A Singer's Havana Past Is Conjured in october crisis at FringeNYC
By Kenneth Jones
24 Jul 2008
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Gayton Scott, Julian Stetkevych and Caroline Tamas.
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| photo by Greg Emetaz | Packawallop Productions will present Alejandro Morales' the october crisis (to laura), a new play about a sultry singer's past, directed by Scott Ebersold, Aug. 8-18 at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival.
The music-kissed play takes place in 1962, when U.S. spy planes uncover secret missiles in Cuba and a cryptic telegram arouses painful memories for sultry singer Marguerite Stone. "When she is suddenly contacted by her estranged son, Marguerite is set on a journey back to when she was known as Laura Parker, a naïve young wife and mother who sets off to Havana in 1945 to make her big singing debut," according to production notes. "An overly efficient assistant, her suspicious younger lover and a repertoire of her songs performed by her younger self force Marguerite to face the consequences of her past decisions and reconcile with her son."
"Five standards from the period are sung," Packawallop co-artistic director Ebersold told Playbill.com. "They have been re-arranged [for] our imagined torch-singer-star, Marguerite Stone, who is inspired by female torch singers of the post-war period."
The cast features Gayton Scott (Broadway's Gypsy with Bernadette Peters, The Women and Present Laughter; Off-Broadway's Abigail's Party), Caroline Tamas, Tim Davis and Packawallop company members Polly Lee (expat/inferno) and Julian Stetkevych (the silent concerto).
This is the third Packawallop production to play the Fringe, following 2003's expat/inferno (Best Overall Achievement Award) and 2005's the silent concerto (Best Director and Best Set Design awards).
The design team is made up of sound designer Ryan Maeker (Innovative Theater Award nominee for the silent concerto), set designer Ann Bartek, costume designer Kate Rusek and lighting designer Ben Kato.
Morales' plays have been developed and presented at The Public Theater (where he is a 2008 Emerging Writer), INTAR, South Coast Repertory, HERE and Mabou Mines. He is a recent alumnus of New Dramatists. A collection of his plays has recently been published by NoPassport Press, featuring the award-winning expat/inferno (2003 Best Overall Achievement, FringeNYC) and sebastián (2002 Whitfield Cook Award).
Ebersold won the Best Director Award at Fringe NYC 2005 for his work on the silent concerto and the 2003 FringeNYC Best Overall Production Award for expat/inferno, both penned by Morales. His work has been seen at HERE, The 14th Street Theater, The Connelly, INTAR, New Dramatists, and New York Theater Workshop. He is a former member of the literary department of Moises Kaufman's Tectonic Theater Project and is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Director's Lab.
Performances will be at The Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street at the corner of Minetta Lane, in Greenwich Village.
Performances will be Aug. 8 at 9:30 PM, Aug. 10 at noon, Aug. 14 at 6:45 PM, Aug. 17 at 4:30 PM and Aug. 18 at 3 PM.
For ticket information visit www.FringeNYC.org.
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Julian Stetkevych, Polly Lee, Timothy Davis, Gayton Scott and Caroline Tamas.
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| photo by Greg Emetaz |
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