“Our goal is to produce quality theatre at an affordable price,” Sackett Group Artistic Director Robert Weinstein told GO Brooklyn, and he hopes that with the company’s Sept. 6 fundraiser — commemorating their 15th anniversary — they will be able “to get out of debt and get a new program off the ground.”
Befittingly titled, “Struggling Jewish Actor: A First-Hand Experience,” the benefit will feature a screening of a “Kin of You,” written and directed by Sean Devaney, and starring Sackett’s managing director, Dan Haft. A question-and-answer session, with Devaney and Haft, and light hors d’oeuvres will follow.
Although the tickets are a little pricey, all proceeds will be donated equally to the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, where the event will be held, and The Sackett Group as it strives to stay afloat and — according to Weinstein — “continues to investigate and revive the American classic play with a Brooklyn attitude.”
The Sackett Group presents “Struggling Jewish Actor: A First-Hand Experience” at 8 pm on Sept. 6 at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue [131 Remsen St. at Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights, (718) 522-2070]. Tickets are $25-$1000 and can be purchased at www.ovationix.com/trs/store/194 or by calling (212) 352-3101.
Let’s talk about ‘Sex’
Sleeping pills and prostitutes?
That’s what the Heights Players are promising with their latest production, “No Sex Please, We’re British,” which kicks off their 53rd season on Friday.
The play, by Anthony Marriot and Alistair Foot, is a provocative comedy about the problems that a newly married Jewish couple face after the wife sends in a mail order for Scandinavian glassware and gets flooded with pornography instead.
“No Sex,” which had a short run on Broadway during the 1970s, is “a great way to open the season,” promised director Susan Montez. “[The show] is really funny… The seven door farce is all about sex [in] an uptight, British environment.”
The Heights Players present “No Sex Please, We’re British” Sept. 5–21 at 26 Willow Place at Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights. Tickets are $15. For reservations, call (718) 237-2752 or visit www.heightsplayers.org.
Feeling ‘Blue’
Park Slope native Zach Greenblatt, 29, has joined the New York cast of the “Blue Man Group,” and that’s no easy feat. Becoming a “Blue Man” requires much more than the courage to shave your head and sport azure makeup. Aspiring “Blue” stars must have solid drumming skills, excellent acting chops, be tall and in shape.
But Greenblatt may have had a leg up on his competition, as he had been a member of the crew for several years after college, he told GO Brooklyn.
“I left and when I came back, it was as part of the cast,” said the Murrow High School grad.
Greenblatt, who is also a guitarist in the hard rock band Bugs in the Dark, is more than a “Blue” cast member; he even helped out at recent Blue Man auditions to fill openings for cast members in the nine ongoing theatrical productions spanning from Boston to Las Vegas to Tokyo.
It’s clear he’s not just one of the stars in the New York production at the Astor Place Theatre on Lafayette Street; he’s a fan.
“It’s very much a show for everyone,” said Greenblatt. “We like to think of it as modern day vaudeville. We create a heightened energy to crack open that shell everyone has to get to [his or her] sense of wonder and bliss.
“The feeling of being on stage with the two other guys — when you’re really connected and in it and how it affects a group of 300 people — is beyond satisfying.”
For more information, visit bluemancasting.com or blueman.com.
The Coney Island Film Society presents a screening of “Little Fugitive” at 8:30 pm on Aug. 30 at the Coney Island Museum (1208 Surf Ave. between Stillwell Avenue and West 12th Street in Coney Island). Tickets are $5, $3 for Coney Island Film Society members. For information, call (718) 372 5159 or visit littlefugitive.com.
