{"id":708,"date":"2015-07-24T19:50:42","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T19:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hamptontheatre.org\/?page_id=708"},"modified":"2020-01-14T14:27:53","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T14:27:53","slug":"clybourne-park","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hamptontheatre.org\/?page_id=708","title":{"rendered":"Clybourne Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GENERAL INFO<\/a><\/p>\n

\n \t\r\n
\r\n\"hampton<\/a>\r\n
by Bruce Norris\r\ndirected by Sarah Hunnewell<\/h6>\r\n
March 12 – 29, 2015<\/h6>\r\nBruce Norris\u2019s Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning \u201csharp-toothed comedy\u00a0of American uneasiness\u201d (New York Times) that spins off Lorraine Hansberry’s\u00a0“A Raisin in the Sun” to take on the taboo subject of race in the 1950s and today.\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nCAST:<\/strong>\r\nRuss\/Dan – MATTHEW CONLON\r\nBev\/Kathy – ANETTE MICHELLE SANDERS\r\nFrancine\/Lena – JUANITA FREDERICK\r\nJim\/Tom\/Kenneth – BEN SCHNICKEL\r\nAlbert\/Kevin – SHONN McCLOUD<\/a>\r\nKarl\/Steve – JOE PALLISTER<\/a>\r\nBetsy\/Lindsey – REBECCA EDANA\r\n<\/div>
<\/div>\r\n\n <\/div>\n

WHO'S WHO<\/a><\/p>\n

\n \t\r\nMATTHEW CONLON<\/strong> (Russ\/Dan) is grateful to return to the HTC, where he appeared most recently as Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey<\/em> and as the title character in The Foreigner<\/em>. He also appeared in The Heiress<\/em>, The Real Thing<\/em> and The Crucible<\/em> some time back. NYC: HB Playwrights: The Game of Love and Death<\/em> (with Herbert Berghof), Lady With a Lapdog<\/em>, Freud\u2019s Last Session<\/em> (with Fritz Weaver), The Play\u2019s the Thing<\/em> and The Chase<\/em>; Beckett: Judgement<\/em>; Sonnet Rep: The Tempest<\/em>; EST: The Traveling Lady<\/em>; La Mama: A Human Equation<\/em>; Tribeca Lab: The Swan<\/em>; Lark: Bromius Beaujolais and God<\/em>, Sex and Blue Water<\/em>. Regional: Penobscot: To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>; Bay Street: Men\u2019s Lives<\/em>; Cleveland Play House: The Importance of Being Earnest<\/em>; O\u2019Neill: Fuddy Meers<\/em>. Stage West: Suddenly Last Summer<\/em> (with Kim Hunter); Ivoryton: Prelude to a Kiss, Bell<\/em>, Book and Candle<\/em> and On Golden Pond<\/em>; Mendelssohn: Oedipus Rex<\/em>, The Daughter-in-Law<\/em>; Power Center: Waiting for Godot<\/em>; Bearsville: The Lisbon Traviata<\/em>. Recent Film: Sweet Lorraine<\/em>; The Crimson Mask<\/em>; Man From The City<\/em>. TV: Law and Order<\/em>(s). During the final year of ABC\u2019s One Life to Live<\/em>, Matthew played M. Claude Calmar.
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\r\n\r\nREBECCA EDANA<\/strong> (Betsy\/Lindsey) made her Hampton Theatre Company debut as Jan in Bedroom Farce<\/em> and played Maddie in Desperate Affection<\/em>. She has also appeared on the East End as Fraulein Kost in Center Stage\u2019s Cabaret<\/em>. She has been in numerous independent films including Greetings From Bushwick<\/em>, as well as theater productions and improv troupes. Her favorite shows include Talk Radio<\/em>, Happy Hour<\/em> and Sweet Charity<\/em>. She would like to thank her family for their tireless support and endless encouragement.
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\r\n\r\nJUANITA FREDERICK<\/strong> (Francine\/Lena), a native of Columbia, South Carolina, received her BA in Theatre and Film and a minor in Spanish from St. Augustine\u2019s College. Some credits include: Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. Reading Series, Last of the Line<\/em> as Lula and Anna Bradley; Our Town<\/em> at Arden Theatre Company; and Freedom Theatre\u2019s Journey of a Gun<\/em> as the voice of the gun and Mrs. Reynolds. Juanita would like to thank God and her loving parents.
