People's Light & Theatre Presents STRETCH

People's Light & Theatre Company presents STRETCH (A FANTASIA), by Susan Bernfield, from March 31 - April 25, 2010 on the Steinbright Stage. Daniella Topol directs. People's Light & Theatre is located at 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern. For tickets call 610.644.3500 or visit www.peopleslight.org. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the Charlotte Cushman Foundation.

This is a play in which we meet Rose Mary Woods, Richard Nixon's funny, fiercely loyal and deeply patriotic secretary of 23 years, in a nursing home in Alliance, Ohio, during the 2004 Presidential campaign. The title STRETCH comes from Ms. Woods's testimony that a slip of her foot when she reached for the phone produced the blank and buzzy Watergate tape.

Author Susan Bernfield is the Artistic Director at New Georges Playhouse in New York City. She was inspired to write STRETCH (A FANTASIA) after reading an obituary for Rose Mary Woods in the New York Times Magazine. What first struck her is what an amazing character Woods must have been, followed by the realization that Woods died just two days after the second inauguration of George W. Bush in a swing state nursing home. "I began to wonder how Rose Mary felt during that election, and after that," says Bernfield, "I felt like she was speaking to me and the script wrote itself."

The play alternates between Bernfield's imagined reality in the nursing home and the dream sequences of Rose Mary Woods. "The dreams and everything that happens in the nursing home are made up," says Bernfield, "but her memories are research based."

Alda Cortese portrays Rose Mary Woods. A People's Light & Theatre Resident Company Member since 1976, Ms. Cortese says, "This is the role of lifetime. Though I've been in over 100 productions with People's Light, I've never tackled a role like this."
As the Literary Manager at People's Light, Cortese was sent the script from the show's author, Susan Bernfield. STRETCH (A FANTASIA) had a prior production at New Georges Playhouse in New York. New Georges is a theatre that produces work by women and uses all female directors. New Georges Associate Artist Daniella Topol was tapped as the director for the People's Light production. Susan Bernfield is also part of the show's rehearsal process and is making script changes and adjustments throughout the process.

STRETCH (A FANTASIA) previews on Wednesday, March 31st and Thursday, April 1st at 7:30pm. The play opens on Friday, April 2nd at 8pm and runs through April 25th.
With this production People's Light continues its program called The Scoop: History, Context, and Gossip, a lively discussion before every performance. A member of the cast or artistic staff will discuss the world of the play, how and why it was chosen, as well as how it was cast, designed, and rehearsed. Refreshments will be available in the lobby before The Scoop begins and before the performance. The program will start one hour before the curtain and will take place in the theatre. No reservations are necessary.

Single tickets start at $29, with special discounts available for students, seniors, and groups of 10 or more. Special performances, discount meal packages, and talk-backs with the artists are also available for groups of 10 or more. For more information or to purchase group tickets, call 610.647.1900, ext. 134 or email group@peopleslight.org. Audiences are encouraged to join the artists after each Thursday night performance to discuss the production.

2-Play subscriptions are still available. It would include STRETCH (A FANTASIA) and The Secret of Sherlock Holmes (July 7 - August 8, 2010). Subscriptions to the TARGET Family Discovery Series are also available. The two-play subscription includes Gossamer (April 29 - May 23, 2010) and The Emperor's New Clothes (June 16 - July 11, 2010). For information, tickets, and subscriptions, please call the box office at 610.644.3500 or visit www.peopleslight.org.

KEY BIOS

Susan Bernfield (Playwright) has had her plays presented or developed by O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Playwrights Horizons, Magic Theatre, Vital Theatre Co., HB Playwrights, Mill Mountain Theater, Synapse Productions, AndHow Theatre, HERE Arts Center and Peculiar Works Project, among others. Prior collaborations with Daniella Topol include Tiny Feats of Cowardice, a solo musical composed by Rachel Peters, which premiered at FringeNYC in 2008 and was the work-in-progress presentation at the 2007 Adirondack Theatre Festival. Stretch (A Fantasia) was previously seen in workshop form in Soho Think Tank's 2007 Ice Factory Festival, and produced by New Georges in 2008, with music by Rachel Peters, directed by Emma Griffin. Susan is also the founder and artistic director of New Georges, an award-winning nonprofit theater company that has produced and developed ambitious new plays by women in New York City since 1992. In this capacity, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York and is the recipient of an OBIE Award for artistic achievement. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Daniella Topol (Director) has worked recently on the following productions: Nicki Bloom's Tender (Summer Play Festival/Public Theater), Susan Yankowitz's Night Sky (Power Productions/Baruch Performing Arts Center), Leslie Ayvazian's Carol and Jill (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Caridad Svich's Instructions for Breathing (Passage Theatre, NJ), Jakob Holder's Housebreaking (Cherry Lane), Trista Baldwin's Forgetting (Workhaus Collective, MN), Susan Bernfield and Rachel Peters' Tiny Feats of Cowardice (NYC Fringe Festival), Sean Hartley, Kim Oler and Alison Hubbard's Little Women: The Musical (Village Theatre, WA), Judith Thompson's Palace of the End (Epic), Trista Baldwin's Sand (Women's Project and Productions), Sheila Callaghan's Dead City (New Georges), and Stanton Wood's Snow Queen (Urban Stages). A graduate of Carnegie Mellon, Daniella has been the Associate Producing Director of City Theatre in Pittsburgh, the New Works Program Director at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, and the Managing Director and subsequently the Artistic Program Director of the Lark Play Development Center until June 2008. Daniella lives in New York City with her husband Joe Slott. Upcoming production: Sheila Callaghan's Lascivious Something (Off-Broadway-Women's Project in association with Cherry Lane), May 2010. Daniella is a member of The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Alda Cortese (Rose Mary Woods) has been with People's Light since 1976, first appearing in Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage at the Yellow Springs Center for the Performing Arts in Chester Springs. She has since appeared in nearly 100 productions with this theatre-most recently in Sherlock Holmes & The Case of the Jersey Lily, The Persians, and The Day of the Picnic. Less recent appearances include Humble Boy, The Foreigner, Jack & the Beanstalk, The O'Connor Girls, The Miser (for which she received a Barrymore nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actress), String of Pearls, and Arthur's Stone, Merlin's Fire. Alda also serves as the Literary Manager.

Matt Hannagan (Orderly's Bud) is a recent graduate of DeSales University. He was born and raised in Newark, Delaware and was last seen as Moody McPherson in Peter Delaurier's Anne of Green Gables, which was directed by the original Anne herself, Erin Hurley.
Jefferson Haynes (Orderly) also appeared as a pirate in the Panto Treasure Island. Jefferson has appeared onstage in the Philadelphia area with Arden, Azuka, and Interact, among others. He also works full-time as scenic carpenter at PLTC and is a founding and current member of Philly Improv Theatre's house team Everything Must Go, and teaches acting and improv for all ages.

Tom Teti (Bob) recently directed Shirley Valentine at Hedgerow. He last appeared at People's Light in Snow White and has also performed in Cinderella, Treasure Island, and A Tale of Two Cities. Last summer he appeared in Philadelphia's PlayPenn Festival. He is producer and director of the Reading Writer's event for the Center for Literacy. He teaches acting at Hedgerow Theatre.

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