Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The Kitchen Theatre stage fills with music with the world premiere of The Adventure in Apartment G Sharp, opening October 27 and playing Saturdays at 1pm & 3pm, Sundays at 1pm, through November 11. This new musical features a story full of surprises coupled with everyone's favorite opera hits.

The Adventure in Apartment G Sharp tells the story of 9-year-old Bernadette, who is excited to be spending the weekend with her Uncle Howard in his Manhattan loft apartment and looking forward to the wonderful desserts he creates especially for her. In fact, a weekend with Uncle Howard would be perfect except that he listens to opera constantly and Bernadette is not an opera fan. Shortly after Uncle Howard sings her a lullaby, tucks her into bed and tiptoes away, some strange things begin to happen-an operatic dream, or a singing nightmare? Bernadette is transported back in time to a faraway land where she is mistaken for a servant girl and finds herself sorting out the complicated lives of two sisters, two brothers, and a father who is determined to see at least one of his daughters married to one of those brothers! Lots of zaniness and lots of beautiful singing ensue.

Bernadette is played by 8-year-old Erin Hilgartner, who was seen at the Kitchen last season in The Mozart Mystery and The Odyssey Part II. Since those first theatrical experiences, Erin has appeared in Boynton Middle School's production of Once On This Island as well as in a major motion picture! She plays a supporting role in Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, to be released in July 2008. Joining Erin in the cast are powerhouse singer Jessica Flood, familiar to Kitchen Theatre audiences for her roles in Main Stage productions Comfort Food, Tony & the Soprano, Iron, and Precious Nonsense, and last year's Family Fare show The Mozart Mystery, and Kitchen Theatre newcomers Joe Zappala, Maria Jacobi, Max Lawrence, and Gary Howell.

The Adventure in Apartment G Sharp is the product of an unusual and exciting collaboration-Kitchen Theatre Artistic Director Rachel Lampert co-wrote the play with 11th grader Nathan Hilgartner (older brother of Erin Hilgartner). Nathan has been writing plays since he was in elementary school. His plays have been produced on the Hangar Theatre Young Playwrights Festival and Kitchen Theatre Company's Teen Extreme Playwriting Contest. He also contributed a monologue to last season's KTC Family Fare production of The Odyssey Part II. The Adventure in Apartment G Sharp was developed by Rachel Lampert and Nathan Hilgartner and then workshopped this past summer by a group of actors.

Playwright/lyricist Rachel Lampert, also the KTC's Artistic Director, has authored many original Family Fare productions (Rebecca Returns, The Mozart Mystery, I Have a Song to Sing O!, Winter Tales, A December Suite, The Sisters Fitzenstarts Fall Recital, The Emmett & Hambone Stories and Fools! Schmools!) and adaptations (The Odyssey parts I & II, A Christmas Carol, Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore and The Mikado).

Lampert also serves as the director of this play, together with co-director Tony Simione, who makes his Kitchen Theatre directorial debut with this show. Tony appeared as an actor in last season's 48-Hour Playwriting Marathon and before that performed in numerous DC-area productions, including A Streetcar Named Desire and The Changeling with the Kennedy Center, As You Like It with The Shakespeare Theatre, and The Cradle Will Rock with The American Century Theatre. His was a founding director of The Riot Actors of Washington.

Music Director Richard Montgomery has performed as accompanist, conductor, music director, and stage director in opera and musical theater throughout the United States and locally with Ithaca Opera, Kitchen Theatre Company, Cornell Theatre, and the Hangar Theatre. He was the music director for last season's Family Fare shows The Mozart Mystery and The Odyssey part II and Main Stage production of Comfort Food.

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