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Date Posted: 13:37:08 06/24/10 Thu
Author: Ridge Sitter
Subject: More Theater Stuff!

Three new comedies are coming to the Lycian Centre’s Wharf Theatre this summer, but that isn’t all that’s changed at Sugar Loaf’s newest performance venue. An enlarged theater design and screened walls are just some of the upgrades audiences can expect this year.

The Wharf Theatre debuted last summer as a tent-covered theater-in-the-round located by the edge of Creamery Pond on the grounds of the Lycian Centre for the Performing Arts. The outdoor theater was well received by audiences, and the two shows—“Owl and the Pussycat” and “Dracula: The Musical”—packed the house for most performances. Riser seating for 95 people surrounded the stage, ensuring an unobstructed view for the audience, and the close proximity to the actors brought an informal coziness to the experience.

As successful as last year’s venture was, however, its intent from the start was to lay the ground-work for this year’s revamped theater. “Last year was an experiment,” said Richard Logothetis, owner and executive producer of the Lycian Centre. During intermission and at the end of each performance, staff talked to the audience asking for comments and suggestions for improvements.

From those suggestions, and in keeping with Logothetis’ vision for a theater by the water, grew a 140-seat structure reminiscent of a New England wharf. The tent-covered theater no longer will be round, but rather will take on a more traditional-styled stage and seating arrangement. In other changes, which have been underway since fall, 6,000 square feet of pavers will create the foundation of the theater and a new walkway from the parking lot, and peers, pilings and a retaining wall will add to the wharf-like setting.

One theme that kept coming up from audience comments was a need to mitigate the mosquitoes and other bugs that intruded on the show and nipped at the audience. “In order to try to maintain a bug-free space, the tent will be screened in,” he said.

But these aren’t any ordinary order-from-a-catalogue screens. Logothetis designed the metal frames for the screens, and the screens themselves, and manufactured them at Lycian Stage Lighting, a stage lighting design and production company in Sugar Loaf that he also owns. He even designed and manufactured the brackets that fasten the frames together. The specially designed screens minimize outside light intrusion and can be locked for security, he said.

Logothetis explained the process: “In compliance with federal, state and local codes and standards for public assembly, the doors will be fabricated with Lexon panels. In order to be able to erect the theatre in four, eight-hour days with a five-man crew, it became evident that standard screen framing would not work. So I designed a custom extrusion die, with 3,000 pounds of aluminum extruded. We then cut, machined and anodized the extrusions. These parts, along with connectors produced at my shop, were assembled into twenty 10-foot by 10-foot panels. About 70 percent of the panels are screened, and the remaining area is solid.”

“Nothing we are doing here is standard; all of it comes from my head,” he added.

As the tent theater is far removed from existing buildings, he worked with the utility company to bring in a 15,000 volt line and transformer to accommodate the expanded theater. “We’re bringing in capacity far beyond what we need,” Logothetis said. “We’re looking at this as a long-term investment.” New landscape lighting and wooden light poles for existing lights near the theater will complete the renovations.

Strictly a summer theater, the tent and stage will be up only for the performances, which run July and August. Logothetis said he may add more shows and other events in the future, but for now the lineup will consist of three shows.

The first show at the outdoor theater will be “The Miss Firecracker Contest,” a Southern tale in which the heroine enters a beauty contest in the hopes of restoring her tainted reputation and leaving her small Mississippi hometown in a blaze of glory, despite interference from her dysfunctional family. “The Miss Firecracker Contest” will run July 16-18 and 23-25.

The second will be “Cooking with the Calamari Sisters: Mangia Italiano,” a culinary comedy about two Italian sisters in Brooklyn who are broadcasting “live” the final episode of their cable cooking show, complete with hilarious family anecdotes, hearty songs and comic interaction with the audience. The Calamari Sisters will be appearing at the Wharf Theatre Aug. 4 and Aug 6 - 8.

The final show will be “Clue: The Musical,” a who-done-it comedy based on the classic Parker Brothers board game. This show will give the audience a chance to help uncover who did it, with what weapon and in what room – and no two shows are ever alike! Clue will run Aug. 13-15 and 20-22.

For more information about the shows or about tickets, please call the Lycian Centre Box Office at 845-469-2287 or visit the Lycian website at www.LycianCentre.com .

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