Shortened "Tom Sawyer" Still Big on Adventure

Dianna Barkman says she’s usually nervous shortly before a show she’s directing is about to open, but in the days leading up to her run of “Tom Sawyer” by , Barkman was unusually mellow.

“I’m very calm at the moment and normally, a couple of days before opening, I’m a nervous wreck and my nails are down to nothing,” she says. “But these guys are ready and they really have worked together, they sound fabulous.”

Barkman and producer Karen Abbatiello promise SVP’s stage will be filled with humor, adventure, romance and song with “Tom Sawyer,” running July 22 through Aug. 7. The hour-long family-friendly musical adaptation by George L.O. Strid and Mary Donnelly brings some of the most famous passages of Mark Twain’s classic book to life.

Audiences will see Tom trick the neighborhood kids into painting Aunt Polly’s fence, his courtship of Becky, and Tom and Huck witnessing a crime, then crossing the river to safety on an island for an adventure.

In this version, Injun Joe is just Joe (played by Brady Thexton) to be more politically correct. It also features two narrators — Samuel Clemens and Clemens’ writer alter ego, Mark Twain. That device allows for funny exchanges between the two sides of the same person, according to Abbatiello. Thaddeus Nieduzak plays Mark Twain and Scott Livesey is Samuel Clemens.

“The show is just long enough for the little kids in their seats not to get squirmy and it moves fast enough because this particular version has just enough dialogue to get the basic story out to get to the next song that tells more of the story,” Barkman says. “And it has some really catchy tunes, they’re going be leaving singing and dancing.

Abbatiello and Barkman previously did “Tom Sawyer” SVP in 2002. They’re bringing it back because it was popular and there’s a new generation of young audiences to see it. Barkman says cast members from that staging nine years ago are reuniting to see opening night.

Barkman is a special education teacher at Readington Middle School, where she also directs school productions. Those shows can feature 60 performers, compared to the 30 or so in “Tom Sawyer.” But that’s a large cast for the intimate setting at the SVP Playhouse.

“The challenge of getting them all on stage and dancing is kind of interesting,” she says. “For the choreography you have to be creative in how to move on such a small space.”

But she says this cast is definitely up to the challenge. The young actors include Zenon Nieduzak at Tom, Alexandra Mandalakis as Becky and Matthew Mullarkey as Huck.

Rehearsals started early in the summer, which meant conflicts with graduations, confirmations and family vacations. As such, the director and producer were prepared to re-teach things to the young performers, but Barkman says the kids took it upon themselves to help each other out.

"They’re ready for an audience and usually Dianna and I are pulling our hair out at this point getting ready for the show because it’s so close,” Abbatiello says. “But they have been such a delight to work with and Dianna’s and my philosophy is not only do we want you to have fun but we want you to learn. Because very often when kids do theater in school, the groups are so large and they don’t get the basics and they don’t get all the fundamentals that I think are important.”

Barkman says the show’s music isn’t very difficult, but two- and three-part harmonies and other singing parts were added to challenge both the children and adult performers.

“I always hope for more because I like to challenge the kids, I like working with the kids,” she says. “With a smaller group, we can work more on teaching acting techniques.”

“Tom Sawyer” will be performed at the Somerset Valley Players’ Playhouse, 689 Amwell Road (Route 514), July 22 through Aug. 7 Performances are Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. All tickets cost $12.  Go to www.svptheatre.org for more information.