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For your winter respite, head to PTP's island musical
Friday, Feb. 5, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Photos by MARY THIEDEMAN/MET PHOTOGRAPHY
The star of "Once on this Island" is a young, energetic cast. Directed by Joe Stine, the Port Tobacco Players will present the Caribbean-flavored musical through Feb. 14.
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Just as I have never seen light-up palm trees above the entrance to Port Tobacco Players Theater, I have never seen anything grace its stage quite like "Once on This Island," a happy-vibe musical powered, in equal parts, by a swirl of youthful energy, an abundance of dance and the orchestra's pervasively peppy, Caribbean-flavored rhythms.
A cast of 14 and an equally large ensemble, all sandal-clad and dressed in colorful costumes, do a laudable job transporting us to an imagined Caribbean island said to be the jewel of the French Antilles, where, as the boisterous opening song proclaims, the sea sparkles and the rivers run deep and the peasants dance, dance, dance — all in spite of egregious disparities in class.
Says the opening song: Two different worlds on an island! On one side of it, peasants work the land with primitive tools. On the other side, "grand hommes" sip champagne and attend masquerade balls. Above it all, four gods, whom the peasants worship, keep watch. And around it all, the musical's optimistic tone remains nothing less than unflappable.
(In Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's original script, and in the critically acclaimed musical that hit Broadway in 1990, the island is also divided by race, but all that was changed in the production's adaptation for community theater groups, perhaps leaving audiences ever more spellbound by song, dance and fun.)
David Ludy's first set for PTP is an impressive one. Steps climb up a lushly painted backdrop, a majestic, green mountain capped by a snow-covered peak. The vision would not be complete, however, without Theodore DeMarco's transformative lighting design, which adds vivid atmospheric effects.
The show introduces us to 16-year-old Jenifer Dillow. The emerging singer, dancer and actor plays Ti Moune, the musical's focal character.
The show in turn reintroduces us to familiar faces, namely those of Larry Silvestro and Michael Margelos. Silvestro plays Tonton Julian, a humbly dressed, softspoken peasant who steadies himself with a wooden stick and covers his head with a straw hat. Margelos plays Papa Ge, otherwise known as the sleeveless black suit-, purple top hat-sporting Demon of Death, who gets his point across with an evil laugh, the ability to shoot fireballs out of his palms and, when all else fails, a dagger he keeps in his breast pocket.
Based on Trinidad author Rosa Guy's novel, "My Love, My Love," which was in turn based on Hans Christian Anderson's "A Little Mermaid," "Once on This Island" strikes a middle ground between Disney's saccharine renderings of fairy tales and any such fairy tales' original versions, which these days might be considered too dark and intense for children. And though the musical is not geared expressly toward them, children might be the ones who enjoy this the most.
Billed as "deceptively simple," "Once on This Island" is divided into two quick 45-minute acts. When a violent storm strikes the island and the calamity of lightning and thunder makes a young girl (fourth-grader Chloe Lateulere) cry, four storytellers, hoping to set her mind at ease, gather around a campfire to tell the story of Ti Moune, a tough yet ultimately transcendent lesson about love's powers.
When Agwe (the God of water played by Bradley Silvestro) unleashes a terrible flood, young Ti Moune, an orphan, is spared and adopted by peasants, Mama Euralie (Christy Anderson) and Tonton Julian. Later, Ti Moune prays to the gods to let her meet and fall in love with a man above her class — and her wish is granted.
Ti Moune finds Daniel (Blake Racer) after he crashes his car and she nurses him back to health. They fall in love, and though her parents urge her not to let it happen with a rich boy, Ti Moune persists, thus setting up her inevitable clash with the way things are, and with Andrea (Tonii Caputi), whose marriage with Daniel was arranged when the two were just children.
As it happens, both Dillow (through her riveting dance) and Caputi (through her capable vocals) shine in the moment of their characters' fateful showdowns.
Director Joe Stine, a lifelong resident of Charles County who now works the night shift as an emergency room nurse at Civista Medical Center, says he can't clearly recall his first role for PTP. He was a teenager. The play was "Bye Bye Birdie."
He returned to PTP, however, when his three sons — Joey, Kenny and Marcus — showed their own interest in theater. He helped out with PTP's Encore Kids and even directed a production of "Once on This Island" at Milton M. Somers Middle School in La Plata. Kenny was in the play at Somers, and now Marcus, 13, is part of the current show's ensemble.
Stine likes to direct plays his whole family can see. His credits include "Seussical," "Gypsy" and "Beauty and the Beast," but none more than "Once on This Island" has allowed so many young, emerging performers to take over PTP's stage.
On opening night, he explains, the cast was eager, prepared and a tad nervous. Saturday's show was snowed out.
On Sunday, says Stine, "They came in ready to go and the show just came alive."
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Directed by Joe Stine, the Port Tobacco Players' production of "Once on This Island" will continue through Feb. 14 at Port Tobacco Players Theater. Producers are Cheryl M. Reckeweg and R. Austin Gore. Music director: William V. Derr. Choreography: Brooke L. Howells. Friday and Saturday performances are at 8 p.m.; Sunday shows are at 3 p.m. Tickets are $17, $14 for students and senior citizens. The theater is at 508 E. Charles St., La Plata. Call 301-932-6819. Go to ptplayers.com.<P>
