The Actors' Company

Donna Aquavella and Sherry Paige Rich

Rural Research Laboratories opened its doors to the public in March 2007 with the theatrical performance of Colder than Here. Elmira's own Clare Reidy founded the acting company and directed plays when not working at Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA. Plays performed include:

Colder Than Here  March 2007 (RRL)

The Gifts They Carried  March 2007 (RRL)

Under Milkwood  November 2007 (Clemens Center Mandeville Hall)

Graceland February 2008 (RRL)

Clare Reidy introducing Graceland

Donna Aquavella and Irving Cook on the set of Colder than Here

Janice Slocum, Shari Paige Rich and Irving Cook on the set of Colder than Here

The Actors’ Company celebrated its first anniversary with the production of Graceland by Ellen Byron. Directed by the Actors’ Company founder, Clare Reidy, the play revolves around two women, Bev (Janice Slocum) and Rootie (Kelly Galvin), who are both trying to be the first fans to visit Elvis’s estate when it opened to the public in 1982.

The Actors' Co. Mission statement:

The Actors' Company is an ensemble of local and regional theatre artists dedicated to bringing works from both classical and contemporary theatre to the area. We hope through the offering of contemporary works to invite our audiences to walk in the shoes of people like themselves, to hear live actors speaking the unspeakable, to wonder, to question and to experience life with all its joys and sorrows at the beginning of the third millennium. We hope through the offering of classical works from the Greeks to Shakespeare, to invite our audiences to recognize the bond we share and have always shared as human beings living in "this little O" as Shakespeare called his stage and, by extension, his world.

The Acting Company: 

 Irving Cook, Janice Slocum, Donna Aquavella, Shari Paige -Rich, Ian Milliken, Joseph Milliken, Grennin Milliken, Anne Rich, Mike Lavarnway, Julia Lavarnway, Aaron Kather, Jan Kather, Frances Wells, Hannah Galvin, Emily Galvin, Gary Yoggy, Jillian Dailey, Terry Sinko.

Guest Artists:  Dave Demke, Caley Milliken, Kelly Galvin

Production Stage Manager: Kathleen Galvin

 Lighting and scenic artists:  Michael Kenna, Wendy Taylor, Dan Reidy, Scott Tolbert

Photographer: Jan Kather

Print materials: Joyce Hallenbeck

Artistic Director:  Clare Reidy

Financial Advisor:  Thomas Reidy

Advisory Board:  

Patrick M. Reidy, J.D. , Barbara Curran,  Joseph Milliken, Sylvia Milliken, Jillian Dailey, Frances Wells, Jan Kather