ready to cast
VERONICA YANKOWSKI NYU students Adam Goldstein of Freehold Township (front) and Chris Aniello of Holmdel are producing and directing a musical theater production of Parade at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts.
Local h.s. graduates
ready to cast ‘Parade’
at NYU’s Tisch School
By linda denicola
Staff Writer
Producing a musical, especially one that concerns very deep issues like race and religion, is a daunting task, but Adam Goldstein, 20, and Chris Aniello, 21, are young enough to believe in possibilities and energetic enough to make their dreams come true. They also have supportive parents and a solid education in musical theater.
The two college students, Goldstein from Freehold Township and Aniello from Holmdel, are directing a musical theater production of Parade at New York University’s Tisch School of Arts. Both young men have taken on this ambitious project because they love musical theater and because they love the challenge of making a musical with a strong dramatic theme.
The two creative young men became friendly when they worked together on projects with the Premier Theater Company, Asbury Park, for a couple of summers during high school. When they graduated, Aniello from Holmdel High School and Goldstein from Freehold Township High School, they parted company, but remained friends. Aniello went to NYU and Goldstein went to the University of Maryland.
But Goldstein realized that acting and producing were in his future and the Tisch School provided more opportunities.
"I wanted a better theater program so I transferred to NYU," Goldstein said. "Now we’re both in the same musical theater program. We’ve gotten to work together again and decided it would be interesting to produce and direct a production at school."
Goldstein explained that he and Aniello had to compete with 18 other applicants for the opportunity to produce the musical.
"There were four spots. We submitted a project, assembled a production team, held a massive fund-raiser and won a spot. It was a long and drawn out process, but we’ll start auditioning in a couple of weeks," he said.
Both agree that their collaboration is working out very well even though their working styles are a little bit different. Goldstein attributes it to the fact that they were good friends to begin with.
"Following graduation, we have plans to start a theater company together," he said, adding, "We wanted to see what it would be like to work together and get some experience together in New York City. We both want to pursue acting and production. There’s an inherent risk in theater, but if you love it, it’s worth it. When you start with a partner there is less pressure."
In November, they held a fund-raiser at the Indian Hill School in Holmdel where Aniello had gone to grammar school. His mother, Theresa, make all of the arrangements, he said.
"My mom was Supermom. She sent out invitations, cooked the food, arranged for the space. My dad, Frank, helped too. Both of my parents are amazing," he said.
Goldstein added, "Chris and I and four of our friends from NYU and shore area high schools did a cabaret style fund-raiser. We performed from the show Parade, but everybody else picked their own songs. Chris’ mother is a caterer, so for $20 a person we provided an Italian dinner, a show and a raffle."
They were surprised by the turnout. According to Goldstein, 180 people came, most of them having heard of the event through a mass e-mail campaign.
"Both of us knew a lot of people through performing in theater, but we didn’t expect anywhere near that number of people. The whole place was filled. It was impressive," he said.
Goldstein said they raised $4,200, and $1,700 was needed to buy the rights to use the new musical that was produced in 1998. Because they are doing the show through Tisch, the school absorbs the production costs, including lighting and sets.
The producers also do not have to pay the performers. He expects several hundred people to audition for the cast of 23.
"This is one of the top college programs for undergraduate theater," Gold-stein said. "It winds up becoming hard to even audition everyone that will come out, even though it is only open to Tisch School of the Arts students."
The production of Parade will open on March 20 and run through March 29 with 10 performances. Although they don’t have to find a space to mount it, as producers they still have their work cut out for them. Besides casting and putting the show together, they have to work on advertising and creating a data base for reservations.
"We have to oversee everything that is going on. I’m in charge of advertising and Chris is in charge of finance. In addition, we’re hoping to create a network of contacts and create a pool of supporters," Goldstein said.
Aniello, who expects to graduate from NYU in the spring of 2004, has been performing since he was about 5.
"When I was real small, I took tap and jazz. We lived in Secaucus at the time. I’ve been doing theater since sixth grade," he said.
Although his parents have been very supportive, they have also encouraged him to have something to fall back on.
"I am also a history major. I hope to teach high school and develop a theater program," Aniello said.
Goldstein, who will graduate from NYU in the fall, started performing as a high school freshman.
"I did it because a friend of mine went to audition for a play, so I went with him. I was cast in the play and loved being involved and loved the people I was working with. It became the thing that I did. I went through the whole process of voice lessons and taking classes and decided that’s what I wanted to study. From a simple beginning came complex things," he said.
One of those complex things is the production they have decided to present. According to Goldstein, Parade was originally produced in 1998 at Lincoln Center, directed by Harold Prince. With music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, it was adapted from a book by Alfred Uhry.
It is not the usual stuff of musicals. It is not a love story set to music, although it does have a love story running through it, Aniello said.
"You might say that it has the power that Les Mis(erables) has, but it’s much more realistic. There’s two parts to the story, the societal issue and the connection that Leo has with his wife Lucille. The whole play involves their journey to connect with each other. There’s a beautiful song called ‘All the Wasted Time’ and it’s sung at the moment when they finally realize how much time they’ve wasted and how much they mean to each other."
Goldstein outlined the story.
"It’s the true story of a Jew from Brooklyn who was married and had a job in Atlanta, Ga. He was wrongly accused of the murder of a young girl who worked at his factory, because of prejudice against Jews. He was convicted, but the sentence was eventually commuted when they discovered he was completely innocent. The murder was committed by an African-American man.
"But Leo Frank was killed when townspeople broke into the prison and lynched him. His wife is very significant, too, because the stuff that she was doing while campaigning for his freedom was something that women didn’t do in those days. She even went and addressed the governor of Georgia.
"The significant thing about this turn-of-the-last-century story is it was the first case where a white man was convicted because of a black man’s testimony. But it’s about the severe discrimination in the south for both Jews and African-Amer-icans," he explained.
Goldstein said the reason he and Aniello picked the show is because it’s not musical theater the way most people think of it.
"We are advocates of the fact that musical theater has been underestimated. This play is a heavy acting piece with dance and music. It’s a dark show, a heavy show emotionally, but that makes it more significant," Goldstein said.
It has been said that the luck of having talent is not enough; one must also have a talent for luck. Aniello agreed.
"I’ve been very lucky," he said. "Perhaps because I have a talent for having good people in my life, consciously and unconsciously, including Adam."
In addition to luck, three elements are needed in the theater: the play, the actors and the audience. Goldstein and Aniello have the play, soon they’ll have the actors, now all that is needed is an audience.