Harbinger Theater’s Into the Breeches!  Celebrates the Strength and Resolve of Women

The play Into the Breeches!  by George Brant is appropriately named.  The play, based on a true story, takes place in 1942 and the majority of the men in town are overseas fighting in World War II.

Yearning to keep the arts alive as a way to help support the troops, Maggie Dalton, wife of the long-time director of the Oberon Play House, is determined to produce an all-women Henriad (Shakespeare’s Henry IV and Henry V) and keeping the theatre open despite the lack of men. What results is an unlikely group of women, donning those breeches and masterfully stepping into the breach left by the absent men.

Maggie skillfully recruits the theatre’s diva, Celeste Fielding, and convinces Mr. Ellsworth Snow, the theatre’s board president, to proceed with the idea and to even allow his wife, Winifred, to play a role.  Maggie now has the board backing she needs and assembles an unexpected team united in their commitment to undertake the unimaginable. The women (and one man!) make their way through rehearsals, embracing the artistic challenges that arise along the way.  The play reminds the audience of the women’s contributions to the war effort, and includes somber moments where the women reveal their concern for their husbands.  Their resolve doesn’t falter, and Maggie and the cast push forward—finding strength in each other and their common purpose. While the play unfolds, Maggie and her cast tackle something even greater –  societal inequities.  Through reason and empathy, the production helps the theatre, and the board president, address societal inequality that has even found itself on the Oberon Play House Stage – and is reflected in the lives of so many.

The eight person cast should be congratulated!  Josephine E. Tracey (Maggie) and Laura Darling (Celeste) anchor this show.  Tracey’s Maggie is sincere, genuine, and a joy.  Her transformation from doting and supportive wife to fully realized woman is splendid.  And her singing of Amapola during the play is divine.  Darling’s Celeste has perfect comedic timing coupled with real depth.  Her revolutionary moment of requesting equal pay for equal work was magnificent!  Monet Thompson-Young (Ida) delivers a poignant reminder of the sacrifice, strength, and bravery of black women in our history and their role in our present and future.  Patrick “Crue Steele” Fiaschetti (Stuart) supports the all-female cast, and is both funny and heartwarming.  Richard Cross (Ellsworth Snow) and Jackie DeGiorgis (Winifred Snow) deliver some of the funniest scenes in the show.  They are a treat to watch!  Molly Waters (Grace) and Medline Brogan (June) are simply remarkable.  Their women are strong, involved, self-actualized, and are a harbinger of what is to come when the men return home.

Director Lauren D’Annibale did a wonderful job finding the right balance between levity and seriousness, crafting a production with the right balance of props and set while addressing the challenges of a production at The Barn, and making sure that all of the actors were heard!

The crew should also be acknowledged for their great contributions:

Shaya Reyes (Stage Manager), Barbara Neu Berti (Costume Designer), Laura Darling and Shaya Reyes (Lighting Design and Light Board  and Sound Board Operator), Set Design (T.J. Collins-Gutierrez), Marjorie Geiger (House Manager), Marc Christopher (Poser Artwork), Maureen Aumand (Media Outreach), Kayla DeMicco (PR Coordinator), and Chris Foster (Producer).

Of special note is Joshua Horowitz’s nostalgic sound design.  Horowitz borrowed heavily from the songbook of Vera Lynn – transporting the audience into the arms of WWII America.

For those who don’t know, Vera Lynn’s career spanned seven decades, but it was her World War II–era songs like “We’ll Meet Again” and “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover” that made her a cultural icon by providing comfort to soldiers during WWII. “My songs reminded the boys what they were really fighting for” she once said. “Precious personal things rather than ideologies.”  In 1978, when Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters was writing The Wall, which was partially inspired by his father’s death in the war, his thoughts turned to Vera Lynn and how she embodied a very different time in England’s history.  The ballad “Vera,” is midway in the album, when disillusioned rock star Pink, comes across the World War II movie The Battle of Britain on the television.

“Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?” he sings. “Remember how she said that/We would meet again/Some sunny day?/Vera, Vera/What has become of you?” (Source: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/vera-lynn-pink-floyd-the-wall-roger-waters-1019306/)

Check out Horowitz’s entire playlist for the production.  Preshow and intermission music highlighted the following Vera Lynn recordings:

• As Time Goes By
• Harbour Lights
• Dream
• A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
• Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart
• I’ll Be Seeing You
• Lili Marlene
• Medley – A Pair of Silver Wings / Silver Wings in the Moonlight / Comin’ in on a Wing and a Pray’r
• Medley – If I Only Had Wings / The Badge from Your Coat / Roll out the Barrel
• Medley – When the Lights Go on Again / I’ll Pray for You / We’ll Meet Again
• Room Five-Hundred-And-Four
• The Windsor Waltz Walk
• With Faith In Your Heart
• Drifting and Dreaming
• Travellin Home

Horowitz used the following songs for his scene transition pieces:

• Moonlight Serenade – Glenn Miller
• Pride of Place – Elliot H. Smith
• Castle of Dreams – Glen Gray & The Casa Lorna Orchestra
• Kenny Sargeant Stardreams (Theme) – Charlie Spivak & His Orchestra
• Dipsy Daisie – Elliot H. Smith
• Red Sails in the Sunset – Bert Ambrose
• Liza – Benny Goodman
• Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye – Vera Lynn
• Ballet Sketch – Joseph Engleman
• I’ll See You In My Dreams – Django Reinhardt
• Laura – 78rpm Version – Sidney Bechet Quartet
• LavenderTime – Ezea Jenkinson
• Amapola – Ennio Morricone

The cast came out for their bows to We’ll Meet Again – Vera Lynn, Sailors, Soldiers & Airmen of Her Majesty’s Forces, Roland Shaw and his Orchestra

Vera Lynn says it best:  “We can’t change the past but we can learn from history and remember the important things – the sacrifices our loved ones made, and the price of our freedom today.”  Into the Breeches! reminds the audience to do just that – while spreading smiles across their faces.  Go see this show to remind you how a community can lift each other up and how a community can make small but significant societal changes – one pair of breaches at a time.  One theater production at a time.

Into the Breeches! by George Brant is at the Albany Barn from November 8, 9, 14,15, and 16 at 7:30 pm.  A talkback with the director and cast will be held after each of the Friday night performances.

The Albany Barn is located at 56 2^nd Street, Albany, New York.  Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at Harbinger’s Eventbrite here:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/into-the-breeches-by-george-brant-tickets-1013661547977

Photos by David Quinones Jr.