Chester Theatre Group

Fiction closes October 23rd.  Catch it before it’s too late!

Here are some pictures from the production; or you can look at them over at Flickr.

Ruth Ross over at NJ Arts Maven has given our current production of Fiction a rave review.

Some choice paragraphs:

It is ironic that a play about writing fiction—that is, made-up, invented stories—should ring so true, but that’s what happens at the Chester Theatre Group’s Fiction by Stephen Dietz. Directed by Jeff Knapp and featuring just three actors, this production possesses an intimacy and a freshness so natural and convincing that it feels like we’re watching real life unfold before our very eyes.

[...]

The Chester Theatre Group was nominated for a rash of Perry Awards in 2010 (eleven, I believe), and it’s clear that this production should nail a few more this year. Fiction is a thought-provoking play about the lies we tell ourselves, the lies we tell each other and, in the case of professional authors, the lies that get turned into best-selling novels. It is also a play about marriage, trust and truthfulness, and just how much of the latter we are obligated to share with our spouse/partner. Perhaps some things are best left hidden.

Read the full review here.

The only thing harder than dying with a secret…

… is living with one.

The Chester Theatre Group is presenting Steven Dietz’ 2002 play “Fiction” from October 8-23, 2010.  Directed by Jeff Knapp, the play features Tom Morrissey as Michael, Carol Holland as Linda and D’Angelique Dopson as Abby. The play runs Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 pm with a Sunday matinee at 2 pm on October 17. Ticket are $18, Students and seniors discounts on Friday and Sunday performances $16. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 908.879.7304

Fiction tells the story of Michael and Linda Waterman, a pair of writers who find themselves facing Linda’s mortality after the diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor which will run its course in a matter of weeks.  Linda suggests she read Michael’s diaries before she dies, as he will read hers after she’s gone.  In doing so, she runs the risk of exposing the lies and fictions they both have created around their “real” lives and their literary creations. The Watermans share a common muse in Abby, a docent at a writer’s colony they both (seperately) attended.  How Abby plays into each other’s fictions is revealed as the evening progresses. The script is filled with warmth, pathos, humor and topics for discussion on the ride home.

Steven Dietz is one of America’s most widely-produced and published contemporary playwrights. Since 1983, his twenty-plus plays have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres in the United States, as well as Off-Broadway. International productions have been seen in England, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, Sweden, Austria, Russia, Slovenia, Argentina, Peru, Singapore and South Africa. His work has been translated into seven languages.

Mr. Dietz is a two-time winner of the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, for FICTION (produced Off-Broadway by the Roundabout Theatre Company), and STILL LIFE WITH IRIS. He received the PEN USA West Award in Drama for LONELY PLANET; the 2007 Edgar Award for Drama from the Mystery Writer’s of America for his widely-produced SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE FINAL ADVENTURE (adapted from William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle); and the 1995 Yomuiri Shimbun Award (the Japanese “Tony”) for his adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel SILENCE. Other widely produced plays include INVENTING VAN GOGH, GOD’S COUNTRY, PRIVATE EYES, THE NINA VARIATIONS, TRUST, ROCKET MAN, HALCYON DAYS, TEN NOVEMBER, FOOLIN’ AROUND WITH INFINITY and MORE FUN THAN BOWLING. Other award-winning stage adaptations include FORCE OF NATURE (from Goethe), OVER THE MOON (from P.G. Wodehouse), THE REMEMBERER (from Joyce Simmons Cheeka), PARAGON SPRINGS (from Ibsen), DRACULA (from Bram Stoker), and, with Allison Gregory, GO, DOG. GO! (from P.D. Eastman).

The Chester Theatre Group and director Jeff Knapp will hold auditions for a fall production of the play FICTION by Steven Dietz on Sunday, August 8th at 7pm and Tuesday, August 10th at 7pm at the Black River Playhouse, on the corner of Grove Street and Maple Avenue in Chester, New Jersey.  FICTION is a drama with much humor, but it’s not set-up/joke/joke humor…

The show runs Fridays and Saturdays, October 8-23, 2010 with a Sunday matinee performance on October 17.

All roles are open:

Linda Waterman: mid 40s-50s – her first book was a non-fiction best-seller; now a professor dying of brain cancer.  (Not not like Wit dying of brain cancer, she lives with it the best she can. No head shaving required. Maybe a bandana.)

Michael Waterman: mid 40s-50s – an author of pop-lit who had grander aspirations.  He’s dealing with his wife’s illness as best he can.  He’s maybe a little full of himself, takes himself a little too seriously.