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\r\n\r\nSHONN MCCLOUD<\/strong> (Albert\/Kevin) is thrilled to be making his Hampton Theater Company debut. He was most recently seen with the Hampstead Players in A Christmas Carol<\/em> (Scrooge\/Fred) and Oliver Twist<\/em> (Bumble\/Fagin). Other regional credits include: The Liar<\/em> (Alcippe), One Man, Two Guvnors<\/em> (Lloyd), Oklahoma!<\/em> (Judd), Ragtime<\/em> (Coalhouse), Side Show<\/em> (Jake), and You Can\u2019t Take it With You<\/em> (Tony). A native of Florida, he appeared in Orlando Shakespeare\u2019s production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby<\/em>, Mad Cow Theatre\u2019s production of Dreamgirls<\/em>, and received a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from the University of Central Florida. He would like to thank his family and friends for their continued love and support. shonnmccloud.com<\/a>
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\r\n\r\nJOE PALLISTER<\/strong> (Karl\/Steve, Graphic Design) has appeared with the Hampton Theatre Company in God of Carnage<\/em> (Michael Novak), The Foreigner<\/em> (Rev. David Marshall Lee), The Drawer Boy<\/em> (Morgan), Other People\u2019s Money<\/em> (Coles), Good People<\/em> (Mike Dillon), One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest<\/em> (McMurphy), Doubt<\/em> (Father Flynn), A Streetcar Named Desire<\/em> (Stanley), Summer and Smoke<\/em> (John Buchanan Jr.) and Lobby Hero<\/em> (Bill). Other local work includes Bay Street\u2019s productions of To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em> (Bob Ewell) and The Diary of Anne Frank<\/em> (Mr. Kraler), The Cripple of Inishmaan<\/em> (Babbybobby) at Guild Hall and Of Mice and Men<\/em> (George), True West<\/em> (Lee) and Twelve Angry Men<\/em> (Juror #8) with Southampton\u2019s Center Stage. Film roles include Steve in Refuge<\/em> and Hunter in Dark Was The Night<\/em> and the feature film A Cry From Within<\/em> starring Cathy Moriarty. Other credits include recurring roles on both One Life to Live<\/em> and Guiding Light<\/em>. He has also appeared in several mildly humiliating skits on Late Night With Conan O\u2019Brien<\/em>. joepallister.com<\/a>
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\r\n\r\nANETTE MICHELLE SANDERS<\/strong> (Bev\/Kathy) is delighted to be making her debut with the HTC. She most recently appeared in New York in Dr. Seuss\u2019 How The Grinch Stole Christmas at Madison Square Garden and, while she very much enjoys being a Who, is excited to be playing a human for a while! Favorite roles include Mariette in Neil Simon\u2019s The Dinner Party (original cast with John Ritter and Henry Winkler) at the Mark Taper Forum and the Kennedy Center, Rosie (u\/s) in the first national tour of Mamma Mia! and both Auntie and Mama Who in Grinch on both coasts. Regionally, Anette has recently appeared as Susu in the world premiere of Jon Marans\u2019 A Raw Space, M\u2019Lynn in Steel Magnolias, the Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd (with Amanda McBroom), the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz, Goneril in King Lear, and Elaine in three different productions of Simon\u2019s Last of the Red Hot Lovers. Everybody needs a niche! Many thanks to Sarah for inviting me into the HTC family. Proud member of Actors\u2019 Equity since 1996.
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\r\n\r\nBEN SCHNICKEL<\/strong> (Jim\/Tom\/Kenneth) played Ellard in HTC\u2019s production of The Foreigner<\/em> last spring as well as Miles in The Drawer Boy<\/em>, Chris Foster in Becky\u2019s New Car<\/em> and Jason in Rabbit Hole<\/em>. He is a New York-based actor whose credits there include When You Comin\u2019 Back, Red Ryder?<\/em>, Rabbit Hole<\/em>, Six Degrees of Separation<\/em>, Billy Witch<\/em>, The Dreamer Examines His Pillow<\/em>, Rent<\/em>, A.R. Gurney\u2019s What I Did Last Summer<\/em>, Bekah Brunstetter\u2019s Space<\/em> and the world premiere of An Appeal to the Woman of the House<\/em>. A native of Minneapolis, he has also performed there at the Guthrie Theater and the Children\u2019s Theatre Company. He received his B.F.A. in Acting from Ithaca College.
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\r\n\r\nBRUCE NORRIS<\/strong> (Playwright) is the author, most recently, of Domesticated<\/em>, which premiered at Lincoln Center in November 2013. Earlier in 2013 the Royal Court premiered The Low Road<\/em> in London. Clybourne Park<\/em> won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2012, the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards (London) for Best Play in 2011 and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2011. Other plays include The Infidel<\/em> (2000), Purple Heart<\/em> (2002), We All Went Down to Amsterdam<\/em> (2003), The Pain and the Itch<\/em> (2004), The Unmentionables<\/em> (2006) and A Parallelogram<\/em> (2010), all of which had their premieres at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. He is the recipient of the Steinberg Playwright Award (2009) and The Whiting Foundation Prize for Drama (2006) as well as two Joseph Jefferson Awards (Chicago) for Best New Work. As an actor he can be seen in the films A Civil Action<\/em>, The Sixth Sense<\/em> and All Good Things<\/em>. He lives in New York.
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\r\n\r\nSARAH HUNNEWELL<\/strong> (Director) has directed many shows for the Hampton Theatre Company; favorites include Time Stands Still<\/em>, The Drawer Boy<\/em>, Rabbit Hole<\/em>, The Enchanted April<\/em>, One Flew Over The Cuckoo\u2019s Nest<\/em>, The Oldest Living Graduate<\/em>, Fuddy Meers<\/em>, Summer and Smoke<\/em>, The Rainmaker<\/em> and The Foreigner<\/em>. She is also the Jill-of-all-trades otherwise known as the Executive Director of the HTC. Many thanks to her excellent cast and crew for their hard work on this production and to our audience members, patrons and all the people who help make our work possible.
