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'Kiss Me Kate' coming to Ridgefield High stage

'Kiss Me Kate' coming to Ridgefield High stage
Penny Ditch  |  by www.newstimeslive.com. All rights reserved. 6.03 | 7:04

Ridgefield High School is presenting Cole Porter's "Kiss Me Kate" in four performances this month. The school's offerings of the 1948 musical are a return to the American composer after last year's production of "Anything Goes.

""I love the show. It's Cole Porter again," said Joyce Flanagan, music and theater arts director at the school and director of the show. "Porter's stuff is so clever and entertaining.

And it's a good story. We have a wonderful cast and crew. Our set designer, Don Murphy, has outdone himself this year.

" From freshman Jack Davidson, who plays the cab driver, to senior Matt Plotzker, who play the lead role, there are 100 students in the production. Flanagan finds a place in the production for every student interested in participating. "This is my first musical in high school," Davidson said.

"I started getting into musicals last year in the eighth grade. I've gotten more interested in musicals from that." "Kiss Me Kate" is a playful mix of Shakespearean comedy and 1940s comedy, Plotzker said.

"I definitely love Porter's music. It surprises me how he could come up with such different musicals as 'Anything Goes' and 'Kiss Me Kate.' He's done some interesting things with Shakespeare's lines in his music," Plotzker said, citing the songs "Where is the Life of Late I've Led" and "I've Come To Wive It Wealthily in Padua.

"

In "Kiss Me Kate," Plotzker plays the egotistical actor Fred Graham who is reunited with his ex-wife, actress Lilli Vanessi, played by senior Kathryn Kozlark, when the two perform leading roles of Petruchio and Kate in "Taming of the Shrew," the play within the play. The two fight but are still in love. "Playing Lilli allows me to stretch as an actress in that she has two sides," Kozlark said.

"She's insecure but masks it well when others are around. But when she's alone, she allows her insecurities to come out.' Kozlark enjoys playing Lilli, a character who is "extremely strong, very intelligent and very independent," she said.

"Last year in 'Anything Goes' I was Hope Harcourt, a sweet ingenue. It's a nice change playing Lilli. I like playing the strong, brassier character.

Lilli is also more comedic with a biting sarcasm." "Kiss Me Kate" also has two former cabaret performers in the cast of "Taming of the Shrew," Lois Lane/Bianca, played by senior Julia Judge, and Bill Calhoun, played by senior Doug Yolen. Lois and Bill struggle to keep their romance alive.

"Bill is kind of a romantic, very smooth, Frank Sinatra-like character with a bad kind of gambling rebel side to him," Yolen said. "He's definitely a challenge to play." Yolen has been in musicals at Ridgefield High all four of his years at the school.

For him, performing in musicals is a "stress release" from school. "It's something I love doing," Yolen said. "I'd like to keep singing in college.

I won't major in theater. But I'd like to perhaps be in some a capella groups while in college." For Judge, performing in "Kiss Me Kate" is also her fourth return to the stage at the high school.

She plans to major in music in college and continue on in theatrical performances. "Last year, I was Mrs. Harcourt in 'Anything Goes.

' The year before that I was Estella in 'West Side Story,'" Judge said. "I enjoy playing Lois Lane. She's a lot of fun to play because she's such a ditz and she's got great songs like 'Always True To You in My Fashion.

'" The Ridgefield High School spring musical "Kiss Me Kate" has four performances, March 9,10,16 and 17 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.

The Ridgefield High School auditorium is at 700 North Salem Road (Route 116 North). this story has 0 comments.

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Keywords: Me Kate, Kiss Me, Kiss Me Kate, High School, Ridgefield High, Anything Goes, Ridgefield High School, Cole Porter
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