ONLINE PROGRAM
City on a Hill Arts presents
THE WAVERLY GALLERY
by Kenneth Lonergan
CAST
Gladys Green: Pamela Kathleen Hill
Daniel Reed: Scott Kurland
Ellen Fine: Chelsey Patriss
Don Bowman: Lucas Cardwell
Howard Fine: Nathaniel Malone
CREW
Producer: Debbie Moylan
Director: Jack Crory
Stage Manager/Prop Coordinator: Samantha deManbey
Set Designer/Dresser: Debbie Moylan
Lighting Designer: Matthew Valeri
Costume Designer: Valerie Schillawski
Sound Designer: Samantha deManbey
Graphic Designer/Headshot Photographer: Bethany Johnson
Production Photographer: Cassie Swartz
Stage Crew: Lucas Cardwell, Bethany Johnson, Tom Moylan, Scott Kurland, and Chelsey Patriss
Front-of-House Team: Sandra Burak, Debbie Moylan, Tom Moylan, and Bethany Johnson
Talkback Guest: Julie McMurray, MA, LMHC, CDP, Alzheimer's Association MA/NH Chapter
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Congregation Agudat Achim
Rabbi Eve Eichenholtz
Eric Mendelson
Tal and Nessa Cohen
Hayleigh Walker-Kurland
David Allen Prescott
James Maxwell
Tina deManbey
Jo Nazro
Larry Hill
Monique Guthrie
Gladys Green: Pamela Kathleen Hill
Daniel Reed: Scott Kurland
Ellen Fine: Chelsey Patriss
Don Bowman: Lucas Cardwell
Howard Fine: Nathaniel Malone
CREW
Producer: Debbie Moylan
Director: Jack Crory
Stage Manager/Prop Coordinator: Samantha deManbey
Set Designer/Dresser: Debbie Moylan
Lighting Designer: Matthew Valeri
Costume Designer: Valerie Schillawski
Sound Designer: Samantha deManbey
Graphic Designer/Headshot Photographer: Bethany Johnson
Production Photographer: Cassie Swartz
Stage Crew: Lucas Cardwell, Bethany Johnson, Tom Moylan, Scott Kurland, and Chelsey Patriss
Front-of-House Team: Sandra Burak, Debbie Moylan, Tom Moylan, and Bethany Johnson
Talkback Guest: Julie McMurray, MA, LMHC, CDP, Alzheimer's Association MA/NH Chapter
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Congregation Agudat Achim
Rabbi Eve Eichenholtz
Eric Mendelson
Tal and Nessa Cohen
Hayleigh Walker-Kurland
David Allen Prescott
James Maxwell
Tina deManbey
Jo Nazro
Larry Hill
Monique Guthrie
THE WAVERLY GALLERY is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com
THE WAVERLY GALLERY was produced on the New York Stage by Anita Waxman, Elizabeth Williams, Randall L. Wreghitt, Peggy Lieber, Eric Lieber in association with Second Stage Theatre.
The World Premiere of THE WAVERLY GALLERY was originally produced by the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Michael Ritchie, Producer.
THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTING RECORDINGS OR STREAMS IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING THE INTERNET, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, A VIOLATION OF THE AUTHOR’S RIGHTS, AND ACTIONABLE UNDER UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: www.concordtheatricals.com/resources/protecting-artists.
THE WAVERLY GALLERY was produced on the New York Stage by Anita Waxman, Elizabeth Williams, Randall L. Wreghitt, Peggy Lieber, Eric Lieber in association with Second Stage Theatre.
The World Premiere of THE WAVERLY GALLERY was originally produced by the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Michael Ritchie, Producer.
THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTING RECORDINGS OR STREAMS IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING THE INTERNET, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, A VIOLATION OF THE AUTHOR’S RIGHTS, AND ACTIONABLE UNDER UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: www.concordtheatricals.com/resources/protecting-artists.
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This production is supported in part by a grant from the Leominster Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
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About City on a Hill Arts
City on a Hill Arts produces works of art that explore the intersection of faith, spirituality, and culture, fostering in each of us a more just and loving response. We are a community-focused, multidisciplinary group of artists who seek to foster critical engagement with our culture, inspire compassion and mutual understanding between all people, and share messages of hope.
Since 2015, City on a Hill Arts has been presenting theatrical productions across North Central Massachusetts, including Leominster, Fitchburg, Gardner, Ashburnham, Townsend, and Ashby. Since 2025, we have been in residence at Congregation Agudat Achim in Leominster. Check out our Past Shows page for information and photos from our history so far!
To ensure that all members of our local and regional community have access to our programming without an economic barrier, City on a Hill Arts never charges ticket prices for admission to our events. Instead, we invite audiences to join us free of charge, and we accept donations from anyone who has the means to offer support to our organization.
Since 2015, City on a Hill Arts has been presenting theatrical productions across North Central Massachusetts, including Leominster, Fitchburg, Gardner, Ashburnham, Townsend, and Ashby. Since 2025, we have been in residence at Congregation Agudat Achim in Leominster. Check out our Past Shows page for information and photos from our history so far!