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\r\n\r\nPETER-TOLIN BAKER <\/strong>(Set Designer) is the founder and principal designer of NYC based P-T B Design Services and, as such, provides creative visual design solutions for a range of retail brands, exhibitions and promotional events. Previously, he was the Vice President of Visual Merchandising at Tiffany & Co. and the visual manager with the legendary luxury emporium Henri Bendel. Additional design experience, in California, includes clothing design for Japanese Weekend and design and construction for E.M. Fabrications, a custom display and prop company. Baker was also both production designer and performer with the groundbreaking band Voice Farm. Throughout his career Baker has continued to work as scenic designer for dozens of dramatic and musical productions, including local HITFest\u2019s recent productions of In the Next Room or the vibrator play<\/em>, A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>, and In The Bar of a Tokyo Hotel<\/em>. Clybourne Park<\/em> marks his debut with the Hampton Theatre Company.
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\r\n\r\nSEBASTIAN PACZYNSKI<\/strong> (Lighting Designer) first worked with the Hampton Theatre Company when he designed the company\u2019s 2003 production of Summer and Smoke<\/em> at Guild Hall in East Hampton and has designed all the company\u2019s productions since Proof<\/em> in 2004 as well as the theater\u2019s new lighting system. He has designed lighting for theater, dance and special events in a number of Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and regional venues. He has also worked in film and television as the director of photography. He has designed numerous productions for Guild Hall and for the Hamptons Shakespeare Festival.
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\r\n\r\nTERESA LEBRUN<\/strong> (Costume Designer) is the resident costumer for the Hampton Theatre Company and has designed costumes for all the company\u2019s recent productions. Teresa has also costumed for Spindletop Productions at Guild Hall. Much love to her boys Josh and Noah.
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\r\n\r\nDIANA MARBURY<\/strong> (Set Decor & Properties) has dressed and \u201cpropped\u201d many a set over the company\u2019s 30-year history, working hand in hand with the HTC\u2019s talented set designers. She and all the company members are incredibly grateful to all the local businesses and individuals who lend furniture and props for our productions. Also, a big hand to our wonderful patrons, who continue to give their support, in spite of these tough financial times. We hope you are enjoying our 30th Anniversary season!
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\r\n\r\nJOHN ZALESKI<\/strong> (Stage Manager). This is John\u2019s 33rd Production with HTC. Thank you, Catherine, for your love, patience, and support on this, the 120th Opening Night. Always in my Wings…
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\r\n\r\nCHRISSIE DEPIERRO<\/strong> (Assistant Stage Manager) is excited to return for her second season as the Hampton Theatre Company celebrates its 30th Anniversary. Thrilled to be a part of such a wonderful and talented group of people who make the productions come alive. Hats off to my fellow \u201cTechies\u201d who make the magic happen. Love always to my three shining stars who always support me, Matthew, Kristopher and Theresa.
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\r\n\r\nROB (MARYAM) DOWLING<\/strong> (Lighting & Sound Technician) has done lighting and sound for 22 years with various theater groups on the East End. Rob has also helped Sebastian with lighting setup at Guild Hall, the Ross School, and other local venues. This is Rob\u2019s seventh season with the Hampton Theatre Company and he is very happy to be part of the show and the company.\r\n\n <\/div>\n

PRODUCTION STAFF<\/a><\/p>\n

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\r\nDirector – SARAH HUNNEWELL Assistant Director – JAMES EWING
\r\n\r\nSet Design – PETER-TOLIN BAKER
\r\nLighting Design – SEBASTIAN PACZYNSKI
\r\nCostume Design – TERESA LEBRUN
\r\nSet Decor & Properties – DIANA MARBURY
\r\nStage Manager – JOHN ZALESKI
\r\nAssistant Stage Manager – CHRISSIE DEPIERRO
\r\nBackstage Crew – ROBERT ARCHER
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\r\nSet Construction – PETER-TOLIN BAKER, TONY CINQUE, MATTHEW CONLON, JAMES EWING,\r\nDEMETRIUS FUIAXIS, SEAN MARBURY, SEAMUS NAUGHTON, VINCENT RASULO
\r\nSound Design – SARAH HUNNEWELL, JAMES EWING
\r\nLighting\/Sound Tech – ROB DOWLING, SEAMUS NAUGHTON
\r\nProduction Graphics – JOE PALLISTER<\/a>
\r\nProgram, Publicity & Box Office – SARAH HUNNEWELL
\r\nHouse Manager – JULIA MORGAN ABRAMS
\r\nAdvertising Sales – SARAH HUNNEWELL, LUCINDA MORRISEY
\r\nProduction Photographer – TOM KOCHIE
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REVIEWS<\/a><\/p>\n

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‘CLYBOURNE PARK’ REVIEW: RACIAL FIREWORKS IN QUOGUE<\/h3>\r\nBy STEVE PARKS\r\nNewsday<\/strong>\r\n\r\n‘Clybourne Park” exposes what we euphemistically call “demographic changes” from the early civil rights movement (1959) to the inauguration of the first African-American president (2009). It’s astonishing how funny — and profane — such a journey can be.
