Join the members of HMT at Uno Chicago Grill in Kenmore Square, Boston on Friday, October 29, 2010!  The restaurant will donate a portion of all sales that day to HMT, so we hope to see you there!  Additional details will follow very soon.

* The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel (January 2011)

* The Spitting Image by Sophie Klein (March 2011)

* The Country Club by Douglas Carter Beane (May 2011)

* Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Lesley Anne Moreau (August 2011)

We are looking to fill the following positions:

Assistant Director

Stage Manager

Assistant Stage Manager

Lighting Designer

Costume Designer

Sound Designer

Sound and Light Board Operator

If you are interested in becoming involved with any of these productions, please feel free to contact Executive Director, Audrey Lynn Sylvia, at audreylynnsylvia@comcast.net.

Barbara DiGirolamo is an East Boston native and lover of theater who is so very excited to be making her debut in her first published show. She was recently seen in the ensemble of the Winter Funderland, served as Assistant Director of The Gingerbread Lady, and as emcee of the Kick Off Cabaret in Happy Medium’s previous endeavors as well as a voice over in Holland Productions’ Kidsimple. Barbara would like to thank Mikey for giving her this opportunity as well as years of exciting debauchery and Mom, Dad, Gina, Julie & Diane for supporting and encouraging her in every opportunity possible. She would also like to thank all the cast for being so wonderful and is honored to be working with such a dedicated and talented group of people!

Preston Graveline (Son)

Preston Graveline is happy to be joining Happy Medium for the first time. He recently performed in The Altruists as Lance with Boston Actors Theater. He is a recent graduate of Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA, where he performed in Once on This Island (Armand), Godspell (Judas/John the Baptist), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Linus), Wizard of Oz (Ensemble), The Miracle Worker (James Keller), Fools (Leon), Twelve Angry Jurors (Foreman), and A Shayna Maidel (Duvid Pechenik).

Louise Hamill (Ensemble of Voices)

Louise Hamill is excited to take a summer vacation in the land of published plays. As the Literary Manager for 11:11 Theatre Company, she is constantly surrounded by new work, and in the last season alone she costume designed Great Expectations and From Places Unknown, stage managed The Three (Un)Wise Men, and originated the role of Bailey in Foreverendia, both on stage and on radio. She would like to give a big hug to Steve Martin for his brilliance and his banjo.

Marc Harpin (Dad)

Marc Harpin is very excited to be working with the Happy Medium folks for the first time. Most recently, he was seen in the Boston Actor’s Theatre production of “The Altruists.” Favorite past roles include Young Man in Theatre on Fire’s “Bash,” Mike in Way Theatre’s “Memory of Water,” Jim in New Rep on Tour’s “Glass Menagerie,” Algernon inWellesley Summer Theatre’s “Importance of Being Earnest,” and James in Lyric Stage Company of Boston’s “Red Herring.” Thanks to Mikey for this chance to play.

Rory Kulz (Roger/Premier/Choirmaster)

Rory Kulz is a recent graduate of Harvard University who has been seen around Boston in productions of LOVE’S FIRE (Exquisite Corps) as Hendryk/Roland’s New Lover, CHRISTMAS BELLES (Company One/Phoenix Theatre Artists) as Raynerd Chisum, and STOP KISS (Bad Habit Productions) as George, amongst other roles. In February, he participated with Exquisite Corps in the premiere staged reading of Adam Bertocci’s TWO GENTLEMEN OF LEBOWSKI. Favorite credits at Harvard include the Director in Complicite’s MNEMONIC, Mike in DINNER, and Tereus in a new adaptation of Aristophanes’ THE BIRDS. He is pleased to be making his debut with Happy Medium Theatre.

