BRATTLEBORO-New England Youth Theatre (NEYT) will bring Times Square back to Brattleboro for the second year, as the nonprofit youth theater and school produces “Broadway in Brattleboro” on Saturday, Nov. 7 at the Latchis Theatre.
As described in a NEYT news release, “this one-night-only fundraiser brings together professional Broadway talent and NEYT youth mentors for a celebration of musical theater and the life-changing power of youth arts education.”
NEYT alumnus Taylor Ford Patno curates and produces the event, while fellow alum Nick Bombicino is music director for a lineup that includes artists returning from last year’s event, joined by several new faces.
Returning are Heather Bonnett (of Legally Blonde; FIVE, the Parody Musical; and Dandelion); Alex Nicholson (of Hamilton and Moulin Rouge!); Amanda Wilson Maloof (of As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and 1776); and NEYT alumna and current staff member Kristina Meima-Devendorf.
They’ll be joined this year by Manwé Sauls-Addison (of Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Saturday Night Live, and Lip Sync Battle); Christine Suddeth (of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical and Guys and Dolls); Bryan Songy (of A Christmas Carol and Camp Morning Wood); Gabi Garcia (of FIVE, the Parody Musical and The Paparazzi), and Gabriella Joy (of The Color Purple).
Performing throughout the show, too, will be NEYT mentors, a group of theater students who have assumed leadership roles in the theater’s community.
Meeting regularly, the students, who range in age from 13 to 18, help plan events, volunteer as needed in the theater, and act as role models for other students under the leadership of NEYT Outreach Director and Stage Director Shannon Ward.
Lights, spot, and sound will be run by an NEYT student crew under guidance from NEYT’s light and sound designer, Francesca Bourgault.
The evening will feature pop hits and standards from what’s known as the “golden age of American musical theater” — the 1940s to the 1960s — as well as selections from Hamilton, Moulin Rouge!, 9 to 5, and Beauty and the Beast, among others.
The fundraiser will also showcase student work “through songs, stories, and performances created especially for the event,” the news release adds.
Going home to the Latchis
Having grown up in Guilford and Brattleboro, Patno graduated from Brattleboro Union High School in 2011, then moved to New York City to attend Circle in the Square Theatre School, affiliated with the Broadway theater of the same name.
Now a production coordinator for Theatrical Rights Worldwide, Patno says he previously “did a bunch of solo producing and a lot of writing in New England and with NEYT.”
The idea for “Broadway in Brattleboro” came about, Patno recalls, a few years ago when veteran NEYT staffer and costumer Sandy Klein, who “was sort of our NEYT den mother, came to me when NEYT was seeking a signature fundraising event to mark its first 25 years.”
He recalls Klein asking if he and his partner, Bonnett, and their friends “could come up and do some sort of concert as a fundraising event for NEYT.”
And it just snowballed from there, says Patno.
“I said, ‘Well, if we’re going to do it, you know, let’s do it right.’ So I called [Latchis Arts Executive Director] Jon Potter, who was always very nice to me when I was at NEYT and at BUHS [to] see if we can go back home, go home to the Latchis. He said yes, and they’ve been wonderful.”
Professionals performing in the event are happy to talk with NEYT students.
Last year, Patno recalls, the interactions NEYT students had with performers backstage during rehearsals and the performance were “really so beneficial and so wonderful for those kids.”
Even though the performers are not Broadway superstars “like Patti LuPone or Sutton Foster, […] all of us are working professionals in the theater,” he says. “And I would not be in New York as a theater professional if it weren’t for NEYT.”
Getting ready for the holiday show
In other NEYT news, Director Ben Stockman tells The Commons that the theater’s annual December holiday show, a tradition that involves both junior and senior acting companies, will be A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Shannon Ward.
Explaining the idiosyncrasy, Stockman adds, “Yes, well, canonically in that [popular comedy of Shakespeare’s], there’s a distemperature of the weather because of the feuding fairy royalty. So in the show, there’s supposed to be some sort of chaotic weather element, but people rarely show that.
“It’s kind of a line that’s tossed off and forgotten,” Stockman continues. “We’re going to lean into it and there will definitely be some wintry weather and some other kinds of weather. I think.”
In addition to age-categorized programs as described on neyt.org, the Flat Street theater offers improv comedy for adults, as well as playwriting courses.
“And we’re looking to branch into slightly more serious acting classes for adults,” says Stockman, for “intermediate actors looking to improve their craft outside of the context of just the rehearsal hall.”
Besides the usual classes in tech and design, a special November workshop for NEYT’s senior company with Sandglass Theater founder Eric Bass will offer a unique “vocabulary for physical acting — a way to explore physical relationships and acting fundamentals through movement, a technique he’s trained in with its creators.”
“The need and the demand for our type of programming is just increasing,” says Stockman. “It is evident that once kids step inside the building and take advantage of what we offer, it’s so easy for them to get hooked.
“And it’s not solely because of the spotlight and the attention they get; it’s the opportunity to collaborate with their peers on something that they can be really proud of sharing with their community.
“It gives them such an amazing sense of purpose and of confidence in themselves and their ability to tell a story,” Stockman says.
Tickets for the Nov. 7 fundraising event are available at neyt.org. All proceeds will benefit New England Youth Theatre —its classes, workshops, productions, and scholarships.
This Arts item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.