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\r\n\r\nBruce Norris’ Pulitzer- and Tony-winning 2011 play revisits the house that the black family in Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” moved into at the end of her revelatory 1959 play, based on her family’s experience of buying a house in a previously all-white Chicago neighborhood. That sale was the subject of a 1940 lawsuit. The house was designated a historic landmark in 2010.
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\r\n\r\nIn “Clybourne Park,” directed with an unerring vernacular ear by Hampton Theatre Company’s Sarah Hunnewell, that house is about to be rebuilt in grand style by a yuppie couple who consider themselves urban pioneers, reintegrating a “ghetto” neighborhood.
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\r\n\r\nIn Act I, we learn why the home became affordable to the Younger family, whom we never see in “Clybourne Park.” The lone crossover character from “Raisin” is Karl, who’s just come from a futile attempt to dissuade the Youngers from moving in. He’s arrived with his pregnant, deaf wife Betsy to talk the white homeowners, Russ and Bev, into reneging on the contract. Joe Pallister’s Karl skittishly skirts hate language, but his character’s subtext is nakedly racist. Matthew Conlon as Russ and Anette Michelle Sanders as Bev reflect collateral damage of a tragedy that’s lowered the asking price for their home. Rebecca Edana is convincingly clueless as hearing-impaired Betsy, while Ben Schnickel as a feckless clergyman is amusingly banal. Juanita Frederick as Francine, the black “help,” and Shonn McCloud as her husband provide rare dignity in this we’re-all-a-little-bit-racist scenario.
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\r\n\r\nAct II, taking place 50 years later, turns the tables as each actor plays a new character but reflects his\/her Act I persona with mirror-image repartee. (“Have you ever seen a black guy ski?” morphs into “Do white guys tap dance?” Other jokes are X-rated.) The new homeowners want to turn the property — Peter-Tolin Baker’s transformative set is itself a character — into a McMansion. Neighborhood representatives — a black couple — say it’s ostentatious. (Translation: too white.) Plans include a koi pond, which requires digging. A trunk is unearthed — revealing a secret that’s haunted the house on Clybourne Street for half a century.
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\r\n\r\nBlack or white, we get it.\r\n

SCATHING SATIRE ‘CLYBOURNE PARK’ EXPOSES RACIAL FAULT LINES<\/h3>\r\nBy Lorraine Dusky\r\nThe East Hampton Press & The Southampton Press<\/strong>
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\r\n\r\nRace in America will always be a subject aware by all, but not approached by many, because \u201ctension\u201d is the word naturally associated with it.
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\r\n\r\nPlaywright Bruce Norris bites down hard and shakes around that disturbing disquiet with his volatile, scathing satire of tribal mores and manners, \u201cClybourne Park,\u201d which Hampton Theatre Company opened last weekend at Quogue Community Hall. Fifty years pass from first act to the second, and by the time Mr. Norris is done, you will have laughed, yet be keenly reminded how far we have not come.
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\r\n\r\nAt this moment in America, the play is more relevant than ever, as nightly the news has been of black men dying at the hands of white cops and, in one case, a neighborhood vigilante. A video of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members at the University of Oklahoma singing a racist chant is repeated over and over again. The Department of Justice revealed white cops and city officials in Ferguson, Missouri, sent each other jokey emails celebrating bigotry.
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\r\n\r\nAgainst this backdrop, how do the racial fault lines exposed over housing\u2014the subject of Mr. Norris\u2019s highly acclaimed satire\u2014stack up?
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\r\n\r\nJust fine, actually. Only when blacks and whites learn to know each other and live together will the prejudices and fears abate.
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\r\n\r\nThe play opens in 1959, somewhere in Chicago on Clybourne Park, where a middle-aged white couple, Russ (a superb Matthew Conlon) and Bev (Anette Michelle Sanders)\u2014bickering, haunted, eager to move on\u2014are packing up and moving from their longtime home, a set of beiges evoking a comfortable, cozy residence. Their \u201ccolored\u201d maid Francine (Juanita Frederick) is, as expect, subservient.
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\r\n\r\nThen, a group of helpful friends barge in: Jim (Ben Schnickel), a diffident local minister; Albert (Shonn McCloud), Francine\u2019s unfailingly polite husband; and, most importantly, the animated Karl (Joe Pallister) and his deaf and very pregnant wife, Betsy (Rebecca Edana).
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\r\n\r\nThings really come to life when Karl\u2019s actual mission becomes apparent. As a representative of the neighborhood association, he is there to stop the sale to a Negro family with three children. There goes the neighborhood!
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\r\n\r\nIn a white shirt and a short tie, Mr. Pallister is pretty damn perfect and convincing as that good man who only wants what\u2019s best for everyone, and that is a neighborhood that stays lily white.
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\r\n\r\nFast-forward 50 years. In the second act, Mr. Pallister is Steve. With his wife, Lindsey (also Ms. Edana), they are the hip white couple that wants to buy the same house from Act I, just to tear it down and build a new one that will be bigger.
