Suessical The Musical
By: Melanie Barnas
Updated: June 24, 2008
FAIRPORT HIGH PRESENTS SEUSSICAL, THE MUSICAL
March 16 & 17 shows feature a matinee for younger children
Fairport High School's Drama Club will present Seussical the Musicalon Friday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m.; and on Saturday, March 17, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in the FHS auditorium (1358 Ayrault Road). Tickets are $5, and are available in the FHS office weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Please call 585-421-2100 for tickets or information.
FHS English and Theatre teacher (and alumna) Keri Griffithis the show's artistic director. Its music director is FHS Music teacher Bill Tiberio,its vocal director is FHS Music teacher Jim Jefferis, and its choreographer is Fairport Music teacher Allison Witz. Esther VanWely and David Blaakman are the show's student directors.
A cast of 60 and a crew of 30 FHS studentsstarted rehearsing in January for the Broadway musical, which is based on 17 of Dr. Seuss' 48 books. With music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and book by both Flaherty and Ahrens, the show had a relatively short run on Broadway (November 2000 to May 2001), but has become a favorite with community, school, and children's theatre groups.
This March will also mark the 103rd anniversary of the birth of Theodore Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, as well as the 50th birthday of Seuss' "The Cat in the Hat." The FHS cast of Seussical has some special plans for celebrating those events, which include participating in Project 236 (the number of words in "The Cat in the Hat") on March 2.
The cast of FHS's Seussical the Musical includes Julia Nunes as Cat in the Hat; Dominique Matties as JoJo; Ross Pederson as Horton; Sammi Cohen as Gertrude McFuzz; Sara Michalko as Mayzie La Bird and Katie Murphy as Sour Kangaroo. Mr. and Mrs. Mayor are played by Brady Hamed and Dana Osterling; General Schmitz is Zac Dubois; Bird Girls are Kerisa Bonville, Katie Dorsey, Heather Knowles, Kim Lourette and Olivia Moore; and Wickershams are David LaChance, Kyle Landers, Conor Leary, Sean Lyness, and Ben Raha.


