At winter’s peak, it is hard to find things to do that are indoors and entertaining. Yorktown Community Players has just the medicine for that, as it presents two separate productions over the next few weeks. This weekend, you can see three original one-act plays, collectively entitled Dreams “R” Us, at Hendrick Hudson Free Library. In February, the theater company presents Sense & Sensibility at Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Croton-on-Hudson on Albany Post Road.
For Dreams “R” Us, which is free, the three plays — The Tattooed Woman, Our Lady Of, and Dreams “R” Us — are all written by Bruce Pearl and directed by Richard Troiano, with a cast of local actors. They will perform on Friday, January 24, at 7 p.m, on Saturday, January 25, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday January 26.
In Our Lady Of, the main character Ginger is a former exotic dancer who married a plastic surgeon. The plastic surgeon’s first wife was burned to death in Pakistan. The surgeon is worried the same fate is awaiting his new wife, and tries to find a way out. In the second one-act play, Dreams “R” Us, John and Allen are owners of a franchise that helps people flesh out a series of dreams. The Tattooed Woman tells the true story of Olive Oatman. She was a young woman captured by the Mohave Native American tribe while traveling with her family across the American West. After living in captivity with the Mohave tribe for 13 years, upon her eventual return to white society, she discovered that her husband had remarried.
Local actors appearing in the plays are …
Our Lady Of
Ginger Mahmood: Heather Firestone
Lourdes Zimmer: Sonia Lee Garber
Dreams “R” Us
Adele: Amanda Bohlmann
Simon: Steve Zerilli
Gladys: Rose Ann Martin
John: Billy Poorten
The Tattooed Woman
Olive: Heather Firestone
John Stratton: Derek Tarson
Bonet: Billy Poorten
Diego Lux: Steve Schnapper
Ruben Vega: Ed Fonzo
The Yorktown Community Players will present Sense & Sensibility February 7-9, 15-16, and 21-23, at Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Croton-on-Hudson, at 2021 Albany Post Road (a five minute drive south of Peekskill on the Cortlandt/ Croton border). Friday and Saturday shows start at 8 p.m., and Sunday shows start at 3 p.m.
Sense & Sensibility by Kate Hamill, directed by Jess Reed, is a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel. (Austen is author of classics Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.) This stage adaptation follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) of the Dashwood sisters — sensible Elinor and her hypersensitive sister Marianne — who have to navigate life after the sudden death of their father, who leaves them financially destitute and socially vulnerable. Set in gossipy late 18th-century England, with a fresh, modern voice, the play is full of humor, emotional depth, and bold theatricality. Sense and Sensibility examines our reactions, both reasonable and ridiculous, to societal pressures. When reputation is everything, how do you follow your heart?
About Yorktown Community Players (aka YCP TheaterWorks)
Celebrating its 66th year of continuous operation, YCP TheaterWorks is the oldest community theater in northern Westchester. The group began in 1959 when a handful of theater-lovers decided to put on a play. That play was The Male Animal, the first of over 160+ plays and counting.
Originally known as the Yorktown Community Players, the group has entertained thousands and offered the opportunity to perform, direct, and work backstage to countless others. Not-for-profit YCP was incorporated in New York State in 1962. Its leadership has changed over the years, while its dedication to bring exciting classic and contemporary drama to the community lives on.
The group’s mission is to provide audiences with diverse, quality theatrical entertainment that nurtures and challenges their actors, directors and production personnel.
For information, visit their website at YCPTW.org. Follow on Facebook and Instagram.
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