ABOUT THE SHOW
This Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning drama by Michael Cristofer explores the end stages of life for three separate individuals and their families. It focuses on the gift of life and the one thing that usually persists through even the most difficult of times, Hope!!!
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Paul A. Nelson obtained his BFA from SUNY Geneseo in 1983 and has been employed as a Program Coordinator for the ReHabilitation Center for over 17 years.
He has acted, directed and worked backstage in various capacities in high school, college and community productions. His recent work includes the direction of several new works locally and with Upstage in Buffalo, New York as an actor and director.
THE CAST
Interviewer - Mary Rolick
Cottage One
Joe - John Zinzi
Maggie - Fior Zinzi
Steve - Boris Van Druff
Cottage Two
Brian - Tony LoGalbo
Mark - Mike Schott
Beverly - Andrea Trisciuzzi
Cottage Three
Agnes - Judy Chiariello
Felicity - Kathy Malick
THE PRODUCTION TEAM
Producer - Linda Manross
Director - Paul A. Nelson
Technical Director - Ken Roberts
Sound - Bill Steffen
Lights - Jim Hunter
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
After a decade of acting in the theater, Michael Cristofer found fame, as well as won the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony for writing the 1977 Broadway play "The Shadow Box", a character piece about three terminally-ill patients. The play had its initial premiere in 1975 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Prior to its Broadway run, Cristofer had had a few plays produced, including the 1972 street theater piece "Americommedia", theater piece (1972), but Cristofer had primarily been concentrating on an acting career.
The New Jersey native joined Washington, DC's prestigious Arena Stage Company for the 1967-68 season. After a stint appearing in a repertory company in Beirut, Lebanon (where he was pursuing graduate studies) and various Philadelphia productions, Cristofer made it to Broadway in 1977, cast as Trofikov in the Lincoln Center revival of "The Cherry Orchard". He had met with limited success as an actor, filming the busted pilot "Crime Club" (CBS, 1975) and the 1976 NBC remake of "The Entertainer".
On the big screen he was seen in "The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder" (1974) and was featured in "An Enemy of the People" (1978), a production of the Ibsen play better known for its miscasting of lead Steve McQueen. Since clicking as a writer, Cristofer has all but abandoned acting; his last screen role was as an Arab in "The Little Drummer Girl" (1984). Since the early 1980s, Cristofer has turned to a developing career as a screenwriter. His first produced script was "Falling in Love" (1984), a loose remake of "Brief Encounter" with Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep as married commuters who begin a relationship.
His biggest success to date was his adaptation of John Updike's novel "The Witches of Eastwick" (1987), which starred Jack Nicholson as the devil burned by the three women (Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon) he tried to control. Cristofer had screen credit on the unfortunate 1990 adaptation of "The Bonfire of the Vanities" and wrote the Richard Gere vehicle "Mr. Jones" (1993), about a manic depressive's love for a therapist. He wrote and produced "Breaking Up" (1997), based on his play about a couple who discover they are better off without one another. (from www.hollywood.com)
