12...The TIMES, August 10, 1967 August 10, 1987, The TIMES...13

"Candida" Opens AtFoothill Playhouse, Aug. 9

Cieorgo Bernard Hlinsv's "t:an-didii" will open Wednesday, Aug-ust l> at the Foothill Playhouse,MiddloHijx, for an eight nighttwo week run, murrain time 8:40."Candida'' is a repeat play, oneof three, which the Playhouseis duirig In celebration of its'2(lcli anniversary, "Candida" wasfirst gis'en at the Piayjiouse in1447 and Dorothea Difiruis ofI'lUkkornin, will be starred asshe was in 1947, Mrs, Digruiswas the first President of theDonrd of Trustees at the Play-house and appeared earlier thisseason in "Spectacular Rende-vous." In 1949, she appearedin Chekhov's "Marriage Pro-posal", which won the New Jer-sey Theatre League Tournament,has also been seen at the Play-house in "Summer and Smoke"and last season in "Hedda Gab-ler." Mrs. Digruis will be sup-ported by Donald C. Sheasley,Piscataway, who has appearedin "Lady Winder-mere's Fan,""The Devil's Disciple" and"Pleasure of Mis Company" atthe Playhouse; Scott RodmanSmith, Plseatasvay, has appear-ed in "Lady Windermere's Fan"and "Never Too Late" at thePlayhouse and in various reviewsat Emerson College, where he isa student; Geoffrey Hamer, Me-tuehen, directed "Home at Seven"last season at the Playhouseand appeared in "Hedda Gabler",by profession he is a Chemical

liiigineer; Marshall Vitullo, anewcomer tn the Playhouse liasbeen active in the Cranford Dra-matic Club and has done radiowork; Robert Wagner, Homer-villo, appeared earlier in theseason in "Theatre" mul lastseasun in "Hiversvind," previousyears "[Jells are Ringing*' and"Dark of the Muuri."

"Candida" will be directedby Stanley Klein, MiddlUHUx, whodirected "Theatre" and "Spec-tacular Rendevouz" earlier thisseason at the Playhouse, RobertWagner will assist Mr. Kleinwith the directing.

PhilathaiianCasting DatesThe Philathalians of Fanwood

announce the open casting callfor their premier subscriptionproduction, "A Streetcar NamedDesire", by Tennessee Williams,

The open casting dates are,Thursday and Friday August 10-11 at 8 p.m. at "The Barn"33 Elm Avenue, Fanwood, Thenoted and talented award-win-ning director, Estelle Wolinarwill direct.

The playing dates for "Street-car" are the last two week-endsin September, The cast calls forsix women and six men, with afew non-speaking roles.

BOWCRAFTPLAYLAUDCool and

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Genial Bob Carroll, actor, record, radio and television per-sonality, will play Hueklebee in the Paper Mill version of''The Fantasticks," which stars Hollywood's John Gavinduring the four-week run of the off-Broadway hit in Mlllburn,commencing August 15.

A Tall Tale From Texas...But A True OneLJnlike most tall tales of Tex-

ans, this one is true.The Curtain Club of Texas

informally Introduced librettistTom Jones to composer HarveySchmidt - and both to directorWord Baker - all three of whoma few years later, did the book,words, music and staged the off-

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Broadway hit, "The Fantasticks,"in which John Gavin will portrayEl Gallo in the Paper Mill Play-house production which opensTuesday, August 15.

But when Jones, Schmidt andBaker were undergrads at TexasU., Tom Jones had a preferencefor music and a yen to direct;Harvey Schmidt could play pianoby ear and had ambitions fortheatrics. Their first campuscollaboration was titled "Hipsy-Boo," for which Harvey wrotea song and Tom devised thelibretto, while Word Baker dir-ected the collegiate diversion.

Army Induction after gradua-tion separated the trio but Jonesand Schmidt collaborated via theU.S. postal service.

Re-united in New York in 1959,Jones, Schmidt and Baker pre-sented "Joy Comes To A DeadHorse," a loosely adapted musi-cal variation of Rostand's "LesRomanesques," that ultimatelyblossomed anew when expandedand re-titled "The Fantasticks,"

Film star John Gavin Immed-iately arranged to take a sab-batical from the Hollywood soundstages when offered the key rolein the Paper Mill production,which William Francisco willdirect, and musical director forthe Mlllburn musical will beGlen Clugston.

