Over the Tavern
By Ted Dudzick
Directed by Jack Phillips
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CAST and CREW

 . . . . . . .  About  . . . . . .

   . . . .  Notes  . . .

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Director's Corner
Production credits

Cast (in order of appearance)

Ellen Pazinski Mary Van Nest
Chet Pazinski Rob Pold
Rudy Pazinski CTWS student
Georgie Pazinski CTWS student
Eddie Pazinski CTWS student
Annie Pazinski CTWS student
Sister Clarissa Linda Roberts

Dramaturg's Diary
By Bonnie Hilton

About the author

Autobiographical elements abound in Over the Tavern. Like Rudy Pazinksi, Tom Dudzick was born in Buffalo to Polish-Catholic parents. He and his siblings (one of whom was mentally challenged) grew up over a tavern. His father was a basketball player (in the play Chet is a former baseball player). Unlike Rudy, he never talked back to the nuns at the Catholic school he attended. Dudzick was in his twenties before he began questioning the rules and dogma of the Catholic religion.

After a brief stint in acting, Dudzick wrote and produced dinner theatre for about five years in Western New York. In 1979, shortly after moving to New York City, his award-winning one-act comedy Me, Too, Then was published by Samuel French.

When Over the Tavern showed promising success at Buffalo's Studio Arena Theatre, artistic director Gavin Cameron-Webb commissioned Dudzick to continue writing plays about the family. The result: King 'O the Moon, and Lake Effect. Later his Christmas play Greetings (unrelated to the trilogy) was produced off-Broadway.

This coming fall Buffalo audiences will enjoy the premiere of his latest play Hail Mary. In this comedy, an eccentric novice teaches children her own interpretation of Catholicism.

Tom Dudzick currently resides in Nyack, New York with his wife and two children.

About The play and Trilogy

Over the Tavern is the first play of a family trilogy. Premiering in 1994 at the Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, the play became a smash hit, running for three years. It has been produced all over the country at major regional theatres in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and California.

The second play of the trilogy, King O' the Moon, has also played in Buffalo and other cities. Set in 1969, the play finds Rudy studying to be a priest in the seminary, Eddie about to be shipped off to Vietnam, and Annie married to an odd guy fixated on his train hobby.

Last June, Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago presented a reading of the third play, Lake Effect, which is set during the blizzard of 1979. Rudy, no longer following his prior calling, returns home to his roots to help during a family crisis.

In an interview with Buffalo Beat magazine, Tom Dudzick emphasized his general theme of religious tolerance - someone should not be forced to believe in something he doesn't feel.

Clearly, Over the Tavern presents this theme beautifully. Uncertainty and questioning can lead to hopeful endings.

Production Credits

Director John (Jack) G. Phillips
Technical Director Troy Lee Brasuell, Jr.
Stage Manager Dick Jacoby
Assistant Stage Manager Arlene Page
Set Design Betsy Stiles
Set Construction Chair Peter Sonnenberg
Set Construction Crew
Lee Brasuell, Anne Cahill, Kurt Bodell, Mark Hewitt, Mike Huth, Pat Huth, Art Kelly, Paul Roach, Bill Rotz, Fred Sauers, Betsy Stiles
Set Dressing Betsy Stiles
Set Painting Chairs Amy Coons & Bill Rotz
Set Painting Crew
Tricia Boren, Peggy Carlson, Tim Feeney, Bill FitzGerald, Tom Frohnapfel, John Mueller, Rob Pold, Kate Remy, Susan Remy, Carol Suda
Costume Designers Mary Dempsey & Darla Goudeau
Costume Crew
Linda Bugielski, Peggy Carlson, Stacie Heintze, Julie Sanchez, Mary Smith, Jane Stacy, Charron Traut
Lighting Design Noel Smith
Lighting Crew
Sandy Liakus, Ixta Menchaca, Jim Pilcher, Paul Roach, Ruth Smith
Makeup Design Karen Arnold
Makeup Crew
Linda Auer, Lori D'Asta, Eileen Duban, Janel Horvath, Carol Hudson, Jan Mahlstedt
Properties Design Charlie Egan, Bill Love
Properties Crew
Sharon Barnard, Ed Belda, Nancy Belda, Carole Borg, Susan Cardamone, Carol Clarke, Joe Delaloye, George Dempsey, Barbara Harris, Therese Harrold, Mike Huth, Pat Huth, Peggy Jacoby, Mary O'Dowd, Carolyn Redding
Publicist Arlene Page
Sound Design Fred Sauers
Sound Crew
Stephanie Bullwinkel, Carol Dapogny, Arlene Page
Dramaturg Bonnie Hilton
Hospitality Chair Carol Clarke
Hospitality Crew
Ginny Allegretti, Dorothy Attermeyer, Carole Borg, Ruth Cekal, Brian Centers, Jack Choice, Penny Choice, Mary Clarke, Danna Durkin, Liz Egan, Bill FitzGerald, Ceri Hartnett, Bonnie Hilton, Lydia Hilton, Karla Hudson, Ann Marie Hultgren, Harry Hultgren, Mike Huth, Pat Huth, Jo Jones, Karin Kramer, Bruce Larson, Lynn Larson, Cassandra Johnson Locke, Debby Mills, Norma Naselli, Katie Pecis, Pat Rafferty, Joan Roeder, Irv Sarussi, Paulette Sarussi, Nancy Schifo, Jane Stacy, Connie Sierzputowski, Gregg Valek, Susan Waldschmidt, Gini Welch
Box Office Chair
Mary Ellen Schutt
Box Office Crew
Roxanne Moreno, Patti Roeder
House Manager Chair
Bill Wilson
House Managers
Dave Bremer, Jack Calvert, Mike DeKovic, Joe Delaloye, George Dempsey, Karen Holbert, Harry Hultgren, Terry Locke, Mike Mallon, Denny Wise
Front Row Center flyer Joe Petrolis
Group Sales Chair Ceri Hartnett
Poster Distribution Kathleen Kusper
Production Coordinator Linda Roberts
Program Advertising Peggy Carlson
Program Editor Stephanie Williams
Program Crew Marion Reis
Website Judy DiVita

Director Corner
by Jack Phillips

"Pretty much all the honest truthtelling there is in the world is done by children"
-Anonymous

Thank you for being among the first audiences to share my work as the new Artistic Director of the Theatre of Western Springs. It is a great honor to join the line of gifted people who have served in this position before me.

Tonight's play is exactly the kind of material I like best to direct and to watch. It is a very funny play that has a serious message at its core. The double message of our need to treat our own families with the respect we give strangers and to be careful of the methods we use to teach are both very important to me personally.

I also respond strongly to the fact that everyone in this play takes a risk to do something he or she has never done before. All of those actions result in consequences. Sometimes the consequences are not the expected ones. Sometimes they are what we hope for.

I'll be here every performance of Over The Tavern. Please come say hello and tell me what you'd like to see.

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