Jacob Hoffman and Amy Sparrow in Circle
Theatre's "Secret Garden"
photo by Greg Kolack

"Highly Recommended" OPJ

The Secret Garden
review by Ed Vincent

This is a grand production on a petite stage.  The sets are
incredible, excellent staging,  fine voices, and wonderful
acting brings this well loved story to Circle Theatre.  The
acting by the young lass Amy Sparrow is of an award winning
caliber.  The young Ms. Sparrow has a fine voice
and a stage presence to have all young people aim for in
their acting work.  The young gentleman who plays 
opposite Ms. Sparrow is J. David Ruby.  Mr. Ruby too
is a talent that may one day be on the big screen or Broadway.
His role is not as large as Ms. Sparrow, but the two of
them are a good fit and a pleasure to see working together. 

There are loads of flashbacks in memory and spirited 
appearances of the deceased.  The spirits of the
past partake in reminiscent dancing. "They're not gone
you see, just dead"; comments Archibald Craven, after
finishing a dance with his departed wife.

Mary Lennox, the young orphan asks the head gardener
at Misselthwaite Manor if he believes in spirits, "There's 
more of them here then us." (that's moor talk for yes...).

The settings for the garden are excellent, there are topiaries, 
vines, and secrets to find.  The lighting is well chosen, the
back drops artistically placed, and five star staging all around. 
The beginning is a wondrous scene. Progressions are mystic and
tragic.  The journey from India  to England, on boat and train 
deliver us all to the estate of Archibald Craven; Misselthwaite 
Manor.

The choreography is a bit rough on the limited stage size and
perhaps hoofing is on the lighter side.  The singing though is
top notch with a soulful baritone and a chorus of flattering
voices.

The shadows of souls guiding the living into the reality of life
brings the rebirth of hope.  This is very nice show.  Bring the
family or friends or both.
 

March 5, 2003 through April 13, 2003
Book and Lyrics by Marsha Norman
Music by Lucy Simon
The Buidens Theatre
Directed & Designed by Robert A. Knuth*
Music Directed by Jon Steinhagen
Choreographed by Kevin Bellie*
Stage Managed & Assistant Directed by Beth Scheible*
Costumed by Jeffrey Kelly
Sound Designed by Peter Storms*
Dialect Coaching by Naomi Landman
Production Coordinated by Peter J. Storms*
Circle Theatre is partially funded by the Oak Park Area Arts Council,
in partnership with the Village of Oak Park, Forest Park and River Forest
and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
 

CAST
 

Mary Lennox ................ Amy Sparrow
Rose ..............................Amy Arbizzani
Albert/Undergardener...  Dan Ogle
Lily..................................Sarah Swanson
Archibald Craven............Marc Pera
Dr. Neville Craven...........Bil  Ingraham
Colin.............. ................David Ruby
Mrs.Medlock..................Marie Goodkin*
Martha............................Brooke Sherrod
Dickon ...........................Jacob Hoffman
Ben Weatherstaff........... Richard K.Austin
Major/Johnnie, Undergardener..............Brett Bregin Kashanitz*
Lieutenant/Eddie, Undergardener ..........Brandon Veseli
William/The Groomer .......................... Ross Rolando
Mrs. Winthrop/Peggy, Chambermaid ... Lauren Wolf
Daisy, Housemaid................................. Jennifer Bludgen
Susan, Chambermaid ............................Elizabeth Dowling
The Nurse ........................................... Heather Bowler

STAFF
 

Director ....................................Robert A Knuth*

Music Director ......................... Jon Steinhagen
Stage Manager......................... Beth Scheible*
Choreographer......................... Kevin Bellie*
Costume Design.........................Jeffrey Kelly
Lighting/Set Design.................... Robert A Knuth*
Dialect Coach ...........................Naomi Landman
Percussion ................................Robert Sperlik
Sound Design ............................Peter Storms*
Scenic Painter............................Lori Willis
Set Crew .....................
Dan Ogle, Jacob Hoffman, Nick Brenner*, Jeff Cass*, 
Peter Storms*, Kevin Bellie*, Bob Knuth*, Taylor Bibaf, 
Ryan Russ*, Kelly Schumann*, Brett Kashanitz*, 
Beth Scheible*, Catherine Ferraro*, Andria Kozica*, 
Denise Wagner, Cara White*, Maggie Spanuello*, 
Jim Wall, Jeanne Wall*, John

* denotes Circle Theatre Company Member

Place: The Lennox Household in Colonial India and Misselthwaite Manor in
North Yorkshire, England
Time: 1906
 

CIRCLE KICKS UP ITS HEELS IN A DANCE-INFUSED VERSION
OF THE SECRET GARDEN

MAINSTAGE      The Secret Garden 
Book & Lyrics by Marcia Norman Music by Lucy Simon

Drawing inspiration from London's 2000 smash revival. Circle Theatre will 
add dance and drama to the Marsha Norman/Lucy Simon tuner, THE 
SECRET GARDEN. Chambermaids and gardeners will take the stage by 
storm under the direction of Robert A. Knuth and with choreography by
Kevin Bellie in this inspiring retelling of a classic story.
 

