Yours, Truly: Official Performance Guide

OFFICI A L

P

UIDE G E C N A ERFORM Sponsored by

YOURS, TRULY A Family Cabaret

by Gary Kelson & D.W. Jacobs Lyrics & Music by

Lee Kelson

Additional Music by

Arrangements by

Steve Gunderson, Ulpio Minucci & Hal Dickinson Director

Steve Gunderson

Music Director

Kent Nicholson*

Dave Gipson

Mike Santos

Mollie LaTorre

Costume Design

Lighting Design

Sound Design

Stage Manager

Executive Artistic DIrector

Scenic Design

Bradley Van Houten

Cole Butcher

Craig Walck

Bryce Alexander

Cambier Park • October 9 – 17, 2020 Sponsored by Lake Michigan Credit Union * Kent Nicholson is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).

The videotaping or other video or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

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Cast

(in alphabetical order) Lee Kelson….............................................................................DAVID GIPSON Gary Kelson…..................................................G ARY K ELSON (AS HIMSELF ) Annette Kelson….................................................................SUZ ANNE SOLE

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Crew Assistant Stage Managers..............................NANCY HAYER, HUNTER REUM A2........................................................................R ACHEL LINGSCH, BILL SHADE Spotlight Operator...................................................................HUNTER REUM Sound Crew.........................................................JUDE CARUSO, CALLIE LAWFER, W ILLI A M MENTILLO, LOG A N WA LDEN, DEBBIE W ESOLOWSK I, OLI V I A ZIZ ZI Wardrobe Supervisor............................................................R ACHEL CROWL Costume Construction..........................................R ACHEL CROWL, JUDY SMITH Set Construction & Scenic Painting.........................KEVIN BUJA, ROGER CLARK, ED E ZRINE, STEPHEN LEE, R AY M A R A SCO, SCOT T SIMMEN, JEFF SMITH Choreography..........................................................................TINA MORONI Additional Photography and Videography.............................................D. W. JACOBS Properties..................................................................................GABRIELLE L ANSDEN

Financed in part by U.S. Department of Treasury, Florida Division of Emergency Management and Collier County Community and Human Services Division

SPECIAL THANKS Photographers: Neubek Photographers • Karen & Drew Attanasio All Event Party Rental Naples, Patty Baker, Amy Biedel, Seth Christenfeld (The York Theatre) Mark Danisovsky, Karole Foreman, John Glore (South Coast Repertory), Tom Mann (City of Naples - Community Services Department), Craig Milborn (Celebration Beach Church), Jim Morgan, Playwrights Horizons, Scott Schwartz (Bay Street Theatre), Dan Shor, Peter Van Norden & Amber Wallace

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K O O L G N I M R A CHA

Z A J R E T F A E F I L Gary Kelson’s dad was a furniture salesman, but he’s honoring him as a singer and composer. Gary, a Naples resident, has put his father – who died in 2000 – back in show business.

left show business! ly al re er ev n lso Ke e Not that Le

“He used to stand on the mattresses in his store and sing ‘I Shoulda Stood in Bed,’ - one of his own songs,” his son said. “People called him the singing salesman. He told me, ‘I never left show business. I just don’t get paid for it any more!”

Lee Kelson — née Leo Youkelson — crooned with the big names of the day: the Jackie Gleason Orchestra, Clooney sisters, Glen Miller, the Modernaires. He was a regular on WLW in Cincinnati, a powerhouse radio station heard nearly everywhere east of the Mississippi during World War II. Occasionally, in Kelson’s audience, a young singer would drop by to sit silently in a corner taking mental notes; that guy was Frank Sinatra!

But shortly after his wife became pregnant, Lee walked away from show business altogether. Annette Kelson had issued an ultimatum. He could choose a stable job in one location with home and family, or he could go on the road alone. What a choice: the offer he’d been handed was a three-month USO tour abroad with the glamorous Marlene Dietrich. “That brought out the green-eyed monster in my mom,” Gary Kelson explained.

Years later, when Gary came home for Lee’s funeral, he and his mom were reminiscing, and the young Kelson pulled some old photos off the shelves. A sheaf of papers came tumbling down that turned out to be lyrics and melodies, all written by Lee. Gary came up with the idea to bring his father’s music and story to the public, but he began writing it as a screenplay.

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K AT

ZZ According to D.W. Jacobs who wrote the book for the stage version, “I thought we should rethink this as a dinner with the Kelson family, just as it was — interrupting each other.

Each character has his own story.”

“Jacobs gave me homework assignments,” Gary Kelson said with chuckle. He would have Gary recreate his parents’ reactions to situations and recall some of their favored vocabulary.