To ensure that all members of our local and regional community have access to our programming without an economic barrier, City on a Hill Arts never charges ticket prices for admission to our events. Instead, we invite audiences to join us free of charge, and we accept donations from anyone who has the means to offer support to our organization.
Our Board
Debbie Moylan, Founder and President
Bethany Johnson
Sarah Arel, Treasurer
David Allen Prescott
Jack Crory
Bethany Johnson
Sarah Arel, Treasurer
David Allen Prescott
Jack Crory
About the Playwright
Kenneth Lonergan is an American film director, playwright and screenwriter. His plays include The Starry Messenger, Lobby Hero, and This Is Our Youth, and he wrote and directed the films You Can Count On Me, Margaret, and Manchester by the Sea, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The Waverly Gallery was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prime for Drama.
Letter From the Director
There are many reasons to spend time with a play, or any work of art or literature. A well-crafted play can entertain or inspire us. It can make us laugh and provide a welcome distraction from the troubles of the world, or provoke us to reflect on the issues of the day.
There is something trickier, though, for art to provide, but is always worth seeking out: wisdom. It’s true that there is no shortage of advice on how to live well that can be gleaned from our religious traditions, and gurus of all kinds. But the lessons aren’t always easy to apply, and there’s a certain type of play—or novel, or film—that dives into the messy details of the lives of real people and gives us a chance to reflect on the complexities and nuances of what it means to live a moral, fulfilling life.
In recent years I have become drawn to the plays and films of Kenneth Lonergan because they do try to pull wisdom out of the words that pass between people at important times of transition in their lives—or, just as often, who have let those times pass them by, and are now looking back and asking themselves, what happened? Why did I act the way I did? In Lonergan’s world, each passing day is a chance for a character to take a new look at their own flaws and foibles.
THE WAVERLY GALLERY is primarily a play about memories. Gladys gradually loses many (but not all) of hers. Her family seems to cling to their memories of the way she used to be, rather than what she needs from them now. The young painter Don has very specific ideas about what it means to remember the people and places you love. And, crucially, this whole work is what is often called a “memory play”: the story is being told to us by Daniel, who speaks directly to us about what he remembers. We at City on a Hill Arts hope that our simple, minimal staging evokes that feeling of reaching back in time—many details fall away, but the people we loved, their personalities, always remain vivid.
This play is also a profound meditation on the power of denial. It is human nature to act like all the things we know will happen will not happen—even when they are happening right in front of our eyes. Once we find some measure of contentment, most of us want to hold onto the past, to stay where we are. Lonergan asks us: when it comes to the most devastating changes that are on the horizon, can we be harsh enough with ourselves to accept the truth, or will we, as the poet David Ferry writes, act with bewilderment, “putting it off / oh, putting it off”?
Going into this rehearsal process with such weighty themes in mind, the biggest surprise of the past two months has been to discover how authentically funny this play is. In the room you are sitting in now, night after night these actors and I have found ourselves laughing and laughing. One reason is that this play captures all the absurd moments that come about while spending time with someone who is losing their hearing and their memory, or who is at the beginning of their life’s journey, bright-eyed and naive like Don. The biggest source of joy, though, is Gladys’s gregariousness, wit, and generosity.
Lonergan has been explicit that THE WAVERLY GALLERY is autobiographical. He may have some regrets about how he acted when his grandmother needed him, but through Daniel, he is here with her now, insisting that there are some stories worth remembering every detail of.
Jack
There is something trickier, though, for art to provide, but is always worth seeking out: wisdom. It’s true that there is no shortage of advice on how to live well that can be gleaned from our religious traditions, and gurus of all kinds. But the lessons aren’t always easy to apply, and there’s a certain type of play—or novel, or film—that dives into the messy details of the lives of real people and gives us a chance to reflect on the complexities and nuances of what it means to live a moral, fulfilling life.
In recent years I have become drawn to the plays and films of Kenneth Lonergan because they do try to pull wisdom out of the words that pass between people at important times of transition in their lives—or, just as often, who have let those times pass them by, and are now looking back and asking themselves, what happened? Why did I act the way I did? In Lonergan’s world, each passing day is a chance for a character to take a new look at their own flaws and foibles.
THE WAVERLY GALLERY is primarily a play about memories. Gladys gradually loses many (but not all) of hers. Her family seems to cling to their memories of the way she used to be, rather than what she needs from them now. The young painter Don has very specific ideas about what it means to remember the people and places you love. And, crucially, this whole work is what is often called a “memory play”: the story is being told to us by Daniel, who speaks directly to us about what he remembers. We at City on a Hill Arts hope that our simple, minimal staging evokes that feeling of reaching back in time—many details fall away, but the people we loved, their personalities, always remain vivid.
This play is also a profound meditation on the power of denial. It is human nature to act like all the things we know will happen will not happen—even when they are happening right in front of our eyes. Once we find some measure of contentment, most of us want to hold onto the past, to stay where we are. Lonergan asks us: when it comes to the most devastating changes that are on the horizon, can we be harsh enough with ourselves to accept the truth, or will we, as the poet David Ferry writes, act with bewilderment, “putting it off / oh, putting it off”?
