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