THE ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION TO SIP THEATRE. THE PROGRAM NO LONGER CONTINUES...

Julius' Philosophers is a revue written by Ray Barr, David Hillman, Bronwyn Rucker, Melvyn Stevens, Timothy Stevens, Jimmy Tomkins.

The setting is April 2019, a Friday evening Happy Hour at Julius', a bar in the West Village.

Characters:  

Superman/Artist/Self - Melvyn Stevens

Lawyer - John Philip

Bartender - Brian Shuman

Young Person - Mimi Hart

Timothy Stevens - Self

Chaplain - Bill Sattan

Social Worker - Bronwyn Rucker/Self

Writer - James Tomkins/Self

* John Philip - "Genius" (Mark Twain)

* James Tompkins - "The Front Page" (1928, Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur)

* Melvyn Stevens and Sandra Grassby - "Latkes" (N. Nueldleman and Goldie Gold)

* Timothy Stevens - "Before You Punch Me" (D. M. Larson)

* Brian Shuman - "With This Flesh" (poem, Gary Snyder)

* Bronwyn Rucker - On The Very Reverend John O'Leary from "COVID Diary"

* Marian (Mimi) Hart - Grandmother's Letters (1920, written in sanitorium to her husband Kirkland after surviving the Spanish Flu)

* Bill Sattan – “I’m Still Here" -  Parody on Stephen Sondheim song

* Timothy Stevens – Monologues from “Glass Menagerie” -

Tennessee Williams; “Death of a Salesman” - Arthur Miller; and “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” - Roald Dahl

* Brian Shuman – “Prayer of Thanksgiving” - Haudenosaunee Tribe

* James Tomkins – “Al” from “We’re Still Here” - James Tomkins

* Melvyn Stevens -  Shakespeare Sonnets

* Bronwyn Rucker - from "COVID Diary" - Bronwyn Rucker

My friend Marty Deane sent me a message encouraging me to try a virtual Christmas show as every year (the past 30+ years) I have had a Christmas show and Marty and his family came to at least the past 10.  So, at the last minute I collected my SIP Theatre Philosophers in this experimental format. 

Never had we tried singing together and this was, to be sure, less than perfect. 

“In the imperfection is the art”…or, so I always say…hopefully…this will be the ‘one and only’ Zoom Christmas…but there is a dear charm to it all, so I proudly submit to posterity our celebration during this terrible, gloomy, worrisome year and heartfully thank my dear friends and Philosophers for helping to make it happen. 

Merry Christmas always!

* Timothy Lunceford Stevens - “A Christmas Lament” - A reading published In START Magazine by Wade Bradford

* Bill Sattan - “I’m Still Here" - Parody on Stephen Sondheim song

* Woody Regan - “Cool Yule” by Steve Allen

* James Tomkins - A Christmas Story by James Tomkins

* Melvyn Stevens - Shakespeare Sonnets #18 and #20

* Sandra Grassby - “COVID Crisis Dilemma” Original Poem

* Mimi Hart - A Christmas Memory by Mimi Hart

* Bronwyn Rucker - Host, Christmas Carols and other songs

* Special Christmas Greetings - Marty Deane, Matt Rydell, Anna Feil, Susan Kille-Sawyer, Phil Mougis

* Bronwyn Rucker and Jimmy Tomkins – Excerpts from “A Rap on Race” 

* Bill Sattan – “Pomegranate” -  André Gide; “For the Moment” - Pierre Reverdy

* “Le Pauvre Bougre et le bon génie” – Alphonse Allais

with John Philip – Jimmy Tomkins – Mel Stevens – Bronwyn Rucker

* Phil Mougis – Song

* Woody Regan “National Brotherhood Week” – Tom Leher

* Dolan Byrnes – from “Walking With Ghosts” – Gabriel Byrne 

* Timothy Stevens – “Le Pont Mirabeau” – Guillaume Apollinaire

* Bronwyn Rucker and Jimmy Tomkins – Excerpts from “A Rap on Race” Continued

* Marvin Corb – “Thirst” – Eugene O’Neill

* Melvyn Stevens – “Sly Fox” – Larry Gelbart

* Timothy Lunceford Stevens – Poem by William Wordsworth

* Bill Sattan “And Now it’s Spring” poem

* Jimmy Tomkins – “I Went to a Marvelous Party” Noel Coward

* Naoko Battaglia – “On a Clear Day”

* Bronwyn Rucker – “Angry Poem 1992”

* Sandra Grassby – “Still I Rise” Maya Angelo

* John Philip – “Bells Pantheon”

* Marian ‘Mimi’ Hart– “Winter’s Tale” Hermione Act 3 Scene2

* Woody Regan – Poems by Emily Dickinson

* Phil Mougis – Song “A House in New Orleans”

* Brian Shuman – 2 Poems from Ithaca High School Journal