For the third time this year, lifelong Plainsboro resident Victoria Kelleigh will see her production coming to a township stage.##M:[more]##
Written, directed, and produced by Kelleigh, “The Uninvited Guest” follows the Stanhope family over a week’s time during the holiday season, as one uninvited situation after another keeps landing on their doorstep. Coming together over the holiday for this family is not a simple walk down memory lane, but rather a test of survival as cramped quarters, a pending blizzard, and a looming family mystery are thrown into the mix.
The show will run at the Plainsboro Township Courthouse on Plainsboro Road on Saturday, December 13, at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, December 14, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $5 each.
After running in Plainsboro, the play will open at the Manhattan Repertory Theater on 42nd Street in New York City next spring.
A 2003 graduate of High School North, Kelleigh is an economics major at Rutgers University, and has also studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the HB Studio in New York City. She was also the 2001 winner of the Miss Teen Trenton beauty and scholarship pageant.
Kelleigh developed an interested in movies from the 1930s through the ’50s by the time she was four. By the time she was eight, she began writing short scripts for movies or plays. When she was in third grade at Wicoff School, the Plainsboro Recreation Department provided her with space in the municipal building to hold a children’s theater group on Sunday afternoons, where children would perform skits that were written and directed by Kelleigh.
In Community Middle School, she appeared in “The Nifty Fifties,” and “Belles on Their Toes,” and when she was in eighth grade, while the teachers were in contract talks, Kelleigh directed the production of “As Time Goes By.”
She then moved on to High School North, where she directed and wrote several acts of “Where in History is Carmen San Diego,” the senior class AP history play. She also portrayed the Chief, the title character’s nemesis, and acted in “Sorry Wrong Number,” a senior one-act while she was a student at Mercer County’s Performing Arts High School in her junior year.
Previously this year, she also produced “Perceptions,” which was shown in the township in May, and “Truth Be Told,” a workshop/ children’s play, which was held over the summer.
The cast of “The Uninvited Guest” features Marina Vhranos, of Plainsboro; Olivier Leroux; Jessica Schladebeck, of Cream Ridge; Andrew James Gordon, a student at High School North; Nanatte Mathis-Bridgett, of Plainsboro; Rick Hanley, of Plainsboro; and Neil L. Sachs, of South Brunswick. Jamie Shah, a 10th grade student at High School South, is the stage manager and art director, while Corrine Preville, of Plainsboro, is the assistant stage manager, and Sahaana Sridhar, also a 10th grade student at High School South, is the assistant director.
A second set of auditions for the show — when it heads to New York — will be held Friday, December 19 through Sunday, December 21, Kelleigh said, adding she is looking for anyone 16 years or older.
Reservations for the shows on December 13 and 14 can be made by emailing vktheaterproductions@gmail.com, or by filling out a ticket request form in the Plainsboro Public Library. Seating is limited. — Cara Latham
The Uninvited Guest, VK Theater Production, Municipal Building Court Room, Plainsboro. Saturday, December 13, 7 p.m. and Sunday, December 14, at 3 p.m. $5. E-mail vktheaterproductions@gmail.com.
