From the Port Summer Show, the team who brought you “Cabaret” and “Chicago,” comes the great Kander and Ebb theatrical “who done it” murder mystery, “Curtains.”
Performances are Thursday, Aug. 2, Friday, Aug. 3, and Saturday, Aug. 4. at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 5 at 2:00 p.m. in the newly renovated and air-conditioned Paul D. Schreiber Auditorium at Schreiber High School in Port Washington.
Tickets are $12 for adults, $7 for kids under 12 years old and seniors. All seniors are free for the Aug. 2 show.
Since 1972, the Port Summer Show has been producing top-quality Broadway musicals for the Port Washington community. Teenagers in grades 7-12 spend five and a half weeks working with a professional director, musical director, and choreographer singing, dancing and rehearsing for the annual August production.
This year will be director Jason Summer’s 15th year with the Port Summer Show. Summer is an accomplished director and choreographer whose work has been seen Off-Broadway in New York and in countless regional and college theaters throughout the country. His productions have been favorably reviewed in many national publications, including The New York Times. He is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Hope for Change Foundation, a Westchester-based non-profit organization that raises money for breast cancer research through theatrical programming. In addition, Jason is the artistic director for Westchester Sandbox Theater.
“Jason is extraordinary with the kids,” said Linda Nutter, co-president of the Port Summer Show. “He seems to have an innate understanding of teenagers and how to work with them to help them bring their best to the stage. When he works with them, he is all at once calm, charming, disciplined, serious, respectful and simply hysterically funny. He treats them like professional actors and they respond to him. The kids really love working with him and he’s taught them so much. He’s truly gifted.”
Summers said that he was thrilled to be working with the Port Summer Show again.
“It is an absolute joy to work with the students of the Port Summer Show for all fifteen productions,” he said. “Their energy and desire to be the best they can be is truly inspiring for me. I have made a career of working with young people in the arts and this happens to be my longest running consistent project. They will have to drag me away as I adore the students of Port Washington so very much. Here’s to another fifteen years!”
He said that he chose to perform “Curtains” due to its strong plot and big production numbers.
“Curtains was a show I strongly recommended for this year’s production,” he said. “It has a wonderful underlying story — who doesn’t love a good murder mystery? It also features a lot of truly fantastic production numbers, which allows our large cast to shine. I also love the fact that many of those in our audience won’t know the show, so it will be a new adventure for them as well.”
