Cast:
The Turpin Family:
Bud (the departed) Tim Feeney
Raynelle (his wife) Ginny Richardson
Marguerite (Bud's Sister) Mary Van Nest
Royce (Marguerite's son) Tom Frohnapfel
Ray-Bud
(Bud and Raynelle's son) Mark Cunningham
Lucille (Ray-Bud's wife) Lori Proksa
Junior
(Bud & Raynelles' son) Tim Feeney
Suzanne (Junior's Wife) Sandy Squillo
Delightful
(Bud & Raynelle's daughter)Susan Kosiarek
Fellow Mourners:
Rev. B.H. Hooker Dr. Jim Hannigan
Veda Arlene Page
Norval George Dempsey
Nadine Dawn Gmitro
Clyde Edward W. Wavak
Juanita Mary Maureen Gentile
Joy of Life Singers:
Tricia Boren
Holly Cejka
Joe Delaloye
Dave Santchi
Setting:
The Deep South
Director’s Note
Welcome to the final play of the 2001-2002 season. As we end the
year, I couldn't resist the temptation to look back at all of the things
we have shared with you, our audience, over the course of the season.
We opened the season during the week of the September 11th attacks, with
The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Then, more than ever, we needed to get
away from our worries and come together as a community. At the end
of each performance when our onstage family said the Sabbath prayer with
its call for peace, I felt like you, our family of patrons, were praying
along with us. Later we challenged you with the exploits of Evan
Wyler and the con-artist Alexa Vere de Vere in As Bees in Honey Drown.
I received more mail and comments - split equally between negative and
positive - than I have ever received after we did that play. We then
brought you the inimitable Miss Marple matching wits with yet another
killer in A Murder is Announced. You just can't beat Agatha Christie
for thrills and chills. In our fourth mainstage production you
applauded the wit and verbal foolery that makes The Importance of Being
Ernest such a delightful classic (and we had a great time bringing it to
you). And now we offer you this play, Dearly Departed, which is a highly
campy and yet surprisingly touching comedy.
Those of you who joined us for our Forum shows got a real treat this
season. We gave you the fascinating and complex drama Top Girls with
its muti-layered view of women and their roles in society, and the
uproariously updated Tartuffe with all of its bawdy pranks and verbal
wizardry.
It's been a diverse and very rewarding season for us and we hope for you
as well. We are so gratified that we could share all of these
stories - both serious and comic - with you. Our next season promises to
be just as exciting and entertaining, and we hope to continue to bring you
the very best stories we can find for many seasons to come.
We hope you enjoy Dearly Departed, and we look forward to seeing you again
next season.
Tony Vezner, Artistic Director
And all of the Volunteers and Staff of TWS
About the Authors
David Dean Bottrell
and Jessie Jones are both Kentucky born actors who in 1991 co-wrote
Dearly Departed. This was a first produced play for both of them.
That same year, Bottrell wrote Monkey Business (a one-act play about
a fund-raising luncheon for a zoo). Dearly Departed received such
favorable reviews and widespread productions, that they began working
on a movie version which appeared in 2001 entitled Kingdom Come.
Both Bottrell and Jones have continued their acting careers with
numerous stage and TV credits including NBC-TV's "Mad About
You" and "Caroline in the City, " ABC-TV's
"Dharma & Greg,," CBS-TV's "JAG," HBO's
"And the Band Played On," and FOX-TV's "Titus."
