Preview of 'Small World: A Fantasia' by Stray Kats Theatre Company in Newtown

STRAY KATS THEATRE’S FIRST FULLY-STAGED PRODUCTION IS A WORLD PREMIERE

Runs January 11 – 27, 2013 at Edmond Town Hall in Newtown, CT

The Stray Kats Theatre Company, a not-for-profit theatre company located at Edmond Town Hall’s Alexandria Room, 45 Main Street, Newtown CT, will open its 2013 season with the world premiere of Frederick Stroppel’s “SMALL WORLD: A Fantasia” directed by the company’s Artistic Director Kate Katcher and starring Scott Bryce and Robert Resnikoff.

Stroppel’s new play is a two-character comedy about Walt Disney, the undisputed father of animation, and Igor Stravinsky, one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, centered around the making of Disney’s classic musical animated film “Fanatsia”.  “Although the play is extremely funny, there is a deep philosophical discussion at its core,” says Katcher. “What happens when two Titans of the entertainment world clash over the use of art in a commercial medium?” Walt Disney is played by Scott Bryce of Westport and Igor Stravinsky by Robert Resnikoff of Hartford.

Stray Kats is Newtown’s only professional theatre company. Now in its third season, SKTC previously presented staged readings of contemporary classics and new works geared toward an adult audience interested in theatre that challenges the mind. “To me, a play is successful if people walk out arguing about it, or if the wake up the next day thinking about it,” says Katcher. It is with that thought in mind that she selects the material to be presented. Other offerings this season will be a reading of Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” and a profound work by seven award winning female playwrights (Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith and Susan Yankowitz) based on interviews with seven activists for women’s rights throughout the world. The next full production will be Richard Dresser’s “Rounding Third” in March.

“Small World” will play Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. from Jan. 11 to 27.

Scott Bryce  (Walt Disney) is an American film and television actor perhaps best known for his portrayal of Craig Montgomery on As the World Turns. Initially paired as the love interest of budding star Meg Ryan, Scott continued in the role until 1987, departing, returning, and finally leaving the show in 1994. But the two-time Daytime Emmy Award winner has been anything but idle since then, appearing in over 50 films and TV shows.  Just this week, he shot three episodes of the upcoming NBC drama Deception. Last season found him on Not Waving But Drowning, Person of Interest, and Homeland in the continuing role of Major Foster. He has been seen in both recurring and guest starring roles in such shows as Gossip Girl, 30 Rock, Law and Order, Law and Order: SVU, Murphy Brown, ER, Reba, Sex and the City, Judging Amy, Popular, Homicide: Life On the Street, One Life to Live and much, much more. Films include Up Close and Personal and  Lethal Weapon 3. Scott has produced 5 movies, from the dramatic to the documentary, directed 3 and written 1. Bryce was born in New York, son of the late daytime actor Ed Bryce, who for many years played Bill Bauer on Guiding Light and Dorothy Bryce. He grew up in Westport, Connecticut and attended Staples High School where he was an active member of The Staples Players student theater group. He appeared at the Palace Theater on Broadway in Caesar & Cleopatra starring Rex Harrison in February 1977. He currently lives in Westport with his wife, singer/actress Jodi Stevens, and their children.

Robert Resnikoff (Igor Stravinsky), actor, teacher, radio host and writer, was last seen on Connecticut stages as Jack in “Brighton Beach Memoirs” at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford; Adrian in Theatre 4’s production of “Private Eyes,” which played the Long Wharf Theater, Oddfellows Playhouse and the Kate in Old Saybrook; and Claudius in a fund-raising production of “Hamlet” for Oddfellows in Middletown. In New York, he played Dr. Lyman Hall in “1776” at New York’s historic Fraunces’ Tavern, created the role of Hersh in the premiere of Brian C. Petti’s ”Masquerade” at the Cherry Lane Theater and performed a story by the Prime Minister of Iceland at a reception in his honor at Scandinavia House. On screen he has played a psychotic TV network news anchor in “Crumbling Walls,” a frustrated group therapy leader in “Father” and the Master Distiller of Stolichnaya Vodka in a video promotion. His extensive voice-over work includes the CPTV documentary “East of the River” and the audiobook “Emigration.” Robert has presented classical music on WQXR-New York and WSHU-Fairfield, where for years, he wrote, produced and hosted the popular “Saturday Buffet.” He directed the Oddfellows Playhouse Summer Shakespeare Academy and is teaching “Acting Shakespeare” in Wesleyan University’s Graduate Liberal Studies program in the spring semester.

Frederick Stroppel has had many New York and regional productions of his work.  His Off-Broadway comedy FORTUNE’S FOOLS was produced at the Cherry Lane Theater in 1995, and he has had a number of successful evenings of one-acts produced at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.  His play ACTOR! premiered at the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles in 2000, and his musical TALES OF THE MANHATTAN WOODS, a modern adaptation of “Die Fledermaus”, was presented at the Wings Theatre in 2004.   He has written several screenplays, including the short film GLACIER BAY, which has won 10 festival awards including “Best Screenplay.”     In television he has worked for HBO, Disney, PBS and Nickelodeon. 

He is currently the writer-director of the comedy web series SUBURBAN LEGENDS.    He is the co-author of Lucky Me, a memoir by actress Sachi Parker, the daughter of Shirley MacLaine, which will be published in February 2013 by Gotham/Penguin Books. The two have also collaborated on a one-woman stage show based on the same material, also titled Lucky Me.   He’s a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America East.

Kate Katcher: Actor, director, & writer.
Debuted on Broadway opposite Zero Mostel and repeated the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof with Herschel Bernardi, directed by Jerome Robbins; Wonderful Town with Lauren Bacall; Two for the Seesaw directed by Judith Ivey. Film, TV & New Media: Nurse Jackie; Jon Benjamin Has A Van; Guiding Light; Made for Each Other starring the Masterson brothers and George Segal; A Nice Drive & Planning Ahead, part of the “Husband and Wife” series of webisodes with actor/husband Don Striano, available on YouTube; Scared Stiff TV’s Tiny’s Halloween and Mother. Directorial credits include a vast number of musicals and plays with professional and amateur casts. Currently, Kate is Artistic Director of the Stray Kats Theatre Company in residence at Edmond Town Hall’s Alexandria Room, Newtown’s first professional theatre company.

Scott Bryce and Robert Resnikoff appear courtesy of Actors Equity Association.

Tickets are available at www.straykatstheatrecompany.org or by calling 203-514-2221.

            Price:   $30 each when purchased in advance

                        $35 when purchased at the door