Newsletter of Town & Gown Players, Athens, Georgia

Celebrating Over 50 Continuous Years of Community Theater

January-February 2006

Why Is My Envoy Late?

Dear reader,

Circumstances beyond our control forced Town & Gown to delay this issue of the Envoy. Editor and Production Manager Brooke Hatfield explains, "I blame El Niño. Unseasonably warm weather in the Upper Midwest at harvest time in late fall hurt the yield of bits. Then disappointed Colts bettors got on their cell phones to commiserate with one another, badly congesting the network. As a result, we couldn't get our bits in time to put out the pre-Academia Nuts online issue."

As an example of what the Envoy would have looked like during the bit crisis, Hatfield offers this sample sentence, set up using the depleted stock of bits on hand before deliveries resumed:

d.rd.mst nd.s b..xnd x.r dxntrxl fxrd.d txin - gxin tx d.l . th.s .ss.. xf th. .nvx..

We've turned an unavoidable production delay into an opportunity to provide you with extra spot coverage of a special Second Stage offering.

Second Stage presents:

Uneasy lie the heads that adapt the crown

(And you thought your family was complicated)

King Henry IV has a tenuous, ill-gotten claim to the English throne, a rebellion festering in the North and an heir with a proclivity for drink and bad company. Uneasy lies the head indeed.

Henry IV is a two-part epic, one of Shakespeare's most critically well-regarded historical plays and one that is rarely performed as a whole. Director Steven Carroll and adapter Jessica Maerz have cut an approximately 115-page original draft into a sleek 64-page animal.

Ten acts in one evening? It may sound like an ordeal, but Carroll and Maerz have turned the miniseries-length action into a fast-moving couple of hours. Purists will weep, but Carroll says, "Our production's central theme is of fathers and sons, and the central character dynamics of Prince Hal's relationships with his father figures Henry and Falstaff. Most cutting became a matter of keeping the story focused on the challenges and threats to those central characters and that theme."

Part of the appeal of Henry IV is that it forms part of a greater continuity that immediately includes Richard II and Henry V but spans the breadth of Shakespeare's historical cycle. It also features one of the Bard's most celebrated buffoons, Jack Falstaff.

Performing both parts of Henry IV was a matter of narrative completion. "The second part, which English professors call 2 Henry IV, is the payoff of all that 1 Henry IV sets up," Carroll said. "I felt compelled to tell the entire story."

Town & Gown regulars will get to see some of their favorites onstage in a cast that also features many excellent performers from the drama department. The King and his son Hal are played by Derek Adams (most recently in The Taming of the Dude) and John Witkiewicz (Biloxi Blues), while Michael Brogdon (Rumors) takes the demanding role of Fat Jack. Other T&G veterans are Dina Canup as Olwyn Glyndwr (buy a vwl, Dina!), Play D.D.'s Joe Costello and Brooke Hatfield as the Archbishop and Nell Poins, Mitch Maxey as Sir Walter Blunt, and Jonathan Sparks as Mortimer. University-based players include James Simmons as Hotspur, Michael Stille as the Chief Justice and Eric Kumsomboone as Vernon. Joey Waldrop, recently on the Thalian-Blackfriars stage in Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, doubles as The Douglas (secret name: Archibald) and fight choreographer. The Town & Gown home page has a complete cast list.

King Henry the Fourth opens Friday, Feb. 10 and runs through Feb. 12 at the Athens Community Theater behind the historic Taylor-Grady House on Prince Avenue. Curtain time is 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. on Sunday. Admission for each performance is $5, and no reservations are offered.

You just missed it

Play grabs laughs with touch of a poet

Equals parts farce, mystery, and love story, Academia Nuts spins around the riotous search for E.R. Lennox's secret autobiographical poem.

Stewart ("a man exploring the outer reaches of shamelessness" and dismissed from his teaching position for drinking, sexual harassment, fraud and incompetence) is convinced that the poem is hidden somewhere in Lennox's final home--now the home of Lennox scholar Peter Smedforson. Desperate for fame and fortune, Stewart is intent on conducting a "thorough, site-sensitive, scholarly investigation" with a pick ax. Peter, desperate to finish his latest book manuscript, is intent on getting rid of Stewart. Meanwhile, Judith, an up-and-coming young scholar and Stewart's ex-wife, has inadvertently destroyed Peter's manuscript and bolted, leaving Tammi ("a free spirit on the run from her Atlantic City legal troubles") hiding in the closet with the remains of the manuscript. Also hiding in the house is Lennox's Dark Secret.

