boots on the ground theater in Residence!

I read Helen Keller’s powerful memoir “The Story of My Life” in 6th grade and wept through the movie with Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft. I tucked it away, knowing we would meet again someday, somehow… and there we were, with a phenomenal cast led by Southampton middle schooler Emma Suhr as Helen and Tina Marie Realmuto in the role of her teacher Annie. Our director was the unstoppable Joan Lyons whose theater experience has run the gamut here on the East End: acting, dancing, directing. She’s been an integral part of the SCC’s permanent theater company Center Stage led by Michael Disher. Michael has been the driving force for over a quarter century for live theater in the Hamptons. In fact it’s Michael Disher to whom we all owe a huge debt of gratitude for encouraging and supporting the best in live regional theater on the East End. So many have come through the “House of Disher” as actors, singers, students in his workshops, yours truly included. I can’t imagine Hamptons theater without Michael’s guiding hand. It was Michael who encouraged Joan to explore more directing, and she’s proven herself again and again. She brought “The Miracle Worker” to life in brilliant and beautiful ways. In fact Anne Bancroft’s sister, a full-time Hamptons resident, praised the production telling us her sister “would have been proud”.