Older students present musical whodunit
Educational programs happen year-round at Philipstown’s Depot Theater, but in the summer, motivated thespians from first graders to high school seniors take over the place.
The middle schoolers, known as the Depot Theater Youth Players, performed Music Man Jr. last week. On Thursday (July 31), 15 members of the Teen Players began a weekend run of the youth edition of Curtains, billed as a musical comedy whodunit, that continues through Sunday.
The book is by Cold Spring resident Rupert Holmes, best known for The Mystery of Edwin Drood. John Kander and Fred Ebb, the team behind Chicago, Cabaret and the song “New York, New York,” made famous by Frank Sinatra, wrote the music.
Silvia Hardman, a sophomore at Haldane High School, portrays the female lead, Niki Harris. She says she likes “how the songs are put together; they’re written in rounds and the parts fit well.”
In the farce, characters die onstage, but in a campy way. To Haldane junior Julian Costantine, who plays Lt. Frank Cioffi, the dialogue is “funny and fluid.”
During a recent rehearsal of a full-cast number, “In the Same Boat,” Costantine delivered well-timed staccato lines in the style of Harold Hill, the lead character in The Music Man, and the con man Lyle Lanley from The Simpsons.
With acting, “you become a different you,” he says. “It’s fun to get crazy onstage and go all out inhabiting a character and pretending to be someone.” Mistakes, he’s made a few. But he takes it in stride: “That’s where the improv gene has to kick in.”
The players are directed by Natalie Arneson, who oversees student musicals for the Sleepy Hollow school district. “It’s a real joy to help young people figure something out, either about their ability onstage or in the real world,” she says.
During the rehearsal, Arneson held the actors to high standards but conveyed the message with a smooth style, starting things off with a jig and breathing exercises to get everyone loose. Sitting at an electronic keyboard, music director Daniel Kelly worked out parts with the singers.
The middle school and high school productions shared a set with a 5-foot turntable activated by foot power. For “In the Same Boat,” an elaborate song-and-dance number, choreographer Justin Wingenroth crams characters onto the small stage (including nine bodies on the turntable), but the cast made it look easy.
Many actors return year after year, says Amy Dul, executive director of The Depot Theater, who established the summer program 28 years ago. Alums include film actor Charlie Plummer and Xena Petkanas, a Broadway lighting designer.
“We watch them grow and find themselves by taking on roles and being someone else,” says Dul. “It’s like a sports team, where they support each other and work together for the greater good.”
Coming up next at the space is a week-long Sing Away Camp for first through third graders, followed by a performance on Aug. 15. The children will learn and act out three Broadway songs. According to Rachel Moody, director of youth programming, it’s “highly adorable.”
The Depot Theater is located at 10 Garrison’s Landing. Tickets to Curtains, which will be performed today (Aug. 1) at 7 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., are $12 at depottheater.org.
