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.

On that cold day, everyone on the Mall — except for those within earshot of the unamplified quartet — heard a recording of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist McGill because the sub-freezing temperatures made it impossible to keep the instruments in tune.

The conditions will be considerably better on Saturday and Nov. 22 when McGill plays with Perlman’s Westchester Philharmonic at Purchase College, McGill chatted about the upcoming concert and other things, recently, including one fact about that cold day that makes people gasp when they hear it.

Q: Well, everyone said the world would change on Jan. 20, 2009. That must have been the case for you and your career.
A: Yeah, it did a bit.

Q: A little easier to get a gig now, I suppose?
A: Since my main gig is at the Met, it’s nice to be able to do other stuff here and there: performances and concertos and recitals. So, yeah, the schedule’s just a little bit tighter now.

Q: Which is a good thing.
A: Most definitely.

Q: What did you make of the mini-controversy about your music being played on tape rather than live at the inauguration? Did you make anything out of that?
A: No I didn’t, actually, because for us it was kind of like a standard kind of thing with the weather being that cold. That’s the only thing you pretty much can do. There aren’t many options besides not performing, which wasn’t an option at all.

Q: Have your fingers thawed out from that? It was a very cold day.
A: It was a very cold day, but that was the farthest thing from my mind. It was so awesome to be there and to experience that day. It was very cool to see all those people out there, pretty amazing.

Q: Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Gabriella Montero. That’s the A-Team. Did you feel like you had been traded to the Yankees when you got the call?
A: Yeah, it was pretty wild. The biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of. I was so honored that Yo-Yo Ma thought of me to do it because we had played together before. It was awesome to be up there with the top musicians in the world.

Q:Did you get to meet the president and first lady?
A: I didn’t. (Laughs.) I did not meet the president. I tell everybody that and they just gasp. But hopefully I will in the future. I have a few more years to try to get on his schedule.

Q: But you do get to see Itzhak Perlman again. Is this the first time you’ll see him since the inauguration?
A: I saw him at a gala for the Westchester Philharmonic, back in the spring. But this will be great, to work with him again.

Q: You’ll be playing the Mozart Clarinet Concerto. It’s a lovely piece but it sounds like it’s a workout.
A: It really is. It has everything. A masterpiece like that, you’re going to have your beautiful slow moments and the workout sections, but it’s all worth it because it’s so beautiful. For a clarinet player, it’s the most beautiful piece ever written. You can’t get much better than that.

Q: Playing with the Met, you play Mozart’s opera music. Is there a big difference between opera music and a concerto?
A: Actually, there is quite a difference. Not so much in the writing or the style — Mozart is Mozart — but playing the solo line, you’re like the singer up on stage in front of the orchestra. It has a lot of similarities, but for me, I’m in a different position, with the spotlight on. It’s pretty great. I love playing in the opera, but I also love soloing with great orchestras like Westchester.

Photo by Katie Colleary: Anthony McGill, the principal clarinetist for The Metropolitan Opera, will reunite with violinist Itzhak Perlman, conductor of the Westchester Philharmonic, for a concerto Nov. 21 and 22  at Purchase College.

What: Westchester Philharmonic, with Anthony McGill, clarinet
When: At 8 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Nov. 22.
Where: The Performing Arts Center Concert Hall at Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase.
Tickets: $25 to $85. Discounts for students, children, groups.
Call: 914-682-3707, Ext. 10
The program: Conducted by artistic director Itzhak Perlman, the program opens with Felix Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, continues with Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and concludes with Schubert’s “Great” Symphony No. 9. A pre-show “Tuning Up” discussion with members of the philharmonic precedes each concert, beginning an hour and 15 minutes before curtain.
Open rehearsal: Free open rehearsal with Perlman and McGill at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Web: www.westchesterphil.org

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.

At Blind Brook High School in Rye Brook, director Christina Colangelo says she chose the play because she appreciated Gibson’s taut script and saw it as a way to showcase the Southern Westchester BOCES Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program, which has been in the district for 30 years.

The program allows students from across the northern suburbs, and as far away as Dutchess County, to study in regular education classes alongside interpreters.

Sophomore Nora Fisher plays Annie Sullivan and senior Jacqueline Mamorsky, an 18-year-old senior who is deaf, plays Helen Keller.

