John Jay High School Theatre Workshop Presents Stage Door December 8 - 10

  John Jay High School Theatre Workshop presents the award winning play Stage Door, written by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, featuring seniors Bailey Owen, Nick Spink, Isaiah Blum, Jenny Sokol and Barrett Middleton leading a cast of 29. Performances are 7:00 p.m. on December 8 and 9, and at 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on December 10. Tickets are $10 adults, and $5 students and senior citizens, and are sold December 1 through December 6 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the High School theatre lobby. After December 6, tickets will be sold at the door one hour prior to curtain. 

Stage Door is a play about following your dream,” said director Bill Friedman, performing arts teacher at John Jay High School (JJHS). “Should you compromise, and take a safe route in life? What should you be willing to sacrifice?”

  The play concerns a group of young girls who have come to New York to study acting and find jobs. The scene is Mrs. Orcutt’s boarding house, where the hopes and ambitions of sixteen young women are revealed in scenes of entertaining comedy. Terry Randall, the central character, played by senior Bailey Owen, has to decide whether she'll pursue a career acting on stage, which she loves, or give up the stage to take a job in Hollywood, with the chance to be a movie star.

“The play is a huge challenge,” continued Friedman. “It's the ultimate ensemble play, with twenty characters living in a large brownstone near Times Square, constantly running in and out. There are so many talented women at JJHS that we felt it was important to find a play that could give as many of them as possible a chance to perform.”

John Jay’s Theatre Workshop is an extra-curricular theater company that puts on four productions a year: the fall drama, the freshman play (performed by 9th-graders; fully designed and directed by 12th-graders), the spring musical and The Evening of One -Act Plays (directed, again, by students).  

“What makes our productions truly special are the alumni that continue to return year after year to work on our productions. About twelve alumni are participating in Stage Door,” said producer Amy Geiger, a music teacher at JJHS. “Many of our Workshop alumni have gone on to have successful careers in theatre and we are honored that they continue to share their talents with us and pass the torch to the next generation of students.”

“Our students are very fortunate to live in an area with so many professional artists; there is a tremendous amount of support for the arts in our community!”

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