Opening February 28th - Check out Arlington Friends of the Drama's "The Mai"

Scene One is proud to distribute and promote the following press release from Arlington Friends of the Drama:

Arlington Friends of the Drama will be presenting The Mai by award-winning Irish playwright Marina Carr as its next production. Set in Galway, Ireland, the play portrays a deeply loving but deeply flawed family of four generations of women. Beginning with one-hundred-year-old, opium-smoking Grandma Fraochlan, who swears like the nine-fingered fisherman she was once married to and still grieves for, to the two meddling aunties, a couple of sisters who give too-little too-late, and the daughter-narrator, the play is filled with memorable characters.

The central conflict of the play revolves around the marriage of Robert and the Mai. Four years before the show opens, Robert, a professional cellist, has left the Mai after seventeen years of marriage. She has built an idyllic house on the edge of Owl Lake, hoping he will return, and at the opening of the play, he does. Whether their underlying love can overcome his philandering ways and deceits is the question that unfolds throughout the play. Weaving it all together is Millie, the daughter who witnessed the love and the hate, the tragedy and the hilarity of four generations of women whose lives mesmerizingly unfold through family storytelling and the music of the cello.

The play, which is well-known in Ireland but is making its community theater debut in the Boston area, is bringing together some local artists and musicians to add depth to the production. Director Nancy Curran Willis first asked Arlington resident Valerie Forgione if she would write some original music for the show. Though by day she is an executive with Newbury Comics, Valerie has spent over a decade performing with her band, Mistle Thrush, and has starred in a number of productions with The Boston Rock Opera. She has extensive experience in studio recording and audio production, with work featured in advertisements, video games, and on prime time television. Valerie has been composing for theatre since 2000, and has received two DASH (Distinguished Achievement and Special Honors) awards.

Though Valerie has written music for keyboard and other instruments, she had never composed specifically for the cello. Pat Tassone, a music teacher at Arlington High, was willing to meet with Valerie to give her some coaching to get her started, and also put production manager Ginger Webb in touch with Antoine Malfroy-Camine, an Arlington High School grad who now attends Brandeis, and who plays the cello. He has been studying cello for fourteen years, playing in various musical groups such as the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Longy School of Music Chamber Ensembles, and has toured with these groups in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, and Switzerland.

Antoine will not only be pre-recording the music that the Robert “plays” during the show, but he will also be accompanying live the storytelling monologues of Millie, the daughter who narrates the play.

Antoine also has to teach the actors how to pantomime playing the cello, how to hold the bow, how to draw it across the strings, how to loosen the tautness on the bow so that it makes little sound moving across the strings. The cello is a representation of the passion of the marriage, and its music adds to the depth of both dark and joyous emotions in the play.

Another member of the production team is Arlington resident Larin Brink. Larin is a professional freelance props artist, working primarily on movies for a living. Usually the winter months are slow in the motion picture business, so Larin, who had just recently moved to town, decided to volunteer her services at Arlington Friends of the Drama gathering props for the show. Her professional credits include “The Heat”, “Lincoln”, “The Way Way Back” and a large variety of Lifetime movies.

Other Arlington residents on the creative team are Andrea Goodman, costume designer, Don Richardson, the set technician in charge of building the set, Jack Wickwire, the hair and makeup artist, and Jenna Lourenco, the dialect coach. Jenna actually wrote her Master’s Thesis on the imagery and symbolism in this play, and thus serves as a consultant to the creative team in that capacity as well. Arlington resident Ginger Webb serves as the production manager. The cast includes Jennifer Soucy, Iain Bason, Anne Sullivan, Jenna Lourenco, Katie Higgins, Nellie Farrington, Demetra Tseckares and Tricia Akowicz.

The play opens February 28 and runs two weekends, with performances February 28, March 1, 7, & 8 at 8PM, March 2, & 9 at 4PM. There is a talk-back following the March 2 performance, and a free dress rehearsal for seniors on Thursday February 27th at 7:30pm. AFD Theatre is located at 22 Academy Street, Arlington, MA behind Town Hall and across from the Senior Center. The theater is handicapped accessible and assistive listening devices are available. This play contains strong language.

Tickets $20 http://www.afdtheatre.org 781-646-5922