Mamorsky is no stranger to the stage, having appeared in “Stage Door” and “The Crucible.”

Last year, she interpreted the extended “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” ballet in “The King & I,” picking up the cast’s visual cues to translate the show into American Sign Language for an audience of deaf and hard-of-hearing theatergoers.

“She is such an extraordinary actress, I wanted to feature her, so she signed the entire ballet,” says Colangelo.

This year, Mamorsky will be in the middle of the action as Helen.

“A lot of it is Helen’s emotions being expressed through her physical person,” Mamorsky says through interpreter Sheryl Lopez, who works for BOCES in the district. “She was frustrated because she didn’t know how to communicate.”

That’s not Mamorsky’s problem. The senior’s eyes flash and her lips form the words as she signs.

“Helen and I are different because Helen couldn’t hear or see anything.” Mamorsky says. “It was harder for her to learn. I can see, so it’s easier for me, but I can still understand how she feels being frustrated when people don’t understand.”

The role is so physical that even though she has read the script and prepared for it, “it’s draining,” she says.

Fisher, a sophomore, plays Annie Sullivan and has a steep learning curve: Mam­orsky already knows her sign language cold.

“I know the basic alphabet, but the hand motions have to be very precise in order to convey to the audience that I’m spelling to her, as opposed to just us two,” she says.

The lack of dialogue is a challenge, Colangelo says.

“There’s so much time where nothing’s being said,” the director says. “If it’s not done well, the audience will get bored, and if it’s overdone, it’s not realistic. Finding that balance is not easy.”

At a rehearsal last month, Colangelo tells Fisher and Mamorsky they can’t really fake the fact that these characters get into some scrapes.

“Are we prepared for that?” she asks.

Without missing a beat, Mamorsky signs: “I already know what it’s like to get bruises.”

Colangelo talks the actresses through a contentious dinner scene when Helen tries to disrupt Annie’s meal. Six pages of stage directions, each painstakingly planned, are interpreted and understood as the scene takes shape. After walking through it a couple of times, Fisher and Mamorsky fly through it, painting in broad strokes what will take on detail in the rehearsals to follow.

Fisher says the play has a lot of layers to it with deeper meaning if you dig a little.

The cast has been digging.

“Some of the kids are quite good at signing and have taken an interest to better communicate with Jackie and other kids in school,” Colangelo says. “This is one of those great ways to use the theater to get kids excited about something and use it in their everyday lives.”

Mamorsky says that playing all of Helen’s emotions — confusion, joy, sadness, anger, frustration — is difficult, as is staying in character all the time on stage.

When she’s reminded that that’s what actresses do, Mamorsky laughs and breaks out into a big grin.

Yes, that’s what actresses do, she signs.

What: “The Miracle Worker”

Where: Blind Brook High School, 840 King St., Rye Brook.

When: 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday.

Tickets: $10.

E-mail: bbhsdrama@blindbrook.org.

With: Jacqueline Mamorsky, Nora Fisher, Sarah Ackerman, Nick Brascesco, Alyssa Davis, Blythe Duckett, Sydney Grau, Melanie Greenwald, Katie Hanson, Nicole Heney, Julia Joseph, Rachel Joseph, Tyler Ketchabaw, Elana Levy, Diksha Nagia, Lindsay Nuckel, Alyssa Piperis, Karen Rind-Siegel, Jason Rosenzweig, Cynthia Segal, Olivia Weinshank, Sage Yockelson.

Note: ASL interpretation will be provided on Saturday and at an open dress rehearsal at 4 p.m. Friday. When purchasing tickets, alert them If you will be using the ASL interpreter.

***

At Briarcliff High School, director Ian Driver invited two counselors who work with deaf and blind people to meet with his “Miracle Worker” cast last month, early enough in the process to make an impact on how they approached the play.

One of the counselors, Maricar Marquez, is deaf and legally blind. She and her interpreter and friend Susie Morgan Morrow work at the Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youth and Adults on Long Island.

For nearly two hours, Marquez and Morgan Morrow answered students’ questions to give them a glimpse into the world Helen Keller knew.

They sat close together, Marquez’ guide dog at her feet and her left hand cupped over Morgan Morrow’s right hand to feel the sign-language words the interpreter formed.

Driver asked what the most common misperception is about the deaf and blind.

