TOXIC Program

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE PLAYERS PRESENTS

TOXIC

TWO PERFORMANCES OF TWO ONE-ACT PLAYS

Jolly Wally by Chris Widney

The Ballad of Love Canal by Joyce Carol Oates

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9 & 10, 2026

at the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood

113 Cottage Place, Ridgewood, New Jersey, 07450

Directed by Frank Farrell

There is a ten-minute intermission between the two plays.

Running Time: approx. 70 minutes.

Time and Locations

Jolly Wally

Scene: The “Sea Life” Aquarium in Tallahassee, Florida.

Time: Present

The Ballad of Love Canal

Scene: Love Canal located in the center of a residential community

in Niagara Falls, New York.

Time: 1978

CAST & Company

Jolly Wally by Chris Widney

Dot - Susie Bellin

Wally - Dylan Meyers

Molly - Laura Ward

The Ballad of Love Canal by Joyce Carol Oates

Bama - Tiffany Browne-Tavarez

Medrick – Tom Bellin

Dugan - Sam Fuchs

Gip - David Schwartz

Music and sound by Ben Masterton

Production Assistant – Lisa Dahlborg

“Man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”

Rachel Carson

“My belief is that art should not be comforting; for comfort, we have mass entertainment and one another. Art should provoke, disturb, arouse our emotions, expand our sympathies in directions we may not anticipate and may not even wish.” 

       Joyce Carol Oates

Special Thanks: Reverend Sarah Lenzi, Ann Pareti, Carol Wolf, Rebecca Bellin, Anita Young, and the Environmental Justice Team at the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood, Julie Dunic, Howell Mayer, Connor Gebart, David Schwartz, Christine Blaystock and The Hermitage, First Flight Theatre Company, Jodi Reiss and the Players Guild of Leonia and Baumgart’s Café.

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The Two Plays

Fed up with the day-to-day humiliation of their “act,” a walrus tries to convince her complacent walrus boyfriend to escape from the “SeaLife Aquarium” in Tallahassee in Chris Widney’s one-act play Jolly Wally.

The Ballad of Love Canal by Joyce Carol Oates is a one-act play that centers on the Noonan family, who have lived for years on a toxic-waste dump site in upstate New York.

WHO'S WHO IN JOLLY WALLY

SUSIE BELLIN (Dot) has enjoyed working on this TOXIC situation and wants everyone to know that no walruses were harmed in the making of this show. Working with the Environmental Justice Players has been a great experience and she is grateful for the mentorship from Frank Farrell. She brings extensive theatre experience from numerous productions across multiple venues, but most of all, her passion for the arts and a strong sense of justice for all sea creatures. She would like to thank her friends and family for their continued support. 

DYLAN MEYERS (Wally) is an actor best known for his wild comedic roles, specializing in physical comedy. He is overjoyed to have the chance to do a silly animal impression for a paying audience. Notable credits include: Deadly Dessert Championship (WhatCo 2024), Dracula (Nutley Little Theater 2025), and She Kills Monsters (Studio Players 2026).

LAURA WARD (Molly) is happy to portray Molly one more time after having performed in Jolly Wally as part of The Marshall Playwrights Showcase this past May at The Players Guild of Leonia. Before that, her most recent appearance on stage was as a zombie in Night of the Living Dead at The Hermitage in October 2025. She’s glad to be alive and have a speaking role this time around. Her favorite role as a human being was Cora in Calendar Girls at The Players Guild. Laura also takes part in weekly improv with members of the Guild and Bergen County Players. When not “yes and”ing, she is playing guitar, bass, and singing some back-up in an adult group at The School of Rock in Maywood. She’s also trying to get a voiceover career going and trains with Edge Studio in NYC. So many ways to perform, so little time.

WHO'S WHO IN

THE BALLAD OF LOVE CANAL

TOM BELLIN (Medrick) played as George Gardener on the Suffern High School production of A Chorus Line in 1996. It has taken 30 years for Tom to make his way back on stage. In the meantime, Tom honed his acting skills on his long-suffering wife and 3 wonderful kids.

