The Port Summer Show’s All Shook Up Recreates Venus de Milo

The Port Summer Show will celebrate its 45th anniversary this summer by presenting the jukebox musical All Shook Up. Performances are Thurs. Aug 3 at 7:30 PM, Fri. Aug 4 at 7:30 PM, Sat. Aug 5 at 7:30 PM and Sun. Aug 6 at 2:00 PM in the newly renovated and air conditioned Paul D. Schreiber Auditorium at Schreiber High School in Port Washington. Since 1972, The Port Summer Show has been producing top-quality Broadway musicals for the Port Washington community. Teenagers in grades 7-12 spend 5 ½ weeks working with a professional director and choreographer singing, dancing and rehearsing for the annual August production.

Among all the incredible things that are happening for this year’s Port Summer Show performance of All Shook Up, one thing stands above, actually over 6 feet above. The famous Venus de Milo statue is being recreated in paper mache by Port Summer Show’s own Set & Lighting Designer Nick Gardella. Nick persuaded one of the show’s producers to sit for over one hour breathing through a straw while “paper mache-ing” her entire face until it hardened into the mask that now adorns the fabricated Venus. He then took over 50 hours to painstakingly place thin strips of paper and glue to every inch of the life-sized creation, until it now stands over 6 feet tall, ready to take center stage at the performance! Nick, a Schreiber graduate and Summer Show alumnus, said of the entire project, “Isn’t it every artist’s dream to recreate one of the most famous statues in history from paper and glue?”

You can see Venus and the entire cast of All Shook Up on Thurs. Aug 3 at 7:30 PM, Fri. Aug 4 at 7:30 PM, Sat. Aug 5 at 7:30 PM and Sun. Aug 6 at 2:00 PM in the newly renovated and air conditioned Paul D. Schreiber Auditorium at Schreiber High School in Port Washington. Tickets are $10 adults, kids under 12 years old and seniors are $5. On Thurs. Aug 3, seniors are invited to attend for free! For more info email info@portsummershow.org. or visit the Port Summer Show’s Facebook page.

Venus de Milo Photos by Tim Wood and Nick Gardella

All Shook Up Cast photo by Linda Nutter