Bridge Street Theatre Concludes 2017 Season with Lanford Wilson's REDWOOD CURTAIN

By: Oct. 05, 2017
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Catskill's Bridge Street Theatre celebrates Veteran's Day this year with the final production of its 2017 Subscription Season - Lanford Wilson's haunting and powerful drama "Redwood Curtain".

Hiding behind the redwood curtain, in the forests of Northern California, are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of shattered Vietnam veterans unable to re-adjust to the 'normal' world to which they've returned. The forests themselves are being threatened by wealthy corporate timber interests. It's the early 1990s and a 17-year-old Vietnamese-American piano prodigy, adopted in infancy by a wealthy California family and on the cusp of a brilliant career, begins searching for the identity of her biological father, an American GI who abandoned her and her mother in Saigon. She tracks one of the homeless vets into to the redwood forest where he has retreated, convinced that he can provide a crucial link to her past. And in true fairy-tale tradition, this forest turns out to be truly haunted.

"When we started producing here in the Hudson Valley, our first big success was Lanford Wilson's 'The Mound Builders', and when we conducted audience surveys in 2015, Wilson's name consistently cropped up as someone whose work our patrons hoped to see on our stages," says Steven Patterson, one of the founders of Bridge Street Theatre. "He's a master storyteller, but 'Redwood Curtain' is much more than just a great story, brilliantly told. It's goes so deep and says so much regarding America's amnesia about all its past nightmares, not just those of Vietnam."

Appearing in the cast are NYC actors Julie Pham as Geri Riordan and Joseph Tisa as Lyman Fellers, with local favorite Molly Parker Myers as Geri's wise-cracking aunt, Geneva Simonson. The production is directed by John Sowle and designed by Sowle in collaboration with Catskill artist Harry Matthews. Costumes are by Michelle Rogers and sound is by Carmen Borgia. The Production Stage Manager is Caedmon Holland.

One of Lanford Wilson's most touching and intimate works, "Redwood Curtain" will be presented for eight performances only, Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:00pm, from November 2-12 on the Bridge Street Theatre Mainstage, located at 44 West Bridge Street in the Village of Catskill, NY. The Thursday November 2 preview and the Sunday November 5 matinee are both "Pay-What-You-Will" performances. Advance tickets are available for $22 at BrownPaperTickets.com or by calling 800-838-3006. Tickets can also be purchased at the door prior to each performance (on a space available basis) for $25. Students age 21 and under are always $10.

Events at Bridge Street Theatre are supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and by Public Funds from the Greene County Legislature through the Cultural Fund administered in Greene County by the Greene County Council on the Arts.

For more information, visit the theatre online at BridgeSt.org.



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