Rachel Kurnos (Sis)

Rachel Kurnos is thrilled to be making her Happy Medium Theatre Company debut! Rachel holds a BA in Theater Arts from Brandeis University and recently received her Masters in Theater Education from Emerson College. Boston credits include: Her Dying Wish (Jess; Holland Production’s SLAMBoston) and Macbeth (Third Witch; Gurnet Theatre Project). Other credits include: Measure For Measure (Isabella), subUrbia (Erica), Squabbles (Alice), Fools (Sophia), and I Hate Hamlet (Lillian). One day Rachel aspires to look older than a sixteen year old, but for the first time she is happy she does look so young because it allowed her to play this awesome role. Thanks to Mikey for believing in her and casting her, even if she could never get that blasted Christmas song right.

Lizette M. Morris (Ensemble of Voices)

Lizette M. Morris graduated from Franklin Pierce College in 2007 with a BA in Theatre Arts: Performance/Directing Concentration. Recent credits include: Foreverendia (Maureen/Asst. Director) and Gallery Afternoon (Director) with 11:11 Theatre Company; Death by Chocolate (Stage Manager) written and produced by Mike Dorval; Music From a Sparkling Planet (Prod. Stage Manager) and The Gingerbread Lady (Prod. Stage Manager) with Happy Medium Theatre, Inc.; Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh (Stage Manager), Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls (Asst. Stage Manager) and Baltimore Waltz (Stage Manager) with Holland Productions; The Little Red Hen (Asst. Director/Stage Manager) with Boston Playwrights Theater; and then… (Writer/Director) and Kuhfangfederblech (Writer/Director) with The Warehouse Theatre. It’s always a pleasure to work with HMT and Lizette is very happy to have the opportunity to continue to do so.

Kiki Samko (Lead Voice)

Kiki Samko is thrilled to join Happy Medium for this production! Her Boston credits include Molière 2, The Fantastic Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, Weasel, A Dream of Life, Look and Long (Imaginary Beasts), Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh (Holland Productions/The Factory Theatre); 47 Ways to Die (Club Oberon); My Sister is an Actress (Gan-e-Meed Theatre Project); Theme and Variations (Another Country Productions/The Factory Theatre); My Cantaloupe Girlfriend (Company One/SLAMBoston, winner); and Training Wisteria (F.U.D.G.E. Theatre Co.). She holds degrees in Drama and English from Tufts University and also trained at the Actors Movement Studio in New York City. Look for her next in Heart & Dagger’s inaugural production Into the Fens at Club Oberon on August 12!

Coriana Hunt Swartz (Ensemble of Voices)

Coriana Hunt Swartz is on loan from Flat Earth Theatre, where she can usually be found stitching something or writing really epic meeting notes. With Flat Earth, she has appeared as Juror #2 (*Twelve Angry Jurors*) and Thomas (*Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You*), and has recently costume designed *The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)* and *Blood Relations*. Outside costuming credits include the children’s opera *Brundibar* with the Commonwealth Opera of Western Mass and the family film *Natalie, Queen of Scots* from Lobsterback Entertainment, which may actually be released someday! She is deeply grateful to HMT for this opportunity to be an actress again.

Audrey Lynn Sylvia (Mom)

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Audrey Lynn Sylvia recently appeared in Flat Earth Theatre’s world premiere of On This Moon by Kevin Mullins and Happy Medium’s Music From A Sparkling Planet (Tamara Tomorrow) and The Gingerbread Lady (Toby Landau). Other recent credits include Crimes of the Heart, Smoke & Mirrors, the Short Stories of Neil Gaiman and Inspecting Carol with Zero Point Productions. Audrey is also a proud founding member and the Executive Director of Happy Medium Theatre. She would like to thank: Mikey for the bird in the hand (which is, of course, worth two in the bush); Charlotte, Miranda and Carrie for tracking down Jeff VanVonderen when the time comes; and Mom, Dad, Brother and Jeffrey for the love that goes beyond the sweeties and the dearies.

