‘Annie, Jr.’ arrives ‘Tomorrow!’

As the school year is in the home stretch with May arriving next week, theater performance calendars have wrapped up for a lot of area schools as prom and commencement season relentlessly approaches.

But spring musical season continues for some of our area young thespians still over the next couple of weeks, and “Tomorrow” you can catch some of them.

The St. Mary of the Assumption Drama Club in Mentor will be presenting “Annie, Jr.” this weekend in the school Weaver Center, which is located at 8540 Mentor Ave. Shows are April 26 and 27 at 7:30 p.m., and April 28 at 3 p.m.

Tickets are $5 for children and senior citizens and $8 for adults and are available by calling the school office at 440-255-9781 or at the door.

Fifty cast and crew members from fifth through eighth grades have been working since November to prepare this production under the direction of Music Teacher Susan Obergefell. This is the eighth show Obergefell has directed, including most recently “Seussical, Jr.” and “Mary Poppins, Jr.”

“Each year it becomes more and more of an entire school-wide event,” Obergefell tells me. “Our stage crew is currently transforming the hallways of our school into New York City, while last year we were completely immersed in the Jungle of Nool! I am extremely grateful to my fellow teachers for giving so much time to bring the show to the stage and for bringing our whole community into it.”

Not only do other teachers lend a hand, but alumni of the program also come back to help, and the whole community is always ready to pitch in. In fact, current Lake Catholic student and former SMA drama club member Dominic Orlando completed his Eagle Scout Project to benefit the drama program reconfiguring storage space in both the school barn and in the drama prop closet.

In addition, the school was awarded a Rooted in Faith Grant from the Diocese of Cleveland. Those funds, along with the generous help of the St. Mary Men’s Club/Holy Name Society and the St. Mary’s PTU have enabled the purchase of new sound system equipment, some of which will be debuting at this performance.

Sophia Augusta, an eighthgrader, will be portraying the title role in this, her third production at SMA.

“My favorite part of drama is the community and all the friendships I get to make because of it,” Sophia says.

Obergefell says that almost as soon as the scripts are passed out, the students spend time collecting “autographs” of all the other cast members.

Miss Hannigan will be played by another eighth-grader, Ava Iannini.

“The memories we all make is my favorite part of drama,” Ava says.

Eighth-grader John O’Donnell will appear as Oliver Warbucks, and “enjoys performing for all the people and showing them what we are capable of.”

Obergefell agrees, noting that seeing students discover new talents, cultivating the talents, and then sharing them is one of the most rewarding parts of these dramatic journeys. She is excited to note that several students learned sewing skills this year in order to make aprons for the costumes, others have explored film-making technologies, and every actor has grown as a singer and performer in some small way.

In March, 114 of the cast and crew and their family members visited Playhouse Square to catch the touring production of “Annie.” Many also enjoyed a backstage tour.

“It was an exciting experience for the students to see the professional production and to learn from it,” says Obergefell. “Now they have the chance to put all they’ve worked on and learned into action!”

Check them out this weekend.

Young Thespians is a column focusing on youth theater. Have a story idea or production you would like to see listed? Email stevecouch@ windstream.net or post them on our “Young Thespians” Facebook group page so we can get you on our calendar!