EMPTY NEST?

Tomorrow is 2 weeks since we closed the show. Where is everyone? Are we just sitting around with a pout on or have we moved on... Please comment!!!

Final Weekend

This is the final weekend. We are all happy to be getting back together however, come Monday, we definitely will be suffering from "EMPTY NEST" syndrome. What a ride. We just have to enjoy this last weekend together.

Doesn't it SUCK!

Ok.. It has been two days since we were at the playhouse and I am going nuts. I've caught up on my paperwork, bills and even cleaned up from the party Saturday Night. If Syd will send me some some photos, I'll post them. Anyway.. to cheer everyone up while we are waiting for reviews here are a couple of pictures.

WE OPENED!

We Opened last night to a rousing audience response. Job well done!

Some rehearsal photos.

The smoker's lounge can be found in front of the theatre in between acts. Some some first hand and others grab some passive stuff. All in all, that's what the Acutes do!






And then there is Gary!











And you just have to wait and see what this becomes!!!!

Oh No!

You've seen the socks! You've even seen some feet... but here is a good one. Our McMurphy, Mike Febbo, inadvertently mistepped a bounding off of a chair and landed a little askew! This led to a rehearsal with McMurphy performing from a seat House Center. Let us get it out of our system now!

Hope you are better, Mike!

The only Nobel Prize in Medicine for the treatment of Mental Illness!

The Portuguese neurologist Antonio Egas Moniz received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1949 for his development of prefrontal leucotomy. In the United States, a modified version of this procedure, often referred to as the "ice pick lobotomy", was instituted in a highly unethical manner, and was performed somewhat indiscriminately. It was Dr. Walter Freeman, Moniz' American disciple, who gave it the name of lobotomy popularized in the press as far back as 1938 when The New York Times ran a headline "Surgery used on the Soul-Sick; Relief of Obsessions is Reported". Even Joseph Kennedy, the father of JFK, had his daughter Rosemary lobotomized when she was in her twenties. Dr. Walter Freeman, the American authority on the subject, performed the operation after having performed more than four thousand lobotomies. By the time Moniz was awarded the Prize in 1949, with the New York Times and The New England Journal of Medicine on his side, lobotomy had become quite popular so that from 1949 to 1952 around five thousand lobotomies are said to have been performed in the United States alone. Moniz died in 1955 as his medical procedure faded into disuse. The procedure has fallen into disrepute and was later prohibited in many countries. It is rarely performed now.

See the story here: Egas Moniz

NARY SIGN!

Socks and Lipstick!

Sandra (Becki) shows up with Bunny Socks! Our cast decided that socks can land you in "Disturbed."















Now.. speaking of disturbed! How'd the "make-up" artist get those lips so damned perfect?

Way to go Billy! (Dwight)

Hofmann outlives Kesey.

Father of the Drug LSD
Dies at 102

AP Posted: 2008-04-30 09:32:14

GENEVA (April 30) - Albert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery grew into a notorious "problem child," died Tuesday. He was 102. Hofmann died of a heart attack at his home in Basel, according to Rick Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, in a statement posted on the association's Web site.

His death was confirmed to The Associated Press by Doris Stuker, a clerk in the village of Burg im Leimental, where Hofmann moved following his retirement in 1971.

Hofmann's hallucinogen inspired - and arguably corrupted - millions in the 1960's hippy generation. For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.

"I produced the substance as a medicine. ... It's not my fault if people abused it," he once said.

AND FROM KEN KESEY'S BIOGRAPHY!

At Stanford in 1959, Ken Kesey volunteered to take part in a CIA-financed study named Project MKULTRA at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital on the effects of psychoactive drugs, particularly LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, and DMT. Kesey wrote many detailed accounts of his experiences with these drugs, both during the Project MKULTRA study and in the years of private experimentation that followed. His role as a medical guinea pig inspired Kesey to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1962.

Kesey died on November 10, 2001, following an operation for liver cancer.

THEY LOST IT!

How many times can you run a scene in an hour. I think we hit a record tonight. It took about 10 takes to finally get through it but now we figured out the window needs to stay open. At least everyone was laughing!

Good work tonight and we are now working with the set and it all feels good.

Socks, Socks, Socks.

As Promised we have socks. The first photo is Nurse Flinn and her lovely foot, sockless. I guess we all have to work with a basic foundation.















Socks #1 shows an abstract sock layout pretty much showcasing the complex make up of our assistant nurse.














And finally sneaker socks, or should I say Character Shoe socks.














Does this make us all crazy?

