Director’s Note
Last winter, I began to obsess over choosing the perfect musical for the next school year. By spring, I had a short list of six or so plays, all of which were fairly modern and frequently performed among high school theater groups. But nothing seemed to speak to me. As we moved toward the end of the school year, I started to pray that God would just choose a show and then let me know what he had picked. I got my answer late one night when a Youtube train of musical excerpts inexplicably led me to "Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat." The song played three times in a row — three different versions, all from Tony-nominated shows — and by the end of the third recording, I knew I was meant to bring that number to life on the King’s Ridge stage.
Ever since then, I have been at peace with the daunting task of realizing this larger-than-life production in just 12 short weeks. But I haven’t done it alone; I am blessed with the talent and dedication of an amazing production team that includes musical director Jenny Piacente, technical director and set designer Patty Zeitz, set builder Keith Allen, costume managers Betsy Welch and Beth Janeway, props manager Gina Sides, stage manager Ari Marshall, and the director of Fine Arts Holly Krig-Smith, who oversees us all.
Together we have created in living color the vivid world imagined by Damon Runyon in his short stories about gamblers and gangsters in New York City. But it is the students who have brought that world to life through their talent, creativity, and hard work in creating nuanced and believable characters. Add to that the tremendous vocal ability required to execute Frank Loesser’s unforgettable score and the hours of choreography that culminate in eight major dance numbers, and you get . . . well, you get transported— to another place at another time in another world within New York City; it is a world in which the characters blur the lines between right and wrong, and yet everyone acts in earnest. It is a world of dice games and crazy bets, of eternal engagements and unexpected romance, of misunderstandings, misadventures, and one unmistakable happy ending.
It has been my absolute pleasure to inhabit this small corner of Broadway over the past 12 weeks, and now it is my honor and my privilege to share this world with you.
I still thank God daily for sending us this show. To Him be the glory, in this and in all things.
Blessings,
Melissa Casavant
