Teen Actors from Across Westchester Rehearsing for Stepinac’s Production of Mary Poppins
By Jon Craig
You won’t need a spoonful of sugar to enjoy next month’s Stepinac High School Drama Club production of Mary Poppins, which opens May 2 in White Plains.
Parents from far and wide are in for a treat as top-flight students taking part in five performances come from Good Counsel Academy, Hackley, and Maria Regina as well as high schools in Briarcliff, Croton, Edgemont, Harrison, Scarsdale, Rye Neck, White Plains and Yonkers.
Stepinac High School’s Drama Club, which performed the musical Evita last year, is one of only six high schools nationwide to receive a pilot license from Walt Disney Theatricals to produce the regional premiere of the Tony Award-winning Disney & Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins.
Christine Turturro, 16, of Croton-Harmon High School was chosen to play Mary Poppins after auditions involving dozens of talented student actors from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. Her voice coach encouraged her to try out for a part. (Her rendition of “Amazing Grace,” during Croton’s annual Memorial Day celebration, can be found on YouTube.)
“It was really, really frightening,” Turturro said of the February tryouts in an interview before a rehearsal in White Plains last week. “It was very, very overwhelming.”
Turturro said she knew she liked acting from a very young age. Her selection for the Poppins role verified for her that it was a gift she should pursue. She is grateful to her father, Mike, for shuttling her to and from daily rehearsals at Stepinac. “My dad, bless his soul, drives me here and back every day. I sleep. He listens to Sixties music.
Even more daunting, she said, is trying to fill Julie Andrews’ “big shoes.” Once Turturro belts out a tune, it’s no wonder why she was picked to be the nanny who believes that “anything can happen if you let it.”
Chris Guzman, a 17-year-old senior at Stepinac introduced himself to a reporter as “Mr. George Banks, esquire.” The two-time Helen Hayes Award winner has been accepted by Boston University and New York University to pursue his bachelor of fine arts degree. Poppins will be Guzman’s eighth drama performance at Stepinac.
Amelia Sasson of Mount Kisco, a junior at Fox Lane High School, plays the role of Mrs. Winifred Banks, while Avery Avellino of Cortlandt, a sixth-grader at Blue Mountain Middle School, and Dahlia White of Elmsford are playing the parts of Michael and Jane, the Banks’ precocious children.
John Guaragna of Yonkers, a junior at Stepinac High, plays the lead male role as Bert. Other cast members are from Hartsdale, Mamaroneck, Ossining, Port Chester, New Rochelle and Thornwood.
“It is an honor to present a musical about one of the most iconic and enduring Disney characters of all time. Mary Poppins’ cultural reach is enormous; its impact is timeless and has already spanned five decades,” said Frank Portanova, Stepinac’s Drama Club director. “This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Disney movie, Mary Poppins. So it is particularly fitting to present this production in honor of the musical’s golden anniversary.” Portanova is assisted by Keith Sunderland, Stepinac’s Drama Club producer.
If you plan to go: Stepinac High School performances of Mary Poppins are at 7:30 p.m. on Friday May 2, Saturday May 3, Friday May 9 and Saturday May 10 as well as at 2 p.m. on Sunday May 11. Tickets are $22 for adults and $18 for senior citizens and children under 12 and can be purchased by calling 914-946-4800. For more details, go to www.stepinac.org, email: theatre@stepinac.org or visit Facebook: Stepinac Drama Club Page. The production takes place in the high school’s Major Bowes Auditorium.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
