Nyack High School presents the Mark Twain-David Ives play “Is He Dead?” which played New York a couple of seasons back. It’s about an artist who fakes his death to add value to his works. He dresses as a woman, to hilarious results. Nov. 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. $10, $5 students. Tickets are only sold at the door one hour before performances. At Nyack High School, Christian Herald Road, Upper Nyack.

OK, these are kind of down the line, but director Melinda O’Brien will hold auditions for Fort Hill Players production of “For Better” — Eric Coble’s “bright new farce about love in the Age of Twitter.”

Rye Country Day’s director Cary Fuller writes this morning that he’s moved up the curtain for the Andre Gregory adaptation of  ”Alice in Wonderland” to 7:30 p.m.

That’s Nov. 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. $5. Rye Country Day is on Cedar Street in Rye.

Just got word that Anthony McGill, the Metropolitan Opera clarinetist who’ll play with the Westchester Philharmonic next weekend, will visit the Rye schools on Nov. 19.

He’ll spend the morning at Rye High School and Middle School giving
lecture-demonstrations to clarinet students. In the afternoon, he will visit the Osborn, Milton and Midland Middle Schools talking to nearly 500 third- through fifth-graders about his career.

Here’s my Q&A with Anthony McGill, which ran in Sunday’s editions of The Journal News:

If you know Anthony McGill, the 30-year-old principal clarinetist with the Metropolitan Opera, it’s likely from his performance on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on a bitterly cold Inauguration Day last January, a few feet from the new president.

I caught “The Rivalry”—about the Lincoln-Douglas debates—at the Emelin Theatre in Mamaroneck on Saturday, the first in what I hope will be a long line of nights of great theater in that intimate space. Met the show’s producer and director Vincent Dowling, a charming man. The performances were spot on and if you squinted, you might have thought you were looking at Abe Lincoln, not Christian Kauffmann. Before the show, collector Seth Kaller was kind enough to share his vast knowledge of Lincoln—and show some of his artifacts. It made for a complete evening: seeing Lincoln on stage and seeing letters he wrote—and a compass-like instrument he used while reading war maps.

I hope to be back at the Emelin on Thursday to catch “The Liar Show,” in which four storytellers spin yarns, one of which is a complete lie.

From Honest Abe to “The Liar Show” inside a week. That’s complete programming.

For a generation, Rob and Laura Petrie were the face of New Rochelle, on TV’s “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

For the foreseeable future, when Broadway audiences think about New Rochelle, they’ll think of Ron Bohmer, Christiane Noll, Dan Manning, Bobby Steggert and Christopher Cox.

They play the privileged New Rochelle family that represents a third of the story told in E.L. Doctorow’s sweeping “Ragtime,” the stage musical that returns to Broadway tonight at the Neil Simon Theatre.

The 2009 revival begins as the 1974 book did, with the line: “In 1902, Father built a house at the crest of the Broadview Avenue hill in New Rochelle, New York.”

It isn’t easy to stage William Gibson’s play, “The Miracle Worker,” about Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan.

For one thing, much of it is told without words, in page after page of stage directions.

For another, the topic — a deaf-and-blind girl learning to communicate — requires a great deal of sensitivity.

But Blind Brook and Briarcliff high schools are accepting the challenge this week, and each is going to great lengths to make sure audiences will see something they won’t soon forget.

Read more of this entry »

This pre-Thanksgiving week offers a cornucopia of new stage treats. There’s another “Insights & Revelations” show at the Emelin, Gurney in Armonk, a Penguin Rep show far from Crickettown Road and it’s already Christmas in Bedford Hills.

Add to that the long list of high schools across the Lower Hudson Valley that are bringing their long-simmering productions to the table and there’s no reason a theater lover should feel undernourished by the time next Monday rolls around.

Fans of FOX News will want to know that “Happening Now” anchor Jon Scott, who lives in Irvington, is playing Lancelot in Clocktower Players’ production of “Camelot.”

On his blog, Scott jokes that this is his “off-Broadway debut” because “Irvington Town Hall Theater is just off Broadway.”

Lisa Spielman is Guenevere and Larry Reina is Arthur in the production, which enters its final weekend.

Tickets are available at www.irvingtontheater.com.

Brewster Theater Company is holding auditions for its Winter 2010 production of James Goldman’s “The Lion in Winter.”

I was all over the place yesterday.

Started with David Hyde Pierce on the Upper West Side, talking about his upcoming show at the Paramount with Michael Feinstein. Turns out they’re L.A. neighbors. They’ll play the Paramount Nov. 28 and then head to Feinstein’s NYC club for the entire month of December. Hyde Pierce is a classically trained pianist who says he was “very good for a small town,” but soon realized, when he got to Yale, that another career was in order. He could not have been more generous with his time. What a great guy. I’ll chat with Feinstein—the man who introduced me to the Gershwins—next week.

