NTC stages plays with Wit
By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
The New Theatre Company has put together an
intriguing and professionally directed, acted and managed production
season this winter. The plays are also a bit zany, as well as thought
provoking.
Firstly, they mounted A Tuna Christmas,
an hysterical tale set in a small southern town. Two actors, David
Blampied and Scott Creighton, played all 22 characters.
Currently, NTC is remounting the moving
drama Wit, before taking it on the road for a three night stand at
Boise’s Little Theatre.
Wit, the 1999 Pulitzer Award winning
play, is for "people who think that theater is about ideas as well as
entertainment," said The New Haven Register.
Local actress, Claudia McCain reprises her
role as Vivian Bearing, an academic who is suffering from stage four
Ovarian Cancer.
Because the play takes place in a research
hospital there’s an educational aspect to it.
"I have an incredible amount of
respect for Claudia, to go through this again," NTC artistic
director, David Blampied said. McCain will have to shave her head entirely
for the second time in a year.
"I commend Claudia’s
professionalism. She is an inspiration to everyone in the cast."
Wit also features Patricia Conwell,
Blampied, Larry Kelly, John Hayden and Anna Senechal.
He also called Wit a "very
humorous show. Very real."
Judy McNichols, a friend of McCain’s in
Boise spearheaded the campaign to convince St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise
to underwrite a Boise production. They will be taking nine cast members
and six crew members to Boise for the run, which is scheduled for Feb. 2,
3 and 4.
After each performance in both Ketchum and
Boise, there will be a panel discussion with three experts discussing both
the issues in the play and local resources. Audience members are
encouraged to stay and participate.
Last June’s production was, Blampied
said, "an incredible success, though due to the subject matter it
kept some people away," who were unaware of the play’s humor and
compassionate take on patient care.
Following Wit, NTC is moving
immediately into production with Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay-Abaire,
an absurdist comedy about Claire, a woman with possibly imaginary amnesia.
Every morning Claire awakes to find her
memory wiped clean, where upon she begins all over again to learn and
construct the details of her life despite the eccentric interference from
the "curio-cabinet of alarmingly bizarre characters," she shares
the stage with.
This play will feature Patricia Conwell as
Claire, David Blampied, Claudia McCain, Anna Senechal, Larry Kelly, Adam
Bohrer and Paul Wilson. Wilson is a working actor from L.A. whose wife Pat
directed Wit, as well as Fuddy Meers for NTC.
In March, to conclude the winter season,
NTC will present a joint production with Laughing Stock Theatre Company,
of three one-acts by the playwright David Ives.
The critically acclaimed production of Ives’
six one-act comedies All in the Timing opened at Off Broadway's
Primary Stages in New York over a year ago and launched the playwright to
instant celebrity.
NTC has rented NexStage Theatre for the
company’s entire winter season.
"It’s impossible to do four plays in
four months without having a consistent space," he said.
Their motto, Blampied said, is:
"Growth through performance."
"I say it with pride. Our objective is
getting the right ingredients together to get the best possible
performance."
Tickets for Wit may be purchased
through Chapter One and Atkinson’s in Ketchum and Read all About It in
Hailey, or at www.newtheatrecompany.org. The Boise Little Theatre show
tickets are available through Select-a-seat 208-426-1766 or
www.idahotickets.com.
