For a quarter of years, The Sound and Stage Theater Company, a non-profit enterprise, has taken a unique turn in their entertainment offerings: they have written their shows in house in a totally original style. Dawn Taubl takes full credit for the innovative writing and direction not to mention choreography while Carol Taubl is responsible for the inspired music and lyrics and what a team they make. Put on your dancing shoes because tonight Sunday, August 9 at 7 p.m., at Congregation B’Nai Jacob in Woodbridge, their large cast of teens and adults is prepared to razzle dazzle you with a musical comedy “Old Oak Ridge.” that will delight you in a delicious bittersweet way.
Prepare yourself for a visit to Old Oak Ridge, a Southern community about to celebrate two major events for their town: the 350th Birthday of the town and the 500th Anniversary of a sacred and beloved angel oak tree. At the heart this is a play about the importance of family, the roots you plant in your home town and why the environment needs to be protected. Its the 1950’s in a fictional South Carolina locale where everybody knows your name and your business and secrets have a hard time surviving among the gossip grapevine.
Sunny and sweet voiced Jessica Coppola’s Daisy Dawson takes a few days off from the College of Charleston to attend the festival with her mother Ginny (Kim Adzigian) and her grandpa Hank (Mark Hall). While mom is supportive of the big doings and enthusiastically involved in the poodle skirts being sewed for the sock hop and preparing the food fixings, grandpa seems to want to sleep until the party is over.
Recording all the excitement is a news team led by Sam Taubl’s Chuck Sterling and his crew Scout (Nicole Scout) and Jackson (Adam Hall). Scout has her own agenda for being in town: to find her birth mother and establish her own history. Other townsfolk’s involved actively in the tale are the Sheriff (Hannah Bellows). the mayor (Jamin Mucherino). the environmentalist Evie (CC Hayden) the researcher and helper Babs (Tina Marie Manus), the Pastor (Joanna Bair) and Bobby (Jeremiah Taubl).
Others in the energetic cast include Jenna LaBranche, Tommy Francese, Eli Blatchley, Elizabeth Wilkinson, Hannah Lorenzo, Rosemary Wilkinson, Ivy Somma, Grace McAnnally-Linz, Juliana Vaiuso, Kathryn Mucherino, Alexa Charney, Thomas Sicignano, Melissa Lewis and Laura Regan.
Before the queens of the sock hop are crowned, there are sneaky plots, plans to take the town’s history, efforts to be environmentally conscious, a collection of acorns with letters on them, a line of young men who want to date Daisy, the search for Scout’s birth mother, a lot of gossip that may or may not be true, community secrets just aching to be revealed, and a storm the night before the festival that almost cancels everything.
Songs like “Where They Know My Name,” “Oak Ridge Grapevine,” “Sunset Shimmy,” “Roots Deeper than the River,” “Gunnin’ for the Truth,” and “Seedlings Left to Grow” keep the plot moving rhythmically along. Tickets for tonight are $30 at the door. The theater is also supporting “Tree Angels for Haiti” by planting 256,000+ trees on the island of Haiti as well as donating 15,200+ supplies to help the environment.
Travel down South for a sweet, funny and emotional visit with the Dawson family and all their many friends, to help them preserve their roots, their branches, their wings and their legacy.
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