellen barkin, carol kane

brother: ben platt, ronen rubenstein, skyler gisondo, austin abrams, troye sivan, david corenswet, logan lerman, gregg sulkin 

#fc help #answered

[eddysocs]

The Nanny OC Masterlist

Name: Ariella Rubenstein

Face Claim: Molly Ringwald

Love Interests: Fran Fine, CC Babcock

Fic Title: Play's The Thing

Plot Summary: Aspiring Broadway actress, Ariella, thinks she’s in for her big break when she’s approached by CC Babcock to be the star of the next Broadway show Maxwell Sheffield is producing. She’ll be the romantic lead, but what she doesn’t plan on is falling into a love triangle of her own off stage.

#the nanny oc #oc: ariella rubenstein

[larryland]

Shakespeare & Company Announces "Sense and Sensibility" for the Holidays

Shakespeare & Company Announces “Sense and Sensibility” for the Holidays

“To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect” ― Jane Austen, Sense & Sensibility 

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company proudly presents a costumed reading of Sense and Sensibility, written by Kate Hamillbased on the novel by Jane Austen. The lively reading is directed and staged by longtime Company member and Producing Associate Ariel Bock. This funny, warm-hearted classic tale will have a…

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#Allyn Burrows #Amy Altadonna #Ariel Bock #David Bertoldi #David Joseph #Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre #Fran Rubenstein #Gabriel Vaughan #Govane Lohbauer #Jane Austen #Jennie M. Jadow #Joan Coombs #Jordan Cobb #Kate Hamill #Katie Ward #Lenox MA #Madeleine Rose Maggio #Patrick Brennan #Rory Hammond #Sense & Sensibility #Shakespeare & Company #Tom Jaeger #Zoë Laiz

[larryland]

by Barbara Waldinger

What a pleasure to attend the appealing and comfortable McConnell Theatre at Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, where Barrington Public Theater makes its debut—Breakwater by Jim Frangione.  Facing the audience is a deep, wide proscenium stage, depicting beige sand dunes in Hyannis circa 1990, where a stunning blue backdrop beckons us to rush into the water.  Beautifully directed by Kelly Galvin and performed by a top-notch cast, this is an auspicious beginning for the new theatre company.

Barrington Public Theater’s founders are Deann Simmons Halper (Executive Director/actor), Anne Undeland (Artistic Associate/playwright/actor) and Jim Frangione (Artistic Director/director/playwright/actor).  The mission of their Wet Ink series of readings is to “nurture and develop new work,” written by local playwrights. The aim is ultimately to offer year-round full productions using local actors and directors.

Breakwater centers on Bobbi Herring (the dynamic Raya Malcom), an angry young woman in her late twenties, who drives a taxi, still lives with her Mom, and deduces, based upon obtaining a copy of her birth certificate, that the deceased, abusive man she thought was her father is not—the name of her biological father is left blank.  Thus begins a search for her parent, who her mother confesses, could be either of two unnamed men.  The twist in this story is that one of them might be John F. Kennedy (Ryan Winkles, nailing that unique accent), whose ghost weaves in and out of the play.

According to Frangione, the script has not yet undergone a rigorous process of revision, so this production, professional though it is, is a sort of workshop.  That may explain some of the problematical aspects of the piece.  What is this play really about?  The search for a biological parent? But Bobbi’s quest seems to have a random origin—a chance omission on her birth certificate.  And in the all too brief scene in which she confronts her mother, Joanne (Anne Undeland) with the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother’s husband, Joanne’s weak apology and Bobbi’s muted acceptance of it, seems unbelievable.  It’s as though the play has other concerns, like Bobbi’s attempt to escape from her sordid past and find her way into a brighter future that is more satisfying than driving a cab.  She makes a passing reference to the time she spent in a “looney bin” and refuses to accede to her mother’s demand that she continue to see a therapist.  Determined to make it on her own—to move out of her mother’s home and get an apartment—she endeavors to sell her lovingly restored 1960 Lincoln, which she claims to be worth a fortune, having belonged to JFK.  She even plans to go back to school (which is why she needs that birth certificate).  Frangione thus provides valuable details about the personality and struggles of this young woman.  But if the play is about Bobbi’s journey from darkness to light, why the emphasis on Kennedy? Bobbi’s mother is still consumed with her love for him all those years ago, believing that he was the father of her child. When Kennedy’s ghost appears however, he reminisces philosophically about his life, quoting from his favorite poets: Alan Seeger (“Rendez-vous with Death”), and Robert Frost (“Birches”), but touches only sparingly on his relationship with Joanne and not at all with the paternity of Bobbi.

