Waiting For Godot

I was about 6 years old when Freddie Prinze committed suicide. While too young to have caught one of his stand-up sets at a nightclub, I was old enough to be a big Chico and the Man fan, so I was bewildered and dismayed by the news. My father said this, “I’m surprised. I never anticipate someone with such a great sense of humor killing themselves.” This comment stuck with me. And I think it might be one with which Beckett would have agreed. The best (and perhaps only) defense against the bleak, the meaningless, and both the stopping (death) and the relentless marching on (life) of time, is laughter. In fact, humor is guilty of neither of its primary charges: that it demeans pain or that it pretends there is no such thing. To my mind, quite the opposite, it is the only way to truly and deeply acknowledge what is most painful so that we stand a fighting chance to continue.

There is a lot about death in Waiting for Godot. The characters are all at once dying, already dead and stuck in time where they, presumably, will live forever. It was not until the second day of rehearsal that I realized that one of my favorite bands, Cake, had pilfered a line from Waiting for Godot, “the gravedigger puts on the forceps,” and then followed it up with a few explanatory lines of their own, “as soon as you’re born, you start dying, so you might as well have a good time.” So, as we’ve wrestled with this old chestnut of a script, we tried to find as much ha-ha-ha as we could to honor it and to honor you and ourselves. The existentialism is on the page. We trust you’ll hear it. But the play has to be in the play. We like to think that a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. But which part is the sugar and which is the medicine we can hardly tell anymore. And since time has stopped, the laughter never disperses. Chico is forever “looking good!” even as we miss our fallen comrades and sing softly, “Goodnight sweet Prinze.”

Cast

Justin Parrish is a third year BFA actor from Los Angeles, California. Purchase Rep credits include Truth and Reconciliation (Granddad). Some of his other credits include HAIR (Berger), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Ed), DNA (Richard), and The Dream of the Burning Boy (Dane) at Valencia High School. He thanks his parents and all of his friends who support him!

Eklan Singh has enjoyed the challenging process of this show. He is very happy to have worked with a remarkable director and stellar cast. The road to this has been filled with wonder and madness and he is happy to have made the trip. Enjoy the show!

Max Garfin is a third year BFA actor from Manhattan, NY. He would like to thank his friends and family for their continued support.

WHATS GOIN ON! I’m Devyn Akers I’m from DC. I’ve been acting since the 6th grade. I would like to thank the production team for their hard work and dedication on this process. I would like to thank my company who I love dearly and thankful for to be doing this show alongside them! Last, I would like to thank Virginia for opening up a door for all of us to understand and enjoy the world in which we have embarked on! Fun Fact: I am a basketball phenomenon!

Design and Production

Gabby Pennetti is a fourth year stage manager from Long Island, New York. Some of her past credits include: As You Like It (Stage Manager), Civic Duty (Stage Manager) and Camp Morning Wood (Run Crew/Calling Stage Manager). She would like to thank her parents for all their support throughout her college career.

Pauline Walsh is a fourth year BFA scenic designer from New York, NY. Purchase Rep credits include: Wolves Eat Elk (associate scenic designer), Purgatorio Wonderland (prop/paint charge), and Fen (prop charge). Many thanks to her family and friends who have supported her throughout this journey!

Kei Kurakake is a fourth year costume major from New York. Purchase Rep credits include: Blood Wedding (wardrobe), A People’s History of Looting (costume designer) and Dialogue of the Carmelites (assistant designer). Other credits include A Robot Wrote This (costume designer) and The Secret Life of Bees (wardrobe)

Hailey O’Leary is a fourth year BFA lighting designer. Past Purchase Theatre credits include Purgatorio Wonderland (LD), Dialogue of the Carmelites (ALD), and The Misanthrope (SD). She sends her love to those who journeyed with her.

Jaqueline Cabrero is a third year BFA Design/Technology Lighting Design student from White Plains, NY. Purchase Rep credits include: Passage (Programmer), Wolves Eat Elk (Programmer), Blood Wedding (Run Crew). Purchase Dance Conservatory credits include: Fleeting Touch, Midnight Snack, Omni, Asé, Play (Master Electrician). Jackie would like to thank her friends and family for all their love and support!

