Main Street Theatre Readies Premiere of
New Children's Musical
When third-grader Carla Blumberg first appeared at the Main Street Theatre, in Bye Bye Birdie, she was thrilled, mostly because she got to eat cookies on stage. Four years of musicals later, she sang a solo as tough-girl Rizzo in Grease. “When I heard the applause, I broke outof character and smiled,” she recalls. She decided right then to become an actress.
Photo Credit: Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance, performance of Hello Dolly mstda.org
Now a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Theater Department, Blumberg has returned to the Main Street Theatre to assist director Nancy Howe on Like Totally Grimm, the new children’s musical premiering May 30.
As Howe’s first-ever assistant, she is getting a first chance at directing, coaching the eight to twelve-year-olds with their lines and toying with the idea of someday running a place like the Main Street Theatre.
“Nancy has done an amazing job – I appreciate it now!” says Blumberg. “She knows how to talk to the kids. On bad days I’m amazed at the way she keeps her cool and gets the work done. The kids don’t stop talking! I’m trying to pay attention to how she directs people –
what she looks for.”
For Howe, who runs the Main Street Theatre & Dance Alliance with her husband, Worth Howe, the rough part is casting. “The kids get their hearts set on a certain part,” she says.
“It’s a terrible process for me, because I know the kids and worry about their feelings. I
always want to quit at that time of year!”
All sixty-five acting students in third through seventh grade landed a role in Grimm. The kids auditioned for the parts they wanted – and most coveted the leads. “I tried to fore-warn them – it’s seldom that a third grader will do a lead!” Howe says. “They also had to sing some thing. Some just sang Happy Birthday. I needed to hear if they could hold a tune.” The group broke into three casts; each will stage two performances.
Once through the dizzying 17 weeks of rehearsals – two hours every week – the kids feel that they’re a team. “That’s one thing about show business that people don’t know,” Howe says. “A little bonus. The kids come away feeling really good about themselves.”
Some have leapt to Broadway and television. Aliane Baquerot is currently on Broadway in Movin’ Out. Her credits include Saturday Night Fever on Broadway, and television shows Saturday Night Live, Sesame Street, and One Life to Live. Child actor John Babcock landed
a lead role on Broadway in The Secret Garden. Natalia Ortiz appeared on television’s Law
& Order: Special Victims Unit. Neil Tandon is writing and directing plays at Cooper Union.
Still, few of the students are lured by show business. “It is a very difficult business to crack,” Howe warns. “It takes a lot of way off-Broadway shows or student or independent movies, lots of hard work and money spent on lessons and pictures, and sometimes – most of the time – success doesn’t come. I see a few younger kids coming up who will probably try. Boys, especially, are usually discouraged from doing it.”
For many kids – would-be stars or not – a spell at the Theatre cures shyness. “It’s an opportunity for people who don’t express themselves easily in the world to express their feelings in a safe place, within the context of portraying a character,” Howe says. “It’s an amazing process to watch because their confidence accelerates once they experience beingon stage.” Blumberg, in fact, says she was shy growing up and hadn’t wanted to play Rizzo in Grease. “I wanted to be Sandy, the shy, sweet girl! But I kept getting cast as Rizzo in different forms.”
Playwrights of Like Totally Grim: Bill McMahon and Bob McDowell
For Blumberg, the Main Street Theatre brought Island-based friends as well, especially after she left for the United Nations International School and the neighborhood kids took off for other schools. After she left for college, she came back to act in some of the Theatre’s adult shows. “NYU hasn’t always been the most supportive place,” she says. “I come back here
to get that great acting feeling, and I leave with a huge smile on my face.”
Up Next
