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COMMUNITY
THE SEA COAST ECHO—THURSDAY, AUGUST 3, 1989-1C
SECTION
C
Children spend summer onstage at Bay theatre
BY DENA BISNETTE
On Friday and Saturday night, children who attended a series of theatre workshops earlier this summer will be able to try their newly acquired skills onstage.
The group will present “When the Nerds Bit Beverly Hills,” a comedy by Cynthia Mercati, at 8 p.m. each night at the Bay St. Louis Little Theat-re’s Boardman Avenue Playhouse.
The show, and the workshops which led up to it, originated with junior high teacher’s aide Marie Bernard.
Her daughter Casey has appeared in a number of plays and participated in workshops in Gulfport, and Bernard felt there should be some kind of theatre project for children in the Bay-Waveland area.
She saw how much Casey enjoyed rehearsing and performing on a real stage in a real theatre setting and wanted to extend the opportunity to others.
Bernard herself has been involved for a long time in
Deciding to go to the audition with Casey, she found she knew a number of the children.
“I was surprised to see that several of the theatre hopefuls were from the Bay area—and very talented,” she said.
Before leaving Gulfport, she and Ladner decided to do a summer theatre project for children at Bay St. Louis, but one of the problems was what facility to use.
After a rumor surfaced that the Boardman Avenue playhouse might be demolished, the dormant Bay St. Louis Little Theatre regrouped for a revival effort.
“Things just sort of fell into place from there,” Bernard explained.
She joined Bay St. Louis Little Theatre and not only received the support of the board of directors, but was appointed one herself.
The program began earlier this summer with a week of workshops on various theatre topics and jobs, then moved into regular rehearsals. For the project, Bernard recruited assis-
She even added some tips on costuming, which along with make-up will play a major part in “Nerds.”
“When I picked the play, I deliberately chose something with a lot of character make-up and some heavy costuming. Children don’t want to be made up to look normal; they want to do something different.
For the play, Bernard and her assistants will transform a group of children into a vampire family and costume a group of ordinarily cute children as nerds. The script even includes a trio of punk rockers and a cheerleading squad.
The third workshop introduced the 30 young participants to common theatre terms and tasks, the basic structure of a play and such concepts as “Stage presence.”
Try-outs were held in late June to determine which children would play which parts. A group of 26 were cast and four of the oldest in the group were assigned to the backstage and technical crew.
The entire group ranges from
Make-up lesson from Marie Bernard, center
time is spent pretending; young people are full of dreams, imagination and energy. Children’s theatre is a natural!,” she said.
“The talent and enthusiasm these young actors and actresses display is remarkable...I can’t wait for the community to share the pride that we at Bay St. Louis Little Theatre feel in these kids,” Bernard added, saying rehearsals are going well.
Tickets for the performances are $2 for adults and $1 for children and will be available at the theatre lobby.
into younger and older groups to present two one-act plays.
She also plans to merge the new children’s division of the Bay St. Louis Little Theatre with the adults to present a mixed-east Christmas production.
The cast of “Nerds” includes Kenny Monti, Margaret Welz, Jennifer Storey, Casey Bernard, Jason Sick and Anna Benigno as the vampire family; Jason Mauffray and Becky Monti as a pair of summer camp counselors; and Tommy Marsh, Steven Mauffray and Tabithia
Monique Natal as the Beverly Hills gang; Amie Geary and Erin Favre as a pair of tourists; Megan Hemphill as the vampire hunter and Kimberly Storey as a reporter following her;
and Beth Stechmann, Jack Ohman and Courtney Weeks as the band.
The set crew includes Jeremy Turcott, Jason Mauffray and Margeret Welz. Shelly Fayard and P.J. Mauffray are in charge of lights. Anna Gayaut is props and make-up manager and John Gayaut is stage manager.