Professors in love at heart of Bridge Street Theatre in play
“There Is a Happiness That Morning Is”, an unexpectedly raucous and joyously word-drunk celebration of art, ardor and academia, opens an eight performance run Thursday, Sept. 6, at 7:30 p.m. at Bridge Street Theatre, 44 W. Bridge St., Catskill.
A crumbling liberal arts college in rural New England is the setting for playwright Mickle Maher’s work. For 20 years, two professors, Bernard and Ellen, have been carrying on a secret love affair while simultaneously lecturing on the poetry of William Blake — he on “Songs of Innocence,” she on “Songs of Experience.”
But their classes today are going to be particularly challenging. Last night on the college quad, while conducting an impromptu al fresco lecture, the pair became so carried away while reading Blake aloud that they threw off their clothes and made mad, passionate love in full view of their students, as well as the school’s puritanical president. Now, desperate to salvage both their careers and their love, they need to convince a scandalized campus community that this “public showing” of their “dewdipped thighs” was the apotheosis of Blakean ecstasy or else suffer the consequences.
Oh, and by the way, the play is written, like Blake’s poems, almost entirely in rhymed couplets. This is one set of lectures no student (or audience) in their right mind would want to miss.
Bernard is portrayed by Brian Petti. He is a Hudson Valley-based playwright and actor. His “Echoes of Ireland” had the distinction of being the first play ever staged at the Bridge Street Theatre. His acting credits include Septimus in “Arcadia” (Rhinebeck Theatre Society), McMurphy in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (Curtain Call Theatre and Jack in “The Importance of Being Earnest” (Creative Theatre).
Molly Parker Myers portrays Ellen. Myers returns to Bridge Street Theatre after last season’s “Redwood Curtain.” Other work with the theatre and Kaliyuga Arts includes “Lucky Lindy,” “The Mound Builders,” “True Love Lies” and “Kill Me Now.” Recent regional credits include “The Graduate,” “The Norman Conquests Trilogy,” “Lost in Yonkers” and “Talley’s Folly” (Winnipesaukee Playhouse), “Yours, Anne” (Half Moon Theatre) and “Constellations” (Tangent Theatre).
In the role of the puritanical President Dean is Steven Patterson. He has performed in New York City on both Off- and Off-Off-Broadway, as well as regionally with theaters such as South Coast Repertory, Capital Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks/Silicon Valley, freeFall Theatre, Kaliyuga Arts, Lexington Conservatory Theatre, Chenango River Theatre, Centenary Stage Company and the Orlando, Oregon, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Utah, Tennessee, Richmond, and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festivals. A few of his favorite roles have been Jake Sturdy in “Kill Me Now,” Lear in “King Lear,” Austin Wiggin in “The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World,” David in “Poor Super Man,” Judi Boswell in “How to Pray,” Zach in “A Chorus Line” and Rob in “King of the Crystal Palace.”
Patterson also created, performed and toured internationally for four years with a solo show inspired by the life and works of Jean Genet called “Beauty.” On film, he can be seen as Bruce in Joseph Graham’s “Vanilla” and as himself in Bill Rose’s documentary “The Loss of Nameless Things.” He currently resides in Catskill and serves as an associate artist at Bridge Street Theatre.
“There Is a Happiness That Morning Is” runs through Sunday, Sept. 16. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $22 for general admission, $10 for students age 21 and under. Tickets can also be purchased at the door before to each performance (on a space-available basis) for $25, $10 for students ages 21 and under. For the Sept. 6 and Sept. 9 performances, admission is pay what you will.
Call (800) 838-3006 or visit brownpapertickets. com for advance tickets. Call the theatre at (518) 9433818 or visit bridgest.org for more information.