Challenges…Bring us Together
Here are highlights from the show!
Children’s Theatre of Livingston from Robert Allen on Vimeo.
Challenges Bring us Together. An original musical play by Paul Stefany. Photos by Barbara Anderson. Video production by Robert Allen
Over Eighty Livingston Children Experience Theater!
Children’s Theatre of Livingston (CTL) recently took the stage at Mount Pleasant Middle School with an original musical play 
“Challenges…Bring us Together”. The play is written by Paul Stefany, and music teacher at Heritage and this production is the second show that Stefany has written exclusively for CTL. His first CTL show was Edna May’s Musical Theater Camp.
Over four years ago, Livingston resident and parent Fatima Calcado reached out to a group of mothers with children interested in all aspects of the theater, to try to solve a dilemma. How do children get experience on the stage, if every time they go to an audition they are told you don’t have experience? How do you get the experience if you are never in a play? Additionally, what opportunities are there to experience the arts and explore the possibilities of theater?
Children’s Theatre of Livingston was inspired and formed by Fatima Calcado. Her core group of volunteers, now known as the CTL board, held extensive meetings to explore the possibilities. The group appointed an executive board, wrote a mission statement and by laws and developed a web site. Their goal was to bring a “culminating experience’’ set in a workshop setting, to the children of Livingston. The group knew there was interest from the community, because when they did an interest flyer to the youth one hundred and seventy five students said they would like to learn more. Over the last three years more than two hundred and seventy five children have had the chance to experiment with the theater, either both on stage behind the scenes or in the orchestra.
The entire community embraced the concept and the Livingston Board of Education and Town Council gave CTL their full endorsement to utilize their facilities and resources. CTL joined HCHY (Healthy Community, Healthy Youth Initiative of Livingston) because they shared the same goal to bring opportunities to youth and they are also a member of the Arts Council of Livingston.
Today, after Calcado’s leadership as President for two years the CTL executive board members are President Martha Ackermann and Vice Presidents Lauri Brown, Fatima Calcado, Ellen Margolies, Maida Mindlin and Linda Rishty. Sharon Cimbol serves as the secretary and Eddie Rishty is the treasurer of CTL. Pat Fernandez , Marlene Laveman and Hugh Mahon are board members. Most of the members of the board are founding members of the organization.
Challenges…Bring us Together had a large production team and many children both on the stage, behind the scenes and in the orchestra pit. Janene DePalo, the shows director and Marilyn Fiordaliso, the Music Director, returned for their third year with CTL. DePalo is a fourth grade teacher at Riker Hill Elementary School in Livingston and Fiordaliso has her own music studio in town. CTL board members Ellen Margolies and Linda Rishty were the assistant directors of the show. The Costume Designer and Photographer was Barbara Anderson and the creative consultant for the show was Susan Allen. Award winner Hugh Mahon did the set design. Two Livingston High School students, both of whom both just appeared in The Music Man at Livingston High School also had important roles in the show. Gaby Margolies is the show choreographer and Max Brown is the theatre group’s graphic designer.
The musical play is about Miss Fletcher, a well loved teacher and her students. The creative story line is based on the love and admiration the children have for their teacher. Included were numerous catchy songs such as There’s a Party Tonight, My School is Perfect, Try a Little Harder, Dance Your Troubles Away, and the Challenges finale. The play is filled with entertaining dances and vibrant costumes that amused audiences of all ages.
For many of the over sixty elementary school students this experience was the first time they tried theatre, but there are many children who have returned to CTL for the second and third year. “We know that the experience benefitted the children in so many ways, especially building self esteem and confidence”, said Martha Ackermann. “The CTL program is all about giving opportunities to children to explore the theatrical arts, and our entire board has so much enjoyed working with these fine young children. Everyone has grown in one way or the other” she said.
The show is a show within a show and it has three casts.
The children in the Challenges cast were Samantha Kahn, Eve Goldstein, Ellie Shahrabani, Lizzy Kelton, Macen Lantzman, Arielle Fuhrman,Molly McCormack, Harris Paspuleti, Isabella LaPolla and Jamie Lodge, Andrew Jiang, Alysia Machlovitz, Gayle Edelstein, Samantha Fernandez, Max Goott, Amanda Stephenson, Will Taylor, and Nina Zhong. The Cheerleaders appearing throughout the show are Victoria Belcuore, Brett Fawer, Julia Gaudioso, Alexa Mintz, Amanda Neff, Gabrielle Nussbaum, Danielle Sanz and Sarah Wang.
One of the two acts that is a show within a show is the 50’s skit titled “You’ve Got To Be Cool”. Appearing on stage were Ryan Healy, Lucas Alpert, Michael DeAngelus, Kamal Paspuleti, Sydney Arnold, Carly Katzeff, Cassidy Glaser, Anna Levy, Eve Goldstein,Arden Intile, Emily Lasoff, Trevor Wood, Jack Baer, Sarah Portela, Elyssa Gordon, and Lily Feintuch.
The second show within a show is the Westward Bound skit and it starred Meghan Nevola, Jesica Porcelli, Nina Zhong, Toni Pauwels, Tara McCormack,, Izabella Zegers, Ian Gordon, Albert Zhu, Bari Greenwald, Zoe Pritikin, Tarushi Mittal, Arya Mirchandani, Kimberly Peloquin, Amanda Feintuch, Rylee Pernick, Sabrina Reba, Shaina Barreto, Amanda Clark, Jordan Enoch, Ally Wishnew, Jeff Xu, Seena Beed and Christie Joshi.
The backstage program is made up of Technical Director Amedeo Ciminnisi and lighting assistant Elliot Sussman. All of the backstage operations were run by middle school children. Samantha Brown and Matt Borker were the assistant stage managers; Sami Mindlin was the student director. On the sound board was Daniel Laveman and Alex Ehrlich and Willie Pauwells were in charge of lighting. The stage management team was Lauri Brown, Fatima Calcado, Sharon Cimbol, Marlene Laveman and Maida Mindlin. The show was produced by Martha Ackermann. The CTL parent liaison was Pat Fernandez. The concession stand was run by Eddie Rishty and the ticket master was Karen Wood.
This year CTL has expanded their musical program and had fourteen children performing in the orchestra being led by music director Marilyn Fiordaliso and student director Lauren Madagasay was the student musical director. Fiordaliso said “I am delighted to have the chance to create orchestra parts for a 6th – 8th grade orchestra and these children are very talented and dedicated”. Playing Violin is Karina Li, Kevin Tam and Michael Cheng. On the cello were Danielle Lee and Brian Lee. The oboe was played by Devin Wu and the clarinet and guitar was performed by Ethan Diamond. Also on the clarinet were Albert Chalom and Geoffrey Tseng. Fiordaliso was joined on keyboard by Lauren Magsaysay. Christopher Tseng was on piano and doing percussion was Josh Cimbol, Matt Tepper and Jesse Glaser.
CTL is proudly sponsored by The Livingston Board of Education and The Livingston Town Council and is proud members of Healthy Community Healthy Youth Initiative of Livingston and the Arts Council of Livingston. A clip of photographs from the CHALLENGES….Bring Us Together show can be viewed on the HCHY web site http://hchylivingston.org.
With their annual show completed CTL is already working on next year and has announced that their 2010 production will be HONK Jr. The enrollment process will be in the fall of 2009 and the show will be staged in April 2010.
Martha Ackermann
