Blaze Bell, stage manager for Wind Blown and Dripping, is shown with, clockwise from top left, Bradford Jackson, Marius Panzarella, Mark Stoneburner, Kelly Williams II and Jeff Aldrich. (Peter Porco photo)
WIND BLOWN and DRIPPING, a two-act play by Alaskan Peter Porco, was produced January 8-24, 2010, at Cyrano’s Playhouse on D Street, Anchorage. It is a production of Cyrano’s Theatre Company.
Director: Dick Reichman
Producing Artistic Director: Sandy Harper
Production Manager: Scarlet Kittylee Boudreaux
Stage Manager: Blaze Bell
Set Design: Brian Saylor
Costume Design: Lynn Murphy
Lighting Design: Frank Hardy
Props: Elyce Boyd
CAST
Corporal Dashiell Hammett – Marius Panzarella, through Jan. 14. Dick Reichman, Jan. 15-24.
General Harry Blaine – Mark Stoneburner
Corporal Cecil Reavis – Bradford Jackson
Private Donald Lincoln – Kelly Williams II
Private Smokie Londregan – Jeff Aldrich
Sandy Harper, producing artistic director of Cyrano's Theatre Co. and a friend to all artists in Alaska. (Peter Porco photo)
SANDY HARPER, Cyrano’s Producing Artistic Director, is Queen of the Arts in Alaska and Governor of the Higher Consciousness. She’s a rare gem of a person, a theatrical maven, a friend and supporter to theatre artists in Alaska and elsewhere, and a busy busy busy lady who’s steering her little theatre into showing a different play every month. Not to mention that she’s a beautiful mensch and the Godmother of Wind Blown and Dripping. Hats off to Sandy and to her late husband, Jerry Harper, lofty inspiration and a guy to whom Alaska theatre owes more than can be written about in a library full of books.
Cast and crew (as of Jan. 2010)
Jeff Aldrich plays Smokie Londregan in WIND BLOWN and DRIPPING
Jeff Aldrich (Londegran) has studied theatre at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Atlantic Acting School in New York. In Fairbanks he is best known for his work with the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre (Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Winters Tale), the Fairbanks Drama Association (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I’m Not Rappaport), and with the University (The Possessed). This is his first production in Anchorage, he is glad to be working on this new work with such a talented cast and crew.
This production is in the capable hands of stage manager Blaze Bell.
Blaze Bell (Stage Manager) has been dancing, singing and acting most of her life and has appeared in over 50 shows, including a national touring original musical. Cyrano’s is one of her favorite venues. There you may have seen her in The Courtship of Zack & Ada; The Boyfriend; The Odd Couple; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, or as Miss Scarlet in Clue, the Musical.
Elyce Boyd (props) found out early that if she took Drama class she could get out of Home Economics, so Theater won, and it’s occupied her better moments since the 1980s. She has worked on productions of South Pacific, Bus Stop and Annie Get Your Gun. She moved to Alaska in 2005, and discovered Cyrano’s. In the past year she has worked on the Imaginary Invalid, Boyfriend, Soapy Smith, and many others.
Frank Hardy (Light Designer) came to Alaska in the winter of 1970 when his father was transferred to work as a wildlife biologist in the Aleutians. So he heard stories growing up about horizontal rain, and that it was possible to have impenetrable fog with gale force winds in the islands. Frank’s father, a downeaster, thought he knew about fog. After all, he had seen all its manifestations, but the islands taught him different. In those days, pretty much the only way out there was Reeve Aleutian Air, ’cause they would fly when NOBODY else would. (Frank’s mother wasn’t too happy about that, but it’s hard to recall if Reeve ever lost a plane during that period.) Frank understands that the islands can be quite beautiful, during the 10 or 15 minutes each year that they’re visible.
Bradford Jackson (Peter Porco photo)
Bradford Jackson (Reavis) is a theatre major and physical fitness minor at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Bradford has been in a number of stage productions and short films all around Anchorage. He hopes to one day get into grad school in New York to pursue film acting. Bradford loves the stage and it holds a special place in his heart, but his true passion is film. He also enjoys writing, drawing, photography and playing with swords because it’s fun to poke your friends. Bradford would like to thank his mother and father for always pushing him to do what he believes, his oldest brother, Ryan, for giving him the passion, his sister Iris for helping him along life’s narrow road, his brother Alan for never letting him forget what it’s like to be wild at heart, and to his brother Thomas (EOD ARMY) and brother Kyle (FORCE RECON MARINES) and all the troops serving…Thank you.
