“A CHRISTMAS CAROL” FLIES ON GHOSTLY WINGS INTO HARTFORD STAGE

Now that Thanksgiving is over, the turkey and stuffing and marshmallow sweet potato soufflé just delicious memories, it’s time to turn your attention to the next big holiday on the calendar:  December 25.  To help you get in the festive mood, there is no better incentive than Hartford Stage’s annual Yuletide tradition:  Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol A Ghost Story of Christmas” until Friday, December 30.

Lightning, thunder, fog and a gaggle of ghosts welcome you to this haunting tale of one Ebenezer Scrooge, a man who clearly was born without a holly twig of Christmas spirit.  Scrooge, delightfully portrayed by a twinkle eyed Bill Raymond. is the original Bah Humbug curmudgeon who finds nothing of favor about this red, green and mistletoe wrapped day.

This Christmas Eve marks seven years since Scrooge’s business partner Jacob Marley (Noble Shropshire) has died.  Marley’s ghost has appeared to warn Scrooge that there is still time to avoid his fate, to redeem himself and choose to enjoy life and mankind.  To that end, Marley is sending Scrooge three apparitions at 1 a.m., 2 a.m. and 3 a.m.  The Spirit of Christmas Past (Johanna Morrison) reveals his childhood and shows him all he once had and all he lost.  Next the Spirit of Christmas Present (Alan Rust) shows Scrooge all that is within his grasp to enjoy while the Spirit of Christmas Future (Michael Preston) uncovers what will happen if Scrooge does not change his miserly ways.

As the hands of time spin, Scrooge realizes he can change the shadows, give his clerk Bob Cratchit (Robert Hanson Davis) and his crippled son Tiny Tim (Lorenzo Dalton/Ethan Pancoast) a future, reconcile with his nephew Fred (Michael Bakkensen) and reward his housekeeper Mrs. Dilber (Noble Shropshire/Robert Hanson Davis) for her years of loyal service. Maxwell Williams directs this huge cast of talented actors in this marvelous Christmas tale, with lighting effects by Robert Wierzel, costumes by Zack Brown and the role of Scrooge also being played by Gustave Johnson at school morning performances.

For tickets ($24-69), call Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford at 860-527-5151 or online at www.hartfordstage.org.  Performances are Wednesday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday.  Additional holiday matinees at 2 p.m. are Friday, December 23, Monday, December 26, Tuesday, December 27, Wednesday. December 28 (no evening show) and Friday, December 30. Special events like Santa Saturdays (December 10 and 17), Character Brunches  (Sunday, December 11) Family fun Night (Thursday, December 15) and Behind the Magic (Sunday, December 18) are also planned.

Watch this Currier and Ives Christmas card come to life as snowflakes fall and one man’s hard heart melts.

DOWNTOWN CABARET THEATRE STAGES A PAIR OF POPULAR TRIBUTE PERFORMANCES

The Downtown Cabaret Theatre of Bridgeport has gone out of its way to stage a fantastic holiday celebration for your enjoyment and pleasure:  tributes to both Simon and Garfunkel and Neil Diamond.  How special is that?

The singer-songwriting duo of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel began way back in elementary school when the pair appeared on stage in “Alice in Wonderland” with Simon as the White Rabbit and Garfunkel as the Chehire Cat.  They grew up a few blocks from each other in Forest Hills, Queens, New York and began their career together as “Tom and Jerry” in 1957.  They went on to have many big hits in the 1960’s but experienced their own personal “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” in 1970 when they broke up for the first time.  Since then they have reunited once a decade to perform such hits as “I Am a Rock,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “Homeward Bound,” “The Sound of Silence,” “Feeling Groovy,” “Cecilia” and “Scarborough Fair.”

A chance meeting in 1991 at a club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania brought A. J. Sweringen and Jonathan Beedle together and they have been blending their unique sound ever since in this “Simon and Garfunkel Retrospective,” a return engagement, Friday, December 2 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, December 3 at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, December 4 at 5 p.m.  Tickets are $33.50 and may be obtained by calling The Downtown Cabaret Theatre, 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport at 203-576-1636 or online at dtcab.org.  Remember to bring snacks and drinks to share at your table.  A guarded parking lot is just around the corner.

