Mike Perrotta has been director of the Masques since the spring of
1995 when he directed a play he'd written based on his short story
Daisy Glaze. Before coming to Fair Lawn, Mr. Perrotta taught for four
years at the Benedictine Academy in Elizabeth where he wrote and
directed four of his own full-length plays (it being difficult to
find plays for all-female casts).
In high school and college, Mr. Perrotta acted in plays that include
Don't Drink the Water, You Can't Take It with You, La Ronde, This Is
the Rill Speaking, and How to Succeed. In high school, he wrote music
for an original show called Poetica Americana, and with the Masques
he has written songs and musical themes for Daisy Glaze, A Midsummer
Night's Dream, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Romeo and Juliet, Rear
Window and The Hypochondriac. For the Masques, Mr. Perrotta has
adapted works by Woody Allen (Hannah and Her Sisters), John Michael
Hayes (Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window; adapted with Evan Tintle), and
Harry Segall (Heaven Can Wait, creating a composite of the 1938 play,
the 1941 film and the 1978 film versions). In Spring 2003, the
Masques staged Mr. Perrotta's original play, Subterranean Hometown
Blues, which featured five of his own original songs. The Masques' Fall 2005
drama, Gainesville, was also written by Mr. Perrotta
Among the recent achievements of the Masques in which Mr. Perrotta
takes great pride is the production of Moliere's The Hypochondriac
(based on a script originally prepared by Tom Ratzin more than 20
years earlier), a production the club dedicated to the late Tom
Ratzin. More recently, the club donated $2,800 to the American
Red Cross for Disaster Relief in light of the December 2004 tsunami
in southeast Asia, the hurricanes Katrina and Rita in New Orleans,
and the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.
Among his favorite playwrights are William Shakespeare, Moliere,
Thornton Wilder, David Mamet, Lanford Wilson, Tennessee Williams, and
John Guare. Other influences are Orson Welles, Joseph Papp, David
Lynch and Julie Taymor.
Mr. Perrotta lives in Teachertown with his wife Debbie and two sons,
Sean and Evan.
