Grey Towers Heritage benefits ‘our town'

The Grey Towers Heritage Association, as part of its mission to continue the heritage of the Pinchot Family’s support of the arts, environment, and education in our community, co-sponsored the American Readers Theatre’s July 12 performance of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, “Our Town.” The outdoor performance on Grey Towers’ magnificent grounds made the very enthusiastic audience acutely aware of how lucky we are to be in this, our town. Barbara J. Buchanan, president of the Grey Towers Heritage Association, talked briefly about the Pinchots’ long-standing legacy of opening their home to the community as she introduced Jeffrey David Stocker, Founder and Director of the American Readers Theatre. The mission of the American Reader’s Theatre, according to Stocker, is “to promote literacy through dramatic readings and the entire spectrum of the performing arts.” This performance of the group was particularly significant for our town since it was the first reading of ART with an entirely local cast. These readers have been taking classes in Milford with Jeffrey Stocker in the art of reading aloud. Stocker was delighted to say that there is a lot of talent in our area, and it was evident from their performance. The cast included Greg Giblin, Kurt Merril, Darren Fouse, Dick Paterson, Ruth Randone, Stacy Case, Damon Ficken, Natasha Green, Morgan Fouse, Greg Kolvenback, Priscilla Fenstermacher, Priscilla Krum , and Daniel Banks. Assistant Direction was by Nadine Domski. The audience came from as far away as New York City and many were exclaiming about how they felt that they were really a part of this play- the acting was that real. Jeffrey Stocker, himself an actor, was the Director of the National Arts Club in NYC in 1978 where he founded the American Readers Theatre as a not-for profit organization and where ART is still currently housed. He developed the “cold reading” technique that he now teaches both here and in the City. Stocker coaches actors auditioning for film, Broadway, and TV. In addition to directing the American Readers Theatre, he is now working with the Joffrey Ballet dancers to develop an acting technique geared specifically for dancers. Stocker is a very talented, mild-mannered, patient man with great empathy and kindness toward his students. He conducts classes for adults on Friday nights at 6 p.m. at the Columns- soon to move to the Biondo Building in September. During the fall, he conducts classes for 8 to 11 year olds and a second session for 12-16 year olds. Jeffrey Stocker genuinely cares about acting, dramatic reading, and promoting literacy through the performing arts to inspire people to pick up a book and read. We are very lucky to have him in our town. For more information about ART, call 570-626-4064 or go to www.americanreaderstheatre.com For more information about how to get involved with Grey Towers Heritage Association, call 570-296-9630 or go to www.greytowers.org .