“Helen Keller is the famous name, but if you look at me, I’m nothing like Helen Keller,” said Marquez, a Filipino by birth whose family moved to Canada.

She and her sister were born with Usher syndrome, a condition that causes deafness and leads to gradual vision loss.

There are many causes of deafness and blindness, and life experiences differ, Marquez said, so that is a misperception, that all deaf and blind people are alike.

“I was born deaf, so sign language is my native language like English is yours,” said Marquez, who grew up with sight.

“I could see the stars and all the constellations, but now I don’t know what they are,” she said. “I kind of forgot about the stars.”

Jessica Lynch, the Briarcliff freshman who plays Helen, asked Marquez how she feels when she walks into a new environment.

“If it’s a new place, it’s rather anxiety-ridden and there are challenges involved, but you have to make sure you have back-up strategies if you get turned around or get lost,” she said.

Brandon Epstein, a senior who plays Helen’s father, wondered about the frustration Marquez felt as her blindness set in.

“It was an emotional time, particularly in high school,” she said, “and there was a lot of peer pressure. My friends were getting their drivers’ licenses and I wasn’t. So that was frustrating. Yeah, I was cranky, to say the least.”

A student asked if it was true that losing one sense heightens the others.

“I think so,” Marquez said. “My sense of smell is better. I can recognize scents before sighted people can.”

What is her favorite smell?

“Coffee.”

Then Marquez turned the tables on the group, asking who plays Helen and how she landed the role.

Driver was a bit taken aback, then thought about it.

“I had to think ‘What do we want in Helen Keller? How do we represent her?’ ” he said. “I wanted someone who could express the dangerous emotion that takes place, who was willing to throw things around and get physical. And someone who looked young­er than the rest.”

(Senior Michelle Rubich plays Annie Sullivan.)

Before she left, Marquez taught the Briarcliff actors one theater-related fact: When deaf people like something they see in a theater, they don’t applaud. They stomp their feet.

The group then stomped their feet to thank their guests.

What: “The Miracle Worker”

Where: Briarcliff High School, 444 Pleasantville Road, Briarcliff Manor

When: 7:30 p.m., Nov. 20; 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $12.50 at www.showtix4U.com

E-mail: briarcliffticketsales@gmail.com

With: Rebecca Chalsen, Brandon Epstein, Brian Cipollina, Chloe Effron, Devereaux Elms, Emily Levine, Emma Flihan, Erica James, Jake Chatzky, Jessica Lynch, Jimmy Crowley, Jordan Mendelson, Julie Pitter, Katelyn Wilson, Laura Johnson, Olivia Glass, Michelle Rubich, Nikita Singh, Olivia Rerek, Patrick Davey, Rebecca Milner, Samantha Kahn, Sarah Crosswell, Vanessa Daneshvar, Zarah Kavarana, Elizabeth Chalsen, Matt Kaye.

Watch: Michelle Rubich and Jessica Lynch talk about meeting a deaf-and-blind counselor at www.lohud.com.

Photos by Carucha Meuse/The Journal News

Top: Nora Fisher, center left, and Jacqueline Mamorsky, center right, watch as interpreter Sheryl Lopez, right, signs Christina Colangelo’s direction during a rehearsal of “The Miracle Worker” at Blind Brook High School last month. Mamorsky, a deaf student at Blind Brook, plays Helen Keller.

Second: Jacqueline Mamorsky, left, is Helen and Nora Fisher, right, is Annie in the Blind Brook High School production of “The Miracle Worker.”

Third: Maricar Marquez signs an answer as interpretert Susie Morgan Morrow looks on.

Fourth: Michelle Rubich plays Annie Sullivan at Briarcliff High School.

Bottom: Jessica Lynch plays Helen Keller at Briarcliff High School.

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.

Emelin Theater presents “The Liar Show,” in which the audience must guess which of four stories is fiction. Nov. 19 at 8 p.m. $25. At 153 Library Lane, Mamaroneck. 914-698-0098. www.emelin.org.

Small Town Theatre Company: Small Town Theatre presents A.R. Gurney’s “The Cocktail Hour” Nov. 19 at 8. At Hergenhan Recreation Center, 40 Maple Ave., Armonk. Limited seating. 914-273-0300. www.smalltowntheatre.com.

