September 2001

The 2001-02 is an exceptional season!  The list of awards is astounding with three Pulitzer Prize winners in store for our audiences. The Hipp will launch its season with Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, Dramatist Guild/Hull Warriner Award, and Drama Critic Circle Award.  Described by critics as “...entertainment as succulent as it is sobering” (New York Magazine).  Margulies’ comedy-drama takes us into familiar territory that of friendship, love, marriage, and infidelity. Dinner With Friends previews August 29th-30 and runs August 31-September 23.  You won’t want to miss it!

If you want a good Halloween scare, we have a play “To make an audience gasp and laugh at the same instant...a compellingly cruel thriller” (Daily Telegraph).  Everyone knows the “King” of thrillers Stephen King.  His thriller Misery will keep you on the edge of your seat as a romance writer meets a schizophrenic nurse who is also his “number one fan,” who takes his life in her hands. Misery previews Oct. 17-18 and runs October 19-November 11.

Tuna Christmas and A Christmas Carol will warm your hearts for the frosty holiday season. Then Closer will really heat things up. Closer by Patrick Marber is a brilliant look at sexual desire and emotional failure, described by Newsweek as  “A powerful, darkly funny play about the cosmic collision between the sun of love and the comet of desire.”   This Broadway hit won the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Play and 1999 NY Drama Critics Circle Award.  Closer previews January 9-10, and runs January 11-February 3.

The Diary of Anne Frank brings audiences another Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most provocative stories ever told. Described by Time magazine as “Gripping in its down-to-earth immediacy.”   Frank’s powerful, poetic and compelling story will preview February 27-28 and runs March 1-24.

Proof by David Auburn took Broadway by storm winning the 2001 Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and Kesserling Prize.  The most highly acclaimed play of the year tells the story of a brilliant mathematician and his daughter who gives up everything for him.  Described as “HANDS DOWN the best play of the past couple (Broadway) seasons.  Funny, emotional, real and life affirming! What more can anyone ask of two hours in the theatre?” (Theatre.com).   Proof previews April 17-18 and runs April 19-May 12.

The final show will be one of the latest and greatest of musicals. It will preview June 5-6 and run June 7-30.

What more could any audience member ask for?   Join us for an incredible season!
 
 

 Once upon a time, we decided to make a night of it and have DINNER WITH FRIENDS!  We put out the best china, polished the silver and plucked a recipe from the web site of Martha Stewart. Everything had to be perfect, you see, as one of our guests was a food critic for the local newspaper. The eagerly awaited night was upon us, the doorbell rang, and there were our guests dressed in cocktail attire with large smiles upon their hungry faces. As the night progressed, we began to sense uneasiness at the perfectly dressed dinner table! Our guests shifted in their seats, there were long silences in the conversation and the Martha Stewart recipe remained untouched. The evening ended early, before coffee, as our guests excused themselves with fabricated reasons for their departure. We looked at one another, shook our heads in disbelief, cleared the table and headed for bed.

The night was still young so I crawled into bed with my latest novel, MISERY. Paul Sheldon’s great romance novel was one of my favorites and I was on my third reading of the book. Why my third reading? Several weeks before, big news hit the circuit: Mr. Sheldon has been reported missing. Right when his next novel was due. Sentiment perhaps! As I read, I thought how wonderful it would be if I could close myself in a room with him and discover the secret to his great imagination.  Maybe he would fall in love with me and we could write together and I, too, would be a famous novelist. I shook this fantasy from my mind, closed the book and, to rid myself of such thoughts, I picked up something more simple, Stephen King’s The Shining.

Weeks went by and soon the holidays were upon us. Our neighborhood gathered together on Wednesday evenings, put our musical talents together and came up with the perfect CHRISTMAS CAROL. We sounded great!! The only dark time during this holiday was the sad news that mad turkey disease had hit the states. Out of fear and common sense, we all decided upon a tasty TUNA CHRISTMAS.

