The Cast of

(FEMALE VERSION)

THE CAST

Standing: Ed Neiman, Cynthia Petronis, Heidi Wittchen, Mike Wolske
Sitting: Bea Girard, Tami Cribbs, Nicole Murphy, Bonnie McClements

CYNTHIA PETRONIS is OLIVE MADISON

Considered SPAO’s Queen of Accents she played a cute petite blonde British speaking Pigeon sister in our original "The Odd Couple" ten years ago.  For the female version Cynthia adds to her many memorable characterizations she has brought to SPAO by playing Olivia Madison, the slovenly lead character.   In her pre-dinner theater years she played Cherie in “Bus Stop” and Purity Dean in “Pure As The Driven Snow”. She began her dinner theater appearances in the first SPAO dinner theater, “Poisoned Pawn”.  Her personal favorite role was the mischevious, cockney, con artisit  cook in “Don’t Dress For Dinner”.  Her other dinner theater appearances include, “Full Moon”, “Moon Over Buffalo”, “Murder By Mistake”, “Lunch Hour”, “Don’t Drink The Water”, “Steel Magnolias”, “The Solid Gold Cadillac”, “Lover’s Leap”, and last fall's "Eat Your Heart Out".  Cynthia has also appeared for the Schuylerville Players and the Round Lake Summer Theater in “Mornings At Seven” and in “The Miss Firecracker Contest”, taking the lead as Carnell also at Round Lake.  SPAO’s current treasurer, Cynthia has worked in just about every area of community theater from pouring coffee to executive producer to lead actress.  A Mechanicville mail carrier, Cynthia resides in Stillwater with her actor/director husband Jerry.

  HEIDI WITTCHEN is FLORENCE UNGER

Heidi is the President of the Stillwater Players Among Others.  She started with the Players six and a half years ago when she was cast as the 70 year old noisy neighbor in "Murder by Mistake".  Since then Heidi has had her hands in every production. She’s done it all, almost.  Heidi has been a props mistress, designed, built and decorated sets to her hearts content.  She has even been an Assistant Director for a couple of shows.  Her credits include set construction, scenic, and props for "Arsenic and Old Lace"; "Over the River and Through the Woods"; "Lunch Hour"; "Don’t Drink the Water" (also the Assistant Director); "Kiss or Make Up"; "Steel Magnolias"; "A Bad Year for Tomatoes"; "The Solid Gold Cadillac"; "Lover’s Leap" (also the Assistant Director); and  "Everybody Loves Opal".   In "The Foreigner", Heidi played the Female lead and also designed, built, and decorated the set.  Last fall Heidi decorated and procured the props for "Eat Your Heart Out".  Adding to her list of credits, Heidi decorated the set you see before you tonight.   Heidi resides in Mechanicville with her husband of twenty years, Scott, and their two children.

 MIKE WOLSKE is JESUS COSTAZUELA
In Mike’s first two appearances with SPAO, his characters had no lines.  It was not until “The Sunshine Boys” that he finally spoke on stage, albeit only three lines.  Since then, Mike has taken on many roles for SPAO, from the young panicky lover Paul Bratter in “Barefoot in the Park” to the dastardly Krojack in “Don’t Drink the Water.“ His other SPAO credits include our original “The Odd Couple” of '97, “Divorce Southern Style”, “Full Moon”, “Murder By Mistake”, “All in the Timing, Among Others”, “Arsenic and Old Lace”, “Moon Over Buffalo”, “Over the River and Through the Woods”, “The Foreigner”, "Kiss or Makeup", "Everybody Loves Opal" and played the lead in last fall's "Eat Your Heart Out".  Mike has also performed with other area groups, including The Nickel & Dime Players, Albany Civic Theater, Round Lake Summer Theater, and the Schenectady Civic Players, where he appeared in the co-lead as The Young Writer in Tennessee Williams’ self portrait “Vieux Carre”.  Mike originally from Stillwater now resides in Mechanicville.

  ED NIEMAN is MANOLA COSTAZUELA
Ed joined SPAO in 1996 working behind the scenes for “Barefoot In The Park”.  A former SPAO president and current board member, "Community Theatre Ed" enjoys all aspects of the performing arts. Off stage he’s worked as an executive producer, back stage manager, special effects designer, sound designer, musical editor, sound system operator, web site programmer and set designer/builder. He designed and built the set for last fall's “Eat Your Heart Out”.  His on stage credits began with Vinny the sun burned poker player in our original “The Odd Couple”.  Since, he has appeared in SPAO's “Moon Over Buffalo”, “All In The Timing”, “Rumors”, “Arsenic and Old Lace”, “Murder By Mistake”, "The Foreigner" (lead), “Kiss or Make Up”, “The Solid Gold Cadillac”, “Lover’s Leap”(lead), and last fall's "Eat Your Heart Out".  Ed is an accomplished bass guitarist and song writer.   His original piece, “Is Love An Illusion”, became the theme song for SPAO’s “Arsenic and Old Lace”.  By trade, an estimate/project manager for Selby and Smith Sheet Metal, the very talented Ed resides in Stillwater.

