Previews: ART at Carriage Barn Arts Center At Waveny Park

Yazmina Reza’s popular play, Art, will be presented as a staged reading on Martin Luther King Weekend at the Carriage Barn Arts Center in New Canaan’s Waveny Park.

French playwright Reza Yasmina’s comedy, which opened on Broadway in 1998 and won the Tony Award for Best Play, explores long-time friendships and how people value things. In Art, three men find their friendship challenged when Serge (portrayed by Patrick Duffy) buys an expensive painting that is completely white. Marc (Raymond Gerard Michaud) is absolutely horrified. Yvan (John Fatteros) tries hard to be the peacemaker as Marc and Serge argue over the artistic and financial value of the painting. Alexandra Burke, new to the Falcone Repertory Company, which is producing the play, plays the narrator in this production. Frank S. Petrilli is the director.

The painting is always on stage, but the object of the discussion could be about anything, not just about art, but a $400 sushi dinner, a $20,000 Hermès handbag, or a $130,000 car. People spend money on what matters to them. Who gets to decide what art is? Do we even have a right to question or comment about their choices?

There is a lot for audience members to comment about this painting. The play will leave the audience analyzing their own thoughts and comparing them to what each of the characters thinks about it.

Lower Fairfield County and Westchester theater goers will love this production with its seasoned cast and creative crew.

Patrick Duffy appeared on Broadway in Once and Off-Broadway in The Butter and Egg Man, The Girl Who Came To Supper, Greencard, Wedding In Concert, and Two Noble Kinsmen. He was in the Falcon Repertory Company’s productions of Incident at Vichy, Of No Pleasant Side, and Hedgehog. At Crystal Theater, he performed in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He also appeared in local productions of Outside Mullingar, Alice in Wonderland, Fool for Love, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Price, All In The Timing, Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter and Ibsen’s Ghosts. Regional Theater credits include Twelfth Night and The Cripple of Inishmaan.

Raymond Gerard Michaud, who appears courtesy of Actors Equity, has recently appeared in Falcon Rep’s Oleana and A Life in The Theater, A Month in the Country, Educating Rita, Bakersfield Mist, Incident at Vichy, Of No Pleasant Side, and Hedgehog. He also performed at the Hartford Stage Company, Long Wharf Theatre, Palace Theatre and Rich Forum, Westport Country Playhouse, Norma Terris/Goodspeed, and the Edgerton Centre for the Performing Arts. He is the co-founder, producer, and Executive Director of Falcon Repertory Company, and is an emeritus member of the Theatre Artists’ Workshop.

John Fatteross previously acted in another production of Art. Recently he appeared in Steve Martin’s The Underpants. He has played leading roles in A Thousand Clowns, That Championship Season, I Hate Hamlet, The Best Man, You Can’t Take It With You, All My Sons, Thurber Carnival, Run For Your Wife, Hedgehog, and Kiss Mama!. He performed in All In The Timing, The Dumb Waiter, Incident at Vichy, and in the original plays Briar Hall, Harvest, Nicky the Rat, and The Trade They Made.

Alexandra Burke is new to the Falcon Repertory Company but is no newcomer to acting. She appeared as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, A Streetcar Named Desire, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Skylight, A Time to Kill, Almost Maine, Machinal, The Vagina Monologues, and The Rocky Horror Show. In addition, Alex was the lead-character in TiME (2017) an award winning short-film by Victoria Clougher. She won the 2013 OnStage Blog Critics Award: Best Supporting Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Frank S. Petrilli is a prolific stage director at Stamford Theatre Works, The Pound Ridge Theater Company, Greenwich Repertory Company, The Acting Company, Diamond Hill Theater, Curtain Call & The Dressing Room Theater, The Town Players of New Canaan & STAGE II, The Sterling Barn Theater & Sterling Barn Studio Theater, and Cameo Theater. In New York City, he also directed at Theatre Ten Ten, The Chelsea Playhouse, The Lamb’s Little Theater, on 44th, Studio 1 at Weist Barron, the Ted Bardy Studio Theatre in Chelsea, and at The Belmont Italian-American Playhouse in the Bronx, as well as the Falcon Repertory Company. He has directed Oleanna, A Life In The Theater, Incident at Vichy, Educating Rita, Agnes of God, Ghosts, Quiet! Three Ladies Laughing, Suddenly Last Summer, The Elephant Man, Uncle Vanya, and his original War II dramas, Hedgehog, and Of No Pleasant Side, in addition to the original plays Facing Berel, Harvest, and Briar Hall. Locally, He is the co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of The Acme Stage Company in NOHO, served as the Artistic Director of Theater Ten Ten (NYC’s oldest AEA approved off-off Broadway Showcase Theater) on Park Avenue, co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of A Place for Actors (APA) at the Ted Bardy Studios in Chelsea, and the Managing Artistic Director of The Oakwood Players at the original Actors’ Alley Theater in Los Angeles. Frank’s affiliations are with the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, The Dramatists Guild, and as an associate member of the Writers Guild of America, East prior to the Guild’s retirement of the associate-screenwriter program.

Production Coordinator Nancy Sciglimpaglia has done almost everything in the theatre including acting, directing, stage managing, property manager, lighting and sound board, and set design. Productions include The Long Voyage Home, West Side Story, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Guys and Dolls, Godspell, Born Yesterday, Incident at Vichy, Educating Rita, A Life in the Theater, All In the Timing, Bakersfield Mist, The Dumb Waiter, Agnes of God, Ghosts, Oleanna, Lone Star/Laundry & Bourbon, Harvest, Downstairs, Front, Briar Hall, and Quiet! Three Ladies Laughing. Hedgehog, and Of No Pleasant Side.

Performances are from Friday, January 17th through Sunday, January 19th at the Carriage Barn Arts Center at Waveny Park, 681 South Avenue, New Canaan (off Merritt Parkway Exit 37). There is ample parking and the theater is handicapped accessible. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for seniors and students. You can buy tickets online at https://www.onthestage.tickets/show/aperteur-network/67530b98cc24f5721c051e00/tickets#/productions-view

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