These were major productions,
Green Pastures when we were Sophomores directed by Lee Yopp, and then
You Can't Take It With You when we were Seniors, directed by Kathryn Hoyt, once Yopp left for the Lambertville, New Hope theater scene. Diane Brod Hoffman scanned these for the blog. She also notes that in all our theater productions, which were very big deals, involving many many students from all classes, how many of our teachers gave their time to them. Also, Eleanor sent the Trenton Times Hamilton High Notes (mislabeled Morrisville High) that announced the forthcoming
Green Pastures.
On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 2:48 PM, Louis Dezseran wrote:
ReplyDeleteLee Yopp left Hamilton during 1959 for Rider College where he founded Theatre LIX. I reprised many of the roles I did at Hamilton for him at Rider. Brady in Inherit the Wind; Caesar in Julius Caesar etc. He remained there through 1968. He bought the Bucks County Playhouse with a killer mortgage in 68 and opened the season in 1969 with his own chosen group of non-union and union people. The first production was Miller's The Crucible. I played Reverend Parris and my first wife, Michelle, played Abigail. The B'way actor George Hearn played Proctor. George returned quite a few times over the next 3 years and also played the bandit in Rashomon at Theatre in the Park (Cadwallader) during the summer of 1970 on my set, which Lee said was the hugest scenic design set he ever had-- a temple and a BAMBOO forrest (painted rug rollers). During the sword fight sequences, the main actors sliced through the plaster segs of the rollers, which fell with precision- pulled by a myriad number of apprentices with fish lines.
During 1970-71 I became Lee's right hand, did nearly all the sets as well as played major roles in every production and even directed Moliere's Ridiculous Young Ladies and Kopit's "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad.
Michelle and I saw that he could not survive financially and in August 0f 1971, we moved to Minneapolis. By the way, Kay Salvatore, Carol Wagner and Linda Hahn (I believe) came to see The Crucible the opening weekend. My snug Puritan pants were extremely tight- rented from Brooks/Van Horn in NYC. In the opening scene, my character, Parris, who is both a fanatic and paranoid, is up and down constantly praying over the traumatized body of his daughter. I split my pants from belt to crotch almostimmediately in prayer, and had to play the entire first act walking like a crab. Dez