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\r\n\r\nThey are at the same old place reviewing the renovation plans with lawyer-real estate types, portrayed by Ms. Sanders and Mr. Schnickel, and a black couple in the neighborhood, Ms. Frederick and Mr. McCloud again, who have concerns about the house being torn down and what kind of structure will replace it. In fact, what they are really concerned about is the gentrification of their solidly middle-class black neighborhood.
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\r\n\r\nThe conversation starts out well enough, but soon all hell breaks loose as racist jokes and cants pile up like battery charges in a war of words. The play is funny, but that kind of uncomfortable funny that hits close to the bone. People talk, or yell, and interrupt each other while mostly trying to be \u201cnice.\u201d Or at least what could pass as reasonable. Including any of the lines here would be offensive, and they wouldn\u2019t be amusing to any but a bedrock bigot.
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\r\n\r\nThe characters are caricatures, but that is why they work so well, embodying the learned phrases, evasions and prejudices of 50 years ago\u2014and still today in what no one really thinks of as a post-racial world, no matter how pleasant the thought might be.
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\r\n\r\nWas I reminded of the fear of \u201cwhite flight\u201d that gripped the suburbs of Detroit in the 1950s and 1960s when I lived there? Oh, yes. My hometown of Dearborn, Michigan, was a famously racist hot spot.
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\r\n\r\nIt was the only place north of the Mason-Dixon line George Wallace campaigned during his quixotic presidential bid. It was the site of the only Freedom March in the North, which I watched from the steps of City Hall, as both reporter and supporter. It was where the longtime mayor\u2019s campaign slogan was a racist double entendre: \u201cKeep Dearborn Clean.\u201d
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\r\n\r\nI left in 1964 and was not sorry to go.
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\r\n\r\nDirector Sarah Hunnewell chose well with this play, not an obvious one for the largely white audiences of the Hamptons, even though it won the major awards in the United States\u2014a Pulitzer and a Tony\u2014and England, where it picked up the Laurence Olivier Award, the British equivalent of a Tony. The ensemble cast did the material justice; everyone\u2019s excellent, bringing to life the concealed prejudices while\u2014in the second act at least\u2014trying to pretend they aren\u2019t there.
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\r\n\r\nThe 1950s clothes and d\u00e9cor by Teresa LeBrun and Diana Marbury evoke the mood and times, but what\u2019s that misplaced Gucci bag doing on the table? Bev would never have been able to afford it, and knock-offs weren\u2019t around yet. It may be the right vintage, but it\u2019s as noticeable as neon.
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\r\n\r\n\u201cClybourne Park\u201d was on Broadway the same time as \u201cRace,\u201d the David Mamet play I saw; I made the wrong choice. Mr. Norris\u2019s satire will get under your skin, and stay there.
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\r\n\r\nMs. Hunnewell and the capable troupe, under her direction, amply made up for my mistake.
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CLYBOURNE PARK HITS A SENSITIVE MARK<\/h3>\r\nby Beth Young\r\nEast End Beacon<\/strong>
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\r\n\r\nThe Hampton Theatre Company always seems to shine when given a meaty, topical play to work with, and right now, given the unraveling of race relations in the heart of the country, it doesn\u2019t seem there could be a more relevant play for them to produce than \u201cClybourne Park.\u201d
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\r\n\r\nThis play, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2011 and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2012, calls for a cast of seven to play 15 entirely different roles, and this cast does a stand-out job rising to the challenge under the masterful direction of HTC Executive Director Sarah Hunnewell.
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\r\n\r\nThe first act is set in 1959, when a black family moves into an all-white northwest Chicago neighborhood, and the second act, set in 2009, follows a white family buying the same house when the neighborhood has long been a black one.
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\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019ve seen Lorraine Hansberry\u2019s \u201cA Raisin in the Sun,\u201d it will prepare you for where \u201cClybourne Park\u201d begins, but you don\u2019t need to have seen \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d to understand what is an old and very sad American story: even after all this time, black and white people still rarely live side-by-side.
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\r\n\r\n\u201cClybourne Park\u201d picks up the trail of \u201cRaisin\u201d character Karl Lindner, played by Joe Pallister as someone right out of a 1950s Rotary Club, in short sleeves and a tie, glasses and a ridiculous amount of faith in his beliefs about property values and race.
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\r\n\r\nKarl Lindner is a representative of the white Chicago neighborhood who had offered to buy the black Younger family out of their real estate deal in \u201cRaisin,\u201d and \u201cClybourne Park\u201d catches up with him as he goes back to the white family who sold the house to tell them of his offer.
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\r\n\r\nIn that house are a brooding husband and wife, Bev and Russ, who\u2019ve lost their son to suicide after he returned from the Korean War.
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\r\n\r\nPlayed by Anette Michelle Sanders and Matthew Conlon, they are both charming and disturbing in the way that people seem to have been in the 1950s \u2014 denying their feelings about their son\u2019s death, which later erupt at the most horrible moments.
