PTP/NYC Brings Off-Broadway to Vermont September 15–17
Acclaimed theatre company with ties to Middlebury College’s theatre program presents two shows from their 25th anniversary season
The Off-Broadway powerhouse PTP/NYC brings two shows to the Mahaney Center for the Arts on September 15–17, 2011. Both evenings of theatre are encore presentations from the company’s landmark 25th anniversary season this summer in New York City.
Tickets go on sale Tuesday, September 6, at the Middlebury College Box Offices, and since seating is limited, all performances are sure to sell out quickly.
The first of the two shows is Territories, a double-bill of short plays by Steven Dykes presented on Thursday, September 15, and Saturday, September 17, both at 8 p.m. Directed by Cheryl Faraone, both plays tell erotic stories of betrayal and voyeurism. The first short play is a light gathering of dust, a highly sexual, darkly humorous study of the damage inflicted on lovers by a government that rewards personal betrayal. The cast of professional actors includes Middlebury College alumni Megan Byrne ’96, Stephanie Janssen ’99, and Alex Draper ’88. Next is The Spoils, the tale of an army official with a romantic’s faith in the power of music. He finds his idealism shattered by the quartet of women who he is tasked with interrogating. The cast includes Gillian Durkee ’12, Cori Hundt ’11, Lilli Stein ’11, Nesba Crenshaw, and Alex Draper ’88. Music for The Spoils was composed by Paul Englishby. Audience members at the Thursday evening performance are invited to stay after the show for a discussion with the artists. A special anniversary reception follows the Saturday night show.
The second presentation of the weekend is Neal Bell’s psychological drama Spatter Pattern: or How I Got Away with It, playing Friday, September 16, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, September 17, at 2 p.m. The play follows a screenwriter who becomes entangled in the life of a university professor under investigation for the grisly murder of one of his students. The cast includes Adam Ludwig ’93, Christo Grabowski ’12, Lucy Van Atta ’12, and Andrew Zox ’05. Spatter Pattern is directed by Jim Petosa. A post-performance discussion with the actors and crew will take place in the theatre both evenings.
The design team for PTP/NYC includes scenic designer Hallie Zieselman, lighting designer Mark Evancho, and costume designers Lilli Stein ’11 (The Spoils) and Emma Ermotti ’12 (a light gathering of dust and Spatter Pattern). Michael Bradley Block is the stage manager.
The Potomac Theatre Project (PTP) was founded at Middlebury College in 1987 by Cheryl Faraone, Richard Romagnoli, and Jim Petosa—a trio of theatre visionaries who recognized the advantage of an alliance between aspiring young theatre students and actively working professionals. Over two and a half decades, the company moved from just outside Washington, DC, at the Olney Theatre Center in Bethesda Maryland to New York City. The company currently spends each summer at the Atlantic Stage 2 in lower Manhattan, where they have come to be known as PTP/NYC.
The company has given undergraduate students the opportunity to work alongside established Equity actors and other professionals doing everything from performing on stage and designing sets to managing company business and marketing. More than 200 Middlebury College students have been PTP company members at some point during or after their college careers. Co-founders Faraone and Romagnoli are professors in the Middlebury College Department of Theatre and Dance.
The 2011-2012 season marked PTP/NYC’s landmark 25th anniversary, with three critically-acclaimed shows, including the two shows on their way to Middlebury, as well as Howard Barker’s political and human drama Victory: Choices in Reaction. The season featured a dozen alumni actors and stage managers, and an equal number of 2011 and 2012 grads in multiple areas of production and design. The company held a New York celebration of alumni writers, directors, and actors on July 25, called “25 on 25,” with alumni joined in from California, Aruba, and multiple areas of the East Coast for eleven hours of readings, discussions, and extraordinary reunions. The celebration will continue at Middlebury, where a champagne reception will cap off the run of four shows, after the Saturday evening performance. Audiences will be invited to stay after the show to raise a glass of champagne with the cast and crew.
Tickets for Territories and Spatter Pattern are $25 for the general public; $20 for Middlebury College faculty, staff, and other ID card holders; and $6 for Middlebury College students.
Tickets for these two shows go on sale at a special, advance date: Tuesday, September 6, at the Middlebury College box offices in McCullough Student Center and the Mahaney Center for the Arts, or by phone at 802-443-MIDD (6433), or online at http://go.middlebury.edu/tickets.
For more information, call 802.443.3168 or go to http://www.middlebury.edu/arts.