And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little

Book by Paul Zindel
Directed by Shay Gines
Produced by Retro Productions

Nominations: Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Innovative Design: Sara Slagle; Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role: Christopher Borg; Outstanding Set Design: Jack & Rebecca Cunningham

Photos by Kyle Connolly

About the Company
It is the mission of Retro Productions to present works of retro theatre. Retro is defined as "involving, relating to, or reminiscent of things past (American Heritage Dictionary)." At Retro Productions, we will tell good theatrical stories which have an historical perspective — with an emphasis on the 20th century — in order to broaden our own understanding of the world we live in. We believe through stories of human lives and struggles, both dramatic and comedic, we can understand social history and culture and how it affects us today.

About the Production
And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little is a dark comedy of the late 1960s that focuses on the lives of three Reardon sisters whose father abandoned the family long ago and whose mother recently passed away. All grown up and working in the New York City public school system, they have come to a crossroads — the youngest sister, who has already barely survived a scandalous incident at school, has suffered a nervous breakdown. When the married sister comes back to the childhood apartment, the two unmarried sisters now share in an effort to commit her sibling to an institution, pushing built up resentment from the last decade to the forefront. Should Anna be committed? Is it in her best interest or is it just easier for Ceil if she doesn’t have to care for her? Is it selfish of Catherine to want to keep her at home? Who is strongest in this fight of wills — and does Catherine really need another cocktail?

2017 IT Awards nominees Sara Slagle, Christopher Borg, and Jack Cunningham, along with Artistic Director and actress Heather Cunningham discuss the joys and challenges of putting this play on

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What first attracted you to this project?

Sara: I was actually scared of working on this show but thought the challenge would be helpful in advancing my prop skills forward.

 Christopher: I had never heard of the play but when I read it, I was really intrigued by this forgotten gem of a character study. I was also attracted to the role of Bob, which is so far from my normal type: he is a hot tempered, mansplaining "old-school" New York guy who is having trouble keeping up with the changes in 1967.

Jack: Love this play.

Heather: Truthfully I've wanted to do Miss Reardon for over 25 years! I think it's such a wonderfully witty play with incredible and strong roles for women of a certain age — the kind you just don't find that often. It only amazes me that it's not done more often.

What was your favorite part of working on this production?

Sara: Believe it or not, tech was my favorite. Up until that point I just had a (huge) pile of props and glassware and it all came together (and had to be choreographed) on stage during tech — that's where the magic happened.

Christopher: The director and cast were amazing and very supportive. We all learned a lot from each other.

Jack: Back in the early 1970's I designed this show for Ivoryton Playhouse. Doing the set for this production was nostalgic and very fulfilling.

Heather: Shay Gines is an amazing director — I only wish she'd been eligible for award consideration.

What was the most challenging part of working on this production?

Sara: The meat. It's a nightmare prop and had to work out a lot of variables such as actor dietary restrictions, cost, being non-perishable due to theater logistics, etc.

Jack: Designing a realistic set; this play demands realism, and it is difficult to do on a very limited budget and working in off-off Broadway venues.

Heather: The most challenging part of any production of MISS REARDON is the props. It stopped me from doing this play sooner, honestly. It has every nightmare prop scenario you can think of: edible food, onstage food preparation, a gun that fires multiple times, props that are thrown, glassware (vintage at that — the play takes place in the late 1960s), and so much more. I knew I couldn't do this production until I had a kick-ass property designer — and I have one in Sara Slagle — and her nomination couldn't make me prouder. The hardest task I gave her was to create a prop that looked like raw ground beef but was not raw and was not beef and was edible — for an actress who had to eat it on stage who does not eat beef — and she did it!

What did you want the audience to walk away with after watching this production?

Heather: A sense of how far we've come and how far we've still got to go (regarding feminism and the women's movement).

What were the funniest moments of your experience of working on this production?

Sara: Again, the meat. I had no idea that a simple prop such as that would have so much effect on the production. After every performance, it seemed that several audience members were enamored by it, and it was strange for me.

