Coming this Friday, November 18, 4 pm & 7 pm
and Saturday, November 19, 3 pm & 7 pm
You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown

by Jeffrey Stanley

“We always try to get started early. We decided to go with two casts because the play only has six actors.” Brooklyn Friends Technical Director Catherine Clark was in her office at the back of the Pearl Street Meeting House talking about the upcoming Middle & Upper School performance of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, the musical by Clark M. Gesner based on the comic strip by Charles M. Schulz.

For the first time ever with this production, the Performing Arts Department is creating sets using rear screen projection. “We have the equipment now in-house, and we wanted to create the scenes without having to spend a lot of time building them,” explained Catherine. This particular play lent itself well to rear screen projection due to Schulz’ comic strip aesthetic, according to Catherine. “I drew the scenes and colored them in Photoshop using Schulz’ line style—white clouds, a little bit of green grass, a shapeless shrub,” she said, calling up the images onto her computer screen. “But of course we have the doghouse,” she added, making clear that Snoopy’s bachelor pad would indeed be the real thing, one of the few three-dimensional set pieces onstage.

At a recent rehearsal while director Jeremy Richards led the cast in a physical warmup downstage, seventh grader Quinton Burton earnestly painted said doghouse in an upstage corner, making sure it was just right for its canine occupant. Meanwhile the director tossed the warmup to musical director Neil Ginsberg at the piano, who loosened their vocal chords. “Hands on your diaphragms, let’s go!”

Loneliness. Failure. Cowardice. Ostracism. A surefire night of comedy? This comic strip brought to life seems a perfect blend of joy and pathos and is sure to provide a bittersweet and nostalgic evening. A combination of jump rope and existential angst, plenty of sight gags and one-liners, the musical is sure to bring plenty of chuckles. Reminiscent of an evening of sketch comedy, the play has no real plot but the episodes are thematically clear—a child’s life, especially at school, is difficult.

“Now this is what you call a failure face! It has failure written all over it!” chimes the character Lucy to kid brother Linus, using Charlie Brown’s face as an illustration.

Lucy is played by eleventh grader Nishanthy Anthonypillai and twelfth grader Gedalia Ross in alternating performances. Linus is played by seventh graders Theo McCarthy and Evan Sweet.

Not all of the roles have been double-cast. Seventh grader Giancarlo Milea is playing the temperamental pianist Schroeder in all performances. “Schroeder’s really serious, and it’s hard to keep a straight face,” Giancarlo said of the funny situations he often finds himself in onstage, especially with the adoring Lucy always making doe eyes at him. Aside from biting his lip to keep from cracking up, Giancarlo says the most challenging part of doing the play is singing, acting and dancing all at once. “Doing any one of them alone is easy but putting all of them together is difficult.”

His seventh grade classmate Sophia Rokhlin plays the round-headed protagonist’s sister Sally. “She’s a girl who doesn’t really care about school. She’s open-minded and loud. She speaks her mind.” Sophia, a natural onstage, has been in several productions at BFS, most recently in last year’s Lockers, but says the role of Sally is the most difficult role she’s ever performed. “I have a lot of monologues. It’s hard to get the order right.” Her favorite part of the production has been making new friends, she said, “both younger and older than me.”

Sophomore Eli Sidman, sharing the title role with sophomore Matt Gentile, spoke of his character with a wisdom surprising for his age. “Charlie Brown is the depressed and dejected but ultimately loveable character that is inside everyone,” he said. “He has a very adult and critical view of the world, the kind of view that's only funny coming from a little kid.” Eli considers Charlie Brown to be the moral binding that links the cast together, “but he is still the doormat on most occasions.”

Eli, who has been involved with many productions at Brooklyn Friends, both onstage and as part of tech crews, going back to fifth grade, is having a good time with the production. “It's nice getting to know the younger kids who are interested in theatre and might be inheriting the stage after my friends and I graduate.”

Director Richards explained why they chose Charlie Brown this year. “We were looking for a play that had a strong ensemble cast. We also wanted a play that was fun and light that would appeal to the whole community.” Although rehearsing a double cast has meant having to work twice as much, he is pleased with the result of everyone’s hard work. So, too is musical director Neil Ginsburg, who said, “The students are highly motivated and I can focus on doing my thing – which is to play my best and help them be their best. It's also very satisfying material – very well-written and time tested. I also confess to always having a deep connection to “Peanuts.” Let's just say I had a Snoopy poster or two on my wall – and maybe still do!”

The production also features an alumnus, Peter Hoerburger ’98, a theater professional, who has come back to his alma mater to be the lighting designer.

The play opens this Friday, Nov. 18 with performances at 3 and 7 p.m. There are two Saturday performances at 4 and 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in the Pearl Street lobby, or at the door.