Community Players of Concord​ Present '​Once On This Island​' this Weekend

CONCORD, NH — The Community Players of Concord will proudly present, "Once On This Island," on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18 and 19, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., and on Sunday, Nov. 20, at 2 p.m., at the Concord City Auditorium (“the Audi”), 2 Prince St., Concord. This inspiring, Olivier Award winning musical features wonderful Calypso-inspired music, joyous dancing, and a timely message about how arbitrary differences often divide humans unnecessarily.

In this telling, the play opens in a school gymnasium-turned storm shelter somewhere in New England, as a hurricane rages outside. The gym has been decorated for a masquerade party that was cancelled due to the storm. To calm a frightened little girl who is alone in the shelter, a pair of kindly Red Cross volunteers comfort the girl by telling her a story, which comes to life as the girl’s imagination transforms the shelter occupants into the story’s many characters.

The story is that of star crossed lovers, featuring Ti Moune, a poor island girl, who falls in love with a wealthy boy from the other side of her island. The gods who preside over the island make a bet to determine which is stronger, love or death, and use Ti Moune as a pawn in their game. Ti Moune’s fate breaks the walls that separate her society, and ultimately unites it. "Once On This Island" received eight Tony award nominations in 1991, including Best Musical, and was the Broadway debut of the songwriting team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, who went on to win Tony Awards with their subsequent hits, Ragtime and Seussical. A proposed Broadway revival of "Once On This Island" is currently rehearsing in New York.

Tickets for this Community Players of Concord production cost $20/$18 each. The show’s content is family friendly, but not recommended for younger children due to the show’s 90 minute running time, with no intermission. On line ticketing and further information may be found at communityplayersofconcord.org.

Director Bryan Halperin has enthusiastically approached this opportunity to work with the Community Players of Concord for the first time. His work is highly acclaimed in the Lakes Region, where, as co-founder of the Winnipesaukee Playhouse in Meredith, he has directed and produced many shows. He has also directed and produced many youth productions with the Inter-lakes Middle/High School Theater Company. When the Community Players of Concord decided to present Once On This Island, Bryan was quick to respond with his “pitch” for the show, and the Players’ Board gladly embraced his creative proposal. The show is well known to many musical theatre fans, who praise the music as exceptional, bolstered by elaborate dance and an inspiring message. The general public is perhaps less aware of the show, however, because although it received eight Tony nominations in 1991, and staged an award-winning run in the West End of London beginning in 1995, the show played on Broadway for only a year, beat out in the race for Tony awards and ticket sales, perhaps, by the spectacles of its Tony competition in "Miss Saigon" and "The Will Rogers Follies," and the ticket selling extravaganzas of "Les Miserables," "Phantom of the Opera" and "Cats," which were still running strong on Broadway at the time.

But theatre types know this show and were eager to be a part of it. When the CommunityPlayers of Concord announced it would be staging "Once On This Island," music director Troy Lucia of Concord was quick to sign on, as was choreographer Jennifer Sassak of Nashua. Thereafter, accomplished community actors, singers and dancers flocked from around the state to audition. Indeed, 14 of the 29 actors in the show have never before performed with the Players; the cast hails from over 15 New Hampshire cities and towns, including Concord, Penacook, Pembroke, Dunbarton, and Canterbury, the southern NH towns of Amherst and Hollis, the Lakes Region communities of Franklin, Laconia and Meredith, and to the east, the town of Nottingham. Director Halperin was delighted with the audition turnout, and needed to make some tough decisions to cast the piece. He is very proud of the work being produced by this illustrious group.

“In this show, all the actors create the story and are in nearly every musical number," said Halperin. "Yes, there are leads, but the strength of this show lies in the beauty of the music and the timely appeal of the story, as told by an experienced and talented ensemble. Everyone contributes, in every scene. And the resulting choral sound that this group is producing, together with the creative choreography that Jen has brought, is just terrific!”

Indeed, the story has topical and “timely appeal” in its message, Halperin remarks. Its theme will be familiar to audiences from myriad classics like Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, and South Pacific, where love between two people who are “different” from one another is frowned upon by their communities, whose prejudices against anything and anyone who is “other” are ingrained from years of conditioning. The story of Ti Moune, which the little girl hears and imagines in that New England storm shelter, may be set on a tropical island, but its message – that arbitrary differences need and should not divide people - belongs everywhere. Concord audiences are in for a treat.

Captions

"Storytellers" - Kindly Red Cross workers (played by Angelo Gentile and Kathy Hodges) read the play's story to a frightened Little Girl (played by Janney Halperin) to calm her as the three take shelter with many others in a school gymnasium-turned storm shelter, somewhere in New England. (Unseen in this picture: the gym is decorated for a Masquerade Dance that was cancelled due to the storm.)

"Stormrages" - In the Little Girls's imagination, the other storm shelter residents become the story's narrators and characters, who use items from the gymnasium/storm shelter as props. The story begins with a young peasant girl named Ti Moune, who survives a devastating storm because the gods who preside over her island have saved her by placing her in a tree above the flood waters.

"TiMouneDaniel" - the Little Girl (played by Janney Halperin) "sees" the story progress, as a grown Ti Moune (played by Sheree Owens), falls in love with the unconscious stranger (Daniel Beauxhomme, played by Benjamin Hunton) whose life she has saved after a car crash arranged by the gods, who are using Ti Moune as a pawn in their game to determine which is stronger, love or death.

"Prayingforsafety" - Tonton Julian, TiMoune's adoptive father (played by Angelo Gentile), prays to the goddess Asaka, mother of the earth (played by Amy Weston), asking for her protection as he reluctantly embarks on the long journey to the other side of the island to find the injured stranger's family and tell them of his severe injuries.

Submitted by Ellen Burger.