Heather: See my story about meat. ;) We had a few performances where our gun prop could not fire for a variety of reasons. First, it was that we ran out of blanks, and the blanks we'd ordered did not arrive in time. Then the ones we received were making awful sparks — long story short we had about three or four performances where we could not have a live gun fire. The cast came together to rally around a foley effect that worked like magic — I even had a friend in the audience one night who said he had no idea that there were no blanks in the gun! This cast was an incredible bonding experience — all so wonderful, thoughtful and professional.

Christopher: This was one of the smallest theatres I've ever worked in. The dressing area was so small that it could not accommodate the whole cast at the same time so we had to be creative about how we used the space in order to prepare.

Did you learn anything new from your experience of working on this production?

Sara: That I will never, ever, not ever...open another can of spam as long as I live.

What was it like working with this group of artists?

Sara: The entire production team and cast members. It was such a joy to work on this show and everyone had a great time doing it. It's those moments that make working on Indie Theatre worth it. We were truly a team, and I feel that the production spoke loudly that we all worked so hard on polishing the details but also having fun with the material.

Christopher: Retro Productions was extremely professional and really showed their love of theatre artists. We felt valued and well taken care of.

Jack: They were all outstanding professionals.

Heather: How much time do you have? Jack and Beckie Cunningham are some of the most talented set designers you will find In Indie Theatre. Their nomination means so much because Jack says he's retiring after Reardon — that this is his last set. Sara Slagle is amazing — see my story above about meat. Christopher Borg is an incredible actor — he was just so perfect as Bob, and it's incredible because he's nothing like Bob in real life — but he just became Bob in a totally seamless way.

You can follow Retro Productions on Twitter: @RetroProdsNYC

Art Feeds the Soul

Contributed by Jeanne Travis

I was a stage manager long before I was a sound designer; a director and actor long before I was a stage manager and a flautist and composer before I can remember. I have been very fortunate enough to find or attract multifaceted people. I love to work with artists who are easily bored, take risks, make mistakes, collaborate, work hard and are generous.   

If I had known early on in my life what opportunities there were to fuse both music and theater into a career I wouldn’t have had to wage war with myself for the many years that I tried to pick one or the other. If you are born to be an artist you must pursue what you're wired to do. Living anything else is living a lie. Picking music over theater to me was like asking me which leg I could live without. I wish that I would have never tried to believe that I had to choose. Artists think on a level that cannot be measured. They invent, ponder, create, imagine, edit, summarize, synthesize, store and evaluate information with all fives senses. I once directed two horror Grand Guignol plays from their original 1890s texts. I felt amplified. “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life” an actor told me in rehearsal. It was from this experience that I started to look at art from a completely new perspective which would eventually lead me to design. I also realized from this experience that the greatest reward an artist can ever hope for is to inspire others to create.

  “Most people live to create.  An artist creates
     in order to live, because art feeds the soul.”
                                                                   ~ My Mom

To me, creating art is like coming home. I like to be around my kind! I was so incredibly fortunate and humbled to accept the IT Award for sound design last year for Nat Cassidy’s The Temple, or Lebensraum. I just remember that I didn’t want to let anyone down; especially Nat. Everyone involved was so incredibly multi-talented. Above all, we were all amped and called to inspire one another and I have never felt so much support on a daily basis on a show before. I love independent theater. You meet the best people. I believe that in order to be successful artist you have to be a generous, kind, and wonderful person because from this centeredness flows a spring that the soul feeds on in order to create. Off and Off-Off-Broadway attracts like minded artists that thrive in this community.

I forget how extremely exposed sound is sometimes. It takes a fearless ambition to be a sound designer. To shout an idea, literally at high volume, takes guts. It is also a sound designer’s job to seduce you into a state of total unawareness that we are ever there. This allusion intrigues me and it challenges me. I have been very fortunate to work with playwrights who know how to wield sound design to their advantage. To be able to offer a playwright the assurance that their imagination should not be hindered by any limits in sound is the ultimate reason why I do what I do.

