Blog #6: My Blog, My Kansas
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Shows: 11/10, 11/12, 11/13, 11/18, 11/19, and 11/20
Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre (NCT)
Well, that's that. Another show has come and gone. Let's break down some of the highlights of our two weekends of shows!
For the first time ever, an NCT show opened on a Thursday, and just like our last show, we opened to...a not so full house...ok, it's still in the middle of the week, people are busy, whaddya gonna do? We still brought it for our opening night! The shows began to pick up even further as they went on, and for both Sundays and the second Saturday, we had dang near full houses, and loud-responsive ones at that! Whether it was great ensemble numbers like Act 1's Big Ca-Lown Balloons and Here's Love, or small group numbers like Act 2's She Hadda Go Back or My State, My Kansas, the energy was great, the crowd was responsive, and the numbers were awesome. It's interesting to mention both of those Act 2 songs because they both feel very out of place in the show. The former song is, in its most basic description, a song about Fred essentially stalling for time while he waits for Doris to arrive, making up excuses along the way, only because he knows she's coming. But the catchiness of the song and the dedication all its actors had to it helped kick it into overdrive. The latter song seems like it was plucked out of Meredith Willson's unused album songs, and has almost nothing to do with the show proper, but again, just how much the actors' put into it made it one of the most fun songs in the musical. A lot of people would refer to the 2 ensemble numbers as the catchiest numbers in the show, but I challenge them with My State, My Kansas (don't let me roooooam). The show itself is pretty different between acts, as there's a lot of elaborate set changes throughout act 1, in some very different locations. While there were some scene changes in act 2, more than half of it takes place in the courthouse, giving it not only a different location, but a different feel with all the legal jargon throughout the second half. But again, in both halves of the show, the actors are so dedicated to what they're doing that the audience remains invested even if some of the younger kids may not have understood a lot of said jargon (and that may go for some of the kid actors as well).
Some characters in the show are memorable despite not having much time onstage. While the actors who play Fred's three marine friends do play other characters in the show, they only have the one scene/song number that their characters are onstage, but they're still memorable despite that. Sawyer and Crookshank as well only really have one scene with dialogue, but it's so funny that it stands out. Several actors, such as the D.A., Judge, and Tammany, barely have any dialogue at all until act 2, during which they suddenly come on and control a lot of the action onstage along with the returning characters from act 1. There are 4 named kid characters throughout the show, and with the exception of Susie, all of them have only one scene and a few lines to make their impact, but all the kids are dedicated to their scenes 110 percent.
Once again, not every question the show raises needs to be answered. The show never really gives a straight answer either way on perhaps the biggest question that it raises: Is Kris Kringle just a nice old man who pretends to be Santa Claus, a nice old man who is under the delusion that he is Santa Claus, or is he actually the real Santa Claus? I'm going to be honest, I never actually picked an answer myself, though I hopefully will at some point. But just like with Mary Poppins, this allows the audience to decide the answer for themselves, making them think about the not clear-cut answer. After all, Kris only really seems to gain the Santa weight when he's dressed as Santa, and we never actually see him directly doing anything magical onstage, though he does do some really extraordinary things? Is it magic or is it just the brilliant mind of an old man? Decide for yourself. Once again, the show also doesn't have a major big moment ending, but with a simple gift exchange between Susie and Kris, but that quiet moment still manages to be so powerful in the end.
So that ends NCT's 15th anniversary production of Miracle on 34th Street. I'd like to thank all my fellow actors for making this such an enjoyable show and experience, all the crew members who make the sets, move the sets, make/rent/provide the costumes, work our lights, work our mics, choreograph our numbers, as well as our producer Bette Silver and our director Jim Redding, without whom all of these miraculous NCT moments couldn't be made. I'll see you again in March when we hold auditions for our 31st show, Wizard of Oz!
"Singing is an art form, that makes it legal. That's why the ad agencies thought it up in the first place!" -Mr. Shellhammer
CAST
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Grace Sewell (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Annabelle Deaner (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Fred Gailey: Dave Curtis (11/10, 11/12, and 11/13) and James Reiss (11/18, 11/19, and 11/20)
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
R.H. Macy/Whitey: Rich Lau
Ms. Sawyer: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps (11/10, 11/12, 11/13, 11/19, 11/20) and Avery Infranco (11/18)
Judge Group: Suzie Lustig
Tammany O'Halloran: Patsy Van Dyke (11/10, 11/12, and 11/13) and Noel Dillon (11/18, 11/19, and 11/20)
D.A. Thomas Mara/Climber/Steven the Balloon Vendor: Mustin Jurphy
Clara: Tess Robinson
Bailiff: James Roche
Drunk Santa/Policeman/Mailman: Rich Rowehl
Miss Mary/Mayor: Joel Ackerman
Mr. Gimbel/Alvin: John Morale
Mrs. Finfer: Elise Autz (11/10 and 11/12) and Michelle Centamore (11/13, 11/18, 11/19, and 11/20)
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Michael Deaner (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Hendrika: Lily Eagen (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Carlie Rees (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Barbara Schulman (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Judy Avena (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Governor: Joe Centamore
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp (11/10, 11/12, and 11/20) and Kieran Brown (11/13, 11/18, and 11/19)
Punk Kid: Andrew Geres
Majorettes: Alyssa Infranco and Riley Gayer
Miss Sims: Kate Smith
Tall Dame Girl Scout: Bella Donneruno (11/10, 11/12, 11/13, 11/18, and 11/20) and Grace Keating (11/19)
Toy Ballet: Maya Burget, Goldie Centamore, Maggie Fitzmaurice, Andrew Geres, Jennie Golder, Juliet Morale, Ashley Rowehl, Anthony Shah, Emily Shah, Ella Smith, Fallon Young, Lacey Zaharis, Nathan Zarko
Plastic Alligator Salespeople: Julie Barbier, Juliette Bonchonsky, Bella Donneruno, Riley Gayer, Jennie Golder, Jillian Graci, Alyssa Infranco, Quincy Jackson, Arianna Keating, Grace Keating, Amelia Lau, Katlyn Reller, Tess Robinson, Grace Rowan, Samantha Schoeps, Amelia Semple, Emily Starin, Clare Vogt
New York City Shoppers: Owen Labruna, Kellsey Roy
Monday, November 21, 2016
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Blog #5: She Hadda Go Back to Get Pine Cones and Holy Berries
BIG BOLD NOTE: The show dates are Thursday November 10th, Saturday
November 12th, Friday November 18th, and Saturday November 19th at 8pm,
as well as on Sunday November 13th and 20th at 2pm. Tickets ARE
OFFICIALLY ON SALE NOW. Pricing information can
be found here at our theatre's website, and tickets can be purchased any night during the week at the Northport Community Theatre during our rehearsals, as well as purchasing them over the phone. The number you would need to call to reserve seats for the show is also available on our theatre's website.
Blog #5: She Hadda Go Back to Get Pine Cones and Holy Berries
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Rehearsals/Events Written: 10/23, 10/25-27, 10/29-30
Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre
Wait, we only open in 8 days now? Can I ask for a postponement?!...Nah, I should've had this up on Saturday or Sunday to begin with, no more pushing it back!
On Sunday, October 23rd, NCT celebrated its 15th anniversary Halloween Party at Nocello's, with several cast members of Miracle on 34th Street as well as a few cast members of NCT's past shows. The restaurant was decorated by current cast member Kathy Lau, and everyone's costumes were phenomenal. A challenge was made which a few people accepted, to sing a reverse gender song at the party, with some memorable ones being Kellsey Roy singing "My Name is James", and Rich and Jen Lau singing "I Got You, Babe" (with all three of them dressed as the people they were singing songs of). It was a great evening of theatre reminiscing, singing, and enjoying each other's company (and costumes).
I was not present at Monday, October 24th's rehearsal, so I will instead jump to the next couple of nights. Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, the 25th and 26th, we worked on several different things. Both the songs and choreography of The Big Clown Balloons and Here's Love were reviewed. In addition, the Plastic Alligator salespeople were selected and they spent a good chunk of Wednesday night reviewing the song and the dance they would do during it. In addition, a scene in act 1 featuring Mrs. Walker, Mr. Shellhammer, Mr. Macy, and Kris Kringle was worked on, including the ending song during the scene: Pine Cones and Holy Berries, a song which became one of the most famous Christmas songs of all time (It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas). It was decided that the entire cast would come out at the end of the scene and that all of them would sing the famous section of the song, being the song that it is. In addition, during both days, the previously untouched song, She Hadda Go Back, was worked on, with Fred and his 3 marine buddies, Alvin, Whitey, and Climber.
On Thursday, October 27th, the plan was to run through as much of the show as we could that day. So we ran through pretty much all of act 1 during the time that we had, stopping a few times so improvements could be made, whether it be Donna fixing a song moment or Jim giving out more direction on how to do the scene. On Saturday, the 29th, we picked up right where we left off on Thursday in the morning and ran right through to the end of the show. During this time, a few of the remaining parts were assigned, such as Rich Rowehl as both a cop and a mailman, Bella Donneruno as a girl scout, and Kate Smith as the Irish nurse Miss Sims. Some lines were switched around and given to other characters, and some song sequences were altered, and then we took a short break for lunch, after which we planned to run the whole show. Before the break ended, Fred and his 3 little marines worked some more on the song number She Hadda Go Back so we could be prepared to finally work on the scene later. And then, we proceeded to do just as we planned, and ran through the entire show from start to finish, songs and all (except for act 2, scene 3, which we had yet to block and go through, as it was the "She Hadda Go Back" scene). After we were done and Jim gave a chat about how much progress we made during the rehearsal, most of the cast left, with the exception of those who were in act 2, scene 3, and we finally went to block the scene. One of the Freds, James, was unavailable for the day, so Dave worked on Fred for the whole day, along with his fellow marines John, Rich, and...the third guy. The scene would be worked on in more detail the next week, but that info will be detailed in the next blog.
Finally, on Sunday, the 30th, we had our bi-annual Barnes and Noble fundraiser at the B&N in the Sears Shopping Mall of East Northport. Several of our cast members came to this event to purchase things to help support NCT, which would gain a percentage of the funds of the day's purchases. They also sang plenty of songs, but since it was a Christmas themed show, we didn't just sing songs from the show, we sung Christmas Carols as well (Yes, I know it was October, but it's a Christmas themed show, so I think it slides). The fundraiser went very well and got regular applause from all onlookers.
Guys, it's 11:40 PM while I'm typing this, but by the time I upload it after proofreading, it could be midnight, meaning it will officially be only a week until the show opens...EEP! No, I'm just kidding (or am I?) NCT's 30th show for its 15th anniversary is going to be one to remember! (And yep, it's after 12, Game 7 is all tied up in the 10th inning which is delayed by the rain, and this blog is officially up!)
