Youth Theater hits the stage with Hollywood-themed musical

The cast, top row, Ellise Dowd, Francesca Catella, Sophia Catella, Charles Dunn, Lauren Ormsby, Katharine Rottach, and Samantha Stanek; second row, Emily Howe, Gracy Hershey, Noah Kostecki, Sloan Lamb, Shayla Lindquist, Adrianna Daigle, and Sydney Hinds; third row, Kate Leithauser, Brady Stewart, Bryan Donaghue, Jordan Livingston, Liesl Netherland, Haley Phillips, and Reilly Kerrigan; and bottom row, Kennedy Smith, Kelsey Phillips, Ethan Dowd, Kory Kovach, Mackenzie Loutzenhiser, and Jillian Livingston. Photos provided by Emily Dowd

The young performers of Clarkston Village Players’ Youth Theater are spending these hot summer weeks preparing for their musical production “Gone With The Breeze.” The play tells the story of Hollywood’s Lone Pine Films planning to adapt the sensational new novel, “Gone With The Breeze,” with its heroine, spunky 18-year-old Jezebel O’Toole, to the silver screen, attracting hundreds of aspiring young actresses to the studio.
The studio already knows they’ll cast Peggy Tempest, played by Haley Phillips, for Jezebel’s part. She’s the most powerful star in town and will guarantee a hit, but she’s also the most temperamental one.
To keep her in line, producers Ruth Wintersole, played by Reilly Kerrigan, and Brady Stewart’s Huckleberry Jones pretend they want an “unknown” for the part. With a few hilarious hiccups along the way, the scheme appears to work. It isn’t until Lone Pine films find out they don’t actually have the rights to the film and the author of the novel shows up that things really get interesting. You’ll laugh and dance in your seats to songs like “Fax Me A Kiss” and “Give a Lawyer a Hug.”
Performance dates for the show, produced by special arrangement with Pioneer Drama Service Inc., Denver, Colo., book by Tim Kelly, music and lyrics by Bill Francoeur, are Friday, July 20, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, July 21, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, July 22, 2 p.m.; Thursday, July 26, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, July 27, 7:30 p.m.; and Saturday, July 28, 7:30 p.m., at Depot Theater, 4861 White Lake Road. Tickets are $11 at www.cvpyouth theatre.org/tickets.

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