Main St 56 Theater

As another year begins to fade away in the hopefulness of a new one, there’s still room for a look back at the best and brightest theatrical performances as the Batavia Players present the 2024 Gala: Starting Here, Starting Now!

The premise is simple enough. Pat Burk says: it’s a new year, the first time for the awards show in a brand new theater, and with all but three of a dozen new shows negotiated for the 2024 season.

“Starting Here, Starting Now is a song written for a musical, it’s not really well known, but it’s about, this is the beginning of our new year, it’s about things being new. It’s just a nice kind of event, and people can see the seating and the style in the theater and how things are presented there. And it’s just kind of a cool event,” Burk said during an interview with The Batavian. “We’re pretty close to being completed, and all of our shows will be presented in the same venue with all new equipment. It’s just going to be a great year for us.”

Set for 7 p.m. Saturday at the Main St. 56 Theater in downtown Batavia, the gala is a party celebration of the Players’ “very successful 2023 season” with hors d’oeuvres, refreshments, basket raffles, select performances and — drum roll, please — a presentation of the 2023 Harvie Awards to a slate of deserving performers in this past year’s lineup of shows.

There will be several recap performances and highlights of plays and musicals from the past season, along with a discussion about why people were nominated and ultimately chosen for each award. 

Directors from each of the shows submitted nominations, and four additional directors contributed reviews for the final selections, Burk said. Beyond a nod of recognition for the talent up on stage is a moment to pause and reflect and reminisce about the seven musicals and four play productions put forth in a span of 12 months, he said. 

This will be the first time since COVID — will it ever be forgotten? — for a full-blown awards show. The last one was for the 2019 awards, and it was right smack in the middle of a St. Patrick’s holiday that health department officials came in to shut down the event on those first bleak days of the pandemic, he said.

“And they came in nicely, and we said, ‘Can we at least finish, or can we get the food out of here?’ And they said we had to close up. I remember they allowed us to do takeout containers for the corned beef and cabbage,” he said. 

Does that feel like a million years ago now, or yesterday?

“A million years ago, because we were also in the process of just starting the demolition of the new theater. And that literally started that January 1, and we were just so looking forward to, within two years, we’d be out of Harvester and into our new theater. And obviously, none of that happened,” he said. “So, we’re in the new theater … it’s so deserved. It’s been a long time coming.”

And in that vein, the theater is starting here, starting now, with its 2024 season that kicks off with a concert, “Pushin’ Time,” with duo Eric Carlin and Deanna Spiotta Carlin on Jan. 19. Other confirmed shows include “The Little Mermaid Jr.," “Pygmalion,” and one that Burk is thrilled to have secured for May, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita.”

As for the remainder of the lineup, that will be revealed, except for those three shows still in negotiations, during this weekend's gala. Attendees may want to spiff up for the affair if they like and absorb a medley of productions while supporting the arts and artists who make it happen.

Admission is a $30 donation. Advance ticket purchases are encouraged at bataviaplayers.org

Award nominations went to the following:

Lead actor in a play

Stephen VanValkenburg - Almost Maine

Steven Coburn - Antony & Cleopatra

Steven Coburn - 12 Angry Jurors

Anthony Haitz - One Act Plays/The Bear

Seth Coburn - One Act Plays/Mr. Icky

Lead actress in a play

Jacqueline Morrison - Almost Maine

Emily Crawford - Antony & Cleopatra

Teressa Hirsch - 12 Angry Jurors

Teressa Hirsch - One act plays/Verbatim

Supporting actor in a play

Elijah Van Epps - Almost Maine

Shaun Coburn - Almost Maine

Elijah Van Epps - Antony & Cleopatra

James Barcomb - 12 Angry Jurors

James Barcomb - One act plays/The Bear

Supporting actress in a play

Kendra Morrison - Almost Maine

Cynthia Nelson - Almost Maine

Cynthia Nelson - Antony & Cleopatra

Dorothy Gerhart - 12 Angry Jurors

Dorothy Gerhart - One act plays/Verbatim

Featured actor in a play

Richard Ferris - Almost Maine

Lawrence Rowswell - Antony & Cleopatra

James Barcomb - Antony & Cleopatra

Anthony Haitz - 12 Angry Jurors

Shakeem Walcott - One act plays/Mr. Icky

Featured actress in a play

Sophie Houseman - Almost Maine

Maia Zerillo - Almost Maine

Erin Stamp - Antony & Cleopatra

Shellene Bailey - Antony & Cleopatra

Mary Eckstein - 12 Angry Jurors

Sophie Crandall - One act plays/Mr. Icky

Leading male performance in a musical

Marc Sapareto - Opposites Attract

Phil Berry - Drowsy Chaperone

Marc Sapareto - Do Not Sing List

Marc Sapareto - Cry Baby

Kevin Partridge - A Christmas Carol

Leading female performance in a musical

Sarah Hill - Opposites Attract

Kristin Gelia - Drowsy Chaperone

Maia Zerillo - Do Not Sing List

Maia Zerillo - Cry Baby

Jennifer Dunn - A Christmas Carol

Supporting male performance in a musical

Seth Coburn - Opposites Attract

Sam Bowman - Drowsy Chaperone

Qasim Huzair - Drowsy Chaperone

Deacon Smith - Do Not Sing List

Deacon Smith - Cry Baby

Andy Hamm - A Christmas Carol

Supporting female performance in a musical

Jocelyn Coburn - Opposites Attract

Sophie Houseman - Drowsy Chaperone

Kendra Morrison - Do Not Sing List

Paige Sikorski - Cry Baby

Rose Mosher - Cry Baby

Amanda Melissa Taylor - A Christmas Carol

Featured male performance in a musical

Cass Dzielski - Opposites Attract

Anthony Haitz - Drowsy Chaperone

Steven Coburn - Drowsy Chaperone

Elijah Van Epps - Do Not Sing List

Paul Daniszewski - Cry Baby

William Zerillo - A Christmas Carol

Featured female performance in a musical

Teressa Hirsch - Opposites Attract

Amy-Catherine - Cunningham Drowsy Chaperone

Beth Knopf - Drowsy Chaperone

Kristin Gelia - Do Not Sing List

Samantha Jane Balbi -Cry Baby

Kylea Wright - Cry Baby

Dorothy Gerhart - A Christmas Carol

Youth performance

Peyton Woeller -Do Not Sing List

Quinn Boardman - All Shook Up

Peyton Sikorski - All Shook Up

Peyton Woeller - Cry Baby

Sophie Crandall - A Christmas Carol

Lilah Mordell - A Christmas Carol

Child performance

Annalie Crandall - All Shook Up

Sylar Kuenzi - All Shook Up

Adam Jursted - Cry Baby

Xavier Deschamps - A Christmas Carol

Liam Taylor - A Christmas Carol

Charlotte Reddin - A Christmas Carol

Best musical performance ensemble

Move Towards the Darkness - Opposites Attract

I Do, I Do in the Sky - Drowsy Chaperone

Cell Block Tango -Do Not Sing List

You Bet Your Ass - Cry Baby

In December - A Christmas Carol

Best musical performance solo

Jacqueline Morrison - Three Days Without Breathing/Opposites Attract

Sophie Houseman - As We Stumble Along/Drowsy Chaperone

Cass Dzielski - Run Away With Me/Do Not Sing List

Paige Sikorski - Screwloose/Cry Baby

Deacon Smith - Hallelujah/A Christmas Carol

It looked like the Batavia Players cast had quite a party as show Director Anthony Baldwin-Giambrone dropped empty beer bottles into a cooler near the stage Monday evening.

There was a party, he said, however, only as part of the 2022 Shakespeare in Springtime series. Beer-drinking during a yearly Shakespearean staple? Only when the setting has been switched up from the typical 16th Century scenario of kings, queens, and jesters, to a modern-day educational setting.

“We took the entire show and set it at a college, with a fraternity house and a sorority house,” Baldwin-Giambrone said during rehearsals at the new venue inside City Centre. “We had this play ready to go in March 2020 … we have two-thirds of the original cast back. We had to recast eight people, and we bumped up an actor from a small role to a lead role.”\

The show didn’t go on then, as all things COVID-19 shut it down. Fast forward two years and construction of the new theater is still in progress as new and returning cast members rehearse in The Backstage space that accommodates 84 patrons. Known as “black box theater,” this space offers a close-up view of the action. It was a welcome sight for 34-year-old Justin Chortie, he said.

“It’s nice and intimate,” the North Tonawanda actor said. “I haven’t done black box since college.”