"The only important thing is to make the children happy." -Kris Kringle
CAST LIST (THE DATES THAT CERTAIN PEOPLE IN THE SHOW ARE SPLIT FOR ARE LISTED IN BOLD PRINT FOR THE CHARACTERS WHO ARE SPLIT. ALSO, NEWLY CAST ROLES ARE LISTED IN BOLD PRINT.
NOTE: Linda Scott has withdrawn from the production. We wish her the best in all her future endeavors.
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Grace Sewell (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Annabelle Deaner (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Fred Gailey: Dave Curtis (11/10, 11/12, and 11/13) and James Reiss (11/18, 11/19, and 11/20)
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
R.H. Macy/Whitey: Rich Lau
Ms. Sawyer: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps
Judge Group: Suzie Lustig
Tammany O'Halloran: Patsy Van Dyke (11/10, 11/12, and 11/13) and Noel Dillon (11/18, 11/19, and 11/20)
D.A. Thomas Mara/Climber/Steven the Balloon Vendor: Mustin Jurphy
Clara: Tess Robinson
Bailiff: James Roche
Drunk Santa/Policeman/Mailman: Rich Rowehl
Miss Mary/Mayor: Joel Ackerman
Mr. Gimbel/Alvin: John Morale
Mrs. Finfer: Elise Autz (11/10 and 11/12) and Michelle Centamore (11/13, 11/18, 11/19, and 11/20)
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Michael Deaner (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Hendrika: Lily Eagen (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Carlie Rees (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Barbara Schulman (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Judy Avena (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Governor: Joe Centamore
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp (11/10, 11/12, and 11/20) and Kieran Brown (11/13, 11/18, and 11/19)
Punk Kid: Andrew Geres
Majorettes: Alyssa Infranco and Riley Gayer
Miss Sims: Kate Smith
Tall Dame Girl Scout: Bella Donneruno
Toy Ballet: Maya Burget, Goldie Centamore, Maggie Fitzmaurice, Andrew Geres, Jennie Golder, Juliet Morale, Ashley Rowehl, Anthony Shah, Emily Shah, Ella Smith, Fallon Young, Lacey Zaharis, Nathan Zarko
Plastic Alligator Salespeople: Julie Barbier, Juliette Bonchonsky, Bella Donneruno, Riley Gayer, Jennie Golder, Jillian Graci, Alyssa Infranco, Quincy Jackson, Arianna Keating, Grace Keating, Amelia Lau, Katlyn Reller, Tess Robinson, Grace Rowan, Samantha Schoeps, Amelia Semple, Emily Starin, Clare Vogt
New York City Shoppers: Owen Labruna, Kellsey Roy
Blog #5: She Hadda Go Back to Get Pine Cones and Holy Berries
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Rehearsals/Events Written: 10/23, 10/25-27, 10/29-30
Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre
Wait, we only open in 8 days now? Can I ask for a postponement?!...Nah, I should've had this up on Saturday or Sunday to begin with, no more pushing it back!
On Sunday, October 23rd, NCT celebrated its 15th anniversary Halloween Party at Nocello's, with several cast members of Miracle on 34th Street as well as a few cast members of NCT's past shows. The restaurant was decorated by current cast member Kathy Lau, and everyone's costumes were phenomenal. A challenge was made which a few people accepted, to sing a reverse gender song at the party, with some memorable ones being Kellsey Roy singing "My Name is James", and Rich and Jen Lau singing "I Got You, Babe" (with all three of them dressed as the people they were singing songs of). It was a great evening of theatre reminiscing, singing, and enjoying each other's company (and costumes).
I was not present at Monday, October 24th's rehearsal, so I will instead jump to the next couple of nights. Throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, the 25th and 26th, we worked on several different things. Both the songs and choreography of The Big Clown Balloons and Here's Love were reviewed. In addition, the Plastic Alligator salespeople were selected and they spent a good chunk of Wednesday night reviewing the song and the dance they would do during it. In addition, a scene in act 1 featuring Mrs. Walker, Mr. Shellhammer, Mr. Macy, and Kris Kringle was worked on, including the ending song during the scene: Pine Cones and Holy Berries, a song which became one of the most famous Christmas songs of all time (It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas). It was decided that the entire cast would come out at the end of the scene and that all of them would sing the famous section of the song, being the song that it is. In addition, during both days, the previously untouched song, She Hadda Go Back, was worked on, with Fred and his 3 marine buddies, Alvin, Whitey, and Climber.
On Thursday, October 27th, the plan was to run through as much of the show as we could that day. So we ran through pretty much all of act 1 during the time that we had, stopping a few times so improvements could be made, whether it be Donna fixing a song moment or Jim giving out more direction on how to do the scene. On Saturday, the 29th, we picked up right where we left off on Thursday in the morning and ran right through to the end of the show. During this time, a few of the remaining parts were assigned, such as Rich Rowehl as both a cop and a mailman, Bella Donneruno as a girl scout, and Kate Smith as the Irish nurse Miss Sims. Some lines were switched around and given to other characters, and some song sequences were altered, and then we took a short break for lunch, after which we planned to run the whole show. Before the break ended, Fred and his 3 little marines worked some more on the song number She Hadda Go Back so we could be prepared to finally work on the scene later. And then, we proceeded to do just as we planned, and ran through the entire show from start to finish, songs and all (except for act 2, scene 3, which we had yet to block and go through, as it was the "She Hadda Go Back" scene). After we were done and Jim gave a chat about how much progress we made during the rehearsal, most of the cast left, with the exception of those who were in act 2, scene 3, and we finally went to block the scene. One of the Freds, James, was unavailable for the day, so Dave worked on Fred for the whole day, along with his fellow marines John, Rich, and...the third guy. The scene would be worked on in more detail the next week, but that info will be detailed in the next blog.
Finally, on Sunday, the 30th, we had our bi-annual Barnes and Noble fundraiser at the B&N in the Sears Shopping Mall of East Northport. Several of our cast members came to this event to purchase things to help support NCT, which would gain a percentage of the funds of the day's purchases. They also sang plenty of songs, but since it was a Christmas themed show, we didn't just sing songs from the show, we sung Christmas Carols as well (Yes, I know it was October, but it's a Christmas themed show, so I think it slides). The fundraiser went very well and got regular applause from all onlookers.
Guys, it's 11:40 PM while I'm typing this, but by the time I upload it after proofreading, it could be midnight, meaning it will officially be only a week until the show opens...EEP! No, I'm just kidding (or am I?) NCT's 30th show for its 15th anniversary is going to be one to remember! (And yep, it's after 12, Game 7 is all tied up in the 10th inning which is delayed by the rain, and this blog is officially up!)
"The only important thing is to make the children happy." -Kris Kringle
CAST LIST (THE DATES THAT CERTAIN PEOPLE IN THE SHOW ARE SPLIT FOR ARE LISTED IN BOLD PRINT FOR THE CHARACTERS WHO ARE SPLIT. ALSO, NEWLY CAST ROLES ARE LISTED IN BOLD PRINT.
NOTE: Linda Scott has withdrawn from the production. We wish her the best in all her future endeavors.
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Grace Sewell (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Annabelle Deaner (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Fred Gailey: Dave Curtis (11/10, 11/12, and 11/13) and James Reiss (11/18, 11/19, and 11/20)
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
R.H. Macy/Whitey: Rich Lau
Ms. Sawyer: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps
Judge Group: Suzie Lustig
Tammany O'Halloran: Patsy Van Dyke (11/10, 11/12, and 11/13) and Noel Dillon (11/18, 11/19, and 11/20)
D.A. Thomas Mara/Climber/Steven the Balloon Vendor: Mustin Jurphy
Clara: Tess Robinson
Bailiff: James Roche
Drunk Santa/Policeman/Mailman: Rich Rowehl
Miss Mary/Mayor: Joel Ackerman
Mr. Gimbel/Alvin: John Morale
Mrs. Finfer: Elise Autz (11/10 and 11/12) and Michelle Centamore (11/13, 11/18, 11/19, and 11/20)
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Michael Deaner (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Hendrika: Lily Eagen (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Carlie Rees (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Barbara Schulman (11/10, 11/13, and 11/19) and Judy Avena (11/12, 11/18, and 11/20)
Governor: Joe Centamore
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp (11/10, 11/12, and 11/20) and Kieran Brown (11/13, 11/18, and 11/19)
Punk Kid: Andrew Geres
Majorettes: Alyssa Infranco and Riley Gayer
Miss Sims: Kate Smith
Tall Dame Girl Scout: Bella Donneruno
Toy Ballet: Maya Burget, Goldie Centamore, Maggie Fitzmaurice, Andrew Geres, Jennie Golder, Juliet Morale, Ashley Rowehl, Anthony Shah, Emily Shah, Ella Smith, Fallon Young, Lacey Zaharis, Nathan Zarko
Plastic Alligator Salespeople: Julie Barbier, Juliette Bonchonsky, Bella Donneruno, Riley Gayer, Jennie Golder, Jillian Graci, Alyssa Infranco, Quincy Jackson, Arianna Keating, Grace Keating, Amelia Lau, Katlyn Reller, Tess Robinson, Grace Rowan, Samantha Schoeps, Amelia Semple, Emily Starin, Clare Vogt
New York City Shoppers: Owen Labruna, Kellsey Roy
Friday, October 21, 2016
Blog #4: That Blog Over There Is Love
BIG BOLD NOTE: The show dates are Thursday November 10th, Saturday
November 12th, Friday November 18th, and Saturday November 19th at 8pm,
as well as on Sunday November 13th and 20th at 2pm. Tickets ARE OFFICIALLY ON SALE NOW. Pricing information, as well as tickets for our
fundraiser party at Nocello's on October 23rd and other information, can
be found here at our theatre's website.
Blog #4: That Blog Over There Is Love
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Rehearsals Written: 10/17, 10/18, and 10/20
Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre
Welcome back to our fourth blog of NCT's upcoming production of Miracle on 34th Street, which opens now in...20 days?! That's not even three weeks anymore! AAAAAAAAAAH!
The first rehearsal this week featured everyone who had speaking parts in act 1 at the moment. Little additional things were added to certain scenes. However, Donna was unavailable for the evening, so no songs were worked on. Almost every scene in act 1 was worked on, minus some scenes that had actors missing, as well as some parts of the show that had yet to be cast. Plus, a few ticket orders were filled out, as this rehearsal was the first one where tickets were now officially on sale.
The second rehearsal this week was similar to the first except that it was now everyone who had speaking parts in act 2. Other actors were plugged into the courtroom scenes, including Noel Dillon as Tammany (for half of the shows) and James Roche as the Bailiff. Jim also blocked a lot of the courtroom scenes during this rehearsal, adding plenty of comedic moments to the courtroom scenes, especially during Mr. Macy's song number in the courtroom. Donna was available for this rehearsal, so we worked on some songs this evening, such as the aforementioned "That Man Over There". I don't dare spoil how the song ends, but it's a pretty darn funny moment (and a darn good song).
