The Copenhagen Interpretation
Headless Sullivan Theater presented Michael Frayn's Copenhagen this past October to four nights of sold out crowds! Read more about that production and other past HST shows below.
Copenhagen. Pictures from the show!
Copenhagen: Behind the Scenes
As producer, I get a lot of perks. Like sweeping crumbling ceiling tile dust from the stage and designing cool headless signs for our bathrooms. But I also get to watch a run through of the play even in advance of the dress rehearsal, and last night was that night. I snapped a few photos!
Copenhagen!
And the dish ran away with the spoon…an HST exclusive puppet show!
Puppeteers from Headless Sullivan Theater and the Geneva Public Library’s Children’s Room staged the beloved and hilarious children’s story by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel, with live violin accompaniment! It was free, open to the public, and held at the Reading Room of the Geneva Public Library on Saturday, February 12th. We did a morning show and a afternoon show to work around nap-times…both were really well attended.
The cast was John Marks as our Narrator/Fiddle Player, Tanya Thompson and Trevor Gionet behind the stage/inside the puppets, and Kevin Dunn as several characters, including the Wolf and Jack. Directed by Gabi Mrvova. HST got special permission from the authors to adapt this work for the puppet stage, and Annie Greenwood tackled that challenge.
Though it was free, we accepted donations for the library. Really, the library is just the perfect public service. Support yours! Here are some images from the play:
our spring show was…
Rehearsing Death and the Maiden
We’ve cast and started rehearsing Death and the Maiden, Ariel Dorfman’s haunting play about what happens when a woman who has been tortured meets her torturer. It’s a gut-wrenching play about the nature of justice, memory, forgiveness, freedom, truth… lots of fun for these dark winter nights!
I’m really excited about our cast. James Haswell is returning to Headless Sullivan after performing in last year’s Out at Sea (he was the one who wanted to eat but not be eaten). Gianna Agonito and Jim Ditmars are new to HST, but not to Geneva theater, and we’re thrilled to have them. This play raises a lot of complex questions, and we’re really enjoying grappling with them. Above all, it’s a compelling story about three very real people, and it’s a joy watching these talented actors bring them to life.
I’ll keep you posted on our progress as we get closer to opening on April 16th…
Auditions this week at HST
HST is pleased to announce a CALL for AUDITIONS for its April play, Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman. We have roles for two men and a woman.
Auditions are TONIGHT (Monday, February 8th) and Wednesday, February 10th at the Headless Sullivan Theater, 427 Exchange Street. Auditions start at 8:30. You don’t need to prepare any text in advance.
We are also looking for costume, sound, and stage designers as well as crew (stage manager, etc), so if you’re interested in helping out behind the scenes, please come to the audition and meet us!
Pugilist Specialist opens!
HST’s production of Pugilist Specialist opened this Friday! Friday we were over half-capacity, and Saturday, our little storefront theater was sold out! With word of mouth taking a few days to gather steam, we’re looking forward to a bang-up second weekend. It was great to finally see this come together in front of an audience. Check out the photos to the right…of the actual performance. And stop by Area Records this week to buy your tickets in advance of this weekend. Last spring we turned people away!
Pugilist Specialist Update!
The cast and crew (and the lowly producer) have been hard at work at staging Adriano Shaplin’s Pugilist Specialist. We have a great cast that draws from both the Hobart and William Smith and Geneva communities, a fact that we are really proud of, and we’re gearing up for opening night. Tickets will go on sale on Monday, January 4th at Area Records here in Geneva. Yes, you can buy them at the door, but remember in the Spring, we sold out our last few nights and had to turn eager theatergoers away. So plan accordingly.
Publicity is one of the things producers (well, in this case, anyway) have to do, and I spent a good chunk of today creating a small poster to go along with our giant ones in the window of Headless Sullivan. Then, I waded through five different regional newspaper’s event submission forms, essentially repeating the following blurb, now printed directly and in its entirety for you:
Four Marines are on a mission of assassination, but who is the target? Headless Sullivan Theater Presents “Pugilist Specialist”: January 29th, 30th and February 4th, 5th and 6th at 8pm at the Headless Sullivan Theater, 427 Exchange Street. Tickets sold at the door and in advance at Area Records in Geneva.
Here’s the slick new letter-size poster, coming to a window near you, soon:
Our newest poster, collect them all...
If you want to downlaod the pdf, make copies, and send them to all those people who suffered through your Christmas letter, here’s a link to do that:
Here are some rehearsal images:
Auditions for “Pugilist Specialist” by Adriano Shaplin
Headless Sullivan Theater is recruiting for it’s January play, “Pugilist Specialist” by Adriano Shaplin.
The play is about four special operations soldiers on a mission of assassination, at least, that’s the set-up. There’s a lot going on in the play and what we love about it is that it’s funny, dark and very complex…it has the spirit of Catch 22 with the aesthetics of Beckett. Shaplin’s rich script provokes us to think about our relationship to our enemies, and the changing significance of war itself. Pugilist Specialist is firmly planted in the gray world we really live in; there are no easy answers or clearly-defined blacks and whites.
Adriano Shaplin wrote the play for the Riot Group, a peripatetic ensemble of theater artists that has performed in the US and Europe to some very high acclaim. Pugilist Specialist was awarded the Scotsman First of the Firsts Award and the Herald Angel award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2004. Joyce McMillan, reviewing the Fringe production for the Scotsman, called Pugilist Specialist “a show that spares itself the effort of dumbing down or sexing up, and simply cuts straight to the dark, complex and often bitterly comic heart of the new global politics that is shaping our future, whether we like it or not.” Rachel Halliburton, writing in the Standard, said: “The Riot Group deploys irony like a weapon of mass destruction, ripping with ease through the sentimentality and carefully constructed illusions inherent in political language.” For more on the Riot Group and their production of Pugilist Specialist, visit their site.
There are roles for three men, two between 19-35 and one up to 55, and one woman, age 19-40.
The play will show over several weekends in mid/late January – early February. Rehearsals will work around the holiday season this fall and after New Year through opening.
Gabriela Mrvova will be directing. Gabriela is from Slovakia and is one of the founding members of Headless Sullivan Theater. She did double-duty in the Spring, starring in “The Lesson” and directing “Out at Sea” during HST’s inaugural production Two Absurdities.
Auditions are this Sunday, October 25th at 7:30pm and Monday, October 26th at 7:30pm, both nights at Headless Sullivan’s storefront theater space, 427/429 Exchange Street. Come to either night. You don’t need to prepare anything in advance. Please bring your date planners too since we’ll need to know about availability on the audition forms.
