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Polite Applause, A Guide to Theatergoing Etiquette:
"If the person in the seat next to you begins to snore audibly, nudge him awake. Then whisper, 'You missed the nudity.'" —Paul Rudnick |
The Oldest Living Cater Waiter
Best of Bay Area Live Theatre 2019 by Vince Mediaa
“Michael Patrick Gaffney is a tour de force in this delightful one-man show. A joy from beginning to end, 'The Oldest Living Cater Waiter' is original, well-served and easy to digest. If there were Michelin stars for theater, it would get three." --SF Examiner
“Michael Patrick Gaffney is a tour de force in this delightful one-man show. A joy from beginning to end, 'The Oldest Living Cater Waiter' is original, well-served and easy to digest. If there were Michelin stars for theater, it would get three." --SF Examiner
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42nd Street Moon Presents The Oldest Living Cater Waiter by Michael Patrick Gaffney directed by Ken Sonkin June 23 - July 13, 2019 The Gateway Theatre 42NDSTMOON.ORG * 415.255.8207
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Photo by DC Scarpelli.
Hungry for some great theater? Michael Patrick Gaffney’s original one-man show, The Oldest Living Cater Waiter, offers up delicious insights into his complicated and hilarious careers as both a professional actor and a high-end waiter to the stars. Gaffney cooks up numerous characters from his past with just the right amount of sauciness, Shakespeare, and a soupçon of self-discovery. Come celebrate one man’s journey of a life in the theater.
Over the last few years, Cater Waiter has been developed at Berkeley Playhouse's Julia Morgan Theater, ZBelow, and
SF Fringe Festival at PianoFight including winning Best of Fringe. It has received For All Events TOP TEN, Top 10 Picks of 2016, and Jumping Clapping Man’s. Each time, the show has been generously supported with audiences going wild!
Over the last few years, Cater Waiter has been developed at Berkeley Playhouse's Julia Morgan Theater, ZBelow, and
SF Fringe Festival at PianoFight including winning Best of Fringe. It has received For All Events TOP TEN, Top 10 Picks of 2016, and Jumping Clapping Man’s. Each time, the show has been generously supported with audiences going wild!
Photo by DC Scarpelli.
“Gaffney is a very compelling and charismatic performer, he plays himself revealing inner thoughts, embodies several different characters... this experience and his passion for theatre comes through in his well-crafted and brilliantly performed show. He is natural, hilarious, honest, a superb actor and raconteur, vulnerable –- very moving when performing serious dramatic speeches – yet he can also summon up full sarcasm mode with a delicious attitude! His acting, range of emotions, presence and fascinating personality are what makes Gaffney’s show so rich and deep. He has a great story to tell and he is utterly watchable –- leaving us, dare I say it ... hungry for much more! Hopefully this show will come to a theatre near you very soon.” —Fringe Review UK
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Michael Patrick Gaffney* (Actor, Playwright) Earlier this year Michael play “Mr. Dussel” in The Diary of Anne Frank with Center Rep. Some of his favorite roles include “Eli Whitney” in Anything Goes “Vice Principal Douglas Panch” in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Half the citizens of Tuna, Texas in Greater Tuna, A Tuna Christmas, and Red, White & Tuna, “Herbie” in Gypsy, and “The Man-in-Chair” in The Drowsy Chaperone. Other theatre companies he has worked with include: Shotgun Players, Aurora Theatre, San Jose Stage Co., Word for Word, Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Playwright’s Foundation, and 42nd Street Moon. He is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association. Michael has also had the good fortune of working with some of the best catering companies in the Bay Area including Paula LeDuc Fine Catering and Hugh Groman Catering. *Member of Actors' Equity Association, the union
of professional actors and stage managers. |
The Oldest Living Cater Waiter has previously been workshopped at Berkeley Playhouse, ZSpace (ZBelow), and produced at the SF Fringe Festival (PianoFight).
