SEASON 2008

Saturday Evenings
March 15, July 26, September 13, November 15
Staged/concert readings of new
plays fresh from the writers!
Meet the playwrights and discuss the plays at the   talkback following
each reading.
                                                (New Plays to be announced shortly)

                                    STUART LITTLE, the Musical,
              Adapted by Joseph Robinette, Music by Ronna Frank,
                         Lyrics by Both

This musical version of E.B. White's classic tale about a little mouse born into a normal New York
family further enhances the charming story of a determined "underdog" trying to survive in a "real
people's world." The many adventures—both big and small—of Stuart Little are brought vividly
to life in this story theatre presentation. The acting ensemble plays many human and animal roles
in a series of delightful scenes that make up the marvelous maneuverings of a mild-mannered mouse
trying to survive in a "real people's world." From melodic ballads to exciting chorus numbers, the
score by England's Ronna Frank features such delightful songs as "Paddle Your Own Canoe,"
"Feed Him Up," "Size," "Stuart Little," "I'm Headed in the Right Direction" and "Nighttime in
New York" (sung by a quartet of cats!).
Review--
"Stuart is headed in the right direction . . . funny . . . The 11 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17
are terrific as they take on myriad human and animal roles . . .comic. . .One of the highlights of the
show is a quartet sung by cats about the joys of "Nighttime in New York . . . marvelous dance sequences
. . .a delightful experience for young and old alike. "
                                                                                             THE TIMES HERALD-RECORD

                                               MARCH 15
     TRI-STATE'S NEW PLAYS READING SERIES
     
        What Happens After The War?
              by Susan Austin Roth
                   Admission by Donation
                    The Crescent Theater, 8PM
                    SYNOPSIS      PLAYWRIGHT       CAST                 

                                                                SYNOPSIS
MISSING PAGES tells the story of a contemporary American family haunted by the legacy of war. 
Is George--a master spy-catcher during WWII--fighting imaginary battles in his Alzheimer's-afflicted
brain, or is he reliving a long-suppressed past?  His adoring daughter Charlotte and his estranged
son Andy at first think he is hallucinating, but they soon suspect his ravings are rooted in reality. 
When they attempt to discover what their father actually did during the war,  George's and Andy's
wars collide in an emotional train wreck that turns the family upside down. Punctuated with
unexpected humor, this drama of family reconciliation and the aftermath of war resonates with
today's political events. 
 
The playwright based the character of George on  the personality and deeds of her own father,
drawing passages in the play from his war-time diary and letters. Andy's experiences in
Vietnam are drawn from memoirs of veterans of that conflict.
 
The Playwright
  
Susan Austin Roth is an emerging playwright who earns her living as a non-fiction writer
and photographer.  She lives in Washington, D.C.  Her  play, BYE, MOM!--or How Not to
Bury Your Mother, was show-cased in NYC in 2005. HOME FOR CHRISTMAS was performed
in 2003 at the Common Basis Theater in New York. Other short plays include CUT AND RUN,
THE WINDOW, and METRO STOP, a one-minute play.
 
Ms. Roth is a member of the Dramatist Guild, the Authors Guild, the Playwrights Forum
(Washington D.C.,) and the Women's Work Writers Group (Washington, D.C..)  She was a
Theatre Arts major at Mount Holyoke College for two years and apprenticed as an actor
for two summers at Boothbay Theatre in Maine.

                                               MISSING PAGES CAST (Alphabetical Order)
              
                      MARY CLIFFORD*    LISA ANN FRISONE*        IAN LOWE*             PAUL MANTELL*    BRENDAN MULVEY*
                  as Charlotte Armand        as Ludmilla                  as Pierre              as Andy Armand      as George Armand
                                                                                                  
 *denotes member of Actors Equity Association

                                                           SYNOPSIS, REVIEWS

One of the most famous plays of the modern theatre. A drama of great tenderness, charm and beauty--

Amanda Wingfield is a faded remnant of Southern gentility who lives in poverty in a dingy St. Louis apartment
with her son, Tom, and her daughter, Laura. Amanda strives to give meaning and direction to her life and
the lives of her children. Tom is driven nearly to distraction by his mother's nagging and seeks escape
in alcohol and the movies. Laura, who is crippled, lives in her own illusions. This defect, intensified by
her mother's anxiety to see her married, has driven her more and more into herself. The action
comes when Tom invites a young man of his acquaintance to take dinner with the family. Jim,
the caller, is a nice ordinary fellow who is at once pounced upon by Amanda as a possible husband
for Laura.  He and Laura manage to get along very nicely, and momentarily Laura is lifted out of
herself into a new world. But this crashes whenJim explains that he is already engaged. The world
of illusion that Amanda and Laura have striven to create in order to make life bearable collapses
about them. Tom, too, at the end of his tether, at last leaves home.