I have just started to play the flute again. I doubt that I will ever step foot into a costume ever again or have the strength to ever direct again. However, I am easily bored, I take risks, I make mistakes, I work hard and I'm generous. It's what I'm wired to do. Who knows what will happen next?
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Jeanne Travis is a composer, sound designer, stage manager and flautist. She composes daily and plays the flute at Judson Memorial Church. Sound Design credits include: Utility (The Amoralists Theater Company), The Temple, or Lebensraum (Tin Drum Productions), Woyzeck (No Win), Leave Me Green (Form Theatricals), Asymmetric (59E59), Frankenstein Upstairs, The Honeycomb Trilogy: Advance Man, Blast Radius, Sovereign (Gideon Productions), Rantoul and Die, Enter at Forrest Lawn (The Amoralists), Luft Gangster (Nylon Fusion). Stage Management credits include: Six Rounds of Vengeance, Untitled Vampire Cowboys Project, Alice in Slasherland (Vampire Cowboys), Final Analysis (Pershing Square Signature Center), Spectral Scriabin (Lincoln Center), Sir Patient Fancy, As You Like It, The Wonder (The Queen's Company). Special credits: Retro Productions Company Member since 2008. With Retro: The Tender Trap, The Desk Set, Holy Days, Dear Ruth, Benefactors, The Runner Stumbles, A Day in the Life of Joe Egg. Awards: WINNER 2015 New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Sound Design: The Temple, or Lebensraum (Tin Drum Productions). Upcoming Projects: PSM: Thoa's Library (All For One) and SD: Universal Robots (Gideon Productions).

Retro Productions receives Donn Russell Fund Grant

In 2015 Retro Productions celebrated its 10th anniversary. In that time they have presented 18 productions and have become one of the most highly respected companies currently working Off-Off-Broadway. In addition to their meticulous attention to detail and impressive production values (especially considering their modest budgets), Retro has one of the most clearly articulated esthetics in the community. Dedicated to productions, which have an historical perspective - with an emphasis on the 20th century - they're providing audiences with new perspectives on some classic American texts.

"Modern theatre is often about The Now or even about The Next, but Retro Productions understands the importance of remembering our recent history. The significance of reflection is always poignantly observed in their revivals."
               ~ Gina Femia, New York Theatre Review

Retro Production's Desk Set photo by Christopher Hicken

"Retro has the uncanny, AWESOME ability to consistently attract New York's most talented theatre artists and create something extraordinary for themselves and audiences alike!"
                                    ~ Greg Oliver Bodine

"I've never laughed as hard and had as much fun working on shows than I have with Retro."                 ~ Matilda Szydagis

"Retro Productions is awesome because we create beyond our limitations, not within them."               ~ Viviane Galloway

"Retro has introduced me to some of my closest life-long friendships and gives me opportunity to work with those amazing souls on a regular basis. I love them."
                                    ~ Casandera MJ Lollar

The Butter and Egg Man

Good Boys and True

                           Photos by Connolly NYC

"Retro productions has an incredible dedication to preserving the details of the era for any given production” ~ Elise Rovinsky

"Retro Productions is an awesome organization that supports its members' artistic efforts with high production standards and meaningful project choices." ~ Rebecca Cunningham

"Retro Productions is awesome because it gives actors, designers, directors, and stage managers the experience of working on a production in another time. It also allows the audience to experience life during a time they may not have lived through. Not only are they enjoying the show, but they are learning about the music, the decor, the clothing, the slang, and the cultural feelings of that precise era through the production." ~ Kathryn Squitieri

"Retro is at it's best when we all work together as a team - and this company does. We may not do a lot of shows (certainly there are companies who do more), but we do consistently great work that not just relies on, but benefits from the company members all coming together and bringing their individual talents to the end goal."
                             ~ Heather Cunningham

Retro Productions' Still Life photo by David Anthony

  

We are excited to present Retro Productions with a grant from the Donn Russell Fund. You can also contribute to this deserving company by making a donation and watch for their summer yard sales which often includes props, costumes and set pieces from their productions.
 










Congratulations to Retro Productions for receiving a Donn Russell Fund grant! 

 

  Learn more about Donn Russell...

