Tony and Pulitzer prize winning Drama onstage January 10 - 31, 2015
Oradell, NJ, December 24, 2014 - There is no doubt that race is a sensitive issue, as borne out by numerous events across the nation over the past six months. It can be difficult to explore, and while many politicians and social scientists call for a national conversation, it is often the arts world that leads the way in holding up a mirror to American society about this topic. While most take a serious approach, the Bergen County Players, one of the region’s most acclaimed theatre companies, has decided it is also possible to face the subject head on by presenting the wickedly funny and provocative Tony and Pulitzer Prize award-winning play Clybourne Park.
Playwright Bruce Norris picks up quite literally where the well-known Raisin in the Sun left off, in Chicago in 1959. In fact, the show is set in the very home into which playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s Younger family was ready to move. The plot even features one of her characters, Karl Lindner, who wants to stop the sale of the home to an African-American family. Fifty years later, in Act 2, the situation is reversed but the strife is surprisingly similar, except this time the objections are to the plans of a white family ready to buy the same house as the neighborhood gentrifies.
The Bergen County Players will present Clybourne Park, a must-see night of sharp-witted theater, over four weekends beginning Saturday, January 10th and concluding Saturday, January 31st with Friday and Saturday performances at 8pm and Sunday performances at 2pm.
Having grown up in Chicago, the play’s director, Alan Demovsky, feels a real affinity for the characters and the situation. As he says, “I remember that about that time my own family sold our home to African-Americans and within a year the entire neighborhood had changed.”
Clybourne Park is truly an ensemble piece with seven actors each portraying multiple characters. Janet Donofrio of Montclair and Andrew Lionetti of Westwood play Bev and Russ, who in Act 1 are anxious to sell their home but in Act 2 play the lawyer Kathy and the contractor Dan. Andrew Beadle of Highland Mills, NY plays Jim, the local minister who stops by for a chat in Act 1 and also appears in dual roles (as Tom and Kenneth, a lawyer) in Act 2. Francine and Albert, Bev’s maid and her husband, are played by Nadiya A. Braham of Hackensack, who later plays Lena, and Sheldon Roberts of Nyack, NY, who also is Lena’s husband Kevin. Tom Olori of Pearl River, NY is Karl and also plays Steve, while his deaf wife, Betsy, is portrayed by Tiffany M. Card who later plays Steve’s pregnant wife, Lindsey.
In Ben Brantley’s rave review in the New York Times, he said, “Clybourne Park provides the eternal and undeniable satisfactions of watching supposedly civilized people behaving like territorial savages … in this strong, ferociously smart play.” In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2011 and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2012, Clybourne Park won Tony Awards for Best Direction of a Play, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play and Best Scenic Design.
In addition to director Alan Demovsky, the Bergen County Players production team includes Paul Reitnauer III (Producer), Andrea Pieper (Assistant to the Director), Michele Roth (Stage Manager), Ron Drobes (Set Designer/ Technical Director), Steven Anderson (Fight Director), Jeff Pieper (Set Décor), Ruth Morley (Costumes), Christopher R. Hughes (Sound Design), Allan Seward (Lighting Design), Teri Noel (Props), Craig Woodward (Sound Operation), Joann Lamneck (Makeup), Jenny Imor (Hair/Wigs), Michael Smith (Photography), Ed Gross (Publicity), Margie McDonough (Programs Notes), and Paul Aiello, Dan Giordano, Brian Eller and David Luke (Stage Crew).
TICKET AND SCHEDULE INFORMATION
The Bergen County Players has grown tremendously from its roots as a small community theatre when it was founded in 1932; today, more than 300 volunteer members, working on and off stage, make possible the nine productions presented each season.