The Cast
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Dennis Kelly (Harold) comes to Apple Tree Theatre directly from Theatre at the Center's World Premiere of Knute Rockne – All American (Lars Rockne and Father Walsh). Other Chicago area productions include Cymbeline (Belarius) at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Yeston & Kopit's Phantom! (Carriere – After Dark & Artisan Awards), La Cage aux Folles (Georges – After Dark Award) and Follies (Ben Stone) all at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, as well as Call Me Madam (Cosmo) opposite Jo Anne Worley at the Auditorium, Most Happy Fella at Ravinia and 70, Girls, 70 at Marriott Lincolnshire. His Broadway appearances include Into The Woods (interim replacement for John McMartin as Narrator/Mysterious Man) opposite Vanessa Williams, Annie Get Your Gun (Buffalo Bill) starring Bernadette Peters and Damn Yankees (Old Joe - Outer Critics Circle Award nomination) starring Victor Garber followed by Jerry Lewis. Dennis reprised ‘Old Joe' in the London production of Damn Yankees . He's played Off Broadway in Suburb and in Music in the Air . His National Tours include Urinetown (Senator Fipp), Jekyll & Hyde (Sir Danvers Carew) and Damn Yankees . Regional Theatres include Old Globe Theatre in San Diego , San Diego CLO, Goodspeed Opera, Actors Theatre of Louisville, San Francisco 's American Conservatory Theatre, Pittsburgh Playhouse and Maine State Theatre. His Television appearances include When I Grow Up, Law & Order, Late Night with Conan O'Brien ( Sketch Artist), Darrow, Dollmaker, Lady Blue, Chicago Story, One Life To Live and Guiding Light . Mr. Kelly, an Actors' Equity member since 1966, lives in Evanston , IL and was graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from Chapman University , Orange , CA .
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Robert Scogin (Burt) appeared on Broadway in Shakespeare's Henry V and Off-Broadway in A Road Where the Wolves Run and Children of the Ladybug, Regional credits include: the American Shakespeare Theater, California Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, Notre Dame Summer Shakespeare, Indiana Repertory Theater, Missouri Repertory Theater, and the Guthrie Theater. Chicago credits include: Wisdom Bridge, Northlight, Next, Famous Door, Writers' Theater, Goodman, Remy Bumppo and Chicago Shakespeare Theater where he has appeared in more than 30 productions, most recently in Henry IV Parts One and Two, both on Navy Pier and at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon. As Artistic Director of ShawChicago, he has directed more than 40 Shaw plays. Other directing credits include: The Comedy of Errors and King Lear (Shakespeare's Motley Crew), Last Summer at Blue Fish Cove and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Footsteps Theater), Pinter's The Lover and The Dumb Waiter (Writers' Theater), A Doll's House and The Millionairess (Next Theater), and The Lion In Winter (Rising Moon Theater). He taught and directed Shakespeare at the Turkish State Theater Conservatory in Ankara and in Konya, Turkey. He returned to Turkey in March of 2007 to direct Shaw's Arms and the Man (in Turkish) for the Konya State Theater Conservatory's Second International Theater Festival. He was seen most recently as Father Murphy in Writers' Theater's world premiere production of The Savannah Disputation.
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Ami Silvestre (Adrienne) is happy to be appearing at Apple Tree Theatre. She was last seen at Theatre at the Center as 'Jaqueline' in La Cage aux Folles; as 'Aunt Eller' in Oklahoma ! and as 'Frau Schmidt' in The Sound of Music. Other musicals include the world premiere of Kander and Ebb's The Visit at The Goodman, as well as A Little Night Music (Desiree), The Apple Tree, and A, My Name is Alice.
Ami won the 1989 Sarah Siddons Leading Lady award for the role of 'Phyllis Rogers Stone' in Candlelight's Jeff Award winning production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. Ami also appeared in Candlelight's Jeff Award winning productions of Nine (Lilianne LeFleur), Cabaret (Fraulein Kost), Company (Jenny) and as 'Phyllis Rogers Stone' in the 1980-81 production of Follies.
Plays Include: Steel Magnolias, You Can't Take It With You, Over the River and Through the Woods, Charley's Aunt , Never Too Late, The Shadow Box, Season's Greetings, Out of Order, It Runs in the Family and The Return of Herbert Bracewell opposite Art Kassul.
Television appearances include WGN-TV's “Paul Fogarty Show” as the 'Exercise Girl' in the first daily exercise show in America, on which she performed live for five an a half years from 1955-1960. Ami has been a proud member of Actor's Equity since 1958.
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Press
The Stage Channel - Watch some video clips!
Pioneer Press Feature
Daily Herald Feature
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Highlights from the Pioneer Press feature by Myrna Petlicki
As the seasons change, so does the relationship between two retirement home residents who spend their days bickering on "A Bench in the Sun." Robert Scogin plays Burt and Dennis Kelly is Harold in the Apple Tree Theatre production of Ron Clark's comedy. Ami Silvestre is Adrienne, a glamorous former actress who adds to the competition between the two retirees.
Burt was a middle class accountant before retiring. Scogin described him as "irascible. He's cantankerous and has a score to settle with his long-time friend Harold. He's into the news of the day and dissatisfied with the way things are going in the world in the modern era. He dislikes the fact that technology is taking over the world."
Burt and Harold were childhood friends. That friendship continued into adulthood until something that transpired between them caused a break. They were out of touch for over 40 years, until they found themselves in the same retirement home.
Burt considers every actor in Hollywood a phony. Then sweet Adrienne comes into the picture. "She has a very positive effect on him," Scogin reported. "He also sees it as an opportunity to get back at Harold, because Harold is very much interested in her."
Family act
It's easy for Kelly to show that interest on-stage, because he and Silvestre are married. In fact, the dedicated pair of actors spent Memorial Day practicing lines -- where else? On a bench in the sun.
