GSA’s ‘West Side Story’ set for The Grand

ELLSWORTH – There’s gonna be a rumble on Main Street.

The Jets and Sharks from George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill are ready to bring their version of the Broadway musical “West Side Story” to The Grand Auditorium this weekend.

This will be the first time the high school actors have moved their annual musical from the school gymnasium to the Ellsworth theater.

“You couldn’t do this play in a gymnasium,” said director Bill Raiten. “Lee McWilliams, the new director at The Grand, is open to having more community work in The Grand, so here we are.”

Using The Grand increased expenses for the show, but Raiten said, everyone helped to raise money and to sell tickets, and the two shows on Friday and Saturday nights are sold out.

The move from the GSA gym to the Ellsworth stage is a big leap, according to senior Ross Bell, who plays Riff, the leader of the Jets and is also the show’s technical director.

“It’s a whole new ball game,” Bell said.

The gymnasium was limiting, he said, both technically and for the actors.

“The acoustics are so bad,” he said. “In the audience, you can here the band, but as an actor, all you hear is mush.”

The Grand offers the students the opportunity to try new things technically, Bell said, including projections of New York City scenes.

“There’s even a real back stage,” he said. “It’s really wonderful.”

When it opened in 1957, “West Side Story” changed the direction of Broadway musical theater, Raiten said.

He believes it was the first musical to have a serious theme.

The play is a loose adaptation of the Romeo and Juliet story and pits the Jets, a New York City street gang, against the Sharks, a Puerto Rican gang seeking to muscle in on Jets’ turf. In the midst of the violence, Tony and Maria, two youngsters from the rival gangs, meet and fall in love. But with opposition from both sides, their love seems doomed, and violence in the form of a rumble in which two gang members die, threatens their relationship.

“It’s about stupid prejudice that kills three people in two days,” Bell said. “People’s inability to talk. It’s somewhat related to what’s going on today. And it’s a love story. It’s very real.”

The realism is heightened by the fact that actors are about the same age as the characters in the play, Raiten said.

“It’s written for young actors. This is the age it was written about,” he said.

“And they’re wonderful.”

The roles of Tony and Maria are played by Julian Chapman and Summer Vogel. Zach Huckle-Bauer plays Bernardo, Maria’s brother and leader of the Sharks, and Nina Wish plays the fiery Anita, his girlfriend. Forty-three GSA students are involved in the production, on stage and off.

In addition, the production has tapped George Stevens Academy teachers and community members to play the few adult roles in the play.

The music, written by Leonard Bernstein, is challenging even for professional singers, according to Tee Stanislaw, the music director for the production. Although many of the young actors have had little singing experience, Stanislaw said, they have risen to the challenge.

“To see them begin to realize that they have ability and to watch it blossom is just wonderful,” he said.