Blessed Sacrament School Children's Theatre is Ready for Opening

Pictured: Director Bob Tansley poses with cast members at a recent can shake Photos by Rhonda Bolduc Bates

Waterbury, CT - Blessed Sacrament School Children’s Theatre continues their tradition of high quality productions next weekend with their sixteenth annual musical. This year the students will present ‘The Music Man.’

Bob Tansley, the long-time director of the program that he always refers to as “community theatre with children,” reports that this year’s production includes 63 preK to grade eight students from 24 schools. Sixteen cities and towns are represented in the show.

The oldest of the young performers started rehearsing six hours a week on April 19. In the middle of May, they stepped up rehearsal to Sundays from 2pm to 8pm.

On the second Sunday in May, the beloved director began to bring in the little ones from 2pm to 4:30pm. The youngest cast members only rehearse two and half hours on Sunday, that is, until production week hits the week before the scheduled performances on June 21 through June 24.

As usual, Pat Hearn serves as co-director with Mr. Tansley. Ben Orlando, a young performer who is a graduate of the BSS program, returns as choreographer and works his magic to get everyone to be in step.
Community theatre veteran Lucia Dressel has returned as the vocal coach and this year also directs some of the show. Her talented husband John Dressel is once again the musical director. The performances will feature a live pit orchestra, a professional lighting package, and 16 body mics for the cast.

Mr. Tansley reports that set designer and dedicated volunteer Terri Thompson has outdone herself for this one; the six or seven previous sets I have seen at BSS have been pretty impressive, so I look forward to seeing how this is even possible.

The director has been pleased with what a great job his kids are doing in the rehearsal process. “Their favorite number is ‘Shipoopi,’” he said. “When I say it’s ‘Shipoopi’ time, they go crazy. We did not make any cuts to the number because they love it.”

Choreographer Ben has really challenged them with the dance moves for “Shipoopi.” Mr. Tansley calls it the “longest and hardest dance number I’ve ever done with this age group.” And it got even bigger when the director made a recent change to the number.

“I was only using the big kids in 'Shipoopi,' he tells me, “but at Sunday’s rehearsal the little ones were dancing in the back of the school gym during the number. I then decided to put them all in the number.”

The director cleared the older students out of the center aisle and put the Pre K to Grade 3 children in the main aisle that runs through the entire venue. The kids loved it, and the change will stay. My favorite quote from this interview with Mr. T is “I have the little ones dancing 'Shipoopi' in the center aisle. We gave them geography but all bets are off when it's showtime.”

“It has always been important to me to make sure everyone gets seen on stage, especially the little ones,” said the seasoned director. I can attest to the fact that in a Bob Tansley show, everyone has plenty of stage time and the older kids know to make sure the little ones are down front.

Ben Dressel from Middlebury’s Memorial Middle School and Luke Audie from St Bridget’s in Cheshire will be playing the role of Harold Hill; BSS shows always include a double cast. The director promises that both boys bring great energy to the character.

Grace Altenburger, often seen at Seven Angels and a student at Chase Colligate and Julia Mehlin from the middle school at Waterbury Arts Magnet School have been cast as Marion the Librarian.

“These four are perfect for the parts,” reports their director. This is the last year for all four of these young performers because they will age out of the BSS program when they head to high school in the fall.

There are high expectations for the older students. “As you know, I never cut a stage kiss, but you have to be in 7 or 8 grade for a stage kiss. It’s always a gas to the whole cast when we rehearse the kiss.” This year the director had Lucia and John Dressel show the kids how to kiss and he reports that it was hysterical.

The complete cast list for 'The Music Man' was previously posted here.

Eighth grade student Christian Welcome gets to play the villain Charlie Cowell. He also gets the longest kiss ever for this age group, the one where Marion tries to stall Charlie from ratting out Harold Hill.

True to form, Mr. Tansley has added a couple of new twists to this show. Fathers of cast members will be doing the train scene featured in the show’s first act. “Any father who volunteered would get to do the scene with their kid on the train with them,” he tells me. With much online cajoling, Mr. T got five brave souls to volunteer. “They are awesome and will have a great memory to share with their kids.”

The show will also have an adult quartet. A younger quartet will be doing all the lines and stage movement and then will be singing the melody line of their numbers. The adult quartet will sing the harmonies off the main stage but just to the right of the presidium; they will be able to be seen by the audience.

The adult quartet will take the main stage for “Lida Rose” and the duet with Marion. The kids will not appear in that number. Mr. Tansley said, “That’s my gift to the adult quartet for volunteering to help. I could never teach four part harmony to the kids in two months, but I did not want to take those big parts away from the kids so that’s what I did.” This director never met a theatrical problem he could not solve.

The members of the adult quartet are community theatre veterans Bret Bisaillon, Ian Diedrich, Dan Dressel and Steve Sorriero.

One final secret that Mr. Tansley shared with me is that his grandson Logan Tansley is part of the cast and so is the production stage managers' children Brennan Kunkel and Thomas Roberts. The boys are very young, 2 years and 8 months old. “Got to start them young,” jokes their director.

Dates for 'The Music Man' are matinees Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm / Thurs - Sat evening - 7 pm / Sun evening 6 pm

Nancy Sasso Janis has been writing theatre reviews since 2012 as a way to support local theatre venues. She posts reviews of well over 100 productions each year. In 2016, she became a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle. She continues to contribute theatre news, previews, and audition notices to local Patch sites. Reviews of all levels of theatrical productions are posted on Naugatuck Patch and the Patch sites closest to the venue. Follow the reviewer on her Facebook pages Nancy Sasso Janis: Theatre Reviewer and on Twitter @nancysjanis417