Out of the Box Theatre Company, Inc

Marriage & Money is no laughing matter… Unless it’s Moliere, Mozart & OOtB’s hilarious production of…

THE MISER at the Bank Street Theatre — 155 Bank Street, Greenwich Village, NYC, NYAdaptation by Miles Malleson.An Equity Showcase Production  August 15 through 26, 2007

• Wed 8/15 and Wed 8/22 @ 8pm
• Thurs 8/16 and Thurs 8/23 @ 8pm
• Fri 8/17 and Fri 8/24 @ 8pm
• Sat Eves 8/18 and Sat 25 @ 8pm
• Sat Mat 8/18 @ 3pm (No performance on Sun 8/19)
• Sat Mat 8/25 and Sun Mat 8/26 @ 3pm

Out of the Box Theatre Company’s first production, an adaptation of Moliere’s The Miser by Miles Malleson, was staged at the Bank Street Theatre in August and featured Lorraine Serabian and Lawrence Merritt in the lead roles. The Miser was directed by Scott Robinson, artistic director of Out of the Box, and accompanied by the music of Mozart.

The lead role of Harpagon, the repulsive character whose sordid passion takes over his mind, was played by Mr. Merritt, a graduate of the British-American Drama Academy at Oxford. He has appeared on Broadway in Applause, Evita, Pippin and On the Town and has acted in film, tv and cabaret with Ann-Margaret, Raquel Welch, Liza Minnelli, Lucille Ball and Anne Bancroft.

Ms. Serabian played the part of Frosine, a scheming woman. She has studied with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof and recently received the George M. Estabrooke Award for Distinguished Service in the Arts from Hofstra University with a citation from the United States Congress. She created the role of The Leader in Hal Prince’s Zorba for which she received a Tony Award nomination and the Outer Critics Circle Award. She starred as Maria Callas in the 2003 production of Master Class and won a Helen Hayes Award for her work in Show Me Where the Good Times Are. Ms. Serabian has also appeared in Gypsy, Into the Woods, On the Town and 42nd Street.

Out of the Box Theatre Company was formed to provide an opportunity for artists to work outside the confines of age and bring their passion, talent and, especially, experience to roles they’ve maybe not had a chance to play earlier, according to Robinson.  ”And many of the plays we plan to do are either forgotten or so stereotyped in presentation that they lose much of their character.  We want to bring them new life,” he says.

Others in the cast included Craig Dudley as Valere, a servant; Valerie Stack Dodge as Elise; Larry Gutman as Cleante, Harpagon’s son; Nona Pipes as Mariane, a woman in love with Cleante; Peter Coriaty as La Fleche, Cleante’s servant; Arthur Pellman as Jacques, Harpagon’s servant; Daryl Brown as Seigneur Anselm; Dudley Stone as a Justice of the Peace; and Paul De Luca as both Master Simon the Moneylender and Clerk to the Justice; Lin Snider, Susan Case and Gregg Lauterbach as the French (Greek) Chorus; and Oscar Salazar and Robert Oliver as Harpagon’s two servants.

Production staff for The Miser: Director, Scott Robinson; Assistant Director, Marge Linney; Set Designer, John Scheffler; Lighting Designer, Karen Sweeney; Technical Director, Tony Zimbardi; Properties, Marquis and graphic designs, Shalom-Israel Diggs.

The Equity showcase production took place at the Bank Street Theatre and ran from August 15 through 26. Robinson described it as a “musical approach to a straight play without it becoming a musical comedy.” It included a Greek (French) chorus and olio acts between scenes in the old showboat melodrama format.