THEATER
Ponzi Man: A triumph for the cast and director Emily Tetzlaff
At The Connelly Theater. New York International Fringe Festival
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The entire cast of “Ponzi Man.” Pictured (clockwise from left) are: Jane Purcell Dashow, Steven Savona, Maureen Wallace, Ken Dashow, Ralph Cole Jr., Michael Janove and Ruth Jaffe.
On Saturday 13, August 2005, Emily Tetzlaff at The Connelly Theater, triumphed as a most creative and innovative director. And her sparkling talent shined brighter than the whole damned lights of Times Square. Despite the very low budget production, mama and papa old and cheap furniture set and props, amateurish decor, poor quality lighting, limited resources and tough script material to work with, Tetzlaff made magic that afternoon. Under the umbrella of the New York International Fringe Festival, "Ponzi Man" a play written by Gary Morgenstein, premiered at The Connelly Theater. The play was described by the the author and - probably- by the theater management as well, as a play that explores the explosive issue of white collar crime and its life-altering effects on an upper-class Jewish family in New Jersey.
Playwright Gary Morgenstein, author of "Ponzi Man" excelled in depicting the human melodrama of people we identify with, cherish and wonder about. "Ponzi Man" deserves the respect of the theatre community.
I saw it differently. "Ponzi Man" is a human chronicle of a dysfunctional Jewish family. A melodramatic depiction of members of a family which consisted of a son who is a wheeler-dealer, a crook who ripped off Mr. A and Mr. B and continued to do so until the authorities learned about his schemes and sent him to jail; a daughter without formal education, degree or any learning experience who became a porno actress; a son-in-law who lost his job, a paranoiac father; a confused but well alert "Jewish Mother", etc...The play has no plots or suspense sequence. Its main strength is derived from the warmth and weakness of the people portrayed on stage. Usually, such a theatrical script is tough to work with, especially, when the set never changes, the curtains never go up or down, the lighting design is minimal, absolute absence of any theatrical effects, musical accompaniment, wardrobe variety, et al. But despite these impoverished theatrical resources and means, Morgenstein as a playwright, Tetzlaff as a director and the cast offered New Yorkers one of the best plays of the season. It is obvious that Tetzlaff is a world-class director. Usually on stage, whether it is a baroque, Rococo, Guy de Maupassant or Charles Dickens genre, A Giuseppe Verdi opera or a Vaudeville burlesque, actors and actresses exit the stage when their lines come to an end, -except of course- if they are part of the scenery as frequently seen in Le Marriage du Figaro, Carmen, Aida, ad infinitum. But in "Ponzi Man", Tetzlaff created an