The third rehearsal this week only involved Fred, Doris, and Suzie, so I couldn't cover it. (It was originally planned to be a choreography rehearsal for the full cast, but this was changed, presumably either because they needed the night for scene work or because the choreographer wasn't available, however, there will be a choreography rehearsal this upcoming week). However, the fourth and final rehearsal this week involved the entire cast. One scene was focused on during this night, the "title"* song of the show: Here's Love, as well as the scene surrounding it. First we rehearsed the song a bit, as it had been a little while since we had worked on the song. Then we worked on stage in shifts. First the adults were plugged into the scene before the song starts (as well as during the song). A few shopper lines were also handed to some of the cast members, with a bit of Jim's trademark comedic timing thrown in regarding how some of the lines would be delivered. Then the kids were blocked into separate sections of the song, along with the adults (with the exception of the Suzies, who spent their time working on their scenes separately for most of the night, then were plugged into the scene later). The number still isn't finished (as our choreographer won't be able to work on the scene until next week), but it looks fantastic so far, and it's only going to get better!
A few other things happened during this week. Our costumer, Courtney, was here this evening and working a lot with people again, helping them figure out what costumes to buy and what she would need for people to rent. In addition, I was informed by Donna and by our producer Bette, that we would be working next week on the only as-of-yet untouched scene in Act Two: Scene 3, the scene with the song number "We Got Trou-I MEAN, "She Hadda Go Back"**. The song number is performed by Fred and his three marine buddies, who were now officially cast and would be played by Rich Lau (Mr. Macy), John Morale (Mr. Gimbel), and...I don't remember his name, but that loser who's playing the D.A.
Next week will be a very long and eventful one. There will be four rehearsals during the week, three of which will be covered here, as well as our big all-day rehearsal next Saturday and our Barnes & Noble event on Sunday, the 30th! Once again, this upcoming Sunday, the 23rd, is NCT's 15th anniversary Celebration/Halloween Party at Nocello's at 5 pm. Seats are still available and Donna will be there for anyone who wants to sing something (and especially for those who want to sing an opposite gender song, which I totally will be taking part in. What am I singing?...You'll have to come to the party to find out!) Tickets are on sale and we're less than 3 weeks away, order your tickets now to see it!
"I don't get it...no...I just don't get it." - Movie equivalent of Mrs. Finfer
*: The original title of the musical of "Miracle on 34th Street" was "Here's Love". Again, you say that's crazy? Well maybe it's only a little crazy like painters or composers or some of those men in Washington.
**: The song "She Hadda Go Back" has a similar feel to "We Got Trouble" from "The Music Man", which was also written by Meredith Wilson.
CAST LIST (NEWLY CAST ROLES ARE LISTED IN BOLD PRINT)
NOTE: As of October 20th, Meaghan Maher has withdrawn from the production. We wish her the best in all of her future endeavors.
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Annabelle Deaner/Grace Sewell
Fred Gailey: James Reiss/Dave Curtis
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
Mr. R.H. Macy: Rich Lau
Judge Meredith*** Group/Troubled Type 2: Suzie Lustig
D.A. Thomas Mara/Steven the Balloon Vendor: Why can't I for the life of me remember this guy's name?!
Tammany O'Halloran/Glass Lady: Patsy Van Dyke
Tammany O'Halloran/Ford Clerk: Noel Dillon
Mrs. Sawyer/Troubled Type: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps
Hendrika: Lily Eagen/Carlie Rees
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Judy Avena/Barbara Schulman
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore/Michael Deaner
Mrs. Finfer: Michelle Centamore/Elise Autz
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp/Kieran Brown
Mr. Gimbel/Man Shopper: John Morale
Mary (had a little lamb)/The Mayor of New York City: Joel Ackerman
Inebriated Santa Claus/Yankees Clerk: Rich Rowehl
Hat Thieving Kid: Andrew Geres
Majorettes: Alyssa Infranco and Riley Gayer
The Governor of New York: Joe Centamore
Clara: Tess Robinson
Bailiff: "Montauk" James Roche
Young Women Shoppers: Katlyn Reller/Jillian Graci
Woman Shopper: Kate Smith
Alvin, Whitey, and Climber: John Morale, Rich Lau, and whoever's playing the D.A. (NOTE: THESE ROLES ARE CAST, BUT WHO IS PLAYING WHICH PART HAS NOT YET BEEN DETERMINED)
The following Roles as of yet are not cast (or are cast and I have yet to confirm who is cast as them)
***: The original name of the character is Judge Martin Group. When the role was cast as a female, the name was changed, at the actress's request, to Meredith, as a tip of the hat to Meredith Wilson.
Miss Sims, a nurse
Murphy, a night watchman
Man Shopper and his Wife
Two Policemen
Mailman
Tall Dame Girl Scout
Mrs. Beeler, the housekeeper
Marines, Parade Spectators, and Christmas Shoppers
Toy Ballet Sequence Characters
THE FOLLOWING CAST MEMBERS HAVE YET TO BE GIVEN A SPECIFIC PART AS OF 10/21/16 (Or they have and I don't know if they've been given a part yet)
Boys
Owen LaBruna
Anthony Shah
Nathan Zarko
Women
Kellsey Roy
Linda Scott
Girls
Julie Barbier
Juliette Bonchonsky
Maya Burget
Goldie Centamore
Bella Donneruno
Maggie Fitzmaurice
Jennifer Golder
Quincy Jackson
Arianna Keating
Grace Keating
Amelia Lau
Juliet Morale
Grace Rowan
Ashley Rowehl
Amelia Semple
Emily Shah
Ella Smith
Emily Starin
Clare Vogt
Fallon Young
Lacey Zaharis
Blog #4: That Blog Over There Is Love
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Rehearsals Written: 10/17, 10/18, and 10/20
Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre
Welcome back to our fourth blog of NCT's upcoming production of Miracle on 34th Street, which opens now in...20 days?! That's not even three weeks anymore! AAAAAAAAAAH!
The first rehearsal this week featured everyone who had speaking parts in act 1 at the moment. Little additional things were added to certain scenes. However, Donna was unavailable for the evening, so no songs were worked on. Almost every scene in act 1 was worked on, minus some scenes that had actors missing, as well as some parts of the show that had yet to be cast. Plus, a few ticket orders were filled out, as this rehearsal was the first one where tickets were now officially on sale.
The second rehearsal this week was similar to the first except that it was now everyone who had speaking parts in act 2. Other actors were plugged into the courtroom scenes, including Noel Dillon as Tammany (for half of the shows) and James Roche as the Bailiff. Jim also blocked a lot of the courtroom scenes during this rehearsal, adding plenty of comedic moments to the courtroom scenes, especially during Mr. Macy's song number in the courtroom. Donna was available for this rehearsal, so we worked on some songs this evening, such as the aforementioned "That Man Over There". I don't dare spoil how the song ends, but it's a pretty darn funny moment (and a darn good song).
The third rehearsal this week only involved Fred, Doris, and Suzie, so I couldn't cover it. (It was originally planned to be a choreography rehearsal for the full cast, but this was changed, presumably either because they needed the night for scene work or because the choreographer wasn't available, however, there will be a choreography rehearsal this upcoming week). However, the fourth and final rehearsal this week involved the entire cast. One scene was focused on during this night, the "title"* song of the show: Here's Love, as well as the scene surrounding it. First we rehearsed the song a bit, as it had been a little while since we had worked on the song. Then we worked on stage in shifts. First the adults were plugged into the scene before the song starts (as well as during the song). A few shopper lines were also handed to some of the cast members, with a bit of Jim's trademark comedic timing thrown in regarding how some of the lines would be delivered. Then the kids were blocked into separate sections of the song, along with the adults (with the exception of the Suzies, who spent their time working on their scenes separately for most of the night, then were plugged into the scene later). The number still isn't finished (as our choreographer won't be able to work on the scene until next week), but it looks fantastic so far, and it's only going to get better!
A few other things happened during this week. Our costumer, Courtney, was here this evening and working a lot with people again, helping them figure out what costumes to buy and what she would need for people to rent. In addition, I was informed by Donna and by our producer Bette, that we would be working next week on the only as-of-yet untouched scene in Act Two: Scene 3, the scene with the song number "We Got Trou-I MEAN, "She Hadda Go Back"**. The song number is performed by Fred and his three marine buddies, who were now officially cast and would be played by Rich Lau (Mr. Macy), John Morale (Mr. Gimbel), and...I don't remember his name, but that loser who's playing the D.A.
Next week will be a very long and eventful one. There will be four rehearsals during the week, three of which will be covered here, as well as our big all-day rehearsal next Saturday and our Barnes & Noble event on Sunday, the 30th! Once again, this upcoming Sunday, the 23rd, is NCT's 15th anniversary Celebration/Halloween Party at Nocello's at 5 pm. Seats are still available and Donna will be there for anyone who wants to sing something (and especially for those who want to sing an opposite gender song, which I totally will be taking part in. What am I singing?...You'll have to come to the party to find out!) Tickets are on sale and we're less than 3 weeks away, order your tickets now to see it!
"I don't get it...no...I just don't get it." - Movie equivalent of Mrs. Finfer
*: The original title of the musical of "Miracle on 34th Street" was "Here's Love". Again, you say that's crazy? Well maybe it's only a little crazy like painters or composers or some of those men in Washington.
**: The song "She Hadda Go Back" has a similar feel to "We Got Trouble" from "The Music Man", which was also written by Meredith Wilson.
CAST LIST (NEWLY CAST ROLES ARE LISTED IN BOLD PRINT)
NOTE: As of October 20th, Meaghan Maher has withdrawn from the production. We wish her the best in all of her future endeavors.
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Annabelle Deaner/Grace Sewell
Fred Gailey: James Reiss/Dave Curtis
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
Mr. R.H. Macy: Rich Lau
Judge Meredith*** Group/Troubled Type 2: Suzie Lustig
D.A. Thomas Mara/Steven the Balloon Vendor: Why can't I for the life of me remember this guy's name?!
Tammany O'Halloran/Glass Lady: Patsy Van Dyke
Tammany O'Halloran/Ford Clerk: Noel Dillon
Mrs. Sawyer/Troubled Type: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps
Hendrika: Lily Eagen/Carlie Rees
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Judy Avena/Barbara Schulman
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore/Michael Deaner
Mrs. Finfer: Michelle Centamore/Elise Autz
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp/Kieran Brown
Mr. Gimbel/Man Shopper: John Morale
Mary (had a little lamb)/The Mayor of New York City: Joel Ackerman
Inebriated Santa Claus/Yankees Clerk: Rich Rowehl
Hat Thieving Kid: Andrew Geres
Majorettes: Alyssa Infranco and Riley Gayer
The Governor of New York: Joe Centamore
Clara: Tess Robinson
Bailiff: "Montauk" James Roche
Young Women Shoppers: Katlyn Reller/Jillian Graci
Woman Shopper: Kate Smith
Alvin, Whitey, and Climber: John Morale, Rich Lau, and whoever's playing the D.A. (NOTE: THESE ROLES ARE CAST, BUT WHO IS PLAYING WHICH PART HAS NOT YET BEEN DETERMINED)
The following Roles as of yet are not cast (or are cast and I have yet to confirm who is cast as them)
***: The original name of the character is Judge Martin Group. When the role was cast as a female, the name was changed, at the actress's request, to Meredith, as a tip of the hat to Meredith Wilson.
