The Ithaca College Theatre production of Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo will not only bring a Tony Award–winning play to Ithaca audiences, but it will also mark longtime faculty member Arno Selco’s last directing project at the College.The Ithaca College Theatre production of Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo will not only bring a Tony Award–winning play to Ithaca audiences, but it will also mark longtime faculty member Arno Selco’s last directing project at the College.
Performances of The Last Night of Ballyhoo will take place at 8:00 p.m. on Dec. 4 and 6-8. Matinees will be offered on Dec. 8 and 9 at 2:00 p.m. All performances will take place in the Hoerner Theatre, Dillingham Center.
Ticket prices range from $4.50 to $10 and can be purchased at all Ticket Center outlets, including the Ithaca College Theatre ticket office in Dillingham Center and online at www.ithacaevents.com. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more by calling (315) 868-9174. For more information call (607) 274-3224 or visit www.ithaca.edu/theatre.
The Last Night of Ballyhoo is a delightful holiday comedy that features the Frietags, Southern and Jewish, as they decorate their Christmas tree. It’s 1939 in Atlanta: Boo obsesses about getting her daughter, Lala, a date for Ballyhoo, the social event of the year; Lala anticipates the premiere of Gone with the Wind; Cousin Sunny returns home for the holiday from Wellesley; Aunt Reba knits; and Uncle Adolph brings handsome, observantly Jewish Joe from Brooklyn home for dinner. Playwright Alfred Uhry’s sparkling banter, comedic non sequiturs and hilarious characters make us laugh while awakening us to such themes as intolerance, social identity, and familial unity as well as anti-Semitism.
The author of Driving Miss Daisy, Uhry is the only American author to win the Academy Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the Tony Award. The Last Night of Ballyhoo was first produced for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and went to Broadway the following year. Uhry based the play on stories he heard growing up in a southern Jewish family as well as on his own experiences.
This play also serves as the "last night" of director and professor Arno Selco, who will retire from the Department of Theatre Arts at the end of this academic year. As a 50-year practitioner of theater and a prominent member of the Ithaca community, Selco had a reason for making The Last Night of Ballyhoo his final directing project as a full-time faculty member.
“I wanted to direct The Last Night of Ballyhoo because the prejudice practiced by the Freitags toward other Jews is rife among members of many other groups toward their own kind,” Selco said. “We would all do well to make peace with those who are more like than different from us.”
Meredith Schwieger ’08 is the assistant director and Amanda Mahr ’08 is the dramaturge. The design team includes scenic designer Samantha Yaeger ’08, costume designer Katie Delaney ’08, lighting designer Teresa Sears ’08, and sound designer Jeff Strange ’08. The technical director is Andrea Stewart ’08. Molly Hennighausen ’08 is the stage manager.
The cast includes Lauren Wightman ’08 as Lala, Dani Stoller ’10 as Reba, Meredith Beck ’09 as Boo, Dan Greenwood ’08 as Adolph, Michael Haller ’10 as Joe, Abbe Tanenbaum ’10 as Sunny, and Ace Heckathorn ’10 as Peachy.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20071120132830719