5 May 2004
A CALL FOR HELP FROM MANNY FRIED
Dear Friends in the Arts,
I – at age 91 – will be appearing in what could be my last hurrah as an actor.
In a limited engagement I and Roz Cramer will be presented by MusicalFare Theatre in a recent Arthur Miller play titled I Can’t Remember Anything, directed by Sheila McCarthy and presented in association with Gerald Fried Theatre Company.This two-hander play is one half of a program titled TWO BY TWO. The other half is a two-hander Sondheim musical titled Marry Me A Little.
There will be only 7 performances in this limited engagement at MusicalFare Theatre (on the Daemen College campus) – 7:30 pm on Thursday June 3, Friday June 4, Saturday June 5, and 2 pm on Sunday June 6 — and – 7:30 pm Thursday June 10, Friday June 11 and Saturday June 12.
On June 13 Roz and I travel to Williamstown in the Berkshire Mountains where we will present I Can’t Remember Anything by Arthur Miller as part of an elder hostel program for two weeks, along with performances at Main Stage Theatre in nearby North Adams, totaling 9 performances. (Roz has us booked to do the play later in Sarasota, Florida.)
Here’s the problem for which I ask your help. Since scheduling limits us to only 7 performances at Musicalfare in this area and ordinarily it would take about that much time for word to get around about this production of the Miller play and the Soundheim musical, we need your help to get an early response.
Of course we are asking a great deal. We are asking that you trust that these will be performances worth seeing – without waiting to see what reviews they get in the newspapers, since those reviews usually don’t appear until after there has been at least the first week of performances; at best that would allow only three more performances before we have to leave to meet our commitment to perform in the Berkshires.
MusicalFare Theatre and Gerald Fried Theatre Company are splitting production costs. The limited engagement here requires that we fill seats – at $12-$25 per ticket -- from the very first day of the seven performances to recover costs – to enable our Gerald Fried Theatre Company to finance the future productions.
To put it very simply and directly, I earnestly hope you’ll call MusicalFare Theatre now at 839-8540 and reserve tickets for one of our opening performances.
Thank you!
(716) 873-4131…email: friedej@buffalostate.edu (Feel free to duplicate this letter)
Copyright 2004 by Buffalo Report, Inc.