Miss Sims, a nurse
Murphy, a night watchman
Man Shopper and his Wife
Two Policemen
Mailman
Tall Dame Girl Scout
Mrs. Beeler, the housekeeper
Marines, Parade Spectators, and Christmas Shoppers
Toy Ballet Sequence Characters
THE FOLLOWING CAST MEMBERS HAVE YET TO BE GIVEN A SPECIFIC PART AS OF 10/21/16 (Or they have and I don't know if they've been given a part yet)
Boys
Owen LaBruna
Anthony Shah
Nathan Zarko
Women
Kellsey Roy
Linda Scott
Girls
Julie Barbier
Juliette Bonchonsky
Maya Burget
Goldie Centamore
Bella Donneruno
Maggie Fitzmaurice
Jennifer Golder
Quincy Jackson
Arianna Keating
Grace Keating
Amelia Lau
Juliet Morale
Grace Rowan
Ashley Rowehl
Amelia Semple
Emily Shah
Ella Smith
Emily Starin
Clare Vogt
Fallon Young
Lacey Zaharis
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Blog #3: Costumes, Castings, and Court Cases
BIG BOLD NOTE: The show dates are Thursday November 10th, Saturday
November 12th, Friday November 18th, and Saturday November 19th at 8pm,
as well as on Sunday November 13th and 20th at 2pm. Tickets are not on
sale at the moment but WILL OFFICIALLY BE AVAILABLE STARTING TOMORROW, OCTOBER 17th. Pricing information, as well as tickets for our
fundraiser party at Nocello's on October 23rd and other information, can
be found here at our theatre's website.
Blog #3: Costumes, Castings, and Court Cases
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Rehearsals Written: 10/11 and 10/13
Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre
FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS I HAVE LAID DORMANT. WHO HAS DISTURBED MY-Oh wait, it's only been a week between blogs. Neat. Wait, how long is it til we open? 25 days?! Yeesh, this show seems to be approaching really quickly.
This was a different type of rehearsal week. For one thing, there were once again only two rehearsals the entire week thanks to the Columbus Day and Yom Kippur holidays. However, there was no going over or reviewing songs this week as our musical director, Donna Gorelick, was out this week visiting her daughter in Florida. Instead, most of the things done were scene work. On Tuesday, the full cast was called in so that we could get our costume situations settled. One by one, the entire cast filed out into the front hallway to meet with our new lead costumer, Courtney Hotis, while we would either pay her the costume fee and discuss what sorts of outfits we could wear with our characters (those of us who had named characters at this point) and the time period, or show her our costumes or costume ideas if we would not be renting from her for this show.
Most people were free to leave after meeting with Courtney, as Jim would not be working on scenes with everyone this evening, but would focus on a few scenes that either weren't worked on yet, or scenes that had been worked on and needed certain characters added to them. Jim spent a bit of time working on a scene that he had already worked on with Mrs. Walker (Chelsea Brown) and Mr. Shellhammer (Justin Autz), the latter of whom was unavailable for the evening. He added Mr. Macy (Rich Lau) to the scene, as he had not been able to previously work on the scene when it was first gone through. During this time, Avery Infranco whisked away both Fred Gaily (Dave Curtis and James Reiss) and Suzie Walker (Grace Sewell and Annabelle Deaner), so they could work on some act 1 scenes that they would share alone).
Jim also planned to work on the final scene in Act 1, featuring a bunch of characters, some of which were newly cast such as the Governor (Joe Centamore) and the Mayor (Joel Ackerman). I assume this scene was still worked on, but cannot confirm as after settling my costume issue and helping our tech director Rob Miller and a bunch of other people unload his van with set pieces and clothes, I departed as I was unneeded for scene work for the evening. Speaking of which, quite a lot of clothing was moved in from NCT's storage house for the show, as well as a few racks and one very snazzy looking cart which would be used by the balloon vendor during the show (if only I could remember who was playing the balloon vendor).
On Thursday, the plan was to go through the majority of scenes in act 2. When the cast arrived, Mrs. Walker and one of the Freds (James) were already there working on the scene between their characters that takes place in act 1, with the exception of the song at the end of the scene. When they were finished, it was decided to banish James to the far reaches of the universe for the next week or so (ok, he's actually going on a cruise, which I assume is much nicer than the far reaches of the universe). When this concluded, the cast went to work on their scenes in act 2 (specifically all scenes except for scenes 3 and 8). However, the scenes were not worked on in order. It was decided to first do the scenes with the kid characters in them so they wouldn't have to hang around too long waiting.
The first scene we did was scene 7, which features Fred (Dave), Kris Kringle (Lawrence Palevsky), the Judge (Suzie Lustig), the D.A. (I have no idea), the D.A.'s son (Jacob Karp and Kieran Brown), and the newly cast character of the Judge's political advisor, Tammany O'Halloran, played by NCT newcomer Patsy Van Dyke. (NOTE: During a walk for epilepsy that some NCT cast and crew members attended on Saturday the 15th, I was informed that Patsy would not be able to make every date for the show, and so the part of Tammany would be double cast between her and longtime cast member Noel Dillon. In addition, the role of the bailiff would be played by James Roche.) With the exception of Fred and Kris, this would be the first time that all of these cast members would actually be performing as their characters at a rehearsal. So, little little we began to discover who our characters are, through a combination of Jim's direction and vision, and our own deliveries.
The next scene we worked on was scene 2, involving only Kris Kringle, Suzie (or one of them, as Annabelle Deaner was unavailable for the evening, so only Grace Sewell worked on this scene), and a secretary named Miss Simms, who to my knowledge is uncast yet (though I could be wrong). After this scene was concluded and the children were no longer required for scene work, we went through the rest of the scenes, including Scene 1, which included Fred, the Judge, the D.A., Mrs. Walker, Tammany, and a secretary named Clara, who would be played by (the unavailable this evening) Tess Robinson. Once again, our characters and scene work became more fleshed out as we felt these new characters onstage for the first time. It showed even further through our work on the (rather short) scene 4 and scene 5, which included all the aforementioned characters in Scene 1 (except Clara), and also added Mr. Shellhammer (who was also unavailable this evening, I believe due to helping out backstage with another production this week) and Mr. Macy. While we were unable to work on the two songs in Scene 5 due to our absentee pianist, we were still able to do a lot of work on the scenes themselves. The last scene to work on was scene 6, which I'm sure was productive, but I didn't see it for myself, as my character was not in the scene and as such, I was unneeded for the rest of the evening.
This next week will have four different rehearsals, three of which I will be present for. We're getting closer by the day, but the show is further and further becoming glued together. Also, this upcoming Sunday, the 23rd, is NCT's 15th anniversary Celebration/Halloween Party at Nocello's at 5 pm. Seats are still available and Donna will be there for anyone who wants to sing something (and especially for those who want to sing an opposite gender song). You won't wanna miss it!
"I said that Calvin Coolidge was the first president, I can only imagine what they're thinking of me for that." -Kris Kringle
CAST LIST (NEWLY CAST MEMBERS ARE LISTED IN BOLD PRINT)
NOTE: As of October 16th, Caitlin Rees has withdrawn from the production. We wish her the best in all of her future endeavors.
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Annabelle Deaner/Grace Sewell
Fred Gailey: James Reiss/Dave Curtis
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
Mr. R.H. Macy: Rich Lau
Judge Group: Suzie Lustig
D.A. Thomas Mara/Steven the Balloon Vendor: ...Thomas Stevens, maybe? Steven Mara?...Hmm...
Tammany O'Halloran: Patsy Van Dyke/Noel Dillon
Mrs. Sawyer: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps
Hendrika: Lily Eagen/Carlie Rees
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Judy Avena/Barbara Schulman
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore/Michael Deaner
Mrs. Finfer: Michelle Centamore/Elise Autz
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp/Kieran Brown
Mr. Gimbel: John Morale
Mary (had a little lamb)/The Mayor of New York City: Joel Ackerman
Inebriated Santa Claus: Rich Rowehl
Hat Thieving Kid: Andrew Geres
Majorettes: Alyssa Infranco and Riley Gayer
The Governor of New York: Joe Centamore
Clara: Tess Robinson
Bailiff: James Roche
The following Roles as of yet are not cast (or are cast and I have yet to confirm who is cast as them)
Alvin, Whitey, and Climber, Marine friends of Fred's
Miss Sims, a nurse
Murphy, a night watchman
Lady Shopper
Man Shopper and his Wife
Young Woman Shopper
Clerk in Toy Department
Troubled Shopper
Two Policemen
Mailman
Tall Dame Girl Scout
Mrs. Beeler, the housekeeper
Marines, Parade Spectators, and Christmas Shoppers
Toy Ballet Sequence Characters
THE FOLLOWING CAST MEMBERS HAVE YET TO BE GIVEN A SPECIFIC PART AS OF 10/16/16 (Or they have and I don't know if they've been given a part yet)
Boys
Owen LaBruna
Anthony Shah
Nathan Zarko
Women
Jillian Graci
Katlyn Reller
Kellsey Roy
Linda Scott
Kate Smith
Girls
Julie Barbier
Juliette Bonchonsky
Maya Burget
Goldie Centamore
Bella Donneruno
Maggie Fitzmaurice
Jennifer Golder
Quincy Jackson
Arianna Keating
Grace Keating
Amelia Lau
Meaghan Maher
Juliet Morale
Grace Rowan
Ashley Rowehl
Amelia Semple
Emily Shah
Ella Smith
Emily Starin
Clare Vogt
Fallon Young
Lacey Zaharis
Blog #3: Costumes, Castings, and Court Cases
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Rehearsals Written: 10/11 and 10/13
Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre
FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS I HAVE LAID DORMANT. WHO HAS DISTURBED MY-Oh wait, it's only been a week between blogs. Neat. Wait, how long is it til we open? 25 days?! Yeesh, this show seems to be approaching really quickly.
This was a different type of rehearsal week. For one thing, there were once again only two rehearsals the entire week thanks to the Columbus Day and Yom Kippur holidays. However, there was no going over or reviewing songs this week as our musical director, Donna Gorelick, was out this week visiting her daughter in Florida. Instead, most of the things done were scene work. On Tuesday, the full cast was called in so that we could get our costume situations settled. One by one, the entire cast filed out into the front hallway to meet with our new lead costumer, Courtney Hotis, while we would either pay her the costume fee and discuss what sorts of outfits we could wear with our characters (those of us who had named characters at this point) and the time period, or show her our costumes or costume ideas if we would not be renting from her for this show.
