Bill Duell '44 Drops in on Cuckoo's Nest Performance From the GMC Journal Week of November 16, 2009 Audience members who attended Green Mountain College's production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Saturday got a special treat: a visit and interview with actor and alum William "Bill" Duell, class of 1944. Duell played Jim Sefelt in the 1975 film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - he was part of a cast that included Hollywood luminaries Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, and Louise Fletcher. In a question and answer session moderated by Prof. Paula Mann (theatre) after the Saturday performance, Duell reminisced about his role in the film and shared insights with the audience about his long and productive acting career. Duell has had many roles in stage and the small screen. His has appeared in other films including The Hustler, Ironweed, In and Out, and a recent remake of The Out of Towners starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. After graduating from Green Mountain Junior College, he continued his studies at Wesleyan University and Yale. Duell received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from GMC in 1998 and the College offers a theatre scholarship in his honor.
GMC Theatre Presents One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest From the GMC Journal Week of November 9, 2009 The weekend of November 13-15, the Green Mountain College Theatre Program will present the powerful and captivating drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest written by Dale Wasserman, based on the bestselling 1962 novel by Ken Kesey. The show features a cast of 17, including professional actor and Broadway veteran Richard Council in the role of Chief Bromden. Directed by GMC Prof. Paula Mann (theatre), the show features students Alexandra Cadete and Alexander Ervin in the lead roles of Nurse Ratched and Randle P. McMurphy.
Mann to Perform at Oldcastle Theatre From the GMC Journal Week of October 5, 2009 Prof. Paula Mann (theatre) is performing in Third a play at the Oldcastle Theatre in Bennington. The play, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Wendy Wasserstein, is about college life and deals with profiling, plagiarism and political correctness in a witty and poignant style. The play runs from October 2 through October 11. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m. Discounted GMC faculty tickets of $24 are available for Saturday nights.
Mann Hosts Reading in Manchester From the GMC Journal Week of September 7, 2009 On August 19, Prof. Paula Mann (theatre) joined actress Katrina Ferguson at the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vt. to present readings of their new work. The pair read from plays to be performed at the Oldcastle Theatre Company. Paula will be starring in Third a play by Wendy Wasserstein, that opens on October 2 and runs through October 11. Paula has appeared in more than 20 productions at Dorset Theatre Festival and has earned four best actress awards at Dorset.
GMC Theatre Dept. to Present Little Shop of Horrors From the GMC Journal Week of April 29, 2009 If you liked the music in the classic Disney movies The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas, you’ll love the music in the Green Mountain College production of Little Shop of Horrors April 30-May 2: All these shows have the same brilliant composer Alan Menken, who has received eight Academy Awards for his music. The Green Mountain College production will have a full band under the direction of faculty member Paul Opel. The show is directed by senior Ben Jankowski, an experienced hand in GMC theatre and at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine. The cast includes Kate Barcellos ‘12, Cameron Steinmetz ‘09, Maxx Steinmetz ‘09, and Chris Wetzel ’09.
Prof. Nassivera Receives Lifetime Achievement Award From the GMC Journal Week of April 27, 2009 The Vermont Arts Council recently announced that Prof. John Nassivera (theatre) has received the Walter Cerf Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. The award will be presented June 4 at the state arts council’s annual meeting in Montpelier. John has authored many plays that have been presented in New York around the U.S. and Canada, including The Penultimate Problem of Sherlock Holmes, Phallacies, All the Queen’s Men, and The Jazz Club. As a playwright he received a National Endowment for the Arts Playwriting Award and a Vermont Council on the Arts Playwriting Fellowship Award. He has also been a long-time producer both in New York and Vermont, often working with his friend and associate, Broadway producer Edgar Lansbury. John co-founded the award-winning Dorset Theatre Festival and served as its producing director for 30 years, until his retirement in 2006, after having completed a $3 million renovation of the historic Dorset Playhouse. His latest play, Sherlock Holmes and the People’s King, is being scheduled for its premiere with the Oldcastle Theatre Company in their 2009-10 season. John is a ‘Life Fellow’ of Columbia University’s Society of Fellows in the Humanities.
Theatre Department Stages "Our Town" From the GMC Journal Week of November 10, 2008 Area residents are in for a triple treat when the American classic Our Town by Thornton Wilder plays at Green Mountain College November 14 and 15. First, this will be a joint production between the College’s Theatre Program and the Oldcastle Theatre Company, with performances by seasoned professionals, talented GMC students, and local area children. Secondly, a special guest on opening night will be Peter Davis of Dorset, Vt., who played the newsboy in the original national tour of the play in 1939 in Los Angeles. Thirdly, it will be presented in the Clara Hitchcock Fitzpatrick Jones ’09 Concert Hall in Ackley Theatre. The concert hall was beautifully refurbished this summer with a gift from the Fitzpatrick family of Stockbridge, Mass., in honor of Clara Hitchcock Fitzpatrick who graduated from Green Mountain College in 1909.
