April 6, 2009

Dear Friends,

Our Twenty-First Birthday Celebration marked a moment in time that asked the question: are we done? Is our work completed: twenty-one fulfilling years of theatre for the whole human being? Or is there more to do and say…

We say YES!  We are well into our third decade, and there is so much still to do. With your help, we can develop further our shared engagement with the audience to make compelling what takes place on stage. In these times, it is more important than ever to hold on to the communal activity of theater.

In the next months, we will undertake a new approach and treatment of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night with Ted Pugh, Fern Sloan, Dale March and Seamus Maynard, directed by Ragnar Freidank.  This production will involve the technology of film. We will be working with the interaction between the live actor, the audience, and the eye of the camera. To see a trailer, go to www.actorsensemble.org/productions.htm.

In August, The Actors’ Ensemble will be the Artists in Residence at Rutgers University for the annual conference of the Michael Chekhov Association.  This is a great honor that recognizes our gifts as teachers, and our mentoring of young people. We will return to Columbia County and perform this work in August, and in New York City in September.             

The Long Day’s Journey Into Night is an ambitious project. We’re bringing one actor from England, another from Australia. Expenses, which are a part of any theatre budget, include living expenses, rehearsal and performing space rental, sets and publicity.

Please join us in this new decade of bringing theatre for the whole human being to our world! We need your support and ask that you contribute just as generously as you are able in these days of great economic change and uncertainty.  Help us not to lose our most precious of human resources, the Arts, which reminds us who we are and what we are here for.  Help us to continue this cultural treasure that we call The Actors’ Ensemble.  All contributions are tax deductible.

With thanks and all good wishes,

Joyce Reilly

For the Board of Directors, The Actors’ Ensemble

The Actors' Ensemble

1548 Harlemville Rd

Chatham, NY 12037