Most people were free to leave after meeting with Courtney, as Jim would not be working on scenes with everyone this evening, but would focus on a few scenes that either weren't worked on yet, or scenes that had been worked on and needed certain characters added to them. Jim spent a bit of time working on a scene that he had already worked on with Mrs. Walker (Chelsea Brown) and Mr. Shellhammer (Justin Autz), the latter of whom was unavailable for the evening. He added Mr. Macy (Rich Lau) to the scene, as he had not been able to previously work on the scene when it was first gone through. During this time, Avery Infranco whisked away both Fred Gaily (Dave Curtis and James Reiss) and Suzie Walker (Grace Sewell and Annabelle Deaner), so they could work on some act 1 scenes that they would share alone).
Jim also planned to work on the final scene in Act 1, featuring a bunch of characters, some of which were newly cast such as the Governor (Joe Centamore) and the Mayor (Joel Ackerman). I assume this scene was still worked on, but cannot confirm as after settling my costume issue and helping our tech director Rob Miller and a bunch of other people unload his van with set pieces and clothes, I departed as I was unneeded for scene work for the evening. Speaking of which, quite a lot of clothing was moved in from NCT's storage house for the show, as well as a few racks and one very snazzy looking cart which would be used by the balloon vendor during the show (if only I could remember who was playing the balloon vendor).
On Thursday, the plan was to go through the majority of scenes in act 2. When the cast arrived, Mrs. Walker and one of the Freds (James) were already there working on the scene between their characters that takes place in act 1, with the exception of the song at the end of the scene. When they were finished, it was decided to banish James to the far reaches of the universe for the next week or so (ok, he's actually going on a cruise, which I assume is much nicer than the far reaches of the universe). When this concluded, the cast went to work on their scenes in act 2 (specifically all scenes except for scenes 3 and 8). However, the scenes were not worked on in order. It was decided to first do the scenes with the kid characters in them so they wouldn't have to hang around too long waiting.
The first scene we did was scene 7, which features Fred (Dave), Kris Kringle (Lawrence Palevsky), the Judge (Suzie Lustig), the D.A. (I have no idea), the D.A.'s son (Jacob Karp and Kieran Brown), and the newly cast character of the Judge's political advisor, Tammany O'Halloran, played by NCT newcomer Patsy Van Dyke. (NOTE: During a walk for epilepsy that some NCT cast and crew members attended on Saturday the 15th, I was informed that Patsy would not be able to make every date for the show, and so the part of Tammany would be double cast between her and longtime cast member Noel Dillon. In addition, the role of the bailiff would be played by James Roche.) With the exception of Fred and Kris, this would be the first time that all of these cast members would actually be performing as their characters at a rehearsal. So, little little we began to discover who our characters are, through a combination of Jim's direction and vision, and our own deliveries.
The next scene we worked on was scene 2, involving only Kris Kringle, Suzie (or one of them, as Annabelle Deaner was unavailable for the evening, so only Grace Sewell worked on this scene), and a secretary named Miss Simms, who to my knowledge is uncast yet (though I could be wrong). After this scene was concluded and the children were no longer required for scene work, we went through the rest of the scenes, including Scene 1, which included Fred, the Judge, the D.A., Mrs. Walker, Tammany, and a secretary named Clara, who would be played by (the unavailable this evening) Tess Robinson. Once again, our characters and scene work became more fleshed out as we felt these new characters onstage for the first time. It showed even further through our work on the (rather short) scene 4 and scene 5, which included all the aforementioned characters in Scene 1 (except Clara), and also added Mr. Shellhammer (who was also unavailable this evening, I believe due to helping out backstage with another production this week) and Mr. Macy. While we were unable to work on the two songs in Scene 5 due to our absentee pianist, we were still able to do a lot of work on the scenes themselves. The last scene to work on was scene 6, which I'm sure was productive, but I didn't see it for myself, as my character was not in the scene and as such, I was unneeded for the rest of the evening.
This next week will have four different rehearsals, three of which I will be present for. We're getting closer by the day, but the show is further and further becoming glued together. Also, this upcoming Sunday, the 23rd, is NCT's 15th anniversary Celebration/Halloween Party at Nocello's at 5 pm. Seats are still available and Donna will be there for anyone who wants to sing something (and especially for those who want to sing an opposite gender song). You won't wanna miss it!
"I said that Calvin Coolidge was the first president, I can only imagine what they're thinking of me for that." -Kris Kringle
CAST LIST (NEWLY CAST MEMBERS ARE LISTED IN BOLD PRINT)
NOTE: As of October 16th, Caitlin Rees has withdrawn from the production. We wish her the best in all of her future endeavors.
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Annabelle Deaner/Grace Sewell
Fred Gailey: James Reiss/Dave Curtis
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
Mr. R.H. Macy: Rich Lau
Judge Group: Suzie Lustig
D.A. Thomas Mara/Steven the Balloon Vendor: ...Thomas Stevens, maybe? Steven Mara?...Hmm...
Tammany O'Halloran: Patsy Van Dyke/Noel Dillon
Mrs. Sawyer: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps
Hendrika: Lily Eagen/Carlie Rees
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Judy Avena/Barbara Schulman
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore/Michael Deaner
Mrs. Finfer: Michelle Centamore/Elise Autz
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp/Kieran Brown
Mr. Gimbel: John Morale
Mary (had a little lamb)/The Mayor of New York City: Joel Ackerman
Inebriated Santa Claus: Rich Rowehl
Hat Thieving Kid: Andrew Geres
Majorettes: Alyssa Infranco and Riley Gayer
The Governor of New York: Joe Centamore
Clara: Tess Robinson
Bailiff: James Roche
The following Roles as of yet are not cast (or are cast and I have yet to confirm who is cast as them)
Alvin, Whitey, and Climber, Marine friends of Fred's
Miss Sims, a nurse
Murphy, a night watchman
Lady Shopper
Man Shopper and his Wife
Young Woman Shopper
Clerk in Toy Department
Troubled Shopper
Two Policemen
Mailman
Tall Dame Girl Scout
Mrs. Beeler, the housekeeper
Marines, Parade Spectators, and Christmas Shoppers
Toy Ballet Sequence Characters
THE FOLLOWING CAST MEMBERS HAVE YET TO BE GIVEN A SPECIFIC PART AS OF 10/16/16 (Or they have and I don't know if they've been given a part yet)
Boys
Owen LaBruna
Anthony Shah
Nathan Zarko
Women
Jillian Graci
Katlyn Reller
Kellsey Roy
Linda Scott
Kate Smith
Girls
Julie Barbier
Juliette Bonchonsky
Maya Burget
Goldie Centamore
Bella Donneruno
Maggie Fitzmaurice
Jennifer Golder
Quincy Jackson
Arianna Keating
Grace Keating
Amelia Lau
Meaghan Maher
Juliet Morale
Grace Rowan
Ashley Rowehl
Amelia Semple
Emily Shah
Ella Smith
Emily Starin
Clare Vogt
Fallon Young
Lacey Zaharis
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Blog #2: The Big Cuh-lown Rehearsals
BIG BOLD NOTE: The show dates are Thursday November 10th, Saturday November 12th, Friday November 18th, and Saturday November 19th at 8pm, as well as on Sunday November 13th and 20th at 2pm. Tickets are not on sale at the moment but pricing information, as well as tickets for our fundraiser party at Nocello's on October 23rd and other information, can be found here at our theatre's website.
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Rehearsals Listed: 10/5 and 10/6
Rehearsal Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre/NCT
Here we are back again (that's a little redundant) for the second blog for NCT's Miracle on 34th Street! On the first rehearsal last week on Wednesday, the first thing we did was review the songs that we had already worked on previously, though we most specifically worked on the Big Clown (still pronounced Cuh-lown) Balloons. Why? Because it turned out that we would be blocking most of the first two scenes today.
The first thing done was a very brief scene involving Mr. Shellhammer and Mrs. Walker talking about hiring "Bearded Gentlemen" as Santa Claus (seriously, was it too hard to just call him Kris in the script the entire time?). After that, we worked on most of the first two scenes in the show, with the exception of the parade spectators's lines, as those parts haven't been given out yet. First a scene was done with Fred and Susie Walker, both of whom had already worked on the scene during previous rehearsals, and a little punk kid was added to steal Fred's hat, played by Andrew Geres. (As a side-note, James's particular way of saying "Santy Claus" made a good chunk of the cast crack up, myself included) In addition, Kris Kringle's interaction with a Balloon Vendor before the song starts was blocked, in addition to a few other characters interacting with the balloon vendor such as a little girl and the punk kid. I don't remember who's playing the balloon vendor, except that he internally decided to name the balloon vendor Steven...I dunno why, I guess he looks like a Steven.
The next scene involved Kris Kringle ended up replacing the intoxicated Santa Claus in the parade, as well as adding two girls to the scene to share a line (and to make fun of Mr. Shellhammer). A key moment that could change the foundation of this show happened this night, as Miss Muffet is no more, and Joel's character will now be Mary (from Mary had a little lamb). THE SHOW WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAYN. Kris Kringle was unavailable for the evening, so our director Jim performed his lines throughout both of the scenes that were worked on tonight.
Finally what happens in between these scenes, the song sequence, was blocked. Assisting Jim in figuring out where everyone would be blocked was cast member Tess Robinson. Jim had a few interesting ideas about how the parade would actually be done. What were they exactly? You'll have to come to the show in 31 days to see for yourself (wait, 31 days? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!) Most of the cast was blocked into the scene for singing, with the exception of a few like Mrs. Walker, Susie, Fred, Kris Kringle, and the teenagers, the last of whom would be performing in the parade, whatever the parade turns out to be.
On the second day of rehearsal that week, we worked on the song sequence again. However this time, our choreographer, Tori, taught us what we'd be doing during the scene. She made sure to give everyone on the stage a specific place for both sections of the song, as at one point, the placing groups change completely towards around the end of the song. Once again, a few of the teenagers were left out of the dance, as they will be performing in the parade themselves. It was a little difficult for everyone to learn, as there will be around 40 people on stage during the dance if not more. However, with extensive practice and some elbow grease, we got it all down. Hopefully we remember it by the next time she holds a choreography night on next Wednesday the 19th! (At the moment, I still have all the steps down except for maybe one at the end.)
This coming week, there will be a full cast rehearsal on Tuesday the 11th as well as a cast rehearsal on Thursday the 13th for everyone in the courtroom scenes, myself included, to block that scene out (Shame I can't remember who I'm playing). As mentioned hitherto, there is also a full cast rehearsal to work on choreography on the 19th. Those are all the rehearsals we know for now. One piece of very interesting information was found out at the end of the rehearsal, thanks to my excellent deductive and sleuthing skills...or I just asked and found out easily enough. Former leading man of NCT, Dave Curtis, at some point, made his way to the auditorium, watching us learn the choreography. Now, Dave's niece is in the show. In fact, she's Grace Sewell, one of the two girls playing Susie, so I figured he was there to see her. It turned out he was actually there because James Reiss, for whatever reason, will be unavailable to play Fred Gaily for one of the weekends, so Dave will be stepping in for him during those times.