Bedford Community Theatre presents the musical staging of “A Christmas Carol” — with music by Westchester’s Alan Menken. Nov. 19, 20 and Dec. 3 and 4 at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 21 and Dec. 5 at 3 and 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 22 and Dec. 6 at 3 p.m. At Bedford Hills Community House, 74 Main St., Bedford Hills. $15. 914-244-0474. www.bedfordcommunitytheatre.org.

Penguin Rep presents “De Novo,” written and directed by Jeffrey Solomon at SUNY Rockland Community College Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. $20, $15 for subscribers, students and RCC staff. 845-786-2873. www.penguinrep.org.

Walter Panas High School presents “Godspell” Nov. 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. $10. At 300 Croton Ave., Cortlandt. 914-739-2823, ext. 555.

Scarsdale High School presents “Beauty and the Beast” Nov. 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. The matinee is a special children’s performance, followed by a “Meet and Greet” with the cast. $20, $10 students and seniors. At 1057 Post Road, Scarsdale.

Horace Greeley High School presents Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s “Evita,” Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. $10. At 70 Roaring Brook Road, Chappaqua. 914-861-9425.

Rye Country Day School presents the Andre Gregory’s take on “Alice in Wonderland.” Nov. 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. $5. Rye Country Day is on Cedar Street in Rye.

Fox Lane Players present “The Investigation” Nov. 20, 21 at 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 22 at 1 p.m. $13, $7 for students. Fox Lane High School, Bedford,

Sacred Heart Players at Sacred Heart High School in Yonkers present Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers,” Nov. 20 and 21 at 8 and Nov. 22 at 5 p.m. $10, $8 students and seniors. At 34 Convent Ave., Yonkers. 914-965-6953.

Somers High School presents “M*A*S*H” Nov. 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. $10, $8 for students, $5 presale for students.

New Rochelle High School’s Theatre Works presents Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” Nov. 19, 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. at the Linda Kelly Theater in the high school’s new wing, at the corner of North Avenue and Braemer. $7, $5 for students and seniors.

Archbishop Stepinac High School presents the comedy “My Sister Eileen,” with students from Stepinac, Good Counsel Academy, Maria Regina High School of Hartsdale, Our Lady of Victory Academy and White Plains High School. Nov. 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 22 at 3 p.m. $15, $10 for seniors and children under 12. At 950 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains. 914-946-4800 ext. 359

Pelham Memorial High School’s Sock n Buskin troupe performs “The Grapes of Wrath” Nov. 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. $15, $12. At 575 Colonial Ave., Pelham. 914-738-8110, ext. 1000.

Eastchester High School Players Club presents “While the Lights Were Out,” a murder mystery farce by Jack Sharkey, Nov. 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. $8, $6 students. At 2 Stewart Place, Eastchester.

Harrison High School’s Footlight Players present “The Heiress,” Nov. 20 and 21 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 22 at 2 p.m.  Sunday’s performance will be followed by a talk-back session with the cast and crew.  $10, $5 for students and seniors. 914-630-3110.

Mahopac High School’s Drama Company presents “Footloose,” Nov. 19, 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. At 421 Baldwin Place Road, Mahopac.

Sleepy Hollow High School presents “Bad Seed”  by Maxwell Anderson, a dramatization of the novel by William March, Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 21 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Here’s hoping there isn’t a turkey in the bunch. Bon appetit.

Photo top: Sam Caywood as Juan Peron and Julia Deutsch as Eva Peron in “Evita” at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua. (Photo by Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

Photo middle: The cast of “Godspell” rehearses at Walter Panas High School in Cortlandt Manor. (Photo by Ricky Flores/The Journal News)

Photo bottom: Scarsdale High School’s “Beauty and the Beast” cast at work. (Photo by Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

• 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.

What that “stuff” was, she wasn’t entirely sure.

Now she has an up-close view. This weekend and next, Ochs will play Mona, a West Texas woman whose life was forever changed when James Dean came to town to film “Giant.” (Sandy Dennis played Mona on Broadway and in the 1982 film.)

“My take on it is Mona got hit with a lot of situations that she just couldn’t handle, so she created her own reality,” Ochs says. “And you see the birth of that reality in the play and now this reality is going to crack.”

Director Debbie Levin said Ed Graczyk’s memorable characters – played by young actors “then” and older actors “now” – present “a broad opportunity for the actor and me to explore all the nuances and for me to create an integrated ensemble.”

