Two Chatham Residents Star In 'Bye Bye Birdie'

Two young actors from Chatham Township will perform this weekend in the Stony Hill Players' all-youth production of "Bye Bye Birdie," the Tony Award-winning musical based on Elvis Presley's draft notice into the army in 1957.

Maddi Niebanck, 15, a sophomore at Oak Knoll, plays the "fiesty, sultry and mad" Rosie Alvaraz. Alvarez' boyfriend, Albert Peterson, manages the singing sensation Conrad Birdie, and together the trio travel to Sweet Apple, Ohio so Birdie can give one lucky fan, Kim MacAfee, "One Last Kiss" before he joins the army.

Niebanck has been acting since seventh grade in plays for the Summit Playhouse, the Hexagon Players in Montclair and at her high school, where she most recently was in "Once Upon a Mattress." She loves the "thrill of performing in front of an audience."

Rosie is one of the biggest parts of Niebanck's career. She said she was up for the challenge.

"It was a good opportunity for me," she said. "You get to be someone else. I like [Rosie], I like the songs she sings. I love acting out the character because it's not something I'd normally do."

"Bye Bye Birdie" will be Eitan Miller's first professional production. Miller, 10, a fifth-grader from Lafayette School who is one of the youngest actors in the play, has a bunch of "little parts," he said. They include a teenager, a soundman for the Ed Sullivan show and a train conducter. He has two lines: "All aboard!" and "There's a lady with socks lying in the gutter! Who does she belong to?"

Patrons will have to attend the play to find out who the lady belongs to. That's what Miller hopes, anyway. Like Niebanck, Miller loves being in front of an audience.

"I really just like being on stage. I like an audience watching me," he said at Wednesday night's dress rehearsal.

During the course of rehearsals, Niebanck said she had to get used to singing with an orchestra. Miller, who had only ever acted in school plays before, but has taken acting lessons since he was little, said he had to get used to the long rehearsals.

"I don't think I'll ever watch a play the same way," he said. "I didn't know how much hard work goes into it. It's unbelievable."

All that hard work has paid off, though.  Miller and Niebanck aren't nervous for the opening night's performance. They're just excited to perform.

"I don't know how to describe it," Miller said. "It's something about the audience being there. It's cool when you see the theater fill up. I can't describe it… You feel good because they're coming to see you."

"Bye, Bye Birdie," directed by Jayne Myers and produced by Randy Parker, opens this weekend at the Oaks Center in Summit.  The show premiers on Friday at 7 p.m. and continues Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. There will also be performances on Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. and on Dec. 18 and 19 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children, and may be purchased at www.stonyhillplayers.org.