Titicut Follies

Yes, we managed to take the same route as the cast of the 1975 movie and we watched "Titicut Follies" as a cast. It was an interesting movie to say the least. As a Director I watched the cast more than the movie and found them to be intrigued, uneasy, unnerved at times and revert to laughter to get through it. All in all though it sparked some excellent dialog afterward and I feel the cast is really grasping the need to deepen their characters. It will only serve to heighten the audience's interest and response. Its time to start posting pictures! I'll see to that.

And let us not forget Nurse Flinn's socks!

Ironies in The Nest

Gary Allen Martin plays Chief Bromden
Gary Alan Boyer plays Charles Cheswick
Both had a tooth or two extracted this week!

Michael Thomas Febbo (Mikey) plays R.P. McMurphy
Michael Thomas Brown (Mickey) plays Anthony Martini

Ralph Schwalm plays Dale Harding
Ralph Montesano plays at Directing

Confusing? You should be there when at least two people turn when a name is called.

Coming Attraction!

Stay tuned for the saga of Nurse Flinn's socks!

"The Nest" has a cast!

Auditions were held and I think we have put together a group of some of the most talented people in the Lehigh Valley. We have held 4 blocking rehearsals and Act 1 is blocked. I couldn't be more pleased but those of you who know me also know that I hate blocking. The placement of people on stage and keeping them from bumping into each other is not my most favorite chore. However it is the white base coat that we start to paint pictures upon. Keep visiting for pictures, notes and updates on how the rehearsal process is going.

You can view the cast here: www.paplayhouse.org/ccn.htm

AUDITIONS

The Pennsylvania Playhouse will be holding auditions for the compelling drama
“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”

Sunday, March 16 and Monday, March 17, 2008.
The auditions will be held at the theatre starting at 7:00 PM
Auditioners should be prepared to cold read from the script
Callbacks are scheduled for Tuesday March 18, 2008 at 7:00 PM

All roles are open. We are seeking 12 males and 4 females including
3 African-American males and 1 "large" Native American male.

The show runs May 30 through June 15, 2008.

Character Notes

The play is cast with 13 men and 4 females. The roles are as follows:

THE PATIENTS
Chief Bromden
Dale Harding
Billy Bibbit
Scanlon
Cheswick
Martini
Ruckley
Randle P. McMurphy

THE STAFF
Aide Warren
Aide Williams
Dr. Spivey
Nurse Ratched
Nurse Flinn
Aide Turkle

OTHERS
Candy Starr
Sandra

Auditions at the Pa Playhouse will be scheduled soon. I anticipate the dates to be in the last two weeks of March. COME READ!

Mother Goose said it all.

The film's title was derived from a familiar, tongue-twisting Mother's Goose children's folk song (or nursery rhyme) called Vintery, Mintery, Cutery, Corn. The ones that fly east and west are diametrically opposed to each other and represent the two combatants in the film. The one that flies over the cuckoo's nest [the mental hospital filled with "cuckoo" patients] is the giant, 'deaf-mute' Chief:

Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn;
Wire, briar, limber lock,
Three geese in a flock.
One flew east,
And one flew west,
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

The Play

In 1963, one year after Ken Kesey's best selling novel of the same name was published, Dale Wasserman's stage adaptation made its Broadway premiere, running through 1964. Since then, the play has had two revivals: the first an off-Broadway production in 1971, the second a Broadway production in 2001 with Gary Sinise as McMurphy. A film version released in 1975 was based on the novel, but not on the play.

The 1964 Broadway production starred Kirk Douglas as McMurphy, Gene Wilder as Billy Bibbit, and Ed Ames as Chief Bromden. Kirk Douglas retained the rights to make a movie version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" for a decade, but was unable to find a studio willing to make it with him. Eventually, he gave the rights to his son Michael Douglas, who succeeded in getting the movie produced. Unfortunately, by this time, Kirk Douglas was deemed too old for the role of McMurphy, and the role was given to Jack Nicholson.

The 2001 Broadway revival won the Tony Award that year for Best Play Revival. It was a Steppenwolf Theater production, directed by Terry Kinney and stared Gary Sinise, Amy Morton, Tim Sampson (Will's son), Eric Johner, and Ross Lehman.

Welcome to the Cuckoo's Nest

In June of this year the PA Playhouse will be producing "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" in Bethlehem, Pa. I have been selected to direct this piece and am looking forward to the task at hand. CCN is a neo-classic study in human nature and relationships. Anyone know a 6'6" Native American?

Keep visiting to find out more. Audition notices, character descriptions, cast bios etc will appear here as well as at the PA Playhouse webpage... www.paplayhouse.org