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MAY
2012
56th
season
Contents
• In Memoriam: Gavin Anderson...... 2
• WCT in the Memorial Day Parade... 2
NEWSLETTER OF THE WESTPORT COMMUNITY THEATRE
COMPANY
is coming!
Life in New York City with Bobby (a single
man unable to commit fully to a steady
relationship), the five married couples who
are his best friends, and his three
girlfriends. The inimitable Sondheim music,
song and dance, an experimental theater
design, and glam lighting help Mark
Graham and company bring you…
Company.
• Company Designer Peter Ling
Creates a Theatre in the Round...... 3
The Pleasure of Your Company:
Discount for Cast and Crew Members
of 2011–2012 WCT Productions!
WCT thanks you for your participation
with discount tickets to current
productions. A seat during Opening
(June 8–10) or Closing (June 29 –
July 1) Weekend of Company is
yours for $10. When you make your
reservation, tell the Box Office you
are using this discount.
Photos by Michael Stanley
COMPANY
Book by George Furth, Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Mark Graham.
Production Design by Peter Ling.
Musical Direction by Stan Wietrzychowski.
Choreography by Liz Milwe
Lighting by Jeff Klein.
Costumes by Mary Kulcsar.
Stage Manager: Bethany Schalow.
In the cast: Linda Abshire, Bill Adams, Lisa Dahlstrom, Emily
Hughes, Patrick Kiley, Betty McCready, Marion Richard,
Rachel Rothman-Cohen, Cami Shore, Frank Sisson,
Leslie Leeman Uhl, Geoffrey Weglarz, Christopher Wilkes.
June 8 – July 1, 2012
Make your reservations!
visit us at www.westportcommunitytheatre.com
MAY 2012
THE PROMPTER
Company
on Parade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVm0aZcZTuI&feature=colike
Girlfriends (Cami Shore, Emily Hughes, Rachel Rothman-Cohen) and bachelor Bobby (Christopher Wilkes) were riding in style on a very
fashionable convertible "float” in Westport’s Memorial Day Parade. Many thanks to the cast, Donna Wyant, Sam Mink, Bob Burian,
and Jeffrey Wyant for making this happen!
WCT members:
The Westport Community Theatre Annual
Meeting is coming up in late June. This
year it will be held at the theatre.
Scheduled: the annual Presidentʼs Report,
Board elections, a proposed Bylaws
revision, refreshments, and good
fellowship. Watch your mail for details!
Editor................Ruth Anne Baumgartner
Designer....................Alexander Kulcsar
Chair, Communications.........Ann Kinner
Webmaster.........................Paul Lenhart
Contact: [email protected]
Westport Community Theatre
Town Hall
110 Myrtle Avenue
Westport, CT 06880
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In Memoriam Gavin Anderson
As we go into the last production of the 2011-2012
Season, we sadly note the loss of one of our
enthusiastic supporters, Gavin Anderson. He died at
the age of 74 late this past March.
In many ways a citizen of the world, Robert Gavin
Stewart Anderson was born in England and lived in a
number of countries while a senior executive for
Colgate Palmolive. He was a member of the Foreign
Trade Council, the U.S./South African Business
Council (which he helped to create), and the Council
on Economic Priorities.
Locally, he was most recently a selectman on the
Board of Selectmen for the Town of Westport. He also
served on the Westport Representative Town Meeting,
the Board of Finance, the Selectmanʼs Maintenance
Study Committee, the Saugatuck River Watershed
Partnership, and the Sherwood Mill Pond Committee.
He was also an active member of the Sunrise Rotary
Club.
And here at Westport Community Theatre, we will miss
his lively interest in and support for our efforts to make
quality theatre local and accessible.
visit us at www.westportcommunitytheatre.com
THE PROMPTER
MAY 2012
Designer Peter Ling
Envisions Company
In the Round
It seemed so clear to me, as a designer, that this was the way to
stage this musical. When I say itʼs just “a bed,” what I mean is itʼs a
bed, but the scenes are made by the presence of actors and singers,
and the greater presence of the real setting, in New York City.
