ESU Musical Theatre to present Cabaret, April 29

Posted by: admin on April 19, 2016, No Comments

For the past two years, East Stroudsburg University students in the Musical Theatre Organization (MTO) have presented a small cabaret at the end of the academic year to have another opportunity to do what they enjoy most—perform songs from Broadway, movie and television musicals.

This year’s cabaret, New York, New York, will be held on Friday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the Cecilia S. Cohen Recital Hall of the university’s Fine and Performing Arts Center, Normal and Marguerite streets, East Stroudsburg.

“MTO has more members this year, so we’ve decided to turn the small cabaret into a longer, more polished production,” Katie Rose Reardon, a senior from Rockaway, N.J., who is majoring in English and is president of MTO, said. “The group chose New York, New York as the theme of the show since the city is home to Broadway and that’s what we all love and want to pursue.”

After selecting songs about New York City from a wide range of sources including Annie, Follies, Thoroughly Modern Millie, New York, New York, Avenue Q, and Smash!, Reardon and the other officers found MTO members who wanted to direct sections of the show.

The directors, which include Asia Burnett, a junior from Philadelphia, Pa., majoring in theatre; David Kunz, a junior from East Stroudsburg, Pa., majoring in technical theatre and digital media technologies; John Lauri, a junior from Long Pond, Pa., majoring in computer science; Rebecca Roeber, a senior from East Stroudsburg, Pa., majoring in technical and musical theatre; Christopher Robinson, a junior from Cape May, N.J., majoring in theatre; Sophia Thompson, a junior from Etters, Pa., majoring in speech-language pathology and theatre; Destiny Washington, a junior from Philadelphia, Pa., majoring in musical theatre and minoring in dance; and Reardon; selected the songs they wished to do and auditioned performers in December.

“We’ve been rehearsing since January,” Reardon said.  “We have costumes—t-shirts; and scenery projections. Our accompanist, Linda Christ, is a local pianist, and the opening number was choreographed by Christopher Shin, the guest artist who choreographed the ESU Theatre Department’s production of Seussical last year.”

New York, New York is open to the public at no cost. Refreshments will be sold at intermission to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

For more information, please email esuarts@esu.edu or call 570-422-3483, x. 4.