"Susan, I speak French but that doesn't make me Joan of Arc!" -Doris Walker
CAST LIST (Newly cast characters or actors will be italicized)
NOTE: As of October 10th, Heather Carro Totoro, Taylor Carro, Vinnie Dillon, and Luke Frisoli have all withdrawn from the production. We wish them the best in all of their future endeavors.
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Annabelle Deaner/Grace Sewell
Fred Gailey: James Reiss/Dave Curtis
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
Mr. R.H. Macy: Rich Lau
Judge Group: Suzie Lustig
D.A. Thomas Mara/Steven the Balloon Vendor: I'm Steven
Mrs. Sawyer: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps
Hendrika: Lily Eagen/Carlie Rees
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Judy Avena/Barbara Schulman
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore/Michael Deaner
Mrs. Finfer: Michelle Centamore/Elise Autz
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp/Kieran Brown
Mr. Gimbel: John Morale
Mary whom did once upon a time own a rather miniscule lamb: Joel Ackerman
Inebriated Santa Claus: Rich Rowehl
Hat Thieving Kid: Andrew Geres
Majorettes: Alyssa Infranco and Riley Gayer
The following Roles as of yet are not cast
Tammany O'Halloran, a political boss
Alvin, Whitey, and Climber, Marine friends of Fred's
Clara, a legal secretary
Miss Sims, a nurse
Bailiff, a...bailiff
Murphy, a night watchman
Lady Shopper, a lady sho-ok, that's enough, if the character doesn't have a name, than they don't need a description
Man Shopper and his Wife
Young Woman Shopper
Clerk in Toy Department
Troubled Shopper
Governor of New York
Mayor of New York City
Two Policemen
Mailman
Tall Dame Girl Scout
Mrs. Beeler, the housekeeper
Marines, Parade Spectators, and Christmas Shoppers
Toy Ballet Sequence Characters
THE FOLLOWING CAST MEMBERS HAVE YET TO BE GIVEN A SPECIFIC PART AS OF 10/10/16
Men
Joe Centamore
Boys
Owen LaBruna
James Roche
Anthony Shah
Nathan Zarko
Women
Noel Dillon
Jillian Graci
Katlyn Reller
Kellsey Roy
Linda Scott
Kate Smith
Patsy VanDyke
Girls
Julie Barbier
Juliette Bonchonsky
Maya Burget
Goldie Centamore
Bella Donneruno
Maggie Fitzmaurice
Jennifer Golder
Quincy Jackson
Arianna Keating
Grace Keating
Amelia Lau
Meaghan Maher
Juliet Morale
Caitlin Rees
Tess Robinson
Grace Rowan
Ashley Rowehl
Amelia Semple
Emily Shah
Ella Smith
Emily Starin
Clare Vogt
Fallon Young
Lacey Zaharis
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Rehearsals Listed: 10/5 and 10/6
Rehearsal Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre/NCT
Here we are back again (that's a little redundant) for the second blog for NCT's Miracle on 34th Street! On the first rehearsal last week on Wednesday, the first thing we did was review the songs that we had already worked on previously, though we most specifically worked on the Big Clown (still pronounced Cuh-lown) Balloons. Why? Because it turned out that we would be blocking most of the first two scenes today.
The first thing done was a very brief scene involving Mr. Shellhammer and Mrs. Walker talking about hiring "Bearded Gentlemen" as Santa Claus (seriously, was it too hard to just call him Kris in the script the entire time?). After that, we worked on most of the first two scenes in the show, with the exception of the parade spectators's lines, as those parts haven't been given out yet. First a scene was done with Fred and Susie Walker, both of whom had already worked on the scene during previous rehearsals, and a little punk kid was added to steal Fred's hat, played by Andrew Geres. (As a side-note, James's particular way of saying "Santy Claus" made a good chunk of the cast crack up, myself included) In addition, Kris Kringle's interaction with a Balloon Vendor before the song starts was blocked, in addition to a few other characters interacting with the balloon vendor such as a little girl and the punk kid. I don't remember who's playing the balloon vendor, except that he internally decided to name the balloon vendor Steven...I dunno why, I guess he looks like a Steven.
The next scene involved Kris Kringle ended up replacing the intoxicated Santa Claus in the parade, as well as adding two girls to the scene to share a line (and to make fun of Mr. Shellhammer). A key moment that could change the foundation of this show happened this night, as Miss Muffet is no more, and Joel's character will now be Mary (from Mary had a little lamb). THE SHOW WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAYN. Kris Kringle was unavailable for the evening, so our director Jim performed his lines throughout both of the scenes that were worked on tonight.
Finally what happens in between these scenes, the song sequence, was blocked. Assisting Jim in figuring out where everyone would be blocked was cast member Tess Robinson. Jim had a few interesting ideas about how the parade would actually be done. What were they exactly? You'll have to come to the show in 31 days to see for yourself (wait, 31 days? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!) Most of the cast was blocked into the scene for singing, with the exception of a few like Mrs. Walker, Susie, Fred, Kris Kringle, and the teenagers, the last of whom would be performing in the parade, whatever the parade turns out to be.
On the second day of rehearsal that week, we worked on the song sequence again. However this time, our choreographer, Tori, taught us what we'd be doing during the scene. She made sure to give everyone on the stage a specific place for both sections of the song, as at one point, the placing groups change completely towards around the end of the song. Once again, a few of the teenagers were left out of the dance, as they will be performing in the parade themselves. It was a little difficult for everyone to learn, as there will be around 40 people on stage during the dance if not more. However, with extensive practice and some elbow grease, we got it all down. Hopefully we remember it by the next time she holds a choreography night on next Wednesday the 19th! (At the moment, I still have all the steps down except for maybe one at the end.)
This coming week, there will be a full cast rehearsal on Tuesday the 11th as well as a cast rehearsal on Thursday the 13th for everyone in the courtroom scenes, myself included, to block that scene out (Shame I can't remember who I'm playing). As mentioned hitherto, there is also a full cast rehearsal to work on choreography on the 19th. Those are all the rehearsals we know for now. One piece of very interesting information was found out at the end of the rehearsal, thanks to my excellent deductive and sleuthing skills...or I just asked and found out easily enough. Former leading man of NCT, Dave Curtis, at some point, made his way to the auditorium, watching us learn the choreography. Now, Dave's niece is in the show. In fact, she's Grace Sewell, one of the two girls playing Susie, so I figured he was there to see her. It turned out he was actually there because James Reiss, for whatever reason, will be unavailable to play Fred Gaily for one of the weekends, so Dave will be stepping in for him during those times.
"Susan, I speak French but that doesn't make me Joan of Arc!" -Doris Walker
CAST LIST (Newly cast characters or actors will be italicized)
NOTE: As of October 10th, Heather Carro Totoro, Taylor Carro, Vinnie Dillon, and Luke Frisoli have all withdrawn from the production. We wish them the best in all of their future endeavors.
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Annabelle Deaner/Grace Sewell
Fred Gailey: James Reiss/Dave Curtis
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
Mr. R.H. Macy: Rich Lau
Judge Group: Suzie Lustig
D.A. Thomas Mara/Steven the Balloon Vendor: I'm Steven
Mrs. Sawyer: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps
Hendrika: Lily Eagen/Carlie Rees
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Judy Avena/Barbara Schulman
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore/Michael Deaner
Mrs. Finfer: Michelle Centamore/Elise Autz
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp/Kieran Brown
Mr. Gimbel: John Morale
Mary whom did once upon a time own a rather miniscule lamb: Joel Ackerman
Inebriated Santa Claus: Rich Rowehl
Hat Thieving Kid: Andrew Geres
Majorettes: Alyssa Infranco and Riley Gayer
The following Roles as of yet are not cast
Tammany O'Halloran, a political boss
Alvin, Whitey, and Climber, Marine friends of Fred's
Clara, a legal secretary
Miss Sims, a nurse
Bailiff, a...bailiff
Murphy, a night watchman
Lady Shopper, a lady sho-ok, that's enough, if the character doesn't have a name, than they don't need a description
Man Shopper and his Wife
Young Woman Shopper
Clerk in Toy Department
Troubled Shopper
Governor of New York
Mayor of New York City
Two Policemen
Mailman
Tall Dame Girl Scout
Mrs. Beeler, the housekeeper
Marines, Parade Spectators, and Christmas Shoppers
Toy Ballet Sequence Characters
THE FOLLOWING CAST MEMBERS HAVE YET TO BE GIVEN A SPECIFIC PART AS OF 10/10/16
Men
Joe Centamore
Boys
Owen LaBruna
James Roche
Anthony Shah
Nathan Zarko
Women
Noel Dillon
Jillian Graci
Katlyn Reller
Kellsey Roy
Linda Scott
Kate Smith
Patsy VanDyke
Girls
Julie Barbier
Juliette Bonchonsky
Maya Burget
Goldie Centamore
Bella Donneruno
Maggie Fitzmaurice
Jennifer Golder
Quincy Jackson
Arianna Keating
Grace Keating
Amelia Lau
Meaghan Maher
Juliet Morale
Caitlin Rees
Tess Robinson
Grace Rowan
Ashley Rowehl
Amelia Semple
Emily Shah
Ella Smith
Emily Starin
Clare Vogt
Fallon Young
Lacey Zaharis
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Blog #1: Here's a Miracle of Love on 34th Street
BIG BOLD NOTE: The show dates are Thursday November 10th, Saturday November 12th, Friday November 18th, and Saturday November 19th at 8pm, as well as on Sunday November 13th and 20th at 2pm. Tickets are not on sale at the moment but pricing information, as well as tickets for our fundraiser party at Nocello's on October 23rd, can be found here at our theatre's website.
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Rehearsals Listed: 9/19, 9/21, and 9/27
Rehearsal Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre (henceforth known as NCT)
After 4 months of inactivity, it's time to return to blogging. Welcome back to all of you who viewed the blog for our previous NCT show, Mary Poppins (all 12 o' ya). There may not be a pun in the title of the blog this time, but nonetheless, it's time for the beginning of the blog for our 30th mainstage show that heralds NCT's 15th Anniversary: Annie*-I MEAN, Here's Lov**-I MEAN, Miracle on 34th Street!
