Woodside Community Theatre stages ‘Curtains’

By Kate Daly | Special to the Almanac

Rehearsals are in full swing in Menlo Park and Woodside, with the new director commuting from the East Bay and actors coming from as far away as San Francisco and San Jose.

Massive elaborate sets are being built and painted in two locations in Redwood City before they make the final move to Woodside.

It’s approaching showtime for Woodside Community Theatre, a group of non-paid theater lovers who put on a musical each fall. This year the show is “Curtains” with six performances scheduled from Oct. 25 to Nov. 2 at Woodside High School Performing Arts Center at 199 Churchill Ave.

“Curtains” is the final collaboration of the musical team that created “Chicago” and “Cabaret” composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb.

The story is set in Boston in 1959, when a cast puts on a Western version of Robin Hood and the leading lady, played by WCT veteran Darlene Batchelder, mysteriously dies. Everyone on and off stage is a suspect when a local detective investigates the crime scene and the comedy unfolds.

Matt Waters who played a main role in WCT’s last musical, “The Producers,” is back on center stage this year as Lieutenant Cioffi. Mr. Waters teaches middle school math at Woodside School, where he has co-directed the eighth-grade operetta.

He has been acting since attending St. Francis High School and recently appeared in productions by the Portola Valley Theatre Conservatory, the Redwood City Community Theatre, and Hillbarn.

“I work all day and rehearse all night,” he says. “It’s less like having a second job and more like having a hobby with lots of fun people.”

His love interest in this show, Niki, is played by Lindsay Schulz of San Carlos. She also appeared in “The Producers” and has performed with Redwood City Community Theatre.

Woodside High School put on “Curtains” about 10 years ago. Will Palomares of Woodside was in the ensemble then and is now playing Johnny. Nancy Krosse’s son was in the high school production, and now she’s Carmen in WCT’s version. Ditto for former Woodside High parent Robert Adams who is playing Sidney.

Recent Woodside High grad Ty Newcomb is in the ensemble. So are Liviera Leebong and Wendy Weitzel of Menlo Park. Their neighbor Stephanie Case plays the part of Georgia.

Former Woodside High parent Donna Losey is one of three co-producers. She describes the cast of 32: “We have everybody, people who are experienced like Gary (Stanford of Woodside who is playing Bobby) who have choreographed and been in shows, to Kathryn, who hasn’t been in a show since high school.”

Kathryn Anderson is a retired Redwood City police sergeant. She is in the ensemble and says performing in a musical again after such a long time “is all very new and scary in a different way.”

Breanna van Gastel, who is playing Bambi, is a former Miss California USA.

Co-producer Liz Matchett, her husband and daughters have played many roles both on and off stage at WCT. Ms. Matchett teaches Spanish at Gunn High School. Husband Richard Vaughan is the music director at Hillview Middle School in Menlo Park. He’s playing cello in this show and arranged for rehearsal space at his school.

“Everyone does this out of the goodness of their heart because they love theater,” Ms. Matchett observes.

Longtime co-producer and sometime performer Mark Bowles says his love affair with musicals dates back to 1963 when he was in grade school.

Dorothy White teaches at Menlo Park Academy of Dance and is new to WCT this year as choreographer. She worked with the new director, Jay Manley, when they mounted “Curtains” at Foothill College three years ago. She says she’s excited to see the show unfold now that “we have a larger stage to work on and a larger cast.”

Mr. Manley agrees. “It’s a great big stage with a full orchestra, full service production (so we can) do it kind of the way it was written,” he says. “It was kind of their valentine to a long-gone Broadway during the Golden Age of musicals.”

Richard Gordon of Woodside returns as musical director. Kristin Pfeifer is back as vocal director. Don Coluzzi of Portola Valley is acting as both lighting director and co-technical director with Akio Patrick of Woodside, the set designer. His wife, Karen, is co-costume designer with Lyndesay Adams, another fellow former Woodside High parent. Brother Steve Patrick of Woodside is the chief builder, with wife Tina assisting and painting with Chuck and Gayle Martin of Woodside.

Other Woodside residents involved in the production are Bob Sawyer as set builder and stage crew member, Joan Rubin as assistant to the director and spotlight, Chase Hovden as spotlight, Karen Peterson as house manager, Barbara Wood as assistant stage manager, and Marsha BonDurant as program creator.

Fletcher Johnson grew up in Woodside with parents who participated in WCT. He has also performed with WCT but this time he is running the computerized system that moves the scenery.

For the first time WCT brought in a dialect coach, Kimily Conkle, to help nail the Kansas, Boston and Bronx accents.

WCT is breaking in a new stage manager, Marte Abrahamsen, who recently graduated from Foothill. “I’m doing it for experience,” she says. “I’m trying to get into stage managing.”

Performances

Click here or call (800) 838-3006 for tickets to “Curtains.” Prices are $15 for students 18 and under, $25 for seniors 62 and older, and $28 for other adults. The show will start at 8 p.m. on four nights: Oct. 25, 30 and 31 and Nov. 1, with Sunday matinees scheduled for 2 p.m. on Oct. 26 and Nov. 2.

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