“It’s about encouraging those relationships, even before we start working on the stage,” Levin says.

The Disciples of James Dean convene at the five-and-dime at 8 p.m. Oct. 16, Oct. 17, Oct. 23 and Oct. 24, at the Melrose School, 120 Federal Hill Road, Brewster. $15, $13 students and seniors.

Call 845-598-1621 or visit www.brewstertheatercompany.org. (The show contains adult language and content.)

“Jimmy Dean” is just one of many theatrical offerings this week. Here’s a sampling of the others.

Croton Falls: The Schoolhouse Theater opens its 11th season with Martin Sherman’s “Rose,” a one-woman show starring Broadway’s Annie McGreevey and inspired by the playwright’s grandmother. From a Ukrainian village to modern-day America, Rose’s journey is comic, tragic and epic. Oct. 15 through Nov. 1. Thursdays through Saturdays at 8; Sundays at 4. On Oct. 18, curtain is at 3, followed by a fund-raiser: a champagne supper and vintage-clothing fashion show. Tickets for the benefit are $100 for subscribers, $125 for non-subscribers. 914-277-8477. www.schoolhousetheater.org.

White Plains: Fort Hill Players present J.B. Priestly’s “An Inspector Calls,” about a British family that has every reason to be happy, until an uninvited guest shows up. Oct. 16, 17, 23 and 24 at 8 p.m., Oct. 17 at 2 p.m. $17, $15 for students and seniors; $8 for children. 914-309-7278. www.forthillplayers.com.

Armonk: Small Town Theatre presents Lee Blessing’s “A Walk in the Woods,” about a cynical Soviet arms negotiator and his young American counterpart. Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. at Hergenhan Recreation Center, 40 Maple Ave., Armonk. Limited seating. 914-273-0300. www.smalltowntheatre.com.

Irvington: The Town Hall Theater’s Clocktower Players bring serious firepower to stoke their theatrical coffers on Oct. 17. Marni Nixon, who lent her voice to some of Hollywood’s golden musicals – singing for Deborah Kerr in “The King & I,” Natalie Wood in “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady” – will headline “Sophisticated Fun,” an evening of cabaret. Also on tap, Broadway stars Cris Groenendaal (“Phantom of the Opera”), Juliet Ewing (“Footloose”), Terri Klausner (“Evita”), Terry Rakov (“Hello, Dolly!”). The evening is flanked by pre- and post-show receptions in the theater, at 85 Main St. Tickets $50-$200 (some include show and post-show reception). 914-591-6602 or www.irvingtontheater.com

Mamaroneck: The Emelin Theatre holds its 2009 benefit Oct. 15 at Beach Point Club, 900 Rushmore Ave., Mamaroneck. Cocktails and a silent auction at 6:30 p.m., dessert, entertainment by the Todd Londagin Five and a program honoring Rita Houston, music director of WFUV.

Kent Lakes: Arts on the Lake presents Harold Pinter’s “The Dumb Waiter,” about hit men waiting to hear about their next job. Michael Frizalone and Paul Jannicola star, directed by Paul Austin. Oct. 16, 17 at 8 p.m., Oct. 18 at 3 p.m. At the 50-seat Lake Carmel Cultural Center (the former Lake Carmel Firehouse), 640 Route 52, Kent Lakes. $12, $10 for members. 845-228-2685 or www.artsonthelake.org.

Purchase Repertory Theatre presents “Lady Windermere” this week, with performances Tuesday through Sunday. Produced by the senior Acting Company, director David Bassuk has moved the action ahead a bit, to 1910-11, a decade after the playwright’s death.

One might consider this a small adjustment, but only if one isn’t a student at Purchase, where the shape of skirt, the taper of a coat and the color of a cravat occupy a great deal of time and research: 1910 is not 1908, nor is it 1912.

Mia Bienovich, a senior from Mount Kisco, designed the costumes for “Lady Windermere.”

“It’s not the 1895 Oscar Wilde world,” she says. “David wanted to set it in a more modern world. So it’s set at the end of the season, 1910 into 1911.”

Can you get that specific?

“Between 1905 and 1914, every year, fashion changed almost completely,” Bienovich says. “You went from the S-curve in 1905 — when women were looking severely altered in how their spine went — to our year, when things are much more tubular.”