TIFFANY BROWNE-TAVAREZ (Bama) is very grateful to be taking on the heartbreaking role of Bama. Her 2026 stage credits include the role of Jane in Fallen Out of Time written by Ginger Guzman, Queen Eurydice in Antigone at Stag and Lion Theatre NYC, ecologist/writer Rachel Carson in Rachel Carson Speaks for the Environmental Justice Players in Ridgewood, NJ, and the role of January in the one act play Suite Sappho by James F. Broderick which premiered at The New York Theatre Festival early this year. She would like to thank her husband Francisco Tavarez for his constant encouragement and support. You can keep up with her latest and upcoming acting endeavors on instagram at @tiffanybrownetavarez

SAM FUCHS (Dugan) has been working in theater and films since he was a teenager. A multi-lingual actor, he has worked for the Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts playing David in Generation Seven, as well as appearing in film roles including Sammy in Masks of Fidelio and Diante in Unemployed. Sam has studied at HB Studios, improvisation with Jeffrey Zeiner and Meisner Technique with Angela Lomangino. An all-around athlete, Sam is an MMA champion.

DAVID SCHWARTZ (Gip) is glad to be back with Toxic for this production, after having participated in the read-through of Toxic in February.  David also performed in March at Temple Israel in Schmaltz, a Purim shpiel musical spoof of Grease, which was a first time on stage after many years, having performed his first role as Joseph in Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in community theater in Maplewood, N.J. in 2008.  David is also a singer/entertainer with senior audiences, sings in choruses, and when not involved in the above a

ctivities, is often spotted biking and hiking around Bergen County and environs.

FRANK FARRELL (Director) is the artistic director of the First Flight Theatre Company which has performed several productions at the Hermitage in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ since 2018. www.firstflighttheatreco.com. He most recently directed and adapted Declaration a musical adaptation of the Declaration of Independence at the Hermitage and in April he directed Rachel Carson Speaks for the Environmental Justice Players’ inaugural production.

BENJAMIN MASTERTON (Music & Sound) composed the music for and co-adapted the musical Declaration this past August at the Hermitage in New Jersey. He has composed and arranged music for dozens of productions in Chicago, Florida, New York, and of course, Idaho.  With Frank Farrell Productions, Ben has composed music and designed sound in New Jersey for A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Night of the Living Dead, and musicalized an evening of the writings of Edgar Allan Poe.   Frank and Ben also produced the Songs of the Pogo franchise, including the Songs of the Pogo Podcast, the film, and the theatrical stage show in New York City.  Ben is currently composing music for the short film “Callahan’s Hour.” Ben has written over a hundred and ninety songs and currently resides in Gainesville, Florida.

LISA DAHLBORG (Production Assistant) was in First Flight Theatre Company's first performance in May 2018, a staged reading of Maxwell Anderson's play Valley Forge at the Hermitage. She ran sound for their production in early August of the musical Declaration. She runs sound for Players Guild of Leonia and the Bergen County Players. She is a talented playwright. She and Frank Farrell were in plays together with the New Players Company at Ridgewood High School back in the late 1970s.

JOYCE CAROL OATES (The Ballad of Love Canal Playwright) is a prolific American novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet, playwright, and literary critic whose career spans more than six decades. Author of over 70 novels—many exploring violence, social class, and the human condition—her acclaimed works include them (National Book Award), Blonde, Black Water, and We Were the Mulvaneys. She has also published under the pseudonyms Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly, earned multiple O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize, and taught for decades at Princeton University while mentoring generations of writers.

CHRIS WIDNEY (Jolly Wally Playwright) is an award-winning playwright, book writer, and lyricist who tries to spend as much time as possible wandering around in the mountains. Full-length plays, “Big, Fat And Ugly With A Moustache” (Perry Street Theatre, NYC), “Family Men” (Arden, Philadelphia), “The Normals” (Luna Stage, NJ), “Consumed” (Barter Theatre, VA), along with other full-lengths, one-acts, musicals and screenplays have been presented, read, work-shopped, and honored in theatres and contests around the world, including The Actors Theatre Of Louisville, City Theatre, Miami, and The Fire Rose Theatre in Los Angeles. He is co-author of a book about squash (the sport, not the vegetable), a member of The Dramatists Guild, the BMI Workshop, and a graduate of the Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU. https://newplayexchange.org/users/10758/chris-widney

REHEARSAL PHOTOS FOR JOLLY WALLY

REHEARSAL PHOTOS FOR THE BALLAD OF LOVE CANAL