Krista D’Agostino is thrilled to be working with Happy Medium on what is basically her first time on stage in two years — yikes! Her not really recent acting credits include Alcyone in Boston Actors Theater’s Metamorphoses and Samia in The Flowers of Red at the Boston Playwrights Theatre. She also played a lot of old-woman-type-characters a long time ago in college. Krista is the Producing Artistic Director for Holland Productions where she has directed Jordan Harrison’s Kid Simple: A Radio Play in the Flesh; Naomi Iizuka’s Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls; Philana Gnatowski’s The Halfway House Club; Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz; and Emily Dendinger’s Swimming After Dark. She has also directed projects for Harvard University, Boston College, Another Country Productions, Boston Actors Theater and The Boston Theatre Marathon. At The Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2009 Krista assisted Amanda Charlton on the world premiere of Melinda Lopez’s Caroline in Jersey. Krista will be directing The Mistakes Madeline Made by Elizabeth Meriwether at The Factory Theatre this fall.

Erika Geller (Becca)

Erika Geller is thrilled to join the Happy Medium family this summer! Erika holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts and Women’s and Gender Studies from Brandeis University and has also studied at the London Dramatic Academy (via Fordham University). She is Co-Artistic Director of the CoLab Theatre Co. and will be co-directing, play. : A Night of Original Theatre with the CoLab this August. Boston Credits Include: God in Love’s Fire (Exquisite Corps), Duke Solinus in The Comedy of Errors (Atlantis Playmakers), Nell in My Sister Is An Actress (Gan-e-meed Theatre Project) and Bryanna in The Emperor’s New Clothes (Makeshift Theatre). Favorite Brandeis Credits: Caitlin in A Devil Inside and Nancy in A Summer Evening in Des Moines.

Nick Miller (Sam)

Terry Torres (Nat)

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Terry Torres is pleased moderately to be working with Happy Medium. Since graduating from Emerson College he has taken part in a number of independent collaborative pieces as performer and writer – most recently EN*GRAM, in which he played a guy with brain problems. He is excited to play another guy with brain problems. He has also appeared in SLAMBoston with Company One and Independent Drama Society. He is a founding member of the theatre company Rough Week, and star of the soon-to-premiere psychological horror mystery action thriller webseries With These Hands.

We are pleased to announce our 2010/2011 season:

• The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds by Paul Zindel (January 2011)
• The Spitting Image by Sophie Klein (March 2011)
• The Country Club by Douglas Carter Beane (May 2011)
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Lesley Anne Moreau (August 2011)

What does it mean to be a parent? One definition that eerily stands out is “an organism that produces or generates offspring.” Through this One-Act Festival, the director wishes to explore the notion of what it means to parent.

WASP is a dark comedy about a family in the 1950s struggling to acheive the stereotypical perfection and harmony of the time, and failing. Instead, the characters are drowning in their own self-deprecation and are unsure of anything, even their own identities. They therefore turn to others, from voices in their heads to aliens from cartoons, for the answers they need, and even there cannot find them.

Set in a rundown house somewhere in America, REFUGE tells the darkly funny and touching story of a young woman, Amy, forced to care for her younger brother and sister after her parents have abandoned the family and fled to Florida for a vacation from which they will never return. The siblings are in great need of care: Nat, a brain tumor survivor, is stuttering and barely able to move; and Becca is an Ecstasy-popping needy child. In a desperate attempt at connection, Amy brings home a drifter, Sam, for a one-night stand. But Sam is so lonely and lost that once he encounters this unusual family’s bonds of loyalty, he sees them as his only refuge. REFUGE is a profoundly honest and original look at four young lives—lost and unsure of what’s ahead, seeking a safe place but uncertain of what safety means. The only refuge in sight may be in the distinctively heartbreaking and brutally funny language of the world Ms. Goldberg’s characters inhabit.

Directed by Mikey DiLoreto

When: July 29th – August 1st, and August 5th – 7th, 2010
Where: The Factory Theatre, Boston (Directions)

January 26, 2010: Jenna Scherer, The Boston Herald, ‘Music’ strikes Happy note

January 26, 2010: Larry Stark, The Theater Mirror, Music from A Sparkling Planet

MUSIC FROM A SPARKLING PLANET

by Douglas Carter Beane and directed by Lesley Anne Moreau

“Happy Medium Theatre’s entertaining Music From A Sparkling Planet is sure evidence that you can put on a terrific show with a dime and a dream.” (Kay Bourne, Edge Boston, Jan. 29, 2010)

Whatever became of Tamara Tomorrow? In the early seventies, this local television host, in her antennae and space suit, made cheery predictions of how exciting the future was going to be. Her sudden disappearance from the public eye was one of the great mysteries of the Philadelphia area. Three fans of Tamara, all grown up and disenchanted with the “future” as she predicted, decide to go in search of this “Delaware Valley Greta Garbo.” What they find along the way teaches them more about themselves than they really thought they could know.

