The Little Theater That Won’t Give Up!
Auditions and casting followed by choreography, staging and rehearsals were well underway and coming along splendidly for THE KING & I to be performed by The Northport-E. Northport Community Theater. Then came Sandy.
Even as Sandy reached the shores of Northport, theater members remained hopeful that this would be but a small blip on the road to opening night. The monster storm brought her power outages, damage to homes, impassable roads, school closures, and gas lines. And still, in the theater tradition of the show must go on, confidence held that the curtain could rise as planned. But the nor’easter of November 7 and its subsequent tribulations finally laid opening-night hopes to rest. The theater cried “Uncle” and caved in to the reality that opening week of THE KING & I must be scrapped.
From there, the biggest challenge for the production was loss of access to theater space for regularly-scheduled rehearsals (theater shows are rehearsed and performed at The Brosnan Center auditorium, 158 Laurel Ave., Northport, NY, within the Northport-E. Northport District administration building and unavailable during school closures).
Notwithstanding the disappointment of losing the first weekend of performances, the theater community forged on with rehearsals taking place in space borrowed from the kind and generous folk of St. Paul’s Methodist Church in downtown Northport. Cast members from the very youngest to the oldest gathered and, despite post-storm rumpled weariness, gave their all to rehearsals in the borrowed space at St. Paul’s.
The theater is about to engage in a delayed critical “tech week” of on-stage dress rehearsals for THE KING & I to be followed by re-scheduled Opening Night this Friday, November 16. In an effort to make up for lost performances, an additional Saturday matinee performance on November 17 at 2 p.m. has been added to the scheduled shows.
Come on down and see how things work out after this tremendously-challenging effort; support this fine theater which is a community enterprise in every sense of the word. THE KING & I represents the 22nd performance of The Northport-E. Northport Community Theater all of which are backed by a pit of live orchestra members with cast, stage sets, direction, costumes and choreography by talented Long Island residents.
As a token of appreciation to St. Paul’s, donations to the Ecumenical Lay Council FOOD PANTRY will be collected at every performance. The theater is requesting that, along with the cast and crew, audience members bring donations of canned and dry goods that will benefit the FOOD PANTRY as supported by St. Paul’s.
Contact producer Bette Silver at 631-896-5970, bdsilver@optonline.net, for information or to buy tickets, pre-purchased or bought at the door as available.
