Westport Community Theatre Announces First Production of 2016-2017 Season, Camping with Henry and Tom

Westport Community Theatre is proud to announce their first production of the 2016-2017 season, Camping with Henry and Tom, written by Mark St. Germain. The show, which has performances on weekends through Sunday, October 2, is directed by Ruth Anne Baumgartner and produced by Joan Lasprogato.

Camping with Henry and Tom takes place in 1921, on a camping trip that includes Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and President Warren G. Harding. St. Germain builds on an actual event—the inclusion of the U.S. President in one of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s annual camping trips— to create a comedic and dramatic clash of two great minds and one great heart of the twentieth century. They find that, like all visits to the “green world,” this escape into the wild is no escape at all. The play thoughtfully explores friendship, politics, and leadership.

St. Germain’s play was a winner in the 1995 Off Broadway Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play of the season. The Daily News called it “Unusually literate, funny and captivating!” and the New York Post commented that it was "Wonderfully entertaining...Full of thought and feeling...A treasure chest that leaves the audience aglow with pleasure."

Ruth Anne Baumgartner is no newcomer to Westport Community Theatre, having directed many shows for WCT that include Light Up the Sky, Souvenir, Mr. Pim Passes By, The Seafarer, Ice Glen, The Glass Menagerie, and Measure for Measure. She is the author of the full-length play The Revenge Tragedy: A Comedy and the one-act “Miss Tempy’s Watchers.” She also serves on the boards of directors of WCT and Town Players of Newtown.

The WCT Camping cast consists of Alexander Kulcsar, Sam Mink, Rob Pawlikowski and Russ Martin. Kulcsar, who plays Ford, most recently appeared in The Outgoing Tide at Square One Theatre in Stratford, for which he received the 2016 Subscribers’ Award for Outstanding Actor. He has been seen at WCT in A Picasso (which he also directed), The Seafarer, Copenhagen, and Jerry Hatcher’s Turn of the Screw. Mink, a vital part of the WCT community, is cast as Harding. He has appeared in The Miracle Worker, The Crucible, Orson's Shadow, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Proof, and Glengarry Glen Ross in recent years with WCT and is also on its board of directors. Pawlikowski, who is in the role of Edison, has appeared at WCT in Godspell, The Seafarer, Measure for Measure, and Living Together. He also directed the WCT production of The Front Page. Martin is Col. Edmund Starling in the current production (and also Stage Manager). He has been working in film and television since 2002, previously working in film crew positions and now producing documentaries, TV pilots, live theater, sketch comedies, and independent features.

Camping with Henry and Tom is produced by arrangement with Samuel French, Inc., and has performances through October 2, on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and at 2:00 p.m. on Sundays and September 22 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $28, $26 for seniors and students, and can be purchased at westportcommunitytheatre.com or by calling (203) 226-1983. The Westport Community Theatre is located at the Westport Town Hall, 110 Myrtle Avenue.

Pictured are, left to right: Rob Pawlikowski as Thomas Edison, Sam Mink as President Warren Harding and Alexander Kulcsar as Henry Ford.