Escanaba in Da Moonlight

 

Naked Stage Play Reading of Escanaba in Da Moonlight by Jeff Daniels, featuring an ensemble cast.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 7:30pm

Boots Lamb Education Center

FREE

On Tuesday, May 20th at 7:30pm, Guild Hall presents the FREE Naked Stage Play Reading of Jeff Daniels’ comedy, Escanaba in Da Moonlight, presented by Spindletop Productions, featuring Jonathan Peters, John De Sane, Joe De Sane, Josh Perl, Josh Gladstone and an ensemble cast TBA.

When the Soady clan reunites for the opening day of deer season at the family's Upper Peninsula camp, thirty-five-year-old Reuben Soady brings with him the infamous reputation of being the oldest Soady in the history of the Soadys never to bag a buck. In a hunting story to beat all hunting stories, Escanaba in Da Moonlight spins a hilarious tale of humor—a la Fargo—horror and heart as Reuben goes to any and all lengths to remove himself from the wrong end of the family record book. Jonathan Peters and John De Sane, the actors who delivered the successful farce Don’t Dress For Dinner by Marc Camoletti for Spindletop Productions at the John Drew Theater in 2002, reunite to explore the possibility of another zany production for East End audiences.

“Challenging what anyone might consider 'legitimate' theater, Daniels breaks new theatrical ground…” — Detroit News.

“Escanaba in Da Moonlight is a tall tale inspired by a larger than life corner of America…Daniels gives his audience plenty to laugh at plus a little something to think about.”—Oakland Press.

 

Jeff Daniels is an actor, musician and playwright. He is best known for his roles in The Purple Rose of Cairo, Terms of Endearment, Gettysburg, Arachnophobia, Because of Winn-Dixie, and The Squid and the Whale. Although primarily a dramatic actor, some of Daniels' most well-known scenes are from the comedy Dumb & Dumber, with Jim Carrey. Daniels wrote, directed, and starred in Escanaba in da Moonlight with Purple Rose Films. The movie is the film adaptation of the play, which premiered at Jeff Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, Michigan.

Jonathan Peters is pleased to return to the Hamptons to take part in the Naked Stage. Last summer he portrayed the wacky Schmendiman in Guild Hall's critically acclaimed production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Other GH credits include Polonius in Hamlet and Pischick in The Cherry Orchard. With his company Spindletop Productions he produced, directed and acted in a string of popular hits including, The Nerd, Don't Dress for Dinner, Dracula and Hijinks on the High Seas which he also wrote. He is the founder of the Just Say Yes Improv Company which performed throughout the Hamptons last summer.

Joseph De Sane has been acting for over fifteen years in numerous theatrical productions, films, commercials, and television spots throughout New York City. With a variety of credits to his name, the noteworthy roles were taking place on the East End and in 1997 Mr. De Sane relocated back out to the East End to have his play “Excuses” produced and performed that same year at The John Drew Theater.  Mr. De Sane went on to perform in many shows on the East End, including Glengarry Glenn Ross, Of Mice and Men, Julius Caesar, and The Cherry Orchard. He was most recently seen at the Bay Street Theater in Suzan Lori Parks’, 365 Plays/365 Days.  Mr. De Sane is also the writer/director/producer/actor of the award winning film, Mulligan Farm (2001), and founder of Once Around Productions. He starred as Picasso in Guild Hall’s 2007 production of Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile.

 

Josh Gladstone is the Artistic Director of the John Drew Theater where he produces Guild Hall events throughout the year, including most recently Robert Wilson’s Persephone and the staged readings of Beside Herself by Joe Pintauro; Time Will Tell by Kristen Lowman, directed by Harris Yulin and starring Cynthia Nixon and Judith Ivey; and The Price with Harris Yulin, Eli Wallach and Alec Baldwin.  He co-produced (with Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton) concert stagings of Murray Schisgal’s The Pushcart Peddlers and Regret starring Judd Hirsch, Lewis Stadlen and Estelle Parsons; Shaw’s Don Juan In Hell directed by Harris Yulin, starring Yulin, Paul Hecht, Edward Asner and Dianne Wiest; co-produced and appeared in a staged reading of Carter Lewis’ Golf With Alan Shepard directed by Dan Lauria and starring Jack Klugman, Charles Durning, Peter Boyle and Len Cariou; and directed Mercedes Ruehl in Murphy Guyer’s Russian Romance.  Other co-producing credits include Yasmina Reza’s ‘ART’ directed by Stephen Hamilton and Leftover Stories To Tell: A Spalding Gray Tribute starring Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, Hazelle Goodman and Richard Gere.  Additional John Drew producing credits include the Long Island premiere of The Exonerated starring Mia Farrow and Billy Dee Williams; Moby Dick Rehearsed by Orson Welles, directed by Tony Walton and starring Peter Boyle; a concert staging of Only A Kingdom starring Dina Merrill and Jo Anne Worley; and a staged reading of Diane Shaffer’s Viva La Vida starring Mercedes Ruehl and Jeffrey Tambor.  At Guild Hall, Josh has directed and/or appeared in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Hamlet, The Cherry Orchard, Julius Caesar, Channeling Angela Everybody, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Don’t Dress For Dinner and Dracula (for Spindletop Productions), Ghouled Hall and The Naked Stage Marathon.  He served as Executive Producer for Joe Pintauro's What I Did For Love starring Larry Pine and Jenny Lyn Bader's Manhattan Casanova starring Mercedes Ruehl.  Regional credits include Brilliant Traces for Skymaker Productions in Sag Harbor; The Children’s Theatre Company, Minneapolis; The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC; Theater at Monmouth, ME; Classic Theater International, Germany and four seasons as Artistic Director of the Hamptons Shakespeare Festival, which he co-founded in 1996.  For Hamptons Shakespeare Festival, Josh directed, produced and appeared in Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It and The Tempest.  Josh studied at Colgate University and Broadway’s Circle in the Square, where he met the talented actress Kate Mueth. They live in Springs with their son August, who appeared earlier this season in Tom Stoppard’s Coast of Utopia at Lincoln Center Theatre. 

 

Josh Perl has acted, directed, danced and written all over the place.  He spent six exhilarating and exhausting years touring the world with The Pilobolus Dance Theatre.  He also spent a summer doing Titus Andronicus at the Delacorte for the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theatre. Two plays that Josh directed were nominated for Los Angeles Press theatre awards.  As a writer Josh won two Steinbeck awards, one for his novel Irregular Joe, and one for his play Six Walls. Currently he teaches English, but hopes to get optioned one day soon.  He adores working with Josh Gladstone at Guild Hall.  Together they have run the group Josh founded while getting his MFA, The Naked Stage.  TNS has entertained and enlightened thousands over the past four years while helping to foster a more engaged theatre community.  Many of the readings have gone on to other lives, including Picasso at the Lapin Agile.  He was first cast by Gladstone in the Scottish play, as Banquo, and has appeared in many productions and readings since, notably as The Ghost in Hamlet.  If you’re lucky you may catch Josh making you laugh as one of the stalwarts of Just Say Yes, the funniest comedy improv troupe east of Montauk.  But out of all these endeavors Josh most highly treasures his lovely and patient wife Jen, their long running co-production Josie, and he is the proud father of their twins.