Between 1910 and 1912, hobble skirts were in vogue.

They still wore corsets, but this particular time bound women differently.
Bienovich has the actresses in what are called “long-lined corsets,” starting below the bust and extending below the bottom, eliminating curves, making the bust appear larger, and restricting the movement of a woman’s legs.

The result was a sort of penguin walk, Bienovich explains.

“They have to literally hobble a little bit,” she says.

“Lady Windermere’s Fan” involves another type of constriction, a marital one. Faced with suggestions that her husband is being unfaithful, Lady Windermere’s choices are limited: Should she leave him or allow the affair to progress?

Bassuk says the period piece requires a change for actors.

“Their givens are very different,” the director says. “There is the era, the difference between the U.S. and Great Britain, but there’s also the issue of class.

“They’re playing lords and ladies and duchesses and they’re in a society where the middle class and poor folks are not on stage. These are an idle class of British at the end of an empire. That is the greatest challenge.”

Olivia Osol from Southborough, Mass., plays the lady of the title.

“She’s this vulnerable young woman who’s trying to find her place,” Osol says.?“It’s supposed to be her birthday party, but it’s the worst day ever. She goes through a whole life in one night.”

Keren Dukes from Baltimore plays Mrs. Erlynne, the outsider suspected of having a fling with Lord Windermere.

“She’s ahead of the curve, a feminist almost,” Dukes says. “She’s got things planned, but she’s a mystery to all.”

Andrew Barton-Smith from Madison, Wis., plays Lord Windermere, a man who admires his wife’s purity and innocence.

His plans for her birthday ball are ruined with the news about Mrs. Erlynne.
“From then on, it’s damage control, damage control, damage control,” Barton-Smith says.

Chris Thompson, a senior from Santa Cruz, Calif., designed the set for “Lady Windermere,” with different levels and a large archway that is shaped, appropriately, like a keyhole.

Through that keyhole is the modern, expanding world, lit by lighting designer Justin Morris.

As this is 24 hours in the life of Lady Windermere, Morris’ lights tell the time, from day to sunset to the sunrise of another day.

As costumes go to character, Mrs. Erlynne wears a bright red, clinging number that looks nothing like the ladies of society with whom she mingles. She’s a step ahead, Thompson says.

Bienovich agrees: “Mrs. Erlynne is Bohemian — artistic and free — while all others are uptight.”

Collin Schulbaum wanted his sound design to “show that these people lived in a society that was elegant, decadent and also subversive.”

The native of Washington sought just the right songs to set the mood, to cover scene changes and to foreshadows events.

The process was exhausting, until he found a podcast of hundreds of songs from the period. He researched the composers and made his selections.

As seniors, this is the first chance these designers have had to take a design to its full realization: Until now, the work has been in model form, a world of what-if’s. This show is about what now.

“Going from a small rendering to having people blow it up to real size and then having my collaborators’ and friends’ work make it better is why we do what we do,” Thompson says.

Morris, the lighting designer, agrees.

“It’s more satisfying because you’re working with friends and we don’t get to design here till we’re seniors. It’s three years of working our butts off and now we see it on stage. It’s very gratifying.”

Much of design — whether lighting, costumes or set — has to do with color choices.

Thompson says the rich and bold palette was inspired, in part, by a pastry shop and by a particular red velvet cake with a deep red sauce. When Thompson showed Bassuk a photo of that cake, the director knew he was onto something.

“It probably helps that we were meeting at Starbucks and Panera Bread,” Bienovich jokes.

What: “Lady Windermere’s Fan”
When: Oct. 13, 14, 15, 16 at 8 p.m.; Oct. 17 at 2 and 8 p.m.; Oct. 18 at 2 p.m.
Where: Purchase College Performing Arts Center’s black box theater, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase.
Tickets: $20, $15 for seniors and non-Purchase students.
Call: 914-251-6200.
Web: www.artscenter.org.

Photo by Peter Carr/The Journal News: Olivia Osol and Andrew Barton-Smith rehearse a scene from “Lady Windermere’s Fan” at the Purchase Performing Arts Center.

Wiley Hausam hopes so, and he hopes you’ll want the chance to not only see these stars on stage, but mingle with them and others after they perform at Purchase College’s Performing Arts Center.

