Season

Mall America

An HB Studio Performance

Playwright: Peter Sagal Mall America - HB Studio

Director: William Carden

Cast: Todd Crain, Jodie Markall, Ken Marks, Tony Martinez, Stephen Mendillo, Adam Rose, Eddie Weiss, Guy Whitlock

Director: William Carden Set: Ray Recht Costume: Deborah R. Rosen Lighting: Chris Dallos Sound: Bob Auld Production Manager: Kimberly I. Kefgen Casting: Stuart Howard, Amy Schecter, Howard Meltzer C.S.A. Casting Assistant: Deborah Leipzig

Mall America was performed April 7th – 9th,  12th – 15th,  19th – 22nd

Synopsis: Allison was feeling weird so she hopped a bus to the mall. A man on the bus was also feeling weird. But he had a gun…and lots of ammunition.

A Diary of the Nazi Years

An HB Studio performance

Playwright: Victor Klemperer Adapted by:  Karen Malpede & Bartenieff  A Diary of the Nazi Years - HB Studio

Cast: George Bartenieff

A Diary of the Nazi Years was performed February 25th – 26th, March 4th – 5th, March 10th – 11th

Synopsis: This diary represents the unusual perspective of a Jew throughout all twelve years of Nazi power. Its unique contribution to the field of Holocaust literature is its step-by-step presentation of the systematic dehumanization and persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Some readers focus on the fact that Klemperer knew Germans who were sympathetic to him as a Jew at a time when it was unpopular to be so. Others hold the diary up as evidence that the horrors of the Holocaust were widely known at the time, an issue that has been sharply debated over the years. Regardless of the reader’s or scholar’s interpretation of the diary, its important historical value is universally recognized.

 

The Wax

HB Studio’s Herbert Berghof Memorial Production

Playwright: Kathleen Tolan The Wax - HB Studio

Director: William Carden

Cast: Max Chalawsky*, Bruno Gioiello, David Greenspan*, Anne Lange*, Alice McLane*, Julia Muller*, Tracy Sallows*, David Simonds*, Janet Zarish*.

Director: William Carden Set: Markas Henry Costumes: Amela Baksic Lighting: Chris Dallos Sound: Robert Auld Composer and Musical Advisor: Richard Beaudoin Master Electrician: Josh Allen Casting: Stuart Howard, Amy Schecter, Howard Meltzer Production: Kimberly I. Kefgen

*Appearing courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association

The Wax was performed November 5th – 21st, 1999

Synopsis: At an out of town wedding, in a hotel by the sea, a bevy of soul-searching writers and scientists finds itself catapulted into full existential crisis. When lust and longing pervade, passion and poetry prevail, in this postmodern ode to middle-age mania.

Sleeping Arrangements

An HB Staged Reading

Playwright: Laura Shaine Cunningham

Sleeping Arrangements was performed during the 2005-206 season

Synopsis: A moving, funny memoir of a wildly unorthodox Bronx childhood in the 1950’s–the story of a girl who starts out fatherless, is orphaned at 8, is raised by two extremely odd strangers who happen to be her uncles, and slowly accumulates for herself a strong and–no matter how eccentric–deeply loving family.

The Quick-Change Room

An HB Ensemble Production

Playwright: Nagle Jackson

Director: Karen Ludwig

Cast: George Bartenieff, Georgina Bates, Felipe Bonilla, Fabio Costaprado, Beth Dzuricky, Lisa Ingrisano, Amanda Plant, Carol Rosenfeld, Sean St. John, Tom Tagliente

The Quick-Change Room was performed July 13th-29th

Synopsis: Set against the crumbling of the Soviet Union, as observed backstage at the Kuzlov Theater in St. Petersburg, THE QUICK- CHANGE ROOM is the comedic metaphor for the too-rapid transformation of Russia from communism to free-market capitalism. Nina, the daughter of the wardrobe mistress, has been cast as Irina in a revival of Chekhov’s The Three Sisters. Using her considerable talents—theatrical and otherwise—she persuades management that what Chekhov’s play needs in the New Russia is “music…some songs…maybe even some dances.” Chekhov’s masterpiece becomes, for marketing purposes, an American style musical titled O My Sister! The venerable artistic director is kicked upstairs—after all, “Russia doesn’t need great men now; it needs clever men”—and the long-reigning prima donna ends up working in wardrobe. A funny-sad commentary on current events, the metaphor of the quick-change room is not lost on the audience as the world around the acting troupe changes as drastically and as quickly as the world outside.

