ACT Presents "Seussical the Musical" in July
Hello to one and all. I am Kevin Wietrzykowski, and I am pleased to be directing Seussical the Musical for Archbold Community Theatre. I directed Hello Dolly for ACT and have been in numerous productions as well (Titanic and She Loves Me to name a couple). We have compiled a great cast and team. Although we have only just begun practicing as of this writing, I can tell you that we have assembled a very talented cast.
Seussical is the story of “Horton Hears a Who,” which is “thinked up” by a boy called JoJo. The show opens with JoJo (Wyatt Short) discovering a red and white hat, and he wonders what sort of creature would wear such a hat. Well, it turns out to be the Cat in the Hat (Lauren Zehr), who serves as a guide throughout all of JoJo’s “thinks.” The Cat takes on multiple personalities throughout the show, mostly in a comical sense. The Whos consist of Mr. and Mrs. Mayor (Nicholas Bellmyer and Deb Mattocks) who become JoJo’s parents, the Grinch (Perry Andre), General Schmitz (Brandon Rees) and his Cadets of Butter Side Uppers (Andrew Canada, Caroline Kinsman, Sid Ramirez and Faith Wyse), and Who families (Riley DeBacker, Marli Fryman, Alex Menendes, Lexie Menendez and Bailey Short). As for Horton (Matt Richardson), he has other members of the Jungle of Nool that live with him. They include Gertrude McFuzz (Myah Shaffer), a one feathered tail bird, who is his next door neighbor that really likes him; Mayzie (Caprianna Parrish) who has the most beautiful tail of all; the Bird Girls (Noelle Goodson, Madeline Pitman, Meghan Rice, Erin Sprow, Monica Taylor and Naomi Taylor) who envy Mayzie; the Wickersham Brothers of Monkeys (Wyatt Short, Lance Westrick, Casey Wood and Caleb Wyse); Sour Kangaroo (Brittany Von Stein) and Young Kangaroo (Anna Pitman) ; Yertle the Turtle (Emily Wyse); and other animals (Jen Gisel and Angeina Sorge). You will also encounter Thing One and Thing Two (Kelley Jo Bailey and Destiny Lee). The tale takes us through Horton’s hearing the Whos with the Jungle of Zool in disbelief. Horton ends up babysitting Mayzie’s egg and gets captured by a Circus group. It comes together in the end when the jungle animals finally hear the Whos, too. There is much more to the plot that I will leave out both because this is an article, not a book, and more importantly, I want you to come to see it for yourself.
Donna Kinsman is the Assistant Director and Producer, Brenda Canada is our Musical Director, and Jennifer Knapp is choreographing the numerous dance routines. I wish to thank Bill Phelps and his crew for all the hard work they’ve already done building a set true to my vision.
Please join us for one or more of our performances at Archbold High School, July 16-17 at 8pm, July 23-24 at 8pm, and July 25 at 2:30pm. We hope to see you there. “SEUSS!”
