This show is brought to you in part by our sponsor:

Thank you to the following Producers Circle members for their support of the show “Art”:

• Joe & Jan Anania
• W.J. “Brad” Bradhering
• Tom & Sue Carroll
• Irene Darocha & Michael Picariello
• Gail & Craig Fitz
• Kate & Jerry Hathaway
• Bill & Katie Haines
• Ken & Elaine Kirby
• Jim & Teresa Knipper
• Leslie & Myles Martel
• Jeannie & Jim Testa
• Rose & Chris Traficante

If you would like to learn more about the benefits of becoming a member of our exclusive Producer’s Circle, click here. 

From Director Roy Steinberg.

When I first read, Yasmina Reza’s play, “Art”, I had the experience of laughing the way I do at the television sit-com, “Seinfeld” though the context in the play is European and the world more up-scale. In both cases, a seemingly trivial remark or action has enormous consequences for the relationships of the characters.

The world has spent the last three years in various states of isolation with shutdowns and mandates and restrictions in response to the Covid pandemic. Some have lost the skill of socializing and work habits have changed as office workers found remote accomplishments replacing office time. Divorce rates are up. Learning in school settings is down.

Though this play was written in 1996, there is a 2023 resonance to lines like: “I should have punched him right in the mouth. And when he was lying there on the ground, half dead, I should have said to him, you’re supposed to be my friend, what sort of friend are you, Serge, if you don’t think your friends are special?”

How can deep long friendships devolve into something like that? Only in a comedy can that exaggerated behavior seem logical. There is an American tribalism aspect to this play though certainly the playwright had nothing like that in mind. A whole belief system is attacked by the simple act of buying a painting.

The whole modern art movement is questioned – something that seemed to be resolved over a century ago. Is it just silly to create work that appears to be just white or black or some other color? When we produced “Red”, we all experienced the profound impact of Mark Rothko’s work. Can only representational work be appreciated?

And so, I invite you amid laughing to challenge yourself in long held beliefs about friendship, art and even our nation’s political future. We never take sides in these questions, and I think the greatest plays present all sides of a dramatic argument. A bonus in “Art” is that the story is told with such humor. Let’s laugh together in friendship.

Chris Dolman (Marc)

Chris Dolman is Artistic Associate at Cape May Stage. In his long association with CMS, he has both acted and directed for the theatre. Directing highlights include productions of Parallel Lives: The Kathy & Mo Show, Talley’s Folly, Doubt, Barefoot in the Park, Red and Lend Me A Tenor, which was awarded New Jersey’s “Best Production of the Decade” in 2020 by Broadway World. As an actor, highlights at CMS include ART(as Yvan in 2000), Dinner With Friends, Boeing, Boeing, Driving Miss Daisy and most recently, Outside Mullingar. As a director a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab in NYC and was invited to participate in the prestigious LaMama Directors Symposium in Spoleto, Italy. He was the Producing Artistic Director/Founder of the Edgartown Theatre Company on Martha’s Vineyard, MA.

He has directed professionally Off-Broadway in New York and in regional theatres from Maine to Florida. His work has been positively reviewed in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, along with many other publications. This past year he directed Catch Me If You Can at Flat Rock Playhouse, the State Theatre of North Carolina. He is also the Founder/Producing Artistic Director of the Lake Lure Music Festival, an eclectic music festival featuring various musical genres, that is based in the Hickory Nut Gorge area southeast of Asheville, North Carolina. The festival has brought some of the finest classical musicians working around the world today, as well as talent from Broadway and Grammy-winning bluegrass artists to play in the Western Carolina mountains. The festival was created and continues its mission to support the work of the Lake Lure Classical Academy school and its students as well as the Hickory Nut Gorge Outreach, an organization dedicated to assisting people with food insecurity. Chris has loved his time in Cape May and working for the theatre. Thanks to all the artists, staff, crew, patrons & supporters and locals, who make this place so special. This one is for Michael Laird, somewhere out there on Grassy Sound.

Scott Greer (Yvan)

Scott is thrilled to be back at Cape May Stage for his 10th production. Some favorites: Sylvia, Stones in His Pockets, and Lend Me a Tenor. He is a 30 year veteran of Philadelphia theatre, and has worked for 1812, the Walnut, InterAct,Wilma, Peoples Light, Delaware Theatre Company, Theatre Exile, Act II Playhouse and many more. Regionally, he has worked for Actors Theatre of Louisville, Round House, and the Pearl Theatre in New York. He has won six Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre, including the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Theatre Artist. He was named “Best Theatre Talent” by Philadelphia Magazine. Love to Jen & Lily.

Timothy D. Stickney (Serge)

This production of “ART” by Yasmina Reza stars Timothy D Stickney, a Four-time NAACP Image Award© nominee and Soap Opera Digest© Best Villain Award winner; multiple AUDELCO© nominated actor, director and Torch Bearer, recipient of the 2018 Earle Hyman Award for Excellence in Acting; as well as an accomplished Shakespearean and Acting Instructor, Writer and Director who has worked for over 30 years in film, television, and theater. Known globally for his long run on ABC’s One Life To Live; Stickney’s career is steeped in Live Theater and the classics. 5 seasons at Canada’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival was but one high mark in his deep Shakespearean resume’ which has taken him all over the US and Canada. Timothy is also proud to be instructing young artists at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre; where he just adapted and directed a BIPOC female centered LEAR for the graduating class. Timothy also instructs and directs at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Timothy is more passionate than ever about creating, fostering and supporting work in THIS moment and about being at Cape May Stage for the first time. Union Proud/Union Strong Member of ATTA, SAG/AFTRA and Actor’s Equity.

Yasmina Reza (playwright) Yasmina Reza is a French playwright and novelist based in Paris whose works have all been multi-award winning, critical, and popular international successes. Her play God of Carnage (2012) won the Olivier and Tony Award for Best Play and a film version, directed by Roman Polanski, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Her play Art won Olivier, Tony, and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Play. The National Theatre production of Life (x) 3 received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Play.


Other plays include Conversations After a Burial, The Passage of Winter, The Spanish Play, and The Unexpected Man. Her new play, How You Talk the Game (Comment vous racontez la partie), was printed in France in March 2011.

Ms. Reza has written several novels, the last of which, Dawn, Dusk, or Night (Knopf 2008), has been translated worldwide. Her first movie, Chicas, with Emmanuelle Seigner and Carmen Maura, ran in Europe in March 2010.

More crew information coming soon!