Kelly described Harold as "somewhat of a dreamer. He's one of these people who feels younger on the inside than he really is, until he looks in the mirror or tries to get up in the morning. I don't think he's willing to let go of his youth and he's not willing to let go of his dreams, although he's failed at a lot of things. He had several marriages and a lot of failed businesses. He ended up in a retirement home, not wanting to live by himself. He feels he has tasted life."
Adrienne "looks at the bright side of everything," Silvestre said. "She's a mover and a shaker, but in a good way. She makes everybody's life better that she touches."
Kelly reported that even though Harold and Burt vie for Adrienne's attention, "She's somewhat of a healer."
Adrienne is also a bit mysterious. "She's been in other places and hasn't stayed very long," Silvestre said. "There's some unanswered things."
Civil disobedience
She is also an activist, Kelly added. "She gets everybody picketing and marching," Silvestre noted.
Scogin is particularly enjoying the opportunity to work again with Ray Frewen, who directs "A Bench in the Sun." "We did a show together -- both of us as actors -- 23 years ago, and we have tried to work together again, but we couldn't match schedules. It's a great pleasure to be working with a director who is also a terrific actor."
Silvestre added, "Ray Frewen is so much fun to work with. And he comes up with a lot of funny things."
As for Frewen, working with all three seasoned veterans is a joy. "I've gone to director heaven," he declared. "Stay out of their way is basically my job."
Apple Tree Theatre managing director Mark Weston proposed the project to Frewen. "I started reading and I found myself laughing so much," Frewen said. "I called him back and said, 'Not only do I think it's funny, but it's got a big heart to it.'" All three actors Frewen envisioned for the roles agreed.
"The chemistry between them is astonishing so it's really been fun," Frewen said. cast | press | photos | background | tickets
Highlights from the Daily Herald feature by Jack Helbig
Change happens. And that's not always bad. Just ask Downers Grove-based Ray Frewen, director of "A Bench in the Sun," opening Saturday at Highland Park's Apple Tree Theatre.
In 2005 Frewen and Drury Lane Oakbook, the theater he had worked at for 14 years, the last seven as artistic director, parted ways.
"It was a disagreement over compensation," Frewen says. "Money I was supposed to be getting that the theater didn't want to pay me. But it was really a lot of little things and that was the straw that broke the camel's back."
So Frewen, who was living the whole suburban dream, the house and wife, "two dogs, two cats and four kids," suddenly found himself without a steady job. Frewen went through a period of soul searching.
"The funny thing is that within six weeks this job opened up at Roosevelt University's theater department," Frewen says. "The clouds opened up and I was suddenly a teacher. It was not something I planned to do, but once I started I realized I love it. And I realize it was something I was meant to do."
Frewen adds that he has his summers free "where he is free to do as (he) will" to pursue other creative projects, like, for example, directing the current show at Apple Tree Theatre, a three-person comedy called "A Bench in the Sun."
"The play is about two men in their late 70s in a retirement community," Frewen says, "They have known each other for their entire lives. Then a former actress steps into their lives and that changes everything."
Frewen got the gig directing the play because he has a reputation in the Chicago theater scene as someone who gets comedy, who knows how to direct it and get the laughs. And as soon as Frewen read the script he knew he wanted to direct it.
"I read it over and over again," Frewen says, "The comic rhythms in the piece are amazing, but there is a real heart underneath. I knew if I could get the right people, it would be exciting. And I could see in my head which actors I might want for the roles. I had a teacher in college tell me that 85 percent of directing is casting. Once I knew for sure which actors were going to be in the show, I read the play again this time I tried to hear how things were going to work with the cast."
Now that "A Bench in the Sun" is about to open Frewen wonders if the drama at Drury Lane Oakbrook wasn't a good thing. It certain made Frewen entertain options he never would have before.
"The whole thing with Drury Lane Oakbrook was unfortunate at the time," Frewen says, "But I am on good terms now with the theater. I love what they have been doing this season.
And we are talking about going back there to do a little work. I think everything happens for a reason."
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Photos
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Background & Director's Notes
The playwright, Ron Clark, is one of Hollywood 's most prolific and hilarious writers and has written for nearly every comedian from Jackie Gleason to Jackie Mason to the Smothers Brothers to Mel Brooks .
I have vivid memories of growing up in the Chicago suburbs in the sixties – long, hot days filled with exciting activities that began when the dew was still fresh on the lawn and continued until well past dark. And the lazy times just hanging around with your best friend trying to figure out what to do next. “What do you want to do?” “I don't know. What do you want to do?” “I don't know. Whatever you want to do.” You always managed to come up with something; and if you didn't, it didn't matter – as long as you were with your best friend.
While reminiscing on these times as a college student, an acquaintance said, “Your best friend is the person you hit the most!” Works for me! But I was curious to see what others have had to say on the subject:
“You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself, he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.” Laurence J. Peter
“A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling.” Arthur Brisbane
“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.”
Elbert Hubbard
“True friends stab you in the front.” Oscar Wilde
In looking at Burt and Harold in A Bench In The Sun , we see two men who seem to have had this kind of relationship in their youth. Now in their late seventies (and after a 42 year gap in their friendship) they are picking up where they left off . . . or are they? And, as often happens in these situations, there is a woman in the mix. And, as is often the case, she has a profound influence on both of them. In a very short time.
In the words of Flavia Weedn –
“Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and
leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same.”
But for Burt and Harold, I think what matters is the end result:
“We all lose friends. We lose them in death, to distance and over time. But even
though they may be lost, hope is not. The key is to keep them in your heart, and when the time is right, you can pick up the friendship right where you left off. Even the lost find their way home when you leave the light on.” Amy Marie Walz
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