Eight outrageous characters, five slamming doors, one heck of a good time and countless amounts of support for U.S. troops stationed abroad is all in store as the Eastport South Manor High School theater department presents “Lend Me a Tenor” this weekend in the high school auditorium.
The theater is acting as a venue for helping deployed soldiers. Eastport South Manor theater producers and performers teamed up with the Blue Star Mothers to collect a variety of food, clothing, hygiene products and other items to send to servicemen and servicewomen currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Blue Star Mothers is a national group of mothers of servicemen and servicewomen who are currently serving, or have served, in all branches of the armed forces. Formed in Flint, Michigan, the Blue Star Mothers have been helping out servicemen and servicewomen since World War II.
Donations for soldiers will be collected during all three performances of “Lend Me a Tenor,” on Friday and Saturday, November 5 and 6, at 7 p.m., and on Sunday, November 7, at 2 p.m.
Blue Star mother Patty Cruz, who writes the weekly “Manorville Matters” column in The Press of Manorville and The Moriches, said the outpouring of support from students and colleagues has overwhelmed her. Ms. Cruz’s son, U.S. Marine Corporal Marc Cruz, 21, a 2007 Eastport South Manor alumnus, is due to be deployed to Afghanistan sometime in the future.
“It’s very overwhelming, because I feel like I don’t have the energy right now, because all of my energy is in worrying,” Ms. Cruz said. “So the fact that they’re using their energy to help him and other soldiers is very overwhelming. I will remember this kindness forever.”
“Lend Me a Tenor” won three Tony Awards and four Drama Desk Awards while on Broadway. Set in Cleveland in 1934, the musical centers around the general manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, Saunders—played by 17-year-old senior Jonathan DeLeon, who is primed to welcome world famous Tito Morelli, Il Stupendo, the greatest tenor of his generation, to appear for one night only as Otello.
The opera star, played by junior Taylor Smith, 16, arrives late and through a series of mishaps is given a double dose of tranquilizers and passes out.
His pulse is so low that Saunders and his assistant Max (senior Kevin Spellman, 17) believe he’s dead. In a frantic attempt to salvage the evening, Saunders persuades Max to try to fool the audience into believing he’s Il Stupendo.
Max succeeds, but Tito comes to and groggily gets into costume, ready to perform. Now two Otellos are running around in costume.
In choosing the play to perform this fall, Director Joseph Minutillo said he picked “Send Me a Tenor” for its author.
“The first show we did in the new auditorium was ‘Moon Over Buffalo,’ a Ken Ludwig comedy, and it went over great,” he said. “So we’re going back to Ken Ludwig for another fast-paced, mistaken identity mix-up. Some of the comedy is very traditional—Abbot and Costello ‘Who’s on first?’ kind of farce. It’s just very cleverly written, a very clever show with a lot of people running around slamming doors.”
And making sure those doors and door frames can hold up to the constant abuse is master carpenter Karl Brunbauer. Having constructed a set that rivals any off-Broadway production, Mr. Brunbauer said he and his crew have taken extra measures to shore up the set and the door jams to avoid any unwanted humor during performances.
“We had to reinforce all the flats, and thankfully we got a donation of doors from Barbara Connolly,” Mr. Brunbauer said. “She’s an expert at getting donations. Any time we ask her to help us out with finding something, she’ll come back with a lot of something.”
“Lend Me a Tenor” actors and stage crew are also up for the challenge of the rapid-fire farce, according to Mr. Minutillo. As part of rehearsing for the breakneck comedy, the seasoned director has had his performers rehearse the play at a quickened pace.
“Comedy is all about timing,” Mr. Minutillo said. “So we practice this fast forward exercise, where they have to run through the play as fast as they can. The first act is about an hour, but they’ve got it down to about 26 minutes—and that can be hilarious in itself to watch. So when you do this exercise, it shakes the kids up and makes them see things they might have missed and that could be really funny.”
Shannon Connolly not only had to learn her comedic timing and run the fast forward drills, but the 17-year-old Mastic resident also had to master a thick Italian accent for her role as Maria, Tito’s hot-tempered wife.
To help her get into the role, Shannon turned to her own grandmother, Nancy McLaughlin, who, despite her Irish married name, is 100-percent Italian, according to the young thespian. Shannon was given advice from her grandmother on how to speak like an Italian native and how to properly use hand gestures. “My Grandma was so excited that I was going to do an Italian accent,” she said.
During a rehearsal last Friday, the young woman displayed how she now bites between her thumb and forefinger to display displeasure with her fellow actors.
“I also learned from Mr. Min, who is so Italian, and he also brought in his mother-in-law,” Shannon added. “So we got to see how somebody raised in Italy actually speaks and reacts and all that stuff.”
The young actor said she plans to pursue a career on stage. In fact, nearly all the students in “Lend Me a Tenor” have ambitions to pursue the theater during college and beyond.
Kevin, who has been a constant figure in performances throughout his four years at Eastport South Manor, said living out of a suitcase was the life for him.
The high school senior has already applied to a number of colleges and universities across the country with strong theater programs.
Playing his last part at Eastport South Manor will be a bittersweet experience, Kevin said. But the young actor said he realizes that “Lend Me a Tenor” is far from being his swan song.
“I don’t want to say, ‘It’s just another show,’ but there will be more after,” Kevin said. “But it is kind of weird doing my last show at Eastport South Manor, because I have grown a lot here as an actor because of Mr. Min, and he’s also taught us a lot of life lessons as well. This is just the most professional it can get in a high school setting.”
Tickets for “Lend Me a Tenor,” which will be on stage at the Eastport South Manor High School on Moriches-Middle Island Road at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, November 5 and 6, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 7, are $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens, and can be purchased at the door or at esmonline.org. For more information, call 874-6500. For more information about Blue Star Mothers, visit bluestarmothers.org.
on Nov 3, 2010