Press Release: The Odd Couple

We finished our three-city tour of The Odd Couple in Angelica.  We had a a few weeks in between that and our shows in Houghton & Wellsville.  We had a few cast changes and had to adapt to a significantly different space.  It was a lot of work and a lot of fun.  Here's my press release for the final set of shows.

This month the Angelica Players will be hosting The Valley Theatre for a production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple directed by Amanda Cox.  The Odd Couple (made famous by the movie starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon) is one of Simon’s most enduring and well known plays.  With a script full of clever characters and zingy one-liners, it remains popular nearly 50 years after it first debuted on Broadway.

Felix Ungar (Mike Cox) is shocked to discover that his marriage of twelve years is over.  Homeless and distraught he shows up for his weekly poker game, hosted by the sloppy Oscar Madison (Nic Gunning), looking for a little sympathy.  Oscar reluctantly offers his pal a place to stay.  Felix wastes no time whipping Oscar’s messy bachelor pad into shape, much to the dismay of Oscar and his poker buddies (Chris Tetta, Jon Brennan, Dave Brubaker and Will Tetta).  The close quarters begin to test the boundaries of Oscar and Felix’ friendship.  Things go from bad to worse when Felix botches a double date with Oscar and their ditzy upstairs neighbors, the Pigeon sisters (Ksa Curry and Anna Schilke), leading to a bombastic and hilarious confrontation of epic proportions.  Can this mismatched pair patch things up in time to save their once great friendship?

Shows run at the Angelica Free Library on Friday, December 12, and Saturday, December 13, at 7:00 pm with a matinee at 3:00pm on Sunday, December 14.  Tickets are $6 each and can be purchased at the door or ahead of time at the Angelica Sweet Shop.  For more information contact thevalleytheatre@gmail.com or find them online at facebook.com/valleytheatre.

For more on Neil Simon tune in to this special episode of my podcast!

New Job

I mean, at this point it's not that new.  It will be a year on January 13.  In that time, I've gotten pretty settled here at the David A. Howe Public Library.  There are things I miss about Houghton.  I miss Chris and Sharleen.  I miss having student workers.  I miss the semester schedule.  But I don't fit into an academic library setting, particularly that one.  I started in public libraries and it's good to be back.  This is really the setting I belong in.  I'm free to try to new things, get creative.  If things work, great.  If they don't work, then it's back to the drawing board.  No big deal.  

At this point, I've overused this line, but people go to academic libraries because they have to and public libraries because they want to.  It makes a big difference.  I'm enjoying leading the book clubs.  It's been fun booking authors.  (So far Archer Mayor, Julia Spencer-Fleming and Joyce Carol Oates!  #stephenking2016)  It has it's drawbacks, but they are far outweighed by the good.  We are getting ready to hire some new staff members, which I'm hoping will be good.

The building itself is great, despite it's lack of office and staff space.  There is a 300 seat auditorium attached where Valley Theatre performed Steel Magnolias and one stop on our three-city tour of The Odd Couple.  Having a genuine theatre space available is great, and is an excellent job perk.  

All in all it's a pretty good deal.