OUR STORIES:
A PLAY FOR BEAVER COUNTY VOICES
Your stories, your region, your artists. The Genesis Collective is working on an original piece of community theater, to be premiered in Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center.
Join us at Lincoln Park's Black Box Theater on August 20!
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About the Play
Our Story: A Play for Beaver County Voices is the inaugural production of The Genesis Collective’s Community Theatre Project--an innovative performing arts initiative designed to showcase a wide variety of voices and stories of our time. The show will be performed at 7pm, August 20, 2022 in the Black Box Theater at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center, Midland, Pennsylvania.
The characters and dialogue are based on actual oral history interviews and recorded conversations with Beaver Countians. The four-act play addresses the subects of food insecurity, homelessness, human trafficking, and the psychological trauma and social lessons surrounding the COVID pandemic.
These are authentic Beaver County stories, performed by local actors Dave Cary, Keith Zagorski, Jenn Rian, Toyauna Slappy, Cate Samchuck, and Andrenna Williams. Patti Ross is the director and Kevin Farkas is the writer and technical director.
David A. Cary
Hugh Harper
David has been active with various theater companies in the Pittsburgh area for the past 22 years, including The Red Barn Players, Bobcat Players, Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburgh, Stage 62, Center Theatre Players, Split Stage Productions, Asylum Productions, Butler Musical Theatre Guild, and the TSVP Radio Theater Podcast. His favorite roles include Max Bialystock (The Producers), Man In Chair (The Drowsy Chaperone), Sam Fluck (Hilda’s Yard), and Judge Turpin (Sweeney Todd). David lives in Conway with his wife, Shelly.
Toyauna Slappy
Maggie Kowalski
Toyauna fell in love with theatre when she was in high school. She spent a year studying theatre at the University of Kentucky. Since then she’s been an ongoing acting coach at Geneva College Musical Theater Camp. For the past five years she’s had the amazing experience of being Beaver Falls High school musical’s acting coach. As a Beaver Falls girl, Toyauna is thrilled to be returning to the stage with this role in the telling of a the truth of happens here in our little county
Patty Ross
Director
Patti is a retired teacher of English and theatre from the Freedom Area School District, where she taught for thirty-seven years. She is a veteran member of the Bobcat Players Community Theater, participating as a director, performer, and playwright. For the past twelve years, she has served as the artistic director and chair of the outreach committee. She was the assistant director and acting coach for Beaver Area High School’s musical from 2013 through 2021.
Kevin Farkas
Kevin also operated live sound and recording for this production. He is an award-winning audio producer and public historian, specializing in capturing, preserving, and sharing community voices and stories. He is the founder and executive producer of The Social Voice Project, where he manages the TSVP Podcast Network. He holds degrees in English, specializing in language (sociolinguistics), rhetoric, and critical literacy; he knows how to operate a useful semicolon.
Keith Zagorski
Tom Robinson
Keith is a 25 year veteran actor with multiple Western Pennsylvania theatre companies. He is a founding member of The Bobcat Players (Beaver, Pa). His favorite roles include The Drawer Boy (Angus), Old Love (Bud Mitchell), and Harvey (Elwood P. Dowd) with the Bobcat Players; A Fine Bright Day Today (Milton Farnsworth) and The Grand Manner (Guthrie McClintic) with the Little Lake Theatre.
Jenn Rian
Charlotte Wilson
Jenn is a veteran actor with considerable depth of talent and range range developed over more than 25 years working in local theatre. Among many other local companies, she has worked most extensively with R-ACT Theatre Company, contributing to their regular season productions as well as their long-running Annual Holiday Radio Show.
Andrenna Williams
Narrator
Andrenna is a resident of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania and directs the Uncommon Grounds Cafe and Ministry. She has a passion for the performing arts and theater, and never misses an opportunity to take the stage, whether at open mic nights at the Cafe, appearing in local music videos, or performing local dramas.
Cate Samchuck
Cora Daniels
Cate is a student at Beaver Area High School, where she has acted in several theatrical performances. This is her first performance with The Genesis Collective Community Theater Project.