This first edition of the blog will cover the first three group rehearsals (there have been more, but I can't cover rehearsals I'm not called for, and thusly, am not at). Just like the previous set of shows, it began with a rundown on how things are done by one of NCT's founders and its producer, Bette Silver. Once again she went into pricing of both the show and costumes, as since the theatre is non-profit with the exception of ticket sales, the theatre depends on its actors for a lot of its income. However, this time it was requested that costume forms be filled out quicker, as longtime Leading Costume Designer Jennifer Lau has vacated the position, which is to be now filled by Courtney Hotis, who would need more time to figure out what certain actors needed, since she is new and is less familiar with the cast than Jen was. We were also briefly introduced to our choreographer for the show, Tori Lewis, who will work on whatever dance numbers the show has, such as a Toy Ballet scene which has been mentioned a few times and is still going through stages of mental editing at the moment. Returning crew members include the Stage Manager, Alyson Graci, the Technical and Lighting Director Rob Miller, and the Assistant Lighting Director Theo Lau, all of whom have a long history at NCT (especially Rob, who's been there since he was a student) and all of whom are very good and competent at what they do.
Also returning was our grand poobah director himself, Jim Redding. The first rehearsal's speech delivered by Jim was very different this time around. While this show, much like Mary Poppins, was based on a very popular movie classic, the show itself was much less well known. In fact, despite the fact that the show's book and music were done by none other than the famed thimble rigger Meredith Willson, best known for being the man behind "The Music Man", it closed after less than a year despite good songs and a stellar cast. Who can say why? Perhaps people were too used to the movie, perhaps they didn't realize it was based on Miracle on 34th Street due to the name change, maybe it was because of Willson's coyness (Why just call him Bearded Gentlemen in the script for 3 or 4 scenes when we know he's Kris Kringle?), but whatever the reason, it was a different type of show outside of NCT's comfort zone, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Jim also introduced the cast to longtime NCT veteran and former leading lady, Avery Infranco, who would be shadowing Jim throughout the show and helping him out with the show.
Possibly due to having less people audition for the show than usual, on the first night, the cast wasn't even announced because no one had been officially cast yet. After the first night's rehearsal had concluded, there were a few callbacks for some characters. On Wednesday night, at the conclusion of the rehearsal, the cast list was finally shared with the cast...well...some of it. It was mentioned several times by Jim on Wednesday and on Monday that the show was an old school-style Broadway show, so there were tons of little parts throughout the show. Since it would be a while before we began working on these scenes, not all these parts had been cast (in fact, only 8 of them had, with quite a fair few more as of yet to be assigned). Also, with the exception of Kris Kringle, Doris Walker, Susie Walker, and Fred Gailey, the show was written in a way where a lot of parts could be played by either a man or a woman, even if it was traditionally only done one of those ways. This would be seen in the casting of both the Judge and Sawyer, who are both traditionally played by men in the show, as they were in the movie(s), but were both cast as women in the show.
When Jim announced the characters who were cast, he did quite a few of them in a comedic way, cracking jokes about certain characters and actors, which always gets laughs from the cast, as Jim has a very on-point sense of humor (sometimes so quick-witted that it's scary). One of my personal favorites included the very first casting decision he made, as the character of Miss Muffet in the Macy's parade is played by a man (in the script, I mean), which got a lot of people's imagination giving them laughs. Another came from the description that Jim gave to the neurotic psychologist Sawyer and the "infinitely more neurotic" secretary of Sawyer's, Miss Crookshanks. Probably my favorite was when he announced the casting of Thomas Mara Junior and then spent a good little while building up who was playing their father, which ultimately got quite a few laughs from the kids and their "father"...shame I can't remember who it was that was cast as the father, though.
Lastly returning was our Musical Director Donna Gorelick, who the cast spent the most time with during these rehearsals. Since Jim would mostly be working with crew members and individual actors during these rehearsals separately (I believe he worked on some scenes during night 3 with Doris and Susie), we worked on learning songs, in these cases, songs that almost everyone in the show sang. On our first night, we learned the first song of the show: The Big Clown Balloons. This could've been a lot trickier than it ended up being as very few people in the cast had heard the song before. Thankfully, one cast member of the show, Meaghan Maher, who has previously played roles on NCT like Jane Banks in Mary Poppins and Oliver in...well...Oliver!, knew the song very well, as she had been in the production of the show at the Engeman Theatre last year. So she stood with Donna and helped the cast learn the song, as well as its differing harmonies and melodies. We also worked on the small intro to the song, and the sad exit reprise of the song when the rain starts.
One repeating theme that people heard during these nights was enunciating the words. It was said by both Jim and Donna had Meredith Willson was a guy who loved his particular choices of words and that all the lyrics were very important, so the cast had to make sure to enunciate them so the audience could understand them. This was implied to all the songs, but mostly to the Big Clown Balloons, which has quite a few very quickly spouted lines, and some admittedly strange ones at that (The title of the song is actually sung as The Big Ca-lown Balloons, for a small example).
The following rehearsal, we reviewed the Big Clown Balloons for a bit, but we also learned the (former) titular song of the show, Here's Love, sung by Kris Kringle, Fred Gailey, and the ensemble. Since the actor playing Kris Kringle was unavailable for the evening, the whole cast sung his parts of the song, as the melody would be very similar (and sometimes identical) to the parts of the song they would be singing. Once again Meaghan stood up front and helped everyone learn the song, along with the actor playing Fred Gailey, that being James Reiss, an NCT veteran known for playing such roles as The Prince in Cinderella and Marius in Les Miserables.
At the 3rd rehearsal, we reviewed The Big Clown Balloons and Here's Love considerably. Lawrence Palevsky, who will be playing Kris Kringle, and who previously portrayed Tevye in NCT's Fiddler on the Roof two years ago, was at this rehearsal, and had previously worked on the song at a non-full cast rehearsal, so he was incorporated into the song with the rest of the cast. In addition, a few of the solos and group parts of the song were divied up and handed to some members of the cast. We also worked on a new group song, called That Man Over There, sung mostly by R.H. Macy (yes, as in the real guy who was in charge of Macy's), played by former NCT leading man Rich Lau, known for playing such roles at NCT as Oliver Warbucks in Annie Warbucks and the King of Siam in The King And I. The song, around the time when the chorus starts joining into the song, goes into separate parts at times, as in when one section is singing something while another section sings something completely different (with Mr. Macy being Section 1 and the chorus being section 2).
I don't know how the blocking rehearsals have been going so far, but if the cast's progress on the group songs is any indication, the show is already going very well, as it should be considering that we open the show in just over 6 weeks (AAAAH!). Other things to note include an acting workshop that Jim will be teaching for the duration of the show prior to Tuesday and Thursday rehearsals, much like he does during every show for every cast member that wants to learn and improve their craft. Also announced was a special 15th anniversary party/Halloween party/fundraiser to be held at the Nocello's in Northport on October 23rd at 5 pm. Everyone associated with NCT, whether they are in the show or not, is invited! (Ok, so there's a fee of 35 dollars and there is limited seating, but still, you don't have to be in the show to come). The cast will eat, reminisce about shows, some will come in costumes, tell theatre stories, participate in silent auctions/raffles/50/50s, and Donna will be available for accompaniment to anyone that wants to sing a song (a challenge laid out to the cast is to sing a reverse-gender song...and yes, I already have several ideas of my own in mind). Check back next week around Wednesday or Thursday for the next blog (as our next group rehearsal is on Wednesday), and rather than end this blog with one of my usual puns (as it's nearly midnight and I can't think of any at the moment), I leave you with this quote.
"Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to." -Fred Gailey
*: The original plan for the NCT show, as anyone who saw our last show, Mary Poppins, and holds a playbill with the original audition dates for Annie listed knows, was for the 30th show to be Annie. Due to a combination of East Northport Middle School requesting us to change the show as they were doing it, as well as the mainstage show being on tour and us not being able to get the rights to it, Annie had to be shelved for the time being.
**: The original name of the stage musical of Miracle on 34th Street was Here's Love, a decision which baffled many when it came out, considering that Miracle on 34th Street was one of the most famous Christmas movies of all time, so why wouldn't you want its name value, as opposed to an admittedly good song from the stage show? Maybe the play just wanted to answer Oliver's question when he kept asking where love was.
CAST LIST
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Annabelle Deaner/Grace Sewell
Fred Gailey: James Reiss
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
Mr. R.H. Macy: Rich Lau
Judge Group: Suzie Lustig
D.A. Thomas Mara: Hmm...What's his name?
Mrs. Sawyer: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps
Hendrika: Lily Eagen/Carlie Rees
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Judy Avena/Barbara Schulman
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore/Michael Deaner
Mrs. Finfer: Michelle Centamore/Elise Autz
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp/Kieran Brown
Mr. Gimbel: John Morale
Miss Muffet: Joel Ackerman
Inebriated Santa Claus: Rich Rowehl
The following Roles as of yet are not cast
Tammany O'Halloran, a political boss
Alvin, Whitey, and Climber, Marine friends of Fred's
Clara, a legal secretary
Miss Sims, a nurse
Bailiff, a...bailiff
Murphy, a night watchman
Kid, a...kid
Balloon Vendor...some of these unnamed descriptions really kinda speak for themself, don't they?
Lady Shopper, a lady sho-ok, that's enough, if the character doesn't have a name, than they don't need a description
Man Shopper and his Wife
Young Woman Shopper
Clerk in Toy Department
Troubled Shopper
Governor of New York
Mayor of New York City
Two Policemen
Mailman
Tall Dame Girl Scout
Mrs. Beeler, the housekeeper
Marines, Parade Spectators, and Christmas Shoppers
Toy Ballet Sequence Characters
THE FOLLOWING CAST MEMBERS HAVE YET TO BE GIVEN A SPECIFIC PART AS OF 9/27/16
Men
Joe Centamore
Vinnie Dillon
Boys
Luke Frisoli
Andrew Geres
Owen LaBruna
James Roche
Anthony Shah
Nathan Zarko
Women
Noel Dillon
Jillian Graci
Katlyn Reller
Kellsey Roy
Linda Scott
Kate Smith
Heather Carro Totoro
Patsy VanDyke
Girls
Julie Barbier
Juliette Bonchonsky
Maya Burget
Taylor Carro
Goldie Centamore
Bella Donneruno
Maggie Fitzmaurice
Riley Gayer
Jennifer Golder
Alyssa Infranco
Quincy Jackson
Arianna Keating
Grace Keating
Amelia Lau
Meaghan Maher
Juliet Morale
Caitlin Rees
Tess Robinson
Grace Rowan
Ashley Rowehl
Amelia Semple
Emily Shah
Ella Smith
Emily Starin
Clare Vogt
Fallon Young
Lacey Zaharis
Written by: Justin Murphy
Date of Rehearsals Listed: 9/19, 9/21, and 9/27
Rehearsal Location: Northport-East Northport Community Theatre (henceforth known as NCT)
After 4 months of inactivity, it's time to return to blogging. Welcome back to all of you who viewed the blog for our previous NCT show, Mary Poppins (all 12 o' ya). There may not be a pun in the title of the blog this time, but nonetheless, it's time for the beginning of the blog for our 30th mainstage show that heralds NCT's 15th Anniversary: Annie*-I MEAN, Here's Lov**-I MEAN, Miracle on 34th Street!
