For Kenai Peninsula residents hoping to forget about the hard knock winter, this month the Triumvirate Theatre Class Act Drama Troupe will present several performances of “Annie.”
The celebrated play about the eponymous little orphan will be held on January 16, 17 and 23, 24 at 7:00 P.M. at the Triumvirate North Theatre in north Kenai.
Paulene Rizzo, co-director of the performance, said that the show has been coming along nicely.
“The kids are pretty talented and they’ve memorized their parts pretty quickly,” Rizzo said. “So, it has been an easy show to put together.”
The cast, which is comprised mostly of actors in 7th-12th grade, has been practicing since November of last year. Because the Triumvirate Theatre also had performances of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “A Christmas Carol,” finding time to rehearse was difficult.
“Triumvirate Theatre is a very ambitious theater company,” said Brian Lyke, the performance’s other co-director. “So, for the month of December there were three different shows, with three different directors and three different casts practicing in this space, slugging it out for whoever got stage time.”
Lyke, who has lived in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Michigan, is directing his first performance in Kenai. He said the talent of the performers on the peninsula has been pleasantly surprising.
“I was impressed with the caliber of training the kids seem to have,” Lyke said. “They’re 13 years old and somehow they have six years of dance experience. I don’t have six years of dance experience.”
Brittany Gilman, who plays Grace Farrell in the performance, said being part of “Annie” has been fun and she has enjoyed working with the Class Act Drama Troupe.
“It’s really fun,” said Gilman. “I’ve loved doing theater around here, because we put on really good shows.”
Erika Bollig, who plays both Bert Healy and Pepper, said she has enjoyed being part of the performance. She has especially enjoyed rehearsals.
“I get out of doing chores,” Bollig said.
While preparations for opening night have gone well so far, Lyke said that there’s still a lot of work to do, but he’s confident everything will come together.
“There’s so much end-of-the-wire magic that happens in theater when solutions come up to problems at the last possible second,” Lyke said. “It’s what makes theater so cool.”
In late 2014, a film adaptation of “Annie” was released in cinemas around the world. Lyke said that the film version being released around the same time as the Triumvirate’s adaptation was coincidental. However, Lyke hopes that the interest the movie gets will help garner attention for his group’s performance.
“I hope some people who’ve never heard of “Annie” go and see that movie and then when they happen to see our posters or emails, they think, ‘Oh, my gosh, now we can see the real thing – the real stage musical version,’” Lyke said.
For tickets, go to http://www.triumviratetheatre.org
Reach Ian Foley at Ian.foley@peninsulaclarion.com
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion Annie (Anya Hondel) and a stray dog Sandy (Kincaid Jenness) rehearse for the Triumvirate Theatre’s production of the musical Annie on Tuesday Jan. 13, 2014 in Nikiski, Alaska.
Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion Annie (Anya Hondel) sings a group of orphans to sleep during rehearsal for the Triumvirate Theatre’s production of Annie on Tuesday Jan. 13, 2014 in Nikiski, Alaska.
