Mattress humor will have audience laughing all the way to bed



VOORHEESVILLE — A kingdom that is sexually frustrated and romantically on hold is the setting of this year’s spring musical at Clayton A. Bouton High School.

But the Voorheesville Dionysian production of Once Upon a Mattress is still a family-friendly show with the adult innuendoes well masked in comedy, and the innocence of a genuine love story shining through.
"We have an opening for a princess, for a beautiful, bona fide princess," the ensemble sings. Prince Dauntless, wants to get married and has had a number of suitors that he has liked. However, his manipulative and dominating mother has put all the princesses through a rigorous test, asking difficult questions to test their royalty — such as names of in-laws of dragon-slayers .
As the 12th princess gets her final question wrong after answering many right, she is thrown a rubber chicken as she is ushered away from the quiz podium. "Why must every princess get the bird"" sings the prince, played by Chris Hammer.

The ensemble sighs, particularly Lady Larkin (Michelle Cillis) and Sir Harry (Will Pearson). The fairy-tale couple had a romantic encounter under a tree a month earlier, and now Larkin is pregnant but unable to wed since the Queen has decreed that no one is allowed to marry until her son does.
"The ladies have nothing to do, what to do, go get the princess a royal wife," the chorus sings.
"None of the ladies are having any, no one is having any, no one is getting any (strategically placed pause) younger," the song continues.
"This is a more contemporary kind of musical, a different style" than what the students have produced in the past, Director Eric Shovah said. This is Shovah’s second showing at Voorheesville; he made his directing debut with the fall play.

Pacing and exploration
There are a number of double-entendres, he said, which requires comedic timing, "an extremely difficult skill, just as difficult as dramatic acting," Shovah said.
"Comedy in a show has a lot to do with pacing," he said, the actors "have to hit the joke right off."

His directing style is to give the youths just a scaffold of what the scene should look like and then allow the students to work with their facial expressions to try different things to solidify the scene, Shovah said.

Shovah is an English and social-studies teacher at the Bethlehem Children’s School in Slingerlands, a school that emphasizes allowing students to explore their own curiosities. He said this philosophy of active learning carries over to his directing at Voorheesville.
As an educator, Shovah said he believes education should be fun. Everyone is volunteering their time to make the musical the best it can be and "we enjoy it," Shovah said. "It should be fun; fun for them and fun in each run." That’s what he hopes the audience takes away from the experience as well.
"There are still different bits that make me laugh even though I’ve seen them over and over again," Shovah said.
"An opportunity to shine"

Members of the production staff sat down together to pick which musical would be good to do this year. Shovah thought back to his high-school days and recalled that the most fun he had was in performing Once Upon a Mattress. He had played the role of the mute king, a character mastered this year by Voorheesville senior Austin Saddelmire.

Using extreme facial gestures, Saddelmire successfully communicates emotions and ideas to the audience. His is a whimsical character that offers additional comic relief as he prances on and off stage, chasing after women with boyish skips, and mocking his wife with gestures behind her back. He imitates a mouth by opening and closing his palm, in jibber-jabber motions coming at his head.
"I couldn’t imagine a mute as a husband, they don’t talk as it is," Jessalyn Ballerano told The Enterprise; she plays the role of Queen Aggravian. Her character’s relationship with the king is a dynamic and a daunting one, she said. The queen is "really, really selfish," Ballerano said. Ballerano said she has decided that her character "was the one brunette of blonde sisters."

Ballerano said she has enjoyed performing in an actual musical comedy this year, and her favorite part is giving a four-minute speech to her son, claiming that his presumption is wrong — she does want him to marry, but not just anyone.

In the past, Ballerano has had more singing roles, so she has enjoyed the switch to speaking lines, which is a different style of theater, she said.

Once Upon a Mattress "seemed like such a great fit here," Shovah said. The play has "so many leading and supporting rolls," and Voorheesville has such a "huge talent pool."
"You could call the rest of the students ensemble, but they are so much more," Shovah said. This musical "gives a lot of people an opportunity to shine."
"There are actors that are triple threats: they can act, dance and sing," he said.

The team

Auditions began in December, and everyone who tried out got cast this year, 27 in total, Shovah said. Last year, Beauty and the Beast cast 100.
"I like that it is smaller," said Suzanne Thorman, an ensemble member who also plays the small role of a princess being quizzed. Thorman said that the cast is a lot closer this year and she has enjoyed the more individual attention that she received from the staff that has helped her develop her craft.

Mary Abba is back again this year as the musical voice coach. An obviously fun-loving person, during rehearsal she literally rolled off her conductor’s stool and onto the floor in laughter, after the Wizard (Garrett Simpson) crashed off stage.

Heather D’Arcy has returned as the choreographer, after last year’s success.
"Heather is an amazing choreographer," said Senior Abigail Shultz, who plays Princess Winnifred, the female lead. "If you have two left feet, she’ll make you look like a dancer," Shultz said.

Portia Hubert is the producer and also designed the sets. Jim Cillis of the stage crew said that he had learned how to construct sets when he took a class from John Lopez, the former director who left Voorheesville to teach near New York City. A handful of fathers helped out with construction on the weekends.

The stage crew at Voorheesville does a little of bit of everything, building, painting, and lighting, Cillis said. Sean Kroencke is one of the students in charge of lighting for this musical.

Shovah said that there are about a dozen students on the technical and stage crew and that he leaves a lot of the lighting and sound creations up to the students since some of them know more about it than he does.

The spotlight often shines on Shultz as Princess Winnifred; this is her first time in a leading role, she said.
"She is persistent"and will tell you like it is," Shultz said of her character. While Winnifred ultimately wants to be polite, she is instead very loud and bold.

Winnifred is the kingdom’s last hope of a bride for Dauntless and was fetched from the swamp territories by Sir Harry in a last-ditch attempt, before his pregnant girlfriend would have to flee their community or ruin his chance of someday becoming prime minister.
"I come from the swamps, yes, I have pet frogs, yes, but I’m just like everyone else — I want to get married," Shultz said as she described her stage persona.
Shultz said she can relate to Winnifred and her laid back attitude, "It hasn’t been hard for me to find my inner Winnifred," she said

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Once Upon a Mattress is playing this weekend at the Voorheesville high school Performing Arts Center. Show times are Friday, March 31, and Saturday April 1, at 7:15 p.m.; and Sunday, April 2, at 2:15 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students and senior citizens.