Courageous Hearted Smarties

BIG BOLD NOTE: The show dates are Fridays May 5th and 12th and Saturdays May 6th and 13th at 8pm, as well as Sundays May 7th and May 14th at 2pm Tickets are now on sale and pricing information, as well as information on advertising, boosters, and our upcoming season of summer camp, can be found here at our theater's website at www.northportcommunitytheater.com

ALSO IMPORTANT: This Sunday, April 30th, the Northport-East Northport Community Theater will be hosting a fundraiser at the Barnes and Noble located in Huntington Square (or the Sears Mall if you prefer to call it that) at 4000 Jericho Turnpike, from 1pm to 5pm.  Be sure to mention that you're there for the NCT fundraiser when you purchase something.  Some of the cast will be onhand to sing songs from the show and it will be tons of fun (it always is)!

Written by: Justin Murphy

    It's almost midnight, our show is opening in eight weeks, and it's time for the latest edition of the blog, one day ahead of schedule!...Ok, just barely, but let's see what this week had to offer!

    There were two rehearsals that I attended this week.  The first one was on Monday, April 24th.  This was another full cast rehearsal and it was primarily focused on choreography work.  Holly added a few refinements to the Merry Old Land of Oz song, plugging in the little sections where the quartet are "spiffed up" by the Ozians, as well as rehearsing all the dancing, which some cast members had not previously been present for.  We also performed the song each time we did the dance, with the Guards (John Morale and myself) leading the song along with the quartet and Ozians.  Following this, she worked again with the munchkins, as well as Dorothy, on their elongated song number, which included three songs: "The House Began to Pitch", "Ding-Dong, the Witch is Dead", and "Follow the Yellow Brick Road", as well as little individual sections of the songs for characters like the Lullaby League and the Lollipop Guild. 

    During this time, Jim would take a few people into the hall again to work on scenes with them, and while I did not witness what happened myself, I do know that he worked with the poppies and flying monkeys on how their scenes would go.  While not called for anything, actors were free to go through and rehearse their own scenes at times.  I worked on the farm scenes during this time, along with Uncle Henry (Joel), Auntie Em (Theresa), and Miss Gulch (Stephanie and Casey) (Dorothy was busy working onstage at the time, while Hunk and Hickory were unavailable for the evening). 

    The second rehearsal was on Tuesday, April 25th.  This was primarily for the Munchkins and younger kids to work on their scenes with Jim and Holly, making sure they had all the dancing, singing, and performing down.  Both the A and B casts (or East and West casts as they're called now) took turns running the big munchkin scenes, as well as their respective Dorothys, Glindas, Wicked Witches, and Totos.

    The quartet spent most of their time this evening running their scenes in the gym.  They went through most of act 1 and a good chunk of act 2 during this time.  Eventually, the witches and I joined them (initially, I ran scenes outside the gym with Casey).  It was definitely a productive session, and it allowed the cast to see the vast difference in some dual performances, which isn't a bad thing at all.  For instance, the two Cowardly Lions, John and Larry, have very different approaches to the character, but they're both really really good at playing him onstage.  In truth, this is just one example, as many more of the double casted roles are played very differently, such as the Witches, the Tin (Wo)Men, even the Dorothys are played very differently, but they're all phenomenal.  In addition, the cast were introduced to John's Lion costume for the first time on this night, which looked awesome. 

    Speaking of costumes, Courtney was quite busy tonight as it was the deadline for everyone to have their costumes all checked out, paid for, and that all the forms were filled out.  Some people would be supplying their entire costumes and some people would be renting their entire costumes.  In some cases, such as the Winkies, the costume pieces were specially ordered/rented so they would all look the same, while some others provided their own interpretation.  For instance, I am supplying my entire outfit when I'm an Ozian and when I'm Zeke, the farmhand, but the Winkie outfit is provided from an outside source and I will be sharing the Guard outfit with John Morale (my double).  Because of how extensively large this show and its cast is (very few cast members have only one costumes), one can imagine the costume racks will be very full come Monday evening (or possibly already).

    We're getting closer and closer and closer! The show's just 8 days away now, yikes!  Be on the lookout for a blog either on Sunday or Monday hopefully, which will detail our huge all-day rehearsal on Saturday the 29th (and maybe even a little description of our upcoming Barnes and Noble fundraiser, which is sure to be quite awesome)!  See you soon!

"Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking!" -Scarecrow

CAST

Dorothy Gale: Bella Donneruno (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Meaghan Maher (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Scarecrow: Justin Autz (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Sam Schoeps (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Tin Man: Barri Feuer (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Tess Robinson (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Cowardly Lion: John Walsh (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Lawrence Palevsky (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Wicked Witch of the West/Miss Almira Gulch: Stephanie Sultana (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Casey Savin (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Wizard of Oz: Rich Lau

Glinda: Kim Sultana (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Avery Infranco (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Emerald City Guard: John Morale (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Justin Murphy (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Aunty Em: Teresa Morale (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Barbara Schulman (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Uncle Henry: Joel Ackerman (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Joe Centamore (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Hickory: James Roche

Hunk: Gerald Quigley/John Morale*

Zeke: Justin Murphy

Crows: Taryn Feuer (5/5, 5/6, and 5/7), Quincy Jackson, and Suzie Walsh (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Amelia Lau (5/12, 5/13, and 5/14), Dana Schoeps, and Jake Kalinowski (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Trees: Judy Avena, Elise Autz (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13), and Patsy VanDyke (5/5, 5/7, and 5/14)/Noel Dillon, Cynthia Piacentini (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14), and Kathy Lau (5/6, 5/12, and 5/13)

Winkie General: Gerald Quigley (5/5, 5/12, and 5/14)/Kathy Lau (5/6 and 5/13)/Vinny Dillon (5/7)

Toto: Ella Smith (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Michael Deaner (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Mayor of Munchkin City: Luke Frisoli (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Luca Bergin (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Coroner: Luca Bergin (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Luke Frisoli (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Barrister: Andrew Geres

City Fathers: Anthony Shah and Nathan Zarko

Teachers: Carlie Rees and Alexandra Curatolo (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Annabelle Deaner and Lacey Zaharis (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)

Lullaby League: Amelia Eisenberg, Lily Rankin, and Cami Rees (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Goldie Centamore (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)/Emma Morale, Ayla-Schulman Hughes, and Vivian Sultana (Unsure if all shows or "B" Days)

Lollipop Guild: Carter Eisenberg (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13)/Kieran Brown (5/7, 5/13, and 5/14), Ryan Brown, Ryan Dean, and Jacob Karp (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14)/Jude Centamore (All Shows)

Ozians: Joel Ackerman, Elise Autz, Judy Avena, Joe Centamore, Michelle Centamore, Noel Dillon, Vinny Dillon, Barri Feuer, Jillian Graci, Honey Hecht, Kimberly Lapidus, Patricia McCarthy, John Morale, Theresa Morale, Justin Murphy, Lawrence Palevsky, Cynthia Piacentini, Mia Femia Pizzo, Gerald Quigley, Kellsey Roy, Casey Savin, Barbara Schulman, Shira Schweitzer, Kim Sultana, Stephanie Sultana, Angie Tomala, Patsy VanDyke, John Walsh, and Corrie Ann Young

Jitterbugs: Justin Autz, Sarah Caulfield, Bella Donneruno, Taryn Feuer, Avery Infranco, Quincy Jackson, Arianna Keating, Grace Keating, Meaghan Maher, Sarah Meade, Tess Robinson, James Roche, Maggie Saum, Liana Scala, Dana Schoeps, Samantha Schoeps, and Celia Spero

Middle School Chorus: Julie Barbier, Luca Bergin, Juliette Bonchonsky, Bridget Caulfield, Natalie Ceonzo, Kailin Donnelly, Luke Frisoli, Riley Gayer, Andrew Geres, Jennifer Golder, Alyssa Infranco, Amelia Lau, Ava Mackey, Kyra Perles, Caitlin Rees, Nikki Scala, Nina Scala, Amelia Semple, Leeva Slevin, Emily Starin, Clare Vogt, and Suzie Walsh

"East" Flying Monkeys (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13): Sydney Aguirri, Kylie Balezos, Gabrielle Blum, Isabell Colaccio, Michael Donatelli, Lily Eagen, Julia Eisenberg, Markus Fehrenbacher, Rayna Feuer, Ava Olsen, Elliote Salisbury, Olivia Scannapieco, Grace Sewell, Tara Weiss, Gabrielle Weissman, and Fallon Young

"West" Flying Monkeys (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14): Sienna Boden, Lily Brown, Maya Burget, Mairead Camas, Elizabeth Ceonzo, Katie Conway, Julia Dean, Rayna Feuer, Lindsay Grabowski, Ethan Hoerning, Sofia Kabacinski, Katie Karp, Liam McLaughlin, Lily Majewski, Kelly Ricciardi, and Luc Wagner

"East" Poppies (5/5, 5/7, and 5/13): Goldie Centamore, Alexandra Colacicco, Quinn Fehrenbacher, Juliet Morale, Joey Pizzo, Reilly Salisbury, and Juliet Scannapieco

"West" Poppies (5/6, 5/12, and 5/14): Juliette Bergin, Casey Bernson, Liam Caulfield, Hannah Feinstein, Chloe Gucciardo, Brody Mackey (5/12, 5/13, and 5/14), Trixie Moran, Cate Ricciardi, Ella Smith, and Chloe Wagner

Munchkin Wranglers: Jillian Graci and Mia Femia Pizzo

* = Gerald Quigley will not be available for the shows on 5/6 and 5/7.  It is unknown at this point if John Morale will only be portraying his role of Hunk on those days or another so the part is split evenly.