The White House Plays

One act play festival

Playwrights: Joe Sutton, Laura Shaine Cunnigham, Catherine Filloux, Lydia Stryk, Sharr WhiteThe White House Plays - HB Studio, Adam Kraar, Quincy Long, Tug Yourgrau, Frank Basloe, David Wiener, Daniel Reitz, Joan Vail Thorne, Amy Evans

Directors: Sturgis Warner, Amy Wright, Debbie Saivetz, Karen Ludwig, Adam Forgash, Randy White, Kathleen Dimmick, Susan Einhorn, Randy White, Andrew Grasso, Adam Forgash, Paul Widener

Cast: Daniel Ahearn, Katherine Barron, Michael Boswell, Rob Breckenridge, Catherine Llyod Burns, Drew Cortese, Michael Countryman, James Demarse, Beth Dixon, Shawn Elliot, John Fitzgibbon, J.R. Horne, Joy Jones, John Juback, Ann Lange, Robert LaVelle, David Little, Quincy Long, Carol Monferdini, Ron Moreno, Saxon Palmer, Susan Pellegrino, Jeff Pucillo, Patricia Randell, Laura Sametz, Alex Smith, Christopher Stack, Charles Stransky, Caroline Strong, Mike Szeles, Tamilla Woodward

Artistic Director: William Carden Director of Playwrights Unit: Pamela Berlin Producer: Shiraz Biggie Set: Troy Hourie Lighting: Greg MacPherson Costume “Eve A”: Suzanne Chesney Costume “Eve B”: Naomi Wolff Sound: Bray Poor Stage Manager “Eve A”: Elizabeth Paige Stage Manager “Eve B”: Allison Roberts

The White House Plays were performed June 7th – 26th of the year 2005.

Plays:

Punk’d: An actor, Ashton Kutcher and the president of the United States are having a private meeting because the presidents daughters went to the actors house and smoked marijuana. As the meeting prolongs, the president proposes an idea to the actor of pranking them to teach them a lesson of not using drugs.

In the Lincoln Bedroom: Someone who looks and sounds like, Abraham Lincoln, gives a Republican couple, Clem and Christy, a speech that helps settle their differences. This takes place in Abraham Lincoln’s old bedroom in the White House.

A White House Play # 1: A woman named, Bullock and a man named, Lucas, have a meeting with a famous Hollywood director pitching an idea about a movie.

The Van Buren Cloak Room: A woman named Ellen is being interrogated in an enclosed room by a woman in the Secret Service because as she was touring the White House she said something offensive towards a picture of the president.

Passion.com: The President is visioning a soldier, that he’s seen get killed, in a form of a “ghost” that only he can see. As a reverend arrives to come to his aid, he continues to speak to the ghost that only he can see, and has the reverend thinking he’s not sober.

Barbershop: The president, his aide and barber, are talking about their wives and there relationships as the president is getting his haircut and reading playboy magazine.

A White House Play #2: A gay couple, Julian, a 60 year old multi-millionaire famous from his art, and Chad, a 30 year old man, are about to go in the Oval Room of the White House for a meeting to admire the accomplished arist Julian. Before they go in they converse about the situation they are in.

The Last Standing Protestor: A woman is speaking to the audience, and asking them what enrages them about this world.

Geneva: The play starts as the president and two other people, Tanner and Flannery, are in the president’s room discussing about Geneva. After, there’s a transition in the play which makes it seem like the actors are going off script, but in reality the actor who is playing Tanner makes it seem like he doesn’t want to continue to act in the play because of his position on the topic of the play.

The Third Temple: A woman, Miriam, expecting a job opportunity of a teacher, is met with a strange interview with a meticulous man that goes by the name of X at the white house. X knows a lot about the woman Miriam which creeps her out as She is also presented with a job opportunity that is far different then what she has expected.

A White House Play #3: Two woman, Mills and Jane, and a man named Lance Corporal Evans are waiting outside the Oval Room with the president and other political leaders are in. As Jane is waiting to go in she converses with Mills and in the middle of the conversation it is as though the man starts speaking to Jane abruptly.

Higher Power: The president, his wife, the vice president and deputy chief of staff, are in white house private quarters. A voice that is supposed to be God is in the room giving commands to everyone.