Lynn R. Murphy (Costumes) has been a costumer for Anchorage Community Theatre (ACT) for the last 5 years and with Cyrano’s for the last year. She recently finished a 7-week gig as a dresser for Disney’s The Lion King and enjoyed every minute of it! She has a terrific husband and 5 large dogs and 1 cat. She actually has been to Adak and found it very beautiful … but it was a gorgeous sunny day in August.
Marius Panzarella as Dashiell Hammett
Marius Panzarella (Hammett, through Jan. 14.) is very pleased to be back on the Cyrano’s stage playing the role of Dashiell Hammett. No stranger to army life, Marius served in Lai Kei, Viet Nam, as a young battalion surgeon with the “Big Red One” and continues to work with great pleasure with military veterans as an orthopaedic surgeon at the Anchorage VA facility. He last appeared on Cyrano’s stage as Professor Emir in The Perfect Prayer. Some of his other roles include C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands, Fagin in Oliver and most recently as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. He and his wife, Sylvia, divide their time between Anchorage and Kodiak and stay busy herding cats-–all five of them! Marius has thoroughly enjoyed working with this fantastic cast and crew and would like to say “Grazie e Salute!” to Peter Porco for a great play and to Sylvia for all her support, without which he could not have done this role.
Peter Porco (playwright) worked for more than 20 years as a writer and editor for the Anchorage Daily News. Since 2002, when he took his first goofy steps to write for the stage, a handful of his (very) short works have been produced in Anchorage (at Cyrano’s, the Alaska Overnighters and Steve’s Sports Bar) and in Talkeetna, and were accepted for critical readings at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference (Valdez) and the Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region (Arvada, Colo.). Wind Blown and Dripping is his first full-length play. His playwriting has been supported by grants from the Rasmuson Foundation and the Alaska State Council on the Arts. Peter directed Terrence McNally’s one-act play Botticelli for University of Alaska Anchorage Theatre in Spring 2008 and Van Le’s Letters to Ho Chi Minh, a new work performed for Out North’s “Under :30” in January 2010. He founded the Alaska Poetry League, sponsored the first Alaska teams to compete at the National Poetry Slam (2000 and 2001), and teaches the Slam Poetry course at UAA. He was born and brung up, in The Bronx, NYC.
Alaska playwright, director, actor Dick Reichman took on the challenge of directing "Wind Blown and Dripping," a World Premiere. Starting with the Jan. 15 performance, he also stepped into the role of Dashiell Hammett. (KTUU photo)
Dick Reichman (director; played the role of Hammett Jan. 15-24.) is a CTC regular, core member of the company and the Resident Playwright. CTC has produced seven of his plays, most recently The BigOne: A Chronicle of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and Flamel’sDream. Other productions include Money, War, Florida, Alaska Roadhouse, and The Bells of Geneva. Dick’s most recent CTC directing assignments include The Time of Your Life, The Ballad of Soapy Smith, Doubt, HappyDays, The Ladies of the Camellias, Hansel and Gretel, The Skin of Our Teeth, Back of the Throat, Kafka Dances, Nickel and Dimed, Proof, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Waiting for Godot. He directed The Mousetrap for ACT and most recently Well, and The Man in the Attic at Out North. Dick is also a regular performer for CTC and was last seen in Deathtrap, The Ladies of the Camellias, War, The Sea Gull, Born Yesterday, The Heiress, and his own works, Flamel’s Dream and The Bells of Geneva. Dick is a member of the Cyrano’s Board of Directors.
Mark Stoneburner plays Gen. Blaine
Kelly Williams II (Peter Porco photo)
Kelly Williams II (Lincoln) recently moved from Chicago to Anchorage. In his short time in Alaska’s largest city, he’s been seen doing stand-up comedy at Rumrunners and Club Soraya. He and his guitar also appear at the occasional open-mic night. In his spare time he likes to write, go running and sketch. This is his first play in Alaska and in is career. He hopes you enjoy it as much as he enjoyed learning about it.
Cyrano’s Theatre Co. (CTC) is a nonprofit formed in 1995 by a group of volunteers committed to producing professional, quality works utilizing Alaskan talent. At Cyrano’s there’s something for everyone with a wide variety of plays, from original works to Shakespeare. And Cyrano’s operates year round with a different play every month.
Contact Cyrano’s by writing cyrano@ak.net or by calling (907) 274.2599.
