To obtain a script or for further production information-
email Do Gooder Productions

by:
SIDNEY MORRIS
Directed by:
GARETH HENDEE
 
featuring:
DOMINIC CUSKERN
MARK ROBERT GORDON
MICHAEL DUNN LITCHFIELD
 
Stage Manager
TERRY MAC
Scenic Design by
EILAT RIMON
Lights by
RAYMOND CULLOM
Costumes by
MISHA KUCHTA
 
Benefiting
THE ACTORS' FUND OF AMERICA
AIDS Initiative
 
JUDITH ANDERSON THEATER
422 West 42nd Street
 
In late-1940's Hollywood a Holocaust survivor is reunited with the son he saved by sending to America prior to the War, only to find that his son, too, was a victim of the Holocaust. The father seeks to teach his gay son the power of learning to love one person - the assistant the father hires to help him prepare his "Magic Formula". The play's treatment of the characters' respective issues of survival has a strong parallel message in the contemporary context of a community besieged (i.e., AIDS).
3 males
 
Opened December 20, 1995
Closed January 14, 1996

 
 
"Morris's consumate skill evokes a bygone
era of commercial theatre."
-Jewish Week
 
"A heartwarming tale."
-New York Native

NOTE:
Biographies below are as they appeared in the showbill
at the time of production.
 
[Dominic Cuskern] DOMINIC CUSKERN (Dr. Buber) created the role of Ganesha, the Hindu god, in Terrence McNally's A Perfect Ganesh at Manhattan Theatre Club where he appeared with Zoe Caldwell and Frances Sternhagen. He was Feste in the Pearl Theatre Company's production of Twelfth Night. Regional credits include Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape at Vassar Institute in Poughkeepsie and John Mortimer's The Dock Brief at the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia. He recently performed his one-man Shakespeare show Dominic Does Bill at the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao. TV credits include recurring roles on ABC's "Loving" and "All My Children."

 

[Mark Gordon] MARK ROBERT GORDON (Rubin) made his Equity Off-Broadway acting and playwriting debuts with My Soul is Mine: A Runaway's Story and served as assistant stage manager on the DGP productions the dreamer examines his pillow and ¡Olé!. New York acting credits include performances at: Union Square Theater Studio, NYFA Stage, Sanford Meisner Theater, Wings Theatre (where he first performed the role of Rubin in the original showcase production), American Theater of Actors, Minor Latham Playhouse, and staged readings with the Columbia Dramatists, Three Masques Productions, and the New York Shakespeare Festival. He has recently held readings for two of his full-length plays: Hamilton: The Flame of Revolution (a one-character study of Alexander Hamilton) and Did You Evuh? (a Jewish comedy), and is currently working on the sequel to the latter (Nevuh!) and a one-person show about his life (Searching for a Script). Born in Phoenix, he received degrees from Princeton University (A.B., Public & International Affairs/Afro-American Studies) and Columbia Law School (J.D.) in a combined total of six years. He is the founder of DGP and currently serves as the company's Artistic and Executive Director.

 

[Michael Dunn Litchfield] MICHAEL DUNN LITCHFIELD (David) makes his Off-Broadway debut reprising the role he created in the first production of The Magic Formula. Other New York credits include: Norville in The Strange Case of the Lascivious Transformation of Mr. X, Mickey Rooney in Born to Sing, and Fredric in Pirates of Penzance. Regionally, he has been seen in Cabaret, Oliver, The Sound of Music, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown and many other musical productions. He recently took part in a reading of Sidney Morris' new work-in-progress So In Love. Thanks to Tim and Charlie for forgiving the misdeeds of their evil little brother.

 

[Sidney Morris] SIDNEY MORRIS (Playwright) became a part of New York theater in 1963 with the production of his most revived play A Gallery of Characters. Many others followed, including Pocketful of Posies, The Six O'Clock Boys, Video's Child and Uncle Yossil, and three works originally produced by The Glines: Last Chance At The Brass Ring, The Wind Beneath My Wings, and If This Isn't Love! The latter play premiered in 1982, ran for close to a year Off-Broadway, and has constantly been revived; it was recently reprinted by The TnT Classic Books. A discussion of Love! appears in Act Like A Man by Robert Vorlicky, a study of all-male plays. His newest work Mad About The Boy, a review of gay love through five centuries, will appear in Spring 1996. In the past decade, he has been a journalist with an insider's view of the AIDS epidemic in numerous publications. He is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild.

 

[Gareth Hendee] GARETH HENDEE (Director) is pleased to be working with Sidney Morris and Do Gooder Productions. New York credits include Can You Hear the See Breathe? (Village Gate), Math & Aftermath (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Trixie Love (The Duplex), John Patrick Shanley's the dreamer examines his pillow (Common Basis Theater), Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Setzuan (Horace Mann), and Howard Barker's The Possibilities (Tribeca Lab). Gareth is a graduate of Columbia University's directing program and is a MINDFIELD director. This Spring, he will direct The Gift for Ida Spoon Productions.