Date of the reading: Friday 10 May

Doors open at 7:00PM.

All tickets are free but only the first 99 patrons will be admitted.

The performance begins at 7:30PM.

 Venue: Somerset Valley Playhouse

689 Amwell Road (Rte 514)

Hillsborough NJ 08844-3317

Directions to the Somerset Valley Playhouse: http://www.svptheatre.org/directions.htm 

Replays is set in a failing restaurant of the same name where four characters confront their pasts so they might plan their futures. The cast telling the story is a collection of superb actors. Some, I’ve worked with previously. Some, I’ve enjoyed their work before and still others are new acquaintances. However, all are marvelously experienced with voices to match.

Join us for Replays and maybe you’ll remember some of your own Great Moments.

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Marie Times is an aging reporter who is pursuing one last payday before retiring. In the final hours before her broadcast tribute to legendary and recently passed away sportscaster, Johnny Parks, she befriends three people:

• Joey Stilts, a writer who played on a championship football team over 35 years ago and whose teammates are gradually dying off;
• Jack Downs, owner of the sports-themed restaurant named Replays which is on the verge of bankruptcy; and
• Lois Chaos, a 16‑year‑old high school student whose passion for playing classical music is colliding with her parents’ wishes for her to pursue lacrosse.

Each will choose action based upon their own circumstances but inspired by the sports in their pasts. And they will learn, through their experience at Replays, no matter how they choose, their best moments will live forever.

All tickets for “Replays (Great Moments Live Forever)” are free and are limited to the the first 99 patrons. The time of the reading is being finalized. There will also be a question and answer session afterwards.

Please come out and support the cast of “Replays (Great Moments Live Forever).”

The Playhouse for Somerset Valley Players is located at:

689 Amwell Road (Rte 514)

Hillsborough NJ 08844-3317

http://www.svptheatre.org/

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Am I another in the Mitty family tree?

The swirling, blinding snow made visibility for more than a few feet impossible. My oxygen tank was almost empty and I was near exhaustion.The batteries in my trusted Finklestein two-way radio, the same gear Warsham and Tunnee had used to scale Mt. Krachow in the southern Hippodees region, were dying. Without regular directions from Base Camp to coordinate my ascent, I could not survive at this altitude. If the weather didn’t freeze me, the marauding bands of Wallkrits would capture me. If I was fortunate enough to get past them, I could still face the legendary limping Troklatan, Snow Beast of the Sky.

Then a voice crackled over my Finklestein headphones, “Twenty, only twenty.” The words could mean anything. Twenty minutes of oxygen, twenty Wallkrits, or twenty what? Then, the snow stopped blowing and there was the top twenty feet away.

I pulled together every ounce of my remaining strength and walked toward the summit. Fifteen feet away, ten feet and my head began throbbing. The wind picked up and covered the prize.

Five feet away and my body screamed for oxygen. I wanted to stop but trudged on. Two more steps and suddenly I lost my footing and went down hard. I couldn’t get up and began sliding away from the summit. My gloved fingers grabbed for anything and finally I stopped the slide. Unable to move forward and not wanting to go back, I was stuck.

That’s when I heard it. Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop. There was only one creature at this altitude limping about. It was the Troklatan. The sound came closer, clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop, and I knew it was the end for me. How could I defend against its fierce attack?

Certain of my demise at the claws of the legendary Snow Beast of the Sky, I didn’t move. The creature was near and I heard its heavy breathing. It bent over and tapped me on the shoulder and said, “You look like you could use some hot chocolate.” It was my wife, who had recently broken a bone in her foot, and had hobbled up to the end of the driveway to bring me sustenance. She left the thermos in my hands and clip-clopped, clip-clopped, clip-clopped down the driveway on her crutches.

Such is the life of shoveling the driveway after the snow on Friday-Saturday 8-9 February 2013. Am I Walter Mitty’s grandson? Maybe.

“The Table” is inspired by The Missing Man Table Ceremony which recalls the fate of, and pledges vigilance for locating, Prisoners of War and Missing in Action.

~~

The Table

Beat 1)  There is a Table, Set for Six

NARRATOR:  There is a table

Which is set

Wherever people congregate.

ARMY VOICE:  From upscale restaurants

To downtown soup kitchens.

From dining rooms

To dining cars

To diners.

Invitations have been sent to six guests

And their comrades of many thousands more.

Beat 2)  Needing to Believe

NARRATOR:  There is a table

Which is set

With circular proportions.

MARINE CORPS VOICE:  It signifies our intent

And unending desire,

To know

To understand

And believe,

That our missing guests

Will someday be present.

Beat 3)  Protect and Engage

NARRATOR:  There is a table

Which is set

Draped with a tablecloth of white.

NAVY VOICE:  It symbolizes the purity

And virtue of our guests.

To act

Protect

And engage,

For the service of the country

In a unique and special way.

Beat 4)  Bound by Faith

NARRATOR:  There is a table

Which is set

With a vase and single red rose.

AIR FORCE VOICE:  The rose, surrounded by barbed thorns,

Is symbolic of each guest.

Loved ones

And friends

Are keeping the faith.

The vase is bound with a red ribbon

Just as we are bound to our guests.

Beat 5)  Bitter Fates and Tears

NARRATOR:  There is a table

Which is set

And laden with lemon and salt.

COAST GUARD VOICE:  A slice of lemon drips upon

The bread plate of lives.

Bitter

Are the fates

Kept from the table.

And grains of salt are tears wept by

Absent guests, their families, and friends.

Beat 6)  No Celebration

NARRATOR:  There is a table

Which is set

With a champagne glass placed upside down.

CIVILIAN VOICE:  It holds no toast

And contains no celebration.

It is hollow,

Empty,

A void.

It will never sparkle

Without the brilliance of our guests.

Beat 7)  Empty Chairs

NARRATOR:  There is a table

Which is set

For guests who can not come.

ARMY VOICE:  Upon the table rests a Bible offering strength,

MARINE CORPS VOICE:  Faith, and a reminder of our country’s roots.

NAVY VOICE:  Chairs beckon, but go unheeded, by our absent guests,

AIR FORCE VOICE:  They are comrades, loved ones, and friends who are with us in spirit if not in actuality.

COAST GUARD VOICE:  Each served the nation in a special and now unending way.

CIVILIAN VOICE:  All shall be remembered while we ask questions and await answers.

Beat 8)  Toast to Missing Guests

NARRATOR:  We raise our water glasses

In honor of America’s

Prisoners of War and Missing in Action.

We shall forever strive

To learn their fates

Because we will never forget them.

ARMY VOICE:  The Army will not forget.

MARINE CORPS VOICE:  Nor the Marine Corps.

NAVY VOICE:  We, the Navy, remember them all.

AIR FORCE VOICE:  So, too, does the Air Force.

COAST GUARD VOICE:  Their memories still burn with the Coast Guard.

CIVILIAN VOICE:  They were once Civilians and will always be family and friends.

Beat 9)  There is a Table

NARRATOR:  (WITH EMPHASIS)  We must never forget . . .  (RESUME AS PREVIOUSLY)  . . . That there is a table, wherever people congregate.

Beat 10)  The End

~~

“The Table” is included in “Lit Between the Ears, Volume Two: Mayonnaise in My Cake and Holiday Offerings” scheduled for release in August 2012.

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- To Chris, from a three percenter.

http://www.facebook.com/christine.shickora