An Appeal to the Woman of the House

An Appeal to the Woman of the House
By Christie Perfetti Williams
Directed by DeLisa White
Produced by Retro Productions

Nominations: Christie Perfetti Williams is nominated for Outstanding Original Full-Length Script; Heather Cunningham is nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role; and An Appeal to the Woman of the House is nominated for Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play

       Photo by Kyle Connolly Photography LLC

About this Production
An Appeal to the Woman of the House is about what happens when history knocks on your door. It's about how large activist gestures create smaller ripple effects. Appeal… takes place on one fateful night in May, 1961 in the farmhouse of Rose and Gideon Walker on the Alabama-Tennessee border. It is just after midnight when David and his fellow lost Freedom Riders knock on the door seeking assistance in the form of a phone and a place to stay until daylight. But Gideon, who knows this is Klan country, is reluctant to let in this band of mixed race college kids until Rose forces him to open the door with the acknowledgement that "they're just babies." What follows is a touching story of race, love, acceptance and learning how to stand up for what you believe.

Playwright Christie Perfetti Williams, Director DeLisa White and Producer and Actress Heather Cunningham share their experiences of dramatizing a highly volatile moment in American history.

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What attracted you to this project?

Heather: As producing artistic director for Retro Productions, a company that specializes in 20th Century period work, I'd been looking for years for a project about the Civil Rights Movement. Although I'm sure that a lot of people hear the word Retro and think kitsch and comedy (and there's nothing wrong with that - I love me some kitsch and comedy!) I also believe we are in a unique position to educate our audiences by using historical stories to create parallels to current circumstances.

Christie Perfetti Williams approached me several years ago about writing a play for Retro. After a long conversation about what that would mean we started talking about the Freedom Rides. It was the 50th anniversary of the rides and there was a documentary on TV that we were both watching. I said things like "imagine the play that takes place on that bus" and "imagine the play that takes place in that bus station." Then a former Freedom Rider was interviewed and she spoke about the time she and several other riders were taken out of jail by the sheriff and driven to the border in the middle of the night and dropped off. They walked until they came to a farmhouse but the man didn't want to let them in, he was afraid. So the rider said "My Mama always told me if I was in trouble to go on and appeal to the woman of the house. And that's what we did - and she let us in. And those people saved our lives that night." I said "imagine the play that takes place in that house," and that is what Christie did (although in full disclosure, Christie's play is FICTION, it is merely inspired by that event, not a documentary of it). AND I had the distinct pleasure in this production of portraying, for the first time in my career, a character who was written specifically for me.

DeLisa: Retro can always be counted on to do high quality work and I had longed to work with Heather who is a magnificent talent and a super cool broad. So when she told me they were working on their first original piece I knew it had to be quality. And once I heard the premise  - and realized I had never seen any play, movie, or television show about the Freedom Riders, I was tremendously excited. Then I got to read the play, which even in its earliest development stages was profoundly moving. I can’t tell you how proud was every day to be able to be the one to direct this incredible play.

Christie: I was able to write a play not just for Retro Productions but for Heather Cunningham. A lead role for Heather Cunningham. A kick ass lead role for a brilliant actor. It was a playwright's dream.

What was your favorite part of working on this production?

DeLisa: There was SO much talent involved in this show.  It was an immense luxury to have such a huge cast and crew of this tremendously high caliber - full of passion, commitment and ideas. It was an embarrassment of riches, for sure – but to watch them all find their way to shine and shine solely in service of this beautiful play moved me immensely. To have the front row seat as it comes to life is always the great treat of being a director, but given all the elements  - a huge cast and crew – involved, it just was wondrous to see and feel it blossom.

Heather: As a producer - I'm also a research geek - so I loved doing the research - watching documentaries and news clips, reading books, searching the faces in the mug shots.

The cast was glorious - we had a wonderful time in the rehearsal room. It felt like such a wonderful ensemble. And even when it came to the singing (which I suspect some of them were surprised by) everyone was game. There was a lovely camaraderie - and a lot of chocolate!

Christie: My favorite part was probably the most distressing...the revision process. Workshopping and revising and tearing apart and gluing back together. Opening myself up to feedback and criticism, hoping and praying that throughout the process I would never lose love for the piece. Never become disenchanted with the work. It was both exhilarating and agonizing. Lots of risking, deep inhales. A truly white-knuckle landing!

