Cast knows all the right moves

Every year the Bellerose High School Performing Arts program involves more students in high-level decisions for the annual full-length school production.

At last year’s Sound of Music, about 10 students built an 11-piece set with 20-foot walls for the Von Trapp villa that was fitted with French doors and a grand staircase.

This year Mark Samuel is directing Annie, a Broadway favourite with a lot more pizzazz and dazzling dance choreography. And he’s encouraged about half a dozen students to step up to create the moves.

“Meaghan McKainstry has created about 75 per cent along with Marc Pinco, Anisha Joshi, Megan Fraser and Miranda Holmes. They listened to the music, thought about the moves and came up with something that would fit the characters,” Samuel says.

Based on the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, this two-hour musical is set during the 1930s Depression in New York City. Stuck in an orphanage, the optimistic Annie keeps hoping her parents will reclaim her.

Instead she’s invited to the home of millionaire industrialist Daddy Warbucks for Christmas. Warbucks might be a ruthless businessman, but his heart softens around the sunny orphan and he pledges to find her parents. The only clue is a mysterious locket found around Annie’s neck when she was abandoned at the orphanage.

Although set in dark times, the music of Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin deliver a certain bounce that speaks of upcoming good times with memorable tunes such as Hard Knock Life, Tomorrow and I Don’t Need Anything But You.

Cast in the male lead role of Daddy Warbucks is Marc Pinco. “He has a fantastic voice. He can act. When I saw him at auditions I knew he had the presence Oliver Warbucks requires.”

And Annie has been double cast with Melanie Galbreath and Mychaela Risling performing on alternate nights. “Mychaela has a sweet innocence and she’s had good acting experience with St. Albert Children’s Theatre. Melanie has less stage experience, but she has an absolutely beautiful voice.”

This production is a complete period piece with old-fashioned props such as typewriters and telephones to set the tone. Samuel is even contributing an inherited 1930 Philco radio built with glass tubes that still work. “We have been very lucky to enjoy the generosity of people in the community lending us things.”

This year the set mixes painted canvas drops and an automated revolving set with three zones. Grade 12 student Amanda Payne, an accomplished artist with highly intuitive spatial skills, was instrumental in choosing the set’s look and designing a self-supporting set for the revolve. “She’s a genius. I can’t say enough about her.”

In closing Samuel says, “This show is about human frailty and folly and discovering what’s most important to us.”