MARCH 29 - APRIL 4, 2012 WickedLocalDedham.com | GateHouse Media New England ■ Vol. 3 No. 25 ■ $1

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INDEX

An edition of

PARISH PLAYERS

The world of Dr. Seuss

The Paris Players will present “Seussical the Musical,” with shows on Friday, March 30, through Sunday, April 1.Andres Molano Sotomayor, portraying The Cat and Sara Molano Sotomayor, as boy/JoJo, rehearse at the FirstChurch and Parish in Dedham on Monday, March 26. WICKED LOCAL STAFF PHOTOS BY ANDREA SALISBURY

By Andrea Salisburyasalisbury@wickedlocal.com

Sporting neon dresses and feath-ers in their tresses, the BirdGirls flapped around the stage.

“You have funny parts, and thenthere are sad parts, and then happyparts,” 7-year-old Harper Staton-Todarosaid and excitedly described the plot of“Seussical the Musical.” “It’s all thesethings mashed together in one big(musical). It can get your energy real-ly pumping up about Dr. Seuss.”

Harper will portray a sassy, know-it-all Bird Girl in the Parish Players per-formance of “Seussical the Musical.”The show, based on the works of Dr.Seuss, opens at Dedham’s First Churchand Parish on Friday, March 30, at 7p.m. and runs through the weekend.

Directing the intergenerational castis Aoife Barrington-Haber. With script

in hand, Barrington-Haber movedaround the room Monday, March 26,during the full dress rehearsal as kidsand grownups arrived, disappearedand reappeared as colorful charactersthat can only come from the imagina-tion of Dr. Seuss.

“(Dr. Seuss) bases something real in

Theater group to present ‘Seussical the Musical

MUSICAL, PAGE 10

By Dave Eisenstadterdeisenstadter@wickedlocal.com

A newly drawn school dis-trict map brought about 50people to the recent SchoolCommittee meeting toprotest the new plans.

“I only found out todaythere was going to be a voteon this. I don’t think all townresidents are aware of thisand I am here to respectful-ly request a public meeting togive people an opportunity togive their opinions,” Chery-lann Sheehan said to ap-plause.

At the meeting on Wednes-day, March 21, School Com-mittee members delayed vot-ing on the redistrict plan un-til its next meeting onWednesday, April 4 at 7 p.m.at Dedham High School.

The new school districtsplace more households in theregion sending students to

NEW DISTRICTS?

Shiftsendsmorekids toAveryCommitteedelays vote,plans publicmeeting

SCHOOL, PAGE 7

By Dave Eisenstadterdeisenstadter@wickedlocal.com

Two town departmentheads laid out a road pavingplan that could cost the town$6.5 million over the nextthree years.

Director of EngineeringJason Mammone and Pub-lic Works Director JosephFlanagan presented the planto selectmen on Thursday,March 2. The proposal looksat the town’s $15.7 millionworth of needed road re-

pairs.Major roads being rebuilt,

a process called reclama-tion, this year are EasternAvenue between High Streetand Route 1, High Streetbetween Ames Street and250 feet north of EasternAvenue and WashingtonStreet between High andSchool Streets – a total of2,211 feet of road.

A list of 23 smaller roadswill also be reclaimed, mak-ing up 22,854 feet of road.The remaining 7,596 feet of

road in this year’s plan willundergo either overlay orpreventative maintenance.

Subsequent years in theplan will increasingly dealwith more minor roads andshift from preventative toroutine maintenance.

Pavement condition in-dex score averages im-proved from 70 to 79 out ofa possible 100 over the pastfive years of the plan, ac-cording to Mammone. With

SELECTMEN

Board backs three-yearroad repair proposal

Step in time

Lynne Canavan learns to dance the Charleston duringMonday night’s dance class held at the Endicott Estate. Theevent was part of Dedham Reads Together 2012 and wassponsored by the Dedham Library Innovation Team and theOakdale Square Alliance. For more photos check outWickedLocalDedham.com. WICKED LOCAL PHOTO BY ALEX JONESSELECTMEN, PAGE 6

See the showWhen: Friday, March 30, at 7 p.m.Saturday, March 31, at 11 a.m. and 5p.m. Sunday, April 1, at 2 p.m.Where: First Church and Parish in Ded-ham, 670 High St.Tickets: $12 ($6 for under 12 and over65) and reservations are required.Reservations can be made at seussical-bytheparishplayers.eventbrite.com.

Jim Parr will play Horton in themusical.