The Fantastics...From The VillageTo TheAt 181 Sullivan Street In Green-

wich Village there stands a play-house with a seating capacity of151, and on the night of May 3,I960, a two-act musical - titled

The Fantasticks" - had itsoff-Broadway premiere.

Its producer, Loro (Lorenzo)Noto, a former agent, had seen

The Fantasticks" nine monthsearlier when three Texas Uni-versity graduates, librettist TomJones, composer Harvey Schmidtand director Word Baker hadpresented it as a long one-act,mini-musical at Barnard Coll-ege, At Note's suggestion, Jonesand Schmidt expanded their ef-fort to two acts, and after in-numerable backer's auditions toraise the required $16,5-thou«sand capital to produce "TheFantasticks," Noto placed him-self in total hock to make openingnight, off-Broadway a reality.

Since that gala evening, thefollowing has happened to "TheFantasticks."

A backer who invested $1-thousand, has now received US-thousand in return. On May 3,1967 "The Fantasticks" playedits 2924th performance at theSullivan Street Playhouse, TheLP original cast album is theall-time, best-seller of any off-Broadway show. It is now thelongest run musical in New Yorktheatre history and in mid-Jan-uary 1968, will surpass the legi-timate theatre champion, "LifeWith Father," when the curtainrings down on Its performanceNo ."3225.

Other than the original pro-duction, more than 700 othershave been presented in all fourcorners of the universe, includ-ing such unlikely theatrical oasesas Khartoum, Istanbul, Helsinki,and in Tel Aviv, Berlin, SanFrancisco, Johannesburg, Stock-holm, London - and commencingTuesday, August 15, film starJohn .Gavin will star as El Galloin "The Fantasticks," when thePaper Mill Playhouse will pre-sent their production of this all-time champion of the Americanmusical theatre.

Rehearsals BeginFor CirclePlayers' Production

A sparkling season of greattheatre is already in the workswith rehearsals for the CirclePlayers' opening production of"Barefoot in the Park", direct-ed by Lynn Wlnik, and to be pre-sented at the Circle Playhouse,in mid-September.

The entire season planned bythe little theatre group is a greatone, in that such productions as

Continued On Page 16

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Signs Of Progress In New Plains Library

vv

I

After the September groundbreaking, the foundation was dug andthe cement poured.,.

...but the winter's heavy snows slowed construction to a nearhalt, as these scant walls testify.

Inside, the building was also taking shape, with roof and col-umns approaching their final form.

Building Program On ScheduleAs Fall Deadline Looms

The Scotch Plains Public Library building program is now in full swing. August9, 1966 , marked a major step when contracts were signed with the five prime con-tractors. Following the moving of the present building to Front Street, groundbreakingceremonies were held, and General Contractor Melvin P. Windsor of Springfield setright to work preparing the site for construction,

As the concrete footings and walls were poured, ventilators installed by BenmarConditlonnaire of Clifton were seen, complemented by the plumbing of John RuehlCo, of Newark.

In spite of the bitter winter weather, the project stayed close to schedule, and thebuilding took shape; by May the distinctive outline of the library was a new landmarkto Scotch Plains,

As the walls rose, John Schwarz of Clark proceeded with the installation of electricalsystems, the booklift by General Elevator of Newark made its appearance behind theyet-to-be circulation desk,

In the meantime, employees of the library work at top speed to develop a qualitybook collection to be ready for the new library's late fall opening. With the cooperationof Township Commltteeman Albert Theurer and Road Department Chief Alex Milton,adequate space for the storage of scores of cartons of processed books was provided.

Designs and specifications for landscaping the 60,000-plus volume library wereprepared by Paul Prledberg, noted for his development of mini-parks in New YorkCity.

As progress continues on schedule, the opening of the new Scotch Plains Library,designed by McDowell-Goldstein Architects of Morristown and East Orange, Is insight for later this year.

j „.;_- , ,, .- ,,. . . . ,, . .1 ! ' v i g ;

December saw the frame of the flooring put down...

Aprll's good weather meant progress, and soon the walls were holding up massiveroofbeams.

Story By Dennis KltszPhotos By Harold G. Morse

And TheWork

ContinuesProgress continues with theconstruction, and the newScotch Plains Public Lib-rary looks like this afterthree-quarters of a yearof work.