You Can Be A Hero - ACT Today We Are Almost There! We Are Counting On You!

We are over 60% there! The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter. You can help us get there. Whether you've done one show or 20, you know the impact theater has on everyone involved, from the cast to the audience. If nothing else..how many of us have groaned on tech week that we would gladly pay to not have to move the set...now is your chance to make sure we don't ever have to move another set offsite again. $10. $25. $50. Every single dollar makes a difference. WOW! As the number of dollars raised gets higher and higher, and so much closer to our goal (we are at over 60% funded and 103 backers!) we can’t help but think about why we started this Kickstarter. We wanted to be able to create a home for the future generation of performers to be able to learn and find their voice. In order to do that we have to have ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant bathrooms, which the funds raised from Kickstarter will build. Help us continue to give these young performers a chance to shine! Help us continue to give these young performers a chance to shine! Having just wrapped up the ACT Kids and ACT Jr. Summer Education Programs, which performed Disney’s The Jungle Book Kids and Pippin, we have a renewed commitment to our dream of having theater space. The passion and determination these kids and teens have for their love of performing is astounding and humbling. They are the reason we are doing this. Help us keep giving these faces a stage and spotlight!!! ACT Theater Company in The Boston Globe ACT Theater 1632 Osgood Street Suite 102 North Andover, MA 01845 ACT THEATER COMPANY ONLINE

ACT Andover Theater Company - March 2012 - Getting ready for Summer Theater Camp in Andover

March 2012 Andover, MA  It'e been a busy season here at ACT.  This fall we wrapped up our production of Annie at The Rogers Center for the Arts and even performed on a float in the Andover Santa Parade. In january we ran The Great American Trailer Park Musical and are now in production for Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific with ACTjr opening in April and the blockbuster musical 42nd St with ACT which opens in May.  Coming up is our annual summer dinner cabaret and our summer theater camp program in Andover, MA.

Last year our summer theater camp produced the acclaimed Les Miserables!  By request this year we have 2 camps one for our jr members and a new camp for younger performers.  This summer ACTjr will be producing How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and ACTkids will put on Aladdin jr.  Don't miss these great summer theater camp programs  which feature classes in acting, dance, and music as well as technical theater with our talented staff or professionals Charles Gracy, Mark Mercer, Amy Wilkins Blanchette, Kim Cook,  & Jamie Cook.  Details and registration information at www.actandover.com   Class size is limited so register today! Don't miss out!

ACT Announces the cast and production team for The Great American Trailer Park Musical

 

Andover, MA November 10, 2011

ACT Announces the cast and production team for The Great American Trailer Park Musical

Show dates January 27, 28, 29 2012

The Great American Trailer Park Musical Music & Lyrics by David Nehls Book by Betsy Kelso

Director: Charles Gracy Music Director:  Mark Mercer Choreographer:  Beth Kennedy

Tickets on sale at www.ACTandover.com

There’s a new tenant at Armadillo Acres – and she’s wreaking havoc all over North Florida’s most exclusive trailer park. When Pippi, the stripper on the run, comes between the Dr. Phil-loving, agoraphobic Jeannie and her tollbooth collector husband – the storms begin to brew.

NOTE: This play contains adult themes and language and is not suitable for persons under 18 years of age.

 

Here are some quotes about the production -

“Adultery, strippers, murderous ex-boyfriends, Costco, and the Ice Capades. Undeniable fun.” - The New York Post

“South Park meets Desperate Housewives in this big-hearted musical comedy with a cheeky script and an infectious score.  Trailer Park sparkles with treasure. - The New York Sun

“Joyful and unashamedly vulgar, this comic fable about women in a Florida trailer park and their no-account men is more fun than a chair-throwing episode of Jerry Springer set to music. - The New Yorker

The Cast

JEANNIE GARSTECKI.............................LINDA LEE SCALI

NORBERT GARSTECKI...........................MARK GRACY

PIPPI.........................................................JAMIE COOK

DUKE........................................................NICK KALANTZAKOS JR.

BETTY.......................................................SUSAN HAWES

LINOLEUM  “LIN".....................................CARA MARIE KENNEDY

DONNA "PICKLES"..................................CAITLIN HAWES

Audition Notice for The Great American Trailer Park Musical

Audition Notice

WHAT:  The Great American Trailer Park Musical

WHEN:    Thursday, November 10 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

WHERE:  ACT Rehearsal Space

250 Canal Street Lawrence MA 4th Floor

This is an extremely funny and irreverent adult show. The MUSIC is extremely difficult, if you are not a strong parts singer this is not the show for you.