"Commanding...polished cast...fine acting"   
                                                          --THE TIMES HERALD-RECORD

"Fascinating production...Tri-State Actors Theater of Sussex stages a production that...opts for
something new."
                                                         --THE STAR-LEDGER

"The Glass Menagerie's doomed Wingfield family . . . is one of the great representations of the
defeated South, forever on the wrong side of history . . . exquisite play . . . worth seeing."

                                                             --NEW YORK MAGAZINE

" American theater's most exquisite mea culpa. . . . it established Tennessee Williams as one of the
country's foremost playwrights.  . . . characters who have no intention of hurting one another end
up doing so anyway. Their caresses leave scratch marks. . . . [The Glass Menagerie]  is perfectly
rendered."
                                                             --NEW YORK TIMES
 

"Fragile and beautiful, in all its facets. . . exquisite . . . Menagerie [is] his most moving and skillful
play, one of the signal family dramas of the American theater . . . unerring emotional truth,  . . .
trapped between the impulses of self-sacrifice and self-preservation."
                                                             --WASHINGTON POST

"The Glass Menagerie is terrific. . . . one of the legendary playwright's most personal plays."
                                                            --WASHINGTONIAN

                     MAY 17
                        SPECIAL EVENT
THE DELAWARE VALLEY OPERA presents

         

                   


   

                                    
                      
             
               SYNOPSIS     CAST    PHOTOS    TICKET
                       SAVE THOSE GAS DOLLARS! See Great Professional Theater right in the tri-state area
                        in Sussex, NJ, the new center for theatre, restaurants, antiques, gifts and all the Arts!

THE STORY-- A fast moving, hilarious comedy, deals with two earnest young men  struggling to
put out a "protest" magazine, and the all-American girl who moves in next door and manages
to send both of them into a romantic tail spin.

Andy and Norman are two earnest young men using their apartment as a publishing office for
a "protest" magazine in San Francisco. Sophie, an Olympic swimmer and all-American girl,
moves into another apartment on the same floor.  Her friendliness and charm leave Norman
hopelessly smitten. Thereafter love, with him, is a determined madness, with the humor of it
heightened by her frantic rejection of him. Meanwhile, his partner is fielding telephone calls
from the irate printer who wants to collect the money due him, and distracting the landlady
from thoughts of back rent  And while she is convinced that they are editing a dangerously
subversive magazine, our heroine soon finds that her real source of annoyance is that the
wrong man is pressing his attentions on her. Love and politics blend delightfully in a
bubbling series of funny happenings, set forth with the masterly skill and inventiveness that
are the hallmarks of Neil Simon.
THE REVIEWS--

 " Slapstick comedy...Bill Edwards makes Norman a crazy character who explodes with emotion
at the mere sound of his beloved's voice....Clark Gookin is truly comic...as Sophie, Misty Foster
looks and acts the part of an all-American girl...In her miniskirts, Foster is also attractive enough for
one to see why Norman falls head over heels in love at first sight...earnestness and humor...
fast-paced dialogue ...there's never a dull moment in...Simon's 1960's comedy."
                                                                                       --Times Herald-Record

"Meacham directs splendidly, with a cast that couldn't be better...Norman's super-
hyper blather can't be easy for an actor to sustain, but Bill Edwards does superbly
in keeping up the frenzy. Looking like Ellen DeGeneres' twin -- and sharing her
sense of comic timing -- Clark Gookin excels as Andy. Gookin enlivens things, too,
in showing Andy's exhaustion from his landlady attempts to romance him...Deep
in the play, Sophie has a line, "I am honest about my emotions, and that's the only
way I know how to be." Misty Foster apparently has taken this as her cue to deliver
a no-nonsense, straight-laced, level-headed characterization. She succeeds.
Meacham keeps all three performers running at a crazed pace, all over the cluttered,
charming and convincing dump of a set that he designed, too. His wife, Patricia
Meacham, also gets into the act, designing costumes that are spot-on for the period. "
                                                                                      --The Star-Ledger
.
 "...charm, brightness, deft inventiveness and capacity for good, honest hilarity..."
                                                                                       ---NY Post.
 "...Mr. Simon can do wonders ... with casually tossed-off fantasies that pop up from nowhere
and whistle as they go by."
                                                                                       ---NY Times.