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\r\n\r\nMr. Conlon a regular face at recent productions at HTC does a particularly good study in mild-mannered midwestern vocal peculiarities and mannerisms, while reserving powerhouse rage for when he faces the subject of his son\u2019s death.
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\r\n\r\nJuanita Frederick, who plays the couple\u2019s black maid, Francine, has oceans of emotions just beneath the surface of her terse responses to the couple\u2019s requests as they pack to move. She knows her employers are not her friends, but she needs a job and she keeps her mouth shut, demurely refusing Bev\u2019s attempted gift of a silver chafing dish \u2014 something not even her employer needs.
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\r\n\r\nHer husband, Albert, is a sweetheart as played by Shonn McCloud, willing to lend a hand taking the couple\u2019s son\u2019s trunk downstairs when Karl, fresh from his time over at \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d, rushes through the door to beg Bev and Russ to not sell their house to a black family.
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\r\n\r\nHTC veteran Ben Schnickel, as their preacher friend Jim, tries to give them God\u2019s perspective on the matter, while Karl\u2019s pregnant, deaf wife, Betsy, played with great comic timing by Rebecca Edana, later comes inside from the hot car, adding a new level of absurdity to what is heard, what is actually said, and what is meant by the characters as they dance around their knowledge (or lack thereof) of their own racism.
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\r\n\r\nA melee ensues, during most of which Francine and Albert are upstairs bringing down the trunk. When they come downstairs and end up in the middle of the mess, they stand awkwardly, almost frightened, as the white characters in the room barrage them with questions about whether they\u2019d rather be with their own people than in a white neighborhood.
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\r\n\r\nWhen everyone leaves, Bev begs Albert to take the chafing dish his wife has refused.
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\r\n\r\n\u201cWe don\u2019t want your things,\u201d he says gently as Bev collapses, weeping, on the floor. \u201cWe got our own things.\u201d
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\r\n\r\n\u201cWell, if that\u2019s the attitude, then I just don\u2019t know what to say anymore.\u201d she says, \u201cIf that\u2019s what we\u2019re coming to.\u201d
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\r\n\r\nWhat does her statement mean? Well, it means exactly what it sounds like. No varnish. There is no varnish in this show that isn\u2019t unpeeled.
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\r\n\r\nFast forward 50 years. Ms. Frederick now plays Lena, the grand-niece of the black woman who\u2019d bought the house. She\u2019s still quiet, but she\u2019s far more angry. The people who bought her house, now a historic building, want to tear it down and build their dream house in its place, and her neighborhood has started a petition drive against the project.
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\r\n\r\nHer husband, Kevin (Mr. McCloud), is wearing shorts and seems entirely at ease. He tells the white family that he and his wife had just returned from a vacation in Prague. He asks them if they ski. He knows that he\u2019s blowing the white characters\u2019 minds about how they expect black people to be, and he\u2019s having fun with every minute of it.
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\r\n\r\nMs. Edana, still pregnant, becomes Lindsey \u2014 a hysterical helicopter mom-to-be who wants the perfect house for her baby, while Mr. Pallister, sipping a Starbucks, is recast as her husband, Steve, who can\u2019t help but think that everything Lena and Kevin say to him is really about race. \u201cNo, we\u2019re not questioning your ethics at all,\u201d says Lena. \u201cWhat we\u2019re questioning is your taste.\u201d\r\nMs. Sanders is recast as Kathy, a complete ditz of a lawyer, who interrupts with the most absolutely inane banter possible, while Mr. Schnickel is recast as Lena and Kevin\u2019s gay attorney, who can\u2019t get off the phone to join the conversation.
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\r\n\r\nMatthew Conlon just up and steals the show as an excavator working in the backyard who digs up the dead Korean war veteran\u2019s truck from beneath a dead crepe myrtle tree. With sweaty dungarees, a stained t-shirt and an even more pronounced upper-midwest accent, he brings as much show-stopping ridiculousness to his character as the best of Hamlet\u2019s gravediggers.
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\r\n\r\nPeter-Tolin Baker, making his HTC debut as set designer, and set decorator Diane Marbury make good use of furniture on loan from several East End thrift shops. The scene doesn\u2019t change from act to act, but the yellowing wallpaper and graffiti show a room that looks as if it aged 50 years over the intermission.
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\r\n\r\nThe details are important \u2014 in Act 2, the spackle bucket that now lives where Bev had kept the silver chafing dish says more than words ever could.
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\r\n\r\nWe live in a country where a black man can be president. But we don\u2019t yet live in a country where we can honestly say we live side by side, and even be friends. There\u2019s too much still hanging in the air between.
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\r\n\r\nThis production lights a candle to that volatile air. It\u2019s a little fire in the grand scheme of things, but it matters. Go see it.
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THEATER REVIEW: \u2018CLYBOURNE PARK\u2019 ENTERTAINS AS IT CHALLENGES<\/h3>\r\nby Brendan J. O\u2019Reilly\r\nDan\u2019s Papers<\/strong>
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\r\n\r\n\u201cClybourne Park,\u201d being staged through the end of the month in Quogue, offers a comedic and provocative take on race, both during the era of the Civil Rights Movement and in modern times, when for all that\u2019s changed, much has stayed the same.
