Comedic Theater Company Performing in Philipstown
It is a story about corporate malfeasance that could be taken from today’s newspapers.
But “Gasping” is not a news story. It was written by award-winning British writer Ben Elton in 1990.
“Gasping” is the first production staged by The Drones Theater Company, which will be devoted to comedies.
Performances will be held on weekends from May 9 through June 1 at the Philipstown Depot Theatre.
“Gasping” is being directed by Garrison resident Joseph Dunn, who is the artistic director of the new theater company. Aside from focusing on corporate corruption, “Gasping” is a “funny, funny play,” Dunn said. The play explores the top one percent and their misdeeds decades before the Occupy Wall Street movement, he said.
Dunn, who will also perform in the show, said he named his theater company The Drones because it comes from the name of a fictional location used in the stories of comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. But Dunn also said that drones have another meaning related to unmanned military planes, but he did not intend the second meaning for his theater company.
The new company will devote itself to comedies, Dunn said. Comedy is something Dunn knows through experience. While living in Los Angeles, Dunn performed sketch and improvisation at The Comedy Store for a year and was active in theater while at the same time working at the American Film institute. One of his major works in Los Angeles was directing and performing in “Beyond the Fringe.”
Donald Kimmel, a veteran actor with three decades of experience in many capacities in show business, is one of the lead actors in “Gasping.” Kimmel worked in theater beginning at age four and at 17 he made his first big screen appearance in “Taps,” the 1981 film that starred George C. Scott and Sean Penn and Tom Cruise. Kimmel said he is still friends with some of the cast that he met while shooting the film.
Kimmel, the technical director of the Philipstown Depot Theatre, said his character is a corporate tycoon “who makes something out of nothing.”
Comedy can be much more than a way to entertain, Kimmel said. It can be “a way of holding up a mirror to society,” he said.
Satire can look at serious issues and an audience may not want to laugh “but you can’t help it,” Kimmel said,
Kimmel said Putnam County and the region is a fertile area for talented performers who would now have a new place to work through The Drones Theatre Company. “We have a number of performers who live in the Hudson Valley,” he said.
Adult tickets are $22 and tickets for seniors, students and active and retired military are $10.
Tickets are available on line at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/.
For more information about the Philipstown Depot Theatre visit philipstowndepottheatre.org or call the theater’s office at 845-424-3900.