What was the most challenging part of working on this production?

Christie: See above : )

DeLisa: Nine cast members, 12 or so crew – it was a lot to juggle.  Without the amazing production team of Heather and Ricardo and Monica Daniels astonishing work as Stage Manager, I can’t imagine how we would have gotten it all done.  While I feel the play was at top form at opening, perhaps more than any I have worked on, I would have loved if we had had the time and money to have a “preview” structure before the full run.  The play, the remarkable cast, and the superb crew all rocked the target, but they also all deserved more time to go even deeper and further and get more sleep during the process.  That’s always the challenge of indie theatre – how do you match the quality of off-Broadway or Broadway with a pittance if the time and money. As your nominee list shows  - indie theatre DOES do that. Routinely. But we all spread our elbow grease to the very thinnest.

Heather: When doing the research on this play the most challenging part was, as I'd be inspired by the students and CORE and SNCC and the leaders who made the rides possible, I'd also have to take in the actions of white supremacists and try to somehow understand how they could think they were right, while still believing in their own Christianity. It's a very hard thing for me - and it's just as hard in 2014 when someone uses their religion as an excuse to discriminate against LGBTQ or really anyone who is unlike themselves.

Spoilers! There is an unspoken fact about Rose, which is that she has recently had a miscarriage - and that it is in fact one in a long line of miscarriages and failed attempts at conception. As a woman who has never had a child this was difficult on many levels - not just because I don't know that particular physical pain, having never been pregnant myself, but because I do know a little something about the emotional pain of wanting a family and feeling like I don't get to have one. Harnessing that - getting past it and over it - that was the most challenging part of this role.

Oh, and, pulling a gun on a guy - that was pretty challenging too!

What makes An Appeal to the Woman of the House so different?

DeLisa: Firstly, there’s never (to my knowledge) been a play or movie (other than a GREAT American Experience documentary) or tv show about this particular element of the civil rights movement. The play captures a part of history that has been somewhat left in shadow culturally. But it also take a different, more complex and more nuanced approach to history than a lot of historical fiction, which I think is so important. Often historical fiction is in the business of deification, which makes us all feel admiration but distance from the course of history. THIS play demonstrates astutely that multiple people can be committed to “doing the right thing” and still interpret that differently. The world changes because of a confluence of individual choices, not because of one brave hero. This play isn’t about “Look at how some people in the past were brave” but asks us “what would YOU do if history knocked on your door?”

Because it does. Every day.

Heather: One of the loveliest experiences was having an audience member afterwards say to me "how much would it cost to keep this running?"

Also, the audience member whose father was a Civil Rights worker in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964 who came up to me and said "you got it right - it's all so right - and the young Jewish woman who comes in in Act 2 - she reminded me so much of my Father."

I really appreciated when an actress friend of mine pulled me aside after seeing the show and said "I'm from the South and I have seen many women in my time in NYC attempt to play southern - but you - you actually did. When you said 'You from Louisiana? I thought so - I got kinfolk there myself' I thought to myself, yes. Yes she does."

That was a great complement to this native NYer! (Albeit with kinfolk in Louisiana!)

Christie: Too bad this is listed under the 'different' column but the truth is the fact that our production's producer, playwright, director, lead actor and stage manager were all women is pretty phenomenal, as well as inspiring.

What do you want the audience to come away with after watching your production?

DeLisa: What I have always hoped people would take away is that every choice you make, no matter how small it may seem, impacts the course of history. You are a part of change or an obstacle to it. It’s not just the high profile activists who are catalysts for change. The Freedom Riders sat on the bus, but there were people who chose to attack them, or be neutral or help them or join them. At some point or other, history knocks on your door – whether you answer it or not impacts the course of history. We are all activists, whether we intend to be or not - it’s just a matter of scale.  And we are all responsible for the world we live in – we can’t hide from that. It’s foolhardy to try.

Heather: I think the overriding message is one of love - and I hope that when they leave An Appeal to the Woman of the House they have a sense of the love of humanity that is in it - and also how far we've come and how far we have still to go. Hopefully they are inspired and they feel good - that we are all capable of change and love.