PHOTOS: St. Agnes Church Brings Hello, Dolly! to Reading

Last weekend, the Broadway show tune “Hello, Dolly” was on the lips of the upbeat crowds leaving the St. Agnes Church Music Ministry’s production of Dolly Gallagher Levi’s quest to snare the half-millionaire Horace Vandergelder.  Along the way, her self-identified vocation of “meddling”, which includes not only matchmaking but also reducing varicose veins and short distance hauling, involved her in the love affairs of three other couples.  The audience roared at the outrageous puns in the dialog,  the script called for highly unlikely situations comparable to an Italian comic opera, and the evening was punctuated by colorfully costumed and creatively choreographed dance routines.

Dolly was elegantly portrayed by Allison Keane, a senior at RMHS, whose theatrical experience includes high school and St. Agnes productions.  Dolly’s target, the curmudgeon Horace Vandergelder, was played by Alex Deroo, who has been acting since middle school.  Vandergelder’s two employees have arranged a day off to see New York City.  Matthew Conway as Cornelius Hackl, has a wealth of theatrical experience at RMHS Drama Club and the Five Star Theater Company; he will be a freshman at Williams College this fall.   His colleague, Barnaby Tucker, was played by Ben Finn who has acted in ten shows at RMHS.  The objects of their desires, the widow Irene Molloy and her shopkeeper Minnie Fay, were played by Kristina Lynch whose previous St. Agnes experience has been as a musician in the pit, and Sydney Willwerth, a fourteen-year-old who has been in Coolidge Middle School performances and has studied dance at Lapierre School of Dance for eleven years.  Vandergelder’s lovesick niece was tearfully presented by Amy O’Connell, a high school junior, a pianist with drama club experience and a black belt in karate.  Bradley Costa was seen as her love, the poverty-stricken artist Ambrose Kemper.  Costa is also a junior and has been in many RMHS productions.

Appearing as Ernestina Money, an ostensible heiress, was Allison Rigney, a junior who participates in several musical aggregations at RHMS as well as the drama club. Aidan Marchetti, seen as Rudolph the maître d’, is a freshman who has been involved with theater since the fourth grade.  Mrs. Rose was played by Katherine Ferolito, a junior who has performed in school and Stoneham Theatre productions.  Praised by Dolly for his noble features was Judge Kyle Donohue, a junior at St. Johns Prep and a track enthusiast.  The court clerk faced with the task of documenting the testimony of the rioters at the Harmonia Gardens is Mark Lucas, a seventh grader at Parker who has been on the stage with various children’s companies since he was in the second grade.  Charged with keeping order in the courtroom was policewoman Phoebe Pearson, a junior and member of the RMHS Drama Club.

In the late 1970s, St. Agnes occasionally produced theatrical shows featuring members of the parish.   However, the current iteration of summer Broadway musicals grew out of the music ministry in 2001 when music director Jason Gaudette rounded up a group of volunteers put on Godspell using the altar of the church as a stage.  As a result of this success, both artistically and in creating an enthusiastic kernel of thespian parishioners, it was decided that a project of putting on a musical each summer would be a worthy enterprise.  The undertaking included members of all ages and strived to engage participants from outside the parish, thus creating an institution that represented not just St. Agnes alone.  In 2009, while the church was being renovated, the play had to be moved to Parker Middle School where it has remained to this day.

The philosophy of the summer project has been to make it more than just a camp experience.  The music ministry has made it clear that it provides for good social interaction where all will be welcomed and encouraged to participate in something they enjoy.  At the same time the ministry to the greater community has meant that the performances would be free and the whole town was welcome to come to the post-performance receptions.  Those involved in the production want to employ their talents to benefit others by asking audience members to contribute to charities they have selected rather than paying admission.  This year the local charity being supported is the Reading Food Pantry while the national organization is Children’s Hospital Cancer Care.

The outcome of St. Agnes’ efforts is a focused and energetic core of volunteer theatrical enthusiasts who are devoted to this cause.  The participants consist of junior high students to young adults, with the older ones still willing to mentor the younger and to support the current production. ( I saw this in action at one rehearsal where a savvy alumnus coincidentally showed up just in time to help solve the problem with an ailing sound system.)

 Next February the cycle will start again, as a new show is chosen and the search for volunteer actors, musicians, and stagehands begins.  It will take another summer of hard work to equal Hello, Dolly!