Neil Diamond, hailing from Brooklyn, New York, started out as a fencer who wanted to find a cure for cancer.  He detoured along the way and sold 115 million records worldwide. As a legendary singer-songwriter, he has penned such hits as “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” “Cracklin’ Rose.” “I’m a Believer,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Desiree,””Love on the Rocks,” “Yesterday’s Songs” and “Heartlight.”  In last week’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, he appeared on a float of Mt. Rushmore singing “America” and “Sweet Caroline.”

Don’t worry if you missed him because Tom Sadge, a remarkable vocal impressionist and disc jockey, has perfected his Neil Diamond over the last fourteen years and will present him in a tribute concert on Saturday, December 17 at 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. in a 75 minute show with no intermission.  Tickets are $37-47 and may be obtained by calling 203-576-1636 or online at dtcab.org.

Tom Sadge did his first impression of Neil Diamond at the age of ten, singing “Solitary Man” and he hasn’t looked back since.  Watch how A.J., Jonathan and Tom have perfected their impressions of these musical legends. Be there or be square…or diamond shaped.

“SMOKEY JOE’S CAFÉ” IS A MUST SEE VISIT THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

You may not recognize the names Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, prolific songwriters, but you will surely know their tunes.  Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury wants to reacquaint you with their musical magic until Sunday, December 18 when it delivers for your listening pleasure “Smokey Joe’s Café,”  a wonderful catalogue of rock and roll, rhythm and blues and pop standards.

Called the inventors of rock and roll, Leiber and Stoller are the musical parents of the baby-boomer generation and they are credited with such tunes as “Neighborhood,” “Dance with Me,” “Kansas City,” “Fools Fall in Love,” “On Broadway” and “Stand by Me.”

The talented cast of nine includes Paul Aguirre, Christopher Brasfield, Bobby Gouse, Monica Heuser, Sarah Ledtke, John Lynes, A’Lisa D. Miles, Housso Semon and Nicholas Ward and they belt out the melodies while executing a delightful series of coordinated dance steps arranged by choreographer Janine Molinari.

Comical numbers like “Searchin’ ,” “Poison Ivy,” “Don Juan,” “D. W. Washburn,” “Yakety Yak,” and “Charlie Brown” are done with tongue-in-cheek humor and verve.  Elvis is clearly in the house for tunes like “Hound Dog,” “Loving You” and “Jailhouse Rock.”

Romance is in the air with songs like “Treat Me Nice,” “Love Potion #9,” “There Goes My Baby” and “Spanish Harlem,” while tunes like “Teach Me How to Shimmy,” “Little Egypt,” and “I’m a Woman” capitalize on feminine strengths and skills.

The music team who wrote together for more than 50 years created hits for The Coasters, The Drifters, Ben E. King as well as for “the King” and many girl groups.  They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Let director Semina De Laurentis conduct this personal tour of Leiber and Stoller’s greatest hits.

For tickets ($25-42), call the Seven Angels Theatre, One Plank Road, Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury at 203-757-4676 or online at www.sevenangelstheatre.org.  Performances are Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

No plans yet for New Year’s Eve?  Laugh in 2012 with Seven Angels when they bring in four New York comedians for two shows Saturday, December 31 at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m..  The second show includes appetizers and champagne.  Call the box office for ticket information.  Lower prices are available before December 1.

For the kids, think pink with “Pinkalicious,”  a story about a little girl who learns a lesson about indulging in too much of a good thing.  Shows are Thursday and Friday, December 1 and 2 at 10 a.m.  Tickets are $8 for students and teachers and $10 for adults.

Be prepared to dance up and down the aisles of Seven Angels as this heavenly music takes wing.

CATHY RIGBY AS PETER PAN IS STILL FLYING HIGH

Cathy Rigby is proud to say she’ll never grow up.  At almost sixty years of age, she is still like the trim athletic gymnast who participated in and won high scores in the U. S. Olympics from 1968 until her retirement in 1972.  As the fearless flying, ever youthful Peter Pan, she has spent two decades soaring over the crowds, crowing with pride and sprinkling fairy dust freely.