Hausam, the center’s executive director, has something for pretty much everyone this year, from classical music and dance to film and family programming. For theater, he’s relying on the school’s excellent conservatory.

New this year is a series of post-show meet-and-greet opportunities. Patrons who purchase in advance and pay $100 in addition to the regular ticket price, have the opportunity to meet Patti LuPone on Oct. 3, Lang Lang (Nov. 14), Bill T. Jones (Feb. 12), Pinchas Zukerman (March 14) and the Mark Morris Dance Group (March 19). To make reservations for these special receptions, call Anthony Busti at 914-251-6213.

Hausam has four stages to fill at the sprawling complex on Anderson Hill Road — The Concert Hall, the Recital Hall, the Pepisco Theatre and The Repertory Theatre — in a season that opens next weekend.

For a complete season overview, go to www.artscenter.org, but here are some highlights.

From the world of dance, Rockland resident Bill T. Jones — who choreographed the Tony-winning “Spring Awakening” and brings “Fela” to Broadway this season — has his mind on Abraham Lincoln as well.

On Feb. 12, Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zanes Dance Company will present the New York premiere of the brand-new “Fondly Do We Hope … Fervently Do We Pray,” inspired by the life and legacy of the 16th president.

Also in dance, the Mark Morris Dance Company arrives March 19 with a varied program set to live music.

Among the offerings for children is the age-old story of Jason and the Argonauts, given new life Oct. 18, thanks to Visible Fictions, two actors, many action figures and one golden fleece.

In classical music, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will be at Purchase twice this season. First on Oct. 2 with violinist Janine Jansen and then again with pianist Angela Hewitt on Jan. 31, 2010.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang brings his virtuosity to Purchase Nov. 14, and violinist Pinchas Zuckerman will be here March 14.

Hausam has programmed a series of Sunday afternoon chamber-music concerts: Tokyo String Quartet (Oct. 25); Imani Winds (Dec. 13); and an all-Beethoven program by the Daedalus Quartet (April 11).

Harlan Jacobson continues his Talk Cinema program of new and independent film on select Tuesdays through May.

And Broadway and jazz lovers will get a twofer on April 24 when jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and his wife, Broadway vet Jessica Molaskey make their way up Anderson Hill Road.

In a performance that earned her Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards, LuPone was Mama Rose in “Gypsy” on Broadway.

Eight shows a week, it was her task to sing the Everest of show tunes, “Rose’s Turn,” in which her character – the stage mother to top all stage mothers – finds herself cast aside by her girls.

She wails, she cries, she’s broken, but she emerges defiant in the end.

Quite a song.

“I was exhausted by the end of the run,” says LuPone, who helps to kick off the 32nd season at Purchase College’s Performing Arts Center with an Oct. 3 concert titled “Matters of the Heart.”

She has taken time to decompress from Mama Rose, which closed in January, but she hasn’t stopped singing. She toured Australia with her “Evita” co-star, Mandy Patinkin, and found audiences enthusiastic.

“We’re all the same person,” LuPone says. “It doesn’t matter where we live or the color of our skin. Every audience I’ve ever played to responds the same way. They appreciate the music and the singer.”

At Purchase, she’ll be backed by a five-piece band, but she won’t be taking a turn at “Rose’s Turn.”

“I sing that at some concerts, but not in ‘Matters of the Heart,’” she says.

(Read how you can meet Patti after the show—and season highlights—here.)

Like many singers, LuPone walks around with a trunk full of songs in their head, but she doesn’t sing them on a moment’s notice.

“I have to rehearse and rehearse and rehearse,” says the Tony-winner, who famously played the tuba in John Doyle’s new take on Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” a few seasons back.

“I have all those songs in my head, but I can’t sing them at the drop of a hat. I have to filter through all the lyrics and put everything in order before I sing the song. And that takes rehearsal.”

She has performed her Purchase-bound repertoire before – two hours of songs about love, from “I’m In Love With a Wonderful Guy” and “Hello, Young Lovers” by Rodgers & Hammerstein to Sondheim’s “Not a Day Goes By” and “Being Alive” – but no matter how many times she’s sung them, readying a show still requires rehearsal, she says.

Are there songs she retires, that she won’t sing anymore?

“I won’t sing songs from ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ but that’s about it,” she says.

Why is that?

“Because I don’t like them and I don’t want to sing them,” she says.

