Vienna Youth Players’ summer production of “Newsies” will let students from around Northern Virginia polish their acting and technical chops, build camaraderie and have a ball while depicting events drawn from real life.
Adapted from the 1992 Disney film, “Newsies” centers around a 1899 newspaper-carrier strike. Youth hawking newspapers on street corners battled for a better wage against the forces of famed newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World and William Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal.
The strikers drafted youths from outside the business to join the protest, which becomes citywide, said Vienna Youth Players (VYP) director Nicole Dreo, who also is the show’s director and choreographer.
“It puts your own life into perspective when you see it,” she said. “It makes me thankful for the challenges they went through and the efforts they made for each other.”
Dreo said she chose the show in part because she is a ballet dancer and “Newsies” is heavy on dance numbers. The production does not need trained ballerinas, but rather performers who look like they’re children dancing their hearts out on the street, she said.
The show offers plenty of serious moments, but also comic relief, Dreo said.
“It’s really upbeat, but also emotionally challenging and uplifting,” she said. “It checks all the boxes.”
VYP accepts students ages 10 through 18 and this production is drawing from a wider-than-usual selection of schools from around the area, Dreo said.
In addition to the usual influx from James Madison High School, the company is drawing participants from Robinson Secondary School and Oakton, Falls Church, Chantilly, Washington-Liberty, West Springfield and Westfield high schools. Local middle- and elementary-school students are involved, as well, said Dreo, adding the Instagram proved a blessing in the casting call.
“‘Newsies’ is really popular among high-school students,” she said. “They tend to flock to that show. It’s about people in their age group gaining power, and the songs are beautifully written.”
The 51-member cast has actors doubling up in three key roles. In addition to giving more performers a chance to shine, this arrangement provides valuable redundancy.
When an actor in a key role broke his wrist in a fight scene on opening night in last summer’s production of “The Lightning Thief,” the company summoned his backup, who arrived a half-hour later and assumed the role seamlessly.
Dreo did not elaborate on individual performers, except to say the actor playing Pulitzer, Noah Crombie, “has this air of creepy, dark energy” and that newcomer Robby Potter, who portrays Les, “is so adorable” and likely will steal the show.
Dreo teaches dance full-time at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington. Now in her fourth turn directing a VYP production, she has learned from years past to be more organized, speed up rehearsal times and have the production crew multi-task.
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“Newsies” runs July 20-28 at the Vienna Community Center. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 1:30 p.m.
Tickets are $18 and can be purchased via www.viennava.gov/webtrac, at the Vienna Community Center or at the door before showtime, if still available (unlikely, if VYP’s history is any indication).
