Resident Company to Present Musical
For half a century, the Theatre Workshop of Nantucket has been presenting quality theatre to island audiences. As they passed their 50th anniversary, the board of directors took a look at where they were, where they are now, and where they’d like TWN to go in the future. During this assessment, they decided that the organization needed to expand productions to include musicals and to refocus efforts to offer children and family programming. They wanted to be able to satisfy the desires of their patrons and nuture love of theatre on Nantucket.
To fully accomplish all of this, they needed an experienced and cohesive team of dedicated theater artists that can only be had by establishing a Resident Company.
TWN’s new producing director, Jordana Fleischut, started auditions. “All the island people who showed up for the auditions were fabulous, but none of them could make the commitment we needed during August, so we had to go off-island,” she explained. TWN Board of Directors President Pam Murphy hopes that the establishment of a Resident Company will help attract more island residents to get involved with island theater. “Our goal is to eventually build a totally island-based Resident Company,” Murphy explained.
Starting in March, Fleischut traveled around the East Coast with Professional Company Director Roberta Esposito, searching for just the right combination of talent, experience, and dedication. Their standards were very high: they were seeking members with “the Basic Three”—applicants who can sing, dance, and act—who have at least six years of professional training and who have worked professionally as actors for at least three years. In addition, they needed to be well-versed in Children’s Theatre and have experience working with and mentoring children. From 1,500 applicants, they chose 12 to come to Nantucket.
Fleischut and Esposito are thrilled with the Company: “you’ll see at least four or five of them on Broadway in the next few years,” Fleischut predicted, “and they’ll be fabulous connections for the Nantucket kids who pursue this profession.” Murphy agrees: “They exude happiness and excitement and enthusiam for theater...This is going to be spectacular.”
The Resident Company members are just as thrilled to be on-island. Actors they interviewed and auditioned “were falling over themselves because they wanted to come to Nantucket,” Fleischut explained.
In addition to presenting fantastic theatre, community outreach is another aspect of the Resident Company. To help address their goal of nuturing theater on-island, TWN has established a new Conservatory Company, a small group of aspiring actors who will work with the Resident Company and see what it’s really like to be in theater. Each Conservatory Company participant, will work with three mentors from the Resident Company members to refine their singing, dancing, and acting abilities. The Resident Company will also share their knowledge and expertise with youths from the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club in the Shooting Stars Drama Camp this August—an effort that will culminate in a musical theater performance by the children.
The last of the Resident Company members arrived on-island last weekend and immediately began their intensive schedule of rehearsing for 12 or 13 hours a day leading up to their first performance here.
On Wednesday, August 1, Moby Dick the Musical opens starring TWN’s first Resident Company, members of the Conservatory Company, and several island residents. Jordana Fleischut chose this play because it’s seemed perfect for Nantucket. “When I read it and heard the music, I thought if I ever get the chance to do this on Nantucket I would...it all centers around Nantucket and the songs are about Nantucket,” she explained.
The play, which premiered 15 years ago in London and has developed a cult following, is full of zany humor. The story centers on the students of St. Godley’s Academy for Young Ladies who, determined to save the school from bankruptcy, decide to stage Herman Melville’s classic novel. Variously described as “a twisted version of the classic [that] adds hilarity and humor in every nuance,” as “sheer brilliance and uninhibited fun” [Financial Times], and as full of “endless, funny double entendres,” the play promises to be an absolute delight. “There is material that only adults will understand and stuff that the kids will love,” commented Pam Murphy, “it’s perfect for everybody.”
An opening night party will be held at 7 p.m. on August 1 in the Martin House Inn, with sea rations provided by Provisions and grog by Cisco Brewers.
Evening performances of Moby Dick the Musical will be presented August 1-10, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 22-25. Curtain time is 8 p.m. (8:30 pm on Wednesday nights). Matinees begin on August 8 and run Wednesday, Thursdays, and Fridays at 2 p.m. through August 24. Performances will be in Bennett Hall, 62 Centre Street. And tickets may be purchased at www.theatreworkshop.com or at the box office at 2 Centre Street from Noon to 9 p.m. daily.
Suzanne Daub
