Local Actors Endure 'Hell Week' to Bring Sweet Charity to the Stage

Football players have their two-a-days, students their all-nighters. Theatre performers? They call it their hell week.

For those unfamiliar with the world of theatre, a hell week usually refers to the couple of days before the opening of a show, when directors, players, stage managers and musicians cram in as much rehearsal time as humanly possible.

For Julie Colangelo and her Youth/Teen Theatre group, the end of hell week is in sight. Colangelo is the director of Sweet Charity, a musical narrating the romantic ups and downs of a dancer-for-hire at a New York City dance hall. Last Sunday marked the beginning of the mad dash for Colangelo's troupe, a challenge the director said she's learned to both dread and relish.

"It has that name for a reason," Colangelo said. "Honestly, it gets a lot easier with people working as hard as they do, when you work with people so much they can literally go in your brain and just get it on stage for you. That's really the amazing part of hell week and of the whole theater program -- you get to know people so well that they really create these visions for you."

Until 8 p.m. this Friday, when the show opens at the Dunn Performing Arts Center at Rye Country Day School, Colangelo and her players will meet every day for up to six hours. An encore performance of Sweet Charity will be presented Saturday, July 24.

Unlike high school theatre groups that often rehearse for a play for up to four months, meeting five or six times a week, this group has only had about twenty regular rehearsals, the first coming on June 2 -- meaning performers like Stacey Lurie and Brittany Abel, sharing the role of Charity, have had to log some serious hours of practice away from the stage.

"It's kind of challenging because there are two of us playing one part," said Lurie Able, who graduated from Blind Brook High School last year. "It gets a little confusing from time to time, but so far it's been going pretty well. It's been a lot of time outside of our rehearsals catching up on everything and getting everything together. Our character has extremely long paragraphs for lines. She likes to talk."

This weekend's presentation of Sweet Charity is part of the larger Port Chester Council for the Arts 2010 Summer Theatre Season, which will present a total of four shows this summer. Anything Goes, directed by Julie Colangelo's sister Christina, was presented July 17 and 18.

The Council for the Arts, with the cooperation of the Port Chester Recreation Department, has produced more than 110 shows since 1981, and will add to that tally with two more shows this summer. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, a Children's Theatre production, will run on July 30 and 31, followed by an outdoor presentation of The Tempest in mid-August for the council's Lawn Chair Theatre program.

Exemplified by the Colangelos, the Port Chester Council for the Arts has grown into a family- and community-orientated program, one responsible for the development of countless area performers, from eighth grade theatre camp members to adult players.

"You really become a family," said Julie Colangelo, whose grandmother and aunt were among the first organizers of the Council for the Arts. "Some of these kids I've known since they were born. It's just amazing to really watch them grow up and to see how really talented they really become."

For some members of Colangelo's troupe, working on the production of Sweet Charity has pushed their limits as performers.

"I started out with small roles, now I'm in bigger roles and I'm also involved with the set design, which is a lot of fun," said Mario Rodriguez, who graduated from Port Chester High School in 2008 and became involved with the Council for the Arts in 2004.

"This is the first time I've actually been behind enemy lines, I guess you could say, actually hands-on doing stuff besides just learning a part and dancing," Rodriguez said. "It gets really stressful, but we have people who know what they're doing."

After all, all hell weeks culminate with the ultimate reward for a show's players and directors: the opportunity to show off their hard work and talent in front of a packed house.

"I just want to put on a good show and I want the kids to feel satisfied and accomplished," Colangelo said. "That's all we hope for, to entertain people."

The musical Sweet Charity will be presented July 23 & 24 at 8 p.m. at the Dunn Performing Arts Center, Rye Country Day School, on Cedar St. in Rye. Tickets are $12 for adults, and $10 for seniors and children under 12. With a book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, Sweet Charity tells the story of the title character who continues to believe her dreams will materialize, even after experiencing a series of failed relationships, both good and bad.