Événement

CASSE NOISETTE

CASSE NOISETTE (A FAIRY BALLET) by Michael Whistler
November 8-18

PLEASE NOTE. BECAUSE OF WINTER WEATHER, THE THURSDAY PERFORMANCE HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

Final performances are Friday, Nov 16 at 7:30, Saturday, Nov 17 at 7:30 and Sunday, Nov 18 at 2:00.

A Spectacular World Premiere Closes Out the 2018 Season at Bridge Street Theatre

Catskills intimate Bridge Street Theatre will close out its 2018 Subscription Season with a major coup: the world premiere of Philadelphia-based playwright Michael Whistlers brilliant, funny, and touching Casse Noisette (The Nutcracker). The play, described by its author as being about a very quiet man and some very loud music, masterfully interweaves the life of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky with that of a deeply-closeted modern-day American high school teacher obsessed with Tchaikovskys music. Sugar Plum Fairies and phone sex workers collide, and five actors play eleven different roles in two completely different time periods, in this tale about discovering the strength to be true to ones self, whatever the cost.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is a musical titan in 19th-Century Russia: hugely popular, incredibly charismatic, deeply emotional, mercurial, explosive. Tortured by his homosexuality, he finds release only in composing and in his love for the son of his invalid sister. Joe Jessup is a quiet, unassuming, and very private high school Earth Sciences teacher in suburban Washington state, a man who has long since resigned himself to not getting exactly what he might wish for out of life. For years, his only emotional outlet has been his love for the music of Tchaikovsky and, more recently, his furtive calls to a gay sex chatline but merely to listen to the young man on the other end of the phone, never to speak himself. Actor Jason Guy, whom audiences may remember from his tour-de-force performance in Bridge Streets 2017 world premiere of Kieron Barrys The Official Adventures of Kieron and Jade, portrays both these characters as their worlds intertwine and each struggles to find some sort of fulfillment in his life.

Please note that this production is for mature audiences only, for sexual situations and brief nudity.

Production of this world premiere has been underwritten in part by a generous gift from Charles Rosen and Duke Dang.

Directed and Designed by John Sowle
Costumes by Jennifer Andersen
Stage Managers Julia Rothwax and Frank Dianda

With Jason Guy, Nancy O. Graham, Jason Kellerman, Serena Vesper, and Bradley Levine.