The Ossining Arts Council (OAC) and Westchester Collaborative Theater (WCT) Present The 2020 Living Art Event – An Innovative Merger of Art and Theater

Contact:       Evelyn Mertens 914-762-6429                     Alan Lutwin 914-263-4953 Email:          wctcompany@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 4, 2020

 

The Ossining Arts Council (OAC) and Westchester Collaborative Theater (WCT) Present

The 2020 Living Art Event – An Innovative Merger of Art and Theater

The fifth biennial Living Art Event will be performed at WCT April 3-26, 2020 

 

Ossining, NY – The Ossining Arts Council (OAC) and Westchester Collaborative Theater (WCT) will present The 2020 Living Art Event (LAE), showcasing OAC artworks and seven original WCT one-act plays inspired by selected works, weekends from April 3 – 26 at the WCT black box performance space in downtown Ossining. The production will be directed by Christopher Arena, WCT member and director/actor/playwright and WCT. A tour led by docents who are members of the OAC will take the audience through a special gallery created within the black box performance space of WCT. As docents pause intermittently, the artworks will spring to life in the form of plays written by local playwrights. Actors were selected from WCT members and the community, including several students from Ossining high school. The artworks were originally on exhibit at the Ossining Public Library in June of 2019.

The LAE runs weekends from Friday, April 3 through Sunday, April 26. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm plus matinees on Saturdays at 2 pm and Sundays at 3 pm (no performance on Easter Sunday, April 12) with a special performance on Thursday, May 23 at 8 p.m, Talk-backs are scheduled for April 5 and 19. WCT is located at 23 Water St., Ossining, NY.

The plays are:

Hey Dad… Got a Minute…? by Carol Mark- With too many things left unsaid, an artist uses his talent in hopes of creating a connection to his father.

To Have Norma,l by Evelyn Mertens – A young father and his daughter seek an oasis of calm following a cataclysmic event that has upended their lives forever.

Glad Rag,s by Peter Andrews – Propriety faces off against exuberance as two arts professionals clash before meeting a wealthy donor.

Still Life, by Schuyler Bishop – Tantalizing, though familiar objects, bring a long-married couple to the brink.

The View from My Room, by Pat O’Neill – The flames of love have a tendency to burn the threads of the heart – It’s a good thing this room is fireproof.

Being Thirteen, by Elaine Hartel – Two teenage girls exchange dark secrets in a park as they grapple with life in a difficult world.

The Bronze Lining, by Tara Meddaugh – When two estranged sisters in mourning try to reconnect during a treacherous hike, they must confront whether there is too much damage between them to repair.

Christopher Arena (New Rochelle) includes among his many directing credits: The Elephant Man and Master Class (Center Stage Playhouse), As Bees in Honey Drown and Quills (The Moonlight Theatre), and The Secret Garden (Bedford Community Theatre).

The Living Art actors will be: Amy Lowenthal (Bedford Hills); Brandon Rumaker; Dan Forman (Yorktown Heights); Dante De Leo; Enid Breis (Croton); Jeff Callan (Montrose); Lorraine Federico; Roberta Robinson (Somers); Rob Ansbro ; and three Ossining residents and OHS students: Daisy Gautier, Gabriella DiMiceli and Julia Torricella.

The docents will include: Bonnie Coe, Elsa Rubenstein, Helen Arbor Young and Renée Kilbride Edelman. All are Ossining residents.

General admission tickets to LAE are $25; $20 for seniors/students.  Discounted tickets are also available for OAC/WCT members and groups of 5+. Advance online purchase is strongly recommended: www.wctheater.org or www.ossiningartscouncil.org and Brown Paper Tickets, https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4546941.

The plays were inspired by artworks created by OAC artists Keith Gordon (treasurer, OAC); Phyllis Kirigin (an actor member of WCT); April Freeman Locke; Ted Berkowitz; Peg Tarnosky; Louise Belevich; and Jill Kiefer.

The production is dedicated to the memory of Joe Albert Lima, longtime WCT playwright/director/actor member who recently passed away. Lima was scheduled to direct the LAE 2020.

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