Behind the red curtain : creating drama with Edith Wharton
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Admission
RSVP required, limited seating
$15 | Coffee House Club members
About the Event
Join playwright Anne Undeland, actress Julie Galdieri and “The Gilded Gentleman” Carl Raymond in a behind-the-scenes look at Undeland’s recent play, Wharton Between the Sheets. After reading scenes from the play, Raymond will lead a conversation about how a playwright and an actress bring Edith Wharton to vivid life. Actors Mark Zeisler as Henry James and Peter Macklin as Edith’s lover Morton Fullerton, round out the ensemble.
After a sold-out run at Great Barrington Public Theater in 2021 in which it was nominated for four Berkshire Theater Critics Association Awards, including Best New Play, Wharton Between the Sheets was picked up by Boston’s Gloucester Stage for production in 2022. The play had a NYC reading at the Salmagundi Club in 2023, was selected a semi-finalist at The Road Theater 15th Annual New Play Festival in LA, and is slated for production at the Middlebury Acting Company in Vermont in the spring of 2025.
“A fantasia…” said Jesse Green of the NYT …which the playwright sets up perfectly.
Hungry?
All in attendance are welcome to stay for dinner (reservations required, credit card only). Reservations available through Eventbrite.
There will be an a la carte menu to choose from. On the day of the event, you can pay for your meal with a card or your membership account (no cash).
About the Presenters
Anne Undeland is a member the Dramatists Guild, Howl Playwrights, and Rooted Writers. Productions and workshops of full-length plays include Lady Randy (WAM Theatre at Shakespeare & Company, 2019), Wharton Between the Sheets (Great Barrington Public Theater, 2021 – four Berkshire Theater Critics Assoc noms incl best new play, Boston’s Gloucester Stage, 2022, Salmagundi Club, NY 2023, semifinalist at LA’s The Road Theater 2024 New Play Festival, and Vermont’s Middlebury Acting Company, 2025). Her short work has been presented around the world (Road Theater, Nevada Arts Council, SpeakEasy, Windhover, Oldcastle, Short and Sweet, etc.) with her short,The Kiss winning best play at the Ten Minute Festival at the West Side Y and her audio piece, Adeline’s Gambol a finalist for the Miller Audio Award at the Missouri Review. She has a BA in Medieval Studies from Wesleyan University, works for the sculptor George Rickey, and is currently at work on a commission from Great Barrington Public Theater for a new play: Madame Mozart, the Lacrimosa.
Julie Galdieri: Julie is delighted to be working with playwright Anne Undeland again, continuing their collaboration on Wharton Between the Sheets (Salmagundi, NYC) and recently playing the roleof GREED in her play, Meet the Deadlies. Additional select NY credits include: Macbeth (LionTheatre/Theatre Row); The Bacchae (dir. Anne Bogart); The Vagina Monologues (Helen MillsTheatre); The Baby (American Globe); Venus & Adonis (HERE); NYTW; La Mama; Alice Tully Hall. Regional: Twelfth Night; Taming of the Shrew; Othello; Vampire Lesbians of Sodom; A Christmas Carol (Trinity Rep Company). Film: You’ve Got Mail; Shades of Grace; Ten Souls Rising; Sax & Violins; Nerdland. BA from Amherst College and MA from Trinity Rep. Proud member of AEA,SAG-AFTRA, and New York Women in Film and Television.
Carl Raymond, host of The Gilded Gentleman history podcast, is a writer and historian. He lectures regularly and leads tours on subjects and locations related to the Gilded Age.More info on the play…What happens when a 46-year-old woman falls in love for the first and only time? What happens when that woman is Edith Wharton?
Peter Macklin is an actor and playwright. Some theaters he’s performed in as an actor include Barrington Stage, Bay Street Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, Shakespeare & Company, Bard Summerscape, 59E59, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and more. As a playwright, Peter’s play BULLETHEAD will have its regional premiere in the fall. Other plays include OLIVER AND ME (workshopped at New Circle Theater Company, IRT and Connecticut Theater Exchange), PRIDEFUL (workshopped at The Playground Experiment and Connecticut Theater Exchange), THE RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW (Bay Street’s Title Wave New Work Series), A BEAUTIFUL BUILDING (Acting Company’s New Play series), OH! CALIFORNIA! (59E59), is the screenwriter of the award winning short film DINNER AT 40, and more.
Mark Zeisler Broadway: A View From the Bridge, Brooklyn Boy, The Big Knife. Off-Broadway credits: Rancho Viejo, Piece of my Heart, eurydice, and The Accomplices. Regionally he has worked ar The Alley Theatre and Seattle Rep, Shakespeare and Company, ART, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, Merrimack Rep and The Huntington (IRNE nominations), Actors Theatre of Louisville, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, The Goodman, The Folger Theatre (Helen Hayes nomination), BAM Next Wave Festival, Asolo Rep. Television: Bull, Castle Rock, The Blacklist, House of Cards, The First Lady, all three Law and Order(s). Film: Two Week Notice, Random Hearts, Afterschool, The Cathedral. Narrator for GI Jews (PBS). Trained at SUNY Purchase.