Weston High School performs You Can't Take It With You

When Weston High School’s Company theater group presents the classic comedy You Can’t Take It With You, the audience will meet quite a wacky family.

Dysfunctional? “I don’t think so,” said director Nancy Ponturo. “They’re quirky.”

For starters, there’s a grandpa who collects snakes and has a stamp collection, a daughter who’s a ballerina and also makes candy, and a father who makes fireworks in the basement.

The play is set in New York City, where the relatively “sane” Alice Sycamore falls in love with Tony Kirby and plans to marry him. But the Kirby family represents “old money” and, of course, is aghast at the freewheeling zaniness of the Sycamore family. Indeed, “You Can’t Take It With You” declares itself in a stage direction: “This is a house where you do as you like, and no questions asked.”

The play will be performed on Friday, Nov. 6, and Saturday, Nov. 7, at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 3 p.m. at Weston High School.

Written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, You Can’t Take It With You won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for drama and was revived on Broadway in 2014 starring James Earl Jones. It also was adapted for the screen by Frank Capra.

Ponturo said when she was hired, she discussed doing a comedy with WHS principal Lisa Deorio and Elizabeth Morris, visual and performing arts curriculum and instructional leader for K-12.

“Last year, Company performed the drama The Laramie Project, which was a message play,” said Ponturo,” who has directed the spring dramas at Joel Barlow High School for the past eight years. “This is going in a completely different direction,” she said, speaking in the auditorium before rehearsal. “This is light, it’s a different era, and it’s an ensemble piece.”

The fact that most of the characters in You Can’t Take It With You are members of a family is key, and it’s something the teenage actors can understand even though the action takes place in the late 1930s, she said.

How you relate to your family at home is a question that Ms. Ponturo often asks the 18-member cast. “You have all your meals together, you are all doing different creative ventures, and how do you support your brothers and sisters?” she said.

The cast includes Kaitlin Brozek (as Alice Sycamore), David Katz (as her fiancé, Tony Kirby), Julia Cohen (as Penelope Sycamore), and Josh Metchick (as Paul Sycamore).

Other cast members include Faizaan Siddiqui (as Martin Vanderhof), Ellen Relac (as Essie Carmichael), Christopher Hamilton (as Mr. DePinna), Sam Glassberg (as Ed Carmichael), and Thomas Valenti (as Boris Kolenkhov), as well as Cameron Edgar, Katherine Welsch-Lehmann, Lake Jacobs-Skolik, Erika Schmiedeck, Matthew Figliola, Nathan Strauss, Julianna Eddy, Benjamin Rosenberg, and Scarlett Machson.

Ponturo has been the artistic director of the Shakespeare program at New Pond Farm in Redding for the past 13 years.

She said she found the actors, costume designer Liz Armbruster, set designer John Lawless, and lighting director Brendan Mulcahy all “committed, conscientious, and ahead of the game.”

When she directs the cast, she likes to encourage everyone to have a say and make it a team effort. “They are such unique characters and I want them to enjoy the process, have fun and entertain the audience,” she said. “We are still trying new stuff even though we open in two weeks.”

Company has 85 members, and a new website and it features photos and videos from past Company productions and has received support from corporate sponsors, such as the Westport Country Playhouse, Parker Ear, Nose & Throat of Fairfield County, and Gregory W. Sanford Orthodontics.

You Can’t Take It With You is appropriate for all ages and will have two intermissions. Tickets are available at whscompany.com or at the door.

Written by Rose Horowitz