LuPone has done a turn on TV, most notably as Libby Thatcher in the long-running “Life Goes On,” and says she’d welcome a return to the small screen, if the right job presented itself.

“I think the worst job in show business is an hour-long show, because you have no life; you’re working 14 to 16 hours a day,” she says. “It’s like making a movie in a week, which is very difficult.”

On the other hand, a half-hour situation comedy is “the most like theater and it’s the easiest job and probably the most rewarding in television-land because you play to a live audience.”

Live audiences at the Ravinia Festival in Illinois have come to expect a summer visit from LuPone. It’s her artistic home away from home, where the actress’ Mama Rose took her first steps toward all those awards.

Next August, LuPone will be back at Ravinia to tackle another role created by Ethel Merman – the first “Mama Rose” – when she and Brian Stokes Mitchell mark the 150th birthday of Annie Oakley with a three-night concert version of Irving Berlin’s “Annie Get Your Gun.”

The festival has allowed her to expand her artistic horizons: This summer, she was featured soloist as music director James Conlon led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the music of Kurt Weill (“Threepenny Opera”).

LuPone is wild about Weill.

“He could write anything and he was a chameleon whose songs sounded French, if he was working with a French lyricist, or German, if he was working with a German. The music is just spectacular.”

The concert got her thinking. She’s planning to approach the Weill estate, to take a crack at the composer’s French cabaret songs, perhaps even making an act of them.

“I would looooooove to do that,” she coos.

Of course, it will require rehearsal.

IF YOU GO
What: Patti LuPone’s “Matters of the Heart”
When: 8 p.m. Oct. 3.
Where: Concert Hall at the Purchase College Performing Arts Center, Anderson Hill Road, Purchase.
Tickets: $82.50, $72.50, $52.50. If you reserve in advance and pay $100 more, you can attend a post-show reception with LuPone.
Call: 914-251-6200.
Web: www.artscenter.org

Here’s a link to the story.

When and where, people wondered, would “Gotta Dance” be screened nearby again?

The answer is Monday (Sept. 21) in Pleasantville at the Jacob Burns Film Center.

The Hollywood Reporter called “Gotta Dance” “a feel-good movie if ever there was one,” adding: “Dori Berinstein’s Gotta Dance … leaves you with that oh-so-rare but genuine warm and fuzzy feeling.” 

And this movie comes with a live performance. After Monday’s 7:30 p.m. screening, I’ll join Berinstein and six members of the NETSational Senior Dance team for a Q&A after the screening.

Bring a friend or several.

Here’s a link to the trailer.

Tickets are $9 for JBFC members, $13 for non-members.

Lennon wants Aery to be an incubator for dramas written, directed and performed by local artists. The 20/20 Play Festival, with funding from the? Putnam Arts Council and co-produced by Philipstown Depot Theater, presents 10 short plays of 20 minutes or less. (Submitted plays were winnowed down to 20 and 10 were chosen for performance.)

Cash prizes?  totaling up to $1,000 will be awarded in various categories.

Friday, Sept. 4 at 8 p.m.: Senior Moment, Le Bastille, Not Here, First Meeting, Soprano’s Garage Sale

Saturday, Sept. 5 at 8 p.m.: The Happy Couple, What’s In A Name, Parabolas, Tricky Secrets, The Concert

JUDGING – Audience will receive ballots with all plays performed on that performance date.  Each audience member will vote for two (2) favorites – ballots will not be given out until after the final performance on that date.  The play with the most votes on each date will move onto finals weekend – announced directly after performance votes are tallied.  A panel of judges will vote in the same manner, moving on one play from each of Friday and Saturday’s performances.  The six plays not selected by the audience/judging panel will be asked to come back on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. for a “Wild Card” performance.  Audience/judging panel will choose two plays to move on to finals weekend.  A total of six plays from the opening weekend will move onto the finals weekend.

FINALS WEEKEND – Three shows will be performed on Friday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. Voting will be the same as opening weekend – audience votes for two, judges vote for two – highest vote-getters on each night will determine the four plays to move onto the finals on Sunday afternoon at 4:00 PM.  Audience/judging panel will vote for Best Play after the Sunday performance.  Best Direction, Best Actress and Best Actor will be selected by the judges.  Awards ceremony immediately follows vote tallying.