Pioneer High School - 1290 Blossom Hill Road, San Jose

Director Steve Dini is going to be a busy man this coming year by the looks of things. Pioneer will be mounting a touring production of Mary Poppins, and evening of David Ives one-acts, and a duo of musicals in The Fantasticks (winter) and Hello Dolly! (spring). Steve is also the man with the plan for Willow Glen High School (2001 Cottle Avenue, San Jose) for their spring musical Anything Goes! Some real heavy hitters for sure.



Valley Christian in Scotland

Valley Christian High School - 100 Skyway Drive, San Jose

From the mouth of Matt DeMeritt himself:

“As I mentioned, 21 of our students and three faculty members attended the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland from July31-August 13.  They performed an original, musical adaptation of Shakespeare's 12th Night, call Twelfth Night: Serenade.  Our performance was part of the American High School Theatre Festivals presence at the Fringe.  The AHSTF selects approximately 40 schools from around the country to represent the US at the Fringe.  We had an amazing time seeing world class theatre from around the globe and got to perform for some amazing audiences.  

  

Our Season this year is as follows:

Fall Musical – You'e a Good Man Charlie Brown – October 18-20, 25, 27

Winter Play – It's a Wonderful Life -  December 12-15

Spring Musical – Guys and Dolls – March 7-9, 14-16, 21-23

Student Directed Production – Experiments in Comedy and Tragedy – May 9-11

Summer Theatre Production – Disney's The Little Mermaid – July 10-13

It's a busy year, but we look forward to seeing you and you're team at our shows!  All the best!”

Congrats on a successful trip to Scotland!



Westmont's '12-'13 Drama Dept. Officers

Westmont High School - 4805 Westmont Avenue, Campbell

Jeff Bengford and his students really have a lot of hard work ahead of them (as usual) with a pack season of shows and events. There is their yearly Haunted House, a production of The Man Who Came To Dinner (Kaufman and Hart), several events with the California Educational Theatre Association, and a production of 9 to 5, The Musical. A full season of great stuff. Can’t wait to see it all when it hits the stage.

Lincoln High School - 555 Dana Avenue San Jose

Over in the Rose Garden area of San Jose, Lincoln High School under the direction of Charles Manthe is taking on another ambitious season as the performing arts magnet of San Jose Unified. Their season includes Avenue Q, 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon and Tartuffe. From puppets to Moliere is quite impressive indeed. Break legs to you all, and special kudos to your venerable theatre guild for all their help!

Saratoga High School - 20300 Herriman Avenue, Saratoga

While the full season has not been announced, I see that ‘Toga will have a ComedySportz Improv team performing as part of their season, as well as several student productions. Great to see the students taking the lead on their own projects. Bravo!

TriSchool Productions - 451 West 20th Avenue San Mateo

For those who are not familiar, TriSchool is a cooperative company made up of Mercy, Norte Dame (Belmont) and Serra High Schools. Their season packs a punch, starting with the Commedia del Arte classic, A Servant of Two Masters and finishing up with The Drowsy Chaperone. They always do great work, and have the passion to make it even better than great.

M-A's Once Upon A Mattress

Menlo Atherton High School - 555 Middlefield Road, Atherton

Straight from the mouth of Ms. Z (D.J. Zwicker-Sobrepena):

"We are kicking off the school year with Shakespeare's The Tempest. I love all the themes: magic, love, revenge, forgivness. I am hosting a Shakespeare Bootcamp on campus to jumpstart the understanding of verse and how to physicalize Shakespeare in performance. We open the show on October 26. We will also have an Arts Cabaret Night on November 16 (and probably the 17th) in collaboration with the Choir and Guitar classe showcasing their musical talents and two duets, a one-act, and four monologues that we will be taking to the Bob Smart Theatre Festival in February 2013 (a.k.a. Lenaea High School Theatre Festival)."

Big seasons ahead for everyone! I can’t wait to see what else is revealed as schools come back from summer break. On that note, I hope it was a good one for all of you. Here is to a great 2012-2013 theatre season!