Capture the magical adventure once again as Cathy Rigby flies into Hartford’s Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in “Peter Pan the Musical” until Sunday, November 27, with music by Mark Charlap, Jules Styne and Carolyn Leigh.  This classic tale by J. M. Barrie is stuffed with memorable moments:  front and center is a mischievous lad who refuses to leave childhood, who shepherds his crew of Lost Boys on a remote island called Neverland, a space populated by pirates, Indians, fairies and even the occasional mermaid and crocodile.

To Neverland, Peter entices Wendy Darling and her brothers John and Michael to join him on his flying adventures, for he wants Wendy to be “mother” to his tribe of orphans.  Peter has a protective fairy named Tinker Bell who looks out for his well being, in addition to a fierce and frightening enemy named Captain Hook, who in turn has a sniveling sidekick Smee.

Once Peter spirits Wendy and her siblings out of the window of their London home, away from the guardianship of their faithful dog Nana, they are caught up in a series of special encounters that test their mettle and provide chills and thrills.

For tickets ($17-68), call the Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford at 860-987-5900 or online at www.bushnell.org.  Performances are tonight at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Let the energetic and effervescent Ms. Rigby add sizzle to your Thanksgiving holiday with this wonderful family treat, one where you don’t have to worry about counting the calories.

“CITY OF ANGELS” A CLEVER AND COLORFUL STORY IN A STORY

Clever and creative color and lighting characterize the current Goodspeed Musicals’ production of “City of Angels” shining brilliantly on stage until Sunday, November 27.  As a contrast of film noir, in black and white and grey, with blazing Technicolor, it is a unique story within a story, featuring music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel and book by Larry Gelbart.

1940’s Hollywood never looked so glamorous, sultry and smoky as when D. B. Bonds’ fiction writing Stine starts pounding his typewriter keys to create his alter ego, the gumshoe, shamas, detective solving man of darkness and danger, Stone, a chisel-jawed Burke Moses.  The worlds of these two men, one real and one fictional, collide amazingly as captured by director Darko Tresnjak.

As Stine writes and rewrites the screenplay adaptation of his best selling hero private dick, both worlds occupy the stage in a dizzying contrast made memorable by John Lasiter’s special lighting techniques.  David P. Gordon’s opening and closing louver blinds bookcase the action effectively.

In Stine’s realm, he deals with his demanding, overbearing producer Buddy Fidler (Jay Russell), his somewhat supportive wife Gabby (Laurie Wells) and Buddy’s girl Friday Donna (Nancy Anderson).

For Stone, he has his new client Alaura Kingsley (Liz Pearce) who hires him to find her missing stepdaughter Mallory (Kathleen Rooney) and protect her from her sinister stepson Peter (Allen E. Read).  Stone also has to be careful of the thugs who are out to hurt him (Jerry Gallagher and Spencer Rowe) and a cop (Danny Bolero) who has a serious grudge against him.

The actors crossover between the two plots, supporting each story’s mystery and mayhem, romance and rousing ramifications.  As the writing progresses, hits roadblocks, is detoured by the manipulative Fidler, the film winds up in fits and starts and turns toward its inevitable conclusion.  The action is fast paced, a blend of murder, muggings, marriages gone awry and marvelous music.  Songs like “The Tennis Song,” “You’re Nothing Without Me,” “You Can Always Count on Me” and “Double Talk” help propel the action.

For tickets ($28-72), call Goodspeed Musicals, on the Connecticut River, East Haddam at 860-873-8668 or online at www.goodspeed.org. Performances are Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., with select shows at 2 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., with select shows at 6:30 p.m.  Note the special Thanksgiving schedule:  Monday, November 21 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Friday, November 25 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Saturday, November 26 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 27 at

2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Don a black raincoat and fedora and enter the plot of this intriguing musical whodunit where a pair of great guys, Stone and Stine, have wonderful yarns to spin entirely for your enjoyment.

“CABARET:” A PERFECTLY MARVELOUS PRODUCTION AT MTC

Parties are occasions for gala celebrations, for feasting and festivities that mark birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and baby births.  They highlight and overshadow the ordinary days and make us forget our troubles, if only for mere hours in time. What if all one did was party, dancing as fast as one could, to avoid the realities right outside pounding on the door?

