Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre Presents Miss Nelson Has a Field Day! A Musical Play For Children: June 28 - August 5, 2006
Each summer, Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre reaches audiences of all ages with a children’s musical that attracts more than 3,500 children, family, and friends.Tuesday, June 20, 2006 01:59 PM
This year, “Broadway at home in the Lehigh Valley” continues its 26 th season with Miss Nelson Has a Field Day! – book, music and lyrics by Joan Cushing based on the popular children’s bookwrittenby Harry Allard and illustrated by James Marshall.Following on the heels of the hit Miss Nelson is Missing at Muhlenberg in 2004, Miss Nelson Has a Field Day! opens June 28 and runs through August 5. Performances are Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10am & 1pm and Saturdays at 10am. Tickets are $9 general admission for all performances and may be purchased at the Box Office at 484-664-3333. Tickets are also available at www.summerbroadway.org. (A $1.50 processing fee applies to each ticket purchased online.) Group discounts are also available.
Directing is Jon Reimer of Northampton, PA, a recent theatre graduate of Muhlenberg College. “The great thing about the Miss Nelson books is the approach they take to teaching children that a little discipline and hard work is actually rewarding in the long run.” The project allows each of the college-aged performers to use their acting, singing and movement training to capture the imaginations of young children. “They embrace and embody the innocence and playfulness of their own childhoods as they bring the story to life on the stage,” says Reimer. “Their energy and enthusiasm is contagious. Children of all ages will love them.”
Jon recently conceived and directed the original production of The Pillow of Kantan, an original dreamscape adapted from three modern Noh plays by master Japanese novelist, Yukio Mishima. He also directed Songs for a New World, The Insanity of Mary Girard and Marathon Theatre 2004 and 2005 for the Muhlenberg Theatre Association. He has assistant directed Measure for Measure and Tartuffe with faculty Beth Schachter and Francine Roussel, respectively. Jon is the Marketing Associate through July and will then be leaving Allentown to teach English in Nagano, Japan as part of the JET program.
Miss Nelson Has a Field Day! features Liz Wasser ( North Woodmere, NY) in the dual role of Miss Nelson and her alter ego, the intimidating Miss Viola Swamp. Liz has been featured in many Muhlenberg College and Summer Music Theatre productions, and this season has performed with The Theatre Outlet in Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Psycho Beach Party at the Silkwerks in Allentown. Rebecca Schneider (Cos Cob, CT) and Joel Frank (Penn Valley, PA) are veteran Muhlenberg stage performers who have multiple personalities in this production, understudying and actually playing every role in the play in rotation with the other company members over the course of the 42 performances – seven shows a week through August 5. Muhlenberg students Brittany Beatty (Pocono Pines), Zach Chiero ( Cornwall, NY), Craig Hanson ( Franklin, MA) and Rachel Pereira (Reading) are the ensemble children of Miss Nelson’s classroom and J. Eric Stephenson (Coplay) doubles as Coach Armstrong and Principal Blandsworth.
The premise of Miss Nelson Has a Field Day! takes the students outside the classroom to the school’s football field. The students and staff of the Horace B. Smedley School are depressed because the school football team, inappropriately named the Tornadoes, has not won a football game all year. When the third graders do get onto the practice field, they want to clown around rather than train and practice. Their befuddled principal and frazzled Coach are at their wits’ ends – and the sweet, beloved Miss Nelson wisely decides it is time for the mysterious Viola Swamp to return to Smedley. In this story, Miss Nelson and Viola are both seen on the field, but it is Viola who gets the team running faster than ever before and behaving as a team. Audiences will celebrate with everyone in the school when the Tornadoes finally begin to score. With an animated cast and hilarious musical numbers, Miss Nelson Has a Field Day! will entertain youngsters 3 and older.
Season Ticket Information
The 2006 subscription season of Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre also includes the 3 main stages of The Taffetas , Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel , and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. The Lehigh Valley premiere of The Taffetas takes a nostalgic journey through the 1950s, running from June 14 to July 2. The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel follows the story of two star-crossed lovers in a New England town at the start of the 20 th century, onstage July 12 to 30. The Off-Broadway hit I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change exploring the modern mating game is onstage July 26 to August 13.
Contact the Box Office at 484-664-3333 or visit the summer theatre website at www.summerbroadway.org to request a season brochure or to purchase tickets . The Box Office in the Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and Noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets for all shows are available online at any time. American Express, Mastercard and Visa are accepted for ticket purchases by phone or web.
