Director’s Notes
I immediately connected to “Lobby Hero” after reading it but was later shocked to learn that it was written over 20 years ago! I realized that it felt so timely because it’s truly a classic morality tale, challenging us with perhaps the most fundamental moral question of all: if and when is it ever okay to lie? A question we all face almost every moment of the day, in small ways and big.
I also happened to be studying the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer at the same time as I was working through “Lobby Hero” and I couldn’t help but see parallels. Bonhoeffer began life as a pacifist, but when confronted with the horrors of the Nazi regime, he became an active conspirator to assassinate Hitler. From prison, he wrote that one’s character is more important than one’s actions. “It is worse for a liar to tell the truth than for a lover of truth to lie.”
Even our protagonist Jeff can’t help but think about life in Nazi Germany as a kind of backstop for moral questions. But the life of a Lobby Hero, the lives most of us lead, never have that level of moral certainty. Every situation has its own unique circumstances.
Thus the key question is one that William asks: “What would YOU do there, Jeff?”
Thom Harmon
President and Founder of City Gate Productions
Director of Lobby Hero
Meet Our Creative Team
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Thom Harmon (Director)
Thom Harmon, a Philadelphia native, has been a professional fundraiser for over 20 years, focusing almost exclusively on academic medical research. He has held executive positions at such institutions as The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Fox Chase Cancer Center and presently at Mount Sinai Health System. Initially pursuing a career as an academic himself, Thom has a Bachelor's of Science in Theology from Cairn University and a Masters in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania. Storytelling and live performance were interests from a young age, participating in drama clubs from early childhood through college. But it wasn't until much later in life that he discovered community and regional theater around the Philadelphia region and quickly became a regular performer with several companies. Thom has fallen deeply in love with his new home, the borough of Queens, and is passionate about seeing the performing arts continue to thrive here.
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Rich Feldman (Assistant Director)
Rich Feldman (Assistant Director) – Rich recently appeared as Finbar Mack in City Gate’s Fall 2021 production of The Weir. Some other notable roles were as Ivan Curry in The Seafarer, Bernard in Boeing-Boeing, James Wicker in It’s Only a Play, Duke/Dr. Carrasco in Man of La Mancha, Captain Hastings in Black Coffee and Dr. Chumley in Harvey. Rich is grateful for the opportunity to assistant direct Lobby Hero and work with such a talented and collaborative cast and crew. Finally, he’d like to thank his wife Georgene, and daughters Kate and Allison for their never-ending love and support.
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Regina Lim Fischedick (Producer)
Regina Fischedick is incredibly proud to be a Board Member and a Producer for our 2022 spring show, "Lobby Hero". Originally from the Philippines, she’s been active in the Queens, New York community theatre scene since 2009. Her last show performing was with Finny, her son (now 2), getting indoctrinated in the world of theatre as young as 6 months in her belly. Theatre keeps her sane, structured, and full of passion on top of her day job, and she is thrilled to push boundaries and contribute to the wonderful world of community theatre through City Gate Productions. *confetti* She thanks her Bubs for all the times he listened, and the unconditional support and love. Always and forever, this endeavor is offered up to George and Mommy. <3
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Tim Reifschneider (producer)
Tim Reifshneider has been acting, directing, and producing theater in and around his Queens community for over 40 years. He holds a BFA in Theatre from Adelphi University and co-founded a professional Theater troupe during the 1980s, He has directed for The Garden City Little Theatre as well as Theatre Box in Floral Park during the '90s. In addition, he has appeared in dozens of community shows in the City and Long Island. Some of his favorite roles have been Snetsky the Sheep Loser in Neil Simon's FOOLS, Juror Number 1 in Twelve Angry Men with Theater Time in Bayside, and Tim the Stage Manager, in the Amberrose Production of Noises Off!, Somewhere in this time, he married his long time Stage Manager and produced two amazing children. He is looking forward to helping to elevate the quality of affordable entertainment in the City during this next chapter of his adventure in Theatre.
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Matt Frenzel (Stage Manager, Properties, Lights and Sound)
Matt Frenzel (Stage Manager) is so happy to be a part of this outstanding production with this extremely talented cast. It is his humble opinion that there is truly no better way to bring theatre back to Queens than with this beautifully funny, yet profound piece of art. Matt has appeared most recently on stage as Jack in the Downtown Urban Arts Festival production of The Big Dream. Other credits both on and off stage include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Freddy), The Addams Family (Lucas), Spelling Bee (Chip), and Holmes and Watson (Assistant Director/Stage Manager).
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Lauren Snyder (Costume Coordinator)
Lauren Snyder (Costumer) is happy to be a part of this production dream team after enjoying City Gate’s first two shows as an audience member. Though this is her first Queens credit as a costumer, her experience working on costume crews at Penn State, putting together family Halloween costumes, sourcing her own stage costumes, and obsessive Googling came in handy. www.LaurenSnyderActress.com
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Set Construction
Tim Reifschneider
J.A. Haines
Dan Huber
Seljuk Yalcin
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Marketing
Regina Lim Fischedick
Emma Reifschneider
Mark Dunn
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Publicity
Jay Michaels
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Art Design
Mr. Haines not only designed our City Gate Productions logo, but created all the promotional art for our 2022 season. Jim will also be featured in our Original Works later this season. Jim starred as Jack in City Gate’s 2021 (SOLD OUT) production of The Weir.
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Lighting
Donated by Ascension Church
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Risers
Donated by The Parkside Players
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Board Support
Ginny Lawler Harmon
Erin Lay