“

But it wasn’t always a fun family. Annette Kelson, a former Rockette who could high kick into her retirement years, and Lee Kelson, born to the stage, were strong personalities.

They fought like cats and dog s, but

I think they loved each other

“

Said Gary, “A lot of the play is about what happens to creative energy when it has no outlet.”

But the show’s centerpiece is really Lee Kelson’s music – whimsical tunes and sentimental songs. Gary Kelson said he “would like to think I helped put my father back in show business, even if he’s gone.”

The Naples Players’ production is built specifically for audiences in Cambier Park, with Gary playing himself; longtime favorite Dave Gipson plays Lee alongside Naples newcomer and jazz singer Suzanne Sole playing Annette. Kent Nicholson, Director of Musical Theater Development at Playwrights Horizons in New York City, is coming to Naples to lead the creative Team.

Based on an article by Harriet Heithaus, Naples Daily News, 6/14/2013

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Upcoming Outdoor Events

Our downtown Naples Drive-In Movie Nights feature two movies each month on a 33’ screen with state-of-the-art projection and sound. Limited to just 50 spots each night.

300 8TH STREET SOUTH

SPONSORED BY: THE INN ON FIFTH

(JUST NORTH OF 5TH AVENUE S)

OCT 20 & 21

NOV 10 & 11

NOV 24 & 25

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

THE WIZARD OF OZ

THE GOONIES

As a “Thank You” for attending Yours, Truly - you may now purchase Drive-In tickets for just $20!

Use code: SOCIAL20 at checkout!

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WINTER 2020

GET TICKETS

A holiday favorite for the whole family brought to life on stage.

Kick-off the holiday season with a fun and festive event for everyone!

DEC. 19, 7:30 PM

DEC. 4-19

IN CAMBIER PARK & ONLINE

AT THE NAPLES PLAYERS

SPONSORED BY: GULF COAST INTERNATIONAL PROPERTIES

SPONSORED BY: GULF COAST INTERNATIONAL PROPERTIES

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T H A N K YO U TO OUR SEASON SPONSORS SEASON UNDERWRITERS: Bruce & Robin Bache-Gray SHOW & EVENT SPONSORS

EVENT PARTNERS

MEDIA PARTNERS & SPONSORS

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MUSICAL

NUMBERS Overture.............................................................................................................ORCHESTR A Just Luck y I Guess..............................................................................................L EE You Forgot A bout Me..........................................................................................L E E Vampin’.......................................................................................................ANNET TE & LEE Knock Wood, You Never Had It So Good..................................................LEE & ANNE T TE Crazy Mixed Up Kid...................................................................................LEE & ANNET TE Fool for a Girl/Guy.....................................................................................LEE & ANNET TE I Shoulda Stood in Bed............................................................................................LEE That Certain Nothing................................................................................LEE & ANNET TE We’ve Got Friends......................................................................................LEE & ANNET TE I Remember A nother Day....................................................................................L E E Now That You Are Mine...............................................................................ANNET TE & LEE Wish You Weren’t Here............................................................................................LEE Autumn and Eve.....................................................................................................L EE Well Whaddaya Gonna Do..........................................................................LEE & ANNET TE I Remember Another Day (Reprise)...................................................................GARY & LEE Just Lucky I Guess (Reprise)......................................................................................LEE I’m Your Slave...........................................................................................................LEE Curtain Call........................................................................................................ORCHESTR A

THE YOURS, TRULY ORCHESTRA Piano/Conductor: Dave Gipson Upright Bass: Joe Choomack Drums & Percussion: Scott Crawford

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SAVE the

arts

Give a little. Get a lot.

Save the art s.

A NEW RECURRING GIFT PROGRAM FROM TNP! For less than you pay for Netflix or to the cable company each month, you can be a part of the solution and save the arts in Naples. Small, recurring gifts are critical right now and the longer you give, the more you get from us as a "Thank You".

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EASY WAYS

TO START YOUR MONTHLY SMALL GIFT RIGHT NOW:

1 Text "TNP" to (239) 349-3001

and

select your amount and donation frequency.

Follow the rest of the information for payment, and you're done!

2 Call us at (239) 434-7340

and we

will get your donation set up over the phone!

Visit NaplesPlayers.org/GiveALittle to learn more!

