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A Problem, A Promise: A Pied Piper will appear in Manteo this summer, courtesy of the N.C. School of the Arts
Journal Photo by Jennifer Rotenizer
Ben Gunderson, a rising senior at the N.C. School of the Arts, rehearses his leading role in Take One Step — the New Pied Piper.
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Published: June 22, 2008
Rats!
In Manteo, they seem to be everywhere, and kids are, like, really mad at them. The kids say that rats are stealing bikes and lunches, and making off with toys. The rats have made a bad situation even worse. There aren't enough playgrounds in Manteo, and garbage keeps piling up.
Enter Ben Gunderson, a rising college senior studying acting at the N.C. School of the Arts. He's playing the title role in Take One Step -- the New Pied Piper, a musical by Gerald Freedman and John Morris. NCSA students will present the show beginning July 8 in the Outdoor Pavilion at Roanoke Island Festival Park. Pied Piper will highlight the NCSA Summer Performance Festival running Tuesday through Aug. 2 in Manteo, on the Outer Banks.
The Pied Piper has felt the children's pain, and he wants to help. But he finds that Manteo's mayor, played by Chris French, is in denial about the rats -- until, that is, they steal the town's money and the mayor's papers.
After that, the mayor and Pied Piper make a deal. The Pied Piper will make those awful rats disappear and, in return, the mayor will pledge $1 million to build a new park in Manteo.
Will the mayor keep his promise? And what will the Pied Piper do if he doesn't?
"That's a lot of what this show is about," said Kelly Maxner, the co-director with Freedman. "If you make a promise, keep a promise. Do what you say you're going to do. That's the important message of the story. It's not a children's story; it's a story for everybody."
Maxner promised a show that "is very much about audience participation," in which Manteo youngsters, having been cast in minor roles, will interact with kids in the audience. He described a 50-minute show with 11 songs, fun dancing and lots of action involving trampolines, bicycles, pushcarts and hula hoops.
"It's very psychedelic," Gunderson said. "The music is influenced by the (late '60s) time period.… My first song -- it's called "Pied Piper" -- is just very croony." Gunderson said this is the first time he has done theater aimed at families. He said he was initially "resistant" to playing Pied Piper, having studied the likes of Shakespeare and Chekhov during winter months in school.
"But the more we rehearse, the more I'm sort of falling in love with it," he said. "Once there are kids there, I think it will be so much fun to get them going."
Freedman, the show's director, is also the drama dean at NCSA. With Pied Piper, he has adapted a show that the Public Theater in New York presented in the 1960s, when Freedman was that company's artistic director. He also presided over a Great Lakes Theater Festival production of Pied Piper in the 1990s.
Freedman's latest Pied Piper follows a fairly long line of theatrical productions based on the Piper fairy tales that scholars have traced to the early 1300s. Freedman said that he wants Pied Piper to have a life in Winston-Salem -- during the December holiday season.
"You wouldn't know it from the show we're doing at Manteo, but I think it could be an annual Christmas show," he said. "It has similar outlines to Dickens' Christmas Story, without in any way copying it."
Pied Piper isn't the only show making its debut at Manteo.
Mark Norman, who leads the NCSA Wind Ensemble, has just formed the NCSA American Music Ensemble, which will present "Ragtime Revue" Tuesday through Friday at the Outdoor Pavilion.
Norman described a nine-musician ensemble consisting of the following instruments: two violins, cello, flute, trumpet, trombone, tuba, clarinet, drums and piano. He said he was trying to follow in the footsteps of the New England Ragtime Ensemble. In 1973, that group, under Gunther Schuller's direction, released The Art of the Rag (GM Recordings), capitalizing on the craze for Joplin rags that The Sting, a film, helped generate.
Norman notes that Joplin's rags, though originally composed for solo piano, were often arranged for bands during the composer's day, namely the turn of the last century, as way of enhancing their popularity.
"You could do it with just the brass," Norman said. "You could do it with just the strings. Or you could do it with just the woodwinds. But when you put this combination together, you get a very unique sound."
■ Ken Keuffel can be reached at 727-7337 or at kkeuffel@wsjournal.com.
NCSA at Manteo
• WHAT: The NCSA Summer Performance Festival. The festival has several series, from "Afternoon Classics" to "Saturday Night at the Movies," in which, for the first time, films will be shown on a large, outdoor inflatable screen.
• WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Aug. 2.
• WHERE: Outdoor Pavilion, Roanoke Island Festival Park, Manteo. Note: In case of rain, all presentations will be moved to the park's Film Theater.
• COST: Free.
• HIGHLIGHTS:
Tuesday-Friday. "Ragtime Revue," Mark Norman leads the NCSA American Music Ensemble.
July 1-3. "July Jazz," The NCSA Jazz Ensemble, led by Ron Rudkin, will team up with Becca Stevens, a jazz vocalist.
July 4. "Fourth of July Celebration," featuring the jazz ensemble and wind players.
July 8, 9, 17 and 18. "Take One Step -- the New Pied Piper,"
July 10, 11, 22 and 23. "The Comedy of Errors," NCSA actors perform Shakespeare's comedy.
July 15, 16, 24 and 25. "Red, White & Blue Revue," Broadway-bound students sing songs of change.
July 29-Aug. 1. "Dance at Eight!" Dancers perform pieces choreographed by NCSA alums.
• MORE INFO: For more information and a complete schedule, go to www.NCSASummerFest.org or call 252-475-1500.
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