From there, I dropped in to the paper to pick up more and more notebooks to fill and then I was off to Scarsdale High for “Beauty and the Beast,” where choreographer Lisa Harvie was blocking the curtain call. When I was in school—in a time shortly after the Greeks—we always blocked the curtain call after the final dress. Scarsdale’s show isn’t till next weekend. Some great voices in that company. Chatted with Margaret Gondolfo (Belle), Lucie Fink (Babette), Michael Strauss (The Beast) and Gracie Nash (Mrs. Potts) about playing characters they grew up on and how they get into character.

Last year we interviewed kids and had them sing 16 bars (or so) from their shows. This year, we’re shooting videos about kids getting into character. We call the feature “Building Character” and you can check it out at www.lohud.com/video and clicking on the school musicals tab.

Then, photographer Mark Vergari and I headed north to Chappaqua and Horace Greeley’s “Evita.” Director Chris Schraufnagel and music director Maureen Callan could not have been more accommodating. We watched the end of Act 1 and then “Schrauf” gave the cast 10 as I interviewed Julia Deutsch (Eva), Sam Caywood (Juan), Josh Miller (Magaldi), Christine Haggerty (Peron’s mistress) and Matt Haas (Che).  Haas says he was one of the only kids who knew the show when rehearsals started, but they all seem to have taken to it, if what Mark and I saw at last night’s rehearsal is any indication. Great stuff, crisp blocking and voices that shine. Looking forward to that show, one I’ve somehow never seen before.

If you want to find out where I’ve been or where I’m headed, follow me on Twitter, at www.twitter.com/peterkramer

For much of “Rabbit Hole” — David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, now in a thoughtful production at Briarcliff’s Hudson Stage — Susannah Schulman plays a grieving Larchmont housewife, Becca, with a quiet reserve, keeping it all together in hospital-corners neatness.

Becca likes things a certain way. She folds clothes a certain way, serves creme caramel a certain way and if there’s anything unpleasant to deal with, she has a certain way to deal with that, too.

“Quick and clean, like a Band-Aid,” she says.

Becca and her husband, Howie, have something terribly unpleasant to deal with: their son’s death.

Howie’s coping strategy is not Becca’s: He’d rather not let go just yet; he’d rather remember little Danny and see photos of him, the ones Becca boxed up long ago.

“Rabbit Hole” treads much the same ground as the Oscar-winning “Ordinary People,” which pitted an icy Mary Tyler Moore against a touchy-feely Donald Sutherland.

As in that work, Howie, the husband in “Rabbit Hole” — played here by New Rochelle native Tony Carlin — walks on eggshells, not wanting to make waves with his formidable wife.

Carlin’s Howie is a model of deference bordering on the milquetoast. When his words are twisted, he quickly withdraws them. Still, when he is injured, he lashes out.

There is judgment in grief, Becca and Howie learn.

As Becca puts it: “You’re not in a better place. You’re just in a different place.”

But Howie has had enough.

“Something has to change,” he says, “because I can’t do this like this. It’s too hard. How much more do we have to lose?”

There is plenty to lose. Director Dan Foster shapes the play, finding moments of connection and lost connection in Lindsay-Abaire’s note-perfect words.

He is aided in this by the fine performances from Schulman and Carlin, and a first-rate supporting cast: Theo Allyn as Becca’s self-absorbed sister, Izzy; Lucy Martin as their mother, Nat; and Brandon Gill as Jason.

(On Broadway, Cynthia Nixon won a Tony Award as Becca, John Slattery was Howie and Tyne Daly was Nat.)

Allyn’s quirky Izzy makes a perfect foil to Schulman’s strait-laced Becca, delivering a fully realized character.

Martin brings a weary wisdom to Nat, another face of grief. She, too, has lost and, while her wounds aren’t as fresh as Becca’s, they are no less valid.

Gill, a recent Juilliard graduate, pitches his introductory monologue with a squirm-inducing mix of naiveté and nerves. Later, his nervousness gives way to an ease that triggers an unexpected avalanche of emotion.

Schulman is careful with each line, every look, carrying herself as if she’s on a ledge or the edge of a precipice. She seems unable to catch her breath, as if the pain of that Band-Aid just won’t go away.

Andreea Mincic’s set is well-appointed, complete with running water.

Joanne Haas’ costumes are contemporary and add to the characters. Andrew Gmoser’s lights delineate well the various spaces.

