Annie 2008

dancers 2.BMPAnnie and Molly.BMPAnnie and orphans.BMPgreat pose orphans.BMPwindow.BMPAnnie and dog.BMPannie and orphans 2.BMP

It’s A Hard Knock Life At Middle School South
By Keith Hagarty 

–Photos By Keith Hagarty Caption – The Middle School South Players put the final touches on their performance during a dress rehearsal of the school’s upcoming spring musical “Annie Jr.”. For more photos visit our photo galleries at www.micromediapubs.com.

The sun’ll come out tomorrow at Middle School South.

Bet your bottom dollar, because nearly 100 students from the Howell Middle School South Players are amped for their debut spring musical performance of “Annie Jr.”.

Tickets are $7, with show dates scheduled for Thursday, April 17 and Friday, April 18 at 8 p.m., and another show on Saturday, April 19 at 2 p.m.

As the director of the school’s musicals for the last six years, Gillian Bryck has tried to consistently instill in her students a sense of professionalism and dedication to the craft.

“It’s always good, and the kids are great,” Bryck said. “I try to make it a real teaching experience for them, as we learn everything from how to stand on stage, and how to take stage direction to behave off stage, and how to conduct yourself as an actor.”

Bryck is no novice when it comes to theater, with acting credits throughout the area, including the Strand Theatre in Lakewood, Count Basis Theatre in Red Bank and the Algonquin Arts Theater in Manasquan. In addition, her daughter is currently attending Carnegie Melon University, in Pennsylvania, studying the performing arts.

Bryck reflected on how far the school’s performing arts program has evolved in such a short period of time.

“Our sets have gotten much more extravagant now,” she said. “We order all of our own backdrops now, and we’re coming to point with our shows, where a lot of the audiences have told us that it feels like they’re sitting at a high school show.”

Such compliments never grow old for Bryck, or the school.

“I’ve had people tell me, ‘oh, it feels like we were seeing something on Broadway!'” she said laughing. “It just gets a little bigger and bigger each year.”

Debuting on Broadway in 1977, “Annie Jr.” is set in the Depression-era of 1933 America. Bryck said the classic style and culture of the time provided its own unique set of challenges for her young actors.

“The challenge with this show is getting kids to portray that time, and what a difficult time it was for the people during that time, particularly for those kids who were living in an orphanage,” said Bryck. “It’s difficult for them to understand what that was really like back then, and can be a good challenge for them.”

Working as the show’s stage manager and choreographer, Cindy Lutz can’t wait to see the curtains go up and the spotlight shine on the kids.

“It’s been going excellent,” she said. “This is a real team production. We have about 75 kids in the cast, and we have about 25 kids in our stage crew, for about 100 kids altogether, which is even actually less (students) than what we normally, have (for a show). Last year, when we did “Fiddler (On The Roof),” we had even more.

“We had a wonderful group of dads who helped built our sets, and now the biggest challenge is teaching the children how to move and work with the set,” she said. “Designing the set was a really big challenge too, but it’s been such a fun experience.”

Lutz thanked the school’s gifted and talented art club and their teacher, Diane Eleneski, for being a wonderful asset in helping to design the entire set.

“The kids have really come out to lend a hand,” said Lutz.

In addition, both Lutz and Bryck praised the work of locally renowned costume designer Jalcqui Revier and professional set designer Jan Toeolbski- who is also a director for the Strand Theatre Company- for being an integral part in bringing it all together.

“He’s a phenomenal set designer and does our sound,” said Bryck. “He’s been wonderful. It adds such professionalism to the show. When you have good sound and good sets, and your actors and crew embrace their training, it makes such a huge difference in how the show looks.”

With so many talented, trained young dancers in the cast, the director chose to assemble an additional dance ensemble to accompany some the musical scores leading into each act.

“Their dancing is amazing,” said Lutz. “It’s just been awesome.”

Some of Bryck’s proudest moments as a theater director have been seeing her students move on in their academic pursuits to the Freehold Regional High School District’s acclaimed performing arts program held at Howell High School.

“They’re just so enthusiastic,” she said of her students.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *