Michelle
11-25-2006, 11:45 AM
Gaffney, Fontana make a 'Wise' team
By TOM BUCKHAM
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
11/23/2006
Tom Fontana and Kathleen A. Gaffney hope to make their Studio Arena production a holiday tradition.
"The Fourth Wise Man"
Runs in previews Friday through next Thursday and then opens Dec. 1 in Studio Arena Theatre, 710 Main St.
Tickets are $25 to $54.
For more information, call 856-5650 or (800) 77-STAGE, or visit www.studioarena.org.
Their show business careers diverged after graduation from the Buffalo State College theater program, but Kathleen A. Gaffney and Tom Fontana never lost touch.
Quite the contrary. As Gaffney progressed over three decades from acting, producing and writing in New York City theater to becoming the mother of a disabled child - and then founding a much-praised art education program for such children - it seemed that her influential classmate was always there to help.
So when Studio Arena Theatre set out to find a new artistic director, Fontana naturally championed her candidacy.
"The theater needed fire," he said.
It is hardly surprising, then, that after Gaffney asked the Emmy Award-winning television writer to help plan her first season at the Main Street theater, they cooked up a show together. They have adapted a stage version of "The Fourth Wise Man," which Fontana wrote for ABC in the 1980s.
Previews begin Friday for the Christmas play that Gaffney hopes will become a holiday tradition not only at Studio Arena but at regional theaters everywhere.
"I'd like it to become part of the canon, with "A Christmas Story' and "A Christmas Carol,'" she said as she and Fontana took time out from rehearsals this week.
Fontana wrote "The Fourth Wise Man" - reluctantly - in 1985, for the Rev. Ellwood "Bud" Kieser, a Los Angeles priest who founded Paulist Productions and the Humanitas Prize. Fontana, who was busy with his celebrated TV series, "St. Elsewhere," begged off at first. But he gave in after the good father threatened to pray for divine intervention.
The 72-minute teleplay based on "The Other Wise Man," a short story written by Henry Van Dyke in 1896, was seen by 40 million viewers. The video is still popular among school and religious groups.
"Wise Man" tells the story of Artaban, a magi who sells his fortune and wanders the Holy Land for 33 years in a vain attempt to find the Messiah. Kieser not only drafted Fontana for the production, but cast members Martin Sheen, Eileen Brennan, Alan Arkin, Ralph Bellamy and Emilio Estevez.
Fontana never envisioned the story as a play. In TV form it featured 29 characters and dozens of locations. But then Gaffney, after accepting the Studio Arena job, visited his New York City office. "He said, "I'd like to help you any way I can during your first year, including usher,'" she recalled. "I said I wanted a play from him, and asked if he had any ideas. Of course, I really want a play a year."
Fontana was Studio Arena's house manager during his senior year at Buff State but had not written for live theater in years.
Then Gaffney remembered an idea popping into Fontana's head.
"He turned around and said, "I have this script from 1985.' He put his hand right on it."
"She's a little like Father Kieser," Fontana said. "I thought, I'll give her this and it'll shut her up."
Fat chance.
"The minute I read it, the images began to occur," Gaffney said.
An admirer of Broadway's Julie Taymore, who choreographed "The Lion King," Gaffney hit on the idea of using Bunraku puppets and other novel devices to present the story in Studio Arena's intimate setting, on a limited budget. Fontana predicted audiences will find the experience "magical."
The stage version "deals strongly with the original story, in which Artaban's faith is tested over - but in a different way," Gaffney said.
"It's a basic story about how people should deal with each other - with humility, generosity, love," Fontana said. "But it's also a funny story. In the teleplay, Artaban makes the journey alone. One of the things I came up with for this production was to add a servant, Orontes, who accompanies him for all those years and provides a lot of humor."
Directed by Christopher Eaves, the show will feature Paolo Andino as Artaban, Darin De Paul as Orontes, Miriam Silverman as Judith and Dan Walker as the Praetorioan Guard. Local actors Joseph Westphal and Henry Wojtasik will alternative as a child character. Michele Costa created the puppets.
The world stage premiere of "The Fourth Wise Man" will be at 8 p.m. Dec. 1. Performances will continue through Dec. 23.
Gaffney, who recently was given the added title of Studio Arena chief executive officer, wishes she could return the many kindnesses of the former college classmate she calls "the godfather." After Gaffney's infant daughter, Kerrianne, developed eye cancer and autism - a cataclysm that threatened to bankrupt her and her husband, Roger Shea, Fontana got her a TV writing job.
"At the kind of salary that solves all your problems," she added.
When Artsgenesis (http://www.disablednyc.com/resources/links/Arts_Genesis-689.html), her award-winning New York City-based learning program for disabled kids, staged its first fundraiser, Fontana persuaded his friend, actor Richard Belzer, to emcee. Fontana hosted every subsequent benefit until this year's.
And now this: a former teleplay taken down from the shelf and gift-wrapped for Gaffney's first holiday season Studio Arena.
No thanks is necessary, Fontana said.