The true test of any musical in its quest for popularity is staying-power. Can it remain relevant enough through the years that people will want to produce it, view it, and will still enjoy it? Unfortunately, some shows fall out of grace for one reason or another and begin to fade away from the stage. Shows like South Pacific and even Chess have seen a decline in productions, even with memorable songs and great casting possibilities. With that in mind, it is incredible to see a theatrical piece from 1879 which still manages to connect to an audience and remain fresh and humorous.

Digging into the tomes of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, Valley Christian has unearthed sunken treasure with their production of The Pirates Of Penzance. Director Matthew DeMeritt is no stranger to the show, having mounted it before with a group of 8-15 year olds, “co-directing it with a certain young lady who would later become my wife”. DeMeritt’s familiarity with the piece showed with confident and fun staging, well developed characters, and fine-tuned comedic direction and execution by a dynamic and animated cast.

Leading the charge onto the beach from the first moment of the show is young Frederick (Eddie Barsoumian), a boy apprenticed to a band of pirates until his twenty-first birthday. Barsoumian’s voice is wonderful to be sure, but it was his patient and natural delivery of the stylized dialogue which really stood out. His words have meaning and were never idly thrown away, and the audience was with him in every beat. Moments between Barsoumian and past-her-prime ship-maid Ruth (Melina Rapazzini) were sheer delight with both actors showing mature patience in the midst of quick paced comedic moments. In fact, one of the greatest assets this production has is its mindful approach to comedy.

Comedy cannot be over thought, over prepared, or over emphasized, or else you will be left with self-insisting delivery which will just fall flat. The cast of Pirates is incredibly natural with its humor, letting the joke be what it will be and not pushing it too far. In the role of The Pirate King, Dillon Mena shows incredible chops for comedy, hitting the bulls-eye repeatedly with his timing and incredible range of facial takes. His character is delightfully cartoonish, but never strays past the fine line between entertaining and overdone. Matching him beat for beat is Daniel Krum as Major General Stanley, who aged exceptionally well into the role. Krum’s “orphan boy” delivery had the audience rolling in the aisles (in one case almost literally as I would swear I saw someone fall out of their seat in laughter). The dynamic between Mena and Krum is not to be missed.

Aside from comedic prowess, the entire cast shows phenomenal vocal skill, showcasing the voices of Michael White as Samuel, Abby McLachlan as Edith and Alexis Garrett as Kate. White stands out for his lilting lyric baritone (hope to see more of him in larger roles), while McLachlan and Garrett are simply hilarious as the de-facto leaders of Major General Stanley’s daughters. But the true showcase vocal role of the show is that of Mabel, played by Danielle Petersen. There are very few words which can properly illustrate the talent of this performer. Pitch perfect, flawless tone, and the kind of power that does not need a microphone. I even mentioned to DeMeritt at intermission that if I wasn’t sure she was a high school student, he could have easily convinced me that she was on loan from a major opera house. And yet again, the vocal prowess was tied together with a strong sense of comic timing, not to mention impressive physical character work.

What really seals the deal for this production is the energy investment across the entire cast. It does not matter how much the entire company of actors is giving if one person is falling short. That does not happen here. From curtain up to curtain down, the entire cast is on full-blast, filling the house to the brim with everything they have. It is an incredible sight to see the audience latch on to their energy. Particularly noteworthy was the Monty Python-esque work of Sean Leone as the Sergeant of Police and his entire band of Policemen with their intensely physical staging which surely must be an endurance trial throughout the show.

The cast, crew, production team and faculty should be very proud of the work they have done. It is an ambitious show choice, but the talent, passion and energy is there to back it up. The sets, lighting and costumes were beautifully done, and two-man pit was tight and effective (if not a bit sterile being only a two-man pit). In the end, my only real gripe about what I saw in the Valley Christian theatre last night was the numerous cell-phone and camera incidents during the performance. When will people learn?! Thankfully, the spirit coming from the stage easily overshadowed any audience misbehavior which made for a fantastic performance, and a wonderful evening. Be sure to head over and see it sooner rather than later as seats will be hard to come by now that the word is out.

Valley Christian High School – The Pirate Of Penzance

October 13, 14, 15, 20, 22 @ 7:30PM

October 22 @ 2:00PM
Tickets - $15 adult/general. $13 students/seniors. $11 children

Tickets at the door, or at http://www.vctheatre.net/box_office/