PPP's entry, "27 Wagons Full of Cotton," won the Best Production Runner Up--which comes with an invitation to the Eastern States Theater Association Festival which will be held in Rome, NY in April. In addition the show won adjudicator awards for Best Director: Jim DeBastiani; Best Performance by an Actress: Jill Lewandowski, and Best Makeup: Beth Howlett. YAY!
Congratulations to PPP DTA Festival Chair Kenney Workman and his many volunteers for a wonderful event. The many people from "up north" who came to Possum Hall for the first time were very, VERY impressed with our beautiful facility and raved about our "southern hospitality." Proud? You bet!
THE CAST
Flora Meighan...Jill Lewandowsk
Jake Meighan...Fred Dean
Silva Vicarro...Chuck Rafferty
Director...
Jim DeBastiani
Jim DeBastianiOn The Edge Archive...
441 Old Laurel Road - Georgetown, Delaware / Mailing Address: P O Box 96, Georgetown DE 19947 / Office Phone: 302-856-3460
TICKETLINE: 302-856-4560 / EMAIL: mail@possumpointplayers.org
On Our Stages...
Get to Know Us...
No Exit was the first presentation for PPP's On the Edge. Director Jim DeBastiani created an environmental theatre space where the division between audience and performer was intentionally blurred. He moved the acting area into the audience creating a theater in the round, but invited the audience to engage the play from the actors point of view by sitting on the stage area. A wall of white light was used to define the space while a patch of red light identified the door. Audience members were able to choose how close to Hell they wanted to be: on the set, or at a safer location further away.
The cast of No Exit included: Patrick Maloy, Lisa Parsons, Lee Lott, and Rick Parsons.
Two years in development, Angel Fire represents an exhaustive search through the poetry and short stories of author, Joyce Carroll Oates. This project began after director/creator Jim DeBastiani’s daughter came home from school with the short story, Extenuating Circumstances. Fascinated by Oates’ viewpoint, Jim’s work began. The result is a compilation of poetry and short stories driven on the struggles of finding, recognizing and keeping perfect love.
The set design is unique for the Possum Stage. Done in charcoals, and designed by Sheree Zinszer Bedell, a series of ramps and platforms lead the performers to the panicle of desire. Through out this journey the actors never rest on the stage floor. They are either negotiating the ramps or taking refuge on the small platforms above the stage floor.
Through a generous grant from the Humanities Forum, Joyce Carroll Oates attended our performance and presented a reading from her latest novel, Blonde.
The cast included Lisa Parsons, Sheree Zinszer Bedell, Rick Parsons, Kristen Drunen, Kelly Warrington, and Patrick Maloy.
Past Possum Point Players ON THE EDGE Productions...
From the Possum Point Players ON THE EDGE Archives...
l to r: Sheree Zinszer Bedell, Joyce Carol Oates, Jim DeBastiani
Conceived by Jim DeBastiani and Fred Dean
Compiled by Jim DeBastiani, Fred Dean, and Sharon Gambrill
PPP's ON THE EDGE at ESTAFest 2012!
Kudos and congratulations to PPP's On the Edge for its traveling performance of ECHOES OF WAR.
The group performed and competed in the annual Eastern States Theatre Association Festival 2012 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in April. The group was invited after a successful turn at the Delaware Theatre Association held in Wilmington in March. The ESTA performance earned an Outstanding Achievement in Costuming certificate. Everyone involved with this original has made us all proud Possums!
On the road with ECHOES OF WAR: kneeling from left--Hannah Lowe, Kori Lewandowski; standing from left--Fred Dean, Marsha Shull, Colleen Small, Jill Lewandowski, George Spillane, Claudius Bowden, Jim DeBastiani, Michael Short
About the play...
Perhaps Tennessee Williams' most famous one-act play, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton was a sensation after its publication in 1946. The story became even more controversial after director Elia Kazan released the 1956 movie Baby Doll which was based on this play.
The story: In order to boost his own cotton ginning business, Jake Meighan sets the local Syndicate Plantation ablaze. The superintendent of the Syndicate Plantation sends over 27 wagons full of cotton for ginning, and turns aside his suspicions that Jake is the arsonist in exchange for apparent sexual favors from Jake's wife, Flora.
PPP's On the Edge...
27 Wagons Full of Cotton
written by Tennessee Williams
directed by Jim DeBastiani
This show was PPP's entry into the
held March 2, 2013 at Possum Hall
and was adjudicated to be the
DTA Fest 2013 Runner Up!
PPP's ON THE EDGE Runner Up at DTAfest 2013!
Durang/Durang is a collection of seven short plays/sketches written by Christopher Durang. On The Edge presented three works from Durang/Durang on July 13 and 14, 2013.
