The Man Who Came To Dinner: Summer ’08

Sue Barry (Harriet Stanley / Mrs. Dexter)

In yet another wild character part, Sue portrays the eccentric and mysterious Harriet and the obnoxious Mrs. Dexter. In past lives she has given new meaning to the nursing profession in Death by Chocolate (Canton Players), performed as an aging German theater agent in I Hate Hamlet (Bay Colony Players) and has been type cast into numerous psychotic parts in Dinner Theater, Mousetrap, Moon Over Buffalo and One-Act Plays for New Prospect Players. By day she is a mild-mannered teacher in Norwood and enjoys Etymology, Psychology, and Monopoly. Many thanks to friends and family who support the arts and I promise I won’t give up my day job. Enjoy the show!

Chris Boyajian

to come

Dean Calusdian (Director)

For the past twelve years Summer Stage’s Program Director and Lead Teacher Dean Calusdian has worked with children of all ages. He has directed a myriad of children’s theater productions, and run many after-school program’s, camps, and workshops. He has worked with such organizations as “The Walpole Children’s Theater”, “Fiddlehead Theater”, “Shakespeare Now”, The Foxboro Performing Arts Academy, The Norwood Public School System, “The Backstage Boosters”, and many others. He was a performer at King Richards Faire for ten years, and directed the feature film, “Tortured Hearts” which screened in both the U.S. and Europe.

Ian Cardoni (Richard Stanley)

Ian has been acting in the Norwood Drama Program since the 5th grade and has taken part in most productions since as either a performer or lighting/sound technician. He has acted in several programs outside Norwood also. He has recieved both Kindergarten and High School diplomas and will begin his attempt to get one for BFA Acting at Emerson College this fall. His favorite coffee is Sumatra Mandheling, he reads Harry Potter, and may or may not have a Battlestar Galactica obsession.

Jon Cardoni (John)

to come

Ninette Cummings (Mrs. McCutcheon)

Ninette Pantano Cummings is a co-founder of Norwood’s New Prospect Players, and the founder of the Norwood Backstage Boosters Murder Mystery Dinner Theater, for which she has been both an actor and producer. Past roles with NPP include Detective Sgt. Trotter in Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, Charlotte Hay in Moon Over Buffalo, and The Assistant in David Mamet’s Bobby Gould in Hell. She directed Garrison Keillor’s The Prodigal Son in last year’s “Evening of One-Acts”. She performed featured roles in Needham Community Theater’s production of The Women. She also appeared as Claire in A Delicate Balance, and as Flo, in Picnic, both with the Walpole Footlighters, where she was also Assistant Director for Hollywood Arms and Enchanted April.

Gina Donaher (Mrs. Ernest W. Stanley)

Gina Pantano Donaher, aka Mrs Ernest Stanley, previously appeared in two other New Prospect Players productions as Molly in “Mousetrap” and Rosalind in “Moon over Buffalo.” She also starred as Louise in the Walpole Footlighters rendition of “Hollywood Arms” as well as several dinner theaters. Gina joins the cast after a succesful stint as Adrienne in “Rocky: The Musical” in Bayonne, N.J. However, the role that made her fame was in Madison, Wisconsin where she played Lacey Underalls in “Caddyshack: the Musical” and where she met her 3rd husband Archie McBoingboing. Currently living in Walpole, Gina will be touring Uganda this spring with the Osmonds.

Mary Ferrara (Miss Preen, Westcott)

Mary is excited to be part of her first production with the New Prospect Players! After spending many years performing improv and sketch comedy, Mary is now exploring short films as well as community theater. She was most recently seen as a combative ogre in Riverside Theatre Works’ production of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” As far as her “real life” she lives in Quincy but wiles away her days as a web developer out in Newton. She would like to thank her family and friends for their support, and especially wants to give many, many props to her sweetie Angel, who has given more than words can say here.

Andres Garcia

Andres began his career in drama back in his 1st Freshman Year at Brockton High School as he wrote a play that was produced by a stage director at a theater in Boston called “Lifeless and Elhanen”. Though it was extremely revised and edited, he was proud of his work. He moved with his family to Norwood and he began to participate in the Drama program at Norwood High School in his 2nd year there (5th year of “6 Year Plan” in High School). He was in the majority of the One-Acts featured in the Winter Season. This will be his 1st time participating in a New Prospect Players Production and he is very excited to see how it turns out.

Amanda Hurley (June Stanley)

Amanda Hurley went to Norwood High in the early 2000s, and is a big supporter of the drama program. Go drama! She graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York last April, and has recently moved back home. This is her first show with the New Prospect Players and it is turning out to be a wacky good time. In March, she was understudying in Metamorphoses, with the Boston Actors Theater. She also went on tour with the Grumbling Gryphons Traveling Children’s Theatre. She was a giraffe in Anansi, the Trickster Spider, and starred in The Ghost Net: An Environmental Musical of the Sea, as Marina. She sang and danced with tropical fishes and saved our oceans. At the Academy, her favorite roles were Little Miss, a promiscuous yet naive teen, in La Ronde, and Rita, secretary and lesbian lover to a famous feminist, in Last Summer at Bluefish Cove. She also played June, a brainy engineer student who knocks back beers with the boys, in Yellow Lights, winner of Indiefest2007 best feature film and best cinematography. Of course, she also enjoyed the numerous plays she did while at Norwood High, especially when she got to be magical, or crazy, or both. Amanda is currently studying at UMass Boston, working, writing and acting as much as possible. One she hopes to make enough money acting that she can quit all her day jobs. She gets a thrill out of quitting! But if not, she’ll keep acting anyway because it’s better than love or even candy. It’s true.:)

Chris Johnson (Bert Jefferson)

Chris Johnson has played a variety of supporting roles in his career, including Neighbor 2 in Assembly of Women, a talking bottle of Stoli in Prez Ubette, and Falstaff’s VD in Henry IV 3: Back in the Game. He thanks the assortment of lovely family members, friends, and lady friend (singular) who put up with his shenaniganous going-ons. He likes pepperjack cheese and that tingly sensation when you’re on a swing.