Want to have your say?:The School Committee willhold a public meeting on theredistricting plan on Wednes-day, April 4 at 7 p.m. at Ded-ham High School.Inside: Find out whichstreets are on the list / page 7 Inside: School Committeeapproves new memorandumof understanding / page 5

something creative,” Harpersaid. “There can be an ele-phant but an elephant can’ttalk. And there can be mon-keys but there can’t be purplemonkeys.”

Standing on one side ofthe room, Barrington-Haberwatched as the actors foundtheir places. As with mostdress rehearsals, at times theroom is chaotic. But then,the music starts and everyonefinds a groove.

“There have been so manyparts of this play where theactors come through andwhen it happens there is thisamazing energy,” Barrington-Haber said. “My favorite partso far is when the entire castcomes out in the beginning,and what makes it is their en-ergy and their enthusiasm.”

This is the fifth Parish Play-er show that producer Vir-ginia Hickey-Ferentinos hasbeen a part of, the first being“The Wizard of Oz” in 2007.

She said the group has tak-en some creative liberties withthe characters and points outactor Jim Parr who will por-tray the famous elephantHorton. Parr, wearing graycoveralls and a knit cap ex-plained that the trunk, ears,tail and size are “all in theimagination of the audience.”

Working on a shoestringbudget, the Parish Playersgot creative with its costumes.

“Becca (Hutton) said bringin your old T-shirts and shemade these feathers,” Hickey-Ferentinos said and gesturedto the colorful strips of fabricattached to the Bird Girlsand Chicklettes.

Costume designer Huttonsaid she had thought aboutgoing with boas but it would-n’t be Dr. Seuss.

In matching red T-shirtsand ripped jeans, Jim Dun-can and Wyatt Staton-To-daro warned the audience ofthe Wickersham Brothers

Bouncing back and fourththe two explained the fourmischievous characters.

“We are these blue mon-keys who seek trouble.”

“We make trouble.”“We make fun of Horton.”“And steal many things.”“We are just all around

hooligans,” and then just asthey appeared the boysbounced off to backstage.

The musical of familiarstories has something foreveryone, said Barrington-Haber.

“I would ask the audience tolook for something that theycan personally relate to, somestruggle that they have gonethrough because the wholeplay is about personal struggleand either changing yourselfor learning something aboutyourself or sticking to yourguns and hoping that the peo-ple around you will change,”she said. “I think there is real-ly something here that peoplecan look forward to.”

As the cast and crew pre-pared for its 17th perform-ance, many reflected on theirpast director.

Diane Winchester was adirector, musical teacher, and

a “one woman whirlwind,”said Hickey-Ferentinos. Win-chester died in February 2011.Her last performance withthe players was “Godspell.”

“Although a year haspassed, by starting a newshow, it is the first year doingit without her,” Meg Duncansaid. “At the beginning espe-cially there was some reawak-ening of the feelings of loss.”

Anne Schiraga will portrayMatilda Moose in the up-coming musical. She saidthat Winchester’s spirit is apart of everything in the the-ater.

“When I feel like thingsare really tough,” Schiragasaid, “I can see her saying,‘Just try it again.’”

The cast has pulled to-gether, Hickey-Ferentinossaid, but remembers that“every moment in this pro-

duction is a step that we aretaking without Diane. Soevery time we take a suc-cessful step is a good mo-ment.”

“Seussical the Musical”runs Friday, March 30, at 7p.m., Saturday, March 31, at11 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Sun-day, April 1, at 2 p.m. Per-formances are at the FirstChurch and Parish in Ded-ham, 670 High St. Tickets are$12 ($6 for under 12 andover 65) and reservations arerequired. Reservations canbe made at seussicalbythep-arishplayers.eventbrite.com.

10 Thursday, March 29, 2012 ■ Dedham Transcript ■ WickedLocalDedham.com

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MUSICALFrom Page 1

Harper Staton-Todaro will portray a Bird Girl in the musical

Jamie Carty, left, will play Mayzie and Jim Parr plays Horton.

The cast rehearsed for the show at the First Church and Parish in Dedham on Monday,March 26.

The Paris Players willpresent “Seussical theMusical,” with shows onFriday, March 30 throughSunday, April 1. JDGallagher will play VladVladikoff. WICKED LOCAL STAFFPHOTOS BY ANDREA SALISBURY

ONLINE EXTRACheck out photos frombehind the scenes of the

Parish Players performanceof “Seussical the Musical,” atWickedLocalDedham.com