Actorsingers Second Stage presents Avenue Q
Since the mid-1950s, Nashua’s Actorsingers theater company has been a mainstay in the area’s cultural scene, performing classics like The Sound of Music, Cats and Beauty and the Beast. In 2005, a subsection of the organization called Second Stage was launched to present non-traditional works.
Among adventurous Second Stage shows have been Evil Dead: The Musical, Reefer Madness and The Wild Party.
“It’s a little bit more against the beaten track,” Christie Conticchio of Actorsingers said recently. “What they would like to call their fringe productions.”
Conticchio is directing the company’s latest effort, Avenue Q, opening Aug. 22. The Tony-winning musical takes a Sesame Street-ish tale and places it in a gritty Brooklyn where most of the principals can barely afford rent. Most struggle with the search for meaning; this is underscored in an early song, “It Sucks to Be Me,” where cast members compare their woes.
Avenue Q is driven by puppets representing onstage actors. There’s neighbors Princeton and Kate Monster (Will Sulahian, Zoë Vitalich), odd couple roommates Nicky and Rod (James Spinney, Chris Drury) and Trekkie Monster (B.C. Williams), who along with the Bad Idea Bears (Dara Brown, Elsa Gustafson) embodies the musical’s irreverence. (Despite the puppets, this isn’t a kids’ show. According to a disclaimer on the company’s website: “This show contains racism, homophobia, profanity, sexual themes, and other sensitive topics.”)
Apex, North Carolina, custom fabricator DreamLab Studio provided the puppetry, which also includes boss lady Mrs. T (Kayla Williams) and the vixen-ish Lucy (Caitlyn Reilly). DreamLab founder Kerry Falkanger deserves her own credit in the playbill, with characters that are amazing.
“My actors keep talking about how comfortable it is to use their puppets and to look at them … they’re so pleasing to the eye,” Conticchio said, while noting that the production is using “between 20 and 30 puppets of different heads, bodies…. You wouldn’t think that Princeton needed three costume changes, but he does.”
For expertise controlling them, she consulted Ro Gavin, whose eponymous theater company in Portsmouth did Avenue Q in a previous season. “They came for … an entire workshop with the cast,” she recalled. “We went through syllables, how to do hand stretches, upper body strength. They got a crash course in Puppetry 101, even how to make a puppet breathe.”
A team of eight operators handles the puppets, and unlike the original Broadway show, there is no cast doubling. This is a move consistent with Conticchio’s directorial vision.
“Getting them as in-depth of the storyline as possible” was key, she explained. “This ensemble is, from the beginning, on stage I’d say more time than some of the leads.”
Actorsingers’ mission begins with “the promotion and presentation … of good amateur stage entertainment primarily of a musical nature” with “assistance and encouragement of many people, regardless of age, race or creed, in the development of their stage talents and to express such of their talents as will contribute to successful stage productions.”
Auditions for the show attracted an embarrassment of riches. More than 60 community actors showed up, all apparently Avenue Q fans.
“Casting Kate was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do as a director,” Conticchio said. “Luckily, I have seven other people on the board to help me.”
Asked what the response said to her about the amateur theater community in New Hampshire, and in the southern region of the state specifically, Conticchio was full of praise. “Honestly, it levels up with anything else regional, if not Broadway; I was so impressed with the talent,” she said. “After every group, I was like, honestly, thank you for coming out and sharing your talents with us. This is not going to be an easy decision.”