Mike Magyer

I just graduated from Norwood High School. I will be attending Johnson & Wales university and will major in Computer Graphics and New Media in the Fall. In high school, I was on the tennis team for 3 years and was tri-captain my senior year. I’ve only recently gotten involved in the drama program when one of my best friends, Chris, said I should come to a couple of rehearsals and see if I like it. And I ended up enjoying it and became stage manager for The Vampire Cat of Nebeshima. Then, I continued to participate in Norwood drama and got a small part in Red Noses (Druce).

Jackie Martin (Lorraine Sheldon)

Jackie Martin has somehow managed to spend the last three years of her life sitting in a salmon-colored cubicle processing insurance claims with little to no creative outlet. Luckily, The Man Who Came to Dinner came along right before her head exploded. Prior to her artistic famine, Jackie could be seen in For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, The Importance of Being Earnest, To Whom It May Concern, and many other shows, several of which had shorter titles. She holds a B.A. in Theater from UMass Amherst and currently resides in Norwood. Jackie would like to thank Dean and The New Prospect Players for this opportunity, the cast for all of the good times, and her husband, Terry, for snapping her out of her malaise and telling her to audition.

Tom McKenzie (Professor Metz)

This is Tom’s 3rd jaunt on the Norwood stage. His first performance was playing Sammy “Pretty Boy” Bambino in the Boardwalk Melody Hour Murders. His second was playing the dim-witted Death in Woody Allen’s Death Knocks. Tom can be found late nights at Starbucks enjoying a grande bold and during the day running his HVAC company. He’d like to thank his daughter Kim for introducing him to the drama scene and the cast and crew of The Man Who Came to Dinner.

Jack McCarthy (Mr. Stanley)

Jack McCarthy played the role of Norwood Town Moderator for thirteen years on the CMS Stage. Most recently he played the role of Old Fezziwig in the Fiddlehead Theatre production of A Christmas Carol. You can catch Jack as the host of NPA TV’s news magazine show, Norwood Digest. He is excited to make his debut with the New Prospect Players. Jack thanks his lovely wife and exceptionally bright and beautiful daughters for their inspiration, support and understanding.

Rich Morton (Beverley Carlton)

This is Rich’s third performance with New Prospect Players and he will keep doing it until he gets it right. He started his acting career playing the third tree from the left during a 1st grade interpretation of “The Little Red Hen;” a role he would love to recreate with a new vision. Theater groups that have refused him that opportunity include Canton Community Theater, Walpole Footlighters, Medway Players, Lexington Players and King Richard’s Faire. He would like to blame his daughter Jessie for getting him into this mess.

Tracy Northup (Sheridan Whiteside)

This is Tracy’s third performance with the New Prospect Players since returning to the stage. He could be seen in “Tough Choices for the New Century” in 2006 and “The Siren Song of Stephen J. Gould” in 2007. Tracy lives in Norwood with his wife Sally and enjoys motorcycling when not on the stage. He would like to thank the cast members and crew of “the man who came to dinner” for all he has learned from them and the fun they have had.

John Quinn (Banjo)

John, Norwood High School’s drama teacher, has working in the theater since his debut on his high school stage in The Crucible in 1982. He shifted from acting to directing plays while majoring in Drama and Medieval Renaissance Literature at the University of Virginia. After college, John balanced a busy career teaching theatre to high school students, directing plays, and bartending. The lure of the Hub brought John and wife Elizabeth to Boston in 1993 where John experimented briefly with real jobs in Quality Control and Human Resources. He left the comfortable life of the cubicle to pursue his Masters in Theatre Education at Emerson College. While at Emerson, he was hired to build a Drama Program right here in Norwood. John is happy to be back in high school doing theatre where he belongs. John dedicates this clownish performance to his wife Elizabeth and little daughter Li-Li.

Evelyn Seijido (Maggie Cutler)

Evelyn is delighted to be performing in her very first Prospect show. As a graduate of NHS in 2001 she is no stranger to the Savage Stage. Her first appearance was in The Wizard of Oz where she played the complex and multi faceted role of Petrified Tree # 1. Since then Evelyn has been seen in Romeo and Juliet, Grease, Antigone, Little Shop of Horrors, The Tempest, Under Milkwood (Hofstra University), and Psycho Beach Party (Foot Light Club.) Evelyn recently graduated from Boston University where she earned a degree in Film Production from the College of Communication. Currently Evelyn works as a rental agent at Rule Broadcast Systems where she makes dreams happen and occasionally rubs elbows with Hollywood big wigs (no big deal). She would like to thank the Prospect Players for making this such a memorable experience and a special thanks to all her family and friends for their continued love and support.

Francis Sheehan (Sandy)

to come

Peter Wolinski (Dr. Bradley)

Peter Wolenski lives and works in Norwood. This is his third New Prospect Players production. He previously appeared as the narrator / Mayor in Count Dracula and as a farmer in The Prodigal Son.