"The Three Tevyes" to be performed in Monroe
By: Candice Leigh Helfand
Tradition will work its way back into school this weekend specifically, the Monroe Township High School Richard P. Marasco Center for Performing along with music, laughter and a man stuck on a roof with a fiddle.
A performance of "The Three Tevyes" an ensemble-based adaptation of "Fiddler on the Roof" is going curtain-up at 8 p.m. on Saturday at the high school in the Perrineville Road.
"We always do our shows a little bit different, and this one is kind of a Cabaret version of ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ " said director and one of three Tevyes, Irwin Hahn. "We like to do our shows more as ensemble pieces, and this way everyone has a lead. They’re more ensemble-driven than lead-driven."
Monroe native and math teacher at MTHS Raymond Ruiz Sr. has found a spot in the show as another one of the title three Tevyes, even though the theater company putting on the production @CT! is based in Freehold. Mr. Ruiz said that he got involved when Mr. Hahn called him about the show.
"I have done a concert version of ‘West Side Story’ with the @CT! Theater Company three different times over the last three years," Mr. Ruiz explained.
Mr. Hahn said that, while the company does perform shows first in the Freehold Diner off of Route 9, they perform all over the state hence the show in Monroe.
Mr. Ruiz also said that the experience was a bit like being a fish out of water.
"I am basically a pop/rock-and-roll/wedding singer doing stage singing," he said. "The cast and crew did a great job of turning me into an actor."
"My favorite part was having Mr. Hahn, Mr. Davidson and wife, Lori, teaching a Puerto Rican to sound Jewish," Mr. Ruiz added.
The small cast is rounded out by Dan Davidson as the third Tevye, Jordan Firestein portraying every young man in the village, Susan Miller as Yente, JoAnne Rizzo as one of the Goldes, Sandy Rudnitsky as another Golde, Erika Valerio portraying all of the daughters, and Beth Wein as the third Golde.
Set in the 1900s, "Fiddler on the Roof" is the story of a poor family from a Russian village called Anatevka. The head of the household, Tevye, and his wife, Golde, try to uphold their traditions and faith in the face of adversities such as poverty, their daughters’ desires to choose their own husbands and the overshadowing oppression of Czarist leadership over their little town.
Mr. Ruiz said he hopes to get involved with a future @CT! production, "A Day in the Life," a story that Mr. Hahn and Mr. Davidson created using the music of the Beatles. He said the show is projected to run next July.
For this production, though, Mr. Hahn said one thing struck him the most.
"My favorite part of it is that the show is about family and about tradition," he said. "And there’s humor and there’s pathos in the show."
Tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for patrons of the arts, and free for Monroe Township students. For information on getting tickets, call (732) 521-4400, ext. 134.