Michael Fisher (WAGS), a Long Island native, received his BFA in acting from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. Recent stage appearances include The Gingerbread Lady (also with Happy Medium Theatre), Macbeth (Gurnet Theatre Project), The Laramie Project (Bad Habit Productions), and a summer stint with the sketch comedy group The Pushers in New York City. Law students in the audience may also recognize his voice from the AudioCaseFiles legal audiobook series. He is grateful to be working with the fun folks at HMT again on yet another poignant and delightfully obscure tale.

Michael Riffle (HOAGIE) – This is Michael’s debut performance in Boston having recently moved here from Wadsworth, OH.  While living in Ohio he performed at Weathervane Theatre (A Doll’s House (Torvald), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oberon/Theseus)), with Medina ShowBizz (The Boys Next Door (Jack), The Nerd (Willum)), with Fourth Wall Productions (The Bank Guards (Ben), Two Man Kidnapping Rule (Jack)), with Bang and Clatter (Defender of the Faith (Man)), and at University of Akron (Twelfth Night (Feste)).  Michael has received his Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of Rochester, but has always focused more on his theatre education than his major.  In his free time Michael enjoys playing the Rock Band series of games and carpentry.

Victor Shopov (ANDY) is a local actor/playwright/grad student living and working in the Boston area.  Recent stage credits include ASSASSINS (Curtain Call Theatre), THE GINGERBREAD LADY (Happy Medium Theatre), MACBETH (Gurnet Theatre Project), ALOHA, SAY THE PRETTY GIRLS (Holland Productions), THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (Boston Stage Company), THE HALFWAY HOUSE CLUB (Holland Productions/The Factory Theatre), and THE HEIDI CHRONICLES (Longwood Players).  He is also serves on the board of Holland Productions as the Director of Finance and Operations, has an unhealthy obsession with spreadsheets, and is very happy to be working with HMT once more.

Audrey Lynn Sylvia (TAMARA TOMORROW) has been in pursuit of a happy medium for the longest time and is thrilled to have finally nailed it. She has recently appeared in Happy Medium’s The Gingerbread Lady (Toby Landau) and When the Music Stops (Kat), as well as Crimes of the Heart (Chick), Smoke & Mirrors, the Short Stories of Neil Gaiman (Ensemble), Inspecting Carol (Dorothy Tree-Hapgood), and The Dinner Party (Mariette Levieux) with Zero Point Productions. Other favorite Boston performances include Pygmalion, with The Longwood Players – and Black Comedy, The Dining Room, Arcadia and Hair at Boston University. Audrey would like to thank Barbara, Lesley, Michael and Stacy for being fellow, tireless ambassadors of the H.M. She also wants to thank Mom, Dad, Brother and Jeffrey for continuously being the method to the madness.

Lesley Anne Moreau (DIRECTOR) was last seen on stage as Polly Meara in Happy Medium’s inaugural production of The Gingerbread Lady. Other past acting credits include Dressed Up Like a Douche, Miracle on 34th Street, Twelfth Night and The Little Red Hen. Past directing credits include Desperation, All Falls Down, and a staged reading of her original work, When the Music Stops at the Boston Playwright’s Theatre. Many thanks to Stacy, Barbara, and Settie. Special thanks to the cast and crew for all the hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm.

CREW: Anne K. Austin, Mike Budwey, Barbara DiGirolamo, Stacy Fox, Andrew Hicks, Greg Jutkiewicz, and Lizette M. Morris

Purchase tickets here!