Resident Returns to Ridgewood to Present a Play

MAXWELL ANDERSON’S PLAY VALLEY FORGE TO BE PRESENTED

FOR A SINGLE PERFORMANCE AS A BENEFIT FOR THE HERMITAGE

IN HO-HO-KUS, NJ

First Flight presents a staged reading of Maxwell Anderson's rarely produced 1934 historical

drama Valley Forge on Saturday, May 5, 2018 at 7:30 PM at The Hermitage, a New Jersey National Historic

Landmark. General admission is $25 and $15 for students and seniors. For tickets visit

www.thehermitage.org or call 201-445-8311.

This benefit performance for The Hermitage is being produced and directed by Frank Farrell

(Ridgewood, NJ) who is also appearing in this upcoming staged reading along with 17 actors: J. D.

Brookshire (NYC), Charles Kennedy (NYC), Lisa Dahlborg (Lodi, NJ), Jonathan

Dauermann (Brooklyn, NYC), Claudia Egli (NYC), James Duffy (Westchester, NY), Karen

Eterovich (Glen Rock, NJ), Michelle Foard (White Plains, NY), Ashley Formento (Saddle River,

NJ), Stephen Hamilton (Ridgewood, NJ), Yolanda Hamilton (Jersey City, NJ), Barbara Hand

(Midland Park, NJ), John Maguire (Glen Rock, NJ), Mark Peters (NYC), Eric Schuster

(Irvington, NJ), Danny Beaton (NYC), and Richard Width (Morris Plains, NJ) in the role of General George

Washington. This production will also feature two musicians.

First Flight is a new theatre company with plans to present a two-year series of staged readings

of plays by Maxwell Anderson in New Jersey, New York City and Chicago. The company takes

its name from Anderson’s fourth play presented at the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway in 1925

called First Flight. Valley Forge was first presented on Broadway at the Guild Theatre in 1934.

It was also presented in a 75-minute version as a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV production in 1975.

Maxwell Anderson (1888 – 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and

lyricist, who achieved fame on Broadway for such plays as Elizabeth the Queen (1930), Mary of

Scotland (1933), Winterset (1935), the musical, Knickerbocker Holiday with music by Kurt Weil

(1938), Key Largo (1939), Anne of a Thousand Days (1948), The Bad Seed (1954), and High Tor

(1956). His film screenplays include All Quiet on the Western Front, for adaptation and dialogue

(1930), Rain, for adaptation (1932), and Death Takes a Holiday (1934).

The Hermitage is a historic house museum and National Historic Landmark that encompasses

over 250 years of American history. The museum is maintained by the Friends of the Hermitage

Inc., a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that was founded in 1971. Visitors to the Hermitage

Museum can tour the historic house, view different exhibitions of the collections, and take part in

a range of educational and public programming.