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CAST BIOGRAPHIES Dave Gipson (Lee) is thrilled to be returning home to The Naples Players. Some of his favorite experiences have been working alongside the great team here. In years past, Dave played Valjean in TNP’s 2013 production of Les Misérables. He also played Hanratty in Catch Me If You Can and Higgins in My Fair Lady. Dave is also an author, composer, and recording artist, winning a BMI award in 2005. The best part he plays is husband to Dawn, and father to Emily, Micah, Sarah, Ellie, and Gracie. He is also honored to serve as Teaching Pastor at Celebration Beach Church, meeting each Sunday morning right here in Cambier Park. You can learn more about him at DaveGipson.net.

Gary Kelson (Gary/Co-Author) has had a career in the non-profit performing arts spanning 35 years as a marketing consultant, actor, writer, and fundraiser. Gary is an award-winning copywriter, has written several screenplays, and is a member of SAG. His father Lee, a vocalist in the 1940s, and mother Annette, a dancer and a Rockette, are the inspiration for Yours, Truly.

Suzanne Sole (Annette) is an actress, singer, and comedian, who has recently made her home in Naples. She has appeared on comedy stages and in concerts and national tours throughout North America, including: Muriel in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, EB Janet in SPANK! The Fifty Shades Parody, Woman 2 in Songs for a New World, and Dolly Tate in Annie Get Your Gun at Ravinia in Chicago, opposite Patti LuPone and directed by Lonny Price. In television, she appeared as Shirley Partridge in VH1’s The New Partridge Family, and has co-starred on: NBC’s Chicago PD, Joey, TBS pilot What News?, It’s So Over on E!, and Lifetime’s Strong Medicine. As a comedy writer, she has created her own original projects such as her one-woman stage show: The View from the Dumpster, web series: The Hirsches Care About the Earth, and currently, she is live streaming her own half-hour comedy show, The Suzanne Sole Show on the Suzanne Sole Facebook Page & YouTube channel, already on her 20th episode.

Suzanne is also an accomplished jazz singer, having appeared at venues throughout the country. Learn more at: suzannesole.com

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CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES

Cole Butcher (Stage Manager) is in his seventh season with The Naples Players. His favorite shows have been Moon Over Buffalo, Chicago, and The Rocky Horror Show. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Stage Management from Western Michigan University. His experience ranges from children’s to professional stateside and international theatre; participating in all forms from opera and musicals, to new and experimental plays. He holds a strong passion for educational theatre, creating and running TNP’s Internship Program.

Dave Gipson (Music Director) has played keyboards in many TNP productions, when not per forming onstage. He music directed Oklahoma here, and has assisted Charles Fornara’s music direction on several productions as well. He’s also a composer and recording artist, recognized with a 2005 BMI award for the theme music to the TLC cable show Trading Spaces. Learn more about Dave and hear his music at DaveGipson.net.

Steve Gunderson (Musical Arranger) was co-writer and musical arranger of Suds, which broke box office records at the Old Globe Theatre and Theatre of Louisville and went on to have dozens of productions worldwide. He created (with Kathy Najimy) and arranged the score for Off Broadway’s critically acclaimed Back To Bacharach & David, which was revived in Los Angeles with the participation of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. He is one of the creators of 33 1/3 House of Dreams, the new musical that premiered and broke box office records at San Diego Rep last year and is currently being developed for Broadway. With Javier Velasco he created (and arranged the score for) Everybody’s Talkin’: The Music of Harry Nilsson which premiered in 2015 starring Tony Award winners Alice Ripley and Gregory Jbara. He won the Creative Catalyst Grant in 2016 for his play The Artificial Woman which is currently in development.

He is an award-winning composer for theatre and television. As an actor he has played major roles at La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse and many others including plays directed by Jack O’Brien, Moises Kaufman and Christopher Ashley, starring opposite such actors as Ed Harris and Richard Dreyfuss. On television he provided voices for King of the Hill and Beavis and Butthead.

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Nancy Hayer (Asst. Stage Manager) While intending to buy a ticket for The Great Gatsby, Nancy instead decided to become more involved in the theater and volunteer. She has served as backstage run crew for The Great Gatsby and She Loves Me, and as a dresser for Making God Laugh. Yours, Truly is her first opportunity as an Assistant Stage Manager. Thanks to Cole and Hunter for sharing their knowledge.

D. W. Jacobs (Co-Author) is a playwright, director, actor and poet.

He wrote R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE, from the life, work and writings of Bucky Fuller. This play has had over 1,000 performances in Southern California (San Diego, Ventura, Los Angeles), San Francisco (Foghouse), Chicago, Portland (PCS), Seattle (Intiman), Napa, Scottsdale, Santa Fe, Boston/Cambridge (A.R.T.), Washington, D.C. (Arena Stage), Asheville, N.C., SIU Carbondale & Edwardsville, Atlanta, Montreal, Wrocław & Krakow, Poland. He has twice lectured on Buckminster Fuller at the Wrocław University of Technology in Poland. Jacobs lives in Highland Park, Los Angeles, where he co-founded TEATRO ARROYO // Theater Stream (a performance wing of the Arroyo Arts Collective.) He also co-founded San Diego Repertory Theatre with Sam Woodhouse, where he served as Artistic Director for 20 years. He is a member of SDC, AEA and Dramatists Guild of America.

