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 Manifest
Destiny Blues
June 26 - July 12, 2003
at the New Phoenix Theatre
For our first production in a traditional
performance venue we teamed up with the Buffalo Ensemble Theatre and
moved into The New Phoenix Theatre on the Park with the world debut of
MANIFEST DESTINY BLUES.
Written by Subversive Theatre's Founder &
Artistic Director Kurt Schneiderman, this unique anti-war
polemic follows one young ostracized activist and her working class
Lackawanna family. The distinctive twist to this work is
that plotline moves forward through the lives of the characters while
the timeline progresses backward through the last hundred years of
Buffalo's turbulent history.
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From modern-day post-industrial decay to UB's student
strikes of 1970 to the wartime production of WWII to the union struggles of the 1919 and finally back to the
pomp and bombast of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, MANIFEST DESTINY BLUES offers a timeless
assault on American militarism, capitalism, and conformity.
"MANIFEST DESTINY BLUES is the modern
stepchild of the theater of ideas that extends back to Bernard Shaw,
Anton Chekhov, and Berthold [sic] Brecht" declared Buffalo News
Critic Jim Santella in his three-and-a-half star review. "Political
plays frequently can be tedious. This one scintillates."
This production was later honored to be nominated for Outstanding New
Play at the 2004 Artie Awards.
Directed by the author himself, this unusual work
offered terrific challenges both artistically and technically. Had
it not been for the enormously talented cast and crew involved, this
production would have never been possible. Here's who did what:
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Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kurt Schneiderman*
Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . Bobbi DeBose*
Costume Designer . . . . . . . . . . .Maura Price*
Set Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . Franklin LaVoie*
Lighting Designer . . . . . . Kurt Schneiderman*
Sound Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . Greg Kempf*
Poster Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . Mike Sparada
Publicity Genius . . . . . . . . . Deborah Wanecski
Photography & Web Design . . . Robert Palmer
Alethea Katakis . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leah
Russo*
Dad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phil Knoerzer*
Peter Dempsey . . . . . . . . . . . . Joshua Canfield
Zoe Katakis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adair Luhr
Liam Laugherty . . . . . . . . . . . Seth Archer Eljer
* = members of the Subversive Theatre Collective
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This
event was made possible by generous contributions from the following
magnanimous patrons (in no particular order):
Dr.
Emanuel Fried, Timothy McPeek, Robert “Hodie” Hodas*, Dr. Irving
Massey, Phyllis Smukler, Kathleen Betsko Yale, Michael Fanelli*, Ronald
Palmer, Rust Belt Books, Richard Harrington, Charles F. Harrington,
Daire Brian Irwin, Jolie Kulsar, Edwin Hart, Donna Bristol, Jon Elston,
Betsy Bittar, Mary Wall, Denis Harlow, Gregg Borland, Anthony Cardinale,
Tom Scahill, Nathaniel Christen, Robert Palmer, Jolie Kulsar, Jim
Holstun, HAG Theatre, Dr. Anonymous, Suzanne Pilon, Franz Schneiderman,
Dr. Robert Waterhouse, Micheal Kuzma, Dr. Saul Elkin, Anna Kay France,
Danillo Lawvere, Marshall Maxwell*, William Donaldson, Jack Hunter, Mark
Humphrey, Patricia Topolski, Thomas Flynn, and Jay Desiderio
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