A Piece of My Heart

Macon State College Company of Players presented “A Piece of My Heart” by Shirley Lauro on April 10, 11, 17, 18, and 19, 2012 in the Macon Campus Arts Complex Theatre. The shows started at 7 p.m. Directed by Jason Levitt, the performances, supported by student activities fees, were free and open to the public.

CAST:
Sissy ……………………..….. Amanda Burkhalter
Whitney ………………....…... Fahari Jones
Jane ...………………….…… Breanna Smith
LeeAnn …………….…..…… Vashae House
Mary Jo …………………...… Sabrina McHarg
Martha …………………...…. Sarah Kilpatrick
Steele …………………….… Carmelita Dillard
The American Men …........... Khalil Blount

CREW:
Director– Jason Levitt
Assistant Director– Madysen Kovak
Stage Manager/Costumer– Dara Foy
Set Construction– Gary Faulkner
Sound– Paul Roadarmel

ABOUT THE PLAY:
“This is a powerful, true drama of six women who went to Vietnam: five nurses and a country western singer booked by an unscrupulous agent to entertain the troops. The play portrays each young woman before, during, and after her tour in the war-torn nation and ends as each leaves a personal token at the memorial wall in Washington.” - From the Samuel French website

The New York Times says, "There have been a number of plays dealing with Viet Nam, but none with the direct, emotional impact of Ms. Lauro's work."

Anton in Show Business

"Anton in Show Business” by Jane Martin, the winner of the 2001 American Theatre Critics Steinberg New Play Award, was presented by the Macon State College Company of Players, Tuesday, November 8th through Thursday, November 10th, and Tuesday, November 15th through Thursday, November 17th in the Arts Complex Theater on the Macon campus. The performances, supported by student activities fees, were free and open to the public.

PLAYERS

Casey Mulgraw - Julie Allen
Lisabette Cartwright - Maggie Rogers
Holly Seabe' - Amanda Burkhalter
Joby - Madysen Kovac
T-Anne - Alexis Walker
Don Blount - Faatima Vasser
Joe Bob - Faatima Vasser
Andwyneth Wyore' - Faatima Vasser
Gate Announcer - Faatima Vasser
Kate Todoravskia - Erika Lloyd
Ben Shipwright - Erika Lloyd
Ralph Brightly - Vashae' House
Wike'witch Konalkvis - Vashae' House
Jackey - Dwana Johnson
Gate Manager - Dwana Johnson

CREW

Director - Jason Levitt
Assistant Director - ShirleyAnn Brownlee
Stage Manager/Costumer - Dara Foy
Set Construction - Gary Faulkner
Set crew - Matthew Royal, Lauren Williams, Dell Royal

About the play:

"This madcap comedy follows three actresses across the footlights, down the rabbit hole and into a strangely familiar Wonderland that looks a lot like American theatre - the resemblance is uncanny! As these women pursue their dream of performing Chekhov in Texas, they're whisked through a maelstrom of 'good ideas' that offer unique solutions to the Three Sisters' need to have life's deeper purpose revealed. In the tradition of great backstage comedies, Anton in Show Business conveys the joys, pains and absurdities of 'putting on a play' at the turn of the century." - From Samuel French, Inc.

"A smart, acerbic crowdpleaser...Simultaneously a love letter and a poison pen letter to the American theatre." - Variety

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” a play by Tom Stoppard, was presented by the Macon State College Company of Players, Tuesday, April 12th through Thursday, April 14th, and Tuesday, April 18th through Thursday, April 21st in the Arts Complex Theater on the Macon campus. The performances, supported by student activities fees, were free and open to the public.

PLAYERS

ROSENCRANTZ - Paul Roadarmel
GUILDENSTERN - Julie Allen
THE PLAYER - Mark Richter
TRAGEDIANS/SOLDIERS - Faatima Vasses, Madysen Kovac, Hannah Chandler, Sabrina McHarg, Katherine Rugen
HAMLET - Han Htet
OPHELIA - Erika Lloyd
GERTRUDE - Ashley Gordon
POLONIUS - Wesley Brown

CREW

Director - Jason Levitt
Assistant Director - Dara Foy
Stage Manager - Olivia Bushey
Set - Gary Faulkner
Lights/Sound - Paul Roadarmel

About the play:

From stageplays.com: "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the college chums of Hamlet and their story is what happened behind the scenes in Shakespeare's play. What were they doing there in Elsinore anyway?"