At the beginning of the year, we headed to England. Looking forward to the fish and chips, great pubs and theatre in the West End.  We swarmed the streets with the wide eyes of a tourist. One night we were sitting in a pub and we began talking to a group of locals. The CLOSER we got to their stories, the more I blushed!  I couldn’t move from my seat!  I stayed until the sun came up!  I wished to find Paul Sheldon.  This would make a great novel! My! My! The games people play!

Finally, back home in the states. Paul Sheldon was still missing but I was not in the mood for romance anyway. I needed to find out things about myself instead of living through the fantasies of others. So, I started a diary. It was good to write down my innermost thoughts, but I thought my journal entries were weak and uninteresting. Who could teach me to write the truth? Who could use words to tell a vivid story of life? Then, I remembered!! When in middle school, I had read THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK. Off I went to the bookstore! That night in bed as I read the poetic words of Anne Frank, I cried myself to sleep because of such beauty in the midst of such horror!

Spring was upon me and I knew that my life needed shape. I wanted to start a 401K plan. Basically, I needed PROOF that I could jumble and mix the right numbers to plan my future. Perhaps I was really a genius at this and never really tried. My father guided me with formulas and plans and soon I was seeing my future shaped with numbers that would be my friend for life.

Summer is here and I don’t know what’s next, but I bet it is something exciting and daring. Oh, I do hope so!
 
 

Part of the magic of theater is the apparent effortlessness of the experience.  At its best a good play seems to be unfolding right before your eyes and the actors appear to be living in the moment and saying the lines for the first time.  What the audience doesn’t see is the is the thousands of hours of work put in by our incredible staff of artists, craftspeople, and administrators that make what we do possible.

I work directly with the administrative staff.  My next several articles will introduce you to this amazing group of people.

Our Development Director is Nell Page.  Many of your know her from her years on stage as one of the Hippodrome’s most accomplished actors.  She is equally accomplished in the role of Development Director.  Nell works with individuals, companies and corporations that support the theatre in a variety of ways.  If you are a patron who would like to know more about becoming involved with the Hippodrome either personally or through your business, Nell is your woman.

Rusty Salling is our Marketing Coordinator.  Rusty, as most of you know is, one of the most prolific and talented actors in the history of the theatre.  He has been both an actor and an administrator for nearly the entire 28-year history of the theatre.  With the help of a great staff that includes marketing associates Stephen Vendette and Larkin Kieffer and an amazing partnership with Adbiz, and our numerous media sponsors, Rusty keeps the publicity machine turning beautifully.

Betty Mayers is a name that many of you are familiar with.  She has been our Subscription Coordinator for over four years.  When you get that friendly call to renew your subscription or join our Diner’s Club, it is Betty on the other end of the line.  Betty is a true people person.  Her telephone skills are the best I have ever witnessed.  I had a patron once tell me that Betty actually makes a telemarketing call a pleasure.   I hope you all get a chance to meet her in person.  Any questions about renewing or our Diner’s Club go to Ms. Mayers.

I look forward to making more introductions next time.
 
 

Karen: Can you imagine what that would be like? You spend your entire adult life with someone, confident that you know and love them and that they know and love you, and it turns out that that person, the one person you completely entrusted your fate to, is an imposter?! Can you imagine?

Gabe:  Now, wait a minute, we don’t know the whole story.
 

What happens when the equilibrium of a long-term friendship is rocked by a divorce? Pulitzer-Prize winner, DINNER WITH FRIENDS, explores that question through laughter and wisdom in a play described by critics as “…entertainment as succulent as it is sobering.”(New York Magazine)

Gabe and Karen have it all: wonderful careers as food writers, a comfortable Connecticut home, a summer house at Martha’s Vineyard and Tom and Beth, their best friends. For over twelve years the two couples have shared their lives over dinners, vacations and through child rearing. All is well in their worlds until a startling revelation:  Tom and Beth’s marriage is ending.

“It’s really about the aftershocks that we all experience when certain constants in our lives, things that we perceive to be constant, suddenly shatter and are no longer dependable,” said playwright Donald Margulies in an interview on NPR. “There’s humor in [the play],” said Margulies, “but I think it also touches a nerve, and I think that’s one of the reasons why it has had the success it has had.” Since its premiere at the Humana Festival at Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, DINNER WITH FRIENDS has received steady attention, earning raves from subsequent productions at California’s South Coast Repertory, Off-Broadway’s Variety Arts Theatre and in Paris.

