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Thursday, February 6, 2014

INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF MARIA CALLAS @ MCCC’S KELSEY THEATRE

MASTER CLASS
By Terrence McNally

WHEN: Fridays, Feb. 21 and 28, at 8 PM; Saturdays, Feb. 22 and March 1, at 8 PM; and Sundays, Feb. 23 and March 2, at 2 PM. A reception with the cast and crew follows the opening night performance on February 21.*
WHERE:
Mercer County Community College’s Kelsey Theatre, located on the college’s West Windsor Campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road
TICKETS: $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, and $14 for students and children. 
Tickets are available online at www.mccc.edu or by calling the Kelsey Theatre Box Office at 609.570.3333. 
Kelsey Theatre is wheelchair accessible, with free parking available next to the theater.

American Sign Language (ASL)-interpreted performance for the deaf, hard of hearing, and ASL community on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 2 PM. Interpreters are Allwyn Baskin and Lisette Weiland. On Feb. 28, audience members are invited to a 30-minute “Talk Back” session following the performance to discuss the production with the cast and crew.

MonathCooperHardyInspired by a series of master classes the singer conducted toward the end of her career, this Tony Award-winning play captures Callas as she challenges the next generation of singers to reach for the heights that she herself has achieved. This somewhat fictionalized account of La Divina, as she became known, gives Callas a chance to meditate on the relationship between art and life, and to wonder when the pursuit of one's art becomes self-destructive. Some of her revelations are deeply personal, including her relationship with Aristotle Onassis. Portrayed in all her imperfect glory, Callas is at times wickedly funny, unrelentingly critical and highly emotional. Intimate in style, Master Class nevertheless is a big play, filled with tantalizing, if unanswerable, questions.

Jenne Carey as Sophie DePalma Laurie Hardy as Maria Callas.<br /><br />Leading the cast as Maria Callas is Laurie Hardy (right in all photos) of Hamilton. Featured as students in the master class are soprano Jenne Carey (Above, left), of Princeton, as Sophie DePalma; soprano Eileen Cooper Right, with Hardy), of Hamilton, as Sharon Graham; and tenor Timothy Walton (Below, left), of Plainsboro, as Anthony Candolino. These three classically trained opera singers will all sing arias: Carey will perform Bellini’s “Ah Non Credea”; Cooper will perform Verdi’s “Vieni t’affretta”; and Walton will perform Puccini’s “Recondita Armonia.” Andrew Monath of New Hope, Pa., plays the on-stage accompanist Manny Weinstock.

Maria Callas instructs tenor Timothy Walton, who plays Anthony Candolino.Says the show’s director, Judi Parrish, “Callas had passionate dedication to her art on a grand emotional scale. Master Class is so special because McNally has fused brilliantly poetic dialogue and wonderful humor with great music from classic operas. And while the play is incredibly funny, it also is deeply reflective, as Callas looks back on her life and what she had to sacrifice for her career. The play is about her frustrations as well as those moments when she surrenders to the beauty of her students’ voices—when they finally understand. She is a force!”

The production is produced by Sally Page of Princeton. Stage Manager Tara Gruber Etter of Hamilton will also appear on stage as the stagehand.

Photos by John Maurer