Visit Retro's Concession Sponsor:
Retro Articles of Interest:
Peter Filichia's Blog: Old Wine in New Bottles, October 20, 2008
Performances
to
Remember,
2007
Courier Life Newspapers
Brooklyn troupe
keeps it all in the family for 'Summer'
Past Retro
Productions:
When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? by Mark Medoff
The Tender Trap by Max Shulman and Robert Paul Smith
What
I Did Last Summer
by
A. R. Gurney
Still Life a
documentary
by Emily Mann
Mrs. California by Doris
Baizley (as River Heights Productions)
Catholic School Girls
by Casey Kurtti (as River Heights Productions)
Accolades:
Retro Productions nominated for 6 2008 New
York Innovative Theater Awards!
Leading Actress, Lauren Kelston, Mill
Fire
Leading Actress, Kristen Vaughan, Mill
Fire
Costume Design, Rebecca Cunningham,
What I Did Last Summer
Lighting Design, Kerrie Lovercheck,
Mill Fire
Set Design, Jack and Rebecca
Cunningham, Mill Fire
Sound Design, Amy Altadonna, Mill
Fire
Heather E. Cunningham's performance as Cheryl in Retro Productions Still Life by Emily Mann was chosen as Marc Miller's "Performances to Remember, 2007" for Backstage East! Read the full article here.
Just Closed:
"Mark Medoff’s Red Ryder, at the jewel box Spoon Theater produced by Retro Productions, must be one of the best new productions, and it is done on a shoestring. Hell it might be done on a recycled shoestring. However to regard the painterly set ( by Jack and Rebecca Cunningham) with throw-back signs for ten-cent coffee or longing western movie posters, you would never know it was mounted on a budget... There are sight remarkable actors all operating as an ensemble with not one tone, one voice, one stray movement. And this is a tough, rough, gruff often-difficult play... The ensemble is given movement and life by the skillful direction of Ric Sechrest... The company is held together with grit and twine and loads of talent and this play is a perfect recession buster: the tickets are 18 bucks with five dollar student rush at the door and the play and the small company that mounted it stand to remind us that tough times come and it is through looking not hiding that we will move forward. " - Wickham Boyle, theaterscene.net
"Utterly engrossing …The costumes tell a silent story, perfectly matched to the plot… I was knocked out by the work Sechrest did… Honestly, the bravest thing he did was to trust us and the space… There are a lot of people being acted upon in this play, and it would be very easy for the piece to become passive, but everyone has a reason for everything they do, all the time. You can watch the ancillary characters and see an entire play unfolding… I probably don't need to say much about the set because it is clearly a standout among theaters of this size. It was incredibly articulate, perfectly functional and honestly, one of the best I've seen in an off-off house… I particularly like that, behind the flats, waaaay upstage, you can see the diner sign, barely illuminated, backwards… It is a marvelous night of theater." - seanrants.com
"This is a fantastic ensemble piece. Director Ric Sechrest keeps the pace tight throughout. The Situation gets quite tense but has many darkly humorous moments as well. It's very satisfying to see who will emerge from the struggle as a hero and who will lose it all." - Andrew Singer, City Scoops New York
"Retro Productions inspired me on a myriad of levels when I sat down in my seat at the Spoon Theatre to see Mark Medoff's When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? ... it's refreshing to see a company not only revive - but rather successfully do so at that - a play like Mark Medoff's 1973 psychological thrilling piece... I applaud Retro Productions for putting together a performance that had me riveted throughout much
of the piece, and for simply breathing life in to a play that should have been done much, much sooner. It runs through the 23rd, and I suggest people attend - for it's not often you get to see revivals like this and have them be entertaining, well-acted, and visually pleasing overall." - Dianna Martin, The Fab Marquee
"First evident... is how splendidly set designers Jack and Rebecca Cunningham have created Foster's Diner, the setting of Mark Medoff's play When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? It's a sad, greasy outpost of culinary refuse, a relic of hip 1950s-style eating that was anachronistic by the end of the 1960s, when [Red Ryder] takes place... Still, sepia hues are not the way Red Ryder drives drama... It's a play about the rich core of fear; how the simple folk who symbolize America's goodness are so easily made vulnerable by the guileful and crafty. Ric Sechrest's production puts all of this across wonderfully." - Leonard Jacobs, Back Stage
Directed by Ric Sechrest
It’s the end of the 60s in New Mexico and an early morning shift change at Foster’s Diner turns ugly when Teddy walks in. Steak and eggs evolve into taunting and bullying and before long the patrons and diner staff are helpless puppets in Teddy's cruel game, too terrified to resist him. Will they pull together to overcome him or be shattered by his emotional abuse?
May 7-23, 2009
Featuring:
David Blais, Heather E. Cunningham, Dave T. Koenig, Casandera M. J. Lollar,
Christopher Patrick Mullen*, Ben Schnickel, Matilda Szydagis*, and Richard Waddingham*
Set Design...Jack and Rebecca Cunningham
Costume Design...Kathryn Squitieri
Lighting Design...Kerrie Lovercheck
Sound Design & Stage Management...Jeanne Travis
Properties Design...Heather E. Cunningham
Properties Package Design..Ben Philipp
Fight Choreography...Ian Marshall
Publicist...Morgan Lindsey Tachco
Original Artwork...Matilda Szydagis
Click here to learn more about the Cast and Staff!
All
performances take place at the Spoon Theater
38 West 38th Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10018
The Spoon Theater is air conditioned and fully handicapped accessible.
Take the 7, B, D, F or V to 5th Ave/Bryant Park
or the B, D, F, V, N, R, W, Q to Herald Square.
Lot parking available nearby.
Special Thanks to our concessions sponsor for the 08-09 Season: FIZZY LIZZY!
The theater box office accepts cash only and opens one half hour prior to showtime. Tickets can also be purchased by calling Theatermania at 212.352.3101
 |
We participate in the TDF Voucher program. |
This program has been made possible in part through the sponsorship of The Field.