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One of the exciting aspects of attending theatre in the Berkshires is the chance to see new work, with its highs and lows.  In many cases, the talent of the director, actors and artistic teams can go far to overcome the weaknesses of the script.  Raya Malcolm’s Bobbi is so animated onstage, even when she is sitting in her cab, that her incandescence reaches every corner of the theatre.  The best scenes, both written and performed, are the ones between Bobbi and Eben Crocker/Taylor Hallett (both played by the versatile David Joseph using a working class Boston accent).  Eben is Bobbi’s boss, the taxi dispatcher, who trades insults with her and threatens her job, but ultimately cares for her.  The minor character Taylor, in what he thinks is a date with the mercurial Bobbi, switches from macho, to scared, to seduced by her in just a few minutes.  Ryan Winkles goes a long way to convince us that JFK has come back to life, with his slow walk and musical accent, parted hair, and smiling delivery, though none of the icon’s imitators can ever recreate his magic.  Anne Undeland, a lovely actress, is unfortunately not given the lines that would establish a realistic relationship with her daughter.  Finally, Leigh Strimbeck deftly creates the dual characters of the town clerk and an alcoholic neighbor who shows a fondness for Bobbi.

Director Kelly Galvin takes advantage of the large stage to create the many different locations in this production.  However, the scenery would have been less intrusive if set designer Carl Sprague had used simple indications of place, left onstage throughout the play, rather than wheeling large pieces of furniture in and out to define each area.  John Musall provides us with glorious colored lighting and Brittney Belz’s costumes suit each character perfectly.  Kudos to Jason Brown, whose soundscape brings Cape Cod to life in every scene.

New theatre companies are always welcome in the Berkshires and we look forward to hearing more from the Barrington Public Theater and its talented troupe in the near future.

  Breakwater runs from June 13-23.  Tickets may be purchased online at [email protected] or call 413-579-8088.

Barrington Public Theater presents Breakwater by Jim Frangione.  Directed by Kelly Galvin.  Cast: Raya Malcolm (Bobbi Herring), Leigh Strimbeck (Tippy Dempsey/Town Clerk), David Joseph (Eben Crocker/Taylor Hallett, Ryan Winkles (JFK), Anne Undeland (Joanne Herring).  Lighting Design:  John Musall; Set Design:  Carl Sprague; Costume Design:  Brittany Belz; Sound Design:  Jason Brown; Stage Manager:  Fran Rubenstein.

Running Time:  75 minutes, no intermission.  Barrington Public Theater, Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon’s Rock,  84 Alford Road, Great Barrington, MA., closing June 23. https://www.barringtonpublictheater.org/

REVIEW: “Breakwater” at Barrington Public Theater by Barbara Waldinger What a pleasure to attend the appealing and comfortable McConnell Theatre at Daniel Arts Center, …

#Anne Undeland #Barbara Waldinger #Bard College at Simon&039;s Rock #Barrington Public Theater #BPT #Breakwater #Brittney Belz #Carl Sprague #Daniel Arts Center #David Joseph #Deann Simmons Halper #Fran Rubenstein #Great Barrington MA #Jason Brown #Jim Frangione #John Musal #Kelly Galvin #Leigh Strimbeck #McConnell Theatre #Raya Malcom #Ryan Winkles #Simon&039;s Rock

[larryland]

“…as sharp cut as a diamond and as hard of surface.” —New York Review of Books

(Lenox, MA) Shakespeare & Company presents A Perfect Pair of Wharton Comedies. Based on short stories originally penned by the Berkshires’ legendary Edith Wharton, Roman Fever and The Fullness of Life have been adapted by Shakespeare & Company Founding Member and Training Director Dennis Krausnick. The Wharton Comedies will run at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre as part of their 2017 season August 17 through September 10.

