THE CHALK GARDEN – Staged Reading
A comedy by Enid Bagnol, author of National Velvet
Sunday. AUGUST 18, 2019 – 2:00 p.m.
FREE. Wheelchair-accessible, air-conditioned
The THE CHALK GARDEN, a comedy by Enid Bagnold, author of National Velvet, comes to the North Hall stage with the mysterious Miss Madrigal who can coax flowers to bloom in the chalky soil of England’s Dover cliffs, but she has other comic tricks up her sleeve when it comes to calming an unruly household. The staged reading features Susan Daniels, Margery Shaw, Kenneth Tigar, Michelle Joyner, Sandra Blaney and Mitch Giannunzio, with cameos by members of the North Hall board. “I’ve always loved this play because it is a deft combination of thriller and drawing room comedy,” said director Mitch Giannunzio. Annual Afterparty Celebration follows, donations welcomed.
A meet-the-artists reception will be held at intermission in the North Hall artist gallery exhibiting paintings by Jean Gaitenby.
BIOS
Susan Daniels is an actor, writer and presentation consultant. She currently works at Amherst College as its Associate in Public Speaking, working with faculty, staff and students to become more relaxed, confident, compelling speakers. Susan has served on the faculty at Mount Holyoke College, chaired its Department of Theatre Arts and was recently featured as one of the “300 Best Professors” in the U.S. by The Princeton Review. She is well known in the Pioneer Valley for her work as Artistic Director for the Pioneer Valley Summer Theatre, producing 55 shows during five summer seasons. Susan has just finished a manuscript for her memoir, “The Before and After Girl,” a true story about surviving a life changing event after becoming one of the biggest winners of cash and prizes on the game show: The Wheel of Fortune.
Margery Shaw graduated from Connecticut College in 1962 and set off for New York City in order to play all the great roles. More than half a century and at least 200 roles later, from The Circle in the Square in NYC to The Ahmanson in LA, and at dozens of regional theaters in between, including several here in Western Mass and for 17 seasons at home base with Paul and Ellen Barry’s New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, that’s pretty much what she did. At least some of them anyway. ( Saint Joan, Juliet, Ophelia, Desdemona, Bianca, Isabella, Regan,Portia, Beatrice, Gertrude, Emilia, Helena, Yelena, Corie Bratter, Thea Elvsted, Polly Garter, Lydia Languish,Linda Loman, Ethel Thayer, MissAlma, Miss Prism, Miss Daisy, Miss Helen–Athol Fugard’s– Blanche, Amanda, Cassandra, Miranda and Tamora, the Queen of the Goths to name a few.) But somehow Big Mama has eluded her until now. So big thanks to Mitch and Ken for the chance to finally say her words three seasons ago in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF.
Playwright and actor Mitch Giannunzio appears in the film HARD BOILED
EGGS a 2018 recipient of a WASSERMAN AWARD. His play “Lizzie Borden at Eight O’Clock” after opening on the North Hall stage moved to off-off Broadway for its New York premiere. His play “Last Tag” was made into a Sweepsweeks CBS-TV Movie called “Falling For You” starring Jenny Garth. His play “A Smaller Place” was made into a feature film, “The Hiding Place,” starring Academy Award winner Kim Hunter and Timothy Bottoms. His most recent acting performances have been in the movies “Perfect Stranger” and ”Burn After Reading,” and in the Tennessee Williams play “I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow.”
Kenneth Tigar’s credits span the distance from Barney Miller and the Lethal Weapon movies to The Good Wife and The Avengers. He can be seen on both the Amazon series Alpha House with John Goodman and The Man in The High Castle as well as the Netflix series House of Cards with Kevin Spacey and on AMC series Feed the Beast with David Schwimmer. On stage Kenneth appeared last year in Larry David’s smash Broadway hit Fish in the Dark; and he has acted extensively in New York and regional theatres, performing Salieri in Amadeus, Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, and Joe Keller in All My Sons, amongst others. He has performed Old Wicked Songs in Vienna, Santa Barbara, Sarasota and Lake George; won a Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Circle Award, two Dramalogue Awards, and South Florida’s Carbonell Award. He appeared across the country in his one-man show I Must Be Mr. Boswell about the biographer of Dr. Johnson. He directed the national tour of The Gin Game with Academy Award winner Kim Hunter and is also an accomplished opera director. His translations of Wedekind and Büchner have been published by Broadway Play Publishing.
All welcome.
contact: 413- 667- 5543 / www.northhallhuntington.org