SYNAPTIC PRODUCTIONS
4 Valley View Road, Elmsford, New York 10523
Tickets to A Perfect Ganesh can be ordered by calling 914-831-4735, by contacting
one of the ten participating not-for-profit organizations (see below), or via ganesh@thatssocool.net.
SYNAPTIC PRODUCTIONS presents A PERFECT GANESH
by Terrence McNally
"Transforming!" "Magical!"
Dr Ezriel Kornel, respected neuro-surgeon, is bringing his favorite play A PERFECT GANESH
– a stunning drama by the great American playwright Terrence McNally – to Westchester this fall. It's a fascinating story about two Greenwich women who make a life-changing journey to India.
"I've been interested in producing the play for a long while," says Kornel. “First of all, the play was written by one of America’s most gifted playwrights. Funny, heartbreaking, compassionate and life-affirming – it is a tribute to Terrence McNally's considerable storytelling skills. But it is a fascinating psychological drama as well, almost Shakespearean in its depth and breadth.” Writing for the New York Times in 1995, theater critic Alvin Klein commented: “It is hard to find a contemporary play suffused with such generosity of spirit.”
...Starring
Ten spell-binding performances of the play will star veteran actors Susan Keith, Sarah-Ann Rodgers, David Arkema and Ezriel Kornel directed by award-winning actor, artist, and humanitarian James Kiberd. The performances will benefit twelve Westchester charities, and will take place at the Chappaqua Crossing Auditorium at Chappaqua Crossing, the former Reader's Digest property (just off Route 117) as follows:
Benefitting...
Thursdays through Saturdays, October 30-November 2; and November 6-8, and 13-15. Thursday shows begin at 7:30 pm; Friday and Saturdays are at 8. General admission tickets are: $25. However, theatergoers may elect to support one of 12 not-for-profit organizations by purchasing Premium or Priority Seating at $100 and $75 (and indicating which charity they wish their dollars to benefit). The organizations are: A-HOME, Boys & Girls Clubs of Northern Westchester, Copland House, Family Services of Westchester, Gilda’s Club Westchester, Green Chimneys, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Lawrence Hospital, Northern Westchester Hospital, Phelps Memorial Hospital, Westchester Children’s Museum, and White Plains Hospital Center.
In 1993...
A Perfect Ganesh opened on Broadway in 1993 to critical acclaim and starred Zoe Caldwell and Frances Sternhagen in the original production. The story is about two intrepid women from Greenwich, Connecticut who embark on a fateful journey to India. Dr. Kornel says he’s been interested in producing the play for a long while.
Directing A Perfect Ganesh is James Kiberd, an award-winning TV, stage and film actor, who most recently was the lead in Brian Delate’s feature film ”Soldier’s Heart,” which won "Best Film" at the GI film Festival in May, 2008.
Says Kiberd: “The first time I heard the play at a reading, I was stunned; astounded. I found it to be an absolutely transformational, tightly woven, magical piece.” Kiberd explains that the two lead characters travel to India ostensibly seeking adventure. One of them, a collector, hunts for a perfect Ganesh – a statuette in the likeness of the Hindu god Ganesha, which, according to tradition, is a benevolent deity and a queller of obstacles. “But they are really seeking solace from the tragedies in their lives,” he says. “It is through their adventures and revelations that the play instructs us that who we become as people depends on how we handle our obstacles.”
...and now
The two women – Margaret and Katharine, who have repressed the tragedies in their lives, are portrayed by actress Susan Keith, best known for her starring roles in ABC’s "Loving", “One Life to Live” and NBC’s “Another World,” and Sarah-Ann Rodgers, who appeared in Harold Pinter’s “Birthday Party,” Off Broadway in 2005, and is seen sporadically on Saturday Night Live.
The “Obstacles” the women encounter, revealed by seventeen characters (“The Man”) are played by David Arkema, an acclaimed actor, writer, musician, improviser, puppeteer, who was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his theatrical work Fabrik, featuring hand-and-rod puppets created by Wakka Wakka, Arkema’s production company. The role of Ganesha is played by Ezriel Kornel, who has performed in various off off Broadway productions for the past twelve years.
A special thank you...
“A Perfect Ganesh has all the elements of a major Broadway production,” Dr. Kornel says. The set, lighting and costume design are by Kerrie Lovercheck, who recently won the New York Innovative Theater Award for Best Lighting. The acclaimed Jennifer Paulson Lee is choreographer. Special thanks go to Summit/Greenfield, developers of Chappaqua Crossings, the former Reader’s Digest property, for donating the use of the Lila Acheson and DeWitt Wallace Theater; Hudson Scenic, a full-service production company in Yonkers, serving the entertainment industry since 1980 (They provide the precision automation systems that lower the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, and electronics for Broadway shows such as “The 39 Steps” and “A Chorus Line”, for donating the lighting technology; Amy Altadonna, sound designer, nominated for Best Sound for NYIT awards, and Sound Associates of Yonkers for donating their sound technology services. Sound Design won Best Sound Design for the current smash musical South Pacific, and the first-ever Tony Award for sound design. Besides the big Broadway shows,
Tickets to A Perfect Ganesh can be ordered by calling 914-831-4735, by contacting one of the ten participating not-for-profit organizations, or via ganesh@thatssocool.net.
