'Not So Silent Cinema' Presents Charlie Chaplin Shorts At Bucks County Playhouse

The comic genius of Charlie Chaplin will be on full display as Philadelphia-based "Not So Silent Cinema" provides live accompaniment to three Chaplin shorts in a special one-performance only event at Bucks County Playhouse, Sunday, April 29 at 2 p.m. The presentation is part of the Playhouse's Visiting Artist Series.

This event was originally scheduled for March 2 but was postponed due to winter weather. Tickets for the March event will be honored at the door.

"Not So Silent Cinema" is a project of Philadelphia composer Brendan Cooney, who pens new scores to classic silent films that are then performed live. "Not So Silent Cinema" returns to the Playhouse with the New River Ensemble playing Cooney's music for three celebrated short comedies that Charlie Chaplin made for the Mutual Film Company: "The Pawnshop" (1916), "The Cure" (1917), and "The Adventurer" (1917). These movies show the rapid evolution of Chaplin's style from no-holds-barred slapstick to a more nuanced brand of storytelling. The New River Ensemble consists of Brendan Cooney on piano, Martha Hyde on clarinet, and Lisa Liske-Doorandish on cello.

In "The Pawnshop," one of Chaplin's most popular farces, he plays an assistant in a pawnshop who must save the day when the shop becomes the target of a robbery. In "The Cure," Chaplin plays his Little Tramp character, who decides to forego alcohol. Except he forgot his only suitcase is only full of alcohol. And in "The Adventurer" Chaplin plays an escaped convict on the run from prison guards, who saves a young lady from drowning - while her suitor does everything he can to have Chaplin apprehended by the police.

The 3-film, 75-minute program features Chaplin at his comic best. Perhaps the most iconic film star of all time, Chaplin pioneered aspects of acting, directing and writing that shaped the course of cinema history. This program, featuring several short films Chaplin made for Mutual Film Company between 1916-1917, show the rapid evolution of Chaplin's style from no-holds-barred slapstick to a more nuanced storytelling.

"Not So Silent Cinema" pulls together different groups for each of his film projects, creating diverse mash-ups of musical personalities from different music scenes to create lively new platforms for interaction and creativity. His scores are tightly composed, time-coded and thematic but also have plenty of room for improvisation and interaction between players.

Tickets to "Not So Silent Cinema" are $25. Tickets are available at the Playhouse Box Office, the New Hope Visitor's Center and at BucksCountyPlayhouse.org.

Bucks County Playhouse, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, is the oldest and largest professional Equity performing arts center in Bucks County. Under the direction of Tony Award-winning producers Alexander Fraser and Robyn Goodman, the Playhouse provides first class professional theatrical entertainment as well as community events, partnerships and arts education programming for visitors and residents of New Hope, Doylestown, Lambertville and the Delaware Valley.

Located between Philadelphia and New York, Bucks County Playhouse opened in 1939 in a converted 1790 gristmill after a group of community activists, led by Broadway orchestrator Don Walker and playwright Moss Hart, rallied to save the building. The Playhouse quickly became one of the country's most famous regional theaters, featuring a roster of American theatrical royalty including Helen Hayes, Kitty Carlisle, George S. Kaufman, Grace Kelly, Robert Redford, Bert Lahr, Walter Matthau, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Alan Alda, Tyne Daly, Liza Minnelli and Audra McDonald and remained in continuous operation until December 2010. In 2012, the Playhouse re-opened thanks to the efforts of the Bridge Street Foundation, the nonprofit family foundation of Kevin and Sherri Daugherty, and Broadway producer Jed Bernstein.

Since its renovation, significant productions include Terrence McNally's "Mothers and Sons" starring Tyne Daly, which moved to Broadway and was nominated for two Tony Awards, and "Misery" by William Goldman based on the Stephen King novel which also went on to a Broadway run in the 2015-16 season. Two of the Playhouse's recent productions -- "Company" starring Justin Guarini, and William Finn's "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" -- were named by Wall Street Journal to its "Best of Theatre" list for 2015. The Playhouse's productions of "Steel Magnolias" and "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story" broke box office records in 2016. The record was broken again with its production of "Guys and Dolls" in Summer 2017. Thanks to the Bridge Street Foundation and its vision for the New Hope waterfront, the Playhouse is currently in construction as it adds a 4,000-square foot riverfront cafe and bar that will open in 2018.