Production is first one for the program under new director and SYHS graduate Amy Curti
Now entering its 24th year, and first with new director Amy Curti, The Santa Ynez High School Theatre Group is preparing for six weekend performances of a literary classic, “Little Women.”
The production, featuring SYHS students in the cast, is scheduled for three shows on successive weekends starting Friday, Nov. 15, and again on Friday, Nov. 22. Friday and Saturday shows start at 7 p.m., with the Sunday shows beginning at 2 p.m.
The shows will be the first under the direction of Curti, a 1991 graduate of SYHS who has taken over for Jeff McKinnon, the founder of the group who retired earlier this year.
“I was at St. Joseph for the last five years, in Santa Maria, and this is my alma mater, so I’d been kind of patiently waiting for Jeff to retire,” Curti said. “At one point, I knew he was close to retiring, so I contacted him to ask his timeline, and once he did make plans to retire, I applied for the job and got it.
“I did about 11 production during my time at St. Joe’s, all of them musicals. So, I’m kind of easing into this position by just doing a play.”
“Little Women” originated as a classic, coming-of-age novel by Louisa May Alcott, first published in the 19th century. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters — Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy — and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. The story is loosely based on Alcott’s life with her three sisters.
“Jeff [McKinnon] had an advanced theater class last year, and he warned them I was coming, and asked to submit a ‘wish list’ of their three top shows,” Curti said. “So I got the list, and ‘Little Women’ was on there, and that was an easy choice for me. I teach American literature and ‘Little Women’ is one of my favorite childhood stories.”
Curti started with SYHS in August, and had auditions for the show at the end of the month.
“Jeff had told me he had some strong female leads in his class that I would get,” she said. “So I started two weeks, teaching my two theater classes, and I saw a few of them in ‘Bye, Bye Birdie’ that the Arts Outreach had put on, so I knew what kind of talent I had.”
One interesting aspect about the play is that the young actors will actually be wearing wireless mics while doing the show.
“This is the first time we’ve had a sound system, and we’ll be putting mics on the students, in addition to the hanging mics [above the stage],” Curti said. “Before that, we’ve just been using natural projection, which I wish the kids could do, but they can’t, so we’ll mic them. Plus, we’ll need to mic them for next semester’s musical.”
Ah, yes, as Curti disclosed, the group will be doing a musical, “School of Rock,” based on the movie starring Jack Black.
“I’ll be collaborating with Rob Cantrell, who’s the music teacher here and also in the [local band] Molly Ringwald Project,” she said. “He’s a guitarist, so we’re playing with the idea of having live music with that show. It’ll definitely be a bigger production.”
Of course, with theater, there is more than just what’s on the stage. Productions depend on people who know how lighting and sound works, and those that can build stage sets. That’s a fact not lost on Curti.
“We have a lot of outside help: For instance, we have a family here, the Kelseys, who are Civil War re-enactors, and they’ve let us borrow some of their costumes because that’s the time period for ‘Little Women,'” she said. “And we have Chris Mullin, one of our teachers, who helps us with the sets.”
“However, I’d say that’s something we need to build here; I’m working right now to really learn all aspects of the theater. And I would say a goal would be that we would build a technical theater program here, for students to learn this.”
But, for the moment, the focus is on “Little Women” and the upcoming premiere on Nov. 15 at the school’s Little Theater.
The shows will run on Nov. 15, 16, and 17, and again on Nov. 22, 23, and 24. Showtimes are 7 p.m. for the Friday and Saturday shows, and 2 p.m. for the Sunday shows. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students, and $50 for VIP and can be purchased at syvuhsd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1086199&type=d&pREC_ID=1468892.
Feature image: Amy Curti, a member of Santa Ynez High’s Class of 1991, is in her first year as the director of the SYHS Theater Group after five years at St. Joseph’s High in Santa Maria. Photo by Mike Chaldu.