"Very funny, very brilliant, very chilling; it has the dust of thought about it and the particles glitter excitingly in the theatrical air." - N.Y. Times

All Through the Night

The Fall 2010 production was “All Through the Night” by Shirley Lauro, Nov. 9-11 and Nov. 16-18, in the Arts Complex Theatre, Macon campus. Doors opened at 6:30 p.m. Production began at 7 p.m. The performances, supported by the student activities fees, were free and open to the public.

PLAYERS
LUDMILLA - Faatima Vasser
GRETCHEN - Erika Jackson
ANGELIKA - Caroline Sapp
FRIRDERIKE - Julie Allen
FRAU LEHRERIN - Ashley Gordon
FRAU DIREKTORIN - Lisa Thomas
FRAU FUHRIN - Ashley Gordon
FRAU OBERAUFSEHERIN - Erika Lloyd

CREW
Director - Jason Levitt
Assistant Director - Dara Foy
Stage Manager - Olivia Bushey
Set - Gary Faulkner
Lights/Sound - Paul Roadarmel

From the Samuel French website:
“Nominee for the 2006 Joseph Jefferson nomination as Best New Chicago Play of the Year. All Through the Night speaks directly with a warning for today. Set during and after the Third Reich, a stylistic, surrealistic play inspired by interviews with German Gentile women. The play sweeps from their teen years through adulthood during the Holocaust and beyond. The Nazi Regime impacts the women's lives as they struggle over work, religion, marriage and motherhood. Making overwhelmingly hard choices, they survive or succumb to Hitler's Reign and are changed forever."

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

The spring semester Company of Players' production was "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" by Paul Zindel, a playwright and science teacher. Zindel received the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for the work. Spring production dates were April 13-15 and April 20-22 in the Arts Complex Theatre. Doors opened at 6:30 p.m. and the show started at 7 p.m. Admission was free.

CAST
Beatrixe Hunsdorker - Kelley Wright
Matilda Hunsdorfer - Julie Allen
Ruth Hunsdorfer - Maggie Rogers
Nanny - Laura Wallace
Janice Vickery - Ashley Foy

CREW
Director - Jason Levitt
Assistant Director - Ashley Foy
Costume/Prop/Stage Manager - Dara Foy
Lighting and Sound - Paul Roadarmel
Program/Flyer Design - Maggie Rogers
Set Construction and Design - Gary Faulkner

"Frowzy, acid tounged, supporting herself and her two daughters by taking in a decepit old boarder, Beatrice Hunsdorfer wreaks a petty vengeance on everybody around her. One daughter, Ruth, is a pretty but highly strung girl subject to convulsions; while the younger daughter, Matilda, plain and almost pathologically shy, has an intuitive gift for science. Encouraged by her teacher, Tillie undertakes a gamma ray experiment with marigolds that wins a prize at her science fair - and brings about the shattering climax of the play. Proud yet jealous - too proud to accept her daughter's success, Beatrice can only maim when she needs to love and deride when she needs to praise. Tortured, acerbic, she is as much a victim of her own nature as of the cruel lot that has been hers. And yet, as Tillie's experiment proves, something beautiful and full of promise can emerge even from the most barren, affected soil. This is a timeless lesson of the play and th eroot of its moving power and truth." From Dramatists Players, Inc.

The fall production was "Balm in Gilead" by Lanford Wilson. Production dates were Nov. 10, 11, 12 and Nov. 17, 18, 19 in the Arts Complex Theatre. Doors opened at 6:30 p.m. and the show started at 7 p.m. Admission was free.

