Director Amy London gives instruction to Hannah Joyce, 13,
of Ocean Ridge, at The Plaza Theatre in Manalapan. London is
leading the students in Frank Loesser’s 1961 musical How to
Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Ron Hayes
“I first knew I wanted to do this when I was 5,” Hannah Joyce remembers. “I did sports, I did gymnastics, but acting is how I let people see the real me.”
The Ocean Ridge teen was 5 when she appeared in the chorus of Scrooge at the Delray Beach Playhouse. She’s 13 now, and people can see the real her in November, when the new Plaza Theatre’s Performing Arts Conservatory presents the musical comedy How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.
But first, a lot of hard work.
On Sept. 5, she auditioned, singing Tomorrow, from Annie, and performing a monologue from The Wizard of Oz.
On Sept. 12, she learned she’d been accepted to the program.
And one week later she’s back again, seated along with about 25 other young acting students in the theater’s Plaza Del Mar auditorium, listening as director Amy London prepares them for a read-through of the script.
“The dance numbers are going to be complicated,” London tells them. “We’re not doing a little kids show here. We’re doing a big kids show.”
Hannah has done little kids shows, and so have several of her fellow students. What she wants now is a big kids show, and that’s what the nonprofit Plaza Theatre promises the area’s young actors.
Jacobson
Its founders are Palm Beach Gardens residents Alan and Melissa Boher Jacobson. He ran the Florida Jewish Theatre in the 1990s, then produced a series of cabaret shows and revues.
She’s a veteran acting and voice coach, and the theater’s director of education.
The theater opened in February in the space where the bankrupt Florida Stage spent 19 years.
But where the earlier theater prided itself on offering new and often experimental productions, the nonprofit Plaza Theatre is betting on light musical revues and buoyant comedies priced at $35-$45 a ticket.
First came My Musical Comedy Life, Broadway star Donna McKechnie’s one-woman show, followed by revues celebrating Neil Sedaka, Barry Manilow and Irving Berlin.
Upcoming productions for adults include Driving Miss Daisy and Chapter Two.
The children’s conservatory has already done Grease and All Shook Up, an Elvis Presley show. And now How To Succeed.
The conservatory’s tuition fee is $375 and auditions are required.
“But our policy is that anyone who auditions who really wants to participate will be given a part,” Boher Jacobson says. “Classes are limited to 12 students with no more than 35 in the productions, and every student gets a minimum of one hour of private instruction.”
Hannah’s mother, Hayley Joyce, is enthusiastic.
“Once I’d talked to Melissa, my decision was made,” she says. “These kids are different, and to have this place where they feel normal because they’re with other kids who are creative is wonderful. They walk to a different drummer, and if nothing else, they leave with an ability to talk in public and a sense of self-confidence.”
For Max Maldonado, 16, How To Succeed In Business will mark his third appearance in a conservatory production. He played Vince Fontaine in Grease, and the cross-dressing role of Mayor Matilda in All Shook Up.
“I’ve always loved acting,” he says, “ever since I did a Christmas play in fifth grade. I always loved to impersonate the book or cartoon characters I read about.”
Now he has three parts to learn for the current production.
On this night, though, he and Hannah and their fellow thespians will read the play together, get measured for costumes and as their director sets the stage all the work ahead.
“I promise you a good time,” Amy London says. “I promise you hard work. I promise you a good show. Just let me see you’re trying.”
And Hannah Joyce, who has just been told she’ll play Lily in the production, a part with plenty of singing and dancing, is smiling.
“When I came here,” she says, “I felt at home.”
The Plaza Theatre Conservatory’s production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 20 and 3 p.m. on Nov. 21. For more information, call (561) 588-1820 or visit www.theplazatheatre. net.
Comments