Dr. Phillips High to present "The Drowsy Chaperone"

IF YOU GO

“The Drowsy Chaperone”

WHEN: 7 p.m. Feb. 19-21 and 3 p.m. Feb. 22

WHERE: Dr. Phillips High School Performing Arts Center, 6500 Turkey Lake Road, Orlando

TICKETS: $10-25

INFORMATION: dphs.ocps.net or (212) 541-4684

DR. PHILLIPS — About 110 cast, crew and orchestra members of the Dr. Phillips High School Theatre Magnet have worked since December on “The Drowsy Chaperone,” a two-act musical set in a New York City apartment. Performances will begin at 7 p.m. Feb. 19-21 and 3 p.m. Feb. 22 at the school’s performing arts center.

“It’s one of those fun ones you can not think about and just enjoy,” Director Roberta Emerson said. “I like the narrator — Man in Chair — who takes us through his favorite musical, which happens to be a fictional musical. He loves it for his own personal reasons that you find out toward the end of the show. It’s following this guy who is enamored with this musical and wants to take us on this ride of how glorious Broadway shows used to be back in the Golden Age.”

The show is a mostly lighthearted commentary on theater and its progress through the years, which is relevant for theater buffs of this age, Emerson said.

“It’s probably more on the lighthearted side, but there are definitely moments in it that come to something serious, both for Man in Chair and for the characters within it,” she said. “I never pick shows that have one kind of surface. I talk a lot with the students about finding the other side of something, so even if something’s funny, what about it is actually kind of tragic?”

Man in Chair is a somewhat tragic character as a lonely old man in his poor New York apartment taking the audience through this musical, but at the same time endearing and loving, she said.

“We tried to build an appropriate one-bedroom New York City apartment,” Emerson said. “We fought for days about … the masking of the window. Finally, we were like, ‘Who is this Man in Chair guy and where would he live in New York City?’ We finally decided to put walls against the backdrop, as if his apartment faces another apartment, like so many people in New York City, because that’s the only thing they could afford. This guy, divorced, by himself, listening to musicals — there’s something very tragic about the way he’s living, and that represented it.”

This show fit her students’ abilities, such as vocal capacity and character drive, so much that there were not enough parts to go around.

“There’s a double cast, so the leads will switch off each night,” Emerson said. “For this one, we did that because we have a lot of students who fit the roles and could do the parts.”

There are about 30 members of the cast, another 30 on the crew and around 50 in the orchestra, Emerson said. Auditions occurred in mid-December, and rehearsals began in the second week of January. Graduates of the program such as James Erwin have helped junior Kelly Garcia with set design as the technical director, and the set is 100% student-built, she said.

“There was a big conversation about how to make the apartment a Broadway (theater) that makes the show come alive,” Emerson said. “They pull props out of the stove, and the counter changes to something else. I’ve seen productions where they make different entrances or different props, and I was adamant about using what was already in the apartment to make the show come alive, because it’s the show in his head.”

Because the show is meant to represent Broadway’s golden age, effects are mostly simple, but student Alexandria Klote designed lighting for the show.

“She has a very good eye for dramatics, and that’s what the show needs, coming in and out of reality, and the lights really dramatically represent that,” Emerson said. “There’s a plane — I don’t want to give away how the plane gets on stage, but the plane gets on stage.”

This performance is one of five per year in the big theater of the school’s performing arts center, with three in its black box studio each year, as well, Emerson said. Most of the funding is a result of students fundraising throughout the year, from first-year crew members to seniors and leads, all amazing talents, she said.

“We have Brooke (Schellpfeffer), who’s playing Janet,” Emerson said. “She’s a senior going off to college. We have Katiana (Gonzalez), also a senior, playing The Drowsy Chaperone doing … work that I am privileged to see her do before she goes off. Her double, Emilie Sheetz, is a freshman and is just amazing. I can’t wait to see who she’s going to be in the next three years, because if she’s doing that now, what’s she going to be doing in three years? 

“Oliver (Davids) does great work playing Robert. Adalberto (Borroto) playing George — he was very scared of this whole musical theater thing,” she said. “Now he has just blossomed. I can’t be more proud of the show. The fearlessness these young kids are going about this with is inspirational to me.”

Fearlessness is something Gonzalez learned via inspiration from Emerson.

“Ms. Emerson … would send the cast and technical directors these texts texts of inspiration,” Gonzalez said. “She would send things like, ‘Acting is more than just performing — it’s being.’ That really changed the way I performed and the way I took acting. Following that, she gave us monologues … and that was the first time I was able to become that being, and it changed me as an actress. I was able to become 10 times better in my own eyes. I felt it more, and just her putting that perspective in our heads helped everything.”

In her time at Dr. Phillips, Gonzalez has realized anyone can steal a show, regardless of role, and been able to get through tough times as an actress and in daily life, she said. She has learned how to become her character and be less stiff and more carefree, especially as The Drowsy Chaperone. 

“This is one of my dream roles — has been for a while,” Gonzalez said. “It would be a challenge because she’s just such a goofy character. I think I just wanted to go back to just being able to be free on stage and being able to do literally whatever I wanted without being judged, because that’s what the character would do, because she’s drowsy the whole time.”

Her favorite part is her solo, because her character really lets go and immerses in her character within the character.

“I feel like that’s my favorite part because not only am I playing Drowsy, I’m really playing Beatrice, because she’s like, ‘Now I get to shine and I get to be the spotlight,’” Gonzalez said. “I really dig that. I think it’s really groovy that I get these two characters and get to just attack it on stage.”

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].

BALANCING THE BUDGET

The production budget is about $20,000.

“I think we hit just under it, thankfully: rights, royalties, all that stuff; we pay for set construction,” Emerson said. “The kids do all the fundraising: They fundraise for the entire season, usually the year before, and ticket sales will also go into what we have. We do a big gala, coming April 11, where a lot of our revenue comes in, but all the money is definitely fundraised by all the children.”

Bill advertisements also help fund shows, and companies have seen great help for their businesses through the ads, with publicity for the performances in return. This is especially true for musicals, which draw more revenue and interest, she said.

“They also will do a lot of fundraisers where Universal Studios will call and ask for a group of kids to play actors or screaming fans — extras, basically — which is appropriate because we’re right across the street,” she said. “So it’s easy for them, but that’s a fundraiser … that goes into our programming and production.”