This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Arts & Entertainment

I Want it All Theater

Big Rubber Spiders and Teenagers
Singing and Dancing

Nerves
and Adrenaline

Michaella Vilsa is a teen with enormous talent
when it comes to singing and dancing, but lying deeper within her little soul is a huge funny bone screaming to get out.  “I love these people, they are so genuine,” Michaella explained about the cast of I
Want it All
, before she decided to find a rather large rubber spider upstairs at Stage Left in Orangeburg during a rehearsal and throw it onto one of her fellow actors who screamed and laughed at the absurdity.  The spider, along with dozens of Styrofoam heads dressed in wigs staring down at the 13 teens, tilted and thrown about on a shelf in the rehearsal studio, made this particular evening on the edge of the absurd.

Find out what's happening in Nyack-Piermontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The
Adults

I Want it All was written, conceived, and choreographed by Deborah Ivry and Cal Chiang. If you have been involved in theater in Rockland County these two names;
Ivry and Chiang will a familiar sight. Ivry, after having spent more than a decade in New York doing Industrials, Soaps, jingles, voiceovers and a Television series moved with her family to Nyack. About 15 years ago, Ivry
founded the award-winning jazz/pop vocal group called High 5. Ivry is also a private voice and vocal teacher. “Gleeful Productions” arose out of collaboration
with her friend and colleage Cal Chiang. The two wish to provide unique musical and educational performance opportunity for a diverse group of talented teens
from all over the County. This will be Gleeful Productions first show.

Find out what's happening in Nyack-Piermontwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Chiang has directed and choreographed many musical
theater productions in Westchester, Bergen and Rockland Counties for 25 years. Years ago, It was at Elmwood Theater in Nyack, where Chiang directed many shows, that
he met Ivry.
The show, which is a “Glee” type production,
captures adolescence with all the risks, excitement and ever changingrelationships. The actors and actresses come from New City, Nyack, Orangeburg, Airmont, Nanuet, Monsey, Spring Valley, Tomkins Cove and Congers.

 “I Want it All is different than all the other productions I have been in. Theproduction seems to connect with each and every one of us. The great songs and lack of a concrete scripted pilot allow us to use ourselves as the characters and connect with the show in a way that can’t be done with a conventional musical." shared 16 year old Madison Deming who said she has been singing since she
could talk.

Another actor, Nadege Isidor who just graduated
from Spring Valley High School participated in his school productions of Fame, Play On, Good Cop/Bad Cop, Hell and High Waters: Hurricane Katrina and Footloose.  Isidor is currently at Rockland Community College and would love to have the opportunity to sing, act and dance as a career. “But if that doesn’t work out, my goal is to become a
psychiatrist,” he explained.

The songs in this show will sometimes make you
grin and often bring a tear to your eye. Emma Swingle, the youngest of the cast, Madison Deming and Carolyn Wright sing a soulful and very believable“Everything
is Beautiful at the Ballet from A Chorus Line. The lyrics are very fitting for a group of outgoing, sometimes precocious, young adults trying to find their way in life:

Mother always said
I'd be very attractive When I grew up, when I grew up.
 Diff'rent,"
she said, "With a special something and a very, very personal flair."
And though I was
eight or nine, though I was eight or nine, though I was eight or nine, I hated
her.

You can see I Want it All at Hudson House in Nyack on Thursday July 26th at 8pm; Friday July 27th
at Nyack Village Theater 94 Main Street at 8pm; Saturday July 28th at Rockland Conservatory of Music 45 S. Main Street Pearl River at 8pm and at Elmwood Playhouse on Sunday, July 29th at 7pm.

Tickets
are $12 except for Elmwood Playhouse which is $15.

For more information about any performance, call

845-688-4292.

The Sunday, July 29th performance is by reservation only at 845-353-1313.

The Cast: Juno Arreglado;
Madison Deming; Isabelle Howard; Melissa Iglody; Nadege Isidor; Michael
Johnson; Hernz Laguerre, Jr; Kory Majansky; Manny Piedra; Emma Swingle; Amber
Tomelden; Michaelle Vilsa; Carolyn Wright

 

 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?