The Cast
Shenendoah Thompson
Fiddler Jones
Shenendoah Thompson is a storyteller from West Virginia. He has acted in, and directed numerous new works and plays, authored several plays and screenplays, and released two albums of original music. This is his second appearance with Lovely Calamity Productions. Selected Roles: Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, The Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, and the title role in Sweeney Todd. Selected Awards: Best Play / Best Actor “Red” (2014 WVTA); Most Versatile Actor (MT Pockets Theatre 2012); Best Short Screenplay “The Raven” (2023 Off Page Film Festival). Album Releases: The Pair (2015), Guilty Conscience (2020).
Gavino Olvera
Judge Somers/Thomas Rhodes
Gavino Olvera is thrilled to be joining The Hill after a 20 year hiatus from the stage. In previous life he performed in various Commercial, TV/Film and Theatre roles. Some favorites are Hamlet in Hamlet, Jean-Paul Marat in Marat/Sade, Cinderella's Prince in Into The Woods and many more. "I'm so grateful to be part of The Hill and to be performing again."
Matthew Ritacco
Chase Henry/Butch Weldy
Matthew Ritacco is delighted to be performing down the road where he grew up in Westchester County. Recently he produced a TV pilot. He has worked on various television shows and films and made his Off-Broadway debut in a sketch comedy show. He currently works as a commercial director, most notably working on ads for Temu.
Phil Garfinkel
Editor Whedon/Barney Hainsfeather
Phil Garfinkel is grateful to be a part of The Hill. Other roles: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bottom), Romeo & Juliet (Lord Capulet), Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot), Cabaret (Herr Schultz), 1776 (George Read), Big River (The Duke), Twelfth Night (Sir Andrew Aguecheek), Sight Unseen (Jonathan), Lend Me a Tenor (Saunders), Time Stands Still (Richard Ehrlick), The Runner Stumbles (Prosecutor), Barefoot in the Park (Telephone Repairman). Phil can be seen as Jay in the midnight movie cult classic Toxic Zombies, as well as in Tracks, with Lee Wilkoff. As always, thanks to LL.
Liam O’Neill
Charlie French
Liam is very excited to be returning to Spoon River and the role of Charlie French. Liam is the fifth generation of his family to work in the theatre. He was also the very first cast member to have all his lines memorized and he is very proud about that! Liam’s little sister, Josie, is his understudy and Liam knows she would do a great job but he would like to assure her he feels fine… Better luck next summer, Josie!
Jasper Newell
Harry Wilmans/Ralph Rhodes
Jasper Newell is from the East Village, NYC. Theatre: The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Judson Theater Company, NC), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London) Samara (SohoRep) Before Your Very Eyes (The Public Theatre), Einstein on the Beach (World Tour) Film: We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Drowning, Lovebroke. Training: Rutgers Mason Gross BFA Acting. I’m happy to be making my very alive Sleepy Hollow Cemetery debut!
Michael Sean Cirelli
Hamilton Greene/Doc Meyers
Michael Sean Cirelli is an actor, humorist and human based in New York City. Past films include Victim No. 6 (LIIF Festival Prize winner), Augustus (Martha’s Vineyard HBO Competition Award) and Full Disclosure. As a writer, Michael’s pilot Dummy has been awarded laurels at the Screenplay, Shore Scripts, and Finish Line festivals. He also performs comedy and writes plays at various places around New York. For more information: michaelseancirelli.com or @michaelseancirelli on FB and Instagram.
