Welcome to Blue Pumpkin Productions!
Blue Pumpkin Productions pursues various entertainment-related projects for stage, film, audio-recording and other media.
Blue Pumpkin Associates is an informal group of designers, writers, and performers who sometimes collaborate with Blue Pumpkin Productions as well as working with other clients.
2008 news and current projects:
Marc P. Smith’s play, A Journey to Kreisau, explores the little known story of Helmuth James and Freya von Moltke, an extraordinary couple at the center of German resistance to the Nazis. Theirs was a story of resistance to terror, but also of the search for a moral center for our civilization.
The most recent performances of the play were in Boston at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre where the play had a 5-performance run, April 9-13, 2008, under the sponsorship of the German Consulate in Boston. The U.S. premiere of this play had been performed two months earlier, February 18-20 at the Hibernian Cultural Center in Worcester, MA. The German Consul General saw the play in Worcester and felt that the story was so important it needed to be seen on a Boston stage as well; the Consulate’s sponsorship resulted in the April performances.
Telegram & Gazette story on January 11, 2008 on the U.S. premiere
The international premiere of A Journey to Kreisau was seen in Hamburg, Germany in March, 2007 as part of a variety of activities commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Helmuth James von Moltke who had been executed by the Nazis in January 1945. Von Moltke family members were present for this premiere. Later events that week in Berlin included a memorial concert at which the keynote speaker was German Chancellor Angela Merkel. See text of the Chancellor’s remarks.
In October and November of 2007, the play was performed by the same German acting troupe (in English) at Kreisau/Krzyzowa and then in Lodz, Poland.
Telegram & Gazette story on November 15, 2007 on the international paths of the play.
Just a year after its international premiere, on March 14, 2008, the play was performed in Berlin with sponsorship by the Freya von Moltke Foundation, the 20 July 1944 Association, and the Club von Berlin.
Marc P. Smith is now available as a speaker for programs at organizations and schools.He calls his presentation, "Personal and Public--A Playwright's Journey."
Read more...
The Kreisau Project focuses on the remarkable story of Germany's von Moltke family, principally Helmuth James and Freya von Moltke, central figures in anti-Nazi resistance within Germany. Check out the latest news...
Audience Development Consulting
Creative and pragmatic guidance in building audiences for the performing arts and for special fund raising benefit events.
New graduate level course, Audience Development, Event Planning, and Promotion, at Clark University, as of Fall semester 2006, taught by Susan L. Smith. Click here for details...
"My Life--In Smithereens"
Compelling aural history for stage and on spoken-word CD--told by a New England father to his sons.
"2 Vaudevillians Find Buried Treasure "
A delectable treat of vaudeville era music and comedic material is presented in this 22-track CD.
Note--Both CDs (2 Vaudevillians and ...Smithereens) available on line, via Discography page.
"Theatre Clips"
Single-panel cartoons in a theatrical context, by Marc P. Smith
SpiegelFest, German film festival. Presented in spring of 2003 and 2004.