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Date: 1/2/2024
AMHERST — They will all be there, The Cat in the Hat, Horton the Elephant, the Whos and Gertrude McFuzz as Amherst Community Theater presents their production of the Broadway musical “Seussical!”
The curtain rises on Jan. 11 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Bowker Auditorium where the show will run for two weeks of Thursday through Sunday performances.
Member Phoebe Hazzard said “Seussical!” is her eighth show with ACT and this time out she’s a cast member, handles props, publicity and serves on the group’s board.
“It started with parents, families who wanted to put together shows that could include families,” she said. “Adults and kids all coming together to put on a show and it has just grown enormously over the decades.”
Hazzard said the quality of the productions has also developed, including the sets, costumes and music as the show is performed with a live, full orchestra and a conductor in accompaniment.
“We really pull out all stops,” she said. “It’s pretty exciting to have this level of community theatre in the area.”
Local interest in ACT also flourishes as the casts of shows consistently revitalize year to year with the number of new performers who join annually. Along with the show director, ACT also enlists the services of a musical director, choreographer along with set and lighting designers.
ACT auditioned and cast in September, beginning rehearsals in October three times a week at Amherst Middle school.
Kimberly Overtree Karlin said “Seussical!” is her fifth time serving as a director for ACT. She has directed other community theatre productions, founded a local theater company and leads the theater program at the Academy at Charlemont where she is also a faculty member.
Karlin said that having so many new people in the casts from year to year is exciting, but she has worked with different members of the production team on other shows.
While staying true to the original book of the show, Karlin said she been involved previously with other productions of “Seussical!” and developed a different thought process based upon some of the production elements used in the show.
“I wanted to approach it this year with an emphasis on the idea of perspective,” she said. “When you dig deep into the story, really all it is, is a story about once you understand someone else’s perspective then you truly understand them.”
As a result, Karlin said she has incorporated live streaming elements into the production, allowing some characters to be in alternate locations in the theater, projected onto a screen while interacting simultaneously with other characters on stage.
“I’ve never done this before,” Karlin said. “And I don’t know that our company has every done this before, its sort of a new and exciting way to do theater.”
Karlin also said she find the cast members to be particularly hard working and honest, which makes the process much easier.
This cast has an uncanny ability to connect with each other, the chemistry is really quite remarkable,” she said. “Every rehearsal is very productive with them, haven’t been able to say that about every show that I’ve done.”
The nine-show performance schedule of “Seussical!” begins Jan. 11-14 and continues Jan. 18-21 at UMass Bowker Auditorium.
Information on ACT and tickets is available at amherstacts.org