Annie Get Your Gun Performed at Endicott

 BEVERLY – The Wild West is about to get wilder. Sharp-shootin’ Annie Oakley will go head to head with the “swollen-headed stiff” Frank Butler in shootin’ matches and even a singing contest in Endicott College’s upcoming production of Annie Get Your Gun, the Irving Berlin classic. Updated in 1999, the show celebrates the cast of the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West show and its main stars, Frank and Annie, along with manager Charlie Davenport, Sioux Chief Sitting Bull, and the “knife-throwin,’ heart-stoppin’ team of Tommy Keeler and Winnie Tate.”

Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, April 4, 5, and 6 at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, April 6 at 2:00 p.m. in the Rose Performance Hall in the Center for the Arts, Endicott College, 376 Hale Street, Beverly. Tickets are $15 general admission, $10 for seniors and students of other institutions, and free for Endicott ID holders.

 This faculty-directed, Mainstage Production, will be the third collaboration between Chair of Performing Arts, Becca Kenneally, Theater Professor Penny Hansen, and Dance Coordinator/Choreographer Nicole Sao Pedro-Welch.

             “We thought it was time to do a classic ‘feel-good’ musical,” Kenneally said, of Annie Get Your Gun. “After Pippin with its message of finding your true self, and Cabaret with it’s dark look at humanity, we knew the community needed a little old-fashioned Broadway fun.”

Kenneally is the musical director and producer, with Hansen as staging director, and Sao Pedro-Welch as choreographer.

            “We’re a great team,” said Sao Pedro-Welch, who always creates 100% original choreography for her shows. “Hopefully students and audiences will see the education shine through in all three areas.”

 Students, faculty and community members from the North Shore in the show include: Andrew Hankinson and Thomas Smoker of Essex, MA; Frank Corbin and Ashley Whippen (Dolly) of Ipswich, MA; Ila Bumagin (Nellie) and Becca Kenneally of Marblehead, MA; Joel Caron and Nicole Sao Pedro-Welch of Salem, MA; Penny Hansen of Everett, MA; Nikki Athas of Lynn, MA; Michael Saracco (Little Jake) of Melrose, MA; and Molly Geaney (Jessie) of Lynnfield, MA.

            “I’ve been hitting the shooting range in my hometown to get into the role,” said Katie Clarke (Annie Oakley), of Edgartown, MA. “A rifle has a real kick! It changes how I feel about playing Annie as a character.”

“This is my first time on stage in any way,” said Keanu Burke of Northhampton, MA, who makes his debut as Frank Butler. Burke does DJ at Spotlight Tavern on Rantoul St. in Beverly, MA, but it’s not the same, he said. “I am really enjoying singing and learning my character.”

The show is very family friendly, with 3 children playing the parts of Annie Oakley’s younger siblings. Ila Bumagin (Daughter of director Kenneally) is just 6 years old!

 Tickets are $15 general admission, $10 for seniors and students of other institutions, and free for ECID holders. They can be reserved at www.endicott.edu/centerforthearts or by leaving a message at the box office at (978) 998-7700. For more information about the show or the Walter J. Manninen Center for the Arts, please contact Becca Kenneally, Performing Arts Chair, at rkenneal@endicott.edu or (978) 232-2397; or you can visit the Endicott College Center for the Arts webpage at www.endicott.edu/centerforthearts.