  BEA GIRARD is VERA

Bea has been delighting audiences with her characterizations since she made her acting debut as Mr. DePina, the little Italian ice man in "You Can't Take It With You", SPAO's first community theatre production presented at the highschool. She considers that role as one of her most enjoyable and creative roles. Bea also appeared in "Mousetrap", "Blithe Spirit", "Harvey" and, "Pure as the Driven Snow"  at the high school for SPAO.  Her SPAO dinner theatre shows include "All in the Timing", "Moon Over Buffalo", "A Bad Year For Tomatoes", the irate French chef of  "Don't Drink the Water" and the hilarious curmudgeon Ouizer in SPAO's hit  "Steel Magnolias".   Bea's leads include  Aunt Abby in "Arsenic and Old Lace"  and Aida Gianelli in "Over The River and Through The Woods".  She has also been seen on the stages of The Round Lake Auditorium and The Schuylerville Community Theater in "Mornings at Seven",  The Albany Civic Theater in "Impassioned Embraces" and The Schenectady Civic Theater in "The Crucible".  Believe it or not, a couple of summers ago, Bea sang the role of the French countess in Victor Herbert's operetta, "The Red Mill" at Russel Sage's Little Theater.  Bea, a past SPAO president, resides in Stillwater with set designer husband Paul.

  NICOLE MURPHY is MICKEY The Cop

The Stillwater Players Among Others welcomes Nicole to the stage in her first substantial speaking part, although she is no stranger to the SPAO.  Nicole started acting with the Stillwater High School Drama Society in 1992.  She appeared in a major character role as Miss Marion Wilcox in "George Washington Slept Here" and worked as Assistant Director to Lori Andrews Lester's production of "Cheaper By The Dozen".  As a 15 year old in 1992, she joined SPAO and took any available job.  She was a stage hand for "Our Town", one of the wives in "The King And I", and Ursula the maid in "The Sound of Music".  In   SPAO adult productions she was part of the lunatic band of "Dracula", a passenger and reporter in "Heaven Can Wait", a KKK member in "The Foreigner" and Countess Bordoni in "Don’t Drink the Water". Strange as it may seem, none of these parts had speaking lines. Well, the Countess did say ‘thank you”.  She has served as backstage manager, props mistress, and just about any other job where a willing hand was needed.  After gaining experience as an assistant director of SPAO's "Steel Magnolias", she went on to direct the SPAO productions of "A Bad Year For Tomatoes" and "Everybody Loves Opal".  Nicole has a daughter, Aubrey, who is a first grader at MechanicvilleElementary  School.

BONNIE McCLEMENTS IS SYLVIE

Bonnie has been a member of The Stillwater Players Among Others since 1990 and has held various offices in the organization including President.  She first appeared on the SPAO stage in “Play It Again Sam” and returned in “Pure As The Driven Snow”  She also appeared as Maid Marion, a spoof that SPAO performed for Stillwater Family Day.  In the SPAO production of "The Odd Couple" in 1997, she was one of the Pigeon sisters.  For the past several years Bonnie has worked as stage manager and lighting technician for most SPAO dinner theater shows.  Bonnie's entire family is involved with SPAO.  She is married to David, who has performed as an SPAO pre-show entertainer.  Her daughter Amy and son Jason have appeared on the SPAO dinner theater stage , as well as her granddaughter, Brittany.  Bonnie is the mother of four and the grandmother of eight and resides in Stillwater.

  TAMI CRIBBS is RENEE

The Stillwater players welcome Tami as she debuts on the SPAO stage. Tami is no stranger to the world of theater, having appeared in productions of “Oklahoma”, “Hello Dolly”, “Bye Bye Birdie”, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and “Night of The Iquina”. While serving as a Corpsman in the Navy she took a variety of theater courses at the Junior College of California, College of Charleston and College of Marin, in South Carolina.  She has done modeling for commercial  clothing catalogs as well as radio commercials. Equally impressive is the fact that she has studied opera for several years.  Tami lives in Stillwater  with her husband Jason and three children, Zachary, Alexandria and Blake. A stay at home Mom, she operates her own computer business  “Trade to Travel”,  a program that arranges mutual vacation house exchanges.

LINDA YURSCHAK DIRECTOR

Theater got into Linda’s blood with her appearance on stage in SPAO’s first production of “You Can’t Take It With You” in 1989 as the Countess Olga Katrina. Thus began a passion that has led Linda to many “firsts” with SPAO.  As a founding member of SPAO she has worn  many hats--author of several segues and preludes, lobby design, prop mistress, back stage hand, stage manager, on stage actress, producer, ticket taker and director.   Linda is our only member to serve two full two-year terms as SPAO president.  This is Linda's tenth show that she has directed for SPAO.  Her first, ironically, was the original version of "The Odd Couple".  Linda was the first to introduce filmed segments as a part of her production of “The Solid Gold Cadillac”.  A mother of three, grandmother to one and now retired, Linda recently moved back to the Town of Stillwater, home of her beloved SPAO Community Theater which she’s proudly been a major part of for over eighteen years.

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