“In years past, performing Edith Wharton’s adapted short stories at The Mount, followed by afternoon tea on her sun drenched terrace, was its own kind of magic.” Director Normi Noel reminisced. “This summer, we are inviting you back, this time to another intimate theatre space, just down the road from The Mount at our 70 Kemble Street property as we celebrate our 40th Season.”

Roman Fever and The Fullness of Life, penned at the beginning and the end of Wharton’s career, demonstrate both the early voice and the finely honed craft of this beloved American author and Berkshire native. Roman Fever follows two middle aged women, long term friends and former romantic rivals on holiday in Rome locked in a fierce debate about the merits of their respective daughters. Their friendly(ish) debate turns to reminiscing about a previous mutual love interest, which in turn leads to shocking revelations about what exactly is fair in love and war. The Fullness of Life reveals, quite charmingly, that the afterlife, as perfectly enchanting as it may seem, may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

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These Wharton Comedies features veteran Shakespeare & Company members Corinna May, Diane Prusha, and David Joseph under the guidance of Long-time Company Director, Normi Noel. The creative team includes Stephen Ball (Lighting Designer), Patrick Brennan (Set Designer), Kiki Smith (Costume Designer), Amy Altadonna (Sound Designer), and Fran Rubenstein (Stage Manager).

Tickets for The Wharton Comedies are available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company’s box office at [phone]. The Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible. Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, Massachusetts. This production is generously sponsored by Natalie & Howard Shawn and Eleanor Lord & Margaret Wheeler.

AT A GLANCE: PRODUCTION: Roman Fever and The Fullness of Life PLAYWRIGHT: Adapted by Dennis Krausnick based on two short stories by Edith Wharton DIRECTOR: Normi Noel SET DESIGNER: Patrick Brennan LIGHTING DESIGNER: Stephen Ball COSTUME DESIGNER: Kiki Smith SOUND DESIGNER: Amy Altadonna STAGE MANAGER: Fran Rubenstein ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: Kathleen Soltan WARDROBE: Melissa Ziccardi

CAST MEMBERS: WAITER/MAN: David Joseph ALIDA SLADE/SPIRIT: Corinna May GRACE ANSLEY/WOMAN: Diane Prusha

About Normi Noel (Director, Roman Fever and The Fullness of Life) S&Co: Enchanted April, Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Betrayal, Chekov One Acts, Virginia, Off the Map, Betrayal, Mercy, Jack and Jill, Fortune and Misfortune. Pythagorus Theatre: Roman Fever/The Promise. Actor’s Shakespeare Project: Henry V. Ventford Hall: Dancing with the Czar, Belle of Amherst, Xingu. Nora Theatre: The Seahorse. Mixed Company: Talking With. Created and performed one person shows from interviews with women veterans (Triage, Fine Lines), No Background Music (Sony Award for Best Radio Play, BBC, performed by Sigourney Weaver). Voiceover/narration work for radio, TV, audio books.

About Edith Wharton (Author, Roman Fever and The Fullness of Life) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930,  Wharton combined her insider’s view of America’s privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight. She was well acquainted with many of her era’s other literary and public figures, including Theodore Roosevelt, and was a notable resident of the Berkshire at her picturesque estate “The Mount”.