Original music is always a nice touch and John Gromada’s work here — heard in the partially lit scene changes — is similarly light and dark, an effective blend for this particular play.

If you have a sweet tooth, best not to go to “Rabbit Hole” hungry, as a parade of treats fills the stage — from creme caramel to red-velvet cake to zucchini bread and lemon squares — all made by a culinarily adept costume mistress.

With “Rabbit Hole,” Hudson Stage extends its long streak of consistently fine productions. It is powerful stuff, a chance to think about the unthinkable.

You might wonder what you might do if, heaven forbid, you were in their shoes.

And your kids might wonder why you’re hugging them a little bit longer before letting them go.

Sometimes, Nat tells Becca, grief is all you have.

All theater lovers have is two more weekends to catch “Rabbit Hole.”

Photo by Rana Faure: The cast of Hudson Stage Company’s production of “Rabbit Hole” is, from left: Lucy Martin, Theo Allyn, Tony Carlin, Susannah Schulman and Brandon Gill.

What: “Rabbit Hole”
When: Weekends through Nov. 21. 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Nov. 20 and 21; 3 p.m. Sunday and Nov. 21. A post-performance Q&A on Sunday.
Where: Woodward Hall Theatre, Pace University, 235 Elm Road, Briarcliff Manor
Tickets: $30, $25 for seniors and students, $20 for Pace staff and students. One free ticket for every 10 purchased at the group rate.
Ticket call: 212-868-4444
Ticket web: www.smarttix.com
Hudson Stage: 914-271-2811 Web: www.hudsonstage.com

New, on a stage near you, this weekend

• Blueberry Pond Theatre Ensemble presents founder Jean-Paul DeVellard’s long-awaited “The Conversation at Choctaw Junction” on Friday through Dec. 13. At 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Directed by Anthony Valbiro. $35, $30 for seniors, students, members of unions and the military, $25 for members. Those under age 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Performances at Laylon Theater, 235 Cedar Lane, Ossining. 914-923-3530. www.blueberrypond.org.

• Spotlight Theatre Productions presents “Nunsense the Megamusical,” directed by Patrick Concilio, with an expanded cast to include more nuns. At 8 p.m. Friday; Saturday; Nov. 20; Nov. 21; at 2 p.m. Sunday; Nov. 21; Nov. 22. At the Schoolhouse Theater, 3 Owens Road, Croton Falls. $16, $12 for students and seniors. 845-526-3461 or www.stpny.com.

• Elmwood Playhouse presents the Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens musical “A Man of No Importance,” about a bus conductor’s theatrical endeavors. Friday through Dec. 12; Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and some Thursdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. $23, $21 for students and seniors. No discounts on Saturdays. 10 Park St., Nyack. 845-353-1313.www.elmwoodplayhouse.com.

• “The Wizard of Oz” brings the yellow brick road to Yorktown Stage this weekend through Nov. 29. Performances will be at 7 p.m. Saturday; Nov. 21; Nov. 28; at 2 p.m. Sunday; Nov. 22; Nov. 27; Nov. 28 and Nov. 29. $25, $23 for Yorktown residents, $21 for seniors and students 12-22, $19 for children under 12. Yorktown Stage is at 1974 Commerce St., Yorktown Heights. 914-962-0606. www.yorktownstage.org.

• Bronxville High presents Georges Feydeau’s farce “A Flea in Her Ear” at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. (Senior citizens are invited to a free dress rehearsal at 5 p.m. Thursday.) $10 at the door on Friday and Saturday. At 177 Pondfield Road, Bronxville. 914-787-0317.

• Clarkstown High School North’s Cue & Curtain presents the adaptation of Norton Juster’s “The Phantom Tollbooth” Nov. 12, 13 and 20 at 8 p.m. and Nov. 14 and 21 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. It’s the story of Milo and a dog named Tock. With puppets, shadows, lighting effects and scenery. $10. At 151 Congers Road, New City. 845-639-5676.

• Hastings High School presents Neil Simon’s “Rumors” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday. At 1 Mount Hope Blvd., Hastings-on-Hudson. $8, $5 for students, seniors free.

• Pearl River High School’s Class of 2010 presents the senior musical “Grease!” Nov. 13 and 14 at 7 p.m. 845-620-3801.

• Tappan Zee Players present Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labor’s Lost” Nov. 13 and 14 at 8 p.m. $5, $3 for students. Seniors citizens free. At Tappan Zee High School auditorium, 15 Dutch Hill Road, Orangeburg

• White Plains High School presents Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” Nov. 12 at 3:30pm (a free preview performance), Nov. 13 at 7 p.m., Nov. 14 at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets to the Friday and Saturday shows are $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens. In the WPHS Little Theater, 550 North St., White Plains. 914-422-2234.

