Behind the Story

“Eddie” and Elena circa 1945.

It all started when…

Ellen Cunis’ and Toby Tarnow’s decade long friendship began when they bumped into each other at the Boys & Girls Club of Souhegan Valley in 2010. Ellen was rehearsing a play with the Milford Area Players and Toby was teaching at the Riverbend School of Theater Arts, a theater program she founded and lead, teaching youth from 8-18 the values of collaboration, communication, cooperation, creativity and self-esteem.  

Ellen has been entertaining family and friends since the age of five and her theatrical career began at 16, as a finalist in the Jackie Gleason New England Talent search. 

Toby began performing in Canada in a neighborhood vaudeville show when she was 4, and professionally at age 10, standing on a box at a microphone with adult actors on a live radio drama.

In 2013, When Toby was ready to cast and direct the premier production of Princess Kim the Musical, that she co-wrote with Maryann Cocca- Leffler, she remembered Ellen’s performance as Aunt Eller in a wonderful production of Oklahoma and knew she was perfect to play the Grandmother. 

And so began their creative collaboration.

January 2019 they completed editing  their video demo of Show People, a docu/reality series profiling Community Theater Companies in NH and nationwide, that they created and produced. And together they developed outlines for 13 episodes of Show People.

Fall of 2016 they began writing The Big White House on Main Street. The idea came from a story Ellen had written about her family. The first few paragraphs of her story were the inspiration for their next creative collaboration, The Big White House on Main Street, the play, set in Woburn Ma., Ellen’s hometown.

The voyage of writing the play involved building the narrative, digging deeply into their own lives to create real people with the values and virtues that have built their personal stories. Toby and Ellen, two super agers, have a treasure trove of memories, struggles and triumphs to share and what better way than through their creative collaboration and their love of the theater. Their way of working together is almost magical, finishing each other’s sentences, knowing how each will respond ahead of time and most importantly, replete with deep friendship.

April 2019 they completed the final draft of the play and arranged for a reading with some of their theater friends from the Boys & Girls Club of Souhegan Valley. The reading was a success, laughter, tears and bravos all around! They were excited to obtain a production date for the play from their “home theater”, the Amato Center for the Performing Arts in Milford, NH, thanks to the support and generosity of the theater director, Robin LaCroix.

Production dates for the World Premier of The Big White House on Main Street are October 19 – October 22, 2023.