Lee Kelson (Music & Lyrics) was “The Romantic Baritone,” a triple threat singer/pianist/composer. He was a law student at the University of Illinois when “hitting the books” no longer interested him, so he dropped out of law school to pursue a show business career in music.

He sang live on WLW Radio in Cincinnati and was a singing MC on many national touring shows and finest nightclubs in the country. An original Glenn Miller Modernaire in the 1940s, his solo career was detoured by love, namely his Rockette wife, Annette…and soon he followed her out of the entertainment industry and to Miami Beach, where they settled.

Mollie LaTorre (Costume Design) is in her second season with TNP as Costume Shop Supervisor. After graduating with her Masters in Costume Design from FSU she joined the Creative Costuming team for Disney Parks Live Entertainment as well as freelanced as a designer in the Orlando area. Previous design credits include She Loves Me, Bye Bye Birdie (TNP), Nunsense 2, The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical (TheatreWorks Florida), Fun Home, The Royal Family (Mad Cow) Florida State University’s Cloud Nine, Killer Joe, Some Girl(s). She has previously worked at Utah Festival Opera and Music Festival, Olney Theatre Center and Williamstown Theatre Festival.

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CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES

Kent Nicholson (Director) With a hand in nearly three decades of new works development on both coasts with pioneering organizations such as Playwrights Horizons and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Nicholson’s New York directing credits include 9 Circles (The Sheen Center), Long Story Short (Prospect Theater), Five Flights (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), Wet (Summer Play Festival), and Marry Harry (NYMF, American Theater Group). Regional: Sweeney Todd, Once, Amadeus and A Light in the Piazza (South Coast Repertory), How to Write a New Book for the Bible (South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Seattle Repertory), Looking for Christmas (Old Globe), CUBAMOR (Village Theatre), Lizzie (Theatre Under The Stars, Village Theatre), Grey Gardens, Vincent in Brixton, Ambition Facing West, and All My Sons (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley), Saint Ex (Weston Playhouse), 9 Circles, The Good German, and Jacques Brel (Marin Theater Company), Small Tragedy and Satellites (Aurora Theater Company). Kent created the New Works Initiative at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, The Uncharted Writers Group at Ars Nova, and serves on the board of The Musical Theatre Factory. Kent currently serves as Associate Producer of Musical Theater at Playwrights Horizons in New York.

Hunter Reum (Asst. Stage Manager) is excited to be back at TNP as an ASM on Yours, Truly. Hunter has been the ASM on productions such as Mamma Mia! Teen and The Great Gatsby. While he enjoys being off stage he equally enjoys acting on the stage. Hunter was most recently seen on stage in Bye Bye Birdie this past spring.

Michael Santos (Scenic Designer) recently designed the sets for Moana, Bye Bye Birdie, She Loves Me, Escanaba in da Moonlight, Mamma Mia!, Guys and Dolls, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at TNP. I would like to dedicate this performance to my dad, Edward, who taught me mostly everything. Much love to my better half, Judith and my little buddy, Taz :-) As always, a big thank you to the volunteers for doing what they do best.

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Bradley Van Houten (Sound Designer) has his bachelor’s degree in Theatre: Design & Technical Production and Theatre: Stage Management from Western Michigan University. Having the pleasure of working Off-Broadway on Soul Doctor and internationally at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Brad is happy to be working at a theatre where every day brings on a new challenge. Brad has worked and designed over 100 productions in his time at TNP. Continuing on in his 8th season, he is excited to continue to bring theatre art to the community in new and creative ways.

Craig Walck (Lighting Designer) After initially working for TNP from 2000-2006, Craig returned to TNP in 2011 after a five-year absence, during which he worked for Columbia University, The All-Stars Project, and other theatrical groups in New York City from 2006-2008. He then oversaw the completion of construction, opening, and first two years of operation of the Miramar Cultural Center in Miramar, FL from 2008-2011. Overall, Craig has designed the lighting for over 150 TNP productions. Originally from Niagara Falls, N.Y., and a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, he once again calls Naples his home with his wife, Jessica, and their kids (dogs) Ziggy, Twoey, and Roscoe.

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