Union Mill Elementary students have been working for months on their production of "Annie Jr.," which will be held March 16-17 at the school.
PERFORMANCES will be held at Union Mill Elementary on Wednesday, March 16 at 1:45 p.m. and 7 p.m., and again on Thursday, March 17 at 9 a.m. There is no charge for admission.
The slightly abridged version of the play will include 80 students in grades 5-6, under the direction of Lucinda Sexton.
"It's been a wonderfully rewarding experience to work with these talented students. They are amazing. They are pulling this together in spite of many lost rehearsals due to the weather," said Sexton, who is the music teacher and chorus director. "We have wonderful singing and acting talent."
Set in 1933, the musical tells the story of a poor orphan named Annie (played by fifth grader Sage Coury) who struggles to escape a New York City orphanage run by rotten Miss Hannigan (played by sixth-grader Kiersten Farrell). Her troubles seem over when she is befriended by Miss Grace Farrell (played by sixth-grader MaryKate Goff) and Oliver Warbucks (sixth-grader Andrew Bongardt), but shenanigans from con artists Rooster Hannigan (played by fifth-grader Sam Maney) and Lily St. Regis (played by fifth-grader Jessica Berkley) almost destroy her dreams. Can her Orphan friends — played by Emmie Dohse, Ashley Frongello, Brynna Heflin, Merrill Holmes, Kristi McKain, Emily McLenigan and Kelsey Miller — help her to find a family to love?
Come see Annie, Jr. to find out, and to hear some old favorites like "Tomorrow," "It's a Hard-Knock Life," "I Think I'm Gonna Like it Here," and "Easy Street," sung by some talented young singers.
The cast of 80 is rounded out by orphans (Maddie Ayers, Sydney Battle, Allie Cipolla, Dylan Cooper, Juliana Cuomo, Kylene Daily, Meredith Kernbach, Megan McAuliffe, Emily Mondloch, Meghan Murphy, Jessica Peltier, Gabriella Tucker, Heather Vass).
IT ALSO includes servants (played by Tori Bannon, Regan Bohuslav, Teresa Clementi, Haley Diamond, Maggie Dulkerian, Vatsala Goyal, Erin Hessler, Katie Kelly, Bailey Munson, Alyssa Muggleworth, Zahra Nomani, Casey Nonemaker, Tori Sancho-Bonet, Fredrika Unander-Scharin, Courtney Vick, David Welliver and Meagan Westhoven).
There's also New Yorkers (Taylor Avery, Claire Beeks , Rebecca Blake, Mackenzie Carson, Jessica Dagata, Kara Dedon, Megan Easterday, Chaney Forbush, Trisha Hajela, Kelsey Kallapos, Sarah Karlik, Hanna Lee, Cheryl Mazmanian, Alden Methfessel, Jade Monterrosa, Richa Nambala, Madina Niaz, Emma Soderstrom, Paige Spencer, Kayla Sunray, Tori Treires, Brooke Wallace, Gina Yerger, and Jessica Zenko), and others (Alexis Murdock, David Chenevey, Joey Wrench, Bhavish Zinzuwadia, Nick Viands, Shauna Kistner, Katie Faughnan, Jacqueline Hogg, Anthony Ingargiola, Katie Dudzik), including Shauna Kistner as Sandy the Dog and David Kilpatrick as FDR.