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Production Credits:
Director: Tony Vezner
Technical Director: Shelley Dotson
Stage Manager: Sue Turner
Assistant Stage Managers: Carol Dapogny, Maggie Rathke
Choreographer: Allison Henderson
Costume Designer: Julie Suarez
Costume Crew: Marilyn Darnall, Mary Dempsey, Chirs Gavlin, Kathleen
Kusper, Julie Mueller, Gina Swinnen
Dramaturg: Carol Dapogny
Lighting Desiners: Angelee Johns, Thomas Palumbo
Lighting Crew: Peg Carlson, Shelley Dotson, Mickey Perkins, Mary
Ellen Schutt, Cal Turner
Makeup Designer: Mary Pavia
Makeup Crew: Amy Coons, Danna Durkin, Carol Hudson, Cassandra Johnson,
Donna Kanak, Jackie Weiher
Properties Designer: Pat Huth
Properties Crew: Karen Arnold, Jane Bowers, Brian Centers, Bill
FitzGerald, Mike Huth, Carin Klock, Carmel Opre, Dennis Hudson,
Connie Sierzputowski
Set Designer/Set Construction Chair: Rob Snyder
Set Construction Crew: Grace Abrahamson, Brian Centers, Mark Favoino,
Tim Feeney, Tom Fronhapfel, Mike Huth, Caitlin Machak, Mike Pavia,
Bill Rotz, Willy Steele
Set Painting Chairs: Bryon Abramowitz, Stephanie Abramowitz
Set Painting Crew: Grace Abrahamson, Tricia Madison Boren, Jane
Bowers, Pat Huth, Mike Janke, Susan Kosiarek, Mary Pavia, Rob Snyder,
Sandy Squillo, Donna Marie Kanak
Sound Designer: Jack Calvert
Sound Crew: Nick D'Asta, Joel Nikoleit
Production Box Office Chair: Mary Ellen Schutt
Production Box Office Crew: Linda Bremer, Peg Callaghan, Susan Cardamone,
Ruth Cekal, George Dempsey, Mary Dempsey, Terry Fanning, Janet Ryan
Grasso, Terry Kozlowski, JoAnn Mallon, Jill Neely, Joan Roeder,
Patti Roeder, Paulette Sarussi, Fred Sauers, Carol Suda, Gina Swinnen,
Marilyn Wilson
Production Hospitality Crew: Linda Bremer, Carol Clarke, Mary Ellen
Druyan, Astrid Heyman, Bonnie Hilton, Jennifer Jindrich, Julie Knoch,
Caitlin Machak, Lisa Machak, Nikita Machak, Craig Mahlstedt, Jan
Mahlstedt, Dave Michael, Fumiko Michael, Duane Mills, Jim Patten,
Joanne Patten, Nora Patten, Lauren Patten, Bill Redding, Carolyn
Redding, Janette Taft, Susan Waldschmidt, Stephanie Williams
Hospitality Bakers: Carol Clarke, Kirby Harris, Astird Heyman, Bonnie
Hilton, Karen Holbert, Jennifer Jindrich, Lisa Machak, Connie Sierzputowski
Production House Managers: Dave Bremer, Susan Cardamone, Jim Dutton,
Karen Holbert, Roland Imes, Jon Mills, Bill Rotz, Tom Schutt, Noel
Smith, Don Strueber
Production Lobby Photo Display: Marjorie Mason Heffernan, Jane Stacy
Production Posters: Kathleen Kusper
Production Program Chair: Stephanie Williams
Production Program Crew: Carol Dapogny, Joel Nikoleit, Tom Palumbo,
Mike Pavia
Production Publicity Chair: Bridget Bittman
Stunt Consultant: Scott Illingworth
About the Play
Dearly Departed premiered at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven,
Connecticut in 1991. That same year it received great critical
acclaim in its Off-Broadway opening at the Second Stage Theatre in
New York. The New York Daily News said that "Dearly Departed is
drop dead funny...but don't take our word, see it yourself."
Dearly Departed was then produced in Los Angeles where it received
six Drama Logue Awards including "Best Production" and
"Best Playwriting." It was subsequently published and has
been produced in hundreds of regional theaters in the United States,
United Kingdom, and Australia.
The movie version, Kingdom Come, was as dismal a failure as the play
was a success. In spite of an all-star cast headed by Whoopi
Goldberg, L.L. Cool J., Jada Pinkett Smith and Loretta Devine, the
critics were quite scathing in their reviews. The movie
version is very slick, realistic, and played so broadly that it
becomes slapstick farcical. The poignancy of the Turpin family
relationships is lost on the big screen, or at least in the version
directed by Doug McHenry. The movie even offers flashbacks
into the life of Bud (the departed), which the stage play shows us
much more effectively through the eyes of his various dysfunctional,
but strangely loveable family members.
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