Calli Medley
Elsa Wertman/Minerva Jones
Calli Medley is a NYC based actor, singer/songwriter, and dancer. Recent credits: MORGAN, The Wayward Women, LUCI, Wish Mirage, MADDIE, Forget Me Not (Joey Contreras), and ANTONIA, The Country Play. Proud Alumni of the William Esper Studio. @callimedley callimedley.com
Nicole Arcieri
Sarah Brown/Mrs. Mrs. Reece
Nicole Arcieri is delighted to be making her debut at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery as Sarah Brown and Mrs. George Reece in The Hill - Stories from Spoon River. Theatre credits include Amadeus (Constanze Weber), Lucy's Lament (Lucy Abercrombie), and Not Like Us (Topsy), among others. Film credits include Uncle Bubba Goes to New York (Day Player), Omega House (Day Player), and Neon Dinner (Lead), among others. For more information and to view upcoming projects, visit: nicolearcieriactor.com. Nicole would like to thank Crissy and Josh and the cast and crew for their hard work and dedication!
Michael Rhese
Roscoe Purkapile/ Richard Bone
Michael Rhese is a graduate of Pace University with a BA in Computer Science and a native of Redmond Washington, Michael recently appeared in Out of Sight... Out of Murder (Peter Knight, Overture Arts) and in a staged radio play version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (First Narrator, Sycamore Theater Company). Favorite credits include EverScape (Gil, NYC Fringe 2015), Comedy of Errors (Antipholus of Syracuse, NYC Fringe 2014), Things I Left on Long Island (Stephen, NYC Fringe 2014), The Importance of Being Earnest (Algernon, 2013), Hamlet (Hamlet, Cage 2012). Thank you, Asja, for making this possible! I love you Finn and River!
Giverny Petitmermet
Mrs. Purkapile/Professor Alice Churchill
Giverny Petitmermet (Mrs. Purkapile/Professor Alice Churchill) is a New York based actor/director/producer/educator originally from San Diego, California. She is the Artistic Director of The New Collectives and a founding member of BREAD Arts Collective. Giverny is a board member of The Sleepy Hollow Arts Collective (SHAC). As a teaching artist she works with Theater O, Children's Shakespeare Company, The Young Collectives, and SHAC. Some of her acting credits include: The Weir (Lovely Calamity Productions), The Hill - Stories from Spoon River (Sleepy Hollow Arts Collective); Bug Play, M4M, Life Brief & Glorious, The Trojan Women, The Witches, (The New Collectives); Waiting for Lefty, Rise and Fall (BREAD Arts Collective). Training: Boston University, BFA in acting; London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA), British American Drama Academy (BADA). givernypetitmermet.com
Deirdre Hanbury
Mrs. Charles Bliss, Lucinda Matlock
Deirdre Hanbury is delighted to be invited back to this year's production of The Hill: Stories from Spoon River. Having the opportunity to perform with her husband, Chris Moyer, is very special and a whole lot of fun! When not roaming around cemeteries, Dee treasures time spent with her beautiful daughter, Claire, and their many pets. Big thanks to Crissy, Josh and the talented and kind cast members for helping to create a very memorable experience.
Chris Moyer
Reverend Wiley/ Cassius Hueffer
Chris Moyer hails from California. At the age of two, he was crowned the "king of Glendale" after winning a local beauty pageant in LA and went on to star in commercials alongside Dick Van Dyke and Betty White. He moved to the East Coast after receiving an acting scholarship to the university arts in Philadelphia PA. As a young adult he performed in regional theater and commercial work in LA, but eventually life pulled him back to the East Coast where he started a small business and a family. In March 2025, Chris had the pleasure of performing in The Weir, a play by Connor McPherson with Lovely Calamity productions. Chris is currently working on a family documentary called "My Liberace Table". It follows the California to New York road trip he took in the summer of 2023 with his teenage daughter, Claire, to retrieve a family heirloom gifted to his dad by Liberace. Chris and the infamous table can be seen on this year's "Antique Roadshow" season 29 episode 14.
