Harvey
by Mary Chase, directed by Tom Badowski (Moretown)
May 31-June 16, 2019
First performed in 1979 at the Fayston Elementary School, Harvey marks the first show of the Valley Players 40th season, and the first show the Valley Players produced.
Harvey tells the story of Elwood P. Dowd, who insists on including his friend Harvey in all of his sister Veta’s social gatherings. Trouble is, Harvey is an imaginary six-and-a-half-foot-tall rabbit. To avoid future embarrassment for her family—and especially for her daughter, Myrtle Mae—Veta decides to have Elwood committed to a sanitarium. At the sanitarium, a frantic Veta explains to the staff that her years of living with Elwood’s hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also, and so the doctors mistakenly commit her instead of her mild-mannered brother. The truth comes out, however; Veta is freed, and the search is on for Elwood, who eventually arrives at the sanitarium of his own volition, looking for Harvey. But it seems that Elwood and his invisible companion have had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the end does Veta realize that maybe Harvey isn’t so bad after all.
The Curtain Call from the original production of Harvey in 1979
The Cast
Elwood P. Dowd - Doug Bergstein (Warren)
Dr. William B. Chumley - Jack Bradt (Winooski)
Dr. Lyman Sanderson - Wes Olds (Montpelier)
Wilson - Barry Bolio (Middlesex)
Judge Omar Gaffney - Bill Hannon (Duxbury)
Veta Louise Simmons - Rachel Natvig (Northfield)
Ruth Kelly - Mikki Nucci (Waitsfield)
Myrtle Mae Simmons - Ann Naumann (Richmond)
Ethel Chauvenet - Marci Robinson (Warren)
Betty Chumley - Andra Krushenick (Northfield)
E. J. Lofgren - Marci Robinson (Warren)
The Crew
Director - Tom Badowski
Stage Manager - Denise Badowski
Set Build - Doug Bergstein, Andra Krushenick, Marci Robinson, Mikki Nucci
Portrait of Elwood and Harvey revised by Dottie Kyle
Photos by Alison Duckworth