HAMPTONS SONGBOOK SERIES IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE CATSKILLS MOUNTAIN FOUNDATION PRESENTS

Headliners & One-liners: Songs and Stories of the Catskills Resorts

Starring Mark Singer, Darcy Dunn, Amanda Yachechak, and James Parks

Julia Mendelsohn, Musical Director

Headliners and One-liners takes you back to the heyday of the Borscht Belt, when the best entertainers in the world performed at the legendary resorts of the Catskill Mountains. Revisit the days when singers like Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin, and comedians like Jerry Lewis, Jackie Mason and Billy Crystal were regulars on the Catskills circuit. Headliners has the stories and the laughs - and the glorious music of Richard Rogers, Burt Bacharach, Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Harold Arlen and many others - that made it such an extraordinary time and place. Performed by a wonderful quintet of NYC entertainers, it’s an evening of pure enchantment.

The Creatives

MARK SINGER

Mark Singer is an actor, singer and writer who has been featured in operas, musicals, plays, and on the cabaret stage. Roles include Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Jack Boyle in Juno and the Paycock, Otto Frank in Diary of Anne Frank and the Toreador in Carmen. Musical theater includes The Cradle Will Rock, Pins and Needles, Rapunzarella White, and Giovanni the Fearless. He has produced and been featured in numerous musical revues and plays for the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, NY, where he, his wife Darcy Dunn and musical director Julia Mendelsohn created the Mountaintop Celebration of Song. This coming November 2, LTV Studios will present a reading of Mark’s play All Mankind Has Lost Its Reason, which depicts the history and music of the Weimar period in Germany. A staged reading of his play A Milonga for Gabriel Isaacs, co-written with John McCaffrey, was produced by LTV in 2023. Mark is featured in the film Maternity Leave, scheduled for release in 2025. He is currently Founding Managing Partner for Acquisitions and Strategy at FINN Partners PR.
 

DARCY DUNN

Darcy Dunn sings chamber opera, classical music, and new works in NYC, and is a founding member and featured performer of the Magic Circle Opera, as well as a graduate of Magic Circle training under Maestro Ray Evans Harrell. She has performed leading roles with Chelsea Opera, Bronx Opera, Encompass Opera,Opera Manhattan, and Downtown Music Productions, and has been a featured soloist at the Windham Chamber Music Festival. With her husband, Mark Singer, and pianist/musical director Julia Mendelsohn, Darcy helped create the Catskill Mountain Foundation’s “Mountaintop Celebration of Song” in Hunter, NY, where their original productions included A Little Bit in Love, Headliners and One-Liners, Weill’d About You, They’re Playing Your Song, and Ain’t We Got Fun. In 2022 Darcy founded, with fellow musicians, Elizabeth Rodgers, Mary Wooten and Marshall Coid, The Moss Ensemble, a quartet of piano, cello, violin and voice, which will be performing at LTV Studios on September 23, 2024. On Nov 2, 2024, Darcy will appear again at LTV Studios, in a reading of new original show by Mark Singer, All Mankind has Lost its Reason.
 

AMANDA YACHECHAK

Amanda Yachechak is a stage and film actress, a lyric coloratura soprano, and a classical ballerina and Irish dancer. Amanda is one of the principal vocalists on the concept album for the new Broadway musical Kalevala, starring Julia Murney and Ramin Karimloo. She also recently produced and starred in Mis(s)Communication, a comedy series about the world of standardized patients — actors for medical students. Other recent credits include Eleven in Netflix’s The Stranger Things Experience and Lady of the Castle, which played at the National Opera Center and on television. New York: Pride and Prejudice (Elizabeth), Nicholas Nickleby, Freckleface Strawberry, Angelina Ballerina, Phantom of the Opera (Meg), Three Sisters (Irina), Taming of the Shrew (Kate). Regional: The Pirates of Penzance (Mabel), West Side Story (Maria), My Fair Lady, August: Osage County (Johnna), Nunsense, Bittersweet. Film/TV: Caught in the Net, End Zone, I Am Able, Cancer and Cake, Last Days of Simon, Glass Ballerinas, Monumental Mysteries. www.amandayachechak.com
 

JAMES PARKS

James Parks: Selected NY Credits: Love, Actually? (Colin Firth), Cyberbabies (Toby Khan), Grand Theft Musical (Ernest Roseglass). National Tour: The Sound of Music (Herr Zeller, u/s Max Detweiler) Film:Pumpkin Spiced Musical (Sam) Best Role: Proud father of two. Quack. Thank you for supporting live theater! BM: Peabody Institute MM: NYU www.TheJamesParks.com; @TheJamesParks
 

JULIA MENDELSOHN

Julia Mendelsohn is a pianist, arranger, and vocal coach, living and working in NYC. Ms. Mendelsohn entertained at the Museum of Art in Manhattan for over thirty years, playing her original arrangements of Broadway songs, jazz standards, and classical music. She has played for such luminaries as Bill Clinton, Kofi Anan, and Estee Lauder, and has performed throughout the U.S. and Asia. Julia is the Musical Director of the Berkshire Summer Music Festival and has MD'd dozens of shows throughout her career. Her voice students have originated roles in numerous Broadway shows and have appeared on American Idol, The X Factor, Glee, and Disney's Next Big Thing. Ms. Mendelsohn was a staple on the cabaret circuit in NYC for years, where she honed her skill at arranging songs; after meeting Mark and Darcy, she found the perfect combination of voices to work with. Besides that, it is a ridiculous amount of fun. Despite their obvious similarities, Julia is not related to the renowned periodontist Julia Mendelshon. She is married to the writer Colin Paolo, who is an actor.