SYNOPSIS 
One morning young Mary Lennox wakes to find her life changed forever.
It is 1911 in India and Mary's parents and all their servants have died 
during an outbreak of cholera. Mary is transported to the world
of the forbidding Yorkshire moors and to Misselthwaite Manor, the 
gloomy house of her uncle and guardian, Archibald Craven. Cast adrift and
left to play alone, Mary soon discovers that Misselthwaite is full of secrets,
both inside and out. She makes friends with her bed-ridden cousin Colin
and eventually finds the key to everyone's hearts, as well as the key to a
magical garden
.
DIRECTOR    Robert A. Knuth has been a Circle company member for 4
years, where he has directed Shindig: I  Know What You Did Last
Christmas and earned numerous design awards, including Jeff nominations
for best scenic design for The Life sad. Triumph of Love; After Dark
Awards for 2001 Outstanding Season (Set, Lights and Graphic Design) for
Cosi, The Life, and Sanctuary, and 1998 Outstanding Scenic Design for
Grand Hotel. He was Artistic Director of The Center Light Sign and
Voice Theatre from 1993-1998.

CAST         Amy Arbizzani, Richard K. Austin, Jennifer Bludgen, Heather
Bowler, Elizabeth Dowling, Marie Goodkin, Jacob Hoffinan, Bil Ingraham,
Brett Kashanitz, Dan Ogle, Marc Pera, David Ruby, Ross Rolando,
Brooke Sherrod, Amy Sparrow, Sarah Swanson, Brandon Veseli, Lauren
Wolf.

ARTISTIC STAFF      Robert A. Knuth, Director & Scenic/Lighting
Designer, Jon Steinhagen, Music Director; Kevin Bellie,
Choreographer, Jeffrey Kelly, Costume Designer, Naomi Landman,
DialectCoach; Beth Scheible, Stage Manager; Peter Storms, Production
Coordinator

THEATRE      Currently in its 18th season. Circle Theatre is an
artist-based company, which has received 23 Joseph Jefferson Citations in
the past 6 years. Circle has produced multiple world premieres, including
Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living and The Crime of the Century, and
the midwest premiere of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party.

LOCATION   Circle Theatre, 7300 W. Madison Street, 
Forest Park, IL 60130

OPENS       Wednesday, March 5th at 8 p.m.
RUNS         March 7th through April 13th: Fridays and Saturdays at 
8:00 pm.; Sundays at 3:00 p.m.

TICKETS       Previews: $10; Regular Run: $21, $2 discount for seniors
and students; Group rates are available.

INFORMATION                       RESERVATIONS 708-771-0700
phone (708)771-0700 

            The young Fanny used to escape from the horror of her
             surroundings by writing stories.

            She continued her writing after the family accepted a relative's
            invitation to emigrate to America in 1865. The move made no
            difference to their poverty, but they gratefully exchanged
            Manchester's slums for the wide open spaces of Tennessee. 
            She  had to bring in some money, so she wrote short pieces for
            American magazines. Over the next few years, the quality of her
            writing was gradually recognized, and better magazines began to
            commission her work.

            In 1873 she married Dr Swan Burnett, and it was under her
            married name that she became a world-famous children's writer. At
            first, she continued with the short stories for magazines, but in 1886
            'Little Lord Fauntleroy' was published in book form, to immediate
            acclaim all around the world.

            She wrote over 40 books altogether, for both adults and
            children. Her adult novels are of a sentimental vein which is now
            thoroughly out of fashion; but she wrote a number of classic
            children's stories, of which two in particular stand out: 'The Secret
           Garden', and 'Little Lord Fauntleroy', which has been described as
            'the best version of  the Cinderella story that exists in modern
             idiom."

