Encore!
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 4 months AGO
From left: Daisy O'Donnell, Amy O'Donnell, Isabel Sica, Shanna Stakkeland, KaLee Lincoln, JoAnna Miller, Julia Heaps, Claire Crump and Aaron Valdez rehearse “The Greatest Show,” the opening number of “Encore! A Broadway Review,” opening June 14 in Moses Lake.
Joel Martin/Columbia Basin Herald
Claire Smith sings “Pulled,” from the musical “The Addams Family” in a rehearsal of Basin Community Theatre’s “Encore! A Broadway Review.”
From left: Ciara Quilter, Emma Leavitt, Abbie Sorenson, Carlee Howard, Julia Heaps, Gabby Gilbert and Sawyer Greenfield assure listeners that “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” a song-and-dance number from “Annie.”
From left: Aaron Valdez, Amy O’Donnell, Chanel DeGooyer and Abby Sorenson sing “Godspeed Titanic” in a rehearsal of Basin Community Theatre’s “Encore! A Broadway Review.”
From left: Toby Black, on cello, and Katerena Jenson and Hannah Ahmann on violin play “Nearer My God to Thee” as LaRene Black and Marion Wyman look on at a rehearsal of Basin Community Theatre’s “Encore! A Broadway Review.”
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | June 6, 2023 1:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — The tunes that made Broadway great will fill the air, as Basin Community Theatre presents “Encore! A Broadway Musical Review” this month.
“We've taken favorite musicals from our cast and from our director, and put a show together,” said producer Marion Wyman. “So it's going to be songs, it's going to be dances … We had (cast members) write down their suggestions, and if they wanted to sing a solo, and that’s how we put the show together.”
The show takes songs and dances, 12 of them solos, from about 30 different Broadway musicals, although Wyman said the list wasn’t yet complete as of Wednesday. The range of musicals is broad, including “Oklahoma!,” “Funny Girl,” Camelot” (and the Monty Python spoof, “Spamalot”), “The Wizard of Oz” and more.
“It wasn't just my vision, it was our whole cast,” said director Toby Black. “People were able to choose their own song and their own emotion and what they wanted to portray. The only guideline is that we wanted it to be fun and uplifting. We feel like the world has a lot of downers, and we're trying to not be the downer. We're trying to be more positive, upbeat. And music is a great way to do that.”
Some of the plays will be new to most of the audience, said Black, and even in the well-known musicals, the songs aren’t necessarily the ones everybody thinks of first.
“We've tried to do selections that aren't necessarily that popular,” Black said. “You have your five or six or eight regular shows that everybody knows, but there's so much music and there's so much theater that we tried to choose songs that come from all different areas of the history of theater.”
“We're going to open with an ensemble piece,” Wyman said. “There'll be four or five different ensemble numbers. Then the children are doing ensemble numbers from ‘Moana Jr.,’ from ‘Newsies,’ from ‘Annie.’”
The kids will also be part of the number “Godspeed Titanic,” which in the play is sung as the ship is launched, and (spoiler!) reprised as she goes down. In “Encore!,” the song segues into a string trio rendition of the hymn “Nearer my God to Thee,” which tradition holds the actual Titanic orchestra played as the ship sank.
The show came about, Wyman said, because the Moses Lake High School theater was only available for a four-day window, which didn’t allow enough time to license a complete show. So “Encore!” is a Basin Community Theater original, she said.
“I'm really pleased with the talent that we have here in our community,” Black said. “We have people driving from Quincy and Othello and Royal City to be part of our show. And all of those people combined with one purpose is going to be a very uplifting and enjoyable evening.”
“Encore! A Broadway Musical Review”
June 14-1 – 7:10 p.m.
Matinee: June 17 – 2:10 p.m.
$18 pre-purchased standard seating, $20 priority seating or at the door
Tickets are available at www.basincommunitytheatre.com
Playlist
Songs (subject to change)
Song Selection (Not complete)
The Greatest Show -The Greatest Showman (Adult Ensemble)
You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile - Annie (Girls Ensemble)
Don’t Rain On My Parade - Funny Girl (Deborah Roeber)
The Song That Goes Like This - Spamalot (Brad Sorenson and Amy O'Donnell)
What Do Simple Folk Do - Camelot (Ed and Jami Backell)
Pulled - The Addams Family (Claire Smith)
Spark of Creation - Children of Eden (JoAnna Miller)
The Last Supper - Jesus Christ Superstar (Adult Ensemble)
Olim - The Hunchback of Notre Dame - (Adult Ensemble)
Sun is Gonna Shine - Bright Star (Kelsea Burton)
Cell Block Tango - Chicago (Isabel Sica, Claire Smith, Tierney Stakkeland, Shanna Stakkeland, Treva Reichert)
All er Nuthin' - Oklahoma (Toby Black, Deborah Roeber, Kelsea Burton)
Being Alive - Company (Ted Mack)
Top of the World - The Hunchback of Notre Dame - (Julia Heaps and Adult Ensemble)
She Used To Be Mine - The Waitress (Shaila Hardy)
Chips Are Down - Hadestown (Claire Crump, Claire Smith, Isabel Sica)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow - The Wizard of Oz (Emma Leavitt)
Godspeed Titanic - Titanic (Adult and Children Ensemble)
Masquerade - The Phantom of the Opera (Adult Ensemble)
Seize The Day - Newsies (Children Ensemble)
My New Philosophy - You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Isabel Sica)
Our Children - Ragtime (Toby Black and Deborah Roeber)
You'll Be Back - Hamilton (Shanna Stakkeland))
Song That Goes Like This - Spamalot (Brad Sorenson and Amy O'Donnell)
In My Dreams - Anastasia (Claire Crump)
Sisters - White Christmas (Shanna Stakkeland and JoAnna Miller)
What I Did For Love - A Chorus Line (Daisy O'Donnell)
Everything's Coming Up Roses - Gypsy (Shanna Stakkeland)
Because I Knew You - Wicked (Kelsea Burton and Deborah Roeber)
You're Welcome - Moana (Children Ensemble)
You Can’t Stop the Beat - Hairspray (Adult Ensemble)
Production team:
Toby Black - Director
Marion Wyman - Producer
Shaila Hardy - Co-Producer
Tom Silva - Stage Manager
Katie Miller - Sound/Tech
Cast:
Aaron Valdez
Abbie Sorenson
Abigaile Gilbert
Amy O’Donnell
Brad Sorenson
Carlee Howard
Chanel DeGooyer
Ciara Quilter
Claire Crump
Claire Smith
Cole Quilter
Daisy O’Donnell
Dani Merkley
Deborah Roeber
Ed Backell
Emma Leavitt
Everleigh Suarez
Gabby Gilbert
Isabel Sica
Jami Backell
JoAnna Miller
Julia Heaps
KaLee Lincoln
Kelsea Burton
Kendyl Howard
Kristi Jenks
Lloyd Stever
Paige Perkins
Sam Roeber
Sawyer Greenfield
Sawyer Roylance
Shanna Stakkeland
Sheryl Cassella
Stacey Rippy
Sterling Hardy
Ted Mack
Tierney Stakkeland
Treva Reichert
Victor Tadema
Zeke O’Donnell
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
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