This first edition of the blog will cover the first three group rehearsals (there have been more, but I can't cover rehearsals I'm not called for, and thusly, am not at). Just like the previous set of shows, it began with a rundown on how things are done by one of NCT's founders and its producer, Bette Silver. Once again she went into pricing of both the show and costumes, as since the theatre is non-profit with the exception of ticket sales, the theatre depends on its actors for a lot of its income. However, this time it was requested that costume forms be filled out quicker, as longtime Leading Costume Designer Jennifer Lau has vacated the position, which is to be now filled by Courtney Hotis, who would need more time to figure out what certain actors needed, since she is new and is less familiar with the cast than Jen was. We were also briefly introduced to our choreographer for the show, Tori Lewis, who will work on whatever dance numbers the show has, such as a Toy Ballet scene which has been mentioned a few times and is still going through stages of mental editing at the moment. Returning crew members include the Stage Manager, Alyson Graci, the Technical and Lighting Director Rob Miller, and the Assistant Lighting Director Theo Lau, all of whom have a long history at NCT (especially Rob, who's been there since he was a student) and all of whom are very good and competent at what they do.
Also returning was our grand poobah director himself, Jim Redding. The first rehearsal's speech delivered by Jim was very different this time around. While this show, much like Mary Poppins, was based on a very popular movie classic, the show itself was much less well known. In fact, despite the fact that the show's book and music were done by none other than the famed thimble rigger Meredith Willson, best known for being the man behind "The Music Man", it closed after less than a year despite good songs and a stellar cast. Who can say why? Perhaps people were too used to the movie, perhaps they didn't realize it was based on Miracle on 34th Street due to the name change, maybe it was because of Willson's coyness (Why just call him Bearded Gentlemen in the script for 3 or 4 scenes when we know he's Kris Kringle?), but whatever the reason, it was a different type of show outside of NCT's comfort zone, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Jim also introduced the cast to longtime NCT veteran and former leading lady, Avery Infranco, who would be shadowing Jim throughout the show and helping him out with the show.
Possibly due to having less people audition for the show than usual, on the first night, the cast wasn't even announced because no one had been officially cast yet. After the first night's rehearsal had concluded, there were a few callbacks for some characters. On Wednesday night, at the conclusion of the rehearsal, the cast list was finally shared with the cast...well...some of it. It was mentioned several times by Jim on Wednesday and on Monday that the show was an old school-style Broadway show, so there were tons of little parts throughout the show. Since it would be a while before we began working on these scenes, not all these parts had been cast (in fact, only 8 of them had, with quite a fair few more as of yet to be assigned). Also, with the exception of Kris Kringle, Doris Walker, Susie Walker, and Fred Gailey, the show was written in a way where a lot of parts could be played by either a man or a woman, even if it was traditionally only done one of those ways. This would be seen in the casting of both the Judge and Sawyer, who are both traditionally played by men in the show, as they were in the movie(s), but were both cast as women in the show.
When Jim announced the characters who were cast, he did quite a few of them in a comedic way, cracking jokes about certain characters and actors, which always gets laughs from the cast, as Jim has a very on-point sense of humor (sometimes so quick-witted that it's scary). One of my personal favorites included the very first casting decision he made, as the character of Miss Muffet in the Macy's parade is played by a man (in the script, I mean), which got a lot of people's imagination giving them laughs. Another came from the description that Jim gave to the neurotic psychologist Sawyer and the "infinitely more neurotic" secretary of Sawyer's, Miss Crookshanks. Probably my favorite was when he announced the casting of Thomas Mara Junior and then spent a good little while building up who was playing their father, which ultimately got quite a few laughs from the kids and their "father"...shame I can't remember who it was that was cast as the father, though.
Lastly returning was our Musical Director Donna Gorelick, who the cast spent the most time with during these rehearsals. Since Jim would mostly be working with crew members and individual actors during these rehearsals separately (I believe he worked on some scenes during night 3 with Doris and Susie), we worked on learning songs, in these cases, songs that almost everyone in the show sang. On our first night, we learned the first song of the show: The Big Clown Balloons. This could've been a lot trickier than it ended up being as very few people in the cast had heard the song before. Thankfully, one cast member of the show, Meaghan Maher, who has previously played roles on NCT like Jane Banks in Mary Poppins and Oliver in...well...Oliver!, knew the song very well, as she had been in the production of the show at the Engeman Theatre last year. So she stood with Donna and helped the cast learn the song, as well as its differing harmonies and melodies. We also worked on the small intro to the song, and the sad exit reprise of the song when the rain starts.
One repeating theme that people heard during these nights was enunciating the words. It was said by both Jim and Donna had Meredith Willson was a guy who loved his particular choices of words and that all the lyrics were very important, so the cast had to make sure to enunciate them so the audience could understand them. This was implied to all the songs, but mostly to the Big Clown Balloons, which has quite a few very quickly spouted lines, and some admittedly strange ones at that (The title of the song is actually sung as The Big Ca-lown Balloons, for a small example).
The following rehearsal, we reviewed the Big Clown Balloons for a bit, but we also learned the (former) titular song of the show, Here's Love, sung by Kris Kringle, Fred Gailey, and the ensemble. Since the actor playing Kris Kringle was unavailable for the evening, the whole cast sung his parts of the song, as the melody would be very similar (and sometimes identical) to the parts of the song they would be singing. Once again Meaghan stood up front and helped everyone learn the song, along with the actor playing Fred Gailey, that being James Reiss, an NCT veteran known for playing such roles as The Prince in Cinderella and Marius in Les Miserables.
At the 3rd rehearsal, we reviewed The Big Clown Balloons and Here's Love considerably. Lawrence Palevsky, who will be playing Kris Kringle, and who previously portrayed Tevye in NCT's Fiddler on the Roof two years ago, was at this rehearsal, and had previously worked on the song at a non-full cast rehearsal, so he was incorporated into the song with the rest of the cast. In addition, a few of the solos and group parts of the song were divied up and handed to some members of the cast. We also worked on a new group song, called That Man Over There, sung mostly by R.H. Macy (yes, as in the real guy who was in charge of Macy's), played by former NCT leading man Rich Lau, known for playing such roles at NCT as Oliver Warbucks in Annie Warbucks and the King of Siam in The King And I. The song, around the time when the chorus starts joining into the song, goes into separate parts at times, as in when one section is singing something while another section sings something completely different (with Mr. Macy being Section 1 and the chorus being section 2).
I don't know how the blocking rehearsals have been going so far, but if the cast's progress on the group songs is any indication, the show is already going very well, as it should be considering that we open the show in just over 6 weeks (AAAAH!). Other things to note include an acting workshop that Jim will be teaching for the duration of the show prior to Tuesday and Thursday rehearsals, much like he does during every show for every cast member that wants to learn and improve their craft. Also announced was a special 15th anniversary party/Halloween party/fundraiser to be held at the Nocello's in Northport on October 23rd at 5 pm. Everyone associated with NCT, whether they are in the show or not, is invited! (Ok, so there's a fee of 35 dollars and there is limited seating, but still, you don't have to be in the show to come). The cast will eat, reminisce about shows, some will come in costumes, tell theatre stories, participate in silent auctions/raffles/50/50s, and Donna will be available for accompaniment to anyone that wants to sing a song (a challenge laid out to the cast is to sing a reverse-gender song...and yes, I already have several ideas of my own in mind). Check back next week around Wednesday or Thursday for the next blog (as our next group rehearsal is on Wednesday), and rather than end this blog with one of my usual puns (as it's nearly midnight and I can't think of any at the moment), I leave you with this quote.
"Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to." -Fred Gailey
*: The original plan for the NCT show, as anyone who saw our last show, Mary Poppins, and holds a playbill with the original audition dates for Annie listed knows, was for the 30th show to be Annie. Due to a combination of East Northport Middle School requesting us to change the show as they were doing it, as well as the mainstage show being on tour and us not being able to get the rights to it, Annie had to be shelved for the time being.
**: The original name of the stage musical of Miracle on 34th Street was Here's Love, a decision which baffled many when it came out, considering that Miracle on 34th Street was one of the most famous Christmas movies of all time, so why wouldn't you want its name value, as opposed to an admittedly good song from the stage show? Maybe the play just wanted to answer Oliver's question when he kept asking where love was.
CAST LIST
Kris Kringle: Lawrence Palevsky
Doris Walker: Chelsea Brown
Susan Walker: Annabelle Deaner/Grace Sewell
Fred Gailey: James Reiss
Mr. Marvin Shellhammer: Justin Autz
Mr. R.H. Macy: Rich Lau
Judge Group: Suzie Lustig
D.A. Thomas Mara: Hmm...What's his name?
Mrs. Sawyer: Kathy Lau
Miss Crookshank: Samantha Schoeps
Hendrika: Lily Eagen/Carlie Rees
Hendrika's Foster Mother: Judy Avena/Barbara Schulman
Harry Finfer: Jude Centamore/Michael Deaner
Mrs. Finfer: Michelle Centamore/Elise Autz
Thomas Mara Junior: Jacob Karp/Kieran Brown
Mr. Gimbel: John Morale
Miss Muffet: Joel Ackerman
Inebriated Santa Claus: Rich Rowehl
The following Roles as of yet are not cast
Tammany O'Halloran, a political boss
Alvin, Whitey, and Climber, Marine friends of Fred's
Clara, a legal secretary
Miss Sims, a nurse
Bailiff, a...bailiff
Murphy, a night watchman
Kid, a...kid
Balloon Vendor...some of these unnamed descriptions really kinda speak for themself, don't they?
Lady Shopper, a lady sho-ok, that's enough, if the character doesn't have a name, than they don't need a description
Man Shopper and his Wife
Young Woman Shopper
Clerk in Toy Department
Troubled Shopper
Governor of New York
Mayor of New York City
Two Policemen
Mailman
Tall Dame Girl Scout
Mrs. Beeler, the housekeeper
Marines, Parade Spectators, and Christmas Shoppers
Toy Ballet Sequence Characters
THE FOLLOWING CAST MEMBERS HAVE YET TO BE GIVEN A SPECIFIC PART AS OF 9/27/16
Men
Joe Centamore
Vinnie Dillon
Boys
Luke Frisoli
Andrew Geres
Owen LaBruna
James Roche
Anthony Shah
Nathan Zarko
Women
Noel Dillon
Jillian Graci
Katlyn Reller
Kellsey Roy
Linda Scott
Kate Smith
Heather Carro Totoro
Patsy VanDyke
Girls
Julie Barbier
Juliette Bonchonsky
Maya Burget
Taylor Carro
Goldie Centamore
Bella Donneruno
Maggie Fitzmaurice
Riley Gayer
Jennifer Golder
Alyssa Infranco
Quincy Jackson
Arianna Keating
Grace Keating
Amelia Lau
Meaghan Maher
Juliet Morale
Caitlin Rees
Tess Robinson
Grace Rowan
Ashley Rowehl
Amelia Semple
Emily Shah
Ella Smith
Emily Starin
Clare Vogt
Fallon Young
Lacey Zaharis
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