By Brandi Hart
July 21, 2006 — Get ready to take a step back in time to the sometimes seedy streets of New York City in the 1950s as the Rockwall Community Playhouse’s Teen Theater kicks off the musical “Guys and Dolls” tonight.
The upbeat play features a lively cast of gamblers, showgirls, and missionaries as their worlds intercept each other on stage as lively and light hearted songs tell the story of young love.
The two-and-a-half hour long show will include the musical’s popular songs “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat”
“They’re doing the full length version, which is a great accomplishment. These kids have worked very hard on this show,” said the play’s director Barbara Doudt.
Jason Bias of Rockwall portrays sometimes down-on-his-luck Nathan Detroit, who has been engaged to Adelaide, the star showgirl for 14 years. This is Bias’ first time to perform with the Teen Theater, which he is excited and proud of. He, like so many of the other cast members were hurriedly running back and forth between scenes to get the timing right during Friday’s dress rehearsal. They have perfected their singing and their New York accents as well over the last few weeks.
“This is a great cast. I sometimes find myself only talking only in a New York accent during the day,” Bias said.
Teen Theater and RCP veteran Cali Katzmann of Rockwall portrays Adelaide and was on cue and received a nice round of applause at the dress rehearsal Friday night.
She has been acting with the RCP since she was 9 and has played three leads, including the role of Annie in the theater’s production of “Annie” and Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.”
Playing a lead role is nothing new for Katzmann.
“Even though it’s stressful the more I am on stage the more comfortable I feel as an actress and there is less time sitting backstage doing nothing,” Katzmann said.
Detroit’s friend and fellow gambler Sky Masterson, played by 17-year-old Rockwall High School junior Craig Kreum bets that he can get any girl to date him and picks Miss Sarah Brown out of line of prim and proper girls who work in the local Save a Soul Mission.
This is the first play for Kreum, who is looking forward to showcasing the debonair Masterson on stage tonight.
“I feel great about being the lead. Being a lead is about the same as being in a chorus except there is more stress and more people depend on you. I know I wouldn’t have made it without my good friends Jason, Madison Douglas, and Brittnee,” Kreum said.
Nineteen-year-old Brittnee Belt of Rockwall portrays Brown. The University of North Texas student is no stranger to the RCP stage.
She has acted in more than 10 plays at RCP. She is also the theater’s scholarship recipient for this year and she received a $500 scholarship. Because she is 19 this is the last year she can perform in the Teen Theater, which she will miss.
Fifteen-year-old Ashley Boyden is playing a variety of roles in “Guys and Dolls” from a mission doll, a male gambler to a mom in Havana, Cuba, where the characters Masterson and Brown visit. She also portrayed a goblin in the theater’s production of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” last summer.
She volunteers her time, which can be up to 30 hours a week in the theater because she loves acting and the friendships she’s forged there over the years.
The tall and lanky Landon Roseberry plays a variety of characters, like Boyden, from a Texan, to gangster Liverlips Louis, a Havana boy, to the emcee of the Hot Box Nigh Club where Adelaide and the rest of the showgirls perform. He’s performed in plays at the Utley Freshmen Center and is in drama classes at Rockwall High School. He wouldn’t miss performing in the Teen Theater.
“It’s so much fun to be in the Rockwall Community Playhouse and the people are so talented here. They’re just fun to be around,” Roseberry said.
“Guys and Dolls” show times are 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday and 8 p.m. July 28 and 29. Matinee show times are 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 2 p.m. July 29 and 30. Admission is $12 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. The RCP is located at 609 E. Rusk St. in Rockwall.
For tickets, call 972-722-3399 or order online at www.rockwallcommunityplayhouse.org.