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Production
Written and Performed by Michael Patrick Gaffney Directed by Ken Sonkin Stage Managed by Elyssa Wolf Lighting Design by Michael Palumbo Set & Props Design by Benicia Martinez Costume Design by Michael Berg Projections & Sound Design by Ken Sonkin Piano Recordings by Kevin Roland Original Lyrics by Tom Orr |
42nd Street Moon
Executive Director, Daren A.C. Carollo Executive Director, Daniel Thomas Education Director, Anne Norland Office Manager, Shaun Plander Summer Intern, Elyssa Wolf Graphic Designer, DC Scarpelli Public Relations, Jonathan White |
Director’s Notes
"Life is a banquet, and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death!" —Auntie Mame
My dear friend, Michael Patrick Gaffney is feasting. His life is a banquet filled with oodles of sweet friendships, heaps of delicious artistic projects, and a few bitter tasting challenges. His story is your story is my story. His journey from a small-town Oklahoma boy to becoming a sought-after professional actor in the Bay Area is his dream come true. Audiences have relished watching him on stage for 25 years—but they may not know about the other side of his professional life—cater waiter to the stars.
Gaff (to his friends), is an old school performer with a humongous heart. He’s vaudeville, Shakespeare, and song and dance. He’s comedy and drama and everything in between, and like a fine wine, he has gotten better over time. The Oldest Living Cater Waiter is a universal story about finding the gusto to keep pursuing your dreams… and reckoning with the cost.
“What is there left for us, that have seen the newly discovered stability of things changed from an enthusiasm to a weariness, but to labor with a high heart, though it may be with weak hands, to rediscover an art of the theatre that shall be joyful, fantastic, extravagant, whimsical, beautiful, resonant, and altogether reckless?” —William Butler Yeats
Cater waitering is demanding work. Michael’s story sheds light on the physical and emotional challenges of being of service to others for over two decades. And yet, he has discovered how to balance the sweet and savory sides of both of his careers by remembering what he was taught early on. His plate is, indeed, bountiful.
“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” —Mark Twain
Now in our fifth year of collaborating on Cater Waiter, Michael and I are so thankful to Daren and Daniel at 42nd Street Moon for having faith in this story. Shout outs to all the Moon people who have helped him realize this production. We hope that you enjoy this delicious evening of theater.
Ken Sonkin, Director
June, 2019
Special Thanks
Hugo Ayala, Christine Blake, Barbara Botto, Courtney Bowers, Winn Burda, Daren AC Carollo, David Coffman (Fort Mason Center), Mike Finn, Sergio Garcia, Dyan Garza, Skip Goodman, Hugh Groman, Lawrence Helman, Jacqualynn Metcalf, Paula LeDuc, Jocelyn Leiser, Nicola McCarthy, Shaun Plander, Dawn Satkowski, DC Scarpelli, Debbie Shelley, Mary Beth Smith, Lynne Soffer, Lisa Steindler (ZSpace), Mark Stock, Daniel Thomas, Billie Sue Thompson, Kelly Tighe, Elyssa Wolf, Ayla Yarkut, Zoe Zeitlin, the cast of Once, and the wonderful staff and crew at 42nd Street Moon.
Hugo Ayala, Christine Blake, Barbara Botto, Courtney Bowers, Winn Burda, Daren AC Carollo, David Coffman (Fort Mason Center), Mike Finn, Sergio Garcia, Dyan Garza, Skip Goodman, Hugh Groman, Lawrence Helman, Jacqualynn Metcalf, Paula LeDuc, Jocelyn Leiser, Nicola McCarthy, Shaun Plander, Dawn Satkowski, DC Scarpelli, Debbie Shelley, Mary Beth Smith, Lynne Soffer, Lisa Steindler (ZSpace), Mark Stock, Daniel Thomas, Billie Sue Thompson, Kelly Tighe, Elyssa Wolf, Ayla Yarkut, Zoe Zeitlin, the cast of Once, and the wonderful staff and crew at 42nd Street Moon.
The Gateway Theatre
215 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA 94111
215 Jackson Street, San Francisco, CA 94111
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42NDSTMOON.ORG * 415.255.8207
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