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New Kensington Civic theatre |
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" Entertaining the A-K Valley for over 60 years" |
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CALLBOARD January 2010 |
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Richard Devlin Editor, Prevaricator, and Embellisher of this rag |
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OF THE NEW KENSINGTON (PA) CIVIC THEATER OUR 63rd SEASON April 2009 724 339 3140 P.O. BOX 202, New Kensington, Pa 15068 www.nkct.org
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CALLBOARD |
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Not only has the calendar page flipped but the whole year flipped with it. A decade! Gone are the wimpy oh ohs as in two oh oh nine. In comes the twenty tens, crisp! Resounding! With an air of authority! No longer like a childish admonition. And the oh ohs were not good to us. Not good at all. They took with them so many wonderful people.
But we’re moving on to the New Year, the new decade. Auditions were held this past Monday for Wait Until Dark and we’ll have to wait until the meeting for the results. That meeting is this Friday, January 8 at 8 at the workshop, corner of Carl and George Streets in the Valley Heights section of our city.
Following hard upon that was the Executive Board meeting on Tuesday evening, a little respite then the above mentioned General Meeting on 8/8. So you see, January is coming in with a rush and the play will occupy us for the next several months. Remember, when we finally strike the set winter will be struck as well. We’re one play away from spring. Now that should warm the cockles of your heart and it will by pitching in. More at the meeting.
Now the meetings are not quite this staid. Oh no. There will be refreshments, usually delicious refreshments and you can bring wine if you like, beer will be available as well as soft drinks and coffee. Director Pam Farneth should have the play cast by then and we’ll know who needs help and on what.
Bill Mitas has the set designed and we may know by then when work sessions are scheduled. It’s always satisfying to see a set arise from the jumble of material piled in various parts of the workshop. It can, in its way, be as satisfying as creating a compelling drama from the scripts distributed to those who get the parts. Better, sometimes. NEWS FROM HERE AND THERE… “If we can get this Dattola Theater going, we can get this block going…if we get the block going, we can get the street going.”
The renovation of the Dattola Theater has been put on hold temporarily until the city government reorganizes in this new year. The Dattola seems to be the key in the revitalization of the downtown area now that the new Westmoreland Community College is in full swing less than a block away. It seems that a few in the city government have been putting up road blocks for one reason or another – the paper wasn’t specific – but the developers believe that it’s only stalled temporarily.
The Civic Theater would eventually do the plays there, it’s envisioned, and we are doing whatever we can to help.
THOSE IN THE KNOW, KNOW!..... Attorney John Noble from Greensburg, who had a major role in The Full Monty and who, before that, did an outstanding job as the king in The King And I writes:
I wanted to tell everyone just how much I enjoyed being “back at New Ken” with The Full (98%) Monty and “doing theater” again with all of you. I’ve been around the block a few times and I can safely say that NKCT is still the finest volunteer organization in the land – anywhere. Often, when we’re so close to something we tend to look beyond just how incredible things are within arm’s reach. I give all of you invaluable/priceless volunteers who love/hate this passion of ours a very respectful standing ovation. Bravo!
Nevertheless John, try as we might, we’re still the ‘best kept secret’ in the valley.
OLD BOTTLES, ODDS AND ENDS… Carla Ann is having her annual Twelfth Night Party on Saturday, January the 16th, 8 PM until….. Carla Ann is the Treasurer, you know, respected (and unaudited) who throws these lavish parties, somehow, and manages to take splendid annual vacations. We misreported the date in last month’s Callboard - along with any number of other things. RSVP by the 12th, please, at caguzzo@yahoo.com or 724 335 7842.
MEDICAL NEWS OF THE FIRST ORDER…. We have heard from Dede Rittman that Scott has colon cancer. He went to the ER on Saturday, Dec. 12 for what was thought to be severe flu problems. For Scott to go to the ER at five in the morning the symptoms weren’t anything like the sniffles. The next night, Sunday, they operated. For five hours. He was discharged on the 21st with a stitched incision two feet long and is tended daily by a visiting nurse and Dede, of course.
Scott and Dede were vital parts of NKCT while they lived in the vicinity. They were a dynamic force in the theater both on stage and off, their energy infused any situation with gusto and vitality that seemed to come right out of the exciting times of another era. Everything seemed larger than life. And faster.
Scott begins chemo in a week or so. There are, we know, not many still around who were involved in the theater when Scott and Dede were active. Because of his condition and until he gets stronger we suggest contacts be made through Dede via email at Rittman@verizon.net.
AND NOW….. Locked in the embraces of a frigid January when the evenings close in at five we long for the days of summer, spring, fall, anything for Pete’s sake, but these bitter raw days of these damnable terrible tens. But this too will pass, yes, yes.
In the meantime there’s the meeting this Friday and a play to keep us occupied until days like this come again.
Until then, as we march into 2010 we wish all of you a
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