The Walpole Players

For Immediate Release:                                                                                            April 7, 2013

THE WALPOLE PLAYERS PRESENT

TOURISTS ACCOMMODATED

            Did you ever want to know what it was like to run a bed and breakfast, and have unique guests?  The Walpole Players will show you at 8PM on Thursday May 2^nd, Friday May 3^rd and 10^th, Saturday May 4^th, and 11^th and at a 2PM matinee on Sunday the 12^th of May when the curtain rises on TOURISTS ACCOMMODATED at the Helen Miller Theater at the Walpole Town Hall.

This is a gentle comedy in which we find a Vermont family taking in summer tourists in the early 1930s to raise money to send their daughter to teaching college. Wryly drawn from observing the “ways of travelers” and the “absurdities of city life” you will meet a host of characters familiar to us all when eight completely different groups of tourists stay with the Lyman family at their Vermont farmstead.

Written by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, it was on a cold January day in 1930 that Dorothy and her friends in Arlington, Vermont, were sewing a baby outfit for a neighbor and talking and laughing a great deal.  Several of the families had in recent years begun taking in summer automobile tourists, who were finding their way north, providing them with beds for the night and meals.  This was a new and strange experience for these strong minded New England mountain folk, and the women soon started sharing stories about the strange ways of these travelers.  One funny story followed another with each hilarious incident being true.  Finally one of the group said, “We ought to make a play out of all this.”  Dorothy, a best-selling author who was also named by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the ten most influential women in America for her work in bringing the Montessori School movement to the US, took up the challenge.  This seldom seen side-tickling play was the result.

Directed by Ray Boas, the cast includes: Jean Jobeski; Whit Aldrich; Gail Golec; Carolyn Norback; Fran Kemp; Dave Adams; Tom Durnford; Joan Balla, Sarah Manning; Kathy Reilly; Jim Baucom; Laurel Perron; Tara Sad; Stacey Allen; Deb Robarge; Becky Pearson; Mike Delaney; Gail Connelly; Anna Kendall; and, Cameron Tollett.  A number of the Walpole Junior Players are also featured: Maeve Perron; Ben Robison; Kaylie Litner; Anya Bierweiler-Franks; Sophia Bruzgis; Madeleine Manning; Kathleen Dole; Isabella Smith, Patrick Manning; and, Holden Perron. Tickets, which are $10 for adults and $5 for under 12, are available at Galloway Real Estate; Real to Reel; Murray’s and Costume Ladies in Walpole; and at Village Square Booksellers in Bellows Falls.  For more information, call (603) 756-4545 or visit https://thewalpoleplayers.org/

“Upstaged”: a sitcom about a small town’s newest resident

Come one, come all, to the premier of the pilot episode of the locally written, filmed and produced sitcom “Upstaged”, at the Bellows Falls Opera House, April 18, 2013. The show is free, doors opening at 7 pm, show starts at 7:20 and will conclude with a short Q & A session with the actors, writer, director, editors and videographer.

The story follows exploits of a failed theater actor/director/producer from NYC (Harold Howard-Hartwell) who, after his last show flops, decides to leave the city behind and settle in a small farming town in New Hampshire. His ultimate plan is to make the town over into an artists’ colony, garnering him the fame and respect he so desperately desires. But first he needs to get the town on board with his plan. To that end, he decides he needs to produce a play, casting the townspeople to show them that theater can be a great experience. Here in his new town, Harold believes he will finally be a big fish in a small pond, however he soon learns that the pond is more like a fish bowl and he realizes as auditions for the play get underway, he is unprepared to deal with the variety of personalities in this small town.

The show was created, written and directed by Gail Golec, filmed by Jacob Stradling and edited by Alex Stradling. It was filmed over the course of 10 months, using locations in Walpole (town hall), Acworth (Acworth Store) and Saxton River, VT (Pleasant Valley Brewery) and starring local actors from the Walpole Players (Mike Wright, Sarah Manning, Ray Boas, Fran Kemp, Carolyn Norback, Tara Sad, Jean Kobeski, Kathy Reilly, John Luther, Jim Baucom, Tom Winmill, Peter Eisenstadter, Jordan Mitchell-Love, Seth Lauritsen, Gwen Edson and Gail Golec).

If you care to see a ten minute trailer and scene clip or intro on YouTube, go to:

http://youtu.be/pUfvWjWY1sA or http://youtu.be/B1-XmJWGqLU.

On Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/618751194806271/

What a night !!!!  We entertained 148 fabulous guests at CABIN FEVER RADIO FOLLIES.  Now another Walpole Players tradition.  Thank you cast, and thank you to our special guests in the audience.  A night to remember.  Love you all, thank you, RAY

and, soon I will be posting a collection of images (it may be a week plus/minus following my foot surgery)

Enjoy, yours, RAY

MERRY CHRISTMAS from THE WALPOLE PLAYERS