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\r\n\r\nPenned by Bruce Norris, \u201cClybourne Park\u201d debuted in 2010 before moving to Broadway in 2012 for an acclaimed run. It\u2019s clear why the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony for Best Play and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play, though it takes the right cast and a seasoned, deliberate director to ensure none of the humor and power of the piece is lost. Thankfully, that\u2019s just what Hampton Theatre Company has.
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\r\n\r\nDirector Sarah Hunnewell found a superb cast of seven, who all must double-up on parts.
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\r\n\r\nPenned by Bruce Norris, the play is a spinoff of Lorraine Hansberry\u2019s 1959 \u201cA Raisin in the Sun.\u201d To enjoy and understand \u201cClybourne Park,\u201d it is not necessary to have seen \u201cA Raisin in the Sun,\u201d but it does help to know one thing: The earlier play centers on a black family that purchases a home in a white neighborhood.
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\r\n\r\n\u201cClybourne Park\u201d takes place inside that home over the course of two acts separated by 50 years. The first act is set in 1959 when middle-aged couple Russ and Bev, who are still recovering from the loss of their son, are preparing to move out of their home. Without consulting Russ, Bev has asked the local clergyman to drop in on him. Adding to Russ\u2019s frustrations, civic leader Karl Lindner\u2014the only character who appears in both \u201cA Raisin in the Sun\u201d and \u201cClybourne Park\u201d\u2014storms in to try to talk the couple out of selling the house to a black family. Karl even tries to get Russ and Bev\u2019s black housekeeper and her husband to help him make his case that it would be a bad fit.
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\r\n\r\nMatthew Conlon, who was most recently seen on the Quogue stage in \u201cHarvey\u201d as Elwood P. Dowd, delivers another great performance. In the challenging role of Russ, he\u2019s must be jokey, standoffish and outraged\u2014all while masking grief just beneath the surface. Hampton Theater Company veteran Joe Pallister (\u201cGod of Carnage,\u201d \u201cGood People,\u201d \u201cOne Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest\u201d) is convincing as Karl, who is aggravating to Russ\u2014and the audience\u2014as he attempts to make his racist motivations appear benevolent. Ben Schnickel (\u201cThe Foreigner,\u201d \u201cThe Drawer Boy\u201d) as the well-meaning but often inept minister Pastor Jim, can really punctuate a funny exchange with his shock and facial expressions. As housekeeper Francine, Juanita Frederick is an effective \u201cstraight man\u201d as a bystander to everyone else\u2019s antics.
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\r\n\r\nThe second act is more like a second play. It\u2019s 2009, and the cast members have taken on new roles. What ties the two acts together are the house\u2014now rundown, like the rest of the neighborhood\u2014and the theme of race. The roles have reversed, however. The neighborhood has become predominantly black over the past five decades, and now a white couple is moving in. Community activists fear their neighborhood is being gentrified with no regard for history.
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\r\n\r\nIn 1959, the house was well-kept, but cluttered with moving boxes. In 2009, it\u2019s vandalized, with no furniture but a few crates and mixed-matched chairs. That\u2019s all the seating that\u2019s needed to accommodate the neighborhood association representatives, the new owners and the attorneys there to mediate. The affluent new owners want to tear down the house to make way for something bigger, and that doesn\u2019t sit well with the neighbors.
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\r\n\r\nCellphones and side talk keep putting off the matter at hand, and the way the parties interact during casual conversation foreshadows the inevitable. Conversations on race maintain some semblance of politeness in the first act, even while the content is ugly. Come the second act, characters decide to tip-toe around race for a while, opting for thinly veiled euphemisms, before they shun political correctness and say exactly what they are feeling. It\u2019s unsettling for the audience, because frank discussions concerning race and racism aren\u2019t refreshing, they\u2019re uncomfortable.<
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THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD, AGAIN<\/h3>\r\nA work of grand historical importance\r\nby Bridget Leroy\r\nEast Hampton Star<\/strong>
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\r\n\r\nTaken by themselves, either act of \u201cClybourne Park\u201d \u2014 the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning dramedy by Bruce Norris now at the Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue \u2014 would stand as a searing yet comedic paean to race relations. Taken together, the two acts masterfully blend into a social commentary on the advancement (or stagnation) of black and white amalgamation over half a century in a desirable Chicago suburb.
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\r\n\r\nThrow in the only white character from Lorraine Hansberry\u2019s \u201cRaisin in the Sun,\u201d the first Broadway play written by an African-American woman, and you have a work of grand historical importance \u2014 and a joy to watch as well.
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\r\n\r\nBut if you\u2019re expecting a comfortable ride, hang on for dear life. \u201cClybourne Park\u201d is a series of remarkably awkward moments that show not only how different factions talk about themselves and each other, but also how, as a whole, they appraise the hearing-impaired, the developmentally disabled, sexual identity, men, women, pregnancy, Scandinavians, the \u201cred Chinese,\u201d and chafing dishes. No one emerges unscathed.