"Artsgenesis is extraordinary," he told Gaffney. "The work you do is what is at the heart of this play."
By TOM BUCKHAM
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
11/23/2006
Tom Fontana and Kathleen A. Gaffney hope to make their Studio Arena production a holiday tradition.
"The Fourth Wise Man"
Runs in previews Friday through next Thursday and then opens Dec. 1 in Studio Arena Theatre, 710 Main St.
Tickets are $25 to $54.
For more information, call 856-5650 or (800) 77-STAGE, or visit www.studioarena.org.
Their show business careers diverged after graduation from the Buffalo State College theater program, but Kathleen A. Gaffney and Tom Fontana never lost touch.
Quite the contrary. As Gaffney progressed over three decades from acting, producing and writing in New York City theater to becoming the mother of a disabled child - and then founding a much-praised art education program for such children - it seemed that her influential classmate was always there to help.
So when Studio Arena Theatre set out to find a new artistic director, Fontana naturally championed her candidacy.
"The theater needed fire," he said.
It is hardly surprising, then, that after Gaffney asked the Emmy Award-winning television writer to help plan her first season at the Main Street theater, they cooked up a show together. They have adapted a stage version of "The Fourth Wise Man," which Fontana wrote for ABC in the 1980s.
Previews begin Friday for the Christmas play that Gaffney hopes will become a holiday tradition not only at Studio Arena but at regional theaters everywhere.
"I'd like it to become part of the canon, with "A Christmas Story' and "A Christmas Carol,'" she said as she and Fontana took time out from rehearsals this week.
Fontana wrote "The Fourth Wise Man" - reluctantly - in 1985, for the Rev. Ellwood "Bud" Kieser, a Los Angeles priest who founded Paulist Productions and the Humanitas Prize. Fontana, who was busy with his celebrated TV series, "St. Elsewhere," begged off at first. But he gave in after the good father threatened to pray for divine intervention.
The 72-minute teleplay based on "The Other Wise Man," a short story written by Henry Van Dyke in 1896, was seen by 40 million viewers. The video is still popular among school and religious groups.
"Wise Man" tells the story of Artaban, a magi who sells his fortune and wanders the Holy Land for 33 years in a vain attempt to find the Messiah. Kieser not only drafted Fontana for the production, but cast members Martin Sheen, Eileen Brennan, Alan Arkin, Ralph Bellamy and Emilio Estevez.
Fontana never envisioned the story as a play. In TV form it featured 29 characters and dozens of locations. But then Gaffney, after accepting the Studio Arena job, visited his New York City office. "He said, "I'd like to help you any way I can during your first year, including usher,'" she recalled. "I said I wanted a play from him, and asked if he had any ideas. Of course, I really want a play a year."
Fontana was Studio Arena's house manager during his senior year at Buff State but had not written for live theater in years.
Then Gaffney remembered an idea popping into Fontana's head.
"He turned around and said, "I have this script from 1985.' He put his hand right on it."
"She's a little like Father Kieser," Fontana said. "I thought, I'll give her this and it'll shut her up."
Fat chance.
"The minute I read it, the images began to occur," Gaffney said.
An admirer of Broadway's Julie Taymore, who choreographed "The Lion King," Gaffney hit on the idea of using Bunraku puppets and other novel devices to present the story in Studio Arena's intimate setting, on a limited budget. Fontana predicted audiences will find the experience "magical."
The stage version "deals strongly with the original story, in which Artaban's faith is tested over - but in a different way," Gaffney said.
"It's a basic story about how people should deal with each other - with humility, generosity, love," Fontana said. "But it's also a funny story. In the teleplay, Artaban makes the journey alone. One of the things I came up with for this production was to add a servant, Orontes, who accompanies him for all those years and provides a lot of humor."
Directed by Christopher Eaves, the show will feature Paolo Andino as Artaban, Darin De Paul as Orontes, Miriam Silverman as Judith and Dan Walker as the Praetorioan Guard. Local actors Joseph Westphal and Henry Wojtasik will alternative as a child character. Michele Costa created the puppets.
The world stage premiere of "The Fourth Wise Man" will be at 8 p.m. Dec. 1. Performances will continue through Dec. 23.
Gaffney, who recently was given the added title of Studio Arena chief executive officer, wishes she could return the many kindnesses of the former college classmate she calls "the godfather." After Gaffney's infant daughter, Kerrianne, developed eye cancer and autism - a cataclysm that threatened to bankrupt her and her husband, Roger Shea, Fontana got her a TV writing job.
"At the kind of salary that solves all your problems," she added.
When Artsgenesis (http://www.disablednyc.com/resources/links/Arts_Genesis-689.html), her award-winning New York City-based learning program for disabled kids, staged its first fundraiser, Fontana persuaded his friend, actor Richard Belzer, to emcee. Fontana hosted every subsequent benefit until this year's.
And now this: a former teleplay taken down from the shelf and gift-wrapped for Gaffney's first holiday season Studio Arena.
No thanks is necessary, Fontana said.
"Artsgenesis is extraordinary," he told Gaffney. "The work you do is what is at the heart of this play."