About Dennis Krausnick (Adapter, Roman Fever and The Fullness of Life) Dennis Krausnick is a founder of Shakespeare & Company (1978) and has served as its Director of Training for more than fifteen years. Krausnick has been instrumental in creating and developing the Company’s internationally acclaimed actor training programs. He has also developed a number of training programs utilizing theater training methods for corporate and other non-theater clientele.  Krausnick holds an MA from St. Louis University and an MFA in Acting from NYU. As a director, his recent Shakespeare credits include Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Troilus and Cressida, Pericles, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III and Titus Andronicus. Other directing credits include Lear and Her Daughters with Olympia Dukakis as Lear, Custom of the Country, Berkeley Square, War Boys, The Inner House, Roman Fever, The Temperate Zone and numerous adaptations for the stage of the fiction work of Edith Wharton.  He also directed the award-winning television special about Edith Wharton, Songs from the Heart. Krausnick has adapted the fiction of Edith Wharton and Henry James for the stage creating numerous one-act and full-length plays which have all been produced one or more times at Shakespeare & Company.  Many have been produced in other theatres as well. The 2002 season saw a retrospective featuring Krausnick’s Wharton adaptations. Mr. Krausnick was awarded the 2006 Bingham Chair of Humanities by the University of Louisville in recognition of his accomplishments as a Master Teacher of Shakespeare Performance. He is currently devising a one-man performance piece which has had a dozen workshop performances to date.

About Shakespeare & Company
 Located in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company is one of the largest Shakespeare Festivals in the country. Founded in 1978, the organization attracts over 30,000 patrons annually. The Company is also home to Shakespeare & Company’s internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and nationally renowned and award-winning Education Program. More information is available at www.shakespeare.org.

Shakespeare & Company Presents Two Wharton Comedies “...as sharp cut as a diamond and as hard of surface.” —New York Review of Books…

#A Perfect Pair of Wharton Comedies #Amy Altadonna #Corinna May #David Joseph #Dennis Krausnick #Diane Prusha #dith Wharton #Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre #Fran Rubenstein #he Fullness of Life #Kathleen Soltan #Kiki Smith #Lenox MA #Melissa Ziccardi #Normi Noël #Patrick Brennan #Roman Fever #Stephen Ball #The Mount #The Wharton Comedies

[larryland]

REVIEW: "4000 Miles" at Shakespeare & Company

REVIEW: “4000 Miles” at Shakespeare & Company

by Macey Levin Leo has cycled across the United States from Washington State, with several side jaunts, finally to arrive at his Grandma Vera’s apartment in Manhattan.  Amy Herzog’s gentle play 4000 Miles, a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2013, currently at Shakespeare & Co.’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, examines the relationship of these two people who have family bonds but are light-years away…

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#4000 Miles #Amy Altadonna #Amy Herzog #Annette Miller #Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre #Emma Geer #Fran Rubenstein #Gregory Boover #James w. Bilonski #John McDermott #Lenox MA #Macey Levin #Nicole Ricciardi #Shakespeare and Company #Stella Schwartz #Zoe Laiz

[larryland]

“A funny, moving, altogether wonderful drama. . . A heartening reminder that a keen focus on life’s small moments can pay off in a big way onstage.” – The New York Times

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company opens their 40th Anniversary Season with 4,000 Miles written by Amy Herzog, and directed by Nicole Ricciardi. This Pulitzer Prize finalist and Winner of the 2012 Obie Award for Best New Play explores growing up, growing old and the moments in between. The acclaimed comic drama runs at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre from May 25 to July 16, 2017.

After suffering a major loss while he was on a cross-country bike trip, 21 year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty 91 year-old grandmother, Vera, in her West Village apartment. Over the course of a single month, these unlikely roommates infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately reach each other. 4000 Miles looks at how two outsiders find their way in today’s world. The Associated Press said, “In 4000 Miles, a warm-hearted new play by Amy Herzog, both love and irritability are woven into an illumination of the healing process after the loss of a loved one. The sensitive play [is] filled with small, revelatory and often humorous moments between a grandmother and her grandson.”

“In Ms. Herzog’s play, Leo is miles from home, lost, avoiding the familiar,” says returning Shakespeare & Company Director Nicole Ricciardi. “Vera is just as aimless, shuffling into a life of meaningless small details. They are distant relatives, generationally divided. Both yearn for human connection and understanding. And yet…they struggle to communicate. They bicker. They joust. They leave things unsaid. And after weeks of close physical proximity, the dam breaks and everything begins to change.”

Annette Miller

Zoe Laiz

Emma Geer

Greg Boover

Riccardi’s production of 4000 Miles features award-winning actress Annette Miller and Company member Gregory Boover, along with Zoe Laiz and Shakespeare & Company newcomer Emma Geer. The creative team includes John McDermott (Set Design), James W. Bilnoski (Lighting Design), Stella Schwartz (Costume Design) and Amy Altadonna (Sound Design).