There are 7 parts in total. The roles of Betty, Lin and Pippi have already been cast, all other roles remain open.

Check out the official web site: http://www.trailerparkmusical.com/

Questions?  Email Charles Gracy, Director charlesgracy@actandover.com or call 978-476-1138

A musical written by David Nehls and Betsy Kelso.

There’s a new tenant at Armadillo Acres – and she’s wreaking havoc all over North Florida’s most exclusive trailer park. When Pippi, the stripper on the run, comes between the Dr. Phil-loving, agoraphobic Jeannie and her tollbooth collector husband – the storms begin to brew.

NOTE: This play contains adult themes and language and is not suitable for persons under 18 years of age.

“Adultery, strippers, murderous ex-boyfriends, Costco, and the Ice Capades. Undeniable fun.”

-          The New York Post

“South Park meets Desperate Housewives in this big-hearted musical comedy with a cheeky script and an infectious score.  Trailer Park sparkles with treasure.”

-          The New York Sun

“Joyful and unashamedly vulgar, this comic fable about women in a Florida trailer park and their no-account men is more fun than a chair-throwing episode of Jerry Springer set to music.”

-          The New Yorker

CHARACTERS

THE LOVE TRIANGLE and THE VILLAIN

JEANNIE GARSTECKI (Brenda Brunston)  Jeannie has lived in a trailer at Armadillo Acres for 20 years with her husband and high-school sweetheart, Norbert. A faded beauty, she was 17 when she married, 18 when her son was born and 23 when he got kidnapped. That, coupled with a really bad perm, has turned her into an agoraphobic. She hasn’t left her trailer in all these years, and the man she loves is drifting further and further away and she’s determined to get him back ... that is if she could manage to get out of the trailer to do it…

NORBERT GARSTECKI (Joshua Robertson) Jeannie's husband Norbert collects tolls for a living and tries to be as good a husband as one can be to an agoraphobic. A former high-school football star, he has rugged good looks marred by fatigue and the stress of his difficult marriage. He is a simple man who desperately wishes his wife could get out of the trailer, but he's not equipped with the emotional or intellectual tools to help her do it. He has never loved or slept with a woman other than Jeannie. That is until he meets...

PIPPI . Pippi is a striking beauty with a great body and a taste for clothing that shows it off. Up to this point, Pippi's life has been about surviving. She is a professional stripper who has gotten by on her looks and talents for dancing and petty theft. She means no harm and is ready to stop making bad choices and start making changes, but first she has to get lost in a hick-town trailer park in North Florida so she won’t be found by her last bad choice...

DUKE Duke is Pippi’s obsessive, possessive and excessive Magic Marker-sniffing boyfriend; “ex”-boyfriend according to Pippi. Not so, according to Duke. Not the brightest guy south of the Mason-Dixon Line, Duke leaves a trail of disaster in his wake wherever he goes. His road trip to Starke is no exception and his arrival at the trailer park is full of surprises - even for a group of people who have had their share of excitement…

“THE GIRLS"

BETTY Betty attended high school with Norbert and Jeannie Garstecki and has lived at Armadillo Acres for just as long. She now runs the leasing office and makes it her business to know everything about everybody who passes through the trailer park. Though a self-proclaimed "bad-ass," Betty is really a mother hen to the denizens of the trailer park. Of all "The Girls," Betty is the most grounded, earthy and dry.

LINOLEUM  “LIN"  So-named because her mother gave birth to her on the kitchen floor, Linoleum has a husband on death row at the Florida State Prison.  His fate is an electric chair that doesn’t work properly unless most of the town’s electricity is turned off, so Lin watches everyone's lights and appliances very closely in the hopes that she can keep the chair on the fritz. Sometimes self-absorbed and sometimes just a smart-ass, she hints at a wild, rock-and-roll past and is the fieriest of "The Girls."

DONNA "PICKLES"  A newlywed, Donna is called "Pickles" because she is perpetually hysterically pregnant - that is, she's so convinced she should be pregnant that she's exhibiting symptoms. Her husband is a lot fancier than she is, as he is from the big city of Jacksonville. His parents haven’t been very supportive of his marital choice, so Pickles is desperate to give her husband a family of his even if she has to fake it. The dimmest of "The Girls," Pickles is airy, sweet and blissfully ignorant.

