Archive: Arts & Entertainment

ITHACA, NY: The Kitchen Theatre Company’s FAMILY FARE series continues on December 9 with the premiere of Rebecca Returns. The new musical’s book and lyrics are by Rachel Lampert with music by Lesley Greene. Rebecca Returns opens on December 9 and closes on December 23 with performances on Saturdays at 1:00 and 3:00pm and Sundays at 1:00 pm. This is the second of three world premiere musicals in this season’s Family Fare series.

Rebecca Returns begins three weeks after Rebecca, who is “nine, almost ten – almost double digits,” and usually responsible, spent the day at home alone for the first time in last year’s Family Fare musical Winter Tales. And what a day it was! Much more adventurous than Rebecca expected. Now Rebecca (Chunmei McKernan) and her rather large cat Muriel (Sarah Foster) are on their own again and, as in all cautionary tales, there’s a lesson that going to be learned before the day is done. Joining the cast is Kitchen Theatre favorite Karl Gregory, playing the mischievous son of the Ice Man who complicates Rebecca and Muriel’s lives quite a bit. Winter Tales was described by one reviewer as “perfect entertainment for children and a chance for adults to re-experience innocence and delight. One cold winter tale you won't want to miss." Rebecca Returns is the next installment in this inquisitive nine year-old’s way to learning life’s lessons.

The cast of eleven actors, dancers, musicians, children and adults includes many who are familiar to Kitchen Theatre audiences. Karl Gregory has been seen in over 45 productions on the KTC stage. Title roles include Fully Committed (2005 SALT Award), The SantaLand Diaries, A Perfect Ganesh, The Servant of Two Masters, and The Cripple of Inishmaan. Mr. Gregory recently completed a successful Off-Off Broadway run of Arthur Kopit's BecauseHeCan at Greenwich Street Theatre and was seen this fall as Tom in the Kitchen Theatre’s Main Stage production of The Glass Menagerie. Returning from the cast of Winter Tales are ten-year-old Belle Sherman Elementary student Chunmei McKernan as Rebecca, dancer Sarah Foster as Muriel, Judith Holliday as the storyteller, Brett Bossard as the Ice Man, and ensemble members and musicians Stephen Nunley and Lesley Greene. Rounding out the cast are Ithaca High School student Alex LoPinto, last seen at the Kitchen in I Have a Song to Sing O!, and three actors new to the Kitchen: actor/dancer Christina Collura, South Hill Elementary School student Jewell Payne, and Belle Sherman student Rosie Altucher.

Playwright/lyricist/co-director Rachel Lampert, who also serves as KTC’s Artistic Director, has authored many original FAMILY FARE productions (The Mozart Mystery, I Have a Song to Sing, O!, Winter Tales, The Odyssey Part I, Science Fair, A December Suite, The Sisters Fitzenstarts Fall Recital, The Emmett & Hambone Stories and Fools! Schmools!) and adaptations (A Christmas Carol, Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore and The Mikado). With this production she makes her debut as a composer, writing the music for two of the songs. The rest of the music is by Family Fare Producer Lesley Greene, whose previous work includes Circus Wunderbar, The Refrigerator Caper, Fools! Schmools!, Science Fair, and Winter Tales. Orchestrations are by Larry Pressgrove, the composer of Tony and the Soprano, The Angle of the Sun, and the upcoming Main Stage production Comfort Food, all of which are collaborations with Rachel Lampert.

Joining Rachel Lampert as Co-Director is Sara Lampert Hoover, whose past directing work at KTC includes Main Stage productions Tony and the Soprano, The Servant of Two Masters, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Pretty Fire, Molly Sweeney, and the upcoming Yellowman. The costume design for the production is by Jon Donk, whose design work was seen at the Kitchen in Tony and the Soprano. Lighting design is by Kitchen Theatre Production Stage Manager Melissa Thompson.

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