Going into this rehearsal process with such weighty themes in mind, the biggest surprise of the past two months has been to discover how authentically funny this play is. In the room you are sitting in now, night after night these actors and I have found ourselves laughing and laughing. One reason is that this play captures all the absurd moments that come about while spending time with someone who is losing their hearing and their memory, or who is at the beginning of their life’s journey, bright-eyed and naive like Don. The biggest source of joy, though, is Gladys’s gregariousness, wit, and generosity.
Lonergan has been explicit that THE WAVERLY GALLERY is autobiographical. He may have some regrets about how he acted when his grandmother needed him, but through Daniel, he is here with her now, insisting that there are some stories worth remembering every detail of.
Jack
Meet the Cast
PAMELA KATHLEEN HILL (Gladys Green) has over 50 years of theatre experience in the area, having worked with such groups as 4th Wall Stage Company, Pocket Theatre, Cornucopia Theatre, and Central Mass Rep Company. Favorite roles include Violet Weston in August: Osage County, Vivian Bearing in Wit, Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, Lenny in Crimes of the Heart, Beulah Levy in Last Night at Ballyhoo, and now Gladys in The Waverly Gallery. As the first Education Director for the Huntington Theatre Company, she designed and implemented model theatre education programs, which garnered national recognition. She is thrilled and grateful to be in her first production with City on the Hill Arts and thanks Jack Crory for trusting her with this role.
SCOTT KURLAND is thrilled to be playing Daniel Reed in The Waverly Gallery. Scott returns to City on a Hill after being in The Diary of Anne Frank. Scott has been involved in theatre for years, having played Carl in The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel as well as various performances in musical theatre such as Once Upon A Mattress (The King) and Little Shop of Horrors (Seymour). Scott would like to thank his wife and family for their support and send a big "thank you" to Jack for trusting him with this role.
CHELSEY PATRISS (Ellen Fine) is making her debut with City on a Hill. A Westminster resident, she has most recently appeared in Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) and The Nerd at Stratton Players. Other past shows include Sealed for Freshness and You Can't Take It With You at New Players Theater Guild, multiple iterations of The Vagina Monologues with Pathways for Change, and Court Jester in the Enchanted Orchard Renaissance Faire. She is grateful for the ongoing love and support of her husband, Joe, and sons, Collin and Leo.
LUCAS CARDWELL (Don Bowman) is honored and elated to be returning to City on A Hill Arts for his third production with the company, and second production with director Jack Crory. Jack first recruited Lucas when he directed Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, where Lucas performed as Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas. Thanks to the incredible direction of Jack and brilliant performance of fellow performer David Allen Prescott, Lucas received the DASH Award for best supporting actor for this role. He returned soon after to play Jesus/Stephen Hawking in End Days. Now back again as Don Bowman, he hopes to continue working with this wonderful organization for years to come. He would also like to kindly remind everyone that he is available for birthday, bar mitzvah, and celebrity game show appearances for a reasonable price.
NATHANIEL MALONE (Howard Fine) is an educator, writer, and photographer who is making his return to acting after a twenty-year hiatus from the stage. Since his days as a student at Fitchburg State University, where he acted in Hamlet and directed The Shape of Things, he has enjoyed a career as a high school teacher and principal. He is currently revising his first novel and will be seeking publication later this year.
Coming Up Next from City on a Hill Arts!
SWEAT by Lynn Nottage: A Staged Reading
Directed by Samantha deManbey
Auditions March 29th and 30th
Performances:
June 5th in Ashby
June 6th in Lancaster
In Reading, Pennsylvania, a group of friends have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets, and laughs together while working on the factory floor. But when layoffs and picket lines start to chip away at their trust, they find themselves pitted against each other in a struggle to hold on to what used to bring them together. City on a Hill Arts is excited to present this Pulitzer Prize-winning play as a staged reading.
“Passionate and necessary…a masterful depiction of the forces that divide and conquer us.” – Time Out New York
Directed by Samantha deManbey
Auditions March 29th and 30th
Performances:
June 5th in Ashby
June 6th in Lancaster
In Reading, Pennsylvania, a group of friends have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets, and laughs together while working on the factory floor. But when layoffs and picket lines start to chip away at their trust, they find themselves pitted against each other in a struggle to hold on to what used to bring them together. City on a Hill Arts is excited to present this Pulitzer Prize-winning play as a staged reading.
“Passionate and necessary…a masterful depiction of the forces that divide and conquer us.” – Time Out New York
About the Music
The music in this production is all selected from the works of French composer Erik Satie. His works for solo piano include Gymnopédies (1888), Gnossiennes (1890), and Sports et divertissements (1914). Often associated with Dadaism and surrealism, Satie sought to create music that avoided grand gestures or heavy emotionalism. Virgil Thompson once wrote that "Satie's music is as simple as a friendly conversation and in its better moments exactly as poetic and profound."