ACT Vault is live - Archived shows from past seasons

Andover MA - Andover Theater Company - The ACT Vault is live and contains photos and videos of shows from past seasons.  Check it out at http://web.me.com/markgracy/The_ACT_Vault_-_Past_Shows/Welcome.html or by visiting the ACT Vault at our main website www.actandover.com.

Announcing the cast of ANNIE

ACT Announces the talented cast of ANNIE - Congratulations everyone!

Join us in October at The Rogers Center for the Arts for this show!  Tickets on sale this week at http://www.actandover.com  or by calling 978-276-9568

THE CAST OF ANNIE

Annie – Maggie Budzyna & Mia Campbell

Rooster – Michael Buckhout

Lily – Jen Armstrong

Hannigan – Linda Lee & Cara Marie Kennedy

Bundles – Tom Aylward

Lt. Ward – Stan Swieck

Warbucks – Mark Gracy

Grace – Kimberly Hall

Drake – Armando Belliard

Mrs. Pugh – Sue Hawes

Mrs. Greer – Brenda Pothier

Annette – Kelsey Salois

Cecille - Deena Varitimos

Cabinet

FDR – Tom Aylward

Cordell Hull – Peter Anton

Frances Perkins – Abbie Sawyer

Harold Ickes – Stan Swieck

Henry Morganthau – Steve Knepper

Kalternborn – Mimi Pare

Louis Howe – Nick Kalantzakos Sr.

Radio Show

Bert Healy – Peter Anton

Wacky – Louis DePalma

Radio Announcer – Mark Mercer

Sound Effects Person – Jennifer Streck

Jimmy Johnson, Masked Radio – Armando Belliard

Fred McCracken – Stan Swieck

Wacky – Louie DePalma

Producer – Tom Aylward

Boylan Sisters – Sue Hawes, Brenda Pothier, Abbie Sawyer

Hooverville People

Eddie – Robb Moylan

Sophie – Abbie Sawyer

Kim Cook

Laura Dike

Jennifer Streck

Tom Aylward

Lisa Jones

Peter Anton

Melissa Belliard

Apple Seller – Francis Young

NYC People

Star to Be – Gabrielle Corsino

Usherette – Alyssa Jean

Kid – Adam Lavoie

Cop – Robb Moylan

Justice Brandeis – Steve Knepper

Speaking Orphans

July - Julianne Teichert & Hannah Carroll

Duffy - Sasha Dubinsky & Cecilia Cipullo

Pepper - Julia Talbot & Emilee Clapp

Kate - Dierdre O’Rourke & Lilly Armstrong

Tessie - Sophia Barbato & Yelaina Anton

Holly - Emma Harris & Talia Cutulle

Senior Orphans

Young Boylan Sisters - Kristina Day, Elizabeth Day, Taylor Day

Young Bert Healey - Max Currie & Patrick Creedon

Dylan Knepper

Kira Lavoie

Adam Lavoie

Emily Anton

Andrew Jones

Grace Nowak

Kaleigh Stuart

Abigail Daggett

Theresa Zannoni

Kellie Herbert

Courtney Campbell

Julianne Mercado

Hannah Leinbach

Sarah Leinbach

Junior Orphans

Molly - Brita Martin, Sophia Wulsin, Catherine Armstrong & Cassidy Sodowski

Louie DePalma

Ellie Nowak

Allie Columbus

Innana Shannon

Tessa Barcelo

Farrah Sousa

Sarah Leinbach Jessie Miller

Katie Morris

Adult Ensemble

Allie Reed

Heidi Knepper

Lauren Page

Jenna Beauchesne

Hannah Byron

Alina Chatsman

Stephie Knepper

Andover Summer Theater Arts Education Program to perform Les Miserables

Andover, MA- This summer while many young people are taking the summer off 40 boys and girls from Andover and surrounding communities are participating in a Summer Theater Arts intensive program and will be performing the musical Les Miserables at The Rogers Center for the Arts in North Andover August 4th - August 7th. The summer program is produced by ACT - Andover Theater Company and it's Artistic Director, Charles Gracy. The program includes morning classes in Acting, Music and Dance taught by professional instructors. Charles Gracy is the Director of the program and is the Drama Teacher at Brooks Private School in North Andover, MA. Mark Mercer is the Music Director and is a Music Teacher in Andover, MA, Brenda Pothier is the Choreographer and Dancer Teacher for the program and Cara Kennedy is the program Producer. The program culminates with performances of the musical Les Miserables at The Rogers Center for the Arts at Merrimack College in North Andover August 4th - August 7th. Tickets for Les Miserables are on sale now at ACT Theater Website or by calling the box office at 978-276-9568.
A list of the talented students participating in the program can be found on the theater company website.

