NEWCOMERSTOWN - Rehearsals for Bingo! A Winning Musical commenced on January 9. The splashy off-Broadway hit is scheduled for March 10, 11, and 12. It will be the first joint production of the NHS Thespians and the newly formed ARTSNCT, an alliance of the arts.
The cast includes Shauna Cox, Heaven Stull, Mya Cole, Kylie Butler, Lyssa Canales and Luke Border. Filling out the talented cast are Nash Bricker, Destiny Davis, Cameron Dodd, Chloe Fulton, Kobe Lower, and Joseph McCune as the Bingoholics. Cheryl Bordner will hold the games together as the Bingo hall hostess.
Coming full circle after an absence of many years is Michael Wise, who returns to the NCT stage as the show’s director. Wise was last seen here as thespian advisor and director of the play, Send Me No Flowers during his senior year at NHS. Not only did he direct and design that production, he also stepped in at the last minute to cover a major character role.
The circumstances that brought Wise full circle are uncanny. During his senior year at NHS there was no fall play and no teacher had stepped up to direct the spring play. Students feared that it could easily mark an end to the annual school productions … and the exact same situation was found to be true this school year.
At the time, Wise, a senior at NHS, had organized a Drama Club at the Middle School, and was attending high school four days a week while instructing 200+ students in the drama group one day a week. “I have always felt like I abandoned those kids at the Middle School,” Wise said. “I had planned on directing Finian’s Rainbow for the group. But my friends convinced me that we had to do the high school show to ensure that there would continue to be school plays and a thespian group when those middle schoolers got to high school. We were on a mission to show how important school productions were to the students, and to the schools in general.” Wise did add that while he was in the Marine Corps the following year, he was pleased to receive a letter stating that his notes and designs for Finian’s Rainbow had been found and the high school presented the production.
With the passion of its director and the heart of its talented cast, Bingo! A Winning Musical is sure to be a production that you will not want to miss!
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