Cristina Noelle
Rosie Roberts/Pauline Barrett
Cristina Noelle is the founder Lovely Calamity Productions, based in Sleepy Hollow. Favorite past stage and film credits included The Witch in Into the Woods (Fantasy Playhouse Productions), Evelyn in The Shape of Things (Nassau Mainstage), Magenta in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Cultural Arts Playhouse), and Susan in Deer Crossing (Spark Creative Works). Cristina has also appeared as herself in over a dozen episodes of Mysteries at the Museum (History Channel). Her short stories have been published by Demons Dreaming Press, Everyday Fiction, and The Wicked Library. In 2021, her one act play Safety First was awarded best comedy at the Theatre Out of Bounds Festival. Cristina trained with William Esper, Nancy Mayans, Jules Helm, Victor Abravaya, Robert Einenkel, and John Pereira. She is grateful to them all. Love to Liam and Josie.
Photography by Tim LaMorte / Life on the Hudson
The Crew
Josh Lewis
Director
Josh Lewis is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Sleepy Hollow Arts Collective. Prior to moving up the Hudson, he spent three decades living and working in New York City as a director, writer, performer, and educator. He has acted, directed, and written for countless theater companies, including the Atlantic Theater Company, Manhattan Theater Club, Naked Angels, The 52nd Street Project, and was an original cast member and co-writer of C-R-E-P-A-S-C-U-L-E, which evolved into the Tony Award winning 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Josh’s career in TV includes extensive writing and performing for Comedy Central and MTV, appearances on many TV shows, including “Law & Order” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” and numerous commercials for burgers, beverages, and gas. As an educator he has taught throughout the tristate area at institutions such as NYU, the Atlantic Acting School, Yale School of Drama, New York Film Academy, and the New York City Public School system. Since moving to Sleepy Hollow he has created programming for the Hudson Valley Writers Center, River Arts, Shames JCC, the Life Center, TaSH Farmers Market, Sleepy Hollow Bookshop, and the Schools of the Tarrytowns, among others.
Giverny Petitmermet
Assistant Director
Giverny Petitmermet a New York based actor/director/producer/educator originally from San Diego, California. She is the Artistic Director of The New Collectives and a founding member of BREAD Arts Collective. Giverny is a board member of The Sleepy Hollow Arts Collective (SHAC).
Cristina Noelle
Playwright/Dramaturg
Told you I was hard to forget.
Vera Zamdmer
Costume Design
Vera Zamdmer lives in Tarrytown, New York and has a passion for creating three- dimensional, textured dreamscapes. Humans have long expressed themselves through patterns, whether printed, painted or woven: Vera makes art with ink, paint and fabric that reminds us of this fundamental human expressiveness. She draws from decades of experience with monoprinting, tapestry, costume design for theater and television, puppetry, and woven goods manufacture. She is inspired by her family, which is known in Hungary for 150 years of melding the artistic and commercial in the worlds of graphic design, book binding and typography.
Lovey Calamity is a theatrical production company that creates immersive, site-specific theatrical experiences which compliment or inform the real-world spaces they inhabit. Our immersive approach helps us breathe new life into a wide breadth of material– from original works to classical adaptations, to experimental happenings. We believe art can strengthen community and foster connections between people and places. Lovely Calamity is committed to making theatre an integral part of the cultural landscape of our community. We prioritize collaborations with local artists, organizations, and businesses. Lovely Calamity Productions is an equal opportunity employer and a home for artists of all identities, races, ages, and cultures. We welcome anyone who feels they have something to contribute. Learn more at lovelycalamity.com
Sleepy Hollow Arts Collective (SHAC) is committed to providing accessible arts education to residents of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown. The Arts Collective works to produce, promote, and perform art across a variety of disciplines— from poetry to puppetry, and from drama to drag. SHAC is dedicated to providing a home for a variety of artists, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or economic status. To learn more about SHAC, or to donate, please visit their website at sleepyarts.org
“I send to you herewith a plan of a rural cemetery projected by some of the worthies of tarrytown on the woody hills adjacent to the Sleepy Hollow Church. I have no pecuniary interest in it, yet I hope it may succeed, as it will keep that beautiful and umbrageous neighborhood sacred from the anti-poetical and all leveling axe. Besides, I trust that I shall one day lay my bones there.”
