The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Ted Waddell

James Sullivan as “Stanley” and Dana Preibe as “Winnie” meet “Buster,” portrayed by Valerie Mansi (center).

LIBERTY – “Not Much to Say” a new play in three scenes by Paul Austin, founder and artistic director of the intimate-space Liberty Free Theatre, where the motto is “everyone welcome, always”, debuts this week for a run of eight performances.

“Not Much to Say” takes double billing along with Ara Watson’s acclaimed “Final Placement”, in Austin’s words about “Final Placement,”  “It is brutally candid and profoundly compassionate as it investigates the confrontation between a social worker and a young mother whose child has been taken away from her.”

In explaining the back story of “Not Much to Say,” Austin said he penned it as a homage to Nobel Laureates Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. “When I was a young actor in the late 1950s and early 60s, Beckett and Pinter were just arriving in young theatre peoples’ awareness, and it was a real eye-opener for me,” he recalled.

“They were new authentic voices in a time of seminal changes…you couldn’t articulate it, but you could feel it, it did something to you, and it opened up a new way of thinking and looking at the world.”

As young actors ‘world turned’, Austin said the works of the two post-atomic era playwrights caused them to view the world at large as “at once more fascinating and more frightening…the realization that death is inevitable, and both these writers helped us accept that. They were the playwrights of the vast empty wasteland of nuclear disaster,” he added. “It’s not all Norman Rockwell paintings.”

“Not Much to Say” is a comedy caper with a dark side about a couple of young lovers nabbed stealing money from an “important person” a sinister presence who settles scores with a silenced semi-automatic pistol. As Austin fleshed out the characters and pared the dialogue to one-word-at-a-time, he selected their stage names based upon associations to Beckett and Pinter.

“Buster” is a sinister spectre portrayed by Valerie Mansi, and the character was named after Buster Keaton, who Beckett “considered one of the great comic artists of our time.”

Mansi has appeared at Liberty Free Theatre in “Goods & Guns,” “Off the Wall” and “The Universal Wolf”, along with productions staged by Way Off Broadway and RISE’s “The Vagina Monologues.” She studied at HB Studio in New York City, and recently participated in a staged reading of Andy Bloch’s “The Bellflower Sessions,” alongside Forbes March, Paula Ewin and T.J. Johnson.

“Buster’s” two henchmen, “Hal” played by Tom DelFavero and Michael “Friz” Frizalone as “Sam” derive their stage names from Pinter and Beckett, respectively.

DelFavero is making his debut at Liberty Free Theatre and takes to the stage with acting credits including roles with the Sullivan County Dramatic Workshop such as  “Oliver!,” “Veronica’s Room,” “Noises Off,” “Dial M for Murder” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” He is a guitarist and vocalist with The Vantwistics, and is working on his second album of original music.

Frizalone is an actor/writer/singer, and has performed on stage from Bangor, Maine to New York City. He recently played in a new film by Peking Productions that was filmed locally, and his work at the Liberty Free Theatre includes “Goods & Guns,” “Off the Wall,” “Kinfolks and Mountain Music” and this season’s acclaimed “The Dumbwaiter”.

Priebe in the role of “Winnie,” in homage to a female lead in Beckett’s “Happy Days,” is a regular at the Liberty Free Theatre, where she has been seen in “Face Divided,” “Betrayed by Everyone,” “The Person I Once Was,” “Why We Have a Body,” and Rilla Askew’s “By the Time We Got to Woodstock.”

Sullivan appears as “Stanley,” in a character named after a male lead in “The Birthday Party” by Pinter, and in “Not Much to Say,” is making his sixth appearance at LFT, where he is well remembered for his leading performance in “The Death of Bessie Smith.” He played opposite Rebecca Robbins in Sullivan County Dramatic Workshop’s award-winning production of “Proof,” and he has received a TANYS (Theatre Association of New York State community theatre award) for his role as Nick in “Over the River and Through the Woods.”

Other notable roles include Billy Einhorn in “House of Blue Leaves,” Jonathan in Way Off Broadway Too’s “Dracula,” and for the Little Victory Players, the portray of Christian in “Cyrano deBergerac.” Film credits include an appearance in Ron Littke’s “Murder at the Stone Arch Bridge,”  and in Littke’s radio play “No U Turn.”

“Not Much to Say” is not recommended for kids or folks with overly sensitive ears, as the terse language is at times a bit salty.

Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at
3:00 p.m., December 3-6, and December 10-13. Seating is limited, so reservations are recommended. For information/reservations, call 292-3788. The Liberty Free Theatre is located at 109 South Main Street, Liberty, NY.

To view more photos or to purchase prints from Paul Austin’s “Not Much to Say” Debuts at LFT visit the Chronicle on Zenfolio.