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\r\n\r\nAct one takes place in 1959; the second act in 2009, both in the same house, and both with the same actors portraying immensely different roles. The first half deals with the reactions and emotional maelstrom that come when a black family buys a home in a white neighborhood. After the intermission, a lawyered-up African-American couple is trying to retain the historical significance of the house, now in a predominantly black neighborhood, as new buyers want to tear down and upzone \u2014 something those on the South Fork may have an inkling about.
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\r\n\r\nThe play begins with a middle-age couple, still coping with a recent tragedy, who are packing up after selling their house. Matthew Conlon and Anette Michelle Sanders play Russ and Bev with an engaging realism, whether they are simply making small talk about National Geographic or stirring up old and disturbing memories. Ben Schnickel, as Jim, the local pastor, arrives to chat \u2014 Mr. Sch\u00adnickel is almost Mormonesque in his pallidity. Then Karl Lindner \u2014 that overlapping character from \u201cRaisin\u201d \u2014 arrives with astonishing news: the new homeowners are \u201ccolored\u201d and he has made a counter-offer to keep them out. Joe Pallister is at his best as Karl, a man on fire with his convictions.\r\n
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\r\nDuring all of this, Francine, the family maid, played with amazing discipline by Juanita Frederick, comes in and out of the room, packing up, asking questions, occasionally being put on the spot for her opinion but mostly ignored. Rounding out the cast are Rebecca Edana as Karl\u2019s deaf and very pregnant wife, and Shonn McCloud, H.T.C. newcomer, who plays Francine\u2019s husband, Albert, with a deadpan attitude in the midst of a lively debate.\r\n\r\nEven when trying to understand things from the African-American viewpoint, the Caucasian characters are reprehensibly offensive in what they consider a \u201cprogressive\u201d way, talking about soul food as a substitute for soul.\r\n\r\nBut it is in the second act when the elephant in the room becomes hysterically cringe-worthy. At least in the 1950s race was discussed; as the second act shows, Americans today will talk about virtually anything else, and almost everyone is offended by something. Ms. Edana, hearing-impaired in act one, talks almost non-stop in the second act, a white woman (still pregnant) bent on having the home she wants while trying to appease the locals to a point, as long as that point doesn\u2019t infringe on her two-story dream.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe history of America is the history of private property,\u201d muses her husband, Steve (Mr. Pallister).\r\n\r\n\u201cI rather doubt that your grandparents were sold as private property,\u201d answers Lena (Ms. Frederick), who is labeled a racist by Steve.\r\n\r\nMr. Conlon in the second act plays the only working-class character, the small but important role of Dan, the handyman, an Irish-Catholic holdout in blackburbia who, like Francine in the first act, is basically ignored. So is it color or class?\r\n\r\nHampton Theatre Company\u2019s production of \u201cClybourne Park\u201d is admirable in every way, from the wonderful ensemble cast, to the set by Peter-Tolin Baker, Sebastian Paczynski\u2019s effective lighting, Teresa LeBrun\u2019s period costumes, and Sarah Hunnewell\u2019s masterful directing of a dialogue-driven vehicle.\r\n\r\nWhen Mr. Conlon\u2019s character drags forth a buried secret at the end that unites the first and second acts, it is neglected by the other characters. Like so many who base their arguments on principle, they are too busy fighting each other to truly see the unabridged past and the scars that a war\u2008\u2014\u2008whether fought on the battlefield or in the living room \u2014 can inflict.\r\n\n <\/div>\n

AUDIENCE COMMENTS<\/a><\/p>\n

\n \t\r\nAmazing…saw it opening night. Superb script; brilliant acting; funny and sad; just great!!\r\n– SUSAN SMITH<\/strong>
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\r\n\r\nIt was terrific! We LOVED it!\r\n– PAMELA ORNSTEIN<\/strong>\r\n\r\nLoved, loved, loved the play last night! Just brilliant!\r\n– JOY FLYNN<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIt was an excellent show — great acting and directing. Very enjoyable.\r\n– JUNE SCHONBERG<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWe loved the show as did our friends. Everything about it was superb—-acting, sets, costumes. And beautifully directed. The evening flew by. Looking forward to the next show.\r\n– CAROL HAUFMAN<\/strong>\r\n\r\nLast Thursday night was another exciting evening of superb theatre. Every year the Hampton Theatre Company brings professional productions of the best contemporary and classic plays to the East End. Thursday’s drama, \u201cClybourne Park,\u201d stretched the audience’s grasp of fifty years of America’s racial intolerance. Perfectly cast and carefully directed with humor and unease abounding, we were all treated to a night of live theatre that will keep re-entering our thoughts with the appropriate unrest the author intended. Bravo!\r\n– RICHARD BARONS<\/strong>\r\n\r\nIt was fantastic! Telling all my friends.\r\n– DONNA SMITH<\/strong>\r\n\r\nWe LOVED \u201cClybourne Park.\u201d It was a fascinating play. The acting and directing were fantastic. Each character was two totally different people in the acts. They even looked different.\r\n– EMILY ANDREN<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\r\n\r\nGallery images by Tom Kochie\r\n\r\n\n\t\t