The Lisbon Traviata

By Terrence McNally

Directed and Designed by John Sowle
Costumes by Michelle Rogers
Assistant Director – Steven Patterson
Fight Director – Carson Borst
Stage Manager – Stacey Dobos

Cast:
- Timothy Dunn as Mendy
- Michael Raver as Stephen
- Jeff Brackett as Mike
- M. Damon Hawkins as Paul

Reviews:
"One of the more impressive theatrical efforts of the summer season. It features two dynamic lead performances and a pair of strong supporting roles … It’s worth seeing, if only for the brilliant portrayal of Mendy by Timothy Dunn. It’s a monster of a role as Mendy is not only obsessive; he’s the definition of bitchy. Most importantly, he catches the complexity of a lonely man who lives between self-aggrandizement and self-loathing. Dunn is able to find charm in all of the man’s many negative traits. He creates a person you would avoid in real life, but you seriously miss him when he’s not on stage." — Bob Goepfert, The Saratogian

"A perfect experience … Its reputation as a special play is beautifully upheld by this production. As good as the play itself may be, it is the work done on stage by this quartet of players that makes this good play into something greater. These people seem to live, not be performed. We are given the opportunity to witness reality rather than theater … A perfect couple of hours of theater." — J. Peter Bergman, Berkshire Edge

"Bright, caustic, and funny … John Sowle has offered up a show that is unsettling to say the least. He also presented us with four performers who so totally inhabit their characters that they are mesmerizing to watch … Michael Raver is Stephen and watching his character morph and mentally deteriorate over the two acts is a master class in character growth and performance … Dunn takes stereotype to a new level, and Brackett from seething to boiling over. Hawkins’ calm sedate personality is a perfect counterpoint to the others." — Bill Kellert, The Spot 518

"Played with roiling intensity … Playwright Terrence McNally took a great stylistic risk with ‘The Lisbon Traviata’, whose first act is an exercise in Oscar Wildean wit and a second act that moves the play into a darker turn that bends toward grand opera on a grand emotional scale … That this production carries us all the way through is a tribute not only to Sowle’s direction but also to a first-rate cast whose members, particularly Raver and Brackett, are fearless and not at all withholding." — Jeffrey Borak, Berkshire Eagle

Selected audience comments:
- "What amazing performances and production values. A must see. Catskill and way beyond will be talking about this one for quite a while. We were out of chairs at the end. Bravo." — Brandon Marlow
- "This is possibly the best production BST has ever done! Don’t miss it!" — Ava Barbour
- "Fabulous performance! Congratulations and thank you for putting on this astonishing play! Bravo!" — Patrick White
- "A must-see show!" — Flo Hayle
- "What a fantastic entertaining performance! Don’t miss this one. I think it’s one of those shows people will be talking about for years." — Marion Siegel
- "Oh, Steven! What a marvelous evening in the theatre you, John, and your team have given us! The production was tremendous, from start to finish. And what a remarkable company of actors you managed to assemble for this spectacular feat!" — Kevin Weldon
- "Amazingly intense … Amazing performance by 4 really talented actors. Don’t miss this one!" — Johanna D’Aleo
- "Kudos to all the actors. Funny, searing, and heartbreaking performances. I highly recommend it. It will stay with me for a long time." — Anne Forbes Cooper
- "This is a brilliant production of a legendary play with deeply realized performances that will guarantee audiences of the emotional rollercoaster McNally intended. Don’t miss it!" — Brent Buell

Description of the play:
A razor-sharp exploration of obsession, identity, and the fragile bonds of chosen family, set against the backdrop of opera’s soaring passions. When two friends—one a flamboyant opera aficionado, the other quietly unraveling—collide over love and betrayal, their witty banter spirals into a devastating confrontation that exposes the cost of living for art versus living for truth. At once hilarious and heartbreaking, this play asks: how far will we go to protect the illusions that define us?

Bios:

Timothy Dunn (Mendy) is deeply grateful for another opportunity to make theatre alongside John Sowle. Timothy currently serves as Bridge Street Theatre’s Associate Artistic Director, where he works across directing, stage and production management, costume design, marketing, audience engagement, and educational programming. Recent BST directing credits include South: A Nautical Musical, Herkimer! How My Ignorant Immigrant Ancestors Saved America and You Can Too, and Enough: Plays to End Gun Violence!. He has also worked extensively behind the scenes on productions including Bakersfield Mist, Monsters of the American Cinema, and Red Like Fruit. As a performer, Timothy has appeared in productions ranging from contemporary plays to large-scale musicals across New York City and regional theatres nationwide. Recent stage credits include Emcee in Cabaret, Man in Chair in The Drowsy Chaperone, Gloria in Casa Valentina, Gary Lejeune in Noises Off, and Pauly Scott in Lanford Wilson’s Sympathetic Magic, right here at Bridge Street Theatre. Before relocating to the Catskills, Timothy spent more than twenty years in New York City, including over a decade as a performer, writer, director, and producer with Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, "the funniest theatre in the whole world." A graduate of Northwestern University, Timothy believes theatre can save the world.