DIRECTED BY
Jason Levitt

ASST. DIRECTORS
Laura Wallace
Dara Foy

STAGE MANAGER
Dora Poy

SET DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
Gary Faulkner

COSTUMES
Dara Foy

SONG ARRANGEMENT
Tyler Newton & Liam Copan-Kelly
Sung by Liam Copan-Kelly, Tyler Newton

CAST
Jonnie - Danielle Mallory
Ernesto - Chris Gray
Babe - Brooklynn Boulware
Rust - Doretha Calhoun
Bonnie - Ashley Foy
Fick - Tyler Newton
David - Michael Kirsher
Tig - Lana Harris
Rake - Liam Copon-Kelly
Mortin - Andrew Murphy
Bobbie - Julie Allen
Frank/Stranger - Clifford Pauley
Alice - Whitney Hazen
Darlene - Laura Wallace
Dopey - Paul Roadormel
Kay - Kelley Harmon
Joe - Tarver Petersen
Terry - Sabrina McHarg
Ann - Emilie Clarke
Xavier - Khalil Blount
Timmie - Shelby Hall
Judy - Ashley Curtis

The setting for "Balm in Gilead" is winter at an all-night coffee shop on New York's upper Broadway, where the riff-raff, the bums, the petty thieves, the lost, the desperate of the big city come together. The movement is kaleidoscopic in effect, a surging mosaic of overlapping and interrelating speeches and action as separate goals and characters are blended together around a common center. At the core of the play are Joe and Darlene, two young people who would seem to have the strength and the need to transcend the turmoil and ugliness of the life in which they found themselves - but are, instead, crushed by it. But their loss is quickly absorbed in the maelstrom, as the others go on desperately seeking the joy and release and purpose in life which will, most certainly, continue to escape them.

Pictured is the cast of the Company of Players Spring 2009 production, "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot."

Company of Players Director Jason Levitt talks with students during rehearsal.

Hush Little Celia, Don't Say a Word

7:00 p.m. November 18,19 and 20, 2008 Arts Complex Theatre
Directed by Jason Levitt

Featuring:
Kelley Harmon as Celia
Paul Roadarmel as Todd
Julie Allen as Sister Rose
Miranda Joiner as Sister June
Liam Copan-Kelly as Father/Mr. Eldon
Elizabeth Burchfield as Dr. Griffin/Lisa
Lauree Thurmond as Mother/Dr. Conner
Jennifer Simmons as P.A.
Aisia Hamlin as Poet
Blake Weatherly as M.C./Tim
Laura Wallace as Miss Duffy
Tarver Petersen as Joe
Sabrina McHarg as Kelly
Michael Hall as Benjamin Dover
Ensemble: Kenneth Rozier, Paige Johns,
Maggie Rogers, Michelle Lamar
Ashley Foy, Keith Patterson

Crew:
Assistant Director/Stage Manager – Dara Foy
House Manager – Trae’ Lyn Burke
Program/Flyer Design – Liam Copan-Kelly
Lighting – Paul Roadarmel and Tarver Petersen

Photo of cast from "Catholic School Girls."

CATHOLIC SCHOOL GIRLS
by Casey Kurti
7:00 p.m. May 21 and 22, 2008 Arts Complex Theatre
Directed by Jason Levitt
Featuring:
Ashley Foy as Elizabeth McHugh
Porscha Bailey as Coleen Dockery
Lauren Miller as Maria Theresa Russo
Erick Denson as Father Germain
Julie Allen as Sister Mary Lucille
Assistant Director – Dana Foy
Stage Manager – Nakora Mackey
Sound – Travis Foy
Follow Spot – Maggie Rogers

Pictured are members of the cast of the Company of Players production, "Great Slave Lake."

Flyer for Company of Players production "Great Slave Lake."

GREAT SLAVE LAKE
By Don Nigro
7:00 p.m. November 14 and 15, 2007 Arts Complex Theatre
Directed by Jason Levitt
Featuring:
JeLisa Grayson as Margaret
Jenna Rogers as Gretchen
Paul Roadarmel as Clyde Astor
Liam Copan-Kelly as Clyde Quiller
Kameika Dorsey as Betty
Assistant Director – Julie Allen
Costumes – Brandie Harris
Artwork and design – Charity Wilcoxin and Trae’Lyn Burke