-- Washington Irving
Incorporated in 1849, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is an active, non-profit, non-sectarian burial ground occupying approximately 90 acres of space. It is the final resting place of some 47,000 souls, including Washington Irving who first brought notoriety to the area with the 1820 American publication of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. Other famous interments include Andrew Carnegie, William Rockefeller, Elizabeth Arden, Brooke Astor, Jasper Cropsey, Leona Helmsley, Walter Chrysler, Belle Moskowitz, Samuel Gompers, and Oswald Garrison Villard.
While Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is adjacent to the Old Dutch Church Burying Ground, which dates back to 1607, the two properties are separate institutions. Today, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is on the National register of Historic Places and is a level one arboretum.
We ask that visitors be mindful of the sacred nature of the setting they are exploring this evening. Kindly refrain from touching or in any way disturbing any of the monuments, headstones, and statuary that you see while traversing the grounds and always remain on the path.
Tours of the property are available at: sleepyhollowcemetery.org
An Homage to the Poet...
Our play would not exist were it not for the genius of the poet Edgar Lee Masters.
Born in Garnett, Kansas in 1868, Masters’ early years were difficult ones. His family struggled financially as his father’s law practice floundered and they were forced to move several times, finally settling in Lewistown, Illinois in 1880. Here, a young Masters attended high school and had his first poems and articles published in local papers including the Chicago Daily News. Masters wanted to pursue a literary career but was discouraged by his parents, who instead steered Edgar into a career in the law. After being admitted to the Illinois bar, Masters moved to Chicago and established a law partnership with Clarence Darrow (of Scopes “monkey” trial fame). The two men worked together until 1911 when Masters left to start his own firm. However, his interest in writing—and in poetry in particular— never waned. He published a great many plays, poems and essays while working as an attorney, but tended to write under pseudonyms, wary of damaging his legal career.
Then, in 1914, at the suggestion of his friend and publisher William Marion Reedy, Masters began work on a series of poems based on his childhood in Illinois. He wandered through Oak Hill Cemetery, gathering names off tombstones, remembering the people he had known in his youth, and crafting poems based on their exploits. Masters combined various poetic forms, mixing classical techniques with experimental ones to create an anthology wherein the dead return to recite their epitaphs in free verse. Some of these poems were first published as stand-alone works in the St. Louis-based literary magazine Reedy’s Mirror. In 1915, all 212 original poems were assembled into a single volume and prepared for publication. Masters named his collection after the river that meandered through Lewistown, on whose banks he had so often played as a child, and Spoon River Anthology was born.
Literary fashion of the late 19th century often presented small town life as idyllic and wholesome. Small towns, it was supposed, were bastions of “real” American values. Masters begged to differ. His ghostly subjects were adulterers, thieves, liars. They died of botched abortions, suicide, alcoholism. The frankness with which Masters dared to write about even the most taboo of topics of the age made his poetry scandalous, and wildly popular. Spoon River proved both a commercial and critical success, garnering praise from the likes of Ezra Pound who famously said of Masters, “At last America has discovered a poet.”
But back in Illinois, the residents of Lewistown were not pleased. They recognized themselves and their loved ones in Masters’ poetry and resented having the carefully crafted façade over their bucolic community torn down. The citizenry was so perturbed, in fact, that Spoon River Anthology was banned in Lewistown schools and libraries until 1974! In recent years, however, Lewistown has come to accept and even celebrate its notoriety. Today, a memorial statue of Edgar Lee Masters graces his grave in Oak Hill Cemetery and, perhaps unsurprisingly, his stone bears an epitaph that the poet himself composed. It reads:
“Good friends, let’s to the fields…
After a little walk, and by your pardon,
I think I’ll sleep. There is no sweeter thing,
Nor fate more blessed than to sleep.
I am a dream out of a blessed sleep –
Let’s walk and hear the lark.”