Michael Raver (Stephen) Off-Broadway: Vieux Carré, The Seagull (The Pearl), The Persians (National Actor’s Theater), Death Comes for The War Poets, Fire On Babylon, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar (Aquila) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Hive). Select Regional: Westport Country Playhouse, Virginia Stage Company, North Coast Rep, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Bay Street Theatre, Peterborough Players, Greenbrier Valley Theatre, Ivoryton Playhouse, Bridge Street Theatre, Music Theatre of Connecticut (CT Critic’s Circle Best Actor Nom for Cat On A Hot Tin Roof), Playhouse on Park, American Stage, Red House, Shadowland Stages, Telluride Theater, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Bristol Valley Theater, Saratoga Shakespeare, and Sarasota Jewish Theatre, where he is also associate artistic director. Film/TV: TURN: Washington’s Spies, Murder Castle, How We Built The Bomb, Your Cookie, Star Night and Elsewhere. As a writer, a three-time O’Neill semifinalist, with work presented at Sonnet Rep, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Playhouse on Park, TheatreLab NYC, The Martha Graham Company, Sheen Center, Bridge Street, Great River Shakespeare Festival, and The Pearl. Additional writing honors from The Austin Film Festival, Red Bull Theatre Company, ScreenCraft, All Out Arts, The Chesley/Bumbalo Foundation, and was a recipient of a grant from City Artists Corps.

Jeff Brackett (Mike) is thrilled to make his Bridge Street Theatre debut. Last summer he appeared as Spike in a wildly successful run of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Provincetown Theater, and is a company member of Brave New Earth, an international devised theatre piece. Hawai’i credits span ten years and over 50 roles, highlights including The Legend of Georgia McBride (Casey/Georgia – Po’okela Award), Equus (Nugget – Hitting the Stage Award), Eurydice (Orpheus), The Zoo Story (Jerry), and Mamma Mia! (Sky). Select New York credits include Venus & Adonis (Adonis/Narrator), Semper Civilian (Audible), The Talking Band, TDF Young Playwrights, A Skate Play, Rama’avan, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Select regional credits include leading roles in Skintight, Clark Gable Slept Here, and Wicked Child (world premiere). Select film credits include They Shoot Horses, Exit 15 (SEAiff Award), and Venus. Television: Hawai’i Five-0. To his friends and family. IG: @jeffbrackett

M. Damon Hawkins (Paul) is a New York-born and raised actor who is thrilled to make his Bridge Street Theatre debut. He is an Amherst College graduate, where he discovered his love of the stage and received the Raymond Keith Bryant Prize for theater. After college, M. Damon continued his acting training at The Folster Studio. Notable roles include Orestes in Iphigenia Among The Taurians, Cal in The Little Foxes (New Century Theater), Valere in Tartuffe, and Sorin in The Seagull. Additionally, M. Damon has also been featured in a handful of short films as well as the feature Meant To Be Broken. Offstage, M. Damon can be found training Muay Thai, watching gruesome horror movies, reading gruesome horror books, and crocheting.

John Sowle (Director & Designer) is Artistic Director Emeritus of Bridge Street Theatre. Most recently he has directed and designed BST’s productions of On Golden Pond, Uncle Vanya, Sympathetic Magic, The Lion in Winter, Shelley’s Shadow, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Letters, The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World, There Is a Happiness That Morning Is, and Leni. He also designed their productions of The Tavern, Souvenir, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune, The Moors, Better, Lewiston, Clarkston, Fourteen Funerals, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, Rude Mechanics I Am Barbie, and The Glass Menagerie. From 1983 through 2013, John and Steven Patterson created theatre under the umbrella of Kaliyuga Arts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City and Hudson, NY, producing world premieres and rarely performed works by Samuel Beckett, Gertrude Stein, Federico Garcia Lorca and many others. Archival videos of some of those productions can be found on the Bridge Street Theatre Vimeo page. John has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from M.I.T. and a PhD in Dramatic Art from UC Berkeley.