Little Firehouse Theatre
298 Kinderkamack Road
Oradell, NJ 07649

  PRESS RELEASE

BERGEN COUNTY PLAYERS OPENS ITS 2010-11 SEASON WITH
TONY-AWARD WINNING MUSICAL COMPANY

Oradell, NJ, August 11, 2010

In celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday, Bergen County Players will open its 78^th season with the groundbreaking musical Company, winner of the 1971 Tony Award for Best Musical.  Featuring a book by George Furth with music and lyrics by Sondheim.  Company will be performed under the direction of Ray Yucis at the Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell from September 11^th through October 9^th, 2010, with shows at 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 2pm on Sundays.  There are no performances on September 17^th and 18^th but special Saturday matinees will be presented on October 2^nd and 9^th at 2pm.

Company revolves around single man Bobby, who is surrounded by his “good and crazy people, my married friends”, who want nothing more than for him to settle down and enjoy the same “domestic bliss” they suffer through on a daily basis. This winner of six Tony Awards featured a recognizable score (“Another Hundred People”, “The Ladies Who Lunch”, “Being Alive”) and ushered in a new era of musical theatre in America which cemented Sondheim’s reputation as the most important Broadway composer/lyricist of the latter half of the 20th century.  Forty years after Company’s opening on Broadway, the show’s themes continue to resonate with audiences today.

“In an age of e-mail, Facebook and Twitter, when everyone is ‘connected’ all the time, urban life is more polarized than ever.  People will text people sitting on the other side of a room rather than just get up and talk to them,” says Ray Yucis, BCP Member and the show’s director.  “What does that say about the possibility of a long-lasting commitment like marriage?  This is, of course, the central theme of Company.”

Yucis’s directing credits at BCP include Moonlight and Magnolias, The Women, Brooklyn Boy and A Cheever Evening.  Recent directorial credits elsewhere include The Fantasticks, Black Comedy and As Bees in Honey Drown (Players Guild of Leonia), and Oklahoma!, Carousel and Annie Get Your Gun (SummerStage at Leonia).  As an actor, he has appeared on the BCP stage in Pack of Lies, The Actor’s Nightmare, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. 

BCP will be presenting the 1995 Roundabout Theater revival version of the script, which includes an additional song (“Marry Me A Little”) and several additional scenes that make for an even more satisfactory evening of theater.

Playing the perennially single Bobby is Zach Tait of Garfield, making his second appearance on the BCP stage after performing several roles in Comic Potential last spring.  Bobby’s three girlfriends – Kathy, Marta and April – will be played by Elizabeth Beck of Cresskill, Romanée Najemian of Wyckoff, and Abigail Taylor of Brooklyn, respectively.  Making up Bobby’s “coupled” friends are Staci Beth Block of Hackensack and Joe DiBartolo of Wanaque (Sarah and Harry); Janica Carpenter of Old Tappan and Tom Lupfer of Westwood (Jenny and David); Merielle Lupfer of Westwood and Timothy Meola of Flanders (Amy and Paul); Joanne Guarnaccia of Englewood Cliffs and Ron Siclari of Oradell (Joanne and Larry); and Josephine Peacock of Ridgewood and Christopher Milone of Palisades Park (Susan and Peter). 

TICKET AND SCHEDULE INFORMATION

• All performances take place at The Little Firehouse Theatre at 298 Kinderkamack Road in Oradell, home to the Bergen County Players for 59 years.
• Tickets for Company are $21 for all performances, and can be purchased online at www.bcplayers.org, by calling 201-261-4200 or by visiting the box office at 298 Kinderkamack Road in Oradell during regular box office hours.  Visa, Master Card, and American Express are accepted.
• Those interested in Group Sales can call (201) 262-0515.
• An Audience Q & A (“Questions & Artists”) is scheduled for September 24^th.  Admission is included in the cost of the ticket.
• Student Rush tickets are available for $5 for students age 25 and under with valid ID, 30 minutes prior to curtain. One ticket per ID. Cash only. Students can also guarantee their seats in advance either online or through the box office for the special student price of just $14.
• Parking is free at the Park Avenue municipal lot, across the street, one-half block north of the theater.

The Bergen County Players has grown tremendously from its roots as a small community theater when it was founded in 1932; today, nearly 300 volunteer members, working on and off stage, make possible the nine productions presented each season.

Further information can be found at www.bcplayers.org.

The Bergen County Players, Inc. is a non-Equity, non-profit community theater company dedicated to presenting quality productions for the enrichment of the community and is a member of the New Jersey Association of Community Theaters.