MY WITCH The Margaret Hamilton Stories Comes To Centenary Stage

My Witch: The Margaret Hamilton Stories arrives at Centenary Stage

Just in time for the Halloween season, Centenary Stage, in Hackettstown, NJ, will feature the critically acclaimed play My Witch: The Margaret Hamilton Stories, starring Jean Tafler as Margaret Hamilton, the amazing character actress behind the iconic Wicked Witch of the West in MGM's The Wizard of Oz.

This one-person show premiered in Maine and New York last Halloween and has landed as a centerpiece of Centenary's Fringe Festival, for a 2-week run, from October 20th to 30th.

My Witch: The Margaret Hamilton Stories is the amazing tale of the brains, heart and courage it took to be America's most recognizable yet least known character woman...and of how a gentle kindergarten teacher from Cleveland scared the living daylights out of every last one of us.

If there is one movie we all share, it is The Wizard of Oz, but Jean Tafler's uncanny portrayal reveals the woman behind the wicked cackle and green makeup.

Directed by Will Pomerantz, Associate Artistic Director of Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY, where the play was first developed, the fun and haunting show runs a brisk 90 minutes with no intermission.

"Creating a play usually ends with reviews, My Witch began with one," says playwright John Ahlin. "A well-known reviewer once compared Jean Tafler's performance as a female Scrooge to Margaret Hamilton. Curiosity led me to explore if there was a play hidden within Hamilton's life, and within half-a-day's research, such wonderful and fascinating things came pouring forth about 'Maggie', Hollywood, Oz and beyond, that the play nearly launched itself. She is a character that everyone needs to meet." Ahlin, co-author of the award-winning ping pong play ChipandGus, and actor who's appeared on Broadway and at many major regional theaters, is Artistic Director of the New York City-based Fat Knight Theatre, which is also producing My Witch.

The play runs October 20 through 30, Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sunday matinees, 2pm, at Centenary Stage's Kutz Theatre, 750 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown, NJ. Tickets range from $15 to $27.50, at http://www.centenarystageco.org/fringe-my-witch

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