OSWEGO – The Oswego Players completed a successful 80th anniversary season with their holiday production of “A Christmas Story.”
Over the last year, the group presented six major productions and numerous fundraising events.
These included the contemporary comedies “Art,” directed by Richard Mosher and “Act of God,” directed by Paul McKinney along with “The Fantastics,” directed by Inez Manor Parker; a TANYS award-winning production of “Dracula,” directed by Troy Pepper; a dinner theater production of the comedy “Social Security,” directed by Inez Manor Parker and “A Christmas Story,” directed by Norman Berlin III.
In Addition, the Players hosted several fundraising events including the world premiere of “Accolade for Audrey,” written by local playwrights Micheal Nupuff and Stephan Wolf.
The one-act play narrates the life and times of Audrey Munson who was a nationally renowned artist’s model, born in the Oswego County town of New Haven.
The organization also carried on with a number of programs that have been annual occurrences including the Marion Green and Larry Rose memorial scholarships awarded to deserving high school seniors, a summer youth theater camp and the Don McCann memorial playwriting competition.
The scholarships were awarded to G. Ray Bodley seniors Mason Rowlee and Keegan Wallace.
The summer youth theater camp was led once again by Players’ member Anne Raynor.
The Don McCann Memorial Playwriting Contest was won by Wayne A Mosher Jr. for his play “A Vanished World” which will be performed some time next year at a Players’ meeting.
The Players also sponsored several activities related to maintaining the Oswego Civic Arts Center Building and the Frances Marion Brown Theater in particular.
During the past year, theater tech professionals Tom and Morgan Fasso inventoried and reconditioned much of the theatrical equipment used by the organization.
This included installing new light and sound boards and reorganizing the set and prop inventory.
End of the year activities included seating a new board of directors including Paul McKinney returning as president, Tobey McIntosh as vice president of administration, Morgan Fazzo as vice president of production, Tammy Wilkinson returning as producer, Liz McIntosh as treasurer, Tammy Thompson as finance officer, Norman Berlin III as historian and Jesse Dobrynski, as secretary and Steve Standish as board member at large.
The Players wish to thank all past administrators, members, patrons and sponsors for their support in 2018 looking forward on into the next season.