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General News: Christmas Wishes Come True on Stage
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| Kris Kringle wins a young girl's heart in Miracle on 34th Street. |
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| Melissa Cardinal (r) directs Emily Parrella, who plays Doris Walker. |
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| Sofia Giardella and Olivia Perrone, two of the three actresses in the role of Susan Walker. Not pictured is Carly Fields. |
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| Linda Giardella gets a hand with her 1940s hairstyle from Cindy Topps. |
December 04, 2009
The Stormy Weather Players are staging a production of the classic Miracle on 34th Street this weekend, just in time to get you into the holiday spirit.
The production is presented as an old time radio play in which the actors dress in 1940s period costumes and read their scripts as if on-air on Cornwall radio station WRWD.
The story centers around a young girl, Susan Walker, whose mother is an executive at Macy’s department store in charge of hiring a Santa every year. Doris, the mother, doesn’t believe in Santa and doesn’t want her daughter exposed to such childish nonsense. However, in 1948 Doris Walker hires Kris Kringle to play the role of Santa and people who meet him, including little Susan, start to believe that he is real.
Macy’s executives tell Kris Kringle, played here by David Topps, to push merchandise on the children who come to share their dreams with him and, in the first sign that something is wrong, Santa sends them to other stores for the best presents. Kris Kringle calls a Macy’s executive a “contemptible fraud” and Kringle is sent to Bellevue Hospital as a “mental case.”
Little Susan, meanwhile, played by a different actress in each of the three performances, shares with Kris Kringle her Christmas dream “of a real house to live in with her mother, a backyard and a swing to swing on” instead of her Manhattan apartment. By the play’s end, Susan finds her dream and learns how to be a child.
Melissa Cardinal directs this old time radio play for the Stormy Weather Players. She says she enjoys overseeing the live theater production and as she watched a recent rehearsal said she found herself smiling at the magic happening onstage.
Melissa’s mother, Andrea Cardinal, is a Foley artist, who, along with Kathi Ellick, creates the sound effects that help set the scene inside Macy’s or in the courtroom. Tom Cardinal, her father, plays Charley and Mr. Gimbel in the radio play. The Trella family – Chuck, Theresa and Christian – appear in the production in key roles with veteran Stormy Weather Players troupe members including Emily Parrella, who plays Doris Walker, Steve Sywak, who plays R.H. Macy and Louie, as well as the announcer, Richard DeKay as Alfred, Carly Fields, Sofia Giardella and Olivia Perrone, who all play young Susan Walker, Linda Giardella, who plays several roles including a nurse, Sean Flynn, who plays a young boy, Kristen Oberle, a commercial announcer, Bruce Bayard as Mr. Mara, David Topps and Ann Goldsmith, the host.
Newcomers to the SWP troupe are Megan Rose Collins, Gabrielle Dworkin, Les Ferguson, Michael Frohenhoefer, and Cynthia Topps, who bring impressive stage credits to the Stormy Weather Players’ stage.
A crew backstage is handles the sound and lighting of the production and is overseen by stage manager Peggy LaRose, who makes sure that everything happens when it should.
Miracle on 34th Street: An Old Time Radio Play debuts tonight, December 4, at the Cornwall-on-Hudson Elementary School at 7:30 p.m. and will be performed again on Saturday, December 5 at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for seniors,children 5-12 and members of the military. Children under 5 are free and families of three or more will be charged no more than $25. Tickets may be purchased at the door.
Comments:
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This is going to be a great show!!!
(Steve Sywak--RH Macy)
posted by Stephen Sywak on 12/04/09 at 4:26 PM
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I Believe!
posted by Linda Giardella on 12/04/09 at 9:43 PM
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