Welcome to the seemingly beautiful world of pre-World War II Berlin where the patrons of the Kit Kat Klub, led by the flamboyant Master of Ceremonies, are partying as if their lives depend on it.  Music Theatre of Connecticut in Westport has a seat for you, front and center at their intimate black box stage, to witness the frantic, frenzy of fun that is forced as the carousel spins faster and more feverishly out of control.

Weekends until Sunday, November 20, MTC will present a fascinating peek behind the frivolity of the smash musical hit “Cabaret,”  based on the book by Joe Masteroff, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb.

Eric Scott Kincaid is the sinister and persuasive Emcee, dedicated to seeing you have a good time, cautioning you to leave your worries behind.  For your entertainment, he has the delightful Sally Bowles, a sparkling Melissa Carlile-Price, to sing such songs as “Don’t Tell Mama” and “ Cabaret.”  The opportunistic Sally has latched on to the newly arrived to Berlin American writer Cliff Bradshaw, played engagingly by Ryan Reilly, who hopes to gain inspiration for his novel.  With Sally as his muse, Cliff settles in to Fraulein Schneider’s (Dorothy Stanley) rooming house and mingles with the other residents, Fraulein Kost (Marty Bongfeldt) who entertains in a more intimate way sailors like Johnny Orenberg and Herr Schultz (Stuart Zagnit) who runs a fruit store and doesn’t realize the dangers that his Jewish faith will pose.

Cliff is quickly befriended by Ernst Ludwig, a devious Daniel Robert Sullivan, who wants him to carry out personal projects for him, to earn money, and help Ernst’s cause.  When Cliff realizes Ernst is a Nazi, he is appalled.  While Sally has her eyes closed to the truth, Cliff sees all too clearly how the world is slipping off its axis.  Kevin Connors directs a splendid cast in a “perfectly marvelous” way.

For tickets ($25-45), call MTC, 246 Post Road East, Colonial Green, Westport (lower level) at 203-454-3883 or online at www.musictheatreofct.com. Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

Let the occupants of Berlin’s Kit Kat Klub entice you to relax with a drink, a dance and a song as they prepare a new script for Germany’s tomorrows.

“AIN’T MISBEHAVIN:” THE JOINT IS JUMPIN’

Fats Waller, who described himself as 285 pounds of “jam, jive and everything,” was a master of the stride piano, a jazzman who began to show his signs of talent and musical genius at the age of six.  While he lived less than four decades, he crammed a ton of tunes into his career knapsack, leaving a legacy of jazz favorites, enough to be packed into one lively and energized package known as “Ain’t Misbehavin.’ ”

Conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Murray Horwitz, “Ain’t Misbehavin’ “ will be strutting its sensational stuff at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre until Sunday, November 20.  With a set reminiscent of the Savoy Ballroom or the Cotton Club, thanks to John Lee Beatty, you’ll think you’ve been transported to Harlem, circa 1925, for a fantastic voyage masquerading as a simple musical revue.

Your tour guides on this merry trip are splendid:  Eugene Barry-Hill, Doug Eskew, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Cynthia Thomas and Debra Walton.  Each a star in their own right, they bring Fats Waller’s tunes to brilliant light, showcasing almost three dozen songs, like “Honeysuckle Rose,” “T Ain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do,” “Lounging at the Waldorf,” “Squeeze Me” and “Black and Blue.”  Humorous numbers like “Your Feet’s Too Big” and “Fat and Greasy” are over the top while “The Jitterbug Waltz” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” are sentimental favorites.

On opening night, with director Richard Maltby, Jr. in the house with his co-conceiver Murray Horwitz, the joint was truly jumpin.’ Wes Yarbor, an  Alvin Ailey dancer from New York, who now works at a Hamden dance studio, who saw the original show on Broadway, thought the Long Wharf version was “phenomenal.  For a small theater, Long Wharf is giving the show a full production, complete with a sliding piano across the stage.  The great voices use tricks to make people laugh. The five performers are all stars.  New Haven has bought itself a winner.”

