Volunteers sought to help with Youre a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Charlie Brown needs a few good folks to help prepare Asbury Park High School’s first fully staged musical production for its debut in mid-May.
Most critically needed are a rehearsal and show pianist, two or three stage hands to help paint and move sets, and someone with a truck needed to transport building materials.
Bill Whitefield, founding director of the Acting Studio at Asbury Park High School, put out the call on the arts ops section of Arts Coalition of Asbury Park’s website, www.artscap.org, because his crew of six student thespians is ready to mount their production of the musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” to be first presented on Fri., May 16.
A matinee and evening performances are scheduled for Saturday, May 17. An additional performance is scheduled for Sunday, June 8 as part of the TriCity Arts Tour.
The Acting Studio at Asbury Park High School, which debuted during the 2006-07 academic year, gathers students who want to learn more about acting and stagecraft. The program in its first year featured the acting studio’s debut performance at the APHS’s spring concert. Last fall the students presented a holiday play at their winter concert.
Whitefield said he needs the help before rehearsals begin in ernest on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings in the first week of May and continue to opening night.
Having members of the community help out the students produce the play will “most definitely” help the students produce the play, he said.
“Theatre is a community effort no matter where it happens. It takes a lot of people and volunteers to make it happen,” he said.
The pianist “would be available for all dates, an excellent sight reader, be able to teach choral parts and maybe conduct five-piece orchestra during the performances,” and will be compensated for working with students during rehearsals and performing during presentations, Whitefield said in an announcement on the ArtsCAP website, http://www.artscap.org.
Whitefield chose “Your a Good Man, Charlie Brown” as the group’s first production for a variety of reasons: first, Tyler Blackmore, the high school principal, “really wanted a spring musical, so we had to come up with one that had a small cast,” he said.
Meanwhile, Karen Schwarz, the high school band director and music director of the play, had unsuccessfully sought permission to stage a non-cartoon version of the animated holiday classic, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” But that led to securing the rights to perform “Youre a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”
The Actors Studio members play Charlie Brown and his sister Sally, Lucy van Pelt and her brother Linus, Schroeder and, of course, Snoopy. Four members of the Asbury Park Intermediate School’s Stage Time program have been added as chorus members playing other characters from the classic comic strip. Other children in the Stage Time program have worked with art instructor Karen La Du to draw and paint large images of the characters that will be used in the play.
A local designer, Quinn Stone, has joined in to design the stage props and scenery.
“Definitely, it will be very Peanuts,” he said. “And yes, there’s a dog house.”
He said he is not discouraged by an apparent lack of interest by high school students in helping out backstage.
“It would be a great opportunity for anyone to be involved with something like this, but I think many kids have other interests,” he said. “I am hoping that a bang-up job on this show will inspire other kids to want to join in next year. I would love to have a lot of kids involved, but it takes time for programs like this to grow.
Whitefield, originally from Nashville and New York city, is a respected director, composer, lyricist and performer. He was elected recently to ArtsCAP’s board of directors. He also is the founding director of T Stage Time at Asbury Park Middle School; both programs that ArtsCAP helped to launch. He also recently was appointed as director of education at Algonquin Arts Theatre in Manasquan.
Recently, he composed music and lyrics along with Bill Castellino and Christopher McGovern for Crash Club, a new musical and NEA award recipient that played to sold-out houses at Cherry County Playhouse in Muskegon, Michigan. He was the composer and co-lyricist for Queen Esther, which he co-wrote with playwright Lenora Conway. This adaptation was performed in March 2000 at the Forum Theatre in Metuchen.
In the past, he collaborated with science fiction writer Ray Bradbury on the musical adaptation of The Day It Rained Forever, based on Bradburys short story of the same name. This musical was presented in a reading series at The Berkshire Theatre Festival in July of 1998 and was later produced at Clayton State University in Morrow, GA.
As an actor, he has recently completed a run of H.M.S. Pinafore playing the role of Bill Bobstay, as Florian in Princess Ida, and as a pirate in The Pirates of Penzance starring Hal Linden all at City Center in New York City. In early June of 2008, he will take on the role of Giuseppe in The Gondoliers also at City Center.
His work as a singer and a songwriter can be heard on the acclaimed CD, Our Heart Sings, produced by the Genesius Guild. Currently he is the standby for three of the World Famous Village People as they continue their ongoing World tour.
He is a member of Actor’s Equity Association, The Dramatists Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, ASCAP and holds a B.F.A. from Pepperdine University.
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