Abby Drake,  late 20s-mid-30s – curator of “The Drake Colony”, a writer’s colony where Linda and Michael both wrote, at different times.  Abby knows both of them, separately.  She keeps secrets for both of them.

“The power to change one’s life comes from a paragraph, a lone remark.” – James Salter, Light Years

A bit about the play:  Linda, a successful author turned professor, is dying of cancer, and she asks her husband, Michael, to dispose of her diaries after she’s gone; but she invites him to read them after she’s gone before disposing or donating them.  Since she will be showing him hers, she says its only fair if he let her see his journals before she shuffles off the mortal coil.  He hesitates and then relents — what can he say?  What she reads is at times known to her, and at other times, a revelation.  When she reaches the volume about Michael’s time at The Drake Colony, a writer’s retreat, she recognizes a familiar face from her own time at The Drake.   The play dances around in time and place, so Linda is not always dying, Michael is not always 40ish, etc. But the one thing that endures is their love for one another, even through the dark times, their love binds them together.

For additional information, call the producer, Ellen Glasscock at 908-698-3678.

[UPDATE 8/5/10: Synopisis and character descriptions tweaked.]

We’re very excited to announce our 2010-2011 season.

Mainstage Productions

Fiction

by Steven Dietz, Directed by Jeff Knapp

Auditions: Aug 8 and 10, 2010
Performances: Oct 8-23, 2010

Linda and Michael are successful writers, a happily married couple who thrive on the give and take of their unusually honest and candid relationship. But when they decide to share their diaries with one another, the boundaries between past, present, fact, fiction, trust and betrayal begin to break down.  No life, as it turns out, is an open book.

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks

by Richard Alfieri, Directed by Roseann Ruggiero

Auditions: September 26 & 28, 2010
Performances: Nov 19 – Dec 5, 2010

When a formidable retiree hires an acerbic dance instructor, antagonism and mistrust give way to civility, compatability, compassion and loyalty as they swing, tango, foxtrot and cha-cha together.

Urinetown

Music by Mark Hollmann, Lyrcs by Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis, Book by Greg Kotis; Directed by Clifford Parrish

Auditions: December 5 & 8, 2010
Performances: Feb 25-Mar 20, 2011

Don’t let the title keep you away from this hilatious musical comedy that satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement and municipal politics (just to name a few!) The unconventional plotline may surprise you, but the singing, dancing,  jokes and pokes will have you laughing in the aisles and humming the whole ride home!

Mauritius

by Theresa Rebek, Directed by JayMills

Auditions: March 6 & 8, 2011
Performances: May 6-21, 2011

After their mother’s death, two estranged helf-sisters discover a book of rare stamps that may include the holy grail of stamp collecting.  Philately proves to be more intriguing and far riskier than one might thing, as high-stakes collectors enter their world intent on making the rare find their own.

Grey Gardens

Music by Scott Frankel, Lyrics by Michael Korie, Book by Doug Wright; Directed by Mark Happel & Jeffrey Fiorello

Auditions: February 2011
Performances: July 1-24, 2011

The cult-classic turned smash Broadway musical recounts the story of the Bouvier Beales, the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy Onassis — oncebrght names on the social register who became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses.

Special Events

Comedy Workshop

Saturday mornings TBA, 9:30 AM – Noon

Kate Lyn Reiter brings back her Comedy Workshoip for Adults and the Comically Curious for a series of Saturdays.

An Evening of One-Acts

Performances: September 24-26, 2010

The Chester Theatre Group is proud to present two one-act comedies on September 24, 25 and 26 at the Black River Playhouse. 

Christopher Durang’s THE ACTOR’S NIGHTMARE, directed by Stephen Catron, will be familar to anyone who’s involved in theatre — you know the dream:  you find yourself on-stage, ready to perform, only you don’t know what the play is – you’ve never rehearsed  - you don’t know the plot, let alone the lines!   George finds himself on stage, uncertain of where he is or how he got there – suddenly he’s thrust on stage, it’s Hamlet?!? – a glamorous actress appears to be doing Private Lives by Noel Coward?!?  Beckett’s Endgame? A Man For All Seasons?!? This hilarious spoof is a classic!

Next up is Jonathan Rand’s CHECK, PLEASE, directed by Jeff Jackson. Dating can be hard. Especially when your date happens to be a schizophrenic, a bigamist, or a mime. CHECK, PLEASE follows a series of blind dinner dates that couldn’t get any worse—until they do. Could there possibly be a light at the end of the tunnel?