February 2001 Westchester Playhouse

General Meeting: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 at 8:00 PM

Hospitality: This month’s goodies provided by Shellee James and Barbara Brophey

Workshop: "A Time to Kill," an adaptation of the resolution of John Grisham’s novel, will be presented by Margie Bates. Players include Alfonso Freeman, Ed Cotter, and Margie Bates, with a prologue and epilogue by Barbara McMurray.

Laughter on the 23rd Floor: Neil Simon’s comedy directed by Sheldon Metz and produced by Calia Mintzer and Sheldon Cohen is coming to an end. The final curtain will drop on all the laughs on Saturday, February 17. If you haven’t seen it, reserve your seats now!

Bleacher Bums: Director Jamie Weintraub and producers Jeff Wallach and Fatima Pottoff have assembled an incredible cast and crew for Joe Mantegna’s baseball oriented play. They were assisted at auditions by Kelly Blair, Tara Potthoff, De Cotter, and Jeanne Spain. The cast includes:

Melody: Theresa Conkin Greg: Christopher Lee Cook

Zig: Jack Weintraub Decker: Greg Jackson

Richie: Dylan Kussman Marvin: Nick Kokotakis

Cheerleader: Mike Roddy Rose: Sheridan Cole

Guard/ Announcer: Rick Zalewski Bag Lady: Kim Ash

To date the crew includes:

Script Supervisor: Fatima Potthoff Set Designer: Max Heldring Stormes

Light/Sound Designers: Richard Potthoff, John Spence, and Jamie Weintraub

Costumers: Maria Cohen and Jack Weintraub Properties: Gretchen Luna

Booth Crew: Tara Potthoff and John Spence Publicity/Lobby Photos: Shellee James

Lobby Scoreboard: Jack Weintraub

It opens March 9, 2001 and performs through April 14, 2001. Work Sunday is February 18. Please mark your calendars and do your best to be there to lend a hand tearing down the old set and building the new.

Painting Churches: This play, to be directed by Gail Bernardi is to play May 11 - June 16. (There will be no performance on Mother’s Day, and an extra performance will be added on Thursday, May 24.) It will be produced by Calia Mintzer who will be assisted by a new member, Fran Leslie. Auditions will be held on March 10 from 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM and March 11 from 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM. The following is the cast breakdown:

Fanny Sedgwick Church: A Bostonian from a fine old family, in her 60’s.

Gardner Church: Fanny’s husband, an eminent New England poet from a finer family, in his 70’s

Margaret Church (Mags): Their daughter, a painter, in her early 30’s.

Musical Concert Series (Then and Now!): Alison Mattiza, director of "Side By Side By Sondheim" sends a belated thank you to everyone involved in the last concert of 2000. First of all, she thanks her wonderful cast, Elizabeth, Melanie, Aileen, Greg, Jon, Phil, and Jeff who all worked so hard to learn a lot of difficult music and perform it with ease. Thanks to Edwin for doing an incredible job of switching among 4 or 5 books between numbers without batting an eye and for his beautiful playing. Also, Kirk Larson was absolutely incredible assisting her as well as stage managing for the shows. And, Richard and Tara Potthoff, as always, did a great job with the lights. Jeanne Spain took care of getting theatre managers and ushers, Brian Mulvey did a great job updating the script, and Philip Brickey and his cast and crew of I Remember Mama were very terrific. Thanks to everyone!

The first concert of this year’s series is Ain’t Misbehavin’ to be directed and produced by Jeff Wallach. He has assembled the following cast and crew:

Aaron Braxton, Phylliss Bailey Brooks, Carla Jimenez, Kenny Lee, and Jacquelyn Levy in the cast Dean Mora as the music director and Richard Potthoff as the technical director

It will play Sundays on March 18, 25 and April 1 and 8 at 7:00 P.M. There will be a sneak preview for Kentwood members with the date to be announced.

This and that (that shouldn’t go unread): We’ve had a change of face in the box office. Eric, who had been working there, recently moved back to Arizona. Happily, former box office employee Byanca Godwin has returned until a permanent replacement can be hired, and David Parke Jr. is handling Sundays. The new micing system is being installed! It should be up and running in time for Bleacher Bums. Now that there is hot water in the ladies’ room, the men want this luxury too! Shellee James is looking to make this happen.

AACTFest 2001: The board has given their approval for an original one act play, Behold a Pale Bronco, by Mary Steelsmith to be entered in the AACTFest on Friday March 9. The board approved hotel and travel expenses for the eight member cast and crew not to exceed $500. If you are interested in being a member of the crew for this event, please contact Mary Steelsmith or Richard Potthoff. Our entry, one of five in the festival, will be performed after 9:00 PM in the Lamplighters Community Theatre located at 8053 University Blvd. in La Mesa. If you are interested in attending this event, call the Lamplighters Theatre (619)464-4598 for more information.

Kentwood Players on the Web: Hal Fisher has been working with our web master, Andy Klute on a comprehensive tribute for our 50th anniversary on our Web site. It’s listed in the table of contents under "About Kentwood Players." Be sure to look us up from home, work, or any public library! The address is www.kentwoodplayers.org

Nominating Committee: A committee has be formed with Richard Potthoff, Hal Fisher, Gail Bernardi, Sheldon Metz, and Rocky Miller. If you are interested in serving on the board of directors in any capacity during the 2001 - 2002 season, please contact one of the committee members and throw your name into the ring!

Here, There, and Everywhere: Michelle Rosen will be appearing in Jest a Second at the Morgan Wixon Theatre. It’s directed by Lewis Hauser and plays January 19 through February 17. Kathleen Chapin is appearing in Educating Rita at Theatre Palisades through February 17. She’d love to see Kentwood faces in the audience. Alison Mattiza is appearing as Lola and Karen McCord is playing Gloria Thorp in Damn Yankees at Westminster Community Theatre. It’s directed by Jon Sparks, and Kirk Larson is the assistant director. The musical runs March 9 through March 31. For reservations call (714)527-5546. The Web site for the theatre is www.westminster-theater.org. Dee Turquand is home recovering from foot surgery on February 1. She had a calcium deposit removed from her achilles tendon and then had it reattached. She’ll need to stay off her foot for 6-8 weeks.

On a sad note: I am very sad to report the death of former member Brian Fuld. In 1994 he directed our production of Aspirins and Elephants. Brian was also becoming a successful screenwriter. He was killed in an automobile accident on January 17. Services were held in Reseda at the First United Methodist Church. Kentwood will be making a donation to a charity in his memory.

Celebrations: Happy February Birthday wishes to Dorothy Schrenzel (2/2), Eyde Fahringer (2/3), Frank Roys (2/12), Arnold Schildkret (2/14), James Green (2/15), Jeanne Spain (2/16), Toula Pessah (2/17), and Michael Meltzer (2/26) Happy Anniversary to Estelle & David Abrams (2/21).

Just for the record: If you want to get news items to me you can leave a phone message, (310)204-1838 or e-mail me at: N6KOA.J@JUNO.COM.

Until next month,