Bay Street Theater Announces Cast and Creative for THE GREAT GATSBY

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the cast and creative team for this year's Literature Live! production of F. Scott Fitzgerald'sThe Great Gatsby, adapted for the stage by Simon Levy, directed by Joe Minutillo and choreographed by Stephanie Vertichio. This is the tenth year of the Literature Live! program. Public performances areThursday through Saturday, November 8 - 10, 15 - 17, and Thanksgiving weekend Friday- Sunday, November 23 - 25. Tickets are on sale now and available online at baystreet.org, or by calling the Box Office at 631-725-9500.

Joe Minutillo (Director) has previously directed the Literature Live! productions of The Diary of Anne Frank, To Kill A Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, The Scarlett Letter, and last year's Death of a Salesman.

The other creative team members are Michael Holland (Original Music), Rick Sordelet (Fight Director), Mike Billings (Lighting and Set Designer), Brian Staton (Projection Designer), Melanie Clifton-Harvey (Costume Designer), Meg Murphy (Hair & Make-up Designer), Taylor Alyssa Marun (Production Stage Manager), and Melisa Zorer (Assistant Stage Manager).

The cast includes equity actors from NYC with some that have local roots to the East End. Charlie Westfal (Guild Hall: Romeo & Juliet, Columbia University, The Cherry Orchard, and Mother Courage) as Jay Gatsby; John Kroft (Bay Street's The Tempest, Regional: Bram Stoker's Dracula, New York:Dan Cody's Yacht) lives in NYC and Sag Harbor and will play Nick Carraway; Sara Carolynn Kennedy (New York: Hindle Wakes, For All My Girls, Regional: Shout! The Mod Musical) as Daisy Buchanan; Alexandra Kopko (Regional: It's A Wonderful Life, Uncle Vanya, Dark and Stormy) as Jordan Baker; Dan Fenaughty (National Tours: The 39 Steps, Miracle On 34th Street, Cabaret) as Tom Buchanan; Chauncy Thomas (Bay Street's To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, Bay Street's New Works: The Prompter) as George Wilson; Amanda Kristin Nichols (Bay Street's The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Bay Street's The Tempest, Shakespeare's R & J) spent summers growing up in Bridgehampton and will play Myrtle Wilson; Scott T. Hinson (Bay Street's: To Kill a Mockingbird,Men's Lives, and Death of a Salesman) as Meyer Wolfsheim/Mr. McKee/Policeman; and Stephanie Turci (New York: '68: A New American Musical, Regional: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Wiz) as Mrs. McKee/Mrs. Michaelis.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic Jazz Age novel, The Great Gatsby, comes to life on Bay Street's intimate stage. The Roaring 20's was a time of excess, lavish parties and speakeasies. Jay Gatsby was a secretive and successful kingpin of the elite party circuit, but he had one burning desire and one purpose - to be with Daisy Buchanan, the love of his life from his youth. Set on Long Island in 1922, this compelling drama portrays the human condition of ambition, love, lust, greed, deceit, and most of all the struggles of class and the American Dream.

Literature Live! is a BOCES-approved Arts-in-Education program. Plays chosen are from the standards-based literature and are supported with teacher-developed lesson plans and reference materials. All performances are 90 minutes and weekday shows are followed by a question and answer session. Bay Street Theater is committed to supporting students who have little or no access to the performing arts in schools. Now in its 10th season, the program has successfully served over 60 schools and nearly 30,000 students and their educators. The production is performed free for student groups and their teachers from across Long Island. Literature Live! is currently being supported by a Matching Grant of $100,000, with $27,550 currently raised to date. School groups can reserve free tickets for their group by contacting mary@baystreet.org.

Literature Live! is sponsored by Century Arts Foundation, The Bay Street Board of Trustees, The Andrew Sabin Family Foundation, Susan Dusenberry, Susan Edwards & Ian Ziskin, Dana Foundation, Jane Holden, In Memory of Sloane Shelton, Irvin Stern Foundation, Mary Lou & Sal Ranieri, Nancy Stearns, Theatre Venture, Inc., Town of Southampton, and BTIG, LLC.

Media sponsors are Dan's Papers, WBAZ, WEHM, WLNG.

The Box Office is currently open Tuesday - Saturday 11 am - 5 pm. To purchase tickets, call the Box Office at 631-725-9500 or order online at baystreet.org.

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. It serves as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists.

Photo: (L to R) Joe Minutillo, Stephanie Vertichio, Amanda Kristin Nichols, John Kroft, Alexandra Kopko, Chauncy Thomas, Dan Fenaughty, Sara Carolynn Kennedy, Charlie Westfal, Stephanie Turci. Photo by Franki Sciacchitano, courtesy of Bay Street Theater.