                                                      July 12
                                   Special Event!
                                Bluegrass & More!

                            8pm
          The Historic Crescent Theater
                       Sussex, NJ
                Call 973-875-2950 or order Tickets Online
                       More Info   Tickets

JULY 26
NEW PLAYS READING SERIES
Two One-Acts

and

8pm in the Black Box Theater,
Historic Crescent Theater Sussex, NJ
Admission by Donation 
SYNOPSES   PLAYWRIGHTS

Synopses
Humorous and poignant at the same time, THE HAUNTED concerns a married couple,
a ghost, and a past love affair.  David Williams is a man in his forties who had an affair
 which he cannot forget. Julie, David's wife can't forget it either. Susan Swift, David's former
 lover returns, to "haunt" the confused couple as they try to sort out the mess of  their marriage. 

 ROCKING CHAIR, a comic take on "furniture,"  involves a woman and the rocking chair she
 tries to sell at a yard sale; when the chair come to life, they relive the memories of her children
 growing up, shared experiences, and the importance of friendship.
 

August 6-August 23


Adapted by Joseph Robinette,
Music by Charles Strouse
from the book by E.B. White
Call 973-875-2950 or order Tickets Online
synopsis  Ticket  Photos   Review

            CHARLOTTE'S WEB
                Adapted by Joseph Robinette, Music by Charles Strouse
                        from the book by E.B. White

                                          SYNOPSIS
This exciting, new musical version of Charlotte's Web brings a new dimension to E.B. White's
beloved classic. With music and lyrics by Charles Strouse (Annie, 'Bye, 'Bye Birdie) and book by
Joseph Robinette (national award-winning children's playwright)  audiences will thrill to a musical
score which includes  "Who Says We Can't Be Friends," an enchanting duet between Wilbur and
his new-found companion Charlotte; "Welcome to the Zuckerman Barn," featuring all the story's
unforgettable animals in a hand-clapping, toe-tapping hoe-down; and "Summer," a haunting,
nostalgic chorus number which evokes a time and place from everyone's childhood. Bring the
whole family!

                                                                       SYNOPSIS
Unseen for eight years, a quiet, hardened, and heavily tattooed young man named jasper appears
one night, standing in the dirt road outside a modest small town home.  the house may or may not
belong to Rory, Jasper's high school girlfriend, who remembers him fondly, but has never spoken
his name to anyone.  who Jasper is, where he has been, and his unspoken motives are slowly
revealed during a startling chain of events in this drama.

BLUR IN THE REAR VIEW was developed as part of the Moving Arts Theater's New play series.
Based on the Edward Hopper Painting "Summer Evening", it benefited through the Dramaturgical
guidance of The Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska, and 5 time Tony Nominated
Director Marshall Mason. 
                                                                             CAST(click on pictures for bios)

                                                                  
                                                                  Misty Foster                   Colin Ryan *                   Robert Wedig*
*Members of Actors Equity Association

20th CENTURY GUITAR Magazine compares Glenn's playing to that of Leo Kottke and Steve Howe, and states that  his music "uplifts the spirit..." and is "harmonious and reflective...superbly executed... ...tasteful [and] rewarding."

Don't miss this rare personal appearance by one of the finest Guitarists in America at Tri-State Actors Theater Saturday, Sept. 27 at 8PM.

                                              "For genuine stage fright, do not miss this gothic Victorian thrilller." Times Herald-Record
                                     
  
           
                                     Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt
                                       from the Novel by Susan Hill

                                  Call 973-875-2950 or order Tickets Online
                      Synopsis and Reviews      Cast   Photos  Tickets
                                                                                No one under 12 Admitted!

Thunderclaps and blood curdling screams are just the beginning in this terrifying
Halloween October treat for the Tri-State audience! A haunting tale of mystery
and suspicion, The Woman in Black explores the chilling past of Arthur Kipps - a
young lawyer hired to sort through the affairs of Mrs. Drablow after she dies. Years
later Arthur hires an actor to help him explore his memories and rid him of his
demons, but as they delve further they begin to uncover incidents that can not
be directly explained--chilling, scary fun!

                                                     Tri-State's Review!
                                  Sussex production is filled with chills

by James Cotter
for the TIMES HERALD-RECORD
October 11, 2008

SUSSEX, NJ-- Halloween will be soon upon us with its haunted houses and ghosts.  THE WOMAN IN BLACK
has both house and ghost with mayhem and death lurking in the English fog on a deserted island
cut off from the mainland by a march.  A solicitor talks an actor into playing his part to help him excorcise
the evil memories of his encounter with the ghost of a mother who has lost her child in an accident
on the causeway.  In re-enacting the scenes, the actor brings the past back to life, with terrible consequences.