The cast certainly knows how to “spread rhythm around;”  they are hep cats with attitude and flair, who respond to Phillip Hall’s inspired piano playing and Arthur Faria’s delightful musical staging and choreography.  This is a show not to be missed.  Gail Baldoni’s glorious costumes are worth the trip all by themselves.

For tickets ($40-70), call Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven, at 203-787-4282 or online at www.longwharf.org.  Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m, Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

An Open House for the whole family will be held Saturday, November 19 from 9 a.m. to noon.  This Discovery Day for your little superheroes has a suggested donation of $5 a family or $2 a person and snacks will be available.

The story goes that Fats Waller was once kidnapped by gangsters and “invited” to play at Al Capone’s birthday party…for three days.  Come hear the magic and the melody for yourself, the music of Fats Waller, a man who was said to be able to make a piano sing.

JACQUES LAMARRE: A MAN AT THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

If one person could literally and figuratively be on top of the world, then Jacques Lamarre has a great likelihood of being at the apex of the mountain holding the flag.  He has a job he loves as the Manager of Communications and Special Projects at the trendy and topical Mark Twain House and Museum that just celebrated “Mark My Words,” at New Haven’s Woolsey Hall at Yale University. The conversation with bestselling authors David Baldacci, John Grisham and Jodi Picoult raised $125,000 for the house and museum.

Two Saturdays ago, he wed Arthur Galinat, an international student adviser at the University of Connecticut in charge of immigration compliance.  They met six years ago online through Yahoo personals and their Halloween themed wedding took place at the Mark Twain House and Museum, attended by all the theater folks he met at his past careers as publicity representative for the Hartford Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, Yale School of Drama and TheaterWorks of Hartford.

While involved in the “crazy, exhausting environment of theater,” Lamarre met Jeffery Roberson, who performs as an international drag cabaret chanteuse.  Roberson was at the Hartford Stage in 2003 as Varla Jean Merman in “The Mystery of Irma Vep” and the two men connected comically.  Roberson asked him to help him write shows for Varla jean and they have just completed number eight as well as a full length film “Varla Jean and the Mushroomheads,” about her sagging cabaret career that she tries to invigorate by doing a television show for children.  Filmed in New Orleans, the movie should be released next year.

Working with Roberson on the first show “The Girl with the Pearl Necklace” all the way to their latest venture “The Book of Merman,” has been “exciting and wonderful.”  The shows have been staged at Joe’s Pub in New York City, in Provincetown on Cape Cod, in major cities across the United States, all the way to the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

Prior to this, Lamarre referred to himself as “The Accidental Playwright” and “The Incidental Playwright,” not making a living at it but enjoying it and experiencing a lot of luck.  He wrote a mystery play in sixth grade he was really proud of and wrote some scripts while working as a teenager at a summer theater in Milford, New Hampshire, the most successful of which was “Rapunzel.”

Even when Lamarre was studying to be a priest at a Catholic seminary in Rome, he found time to write skits for his classmates, a pastime that was not always appreciated.  He was accused of “going too far and being irreverent.”  Back in Hartford, he began his career in p.r. and didn’t write again until he penned a script for Michael Wilson and Joanne Woodward  to use for a Connecticut Critics Circle awards ceremony.

Since then the writing bug has bitten fiercely and continues with Lamarre sending off scripts and short stories to contests and festivals with some amazing results.  On Friday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m., his play “The Rub,” about parents confronting their adult son about his secret obsession, will be presented at the Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main Street, Middletown.  This is a once a year showcase of plays by a group of playwrights, the Floating Theater of Middletown, who meet throughout the year for support and literary feedback.

Two days later, on Sunday, November 13 at 3 p.m., Hartford Opera Theater will present “New in November” at Billings Forge, Broad Street, Hartford, featuring six new short operas.  “The Family Plan” by Philip Martin is based on a play by Lamarre, written for the New Mexico Fusion Theater’s annual contest.  With a theme of tangled webs, his play, one of 21 semi-finalists in a field of several hundred, concerns a young Italian-American couple planning a wedding reception seating chart to hilarious results.  For tickets ($10), go online to www.hartfordoperatheater.com.

