#b#Giulia Marolda#/b# of West Windsor portrayed the title role in “Annie, Jr” at Peddie School. The 29-member cast also included West Windsor resident #b#Bea Casey#/b#, who portrayed one of the orphans living with Miss Hannigan.
Based on the popular comic strip by Harold Gray, “Annie” is set in 1930s New York City, where little orphan Annie is determined to find her parents, who abandoned her on the doorstep of an orphanage run by the cruel Miss Hannigan. Annie escapes from the orphanage, and during her adventures in New York City she finds a new family with billionaire Oliver Warbucks.
#b#Jay Jaski#/b#, the theater teacher and director of the production, made subtle script changes to make the characters slightly older so the high school students could portray them.
“It’s a really fun musical with lots of roles that can be changeable,” said Marolda, who portrayed the title character as an 11-year-old orphan rather than age nine as in the original script. “In our play, Annie has been cooped up with the same lady for 11 years instead of 9.”
The freshman musical, a long-standing tradition at Peddie, rehearses 10 weeks as a class in the fall term. Marolda, who also played on Peddie’s soccer team this fall, said the structure of the freshman musical allows a wide range of students to participate because it does not interfere with after school athletics. “You go from not knowing anyone to becoming a cast family in 10 weeks,” Marolda said. “The class allows you to escape academics and find a common love for the theater.”
The cast of “The Normal Heart” at Mercer Community College features #b#Charles Acuna#/b# of Plainsboro as Hiram Keebler and David. The Larry Kramer drama is based on the early days of the AIDS epidemic among gay men in New York City.
Recently adapted into an HBO film, the play recognizes the illness, the struggle to raise awareness, and relationships with the community and the media. Premiering off-Broadway in 1985, “The Normal Heart” enjoyed a Broadway revival in 2011 that was nominated for five Tony Awards.
It is now on stage in MCCC’s Studio Theater on Friday, December 5, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, December 6, at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, December 7, at 2 p.m. The theater is adjacent to Kelsey Theater on the college’s West Windsor campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road.
“The students are fully engaged in telling this dramatic story, which is based on those at the center of the AIDS storm,” says #b#Jody Person#/b#, coordinator of the theater program and the play’s producer. “Some of those people lived — but many of them died. Most of our cast members were not born when the AIDS epidemic first surfaced, so the play serves as a history lesson as well.”
#b#Jordan Carroll#/b#, a student majoring in music at Westminster Choir College, has two upcoming roles. He can be seen in “The Medium” on Sunday, December 14, at 3 p.m. in the Playhouse on the Westminster campus in Princeton. The two-act dramatic opera has words and music by Gian Carlo Menotti.
He will also perform in “Il mondo della Luna” (The world of the moon) with music by Franz Joseph Haydn and a libretto by Carlo Goldoni. First performed in Hungary in 1777, it will be performed at Princeton High School on Friday and Saturday, December 5 and 6, at 7:30 p.m.; and at the Playhouse on Sunday, December 7, at 2 p.m. Visit www.rider.edu for information.
Following its New Jersey debut at the West Windsor Farmer’s Market in July, West Windsor indie rock band Blue Son quickly built up a fan base and has played at gigs in Asbury Park, Hoboken, and Woodstock, New York.
“It’s been great to connect with the crowds to get our new music out there and the response has been really positive,” says #b#Paul Rubin#/b#, the band’s songwriter, lead vocalist, and lead guitarist. Rubin, along with drummer/saxophonist #b#Omar Lopez#/b# and bass guitarist #b#Dan Damon#/b#, have been performing a slate of about 13 new songs that Blue Son plans to record in the studio.
Next up for the band is its appearance on Friday, December 5, at 9 p.m. at Backstage at Championship Sports Bar & Grill, 931 Chambers Street, Trenton. Follow Blue Son on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheBlueSon.
