Sunday, December 7, 1997

Daytona youngster has title role in play

By LAURA STEWART
NEWS-JOURNAL FINE ARTS WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH — Carl Franklin Du Pont Jr.'s mother calls him to the phone, and sounds like she's teasing him.

"Carl," sings out Constance Poitier in a voice trained at the Eastman School of Music, Bethune-Cookman College and Atlantic University. "Carl. Oh, Mr. Carl. Maestro! Telephone for you."

She's not kidding.

Just 13 and an eighth-grader in the gifted program at Campbell Middle School in Daytona Beach, Carl has a resume two pages long -- with a credits list adults may envy: Singer. Pianist. Director. Composer. Arranger. Writer. Trumpet Player. Pianist, Boyle's Studio of Music. Guest Conductor, St. Catherine's Episcopal Church.

This week, he'll add another credit: actor. Carl will play the title role of Amahl in the Seaside Music Theater production of the children's holiday classic, "Amahl and the Night Visitors" by Gian Carlo Menotti. It will be something new for him -- sort of, he says, a chuckle in his light, sweet voice.

After all, he has been singing all his life. He became serious about it as a possible career recently, when he was 10. "I was in the Tampa Bay Children's Choir, and I sang some solos," Carl says. "I haven't acted before, but Amahl is mostly opera. I figure the acting comes later; I'll be focusing on the music."

He's headed in the right direction, says Ann Small, founder and director of Stetson University's Children's Choir. Not only is he a choir member, but Carl's composition, "If I Had Wings," debuted at the choir's concert last spring. "Carl is definitely a gifted young musician," Small says.

"He's also very much a normal kid, certainly an outstanding young person. He's someone who's using his talent correctly. I have no doubt that he'll excel."

He's doing everything possible to do just that, Carl says. He was excited when he heard from SMT four weeks ago, inviting him to audition at the suggestion of three supporters -- Bethune-Cookman College voice professor Daphne Dunstan-Wharton, Children's Choir pianist Kayla Leichty, and James Poitier, his new stepfather and B-CC's associate band director.

"They called me, and I went and tried out. I guess I did all right -- they said it was fantastic or something like that," Carl says. "I'm a voice soprano -- I sing really high. But I think I'm going to be a baritone when I grow up. The tenor voice doesn't sound natural to me, and basses are too low. "So I'd like to be a baritone. As a baritone, you see, I can really do both tenor and bass: Baritones have the widest range," he muses, thinking ahead a few years to a future that isn't totally clear yet -- but that clearly is musical. "When I go to college I think I'll go to ... I don't know . . . Maybe Juilliard."

That would be in keeping with his family's tradition. His mother, Constance, is the music teacher at Palm Terrace Elementary School in Daytona Beach, and his older sister, Carla, will sing in "Amahl" too -- as a soprano shepherdess.

They're all looking forward to opening night, when Carl debuts as an actor. "It's a great story, for everyone," he says. "I've read the book and gotten the video. I surmise that we're somewhere near Bethlehem, and I wear a beggar's rags -- we're VERY poor -- and start out as a crippled boy. I see the star and tell my momma, but she doesn't believe me.

"I see one, then two, then three Wise Men, and she believes me. While they're sleeping in our house, she looks at the gold and she gets . . . well, sort of tempted. They catch her and she's really sorry -- she says she'd give a gift to the Baby Jesus, but that we are so poor we don't have anything to give.

"So I give my crutch, because it's the most precious thing we have," says Carl, his bright, high voice singing with joy. "It is such a wonderful story, for everyone," he says about the miracle at the heart of the play. "But especially for people who don't know Christ, because it shows his goodness."