Six new directors make their TAP debut with the August arrival of Acting Up!, a seven-play show full of funny. Cerebral vaudeville abounds in this production, starting with “Words, Words, Words,” directed by Robyn Mendelsohn: chimpanzees named Kafka, Milton and Swift have to type Hamlet. Phobia meets neuroses in Jim Barayasarra’s play in which a man and a woman with hang-ups get hung-up on a “Ferris Wheel.” Peter Howell directs 3 umpires warming up for the new baseball season—but one loses faith in his calls. Trapped in a Bizzaro world of reversal, a guy tries to order a sandwich and beer in “The Philadelphia,” directed by Zach Schlag. In Maureen Curtin’s “Emotional Baggage,” lost luggage at an airport share their hopes and fears. And all that is just the first act!

When the curtain rises again, the show turns to the fate and philosophy of a bear treed by a dog owned by a Russian beautician. Sounds like the start of a joke, right? You will laugh at Jim Fowler’s “Duet for Bear and Dog.” Jim is an experienced director and actor of some repute in Eastern Shore theatre circles. Closing the show is Zach Schlag’s “Mere Mortals,” the Lindbergh baby, the heir to Russia’s throne and the reincarnation of Marie Antoinette discuss bowling and lunch 50 floors above Manhattan.

Seventeen actors in 27 roles make Acting Up! so fantastic, fast and funny that the brainy buffoonery will have you rolling in the aisles. They include Steve Clyburn, Maureen Curtin, Kelly Davis, Bob Dietz, Richard Dorbin, Tabitha Groce, Peter Howell, Guido de Luca, Nick Roetzel, Zach Schlag, George Spelvin, Anita Tecce, Erica Tecce, Maggie Vogelsang, Nina Wahl, Tim Weigand and Rick Willis.

Acting Up! Show Dates
August 15-17, 22-24, 29-31,
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays 2 pm.

For more information, go to www.tredavonplayers.org, for reservations call 410 226 0061.

Unclaimed baggage with angst and attitude are part of TAP’s summer show. Clockwise from the top: actors Nick Roetzel, Tabitha Grace, Nina Wahl and Maggie Vogelsang

Six new directors attend training
Starting last May, six new directors started training for TAP’s summer show Acting Up! with workshops and coaching from experienced directors. TAP recruited new directors from among actors, technicians, stage crews and producers who have appeared on, above and behind stage and now want to call the shots themselves. They include Robyn Mendelsohn directing “Words, Words, Words” and mentored by Susan Wasilewski; Jim Barayasarra (“Ferris Wheel,” mentor Anita Tecce); Peter Howell (“Judgment Call,” mentor Betty Dorbin); Zach Schlag (“The Philadelphia,” mentor Tim Weigand); Maureen Curtin (“Emotional Baggage,” mentor Erica Tecce); and Pat Fee (“Mere Mortals,” mentor Alex Handy). Some mentors have doubled up as actors, including Peter, Anita, Erica and Tim. A hearty thanks to the mentors for a terrific job of “passing the torch” to a new cohort of community theatre directors.

Student directors attended directing training with Pat Murphy Sheehy, former manager and producing artistic director of Washington, DC’s acclaimed, Helen Hayes Award-winning Source Theatre. They also received production training led by David and Fiona Foster, Sally Woodall, Susan Wasilewski and Skipper Marquess.

Plaza Suite: CAPA’s “inn”side play
Also in August: Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite, produced by the Community Alliance for the Performing Arts. Set in a hotel suite, it is 3 stories in 3 acts with 3 different emotions, ending in slapstick hilarity.
Directed by TAP president Ed Langrell.
At Easton’s Historical Society Auditorium, August 13-17.
Reservations: 410-924-1350.

Sylvia a great success
TAP’s spring production of Sylvia was a great success, drawing with an audience of over one thousand in its 10 productions. Thanks go out to the many house volunteers for their hard work making the theatre experience a delight off stage as well as on. They include Betsy Ames, Ellen Anderson, Sheila Askew, Caron Baker, Arlene Bickel, Marty Biggs, Louise Bishop, Nancy Burroughs, Dennis Carroll, Susan Clifford, Steve Clyburn, Lawrie Driggs, Kaye Dutrow, Dottie Hackland, Helen and Bob Hopler, Corrie James, Pat Jessup, Pam Kettinger, Kathy Kurtz, Annie Kusinitz, Happy Lippincott, Bill MacFarland, Robyn Mendelsohn, Tracy Munson, Wendy Pagenstecher, Stuart Parnes, Irene Pentimall, Peggy and Van Lott, Susan and John Porch, Cindy and Jim Reed, Jane and Steve Selden, Sue Ellen Thompson, Nancy Wilson, and Liz and Bernie Witter.