Thirty Years!
Thirty years! Do you remember what you were doing thirty years ago when The Kavinoky opened its doors? I can’t remember last year very well, but the archival pictures in the lobby jog the memory of those heady days. There are so many memories and stories (which have grown and been embellished over the years to the point of apocrypha…remember when the messenger-parrot flew from the Sherlock stage and stunned itself on a patron in Row D, who then, calm-as-you-like, threw it back; or a totally exhausted Chris O’Neill, supposedly run through with my sword, gasping for air as if he had just run a marathon?). But what sticks in my mind most firmly are the actors.
What a privilege (if not always a pleasure!) it has been, to direct and act with (sometimes at the same time some might carp!) the talent that has been exhibited on our stage over those three decades. Chris O’Neill, David Fendrick, Saul Elkin, Anne Gayley, Mike Karr, Eileen Dugan, John Buscaglia, Vincent O’Neill and Josephine Hogan, Jim DeMunn, Tim Meyers, Art Burns, Steve Cooper, Richard Wesp…all have been members of our Company at some stage. Five have died prematurely (don’t we all!) and others have gone on to other lives. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. Thinking of them now brings three thoughts to my mind: what talent we have been blessed with over the past seasons (and not just those named above); how transitory are those moments on-stage shared with each other and an audience, and how precious; and finally, if I could have them all back on-stage at the same time, someone would suggest a blocking adjustment! And so, we dedicate this anniversary season, not to the playwrights, without whom we would have no material, not to the directors, designers, technicians, stage-hands, volunteers and producers, all without whom we would have no existence, but to the actors (because they show up for matinees and learn all those lines!).
Once again we bring you a season of four WNY premiers, our Christmas show for one week only, and a remount of a play we did some 20 years ago for our perennial lead actress. The future looks to be as exciting as the past because the nature of theatre never changes. Not only for the actors, but for all who experience it, the stage gives us the opportunity to discover and understand who we are and what we are capable of. It’s a hell of a place to be (and to show off!)
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See you at the Kav!
Artistic Director