THE WOMAN IN BLACK is adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the novel by Susan hill.  it is being revived by
Tri-State Actors, under the adept direction of Paul Meacham, with two first-class players: Roland Johnson in
the part of Arthur Kipps, the solicitor, and Gordon Gray as the actor.

Johnson transforms himself from a thir-rate reader of his own play into a versatile actor portraying not only Kipps
but also a variety of other characters.  He narrates passages while they unfold on the stage with horrifying
reality as Gray grapples with the ever-growing tension of dark rooms, ghastly apparitions and screams in the night.
Gray is mesmerizing as he throws himself into solving the mysterious events of the past.  Both actors project
forcefully and handle English accents convincinglly.  Lauren DeVore is the skeletal woman who seems all the
more frightening in her silent and sudden appearances.

Set design by Paul Meacham shifts easily from the cluttered actor's studio to the macabre rooms of the
marshland house.  Costumes by Patricia Meacham allow Johnson to change quickly into different roles
and make the Woman in Black a true specter.  The total blackouts by lighting designer Steven Silvia are
particularly effective.

A preshow Halloween Party and Costume Contest will be hel on Oct. 31.  For genuine stage fright,
do not miss this gothic Victorian thrilller.

 

                                                    World-Wide Reviews
" . . . charming . . .a shamelessly hokey Victorian ghost story, and it comes complete
with misty marshes, an isolated village whose citizens bear a secret, a solitary mansion,
a graveyard, spectral sightings, a shriek in the night and a lingering curse."
                                                                --NEW YORK TIMES

". . . frightening. . . a good, old-fashioned ghost story that is virtually guaranteed to scare you."
                                                                               --ABOUT.COM

". . . terror and suspense . . . a genuine, copper-bottomed audience-pleaser. . . . spine-tingling,
blood-curdling screams."
                                                               --The STAGE.C0.UK

"Hollywood may be able to generate impressive specters with the sophisticated technology at
its disposal, but rarely are its ghosts as persuasive -- or terrifying -- as those conjured from
the simple sights and sounds we encounter in darkness and solitude. . . The power of such
little things to make spirits real drives The Woman in Black, a terrifically old-fashioned ghost
story in the English tradition."
                                                               --AUSTIN CHRONICLE

". . . terror-filled. . . . you'll have to pay for the whole seat, even though you'll rarely use
more than the edge."
                                                               --CURTAIN UP,NewYork

AUDIENCES SAY:

". . .the whole audience was blown away. . . Everyone simply has to see this play!!!"
                                                    ---Danielle Klentzeris,  Cardiff 
"I believed it couldn't actually be that scary, but believe me it was!  . . . thinking about
it now, makes me shudder! Fantastic"
                                                     ---Holly Tate, Surrey
"Imagine the scariest theatrical production you could ever imagine, multiply this by a gripping
horror film and add a night you have spent alone wishing it was morning. . . You'll be sleeping
with the light on and running away from shadows for months afterwards."
                                                     ---William Cooper, London
"It is simply a delicious, juicy night of chills and jumps! . . . sound effects that just make you
believe you're 'there', the entire event is totally satisfying . . ."
                                                     ---KC, Ireland

                                                                              NOVEMBER 15
                                                                  NEW PLAYS READING SERIES
                                                                                                                    presents
                        ENGAGEMENT RULES
                                     a Comedy
                                                             by Rich Orloff
                                                                     Directed by Anne Barclay
                                                                  8pm in the Black Box Theater
                                                                      Admission by Donation
                                                          SYNOPSIS      CAST          PLAYWRIGHT

                                                                           SYNOPSIS
                                     Life.  Love.  Commitment.  It's mostly a comedy 

         ENGAGEMENT RULES is a comedy about love, commitment and the nature of the soul. 
         The play follows two couples, one grappling with obstacles in their young relationship and
         one seeking ways to renew the spice in their long-running marriage.  The couples advise and
         learn from each other as they face challenges (both with their mates and with themselves)
         which have no easy answer.
                                                                                THE CAST
                                                                
                                              P. Brendan Mulvey*       Barbara Leavell Smith       Bill Edwards*           Katie Tame*

DECEMBER, 2008
Purchase Tickets Online!