What it’s like behind the scenes of Bisceglie’s new children’s
production
Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, Stefan Mercer tries his best to
do an over-the-top cheesy impression of a game show host. Mercer is
the host of
”
The Dating Game
”
in the opening scene for
”
Wonderland Live!
”
the latest children’s theater production from John Bisceglie and
Gilroy Community Services. Since the eleven-year-old actor doesn’t
know who Jim Lange is and hasn’t actually seen the television game
show created by Chuck Barris in the 1960s, he has to take a lot of
direction from director Bisceglie to get it right.
”
I try to be cheesy and make sure I smile really fake, like
someone on TV,
”
he said.
”
Like someone trying to look good on TV.
”
What it’s like behind the scenes of Bisceglie’s new children’s production
Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, Stefan Mercer tries his best to do an over-the-top cheesy impression of a game show host. Mercer is the host of “The Dating Game” in the opening scene for “Wonderland Live!” the latest children’s theater production from John Bisceglie and Gilroy Community Services. Since the eleven-year-old actor doesn’t know who Jim Lange is and hasn’t actually seen the television game show created by Chuck Barris in the 1960s, he has to take a lot of direction from director Bisceglie to get it right.
“I try to be cheesy and make sure I smile really fake, like someone on TV,” he said. “Like someone trying to look good on TV.”
The cast, which includes 75 local actors, is working at the Gilroy Senior Center without costumes or a set.
“We’ve been doing it so long we just need to remark our steps when we get into the theater,” said Jackie Moon, of rehearsing without a stage.
The actors have six more rehearsals ahead of them before they take the stage on opening night, Feb. 3. But Bisceglie reminds the actors, who range in age from 5 to 18, that they are nearing crunch time for the rehearsals.
“This is an important day,” Bisceglie said. “It’s a chance to see what we have. Right now the fix list is bigger than the great list and we need to decide what we have to spend time on.”
Though the group has been rehearsing on Saturdays, the week before opening they will rehearse after school each day until the show is perfected on stage with the set and costumers. The play is a spoof on “Alice in Wonderland,” set in 1976, with Alice going on “The Dating Game and selecting bachelor No. 1, the White Rabbit, as her date only to have him disappear on their journey to Wonderland. The show includes funky ’70s hits and oldies songs that go along with the story, such as a rendition of “Wishin’ and Hopin’,” sung by Alice as she longs for the White Rabbit.
As in the original, Alice wakes up to find her adventure to be just a dream, but in this remake of the Lewis Carroll classic, Bisceglie has a surprise twist for the audience when Alice comes back from Wonderland.
Managing 75 kids from 5 to 18 has its challenges, but Bisceglie has years of experience putting on children’s theater in Gilroy. While he goes over the plans for an afternoon rehearsal he keeps his cool even when one little girl misses her cue – she was playing with the long hair of the girl in front of her.
“If you are distracted you will miss your cue and then the whole thing won’t work,” he tells the girl, while they are practicing the choreography for the bow at the end of the show.
Bisceglie’s patience with the kids has kept many of them coming back over the years. Sadie Brown, who plays the sweet and innocent Alice in search of her love, and Alan Hoshida, who plays the always-late White Rabbit, have performed in dozens of Bisceglie’s plays.
“Sadie has a commitment to the program and doing the best that she can and trying hard,” Bisceglie said. “She will come down and paint the set and puts in that extra mile. I can say that about a lot of the kids.”
Though many of the characters are the same as Carroll’s story, some of them have been rewritten. Jackie Moon plays the Queen of Hearts, but instead of trying to behead the young Alice, the Queen is Alice’s sarcastic sidekick and cynically helps her find her lost love.
“It’s really fun,” Moon said. “It’s crazy because so much is going on. My character is soulful, but she has a lot of attitude.”
Kristin Lofstrom plays the Mad Hatter in a tea party scene where she gets to be wild and crazy.
“I get to wear comfortable shoes. I don’t always get to do that so I think I like being a guy [character] better,” she said, laughing. “I have yellow clown hair and a crazy hat.”
While Moon and Lofstrom have been acting for years, Mercer, who has several other roles beside the “Dating Game” host, is new to acting.
“This is my first play. This is my debut,” he joked. “It’s kind of easy once you do it in front of your mom or dad. It gets easier.”
Dominic Woodson is also a newcomer to the theater, though he has performed in school plays. He plays the caterpillar and Greg Brady for a scene in which actors from 1970s television shows find themselves in Wonderland.
“I like it, especially my costume with six arms,” Woodson said. “You move one arm and all six arms move.”
Bisceglie transformed the German caterpillar to a French one for the show.
“I don’t take French so it’s a little bit hard,” he said. “But John’s a great guy and it’s low pressure so it’s not too hard.”
While many of the children in “Wonderland Live!” have worked on previous shows with Bisceglie, including last summer’s “Temple of Boom!,” Woodson and Mercer are not alone in taking their first crack at acting.
“There are a lot of new kids. As they get older, the older kids will take a break with other activities,” Bisceglie said. “There can be a changing of the guards that gives the kids who are waiting a chance to take on those roles.”
As with many children’s theater productions, the entire family is involved in getting the show ready for opening night. Dia Hoshida, mom to Alan and William Hoshida, both in the play, is working as a producer on the show, which includes duties from marketing the show to calling kids in for costume fittings.
Each family who signs up for the show is required to volunteer throughout the rehearsal schedule and while the play is running. A warehouse in San Jose offered its space to the production so parents could work on the set until they move it into the Gilroy High School theater the week before the show opens. Many of the fathers have been spending their weekends building and painting the set, but some of the actors have helped out, too.
“A lot of the teenage kids help build the set,” said Linda Scariot-Myers, mother of Nathan Myers, who plays the King of Hearts in the show. “It’s good experience. Many of them are talented artistically so they see how things start from scratch.”
Armed with postcards announcing the show and mailing labels, Myers and several other mothers prepared a mass mailing to announce the opening of the show. Myers’ children have been in five Bisceglie plays so she is used to helping out with the play. She joked with a few other mothers that many of the men, some with little construction experience, ask for power tools for gifts and show them off every time they start working on a new set.
“I enjoy what John does for the kids. I don’t think they could get it anywhere else,” Myers said. “With school it is so structured. It’s a chance to go outside the box and do something so different.”
“Wonderland Live!” will be showing at the Gilroy High School Theater, 750 W. Tenth St., Feb. 3 – 19. Shows are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $11. For reservations, call 408-846-8836.
