By Mary Ellen Zangara Special Writer
Alexander Batcho Intermediate School students are bringing the Emmy-award winning 1970s PBS educational cartoon series “Schoolhouse Rock” to life as they perform “Schoolhouse Rock Jr.” at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights at the school.
The cast of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders will perform many of the series’ best-known tunes that used music to teacher grammar, math, history, science, social studies and political science.
The story follows a young teacher named Tina (played by Casey Rapone), nervous about her first day of school on the job. Different characters portray her moods.
Aereen Almonte is “Shulie,” representing Tina’s sweet, genuine side and taking the lead on “Unpack Your Adjective” and “Interplanet Janet.”
Scott Caswell as “Joe,” the cool side of Tina, is laid back and fun-loving, taking the lead for “Conjunction Junction.”
Allie Puza plays “Dina,” who is Tina’s mature side. She is thoughtful and grounded, and takes the lead on “Interjections.”
The other characters include “Dori,” played by Emily Barnes on the tunes “A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing” and “The Preamble.” Samantha Komoroski is Georgann and Jessica Jones is Georgia, performing “Three is a Magic Number” and “Just a Bill.”
The lead singers will have a backup chorus, along with sound management by Manville High School student Bonnie Burris. Tim Santoro and Niko Madden, both MHS students, are in charge of the props and sets.
Director Steve Sallach notes the various characters come to life as Tina watches a TV, showing her how teaching can be fun with a little imagination.
”So they take her through the adventure of each song to show her how she can teach things like English, science, history and basically any other thing that they need to know,” he said. “As the play progresses, she gets more and more confident do to the songs that she hears because she remembers them from when she was a child.”
This is Mr. Sallach’s first production at ABIS, although he directed “Fiddler on the Roof” at Manville High School last year, where he teaches, along with his assistant Ashley Wolsen.
Tryouts for the production was held in September, followed by weeks spent rehearsing and learning the songs with the dance moves.
Just two weeks ago, the cast started practicing on the ABIS stage to get the feel of it.
Samantha said it took her a little while to fully appreciate the music and words in “Schoolhouse Rock” she said they were “old” but the fun songs grew on her, and even helped with her schoolwork.
”It makes you learn a lot because you learn about conjunctions, about your history and you learn a lot,” she said. “I actually brought up my math grade because of this play.”
She said she hopes to be in future productions of the play, and is thinking about a career as an actress.
For Aereen Almonte, as her first play, “Schoolhouse Rock” has taught her how to relax even when nervous.
”I think it is going to be really, really good because we have fun songs and they help you learn stuff,” she added.
Tickets for students and senior citizens are $2, adults are $3 and are available at the door.
”You are going to hear some songs that you remember as a child even your kids may know some of these as they still do these in school,” Mr. Sallach said. “They picked the songs, not the parts when they saw the auditions. They looked at the songs like ‘Just a Bill’ and ‘Conjunction Junction’ because they know the songs.
”I decided on this play because I remember as a kid watching Schoolhouse Rock live and I loved it,” he added. “I wanted to direct it, too.”
