Donna Lee Michaels, Gerald vanHeerden, Drew Valins, Bill Rogers, Trip Plymale, Eric Kuzmuk

Janet and I are catching our breath after an exhilarating summer of theater on the coasts. I attended the 3^rd National Conference of the Dramatists Guild in La Jolla, California in mid-July, and, after a three-day turnaround in KC, we were off to New York City for the Midtown International Theatre Festival’s Equity Staged Readings of Caldwell’s Bomb. Gerald vanHeerden, the Artistic Director of Plays for the Midtown International Theatre Festival, produced and directed the three readings on the Davenport Theatre’s main stage.

Gerald assembled an excellent cast, and we were quite pleased with attendance and the enthusiastic reactions from our audiences. Gerald and I have agreed to continue discussing ways to bring the play to a wider NYC audience.

I was pleased to have the company of Herman Johansen and Vicki Vodrey, two well-known members of Kansas City’s theater community at the final reading of Caldwell on July 31. They are each in NYC to produce their original plays in the New York International Fringe Festival. Herman, who produced and directed Caldwell’s Bomb during the 2011 KC Fringe Festival and produced Dangerous To Dance With in the 2014 Fringe, flew in from his home in Los Angeles to produce and direct his new play, Fading Light. Vicki will present her play, Hard Day’s Night. Two other close New York friends, Mike DeCuollo and playwright Satinder Sood, also attended that performance.

Thanks to Bob Johnson of Bitten By A Zebra Photography for the photos he shot through the performance! Photos

The cast of CALDWELL’S BOMB in order of appearance:

Eric Alexander Kuzmuk appeared as EARL, Trip Plymale* appeared as JOLLEY, Drew Valins* appeared as CALDWELL and Donna Lee Michaels appeared as DEENA.

Gerald van Heerden was our Producer/Director, Jana Llynn* was our Stage Manager, and Marcie A. Friedman* was our PSM Sub for the performances of 7/30 and 7/31. Jeremy Duncan Pape was the production manager.

*actor appears courtesy of Actors Equity Association, the union for professional actors and stage managers.

It is a pleasure to introduce these talented actors as the cast of the 2015 Midtown International Theatre Festival’s Equity Staged Readings of Caldwell’s Bomb! Check the links to learn more about these actors.

The readings will be on Tuesday July 28, Thursday July 30, and Friday July 31. All the readings begin at 2PM on the Main Stage of the Davenport Theatre, 354 W. 45th St. (between 8th and 9th Avenues), NYC. Seating is limited. There is no charge. For reservations go to gerald.mitf@gmail.com

Donna Lee Michaels

Drew Valins

Donna Lee Michaels is Deena Ducey. Donna has appeared on stage in such plays as An Inspector Calls, The Sisters Rosenweig, and The Bald Soprano. Her many TV and film credits include Good Wife, Ugly Betty, Thirty Rock, All My Children, Guiding Light, and As The World Turns. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA.

Drew Valins* is Caldwell Ducey. This well-traveled and talented actor has appeared on the NY stage in productions ranging from the classical to the comic. He demonstrates his incredible versatility by becoming an ape who has learned to behave like a man in his one person show, A Report To An Academy, based on the short story by Franz Kafka. Drew has lived in Israel and France and speaks Hebrew and French as well as Caldwell’s brand of English.

Trip Plymale

Trip Plymale* is Jimbo Jolley. Trip reprises the role he read so wonderfully during the Dramatists Guild’s Friday Night Footlights Reading Series in 2013. In his long and critically acclaimed career, Trip has played such all-American characters as Charlie Brown and Huck Finn. He’s been on stage in The Sound of Music, Greater Tuna, The Robber Bridegroom and many other plays and musicals. He has a credit not many can claim these days: he sang on the Arthur Godfrey Show.

Eric Kuzmuk

Eric Kuzmuk is Earl. Eric has performed a wide variety of roles on NY stages. He has portrayed Henry VIII in A Man For All Seasons, Sagot in Picasso at the lapin Agile, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Mayhew in Witness For The Prosecution. He is a council member of the Episcopal Actor’s Guild, a non-sectarian charitable organiation.

Gerald vanHeerden

Gerald vanHeerden is the Producer/Director of this MITF reading of Caldwell’s Bomb. Mr vanHeerden has an impressive list of directing credits for both plays and musicals. He is the Artistic Director of Plays for New York’s Midtown International Theatre Festival and the Resident Director of Break-A-Leg Productions. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

*actor appears courtesy of Actors Equity Association, the union for professional actors and stage managers.

vMHF Theatricals presents three staged readings of Caldwell’s Bomb during the 2015 Midtown International Theatre Festival.

WHERE: The Main Stage of the Davenport Theatre, 354 W. 45th St. in New York City.

WHEN: Tuesday, July 28, Thursday, July 30, and Friday, July 31. All the readings begin at 2PM.

This is my first collaboration with Gerald vanHeerden, MITF’s Artistic Director for Plays and resident director of Break A Leg Productions.

I met Gerald when he chose Caldwell’s Bomb as a play he might like to develop at Theatre Resources Unlimited’s Writer-Director workshop in April.

Go to Caldwell’s Bomb to learn more about the play and its production history.