Company Production Designer Peter Ling comes to the
Westport Community Theatre by way of London, having
served as Designer for the prestigious Everyman Theatre,
Liverpool, the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester, and many
more. He has worked for many years with longtime
colleague Michael Boyd, who is the current artistic director
of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Donna Wyant caught up with Peter on the set of Company
to ask a few questions for The Prompter.
How do you describe your contribution to this
production of Company?
Iʼm a member of a team. My responsibility is to find, make,
the space for the actors to perform in. I am giving them the
canvas to paint pictures, three-dimensionally, in space. As
part of a team, I care about all the other parts and each
team member, how everything works together: weʼre doing
it as an ensemble.
Company Production
Designer Peter Ling traces
his ancestry to the Vikings
and the Norwegian Lings;
he was born in London to
parents who were both
successful architects and
city planners. His father,
Arthur Ling, is famous for
his redesign of the
Belgrade Theatre,
Coventry, the first new
theatre build in England
after World War II.
Peter Ling and his model
for an in-the-round WCT
(below)
Peter, youʼve worked in so many theatres all over the
world— Whatʼs the appeal of working in the space at
Westport Community Theatre?
I loved the challenge of it, the chance to make the
ordinary—four walls, space—extraordinary—with the magic
of theatre to transform a hollow box into the magical space
of New York City.
The play felt to me as if the whole of New York City was a
bubble, and in this bubble, this goldfish bowl, Bobby is the
goldfish.
Coming in June…
COMPANY
Why couldnʼt you just have done this show the way itʼs
been done traditionally— the way it was done on
Broadway in the production that won so many Tony
Awards?
Based on a book by George Furth with
music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Company
isMark
defined
by the book,
and the text of the play;
Next byon
ourGraham
Stage
(April
Directed
there
are
all
these
little
vignettes
in
Produced by Ann Kinner and Sam Minkvarious places in New
13–29)
York.
And
thought, I am
not going to bring in scenery for
Peter
Ling,I Production
Design
all
theseKlein,
little Lighting
episodes,
because if I do, weʼll be falling over
Jeffrey
Design
Stan
Wietrzychowski, Music Director
Assembled for the
the
scenery.
A PICASSO
Liz Milwe, Choreographer
Mary Kulcsar,
Costume
Design
In theiscast:
Linda AbThere
is nothing
onstage
but a bed. The bed
the place
of
Rob Watts, Technical Director
shire, Graham,
Bill Adams,the
Lisa
Bobbyʼs
dreams. My vision, and Markʼs [Mark
Bethany Schalow, Stage Manager
Dahlstrom, Emily
by Jeffrey Hatcher
Director], is that the people are in Bobbyʼs dream and they
Hughes, Patrick
Kiley,
come to visit him; unlike so many other productions
of this
Betty McCready,
PabloinPicasso
has
beengosummoned
from hisMarmusical,
ours Bobby
doesnʼt
to visit their apartments.
ion Richard, Rachel
The
set centers
theGerman
bed where
BobbyRothman-Cohen,
is having
these
favorite
caféonby
occupation
forces
to a
dreams.
storage vault across the city for Cami
an Shore, Leslie
Uhl, Geoffrey
interrogation. Miss Fischer, a “cultural
attaché”
Chris
I cannot imagine Company has not been Weglarz,
done this
wayWilkes.
frombut
Berlin,
discover
whichwhere
of three
Picasso
before,
I havemust
not found
any instance
it was.
paintings recently “confiscated” by the Nazis from their
The WCT stage, reconfigured as an in-the-round theatre,
Life in New
York City with Bobby
single manan
unable
to commit
fully to aissteady
Jewish owners are real: the Ministry
of Propaganda
has(aplanned
exhibit.
Picasso
inclined
readyto
for Company
relationship), the five married couples who are his best friends, and his three
visit us at www.westportcommunitytheatre.com
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