The Nittany Players are celebrating their 10th anniversary with a little "Hairspray."
"The show marks a big anniversary for me," said Cathy Fiorillo, assistant professor of theater and speech at Penn State Schuylkill and director of the production. "I'm especially excited that a lot of former students are coming to see it, and about the growth of the program over the years."
The opening night show on April 12 is already sold out. Other shows will be presented at 7 p.m. April 13, 2 and 7 p.m. April 14 and 2 p.m. April 15 in the John E. Morgan Auditorium on the Schuylkill Haven campus.
"Hairspray" takes you to 1962 Baltimore, where Tracy Turnblad is a girl with big hair, a big heart and a big passion to dance. She was never a member of the popular crowd - until she wins a spot on the local TV dance program, "The Corny Collins Show." Overnight, Tracy becomes a teen idol, setting dance and fashion trends. The plot thickens when Tracy is pitted against the reigning petite teenage queen of the show for the affections of heartthrob Link Larkin.
The Nittany Players has 150 members, making it the largest club on campus, Fiorillo said. She also said that this is the first year five students will graduate with a minor in theater at the campus.
"It is a really wonderful program," Fiorillo said.
Students in the other classes help out with the production as well. David Hardy designed and painted all of the artwork used in the production and Joshua Fortune created the fliers used around campus.
Getting the set pieces for the show, which were rented from the Fulton Opera House, Lancaster, to the campus proved to be an exercise in teamwork and a lesson for the crew.
"Well, one of the pieces is a 14-foot hairspray can. We needed to rent a moving truck for that alone," Fiorello said. "Well, we got a 14-foot truck, but it turns out that you need a 20-foot truck to get a 14-foot piece inside, so we had to do it again. Whew. We learned something."
All of the players have to bring their best to the production, deal with setbacks and work very hard to bring it all together as a unified piece regardless of individual backgrounds or preferences, Fiorillo said.
"One of our teaching themes this year is 'Diversity Within the Community' and this particular show really fits with that. It is set two years before the civil rights movements in 1962," Fiorillo said.
There is plenty of diversity among the cast and crew, and theater is just the place to bring everyone together, she added.
"We have students from all over, Baltimore, Connecticut, New Jersey, even the Dominican Republic, for example, and also, of course, a lot of local people. They come to theater from all different backgrounds and even courses of study," she said. "So they have differences, different majors and classes, but here they are all united by the desire and the common goal of creating the production. Like the production, I suppose you could say, 'Hairspray' is the glue that holds them all together."
Tickets for the shows are $10 for adults, $8 for students and seniors and free for Penn State students (with student ID).