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Penguin Rep Theatre, under the leadership of Joe Brancato, founding Artistic Director, and Andrew M. Horn, Executive Director, presents Centennial Casting, a comedy by Gino DiIorio and Nancy Bleemer, beginning Friday, June 14, in Stony Point, New York.
Centennial Casting follows the sold-out run of
The Sabbath Girl, which kicked off the nonprofit professional theatre’s 46th season, and will be produced through July 7.
Love, laughter and mistaken identity take the stage in Centennial Casting when Vincent DiDonato and his co-workers discover a pile of headshots sent in by actors who have mistaken their metal casting shop for a theatrical casting agency. A hilarious romantic escapade turns up the heat as sparks sometimes fly in the most unexpected places.
According to Mr. Brancato, Centennial Casting is “a hilarious romantic escapade as sparks sometimes fly in the most unexpected places.”
The cast, under Mr. Brancato’s direction, includes Coryn Carson as Michele (Regional: Like No One’s Watching); Grace Experience as Edie (NY: Grounded. Regional: Some People Hear Thunder, Midwives); Mike Labbadia as Vincent (Off Broadway: Arcadia, Winter’s Tale, Hedda Gabler); Joshua Morgan as Carmine (Broadway: Ain’t Too Proud, Les Miserables); and Bill Phillips as Doo-Doo (Penguin: After, The Savannah Disputation).
Director Brancato’s credits include Michael McKeever’s Daniel’s Husband, which transferred from Penguin to Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre and then onto its commercial production at the Westside Theatre/Upstairs, as well as the same playwright’s After, which moved from Penguin to 59E59 Theaters; Erasmus Fenn’s Drop Dead Perfect at Theatre at St. Clements (NY Times Critic’s Pick); The Devil’s Music: The Life & Blues of Bessie Smith (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Off B’way Alliance, and Audelco Award nominee); Freed (Audelco Award nominee); Tryst
(Outer Critics nomination for Best Play) at the Promenade and at Irish Rep; and Cobb (Drama Desk winner).
Gino DiIorio (Co-Author) is a New York City-based playwright whose works have been produced all over the U.S. including at New Jersey Rep, Shadowlands Stages, Playhouse in the Square, Luna Stage, Arclight Theatre, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, The Washington Stage Guild, Custom Made Theatre, Urban Stages, Seven Angels, The Garter Lane Theatre, and Virginia Stage Company. He is the recipient of the Berrilla Kerr Playwriting Award, E. Desmond Lee Playwriting Prize, and BBC International Playwriting Prize, and is a two-time finalist for the prestigious Laurents Hatcher Award as well as the Yale Drama Series. Nancy Bleemer (Co-Author) also wrote the play Providence, a finalist in HBO’s New Playwrights Festival, which was produced at 59e59 Theaters and made into a short film in 2015.
Centennial Casting is designed by Isaac Goldbaum (set), Kadee Mae (costumes), Todd Wren (lights), Idan Sassoni (sound), and Dana R. Weintraub (props). Michael Palmer is the production stage manager.
Performances are scheduled at Penguin’s home facility, a repurposed 1880s barn in historic Stony Point (Rockland County), New York. “The converted barn, circa 1880, has never been more inviting” (The New York Times). Says Mr. Horn, “It’s theatre so close you can feel it, with comfortable upholstered seats and no seat more than 30 feet from the stage.” The theatre is air-conditioned and handicap accessible, features assistive hearing devices, and has plenty of free parking.
Performances will take place: Thursday evenings at 7:00 p.m. (June 20, June 27), Friday matinees at 2:00 p.m. (June 14, June 21), Friday evenings at 7:00 p.m. (June 14, June 28, July 5), Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. (June 15, June 22, June 29, July 6), and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. (June 16, June 23, June 30, July 7).
There will be a reception following the official opening on Sunday, June 16; a tasting catered by Pasta Cucina Restaurant of Stony Point before the early show on Saturday, June 22; and a discussion following the performance on Friday, June 28.
Tickets to Centennial Casting are priced at $49. To order tickets or for further information, visit Penguin Rep’s website https://www.penguinrep.org/ or call 845-786-2873.
ABOUT PENGUIN REP THEATRE
Penguin Rep Theatre (Penguin Players, Ltd.), based in historic Stony Point (Rockland County), New York, is a nonprofit professional theatre company now in its 46th year of operation.
Joe Brancato was a high school English and drama teacher in 1977 when he peered into an abandoned 1880s hay barn and envisioned the space repurposed into a theatre.
More than 40 years later, Penguin Rep – the theatre Brancato started with Francine Newman-McCarthy and runs with executive director Andrew M. Horn – has grown from a summer theatre to become one of the lower Hudson Valley’s most enduring cultural institutions, reaching tens of thousands of theatergoers each year at its home, in New York City and beyond – with its work moving to Off Broadway and to stages across the country and around the world.
Since its founding, Penguin has presented more than 200 productions – 150 directed by Brancato himself – for more than 400,000 people from the lower Hudson Valley and beyond. And Mr. Brancato has brought together award-winning professional actors – David Canary, Michael Cullen, Tim De Kay, Gregg Edelman, Michael Esper, Barbara Feldon, Tovah Feldshuh, Beth Fowler, Deborah Hedwall, Celeste Holm, Richard Kline, Andrew McCarthy, Lizbeth Mackay, Michele Pawk, and Karen Ziemba, among others – to star in new and noteworthy plays by such playwrights as Lee Blessing, Ronald Harwood, Allan Knee, Arthur Laurents, Warren Leight, Jon Marans, William Mastrosimone, Lainie Robertson, James Sherman and Elizabeth Swados.
As it launches its 46th season, Penguin Rep Theatre, dubbed “the gutsiest little theatre” by The New York Times, continues to present a cultural experience that is unique in the region: professional productions of new plays at affordable prices.
As The Journal News wrote: “Somebody forgot to tell artistic director Joe Brancato that he’s crazy to use a little barn plunked down in the Rockland County suburbs to experiment with unusual and challenging plays … I hope everybody keeps forgetting to tell him. The region is more the richer for it.”
“Guided by the skilled hand of Penguin’s artistic director, Joe Brancato, the splendid performers get first-rate support, as always at Penguin, by an excellent design team” (The New York Times).
“Penguin Rep is a place where theatergoers can experience magic time after time” (Lohud.com).
Penguin Rep Theatre’s 2024 season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Penguin Rep gratefully acknowledges the support of the County of Rockland, Town of Stony Point, Rockland County Tourism, Chazen Foundation, Jacques and Margot W. Kohn Foundation, Orange & Rockland Utilities, Shubert Foundation, Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, and Joan Weingarten and Bob Donnalley Gift Fund.