“Unlike many of the woman I have had the privileged to portray, Vera Joseph in 4000 Miles is not a larger than life woman,” says Miller. “She isn’t a woman who is driven to make her mark in the world, so to speak, but she is like all of those women we know who have lived very full lives, and who are dedicated to creating a more just society. Vera values love, wisdom, and humor – which are all part of the essential core of who she is – I can’t wait to enter that simple truth of her life.”

Tickets for 4000 Miles are available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company’s box office  at [phone]. The Bernstein Theatre is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible. Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, Massachusetts. The performance is generously sponsored by Jerry and Honie Berko.

AT A GLANCE PRODUCTION: 4000 Miles PLAYWRIGHT: Amy Herzog DIRECTOR: Nicole Ricciardi SET DESIGNER: John McDermott LIGHTING DESIGNER: James W. Bilnoski COSTUME DESIGNER: Stella Schwartz SOUND DESIGNER: Amy Altadonna STAGE MANAGER: Fran Rubenstein*

CAST MEMBERS VERA JOSEPH: Annette Miller* LEO JOSEPH-CONNELL: Gregory Boover* BEC: Emma Geer                           AMANDA: Zoe Laiz                          

SCHEDULE: May: 25 – 7:30 PM – Preview 26 – 7:30 PM – Preview 27 – 7:30 PM – Preview 28 – 3:00 PM – Opening June: 2 – 7:30 PM 3 – 7:30 PM 9 – 7:30 PM 10  – 7:30 PM 11 – 3:00 PM 16 – 7:30 PM 17 – 7:30 PM 18 – 3:00 PM 23 – 7:30 PM 24 – 7:30 PM 25 – 3:00 PM 29 – 7:30 PM 30 – 7:30 PM July: 1 – 3:00 PM 2 – 3:00 PM 6 – 3:00 PM 8 – 3:00 PM 9 – 7:30 PM 14 – 7:30 PM 15 – 3:00 PM 16 – 3:00 PM – Closing

About Annette Miller (Vera) Twentieth season with S&Co. Bemedette in Sotto Voce (2016); Elliot Norton and Irne Award for best actress as Golda Meir (2003); Elliot Norton best actress nomination for Martha in Martha Mitchell Calling (2006). Florida Carbonell Award best actress nomination for Vi in August Osage County (2012). Now is Our Time – the Pleasures and Perils of our Third Chapter, (Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center). Favorite roles: Maria Callas, Master Class; Duchess, Richard III; Marjorie Taub, The Allergist’s Wife; Queen Elinor, King John; Maria, 12th Night; Ruth Steiner, Collected Stories (S&Co). Paula Strasberg, Nobody Dies on Friday; Lillian Hellman, Cake Walk (U/S Elaine Stritch); Arkadina, The Seagull (American Rep. Co). B’Way: The Odd Couple Female Version.

About Nicole Ricciardi: (Director) Fifth season with S&Co: Director of The Taming in 2016; The How and the Why in 2015; Cassandra Speaks in 2012, and Richard II in 2013 (Assistant Director). Nicole is a New York City-based director, actress, and instructor, who has directed, assisted, and/or developed work at Youngblood/Ensemble Studio Theatre, #serials at the Flea, Circle East Repertory, Two River Theater Company, Primary Stages, Bushwick Arts, the Nora Theater Company, Shadow Lawn Stage, Irish Repertory, New Century Theatre (Time Stands Still, July 2016), and with her own company, The Wild Court. She currently teaches for the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Nicole received her M.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University.

About Amy Herzog: (Playwright) First season with S&Co. Herzog’s plays include After the Revolution (Williamstown Theater Festival; Playwrights Horizons; Lilly Award), 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center; Obie Award for the Best New American Play, Pulitzer Prize Finalist), The Great God Pan (Playwrights Horizons), and Belleville (Yale Rep; New York Theatre Workshop; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist; Drama Desk Nomination). Amy is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Helen Merrill, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, and the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award. She is a Usual Suspect at NYTW and an alumna of Youngblood, Play Group at Ars Nova, and the SoHo Rep Writer/Director Lab. She has taught playwriting at Bryn Mawr and Yale.  MFA, Yale School of Drama.