Alberta Theatre Stages Nassivera's Play From the GMC Journal Week of September 22, 2008 Prof. John Nassivera’s (theatre) play, titled The Penultimate Problem of Sherlock Holmes, was presented by the Peak Theatre Players in Alberta this past spring. It is scheduled in the current season of the Bellingham Theatre Guild in Washington state, to open this coming January. This play was originally presented off-Broadway starring the well-known British actor Keith Baxter, and it is published by Samuel French, Inc., largest and oldest play publishers in the English speaking world. Mann to Play Lead in Wasserstein Play From the GMC Journal Week of September 2, 2008 Prof. Paula Mann (theatre) is playing the lead in a public reading of the play Third by Wendy Wasserstein. The reading will be at the Southern Vermont College in Bennington on September 4 at 6:30 p.m. Wasserstein was a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright who died in 2006. Her sister, Georgette Levis, will be leading a discussion about the playwright and the issues in the play following the reading.
Curtain to Rise on Speak Truth to Power From the GMC Journal Week of April 21, 2008 Ackley Theatre will host a powerful performance featuring the voices of human rights activists from around the world when Speak Truth to Power makes its debut on Friday, April 25. Performances are on Friday, April 25, and Saturday, April 26, at 7 p.m. in Ackley Theatre. Admission is free with GMC ID and $5 for the public. Saturday's performance is a benefit for Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Speak Truth to Power, written by Ariel Dorfman, is based on a book by Kerry Kennedy, Nan Richardson and Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Eddie Adams. It features interviews with human rights activists from around the world. GMC’s production, directed by Prof. John Nassivera, will also feature stories from GMC students who have had experiences with human rights issues in their home countries. The play will be combined with a performance from the GMC Jazz Ensemble. Student Directs The Last Five Years From the GMC Journal Week of March 31, 2008 GMC’s Visual and Performing Arts Department presents The Last Five Years, directed by student Ben Jankowski, on Friday, April 11 and Saturday, April 12. Performances begin at 7 p.m. in Ackley Theatre. The Last Five Years is an intimate, two-person song-cycle that tells the compelling story of Jamie, a nice Jewish boy, played by Cameron Steinmetz 09', and Cathy, a good Irish Catholic girl, played by Emily Piper 11', who fall in love, get married, and fall apart over the course of five years. Jamie is an emerging novelist enjoying his first taste of success, while Kathy is a struggling actress having trouble hitting it big, making their musical duet by turns wildly funny and crushingly sad. Music director for the production is Paul Opel. Admission is free with a GMC I.D.; $5 for the public. John Nassivera's play premieres this week From the GMC Journal Week of April 23, 2007 Blind Hemmin' Jefferson (played by GMC student Jose VanDerburg) is visited by gospel singers Crystal Giasson and Kesiah Francis in Prof. John Nassivera's new musical play, Prometheus Bound in New Orleans, which opens at Green Mountain College Thursday, April 26. Student Directed Play Hurlyburly Opens Friday From the GMC Journal Week of March 26, 2007 The play Hurlyburly, directed by senior Alejandro Flores-Howland, will open this Friday at 7 p.m. in Ackley Theatre, with a second performance Saturday at 7. Set in the early 80s, Hurlyburly is a Tony-award winning play that follows the intertwined lives of a handful of Hollywood players as they navigate the seamy world of the movie industry. Both are searching for meaning in what has become a hollow and isolated existence. Written by David Rabe, Hurlyburly was performed in Chicago and on Broadway then adapted to screen in the 1998 film starring Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, and Robin Wright Penn. This is the senior project of Flores-Howland, a self-designed theatre major. Admission is free to GMC faculty, staff, and students with ID. $5 general public. Tickets available at the door. Theatre Dept. Presents A.R. Gurney’s The Dining Room From the GMC Journal Week of Dec. 4, 2006 The Green Mountain College Theatre Department presented A.R.Gurney's classic play, The Dining Room, on Dec. 7, 8, and 9 at 7 p.m. The play was directed by Professor Paula Mann, an actress known by area audiences for her award-winning performances with the Dorset Theatre Festival. Described variously as hilarious, thoughtful, and moving, The Dining Room depicts the lifestyle of wealthy WASPdom, and the now-neglected room which was once a vital center of life. The play takes place in the dining room of a typically well-to-to household, the place where family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and special occasions. It is a mosaic of interrelated scenes--some funny, some touching, some rueful--all together they create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species: the upper middle class WASP life, from little boys to stern grandfathers, from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids, all with compassionate humor and abundant humanity.
