Sweet Bird of Youth

Michael Kopko, class of 1976 at Staples High School and a Staples Players Member  returns to play Boss Finley in the Town Players of New Canaan’s spring show Tennessee Williams’ powerful drama Sweet Bird of Youth which plays Friday & Saturday, May 4, 5, 11, 12, 18 & 19 at 8PM and Sundays, May 6 & 13 at 2:30 PM at the Powerhouse Theatre, Waveny Park, New Canaan

       Michael Kopko, class of 1976 at Staples High School, a member of the Staples Player, and now an actor, director and musician on Nantucket, is returning to Connecticut to appear as Boss Finley in the Town Players of New Canaan’s spring show, Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth, directed by Gary Battaglia.

       Michael Kopko is a huge Tennessee Williams fan, has directed A Streetcar Named Desire, and owns a signed copy of Glass Menagerie. An ardent feminist, he likes material that deals with these issues and thinks that Tennessee Williams is brilliant at creating great roles for women. Mr. Kopko finds it exciting to be playing Boss Finley, saying, “He’s a very complex guy, completely selfish, opposite of what I like to think I am.” He describes Boss as “an archetypical Southern political crook, who is wealthy, buys people off and doesn’t care who he steps on including his children. As father of a daughter, I think Boss is so repulsive, he is missing a guilt chip that most are born with.”

       Active as an actor and director with both the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket and the Actors’ Theatre of Nantucket, Michael has recently become co-artistic director of The White Heron Theater Company whose January 2012 production of George Bernard Shaw’s Candida will travel this summer to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  Mr. Kopko will play Reverend Morrell to Lynne Bolton’s Candida.

       When the lights come up on Sweet Bird of Youth, Chance Wayne, an actor whose career has hit the skids, has become a beach boy and been picked up in Palm Beach by fading movie star Alexandra Del Lago, who is travelling incognita as Princess Kosmonopolis. Now her gigolo/caregiver, Chance takes Princess to St. Cloud, his home town, so that he can reunite with the love of his life Heavenly, daughter of Boss Finley, and also boast to all that Princess is sponsoring his movie comeback.

        Appearing in the roles created by Geraldine Page and Paul Newman in the 1959 Broadway production will be Lynne Bolton of New Canaan and Gabriel Morrow of Darien. Princess and Chance recognize in each other the tortured soul not respected and valued by society and are complex, fascinating characters.

       Bobby Pavia of Stamford who played the title role of Amadeus last fall will be seen as Boss’s son, Tom, Jr., a chip off the old block.  New Canaan actress Janet Rathert will appear as Heavenly. “So much about life is all past for her,” says Janet. “She is trying not to get to a place of regret, her possibilities gone forever at age of 28.  Her father is so selfish and sacrificed her happiness for his political ambition.”

       Playing the poignant and brave role of Tom, Jr. and Heavenly’s Aunt Nonnie, also Chance’s champion, will be Kathleen Klatte of Yonkers. In the role of Miss Lucy, Boss’s wise, fun loving and earthy mistress will be Susan Doran of New Canaan. Boss’s henchmen, compromised in their lives by indebtedness to Boss, are Tim Cronin of Stamford as Scudder, Ed Donahue of Bridgeport as Hatcher, and Kyle Runestad of Norwalk as Scotty.  Michael Hodges of New Canaan will appear as room service busboy Fly.