He plays Ferdinand the King, aka president of the fraternity. Thought to be sort of snobby, his character convinces his friends to give up girls for a while. Of course, this wouldn’t be a comical love story if the king actually followed his own advice, as Chortie said, and the king’s own words get him into hot water.

Chortie believes the two-hour round trip for rehearsals is worth it. He had but one word for why: passion.

“To hear the audience laugh, it’s adrenaline almost, it’s like a drug,” he said. “I mean, it's wild. You gotta go. You’ve got kings and princesses, but they're not really kings and princesses; they're fraternities and sororities. There's all kinds of fun.”

The show is Love’s Labour’s Lost, and it’s set for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m Sunday at The Backstage at Main St. 56 Theater, Batavia. For those unfamiliar with this new space at Batavia City Centre, the entrance is a purple door next to Batavia Family Dental.

Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance before Queen Elizabeth I. The King of Navarre and his three companions attempt to swear off the company of women for three years in order to focus on study and fasting. They break their oath through a subsequent infatuation with the Princess of France and her ladies. The play closes with the death of the Princess's father, and all weddings are delayed for a year.

Although Baldwin-Giambrone is no stranger to the Players troop or the Shakespeare series, this is his first time directing this particular show. A resident of Kenmore, he is one of a big handful of actors and staff driving to and from rehearsals after a more typical day job. 

For this director, he goes from being a special education high school math teacher by day to working with a cast of 18 people at night. Think Shakespeare is dull, dry, and a ho-hum display of antiquated dialect? Think again, he and his cast members said. This is a show they described as “fun and funny.”

What hasn’t been so funny is how that unyielding pandemic wiped out this show two years ago.

“We were two weeks away from opening. And then we were shut down before we opened. And then with COVID, we had to make sure we were wearing masks at all rehearsals,” he said. “And then I know my assistant director, Jane (Burk), she actually, after every single rehearsal, stayed after and wiped down all the surfaces and sprayed and cleaned everything.”

Pushing COVID repercussions aside, Baldwin-Giambrone ran with the comical theme of Love’s Labour’s Lost. He replaced the more regal characters of kings and queens with frat boys and sorority sisters and paired them by personality — over the top and very clear cut  — such as the dumb blonds and the studious ones. 

“And they’re funny because this is a comedy. So it’s very funny seeing them do their very stereotypical distinct personalities,” he said. “The biggest challenge, I would say, was rehearsing in a shorter time period … just being able to get in here and start working with people to begin scheduling and everything. It just was a lot more tight.”

Dorothy Gerhart of Alabama had to drop her former role of Holofernes for the sorority mom, Boyet. It wasn’t really a bigger role, she said, because she counted the lines, and they were about equal. However, the mom role provided opportunity for more fun, she said. Her outfits are wild and colorful, with leopard, tie-dye, and purple pok-a-dot patterns. 

“I think she graduated from college but never really left,” Gerhart said. “She sees herself as one of the girls. She’s kind of the comedy relief, with a lot of funny lines.”

Aaron Klafehn is another newcomer to the Players, though not at all new to acting, he said. Working in quality control for HP Hood in Batavia, the 34-year-old discovered Batavia Players through his partner, the show's assistant costumer Marshall McCall. Klafehn has been interested in theater since elementary school. He plays the role of Costard, who he describes as a “chaos-causing math teacher.”

“He purposely does things incorrectly, to try and get a rise out of someone else,” Klafehn said, adding that he had a hiatus from theater during the last couple of years. “I fell right back into it, and am making new connections. It’s much different than the day-to-day aspects of what I do. It’s fun to bring someone’s creation to life. I try and make sure that it's as organic to the character that I'm creating as possible, rather than trying to imitate or copy someone else's. I'm excited to be back performing again, and very excited to see the new performing space when it's finished.”

Tickets are $15 for adults, $13 for students and seniors. To purchase tickets, go to: showtix4u.com

Top photo: Shaun Coburn, Justin Chortie and James Barcomb run through a rehearsal Tuesday night of Batavia Players' upcoming Love's Labour's Lost, which is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at The Backstage at Main St. 56 Theater, Batavia City Centre. The actors are joined by Sam Bowman, shown in the fourth photo from the top, during mandatory masked rehearsals for the Shakespeare in Springtime Series comedy by Batavia Players. Photos by Howard Owens. Editor's Note: Due to scheduling conflicts, this rehearsal was not in costume.