Nina In The Morning is a glimpse into the world of Nina, a wealthy single mother of three, who augments her reality with frequent visits into her remembered past, when life was easier. The second offering, Mrs. Sorken, has the title character giving a lecture on the theater. Unfortunately she has a difficult time keeping her focus, and her ramblings are hilarious. The evening rounds out with Wanda’s Visit, a delightful look at the comedy that arises when an old high school sweetheart comes to visit Joe and his wife of 13 years.
The company consists of Fred Dean, Jim DeBastiani, and Louise Hartzell of Georgetown, Jill Lewandowski from Bridgeville and Chuck Rafferty of Laurel. Join us in the Green Room at Possum Hall on Saturday, July 13 at 7:30p or Sunday, July 14 at 2:00p. Admission is $10 at the door.
On The Edge: Durang/Durang
Possum Point Players invite the public to join them for a close up look at the inner workings of the Possum Point Players’ affiliate On The Edge on Saturday, November 9, at 7:30p, or Sunday November 10, 2013 at 2:00p for a workshop presentation of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame. Tickets are not reserved and are available at the door for $10.
Endgame is a haunting tale which explores the human experience in the face of a catastrophic event. According to director Jim DeBastiani of Georgetown: “It will be less of a performance and more of a creative work in progress workshop,” he says. “We would like our audience to become active members of our process, having opportunities to suggest different approaches to the script as well as different interpretations. For the really ambitious audience members, we will offer the roles of Nagg and Nell,” he concludes.
According to DeBastiani, Beckett likes this sort of exploration. With a tight script that refuses to allow the actor to relax, he weaves a tale that is at once simplistic and ambiguous. Harold Hobson of The Sunday Times wrote: “…Mr. Beckett is a poet; and the business of a poet is not to clarify, but to suggest; to imply, to employ words with auras of association, beyond the compass of explicit definition.” It is exactly this that allows simplicity to reside hand in hand with ambiguity and permits each member of the audience to bring personal experiences to the theater creating different levels of understanding.
ON THE EDGE presents workshop of Samuel Beckett's ENDGAME.
The cast includes Chuck Rafferty of Laurel as Hamm and Fred Dean of Georgetown as Clov. Smaller roles may be filled by willing audience volunteers.
Possum Point Players is supported, in part, by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
2016...ON THE EDGE presents Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance.
A Delicate Balance is Albee’s 1967 Pulitzer prize-winning play that examines the delicate balance that is our lives. Specifically, it examines the lives of Tobias and Agnes as their home is descended upon first by Agnes’ alcoholic sister who takes up residence. Next to arrive are their dearest and closest friends, Edna and Harry, who are experiencing “terrors” which drive them from their home, to live with Agnes and Tobias. To round out this merry little party, Julia, the 35 year old daughter of Agnes and Tobias, returns home for the fourth time following her fourth failed marriage. With all of these additions to their private lives, Agnes and Tobias struggle to maintain their balance.
The cast includes Laura Ochsman as Agnes, Chuck Rafferty as Tobias, Jill Lewandowski as Claire, Tara Wisely as Julia, Dawn Conaway as Edna and Fred Dean as Harry. A Delicate Balance is directed by Jim DeBastiani, assisted by Karen Fitzpatrick.
The performance dates and times
FEB 13 at 7:30p and FEB 14, 2016 at 2:00p.
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door. We are excited to be in the theater for this production. (Our usual venue has been the green room, which has served us well.)
PPP's On The Edge presents
Ages of the Moon
written by Sam Shepard
directed by Laura Ochsman
Fri FEB 17 and Sat FEB 18, 2017
7:30p at Possum Hall
featuring Jim DeBastiani and Fred Dean
Sam Shepard's Ages of the Moon is the Possum Point Players’ entry for DTAFest, the Delaware state theater competition. Please join us for one of the performances to help us better prepare for the festival. The Saturday, FEB 18 performance is a special one as this is the show that will be adjudicated for entry into the Eastern States Theater (ESTA) Festival to be held this April in Wilmington.
Ages of the Moon is a delightful, humorous portrait of two men who have been reunited after many years. They talk of the past and discover things about themselves and each other that will help them navigate the course of their aging years. Ages of the Moon is one of Shepard’s shorter plays running about 70 minutes, but it packs all of the powerful elements for which Mr. Shepard is known. Ages of the Moon has mature subjects and occasional course language, and is recommended for mature audiences.
From Wikipedia: Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, author, screenwriter, and director whose body of work spans over half a century. He is the author of forty-four plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. Shepard received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child. Shepard's plays are chiefly known for their bleak, poetic, often surrealist elements, black humor and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society. His style has evolved over the years, from the absurdism of his early Off-Off- Broadway work to the realism of Buried Child and Curse of the Starving Class.
Tickets are $10 at the door.
2018 Sat FEB 17 at 7:30p / Sun FEB 18 at 2:00p
$15 Tickets at the Door
2018
