Month: June 2019

Gloucester Stage Company

40^th ANNIVERSARY SEASON:

“The readiness is all”

Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park

Opens GSC 40^th Anniversary Season

Hit Romantic Comedy Features TWO Real Life Married Couples:

Paula Plum & Richard Snee

McCaela Donovan & Joe Short 

Gloucester Stage Company kicks off its 40^th Anniversary Season of professional theater with Neil Simon’s romantic comedy, Barefoot in the Park from June 7 through June 30 at Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 pm. Neil Simon’s longest-running hit, and the tenth longest-running non-musical play in Broadway history, Barefoot in the Park opens as newlyweds Corie & Paul move into a sixth floor walk up off Third Avenue in the east 40’s of Manhattan and follows the young couple as they quickly discover there’s more to marriage than meets the eye.

Director Shana Gozansky makes her GSC debut directing two real life married couples in this Neil Simon classic: McCaela Donovan and Joe Short as newlyweds Corie and Paul, and Paula Plum and Richard Snee as Mrs. Ethel Banks and Victor Velasco. “We are so pleased to be able to honor the late Neil Simon during our 40^th Anniversary Season”, points out GSC Artistic Director Robert Walsh, “as well as introduce GSC audiences to dynamic Boston-based director Shana Gozansky. And, of course it is such a treat to have 2 married couples (all GSC favorites) bringing this humorous look at marriage and all its ups and downs to life on the GSC stage.”

The newlyweds of Barefoot in the Park are McCaela Donovan  as the free-spirited, Corie, and Joe Short as her new husband uptight lawyer Paul. Off the stage Ms. Donovan and Mr. Short have been married for four years. Paula Plum is Mrs. Ethel Banks, Corie’s mother and Richard Snee is Victor Velasco, Corie and Paul’s neighbor. Ms. Plum and Mr. Snee will celebrate 40 years of marriage in 2020.

McCaela Donovan last appeared at GSC in 2012’s Crimes of the Heart. Her credits include Huntington Theatre Company, American Repertory Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Group, Reagle Music Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co, ArtsEmerson, New Repertory Theatre, Brandeis Theatre Company, Greater Boston Stage Company, Actor’s Shakespeare Project, The Lyric Stage, Bridge Rep of Boston, Fiddlehead Theatre Co and Company One. She earned a BFA in Musical Theatre from Ithaca College; an MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College; and an MFA in Acting from Brandeis University. Ms. Donovan serves as the Assistant Director of the School of Theatre at Boston University.

Joe Short appeared at GSC in 2017’s The Rainmaker, directed 2018’s True West and has been the theater’s Production Manager since 2013. He has performed in numerous theaters in Boston, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington DC. Mr. Short was a founding artistic associate of two successful New England theatre companies: Bridge Rep of Boston and The Wilbury Theater Group, in Providence, RI. He has been an instructor of acting, voice, and movement at the University of Rhode Island since 2010. Mr. Short is currently the Production Technician for  the newly created Theatre, Dance, and Media concentration at Harvard University. He earned his B.F.A. from the University of Rhode Island, and an M.F.A. from the Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium.

Paula Plum and Richard Snee last worked together at GSC in 2015’s crucially acclaimed Out of Sterno directed by Ms. Plum and featuring Mr. Snee.  Paula Plum is the recipient of five IRNE Awards, the 1995 & 2007 Eliot Norton Award for Best Actress, the 2004 Eliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, and the 2003 Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University. In 2009 she was one of five actors nation-wide to receive the Fox ActorFellowship in association with SpeakEasy Theatre Co. Ms. Plum is an actress, director, writer, and teacher and has created seven one-person shows for the Undadilla Theatre of Vermont, most notably, Plum Pudding. As a founding member of The Actors’ Shakespeare Project, she has directed Macbeth and School for Scandal. For 12 years she has been the Artistic Director of A Christmas Celtic Sojourn for WGBH, a concert of traditional Celtic music, dance and poetry that tours New England in December. Original work includes Wigged Out!, a comedy about her mother’s death, and What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, a dramatic biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Richard Snee’s appearances at GSC include Table Manners, Living Together, Round and Round the Garden and Auld Lang Syne in which he appeared opposite his wife. Regionally his credits include: Othello at American Repertory Theatre; Present Laughter, and Sisters Rosensweig at Huntington Theatre Company; and Uncle Vanya, Boy Gets Girl, Something in the Air, and A Christmas Carol at Merrimack Repertory Theatre. He has been a member of the Boston Company of Shear Madness since 1987 and is a founding member of the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, appearing in several of their productions including Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Cherry Orchard, Richard III, and Comedy of Errors. Mr. Snee has also performed at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, SpeakEasy Stage Company, the Nora Theatre Company, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, the Wilbur Theater, Hasty Pudding Theatricals and many other venues during his 30 plus year acting career.

GSC newcomer Shana Gozansky is a freelance director and teaching artist based in the Boston area. Her work has been produced at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Boston Playwrights Theater, Central Square Theater, Trinity Repertory Company, The Hangar Theatre, The Kitchen Theatre, The Calderwood Arts Pavilion, as well as multiple venues throughout New York City. She has assisted on productions at Berkeley Rep, The Geffen, Manhattan Ensemble Theatre, Henry Miller’s Theater, and Trinity Repertory Company and has taught acting and directing at Brown University, College of the Holy Cross, Clark University, the Hangar Theatre, and Trinity Repertory Company.  Ms. Gozansky holds a MFA in Directing from the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company MFA Programs and a BA in Theater from Bard College, was an Artistic Associate at The Hangar Theatre, an Artist-in-Residence at chashama and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and is a Drama League Directing Fellow

Born on July 4, 1927, in New York City, Neil Simon began writing comedy for some of radio and television’s top talents in the 1940s. Turning to the stage, he enjoyed his first major hit with Barefoot in the Park in 1963, and later scored Tony Awards for The Odd Couple (1965), Biloxi Blues (1985) and Lost in Yonkers (1991). Mr. Simon was also a successful screenwriter, earning acclaim for both original and adapted works. In addition to his numerous Tony and Academy Award nominations, Simon in 1983 became the first living playwright to have a Broadway theater named in his honor. He passed away on August 26, 2018.

Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park runs from June 7 through June 30 at Gloucester Stage. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 pm. Following the 2 pm performances on Sunday, June 16 and Sunday, June 23, audiences are invited to free post-show discussions with the artists from Barefoot in the Park. Single ticket prices are $15 to $48 with discounts available for Preview Performances, Cape Ann Residents, Senior Citizens and Patrons 18 years old and under. Gloucester Stage is committed to inclusion and diversity, including socio-economic status. Pay What You Wish tickets are available for the Saturday, June 8 matinee at 2 pm allowing access to the arts for all. No one is turned away for lack of funds and donations can be made before or after the show. Pay What You Wish tickets can only be purchased day of show at the door. Enriching our local community is key to GSC’s mission impact. Residents of Cape Ann can purchase $25 tickets for Preview Performances, June 7 at 7:30 pm and June 8 at 2:00pm and 7:30 pm and every Wednesday performance of Barefoot in the Park. Limit of 2 (two) per household. All performances are held at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA. For more information about Gloucester Stage, or to purchase tickets, call the Box Office at 978-281-4433 or visit http://www.gloucesterstage.com