August, 14 2009, Benefit Concert, Broadway Loves Casita Linda, Broadway comes to San Miguel, By Jean Gerber, Players Workshop, Mauritius Let the (con) games begin, By Rudy Hornish

Benefit Concert
Broadway Loves Casita Linda
Wed & Thu, Aug 19 & 20, 8pm
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Mesones 82
350/150/100 pesos

Broadway comes to San Miguel
By Jean Gerber

Casita Linda is thrilled about the five Broadway actors and their musical director putting on a fantastic event to raise funds.

Some of the best talent that Broadway has to offer will be brought to our doorstep. I managed to catch up with Colin Cunliffe, director, to learn more about what’s in store for San Miguel on August 19 and 20.

Jean Gerber: First of all, Colin, why did you choose Casita Linda?

Colin Cunliffe: I volunteered with Casita Linda for the first time, must have been about three years ago. It was such an interesting process. First of all, I didn’t know if I could help, because I don’t know how to build houses. Then I realized that some of the people around me couldn’t build houses either! But it was just about getting people together to help as best they can. When I came back the following year they had hired on the locals—the three guys that work all week—and I saw the new design and the adobe materials, and how amazing these houses were now and how happy the families were. Being able to see a house being built from beginning to end, and actually meeting the family that was waiting to move in… it was an immeasurable experience. When I heard that the funds were running a little low for Casita Linda, I just wanted to jump in and do something.

JG: Is there a theme to your San Miguel performance?

CC: Our show is a journey to, through, and about the home. Home is what brings us together. Home is the place where we are able to hope.

Everyone deserves a place of home, regardless of age, race, sex, sexual preference or financial status. We want to join Casita Linda in altering the destiny of poverty and helping everyone in attaining the best home they are able.

JG: Tell me about some of the performers who will be coming from New York with you.

They’re all in the business here in New York City. I worked with Ben Cameron, Kathryn Murphy and our Musical Director, Elizabeth Nantais, on the national tour of Sweet Charity with Molly Ringwald. The other cast members, Austin Lesch and Stephanie Umoh, I’ve worked with on different ventures, and they are all very talented. It’s so nice for us in the city to work with our friends and not have to succumb to the casting director’s or the director’s decisions on who they want to put in the show, and it’s great to pick people who are very talented and whom you enjoy working with.

JG: And you’re directing this group, so that has to be fun.

CC: Oh yeah, it’s great. You know, it’s something that I never thought I would want to do, and then I directed a show that was performed at the La Diversidad Sexual Festival a few years ago, and I quickly realized that it’s something I have a strong interest in.

JG: I understand you will be performing numbers from the Broadway shows that you and the other performers have been in. Stephanie Umoh was in the Broadway show, Hair. Should we prepare our audience for the possibility of seeing some nude scenes? Perhaps an undress rehearsal?

CC: (Laughing) We’ll see! If we can get the numbers high for donations, we will open that possibility!

JG: Are you currently rehearsing for an upcoming Broadway show?

CC: I’m going to be in the The Addams Family, staring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth. We’ll be starting rehearsals a couple of weeks after I get back from San Miguel. We’ll be opening in April 2010.

JG: How is it working with Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth?

CC: We did a workshop in June and another this summer with Bebe and Nathan and they are amazing. The project is based on the comic strip, and seeing how they are working the characters, in my eyes I think that they are perfect for the part.

JG: What do tickets for a Broadway show cost now?

CC: A standard seat for a Broadway show is US$110 now. So if you want to take a family of four, unfortunately, it’s getting up to almost $500; if you include dinner and parking, it’s a $1,000 evening. Luckily there are locations in the city where you can get 50 percent off on tickets, and there are internet discounts, student rush tickets… There are always ways around it.

JG: Well, we are so looking forward to this show—having such young, talented people come here and entertain us. Thank you, Colin.

CC: We’re extremely excited to come down for the people of San Miguel and especially for the supporters of Casita Linda—it’s for them. The work of Casita Linda is boundless, and our deepest gratitude is not only for making it possible for us to come, but for the help they continue to give to build homes for the less fortunate people of the community.

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Players Workshop
Mauritius
Theresa Rebeck

Opening Night Gala
Fri, Aug 21, 8pm
200 pesos

Performances
Sat, Aug 22 8pm
Sun, Aug 23, 5pm
Mon–Tue, Aug 24–25, 8pm
Thur–Sat, Aug 27–29, 8pm
Sun, Aug 30, 5pm

Recession-busting Specials
Saturday shows and front row

seats for all shows: 100 pesos
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
150 pesos

Let the (con) games begin
By Rudy Hornish

The Mauritius Cast, L–R, Jill Gottlieb, Jim Newell, Tom King, Tim Johnson & Clara Dunham

Early in the first scene of Theresa Rebeck’s thriller, Mauritius, Players Workshop’s upcoming production, a young woman named Jackie (Clara Dunham) attempts to interest a taciturn collectibles store owner named Phil (Tom King) in a stamp collection she says she has inherited. Nothing too unusual so far. Pretty soon they are joined by Dennis (Tim Johnson), as slick and charming a con man as ever walked the shady side of the street, and then by Sterling (Jim Newell), as dangerous and charmless a con man as you never want to meet.

Maybe, just maybe, a few of the stamps in this particular stamp collection are worth something. Maybe they are worth a lot, a whole lot. When Jackie’s older sister Mary (Jill Gottlieb) claims the collection to be hers and refuses to even consider selling, it is—as they say—“game on!”

Are the stamps in question genuine though? Elaborate forgeries, perhaps? Worth millions, or not worth the old glue on their backsides? Who do you trust? Who will out-con whom?

On that note, a little backstory might be in order. The first postage stamp was issued in Great Britain in 1840, and by the 1860s, the first postage stamp forgery appeared on the market. It didn’t take long for the thieves and con men of the world to recognize a new territory in which to ply their nefarious talents. Forgeries and fakes abound in the world of art and artifacts. Anything rare and collectible is a target for “reproduction,” especially since the market for such is fed primarily by those ever-present elements of the human condition: need and greed.

Even mistakes, such as the famous “Inverted Jenny” stamp, were ripe for forgery and con artists. First issued in 1918, the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane was accidentally printed upside-down. Only one pane of 100 of the stamps was ever found, making this error one of the most prized in philately. One “Inverted Jenny” was sold at auction for $977,500 in 2007.

In Rebeck’s play, the valued stamps are the Twopence and One Penny, issued by the government of the island nation of Mauritius in 1847. As with the “Inverted Jenny,” printing errors make these stamps valuable. It is the Mauritius stamps which trigger the actions of the characters in the play. The stakes are high. The players are dead serious. The outcome… well, surprises abound.

Special ticket prices

In an effort to acknowledge rising prices in a tougher economy, Players Workshop has announced special discount ticket prices for this final production of the summer season.

Front row seats for all peformances (except for opening night), and all seats for Saturday evening performances will be sold for 100 pesos per ticket.

Tickets for opening night, which include an after-show gala in the Café Santa Ana, are 200 pesos. All other tickets are 150 pesos. All seats are reserved and can be purchased in the patio of the Biblioteca 10:30am–1pm on weekdays, starting Friday, August 14. Tickets are also available after 1pm in the office of the Teatro Santa Ana at the Biblioteca.