Sunday, October 12, 1997

SMT expands repertory for varied winter season

By LAURA STEWART
NEWS-JOURNAL FINE ARTS WRITER

DAYTONA BEACH — Ask Lester Malizia about Seaside Music Theater's winter season highlights, and he pauses a moment to focus his answer.

It's not easy to narrow it down to just a few in a season that is larger and far more varied than in recent years. And each of the winter season shows is distinct from the others -- and from those for which Seaside has established itself as a professional music theater.

"We're trying to take our winter season, expand its repertory and do things we wouldn't do in the summer season," says Malizia, SMT's general manager. The season's November opener, "Romeo and Juliet," is followed in December by a double bill, Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors" and a Christmas reading. Then in 1998, one sophisticated period drama, "The Little Foxes," will be followed by the comedic "Forever Plaid," set in the 1950s.

The season starts on a classical note. With "Romeo and Juliet," opening Nov. 13 at Daytona Beach Community College's Theater Center and running through Nov. 23, Malizia is expanding on ground gained last year, when Seaside mounted Shakespeare's comedy, "Twelfth Night." The play's importance won't be limited to the stage, he says.

"We're expanding our classical repertory, and we're also bringing the play to younger audiences through an outreach program. Middle and high school students will read the play, participate in workshops and come to the performance," he says. "I think they'll like it -- `Romeo and Juliet' is pretty hot right now, because of the movie and its appeal to teens. But we'll set it authentically in its original era, the Italian Renaissance," Malizia says. "And the cast is terrific -- Kevin Loreque, who was Tommy in last summer's `Tommy' and Billy in `42nd Street,' is Romeo and Juliet is Jennifer Avery."

In addition, several Seaside favorites are appearing in "Romeo and Juliet," among them Elizabeth Murff, Nicholas Wuehrmann, Gary Cadwallader and Raymond Yust. The play's sets and costumes, by Elizabeth McCraven and Brian O'Keefe, along with lighting by Ann Marie Duggan, were strongly influenced by the intense, emotionally heightened colors of illustrator Maxfield Parrish's paintings.

The effect should be one of brooding passion, says Malizia, who begins directing "Romeo and Juliet" next week. "The colors -- scarlet and gold, blues, purples -- delineate the families, and we're working to overlap scenes so that one will bleed into the next. Everything will get darker as the play progresses -- colors, lighting. We're working on those wonderful Maxfield Parrish ambers and blues, and with the idea of speed.

"The entire action takes place in one week; there are many references to a sense of speed," he says, adding that he also is looking forward to working with a cast with "very good language skills and a sort of uninhibited quality" to create an unusually dynamic production, one with "a lot of physical contact and with actors hurtling through the air."

That makes it very different from the show that opens Dec. 12 and runs through Dec. 28 at DBCC's Theater Center. "Amahl" is a short opera, so it will be the first half of a double bill followed by an informal program of Christmas stories and music, arranged by Robert McDowell. "Amahl," with Julia Davidson, Nicholas Wuehrmann and Matt Clemens, will feature sets by Robert Fetterman, costumes by O'Keefe and lighting by Duggan. SMT Producer Tippen Davidson will be music director. The reading include selections ranging from "Yes, Virginia" to Mark Twain to Taylor Caldwell -- Malizia will even perform his childhood favorite, the Italian "Legend of Bifana."

It's all part of SMT's return to a traditional Christmas show, one that invites audiences to share the season with Seaside. "It's relaxed and informal, a sort of `come-into-our-living-room' sort of experience we want to establish again. We didn't do it for a couple of years, and now we want to get back to it," Malizia says. "It's the kind of show that brings people together into one big happy family."

SMT's winter season includes "Romeo and Juliet," "Amahl and the Night Visitors," "The Little Foxes" and "Forever Plaid." "Romeo and Juliet" will be performed at DBCC's Theater Center at 8 p.m. Nov. 13-15, Nov. 19-22 and 2 p.m. Nov. 16 and 23. "Amahl and the Night Visitors" will be at the Theater Center at 8 p.m. Dec. 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20, 26, 27 and 2 p.m. Dec. 14, 21 and 28. "The Little Foxes" (Jan. 16-25) and "Forever Plaid" (Feb. 6-22) will be at the Ormond Beach Performing Arts Center. Tickets to all four plays are $60. Single tickets are $18-20 for adults, $12 for college students, $10 for youths younger than 18. For information, call the SMT box office, (904) 252-6200 or (800) 854-5592.