The Producing Club
in association with
The 2014 Midtown International Theater Festival
presents

THE BAUER SISTERS

Written by JOHN DIRRIGL
Directed by TROY DIANA

Featuring
DEBORAH UNGER, JACQUELINE KROSCHELL, COLLEEN SMITH WALLNAU,
SUZANNE H. SMART, CATHERINE COBB RYAN, & MICHAEL GNAT

Assistant Director: INGA MOREN
Set Designer & Prop Master: NATALIE PECORA
Costume Design: KAREN EILBACHER
Lighting Design: SEAN BEACH
Sound Design: JASON DIANA
Dialect Coach: JULIE FOH

Dorothy Strelsin Theatre
At the Abingdon Theater Company
312 West 36th Street
New York, NY 10018
(866) 811-4111 or www.midtownfestival.org
July 14 through August 3, 2014

It’s war! “Florida is for old people” versus “the family homestead”. The Bauer sisters, Ingie and Rosie, energetically argue this issue while preparing for their ladies’ book club. Actually, Rosie is preparing. Ingie is out in space, dreaming of Florida while sitting in the backyard of their Connecticut farm. They are older women, widowed, German-born and proud of it. Ingie stays afloat on her cloud of dreams, as Rosie slices and dices vegetables while simultaneously trying to drag her sister back to planet earth. The farm is good enough for Rosie. It holds a lifetime of memories and keeps her happily busy. But Ingie has dreams, dahling. And they do not include digging in the dirt. Sand, maybe, but not dirt.

The rest of the girls arrive for the luncheon, but somehow the book is never discussed. They carry on about marriage, love, cooking, all the unsuitable old men in the neighborhood, gossip, and other vital concerns of elderly small-town ladies. The conversation never lags, and everyone offers everyone else unsolicited advice on every topic. One can’t find a first husband. The others don’t want a second husband. They all had married the man they loved, but who loved someone else. Such a mess.

Speaking of old men, here comes Louie. He forgot what day it is and dropped by for a beer. He’s sweet on Rosie. Rosie says have one beer, then leave. She is not pleased. She is one of those down-to-earth realists and cannot be sweet-talked. Yet Louie ends up with a second beer. Hmmm.
These ladies are so realistic, so funny, so lovable, it is beyond belief. No scenery-chewing, no over-the-top carrying on. The laughs, the sorrow, the emotion come from inside these actors and they are wonderful. Arguments turn to laughs back to arguments in a flawless stream. Every facial expression is to die for. Only Ingie gets to play it up a bit, since she’s a space-case. They portray with total authenticity the interplay of women who have known each other all their lives and seen each other through joy and sorrow.

While the play is generally upbeat and warmly funny, things get darkly serious toward the end. Sometimes when people talk, they say too much. Surprising, hurtful things. This is the moment when the truth shall set one of the ladies free to live a new life, free of guilt and regret and a sense of obligation. We want to shout “hurray”!

-Karen D’Onofrio-