Becca Lambert is a senior technical director from Massachusetts. She would like to thank her family for helping her get here and supporting her theatrical endeavors. Her past credits include The Colored Museum/The Misanthrope (Technical Director), As You Like It (Production Carpenter), and What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Production Carpenter)

Virginia Scott directs, devises and teaches all kinds of physical theatre including clown, commedia, bouffon, treteau, physical comedy, melodrama and idiot. She created and directs the Commedia Company and Some Clowns who perform original commedia and clown shows respectively. Notable projects include directing and writing for the 3 man clown group Happy Hour; creating and directing the bouffon performance troupe Les Enfant Maudit; directing and devising an original clown show with the third-year MFA students at ACT; and directing and writing for the long-running off-Broadway circus-comedy, Planet Banana. Her shows have appeared in New York at The Irish Repertory Theatre, Ars Nova Mainstage, 59E59, The Zipper Theatre, UCB, The PIT, Nuyorican Poet’s Café, The New York Fringe Festival and the International Clown Festival; in Los Angeles at The Comedy Central Theatre, The Hollywood Fringe, UCB LA, Live Arts, The Complex, Symphony in the Glen at the Griffith Park stage and the Fowler museum at UCLA; regionally at The US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen; and internationally at The Guilded Balloon in Edinburgh, The Centaur Theatre in Montreal and the Grahamstown International Festival in South Africa. Virginia teaches/has taught clown, commedia, play, physical acting, and all that kind of wiggling it around at schools such as The Juilliard School, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU: International Theatre Workshop in Amsterdam, Meisner Studio, Stella Adler Studio and Open Arts Studio; CAP 21, Bard College, Montclair State University (BFA), SUNY Purchase (BA & BFA), Pace University, Marymount Manhattan College, Movement Theatre Studio, The Michael Howard Studio. In California she has taught at USC (MFA), ACT (MFA), the Clown School, the Idiot Workshops and Berg Studios. She was a co-founder and faculty member of the Funny School of Good Acting and recently published through TCG Discovering the Clown: the Funny Book of Good Acting by Christopher Bayes with Virginia Scott. Virginia has been exceedingly pleased to work with the cast and crew of Waiting for Godot, and wishes to acknowledge their curiosity, bravery, ferocity and willingness to pursue their fun while facing (as we all do) boredom and Beckett.

In our teaching and art, the Conservatory values inclusiveness, equality, and excellence. Upholding all of our training is our aim to train and graduate citizen artists: multifaceted people with a strong sense of purpose in approaching an arts education.

What is a citizen artist? Citizen artists seek to discover how their unique voices can contribute to our world. They understand what it means to be an artist, and what they are here on earth to say and do and make.

The Conservatory trains future citizen artists in three degree programs:

+ BFA Actor Training. The BFA is an intensive professional training program offered to a highly select and diverse group of students. The professional training is anchored in four years of study in acting, voice, speech, and movement, complemented by offerings in dramatic literature and analysis, history of the theatre, stage combat, improvisation, mask work, acting for the camera, and the business of acting. As one of five schools in the Consortium of Professional Theatre Training Programs, Purchase is one of a handful of colleges in the world capable of training artists at this level—and of drawing a faculty from the ranks of professional theatre

+ BFA in Theatre Design/Technology. Emphasizing studio and classroom training, our professional training program in theatre design/technology gives students the guidance and support of established and theatre industry professionals. Many of our alumni are recognized at the top of their field, and have received Tony, Emmy, Obie, and Drama Desk Awards, among other honors. Quite literally, Purchase grads are working in or have worked in every theatre on Broadway, in all tristate venues, and with countless touring productions

+ BA program in Theatre and Performance. From traditional theatre to cutting-edge interdisciplinary work, the theatre and performance major encourages creativity, intellectual curiosity, social engagement, and critical thinking. The core requirements combine scholarship and practice to provide students with a strong foundation in theatre history and dramatic literature, with mandatory stagecraft/production courses. Theatre and Performance majors are encouraged to expand the scope of their education by studying abroad, as well as pursuing coursework in other programs of study within the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Purchase College