About Shakespeare & Company Located in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company is one of the largest Shakespeare Festivals in the country. Founded in 1978, the organization attracts over 30,000 patrons annually. The Company is also home to Shakespeare & Company’s internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and nationally renowned and an award-winning Education Program. More information is available at www.shakespeare.org.

Shakespeare & Company Presents “4,000 Miles” by Amy Herzog “A funny, moving, altogether wonderful drama. . . A heartening reminder that a keen focus on life’s small moments can pay off in a big way onstage.”

#4000 Miles #Amy Altadonna #Amy Herzog #Annette Miller #Emma Geer #Fran Rubenstein #Gregory Boover #James W. Bilnoski #John McDermott #Nicole Ricciardi #Shakespeare and Company #Stella Schwartz #Zoe Laiz

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REVIEW: 6th Annual 10x10 New Play Festival at Barrington Stage

REVIEW: 6th Annual 10×10 New Play Festival at Barrington Stage

by Gail M. Burns Ten 10-minute plays – five before intermission and five after – helmed by two directors – Julianne Boyd and Matthew Penn – performed by a versatile ensemble of six actors – three male, three female – on a bare stage with only the most basic sets and costumes in the middle of February. This is the 10×10 New Play Festival at Barrington Stage Company, now in its sixth season and…

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#10X10 New Play Festival #Alexander Sovronsky #Allie Costa #Ann Marie Shea #Annette Storckman #Barrington Stage Company #BSC #Dina Thomas #Douglas Rees #Fran Rubenstein #Gail Burns #Gail M. Burns #Gwendolyn Rice #James McLindon #Jane Pfitsch #Jeff Davis #Julianne Boyd #Kelsey VonderHaar #Lucky Gretzinger #Marilyn Millstone #Matt Neely #Matthew Penn #Peggy Pharr Wilson #Rebecca Weiss #Scott Mullen #St. Germain Stage #Susan Middaugh #Suzanne Bradbeer #Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center #Tom Coash

[larryland]

by Roseann Cane

Known primarily for her witty, insightful short stories and novels about America’s upper class, Edith Wharton (1862-1937) had a sharp-eyed insider’s view of those who lived lives of privilege. This daughter of privilege traveled widely throughout her life. She was also the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize (for The Age of Innocence in 1920), and a dedicated intellectual who counted Sinclair Lewis, Henry James, André Gide, and Jean Cocteau among her closest friends.

Shakespeare & Company founding member Dennis Krausnick has adapted two of Wharton’s short stories, Roman Fever (first published in 1934) and The Fullness of Life (first published in 1892) into one-act plays, which are now appearing as A Perfect Pair of Wharton Comedies at the Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre.

Stylishly and skillfully directed by Normi Noel, both plays feature the same cast of three fine actors, Corinna May, Diane Prusha, and David Joseph. Patrick Brennan’s sets capture the time (and in one case, the timelessness) and place of both plays very nicely, transporting us to a fine hotel in 1930s Rome, and later, to a waiting area in the Hereafter. Stephen D. Ball’s lighting design is beautifully wrought, and Amy Altadonna has done a lovely job with sound design

 Krausnick has succeed nicely in adapting what may be Wharton’s most famous story, Roman Fever. May and Prusha play two recently widowed New York society women, Alida Slade and Grace Ansley, who find each other in the same Rome hotel where they’d stayed as young women. Both have brought their blossoming daughters, who are now about the same age as Slade and Ansley were on their own first visit to Rome. In her sterling portrayal of Mrs. Slade, May transmits the tightly coiled force of a woman who has evolved from a lusty, envious young beauty to an exquisitely turned-out middle-aged grande dame who seethes with the memory of slights, real or imagined, and is distraught to find herself solitary and undefined, after many years of recognition through her husband’s identity.

