The West Coast Premiere of
Miracle on South Division Street
Karianne Flaathern, Ellen Crawford Brian Ibsen, Meghan Andrews
Director Scenic Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Sound Design
Properties Design & Set Dressing
Production Stage Manager
Public Relations
Technical Director Assistant to the Director
Set Construction Scenic Artist
Production Crew
Light Board Operator
Sound Board Operator Stage Crew
Key Art
Production Photography |
|
Brian Shnipper Jeff McLaughlin
Dianne K. Graebner
Jared A. Sayeg Drew Dalzell
MacAndME Leesa Freed
David
Elzer/Demand PR
Robert T. Kyle Jaime Gray
Red Colegrove/Grove Scenery Orlando de la Paz
Watson Bradshaw, Rene Osvaldo Parrs, Jr., Cuyler Perry, Christopher Rivera, Matthew Tsang, Genetra Tull
Brian Cordoba Heather Waters Matt Adams, Brie Quinn BuddhaCowboy.com
Michael Lamont |
CAST
(in order of appearance)
SETTING
Clara Nowak's kitchen in a run-down working class neighborhood of Buffalo, NY
TIME
Christmas Eve, 2010
Miracle on South Division Street is performed without intermission
Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes
NOTE FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
Tonight’s play is pure fiction, based on a “true” local legend.

Back
in busy, bustling 1950’s Buffalo, a block and a half from my father’s
tavern, there stood a barbershop. Next to the barbershop was a
20-foot-tall shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary -- a beautiful
life-sized statue encased in wood, brick and glass. It’s raison d’etre?
-- well, legend had it that the Blessed Mother herself appeared to this
barber and gave him a message for the world concerning world peace.
(She was in favor of it.) Whether this miraculous materialization
actually took place is still a matter of conjecture, but, regardless,
there it stood, this monument to a man’s faith for us impressionable
kids to gawk at and wonder about. The nuns at St. Pat’s told us not to
waste our prayers or coins on the ersatz saint as the mighty Roman
Catholic Church had no intention of ever sanctioning this hokey
miracle. And that’s how the matter stood at the time I left the
neighborhood in 1964.
Fast forward 45 years. My old
neighborhood has all but disappeared. Businesses and homes have
succumbed to hard times and neglect. Its denizens have fled to the
suburbs, and St. Pat’s is gone. But amidst the rubble of urban blight
something still stands, dare I say, “miraculously?” You guessed it, the
shrine to the Blessed Mother -- spared from the wrecking ball by a
promise from City Hall, lovingly preserved by a handful of faithful
residents, its creator long passed away.
I made a pilgrimage to
my old neighborhood a couple of years ago. I stood before the shrine --
newly Windexed, freshly flowered, its mail slot still active with
donations and requests for miracles -- and I thought to myself,
“There’s a story here.” The real-life details of its origin were
forever buried with the barber, so I needed to invent a family.
Tonight
you will meet them, the Nowaks of Buffalo’s East Side -- amalgams of
people I grew up with, some friends and family, and a little of myself
sprinkled in. After our close interaction these last couple of years I
find that I’ve fallen head over bowling shoes for the Nowaks, with all
their crassness, their squabbles, their secrets, and their dreams. I
hope they’ll get under your skin as well. Enjoy!
- Tom Dudzick
SPECIAL THANKS
Brad Brown Victoria HOffman Jennifer Lee
Ray Lorme, Linoleum City
Wadler Data Systems Phil Torf & House of
Props