Dinner With Friends earned the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, The Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award, and the Outer Critics Circle Award.

Margulies’ work surfaced in the early 80s with the Off-Broadway play, Found a Peanut. His career took off in 1992 when Sight Unseen won an Obie for Best New American Play and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Soon to follow was the regional theatre favorite The Loman Family Picnic, and Collected Stories, which earned him another Pulitzer Prize nomination. Margulies has captured a slew of accolades throughout his career including the Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle Award, Drama-Logue Awards, Obie Awards, Drama Desk nominations and two Burns Mantle “Best Play” honors.

“Margulies writes about relationships with such intelligence and spiky humor that his comedy-drama becomes something quite wonderful.” (Time Magazine). Have some dinner with your friends and check out this winner!

August 31-September 23. Previews August 29 and 30.
 
 

One of my most touching and rewarding experiences in theatre happened a few weeks ago.  Bonnie Harrison, our Director of Education, asked me to travel with her to Jamaica to conduct a HITT session for 2 weeks.  The program was sponsored by FAVA/CA (Florida International Volunteer Corps) to focus on pregnancy, AIDS, STDs, drug and substance abuse.  We arrived at St Ann’s Bay on July 6th where we were to teach at the Windsor Girls’ Home.  This group of girls ages 13 to 18 are in Windsor because they were orphaned, abandoned, or in need of protection.  This was not an easy group to work with to develop trust and self-esteem but they were desperately in need of this type of intervention.  After a few days, the walls came down and we worked to share experiences, to talk about sex, drugs, peer pressure, relationships, families...  We talked about their lives, goals, and dreams.  The final day was a great one.  The girls created and performed some wonderful theatre that came from their hearts. They opened up and shared their lives with us and with their audience.  There were lots of hugs and tears as we left.  We hope to go back to train teachers to continue this type of programming and to visit “our girls” once again.

FAVA/CA also sponsored a HITT session in Grenada.  This workshop brought together the youth leaders from the entire island for a second year to tackle the tough issues of drug and substance abuse.  Marcia Brown and Sandra Dietel, our Theatre and Prevention Specialists for the HITT program, worked with Grenada’s Ministry of Education and Drug Avoidance Office to inspire the youth leaders to take a very important message to their peers.

These sessions have strengthened our belief in the unique power of theatre to change our world.
 
 

 Early in the predawn hours of Saturday, July 28, much to the consternation of many of their bio-clocks, stalwart members of the Hippodrome staff were busily emptying out the basement of our building, preparing for the “mother of all garage sales” to commence later that morning. Props, costumes and set pieces of all descriptions emerged from their subterranean home in a steady parade of Hippodrome history, to be placed on display around the perimeter of the theatre, in the Sun Center.

Eager early bird bargain hunters lined the Sun Center walkway, previewing the unique collection of curios of all dimensions. The gates opened at 7:00 AM, and we enjoyed a steady stream of curious shoppers throughout the day, most carting away little bits of the Hippodrome with them.  When the day was done, the sales totaled over $2,500.

And now that all that clutter is gone, and we can reassess our inventory, we will do some further slimming down, so be on the lookout for GARAGE SALE II, to be held sometime in September.
 
 

Wine  is the best known alcoholic beverage, made from the fermented juice of fruits, herbs, or flowers. Traditionally wine is made from grapes and their skins. The three standard grape wines are white, red, and rose.  Color depends on the grape used and how long the grape skins are left in the fermentation process.  For white wine the grapes are fermented without the skin; for red wine the whole grape is used; for rose wine the skins are removed after fermentation has begun. Dry wines are fermented until all the sugar has turned to alcohol; sweet wines are fermented for less time.  The complexity of wine has created a whole technical vocabulary and its own aesthetic in the arts and the literature. Today we explore wine and its influence on art...