OCT Proudly Presents Season 29
Beginning with a Broadway Musical Tradition...
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
Book by Joseph Stein, Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, Music by Jerry Bock
directed by MINNA BADANES
assistant director SHERI COATNEY
February 15-16-17 2008
The Gator Theater
Allegany-Limestone School Auditorium
www.octnow.com
The Production Team
Producer - Fior Zinzi
Director - Minna Badanes**
Assistant Director - Sheri Coatney
Vocal Director - Eric Van Druff
Technical Director - Ken Roberts**
Orchestra Conductor - Ruth Fuller
Rehearsal Accompanist - Joyce Gilroy
Stage Manager - Jim Hunter
Assistant Vocal Director - Meaghan Bryant
Dance Captain - Danielle Campbell
Costume Mistress - Valerie Caskey
The Cast
Tevye - Paul Nelson**
Golde - Joan E. Jackson
Tzeitel - Whitney Riley
Hodel - Kierstin Coatney
Chava - Danielle Campbell
Shprinze - Erin Coatney
Bielke - Alexa Campbell
Yente - Kathy Malick**
Motel - Nathan Bell
Perchik - Jacque Austin
Lazar Wolf - John Zinzi**
Mordcha - Steve Riley
Rabbi - Moses Howden
Mendel - Joe Chilcott
Avram - Tim Hunter
Nachum - Mike Schott
Grandma Tzeitel - Patty Howden
Fruma-Sarah - Laura Giberson
Constable - Nathan Malick
Fyedka - Jamieson Riling
Shaindel - Dawn Chadwick
Sasha - Colin Sullivan
Yussel - Bill Steffen**
The Fiddler - Tanaka Van Druff
The Villagers
Meaghan Bryant, Sue Hannon, Andee Lathrop, Ginger Moser, Jerry Mottern, Gus Napoleon, Corinne Potter, Tom Potter, Bob Sader**,
Elaine Stephan**, Katie Ward, Kim Wolfrom
The Sons
Shaughn Bryant, Lars Doerr, James Hastings,
Tim Hollamby, Mitchell O'Dell, Christian Speta
The Daughters
Kira Chadwick, Bizzy Gilman,
Amber Kolodziejski, Fiona Kraus,
Brooke Lewis, Sarah Martin, Liz Meyers, LeighAnn Shaffer, Emily Sullivan,
Makayla Wells, Galen Ziaggi
**also in the cast/crew of OCT's 1985 production of
Fiddler on the Roof 1985 CAST PICTURE
ABOUT THE SHOW
Fiddler on the Roof
Music: Jerry Bock
Lyrics: Sheldon Harnick
Book: Joseph Stein
Fiddler on the Roof, based on the short story "Tevye and His Daughters" by Sholom Aleichem, was one of the first musicals to defy Broadway's established rules of commercial success. It dealt with serious issues such as persecution, poverty, and the struggle to hold on to one's beliefs in the midst of a hostile and chaotic environment. Criticized at first for its "limited appeal," Fiddler on the Roof struck such a universal chord in audiences that it became, for a time, the longest running production in the history of Broadway.
Set in 1905, Fiddler on the Roof takes place in Anatevka, a small Jewish village in Russia. The story revolves around the dairyman Tevye and his attempts to preserve his family's traditions in the face of a changing world. When his eldest daughter, Tzeitel, begs him to let her marry a poor tailor rather than the middle-aged butcher that he has already chosen for her, Tevye must choose between his own daughter's happiness and those beloved traditions that keep the outside world at bay. Meanwhile, there are other forces at work in Anatevka, dangerous forces which threaten to destroy the very life he is trying to preserve.
Fiddler on the Roof opened on September 22, 1964 with Zero Mostel in the leading role. It ran for 3,242 performances at the Imperial Theatre and opened the door for other musicals to deal with more serious issues. The 1971 screen version featured Norma Crane (Golde), Molly Picon (Yente), and Topol as Tevye.
credit: http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/albm5.htm
SYNOPSIS OF THE SHOW
In the Prologue, we meet Tevye the milkman and his wife Golde, and the people of Anatevka, a small Jewish settlement in Russia. It is 1905 and the first rumblings of the Russian Revolution are to be heard.
Life in Anatevka is hard, and governed by the traditions of the Jewish way of life, with marriages arranged by the village matchmaker Yente. She has been to see Golde, to arrange a marriage for Tzeitel, the oldest daughter, with the rich but elderly Lazar Wolf, the village butcher. Tzeitel, Hodel and Chava, the three sisters sing of the matches they would like to be arranged for their perfect husbands.
Tevye then enters, pulling his cart, and muses "If I were a rich man," but his dreams are interrupted by various people, and the news that Jews from adjacent villages are being evicted. Enter Perchick, a student from Kiev University, wandering, but earning a living from giving lessons to children; Tevye invites him to spend the Sabbath with them, and he is soon involved with Hodel, Tevye's second daughter. After some confusion, Tevye and Lazar Wolf agree to Tzeitel's betrothal, but when Tevye tells Tzeitel the good news she is overcome and has to reveal that all along, she has loved Motel the tailor. She is so upset that Tevye agrees (after persuasion) that she may marry him and not Lazar Wolf; this then has to be explained to Golde.
This is cleverly done by the appearance, in a dream, of Lazar's deceased first wife, Fruma-Sarah, who tells of dire consequences of Lazar remarrying. Golde agrees to the marriage of Tzeitel and Motel. The marriage is celebrated, but after a joyous dance, the Constable enters with his men and breaks up the ceremony as a prelude to a pogrom.
Act Two opens with Perchick on his way back to Kiev to take part in the revolution but, before he goes he asks Hodel to marry him. They tell Tevye that they will marry in defiance of the tradition that they should ask him, and despite his opposition, he agrees. He bravely tells Golde of his decision and why he did it - because Hodel loves Perchick - and asks if she loves him and this leads to the loveliest duet in the show - "Do you love me?"
Then rumours start about Hodel and Perchick (who has been arrested in Kiev) followed by a new arrival in Motel's shop, where Chava, the third daughter has once again be approached by Fyedka, a Russian. Fyedka has been interested in Chava for some time but she has held off due to Tevye's traditional Jewish hatred of all things Russian would never allow him to accept Fyedka as his son-in-law. Now she realizes that she loves him, and tries to ask Tevye to accept Fyedka but he cannot and tells her never to see him again. She decides instead to run away with him.
On top of this disaster, the Constable warns Tevye that the whole village has but three days to clear out: the pogrom has started. There is talk of resistance but it is hopeless: and Anatevka has to be abandoned.
The opera ends with the villagers, one after the other going away to start a new life wherever the may, leaving Tevye, Golde, and their youngest two daughters, Sprintze and Bielke packed and ready to go to America, leaving Anatevka empty, deserted, silent.
credit: http://www.saos.org.uk/productions/sharedsynopsis/fiddlerontheroof.htm