• Yorktown High School presents “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” with more than 100 Yorktown elementary-schoolers enlisted in the armies of the White Witch and Aslan. $10. At 7:30 p.m. Friday and Sunday; 2 p.m. Sunday. At 2727 Crompond Road, Yorktown Heights.

Theatergoers aren’t allowed to take photographs of performances at Mamaroneck’s Emelin Theatre, but director Vincent Dowling is certain they’ll want to bring their cameras along this week anyway.

After seeing “The Rivalry” — Norman Corwin’s play about the famed 1858 debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas — audiences all over have been pulling out cameras to snap a few photos with the actors after the curtain.

After all, how often do you get to take a photo with Lincoln?

“The Rivalry” comes to the Emelin at 8 p.m. Friday and at 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday.

Dowling & Co. have been touring Corwin’s play for a year now, a year that marks the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth.

The three-person cast includes Christian Kauffmann as Abraham Lincoln, Peter Cormican as “The Little Giant” Stephen Douglas and Mary Linda Rapelye as Douglas’ wife, Adele, who narrates the two-act performance.

“Every word in it is taken from something written at the time,” Dowling says. “There’s no invention of language.”

“They would speak for three hours at a time during the debates,” Dowling says, adding that Corwin, who is now 99 years old “edited brilliantly. I think we do six debates in two hours.”

The debates were far-reaching, touching on the topics of the day, and went a long way to developing Lincoln into a national figure and, three years later, the president.

Corwin’s genius, Dowling says, is his ability to make the debates theatrical within the confines of the language, drawing on the humor and the relationship the two men had. In the end, he says, the character of Douglas is redeemed as a worthy adversary, not a villain.

When he first read the script, during the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, Dowling says he saw strong contemporary parallels for the story.

Dowling, a Dubliner who came to America decades ago from a lifetime position in the National Theater of Ireland, says “The Rivalry” reminds him of the America that drew him here.

“I want every young person to see this, I want every American to see this, those who love America and those who might have fallen out of love with America these last eight years,” he says.

Dowling says he resisted the notion of casting famous actors in the roles, particularly of Lincoln, because he wanted audiences to accept the actor playing him immediately, without seeing a celebrity and thinking “Wow! He’s really good at playing Lincoln,” he says.

With Kauffmann, there’s no disconnect, no transition into accepting him as the future president.

Dowling wanted look-alikes, people immediately believable in the roles.

“You really get the feeling that for two hours you’re living with Lincoln and Douglas,” he says. “And that’s why wherever we go, people want to get photographs with each of the actors.”

Kauffmann, the director says, “brings Lincoln’s person — his physique, philosophy and attitude — right on stage with him.”

“I wouldn’t exchange them for anything except the originals,” says director Dowling.

The Vincent Dowling Theatre Company presents Norman Corwin’s “The Rivalry,” at the Emelin Theatre, 153 Library Lane, Mamaroneck. $40. Group discounts. 914-698-0098. www.emelin.org.

Photo by Peter Williams: The cast of “The Rivalry,” this week at the Emelin Theatre, is, from left: Peter Cormican, Mary Linda Rapelye and Christian Kauffmann.

To coincide with this weekend’s presentation of Norman Corwin’s “The Rivalry”—about the Lincoln-Douglas debates—the Emelin Theatre will have a special exhibit of authentic Lincoln documents and artifacts.

The exhibit has been curated by Seth Kaller, a leading historic document dealer and collection builder. Kaller has handled every Lincoln-signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation to be publicly sold in the last 30 years.

The exhibit will feature a variety of pieces:

The Lincoln-Grimsley Trunk. Just before setting off to begin his presidency, Lincoln deposited his personal effects in this trunk, and left it with Mary Todd Lincoln’s cousin in Springfield.

A page in his Lincoln’s own hand from his final State of the Union Address: “We are gaining strength…”

Lincoln’s “dividers:” The tool he used to plot troop movements on maps during the Civil War, accompanied by Robert Todd Lincoln’s May 1865 letter giving this unique relic to Thomas Eckert, a close Lincoln associate.

Original Harper’s Weekly illustrated newspapers: Including Lincoln’s inauguration, the Emancipation Proclamation, reports on the assassination, etc.

“The Rivalry” will be at the Emelin Theatre, 153 Library Lane, Mamaroneck. 8 p.m. Nov. 13; 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Nov. 14. $40. Group discounts. 914-698-0098. www.emelin.org.