Focus on ‘Moon Over Buffalo’ co-star Anne Dodd
The CFABS Community Players are producing five performances of Ken Ludwig’s hysterical farce Moon Over Buffalo. The action centers around aging theater icons George and Charlotte Hay who are finally about to get their shot at careers on the silver screen when tragedy strikes Frank Capra’s movie set and he suddenly finds constrained to replace both his male and female leads. But the timing could not be worse. George and Charlotte are on the outs, which is not surprising when you discover that George has not only been carrying on with the pretty young actress who took 
over his daughter’s roles when she quit their theater group, he’s gotten her pregnant! Playing the part of the woman George has done dirty is Anne Dodd.
The way Dodd plays the role of Charlotte Hay is one of the factors that makes this farce so distinctive and interesting. She portrays Charlotte as a long-suffering woman reluctantly willing to settle for a passionless relationship with good but boring man rather than endure another moment with her feckless husband even though he still stirs her imagination and makes her pulse race. She deserves better, which is spelled R E S P E C T.
Dodd has honed her formidable acting chops primarily as a dramatic artist. She confesses that she’s somewhat new to comedy; that it’s a departure from the types of plays in which she normally appears and directs. But her experience and background as a dramatic actor produces an alluring brand of comedrama that grounds her character and infuses her with a dry, almost chagrined wit. She’s on stage most of the play, but during those rare scenes when she’s not, you find yourself waiting impatiently for her return. Her comedic timing is impeccable. 
Her delivery is like, well, a knee or hat box to the crotch.
Anne doesn’t get to act as often as she’d like, so she makes the most of the opportunities that do come her way. Local audiences will recall her performance in Rimers of Eldritch at Lab Theater several seasons ago. In addition to The Lab, she has performed at Theatre Conspiracy, Cultural Park Theatre and Florida Repertory Theatre. She was last seen on stage at the Herb Strauss Theatre in A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia.
On the other side of the boards, Anne has directed Lanford Wilson’s Burn This, Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Sirens and Robert Caisley’s Happy for Lab Theater. Dodd studied theatre at Vanderbilt University and with Bill Hickey at HB Studio in New York City. She has acted in repertory throughout the United States and was a member of the Academy Theatre in Atlanta before relocating to Southwest Florida.
July 20, 2017.
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About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.