Photo Flash: A PROCESS OF ELIMINATION At Theater For The New City

The production will be presented at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue in Manhattan, for 12 performances starting Thursday, December 30, 2010, and continuing through Sunday, January 16, 2011. The first two performances on December 30 and 31, are being classified as previews. The official opening is Saturday, January 1, at 8 PM.

The preview performance on New Year's Eve (Friday, December 31, 2010, will have a 7 PM curtain. All members of the audience will be treated to a free glass of champagne with cast members immediately following the performance.

The official performance schedule is as follows: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, and Sundays at 3 PM. Exception: Friday, December 31 (New Year's Eve) at 7 PM.

All seats are $15 and TDF Vouchers are accepted. Reservations can be made by calling the box office at 212/254-1109. For tickets online: www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/793685.

The play is set in the apartment of Broadway producer Julian Dewinter, which is located above a Broadway theater that was formerly the home of legendary and eccentric producer David Belasco, once known as the 'Bishop of Broadway.' Dewinter fancies himself to be a reincarnation of Belasco and his specter appears several times in the play floating through various scenes.

The action takes place during one stormy night when Dewinter, his wife, Elaine, and their actor friend John Stanton are preparing for an initiation of an actress, Susan Carat, into their witches' coven. They are assisted by two other friends, Noreen and Maxwell Pratt, who are also witches.

What happens next is at times spooky, stunning, shocking, and always surprising in a richly theatrical, imaginative, fun murder/suspense mystery of the kind that has not been seen on the New York stage in some time.

The cast includes (in alphabetical order): Dan Burkarth,* Mitch Conway, Colleen Cosgrove, Michael Gnat,* Stephen Hansen,* Gabriella Mazza and Lisa Tracy*. Joseph Lyons appears as David Belasco's 'specter' throughout the action. George Bernard is the assistant director.

Gene Ruffini, who is a veteran journalist as well as a playwright and actor, first had the idea for Process of Elimination more than 25 years ago when The Dramatists Guild, of which he is an Associate Member, held their meetings in the former apartment of Broadway producer David Belasco, located on the upper level of the Broadway theater on West 44th Street which now bears his name. "It was there," Ruffini recalls, "that I first learned of the supposed haunting of the room by Belasco. That gave me the germ of the idea for using the setting of the supposedly 'haunted' apartment for a murder/suspense/mystery play, a genre of which I am particularly fond."

*Member of Actor's Equity Association
Ruffini explains, "When I was quite young, I avidly read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, Philo Vance, Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie and whatever mystery novels I could get me hands on. Later on Sleuth and Deathtrap were plays I immensely enjoyed as well and I thought I might try my hand at one. So, I combined Belasco with another fascination of mine - Witchcraft - to come up with what I thought would be an entertaining, fun, theater experience. The first drafts of the play were written about 25 years ago and then put aside, but some inner voice - ghostly perhaps - made me revisit it again and I realized that it was ageless."

During his long career, Ruffini has written more than a dozen full-length Off-Off Broadway showcase productions, over a half dozen full-length plays produced as workshops, as well as scores of other one-act and full-length plays. He is a published novelist ("The Power Lovers") and biographer (labor leader Harry Van Arsdale, Jr.) and has written many published articles in magazines and periodicals.
Ruffini is also a successful actor with many screen and television credits, including principal roles in more than two dozen feature films, among them Analyze This, Casino, Little Odessa, Ghost Dog, Once More With Feeling, Find Me Guilty, etc. He also played principal roles on The Sopranos and several episodes of Law & Order.

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