            In 1888, Mrs Burnett returned to live in Great Britain, but only
            until1901, when she went back to the United States, after
            divorcing her husband. In her later life, she became mildly eccentric:
            she  turned to spiritualism and mystic cults (perhaps in an attempt to
            alleviate the bouts of depression she had suffered from all her life)
            and her habit of wearing frilly clothing and Titian-colored wigs
           earned her the nickname 'Fluffy' from her friends.
 

CIRCLE THEATRE
Co-Artistic Directors
Greg Kolack, Kevin Bellie

Board of Directors
Kevin Bellie, Lynn Ann Bernatowicz, Todd Cornils,
Lynn Kirsch, Greg Kolack, Jeffrey Strauss,
Jack Vanisi, Jeanne Wall

Company Members
Jay Fontanetta,Sheldon Baren, Kevin Bellie, 
Lynn Ann Bernatowicz,Jennifer Fisk,  Erika Goodman, 
Annie Kasak, Brett Kashanitz, Laura Keeling, Ben Keeling, 
Bob Knuth, Ty Perry, Beth Scheible, Stephanie Samuel,
John Simmons, Peter Storms, Jeanne Wall, Jim Wall

Associate Company Members
Kelly Schumann, Anne Marie Beaulieu

Our Mission Statement
Circle Theatre is an artist-based company whose
mission is to produce exciting, and innovative, theatre
accessible to our widely diversified suburban and city
audience. Through variety-filled seasons including
drama, comedy, musicals, and new works, Circle Theatre
challenges, entertains, and educates audiences and
artists of all ages.
 

1985/1986
Fiddler on the Roof; Come Back to the Five and
Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean;
The Royale Hollyfeste;
The Diary of Anne Frank

1986/1987
Pippin; Agnes of God; The Last of the Red Hot
Lovers; Three by Tennessee; Born Yesterday;
Rigoletto; Birthday Girls

1987/1988
Miracle Worker; Psycho: The Musical; Crimes of
the Heart; Godapell; On Golden Pond;
Night Mother; Chicago

1988/1989
The Odd Couple (Female Version); Ghouls; Annie;
Yentl; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest;
Rose Tattoo; Grease

1989/1990
Plaza Suite; Back to Berlin; Unfinished Business;
Nuts, Harold and Maude; And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little; Whatever Happened to B.B. Jane?

1990/1991
Greater Tuna; Oliver; A Shayna Maidel; La Boheme;
Sexual Perversity in Chicago and Sister Mary Ignatius
Explains it All for You; Evita

1991/1992
Little Shop of Horrors; Pass the Love; The Glass
Menagerie; Jesus Christ Superstar; Nighthawks;
Vendetta

1992/1993
Orphans; Ten Little Indians; Shrubtown; Christmas
in Mughy Junction; Crossing Delancy; Hair;
He's Having Her Baby

1993/1994
Voices; Crazy Little Thing; Sweeney Todd; Mill
Fire; A Rosen by Any Other Name; Godspell;
People Like Us; Marriage and Children;
Seascapes with Sharks and Dancer

1994/1995
No Exit; Cabaret; Myron; After The Fall; Pirates of
Penzance; The Seven Year Itch; What If;
Merrily We Roll Along

1995/1996
A Piece of My Heart; Unidentified Human Remains
and the True Nature of Love; The Medium;
Shindig! Les Liaisons Dangereuses; Inferno Beach;
As You Like It; Mijo and T-Cells and Sympathy;
Texanna Rearranges the Planets and Saves Her
Family From the Gates of Hell; Just a Little Lipstick
Dear; Whatever Happened to B.B. Jane

1996/1997
Jeffrey; The Glory of Living; Five Women Wearing
the Same Dress; Rags; My Sister in This House;
Journeys; Shindig!; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1997/1998
Principia Scriptoria; Satan's School for Girls Old
Times; Grand Hotel; My Song; Auschwitz Lullaby;
Garage Sale; Shindig!; Murder in Green Meadows

1998/1999
Cyrano; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Salome;
Inspecting Carol; Eating Ranul; A Moon for the
Misbegotten

1999/2000
Frankie & Johnny in the Claire de Lune; Earth &
Sky; The Crime of the Century; A Shindig
Christmas; Eleemosynary; Shindig X-Mas A-Go-
Go!; Candida; The Cover of Life; The Life;
American Buffalo

2000/2001
the dreamer examines his pillow; Cosi; Hedda
Gabler; Shindig's I Know What You Did Last XMas!;
subUrbia; Raised in Captivity, Triumph Of
Love, The Moon's the Madonna, Sanctuary

2001/2002
Show and Tell, Nine