Friday, July 22nd through Sunday, July 24th

Friday & Saturday, 7:00 PM | Sunday, 2:00 PM

REACH Performing Arts Center

All She Cares About is the Yankees

by John Ford Noonan

Directed by Jonathan Libman

Co-Produced by Amelia Huckel-Bauer and Tatyana Kot 

Choreographed by Tatyana Kot

with Amelia Huckel-Bauer as Maureen "Spanky" Oberfeld

Dolls by Carolyn Greene Mor  (Blue HIllian)

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All She Cares About is the Yankees invites the audience to spend an exhilarating hour with Maureen "Spanky" Oberfeld, during a sweltering summer evening in the mid eighties. Spanky has been unable to leave her home for six weeks, imprisoning herself, yet determined to discover the reason for her fear and self imposed isolation. With the help of some friends on the outside, her passion for baseball, and tons of grit and determination, she attempts time and time again to make it out the door, and back to life. Spanky knows deep down that the only way out is through, and if she can find a way, then we all can too! 

Amelia Huckel-Bauer moved with her family from the beaches of Rhode Island to Blue Hill, at the age of 10. After getting as much stage time as she could at The Grand with community theater and attending summer theater camps throughout the state, away she flew to NYC. And there she stayed. She now lives in the Bronx, with her Yankees loving husband, and two small children. Over the last decade,  Amelia and her husband have visited Blue Hill each summer. Watching her native New Yorker guy fall in love with Downeast Maine, rekindled Amelia’s appreciation for her childhood home. They now spend every summer here, and their kids are the most Mainiac little ones the Bronx has ever seen! And so, Amelia is beyond thrilled to bring her passion and love of theater home to the coast of Maine. 

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As an actor, Amelia ​​is a company member with Emit Theater, bringing immersive Shakespeare to NYC public schools, roles ranging from Gertrude in Hamlet to Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is also a company member and Education Director for Red Monkey Theater Group, roles including Hunter in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, Silvia in Two Gentlemen of Verona; Chick in Crimes of the Heart. 

Amelia teaches Method Acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Inst., where she began studying at 17, and where she remains a life-long student. She is a Public Speaking instructor at the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture, and is the founder of Elora Theater Arts, an educational theater company, where she teaches theater workshops for learners of all ages. She holds a BFA in Acting from Tisch, NYU, and a MA in Educational Theater, from Steindhard, NYU.

Amelia is grateful for the opportunity to partner with the Reach, and delighted to bring some talented artists up from NY, for lobsters and swimming at Curtis Cove.

Jonathan Libman is a native New Yorker who went through the public school system and grew up on cement ballfields and playing football in parking lots.  It would be an understatement to say he was happy to find Central Park which he thought was rural, until thankfully, he did a bit of traveling out of his 5 mile comfort zone.    

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He is best known for developing and directing the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway show The Mushroom Cure, written and performed by Adam Strauss, and currently playing now on the West Coast, in Berkeley, California. Talkin' Broadway praised The Mushroom Cure as "a miracle of a show and a must-see," and called Strauss "a one-person tour de force." While Michael Pollan hailed it "brilliant, hilarious, and moving." The show also enjoyed extended runs at the Historic Cherry Lane Theater named A Critics’ Pick by Time Out New York and hailed by The New York Times as “mining a great deal of laughter from disabling pain.”  While in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune praised The Mushroom Cure as “arrestingly honest and howlingly funny,” awarding it 3.5 (out of 4) stars.

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As a member of the Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit, Jonathan specializes in new work that includes directing Chazz Palminteri (A Bronx Tale), NEA recipient David Libman, Dramatist Guild Fellow Nicole Pandolfo and Guggenheim Fellow Christina Masciotti among talented others. Jonathan recently won a scholarship to write and direct at Tony Spiridakis’ Manhattan Film Institute and has directed for The Collective NY, Nylon Fusion, and Ripple Effect Artists.

His full-length plays include Accidents Waiting to Happen (Rattlestick Theater Jam, Kitchen Dog Theater Finalist) and Please Leave the Light On (Bay Area Playwright’s Semi-Finalist).

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While some of the above may be somewhat impressive, Jonathan still can not drive an automobile, nor hit a slider even if you told him it was coming.  He even works for Major League Baseball, has learned to appreciate some aspects of the Red Sox, but still can't understand the appeal of chewing tobacco.  It tastes like radioactive raisins.   

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Thanks to everybody involved in reviving John Ford Noonan's unique play.  Looking forward to going on this trip for as long as possible.

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Jonathan is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing Program, where he is also a mentor to some of the graduating students.  Union member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Tatyana Kot was born in the Soviet Union, where she trained in classical ballet and received an MA in History and Archeology. She worked with people with disabilities for 15 years in Kentucky and NYC, and is a breast cancer survivor and advocate.

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Tatyana was awarded Best Actress at Planet Connections Theater Festivity, Midtown International Theater Festival and First Prize at Secondo Theater Festival (Zurich, Switzerland). She is a company member of Blessed Unrest (physical theater): Snow Queen (2017), Doruntine (Zurich-2016, NYC -2015), Bodies: Anatomies of Being (2015-2016), Christmas Carol (2013), Eurydice's Dream (2013). She is also a company member of Nylon Fusion Theater Co.: Marina/Mata Hari (2013), Snowfall in Berlin (2014), The Chaplin Plays (2016-2019), Tales with Teeth (2019), and she recently choreographed John P. Shanley's new play, Candlelight (2021).

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A VR immersive documentary about her life with cancer NORMAL DAY was internationally released in 2018.

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As a passionate Stephen King fan, Tatyana has always dreamed of coming to Maine, and now this dream has come true!