The play, directed by Town & Gown favorite Steve Elliott-Gower, featured performances by Elissa Hadley, Allen Rowell and newcomers Michelle Luebke and Tom Tanner.

Touch of play grabs author

Gregg Kreutz, playwright of Academia Nuts, traveled to Athens to view the performance of Saturday, Jan. 28. Kreutz said it was the fifth production of his show that he had gone to see.

After meeting the cast and dining at the Grill downtown, Kreutz seemed to enjoy the show, according to Newt Carter, who sat next to him. The playwright, part of a very large audience that evening, appeared to know when many of the laughs were coming but was pleased to see the T&G cast getting full value--and then some--from his gags. He was highly complimentary in a post-performance debriefing, performers reported.

Kreutz has been exploring the possibility of a New York production for Academia Nuts. It's not likely to find a warmer reception than it did in campus-minded Athens.

Now in preparation for Mainstage

Rehearsals set for Devil's Disciple

Director Catherine (Cat) Clayton has put a record-breaking production team to work getting ready for the March opening of George Bernard Shaw's melodrama The Devil's Disciple. Casting is complete, costume and set design processes are under way, even the opening night reception is in good hands already.

Town & Gown has had a short but happy time with Shaw. Arms and the Man, in a Second Stage production directed by Fran Teague (1996-97 season), found a big and enthusiastic audience. Way back in 1968-69 T&G put up Don Juan in Hell.

Disciple is a departure in that we are putting Shaw on the big stage with the big budget. It's also novel in being Shaw's only play set in America. The title character is Richard Dudgeon (played by Derek Adams), who . . . well, Dick has issues with religion, family and civic life. The local preacher (Will Riley) wants to convert him, while the preacher's wife (Kris Tanner) sees him in quite another light. His mother (Jennifer Growden) disowns him, and British General Burgoyne (Warren Macpherson) means to hang him. At noon. But in a gentlemanly way.

This large-cast play will feature costumes by Leara Rhodes and a set design by B. Don Massey. Performances are scheduled for March 24-26 and 30-31 and April 1-2.

Mainstage audition call:

Private Lives

Open auditions for the four-character comedy Private Lives, by Noël Coward, will take place on March 27-28 at the Athens Community Theater. A lot of details are still being ironed out, so check the next Envoy to find out when you should come and how you should prepare.

Performance dates for Private Lives are May 12-14 and 18-21.

Board members and meetings

Meetings are scheduled for the second Tuesday of every month. For latest details (and locations), get in touch with T&G President Andy Garrison.

Board Members and Email Addresses

Officers and board members for 2006 will be listed in the next issue of the Envoy.
President	Andy Garrison	president@townandgownplayers.org
Vice-President	Terrell Austin	vicepresident@townandgownplayers.org
Secretary	Alison Hooper	secretary@townandgownplayers.org
Treasurer	Will Riley	treasurer@townandgownplayers.org
Membership	(currently vacant)	membership@townandgownplayers.org
Envoy Editor	Brooke Hatfield	envoy@townandgownplayers.org
Friends of Town & Gown/Development	Amy Miller	development@townandgownplayers.org
Facilities	Allen Rowell	facilities@townandgownplayers.org
Front of House	Kelly McGlaun Fields Amy Wildey	house@townandgownplayers.org
Second Stage	Steven Carroll	secondstage@townandgownplayers.org
Publicity	Julie Ramsey	publicity@townandgownplayers.org
Season Tickets	Marie Bruce	seasontickets@townandgownplayers.org
Webmaster	Eric Wagoner	webmaster@townandgownplayers.org

Town & Gown Players is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Your gifts are tax-deductible.

Town & Gown Players
P.O. Box 565
Athens, Georgia 30603
Lobby and backstage phone: (706) 548-3854
Reservations service: (706) 208-TOWN (208-8696) · Please call during regular business hours

Our website includes great links, a form to place your name on our e-mailing list, a map, photographs, history, features about our upcoming shows, and lots of other information. There's even a page where you can sign up to work as an usher, sell tickets, etc.

Comments, suggestions, or questions regarding the newsletter or Town & Gown membership? Contact former Membership Chair Marie Bruce or Envoy Editor Brooke Hatfield.

Brooke Hatfield edits and publishes the Envoy six times a year, more or less. Webmaster Eric Wagoner and Ben Teague designed the online version.

© Town & Gown Players 2006