Vineyard Playhouse | Newsletter 1

Volume 1, Issue 1

Playhouse People
Larry Bull (The Archbishop's Ceiling, Forever Plaid, etc.) is making his Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia. Halley Feiffer (Knock, Knock) appeared off-Broadway in Eric Bogosian's subUrbia. Playhouse summer stage manager Colleen Danaher is making her Broadway ASM debut with Grey Gardens; on the same production Playhouse director Johanna McKeon (Much Ado About Nothing 2006) served as an assistant director. On the small screen you can catch Zachary Quinto (Much Ado About Nothing 1997) on NBC's hit show Heroes. Also, keep your eyes peeled during the commercial breaks for Lauren Klein (Spring Forward, Fall Back), Tim Ryan (Rounding Third), Mark Elliot Wilson ( Maggie's Riff) and Dave Shalansky(Maggie's Riff) who are all currently featured on various national commercials.
Here at home, staff photographer Sally Cohn was featured in The Vineyard Gazette last month. In the article, Sally talked about her choreography, performing with Vineyard Dance Choreographers Workshop, her upcoming book, and the joys of being a grandmother. We congratulate Sally on all of her endeavors and look forward to seeing her (and her camera) around the Playhouse this summer! Congratulations and good health to legendary Island bluesman Maynard Silva and artist Basia Jaworska who married at the Playhouse in January!

Vineyard Playhouse Winter News

Thank you for taking a moment to read the very first Vineyard Playhouse e-newsletter! All of us at the Playhouse want to keep you posted on the many events taking place here and this newsletter will serve as a way for us to do just that. The newsletter will provide you with a regular update on the latest theatre news, openings, events, schedule and ticket information. We hope you enjoy it!
Our first announcement is that we have launched a new website. Please visit www.vineyardplayhouse.org to experience the new face of The Vineyard Playhouse. This site is designed to provide you with a more efficient and up to date way of accessing the playhouse information you need when you need it. We are very excited about our new look and hope you will be too. A big thanks goes out to Board Member and Playhouse Angel Caroline Sharp whose donation has made this and the 2007 season possible.
We want to extend congratulations to all the fourth grade students of Martha’s Vineyard who made this year’s Fourth Grade Theater Project a huge success! Thank you for your creativity and hard work. We also wish to thank the teachers, parents, staff, as well as the genorous support of the The Sharp-Curtis Foundation, Cape and Islands United Way, Permanent Endowment Fund of Martha's Vineyard, and the Martha's Vineyard Cooperative Bank… we couldn’t have done it without you.
Looking ahead to spring, we are very pleased to present our Island Interludes series. This series spotlights Vineyard writers, performers, and artists by producing readings, showings, and performances of work created right here on Island by Islanders. This celebration of Island talent will run this spring and we invite all of you to join in on the fun. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased through our box office at 508-696-6300.
We look forward to being in touch on a regular basis via this newsletter and hope that it provides you, our supportive subscriber community, with the information you need to continue enjoying the Vineyard Playhouse.

From the Artistic Director

With sadness both personal and universal, I note the loss of William Styron and Art Buchwald, two of America’s greatest men and ardent supporters of all things Vineyard, including The Vineyard Playhouse.
In 1997, Bill Styron gave his kind permission to the Playhouse to mount a production of a stage adaptation of his first novel, Lie Down in Darkness. In a conversation at the time, he told me it was impossible to do but to go ahead and see what happened. As he predicted, there were certainly mixed feelings and reviews about the play; but Lie Down in Darkness remains vividly in the pantheon of great American novels. Since that time, Bill and Rose graciously served on the Playhouse’s Honorary Board of Directors, where Rose continues to this day.
Art Buchwald was a member of the Playhouse audience until his remarkable summer of 2006. In his lifetime, he wrote just one play, Sheep on the Runway . And last summer, he enthusiastically endorsed a one-night staged reading of this play at the theater. The air was electric; the proud playwright sat in the front row with his family. The relevance of the play against today’s current events and politics was astounding; his always astute sense of humor shone throughout the dialogue and plot. Art beamed when he took to the stage afterwards for a Question and Answer period. He received a standing ovation that night from an adoring audience and before he left for home, he asked me if we could do it again next week!
Farewell Art and Bill – we will cherish our memories of you always.