Brooklyn’s oldest self-sustaining theater for the community has a jam-packed season of fan favorites, comedies and classics for its 64th year.
To understand what exactly goes into curating a season, we spoke with members of the Heights Players. The company’s membership, Board of Directors and eligible Heights Players directors choose the next season’s nine shows – from an original pool of about 150 – in a lengthy process that begins in the winter of the current season.
“A lot of times [eligible directors] put down these very good, classical, heavy pieces – but you’re not going to have an audience who’ll sit through nine different productions of, say, Ibsen,” said Thomas Tyler, the company’s president. “It’s just not the climate for that in this day and age.”
So, with titles like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for example, slated in the mix for the upcoming season, there’s sure to be a show for everyone to be interested in and enjoy, according to Vice President Corrine Contrino.
“The fact that a bunch of people come together as volunteers, put together shows and put their heart and soul into it is amazing,” she said. “We’re so proud of our directors and the work that they can do with actors [some who’ve previously performed with the company and others who’re joining for the first time]. I’m just excited for audiences to see what we can do.”
While the Heights Players offer nine main-stage productions, theater for children productions, three directors’ workshop weekends and an end-of-season fundraiser gala throughout the year, we have the inside scoop about two of the company’s fall 2019 productions.
‘Gypsy’
Tyler will be directing the first show of the season, Gypsy. He joined the Heights Players nearly 35 years ago when he moved to Brooklyn Heights, and has pretty much directed one show (typically a musical) every year.
“It’s good to open the season with something big because it draws the people in,” Tyler explained two weeks before opening night. “People like the fact that we open with [a musical] and, also, you can use more people in it too, with bigger casts than if we were doing a non-musical.”
The cast includes 35 people, who range in age from four to 74, due to the variety of roles that are required for the storyline. Tyler even noted that some cast members, who haven’t been in a show for a while, decided to come back and audition specifically for this musical. Gypsy tells the story of the dreams and efforts of one hungry, powerhouse of a woman to get her two daughters into show business. It’s loosely based on the 1957 memoir of famous striptease artist Gypsy Rose Lee, entitled Gypsy: Memoirs of Americas Most Celebrated Stripper.
While Tyler couldn’t pick a personal favorite number, he said the well-known Mama Rose songs are dynamic hits and that “You Gotta Have a Gimmick” will be a definite crowd-pleaser. He also noted that the two choreographers have made this production more of a dance show than usual.
“A lot of times the ensemble people don’t really do that much, but in this show we’re figuring out [different ways of] incorporating them into the dance numbers,” Tyler said without giving too much away.
The Heights Players previously performed Gypsy in 1987 and 2001.
‘A Raisin in the Sun’
Ted Thompson, who’s been directing at the company for the last 20 years, will be in charge of the creative vision for “A Raisin in the Sun.” He said Tyler originally suggested the play to him last year as something he should direct, given its important plot. After learning more about the play’s backstory, Thompson was excited to take it on and feels fortunate to observe its 60th-year anniversary here at the Heights.
“The play is still extremely relevant because it’s not just talking about housing,” he added. “It’s really talking about the American Dream, the dream for everybody.”
A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, became the first play by an African American woman on Broadway in 1959. It tells the story of a black family’s experiences in Clybourne Park, a fictionalized version of the Washington Park Subdivision of Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, as they try to improve their financial circumstances with an insurance payout following the death of their father. According to the Chicago Public Library, Hansberry drew upon the lives of the working-class black people who rented from her father and who went to school with her on Chicago’s South Side and also used family members as inspiration for the characters.
For the Heights Players’ upcoming lineup, Thompson said the main theme could be “looking back.” A Raisin in the Sun looks back at the problems black Americans faced in the 1950s. The Last Night of Ballyhoo is a look back at what Jews encountered in the South during the rise of Hitler. Gypsy looks back at the problems burlesque performers had – “or the problems people had with their mothers [that are] still relevant today sometimes,” Thompson said with a laugh. Later in the season, Harvey Fierstein’s Casa Valentina takes place at a Catskill Mountains cross-dressing resort where married men dressed and acted like women on the weekends in the 1960s.
But no matter the production, audience members can expect to have a much different theater experience in comparison to seeing a Broadway show.
“I think that being able to go and see something in a smaller setting makes it more immediate sometimes to you,” Thompson said. “You don’t get as carried away with the grandeur of Broadway productions and you can truly focus on the playwright’s words and themes and perhaps their relevancy to your life as they become clearer.”
Gypsy will be running from September 6 to 22; The Last Night of Ballyhoo from October 4 to 13; and A Raisin in the Sun from November 1 to 10 – with weekend matinee and evening performances held at the John Bourne Theater (26 Willow Place). There are six other productions slated for the rest of the season, which runs until June 2020. Individuals can purchase a season subscription until October 31, saving up to 65 percent off regular ticket prices. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit heightsplayers.org/theater/home/.
Top photo courtesy of The Heights Players