Prusha’s Mrs. Ansley, who calmly knits as her friend drinks a good deal of wine and paces along the hotel terrace, is a formidable foil. She exhibits a natural, calm containment as her facial expressions subtly reveal an inner strength and self-assurance that Mrs. Slade is unable to read. Both actresses are marvelous to watch, as is David Joseph’s Waiter, who replenishes the wine and charmingly sings offstage. Kiki Smith’s costumes splendidly communicate the differences between the women while remaining faithful to the period as well as the women’s social status.

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The second play, Krausnick’s adaptation of The Fullness of Life, is a very different story, literally and figuratively. May, Prusha, and Joseph offer well-crafted portrayals that I assume are appropriate to Krausnick’s adaptation. However, I’m afraid the adaptation reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of Wharton’s story, or perhaps a desire to play for easy laughs.

Wharton’s The Fullness of Life navigates the death of a woman through her ascension to the Hereafter, where she meets a being, The Spirit of Life, with whom she discusses what it really means to live.

The Woman reveals that she has a sense of what her life could have meant through fleeting but profound episodes she enjoyed in her travels and in her encounters with great works of art. She eloquently, passionately describes her numinous experiences. The Spirit of Life asks whether she found such feeling in her marriage, through love of her husband, and the Woman explains that while she was very fond of him, he lacked the capacity to understand such revelations. Eventually, The Spirit explains that she is to be rewarded with a man who is a kindred soul with whom she will spend eternity.

 Prusha, as The Woman, is costumed in dull shapeless grays that give her the appearance of an average, frumpy middle-class woman, and her dialogue and movement are, in keeping with Krausnik’s script, that of a sweet, confused Victorian-era housewife. As Spirit, May brings to mind a Greek goddess, lovely and majestic, and kindly tolerant of the Woman’s simple manner. When the Woman is introduced to her kindred soul, Man (Joseph) enters as a youthful beauty straight out of a bodice ripper.

The audience exploded into gales of laughter at the sight of the matronly, plain woman and this Victorian Fabio, and the laughter continued throughout as the beautiful young Man wooed the Woman and as he registered shock at the possibility of rejection.

But Wharton wrote of the privileged upper class, and surely the Woman we see in this play could never have afforded the travels she describes. Moreover, Wharton never mentions age or physical appearance in this story. As she writes about Spirit introducing the Woman to the Man, “She looked up and saw that a man stood near whose soul (for in that unwonted light she seemed to see his soul more clearly than his face) drew her toward him with an invincible force.”

By reducing a soul-to-soul experience to a mockery of the coupling of a frumpy woman and a much younger, beautiful man, isn’t he reducing the numinous to a sexist sitcom? I think so. I yearned for what might have been, had Krausnick not resorted to easy laughs.

Shakespeare & Company presents The Wharton Comedies, adapted by Dennis Krausnick from the short stories Roman Fever and The Fullness of Life by Edith Wharton, directed by Normi Noel, running August 17 – September 10, 2017, in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre on the Shakespeare & Company campus at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, MA. Set design by Patrick Brennan. lighting design by Stephen Ball, costume design by Kiki Smith, sound design by Amy Altadonna, stage manager Fran Rubenstein. CAST: David Joseph as The Waiter/The Man; Corinna May as Alida Slade and The Spirit of Life; and Diane Prusha as Grace Ansley and The Woman.

Tickets for The Wharton Comedies are available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company’s box office at [phone]. The Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible. Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, Massachusetts. This production is generously sponsored by Natalie & Howard Shawn and Eleanor Lord & Margaret Wheeler.

  REVIEW: Wharton Comedies “Roman Fever” & “The Fullness of Life” at Shakespeare & Company by Roseann Cane Known primarily for her witty, insightful short stories and novels about America’s upper class, Edith Wharton (1862-1937) had a sharp-eyed insider’s view of those who lived lives of privilege.

#Amy Altadonna #Corinna May #David Joseph #Dennis Krausnick #Diane Prusha #Edith Wharton #Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre #Lenox MA #Normi Noël #Patrick Brennan #Roman Fever #Roseann Cane #Shakespeare Company #Stephen D. Ball #The Fullness of Life