Les Miserables
Student Edition
at the Rogers Center for the Arts at Merrimack College
August 4th thru August 7th

LES MISERABLES SCHOOL EDITION
A musical by ALAIN BOUBLIN and CLAUDE-MICHEL SCHONBERG
Based on a novel by VICTOR HUGO
Music by CLAUDE-MICHEL SCHONBERG
Lyrics by HERBERT KRETZMER
Original French text by ALAIN BOUBLIL and JEAN-MARC NATEL
Additional material by JAMES FENTON
Orchestrations by JOHN CAMERON
Original London production produced by
CAMERON MACINTOSH and THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
School Edition specially adapted and licensed by
MUSIC THEATER INTERNATIONAL and CAMERON MACKINTOSH


Director - Charles Gracy
Music Director - Mark Mercer
Choreographer - Brenda Pothier
Producer - Cara Kennedy
ACT Artistic Director: Charles Gracy ACT Executive Producer: Mark Gracy

Annie Auditions

Andover / North Andover MA - Auditions Announced for One of Broadway’s Most Beloved Musicals ANNIE at The Rogers Center for the Arts
Adults and Children needed for this great cast. This is a great show for the whole family. ACT Visit The ACT Theater Website

Audition Dates: Children Sunday August 14th 2-6 pm at the Center for Performing Arts 1820 Turnpike Street N Andover
Adults Auditions Monday August 15-16 7-10pm The ACT Space 250 Canal Street Lawrence MA

Rehearsals Start Thursday August 18th (read thru)
Rehearsals will be Sunday 2-7pm and Tues and Thurs 7-930pm
You will be called for specific rehearsal times (not every rehearsal)


Here is a list of some of the available roles:

Character Breakdown
ANNETTE- A French Maid

ANNIE- Spunky, friendly, big-voiced, street-wise urchin--one of the orphans 11 years old Mezzo-Soprano: A - high F

BERT HEALY - Radio Personality

BOYLAN Sisters: Bonnie, Connie, Ronnie - Singing sisters, perform on "Oxydent's Hour of Smiles" radio program

BUNDLES McCLOSKEY- The Laundryman

CECILLE,- A French Maid

CORDELL HULL-Male Cabinet member

DRAKE-Warbucks's English Butler

DUFFY-The biggest orphan 13 years old

FDR, the President Baritone (C-flat - E-sharp)

FRANCIS PERKINS-Female Cabinet member

FRED McCRACKEN-Radio Personality

GRACE FARRELL-Faithful Assistant to Warbucks Soprano: A - high G

HAROLD ICKES-Male Cabinet member

HENRY MONRGENTHAU-Male Cabinet member

JULY-The quietest orphan 13 years old

KATE-The next to littlest orphan 7 years old

LILY-Rooster's floozy girlfriend Soprano: D - high G

LOUIS HOWE-Associate to Roosevelt

MISS HANNIGAN-Cantankerous and mean old orphanage director Mezzo-Soprano: A - A flat

MOLLY-The littlest orphan 6 years old

MRS. GREER-The Housekeeper

MRS. PUGH-The Cook

OLIVER WARBUCKS-Warm-hearted, stiff-collared host to Annie for 2 weeks at Christmas Baritone: C - high F

PEPPER-The toughest orphan 12 years old

ROOSEVELT CABINET MEMBERS-Francis Perkins, Cordell Hull, Harold Ickes, Henry Morganthau

ROOSTER-Miss Hannigan's no-good brother Baritone: B - high G

TESSIE-The cry baby orphan 10 years old

WACKY- Radio Personality

Questions?
Call 978-476-1138 or email charlesgracy@actandover.com

Director: Charles Gracy Choreographer: Beth Kennedy Music Director: Mark Mercer

Performed by license with MTI at The Rogers Center for Arts North Andover