As if that weren’t enough to brag about, from Friday, November 18 to Saturday, December 10, weekends, the Hole in the Wall Theater, 116 Main Street, New Britain will offer four world premiere one-act comedies by the man of the hour, “Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far.”  The company which has been producing works for four decades is community theater at “the cutting edge, doing really funky stuff,” according to the playwright.  The quartet of plays look at life in America today as a social and comic commentary on our inability to interact politely, everywhere from a dog park to Disneyland.  For tickets ($20, students and seniors $12), call 860-229-3049 or online at www.hitw.org. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays, November 27 and December 4 at 2 p. m.

With pen in hand, and inspiration on his shoulder thanks to his proximity to Mark Twain’s ghost, Jacques Lamarre is securely at the top of his literary world, sure to look down and toss his witty observations on unsuspecting audiences to their amusement and delight.

DANA CARVEY COMES TO HARTFORD’S BUSHNELL

You know him as The Church Lady who says “Well, isn’t that special,” as Hans of the Hans and Franz bodybuilding duo, as Garth, the co-host of Wayne’s World and the Grumpy Old Man of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Updates.

In the political arena, he can easily be the former president George Bush, Jerry Brown, Bob Dole or H. Ross Perot as well as both Bill and Hillary Clinton.  In the world of show business, he’s a snap at Johnny Carson, George Burns, Regis Philbin, Robin Williams and Charlie Sheen.

If you’d like a comment from Suze Orman or Ted Koppel, he’s your guy.  Clearly there’s only one man for this multitude of personas and that’s the clever impersonator and stand-up comic Dana Carvey.

A staple of Saturday Night Live for years, he will soon be gracing the stage of the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts. On Friday, November 11 at 8 p.m., Carvey will appear as himself and so many others, a plethora of personalities, in Lite 100.5 WRCH’s Nite of Life and Laughter.

Tickets start at $37.50 - $70.00, with special tickets for a pre-show reception at $102.50 to benefit  the Helen and Harry Grey Cancer Center at Hartford Hospital.  Call 860-987-5900 or go online at www.bushnell.org for tickets to laugh and celebrate life.

Look for Dana Carvey as the Crazy Puppeteer in Adam Sandler’s new comedy “Jack and Jill,” where Sandler plays both twins at the holidays, opening November 11.  Well, isn’t that special!

“ANCESTRAL VOICES:” A FAMILY LIFE IN TRANSITION

Growing up in Buffalo, New York in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s wasn’t all that bad for ten-year-old Eddie.  He learns the skills of how to fish and hunt and build a fire from his grandfather, while his grandmother shares her favorite motion pictures with him and gives him his first lesson in love.  From his parents he learns to respect his elders and how to control his insatiable curiosity.

To meet Eddie and his extended family. Let A. R. Gurney be your travel guide as you hear his “Ancestral Voices” weekends until Saturday, November 19, courtesy of Square One Theatre Company in Stratford.

Eddie, the narrator, played delightfully by Steve Scarpa, reminisces about his siblings, parents and grandparents, letting the majority of their secrets mischievously out of the closet.

Just as their beloved city of Buffalo is at a crossroads, poised for change, so is the family undergoing its own metamorphosis.  The sacred institutions of marriage and fidelity are being rocked from their solid foundations when Grandmother (Davina Poster) announces she is leaving her mate (Pat Leo) for another man.  Now Eddie has to call this interloper “Uncle Roger” and adjust to changes that he and his parents, and especially Grandfather, are loath to acknowledge.

Family celebrations are now awkward and often have to be given double attention.  Cocktail hours are now more than mere social occasions and alcohol is being used as a means to cope and forget.  This prosperous Protestant clan is cracking along its seams and Eddie is chief witness and recording secretary.  He sees all too clearly how his parents (Janet Rathert and David Victor) are trying to keep the family in balance and not allow it to splinter.  This is a fine cast doing a splendid job with this staged reading, as directed with a skilled hand by Tom Holehan.

For tickets ($20, seniors and students $19), call Square One Theatre, 2422 Main Street, Stratford at 203-375-8778 or go online to www.squareonetheatre.com.  Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., with a special twilight show Saturday, November 19 at 4 p.m.

Let A. R. Gurney and his young pal Eddie give you a guided tour of Buffalo and of one WASP family as it copes with changing times, the country’s and their own personal ones.

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