Bordentown Regional High School students from this year’s three school productions were acknowledged at the first Bordentown Theatre Awards event.
By: William Wichert
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP The denizens of Broadway may have been honored at Sunday night’s Tony award ceremony, but local masters of the stage got their own nod a few days earlier at Bordentown Regional High School.
Students from this year’s three school productions were acknowledged June 2 at the first Bordentown Theatre Awards event, marking one of several changes taking place within the school’s theater department.
"It gives the students some recognition," said Anthony Rizzo, an English teacher at the school and one of the department’s directors. "We called it our little Tony awards."
The award ceremony came as a result of the school’s renewed membership in the International Thespian Society, which the school recently rejoined.
After being either a performer in or a technical member of at least two school productions, 21 students were inducted into the society this year, joining students from more than 1,000 high schools across the world.
"They are then considered to be not the better actors, but the most experienced actors," said Mr. Rizzo.
Junior Amanda Szeker, who was named historian of the thespian society chapter, said society status will give the theater department more of an official tone and help attract more students to the school productions.
"It makes it more fun. You don’t have so much to worry about, because you’re doing something you love," said Amanda, who worked this past school year on the stage crew for productions of "A Christmas Carol" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." The third production this year was "The Laramie Project."
Being society members also should give the student-actors the attention and prominence normally reserved for members of sports teams at the school, said senior Marlanea Guidotti, who said she has seen theater members become more recognized by their fellow classmates since her freshman year.
Marlanea said she plans on studying to become a makeup artist next year, but she’ll leave high school on a high note after receiving the award last week for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as a courtesan in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."
"I’m also upset, because it’s my last year," she said.
For the first production of his own theatrical career, sophomore Dan Tykarski won the award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance of Jacob Marley in "A Christmas Carol."
Dan does not have enough shows under his belt to join the thespian society, but he said he’s not going anywhere. "I like how it is to be on stage," Dan said. "It’s spectacular all around."
Dan and his fellow actors now can start preparing the 2005-2006 theater season.
In November, the school will perform a production of "Sorry, Wrong Chimney," a Yuletide farce about one man acting as a department-store Santa Claus and another going around as a Santa burglar.
The theater department will take a more serious approach in January with a production of "Extremities," in which the victim of an attempted rape stops her attacker and starts to torture him. The woman’s roommates return home and then struggle to figure out who is at fault.
"It will be very controversial, more so than anything I’ve done before," said Mr. Rizzo.
The spring musical will be the school version of "Les Misérables," the former Broadway hit based on Victor Hugo’s classic novel in which fugitive Jean Valjean struggles to avoid being caught by Inspector Javert.
The newest addition to the theatrical season will be an all-faculty show in May, said Mr. Rizzo. Faculty members have performed in their own plays for several years, but next year’s play will be an actual part of the season and open to members of public, he said. Mr. Rizzo said the show has not been chosen yet, but it probably will be a comedy.
"The hardest part was getting all of us together," said Mr. Rizzo. "It sounds easy, because we’re all in the same building."