Michele Mascari
The two nights celebrating Michele Mascari’s 30 years as teacher, mentor and director at St. Xavier High School will raise funds for a named scholarship endowment in her honor.
The Dec. 29 show – Theatre Xavier: A Look Back at 30 Years* – will feature more than 25 songs, among them an Act I with “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma! (1983), “Magic to Do” from Pippin (1990), “Something’s Coming” from the forthcoming production of West Side Story (2012), “Put on a Happy Face” from Bye Bye Birdie (1985), “All Good Gifts” from Godspell (1986, 1992, 2003), “Almost Like Being in Love” from Brigadoon (1989), “If I were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof (1994), “Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors (1991), “Those Canaan Days” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1987, 2004), “Impossible Dream” from Man of LaMancha (1993, 2001), “Children Will Listen” from Into the Woods (1995), and a medley from Les Miserables (2006).
The evening also will feature a second act of “Narrator Prologue” from Joseph…, “Reach Right Down” from Starmites (2000), “Run, Freedom, Run” from Urinetown (2010), “Stranger to the Rain” from Children of Eden (1999), “Movie in My Mind” from Miss Saigon (2007), a medley from Sweeney Todd (2005), “Jellicle Ball” from Cats (2009), “Think of Me” from The Phantom of the Opera (2011), “Into the Fire” from The Scarlet Pimpernel (2008), TX Mass favorites “How Can I Keep From Singing” and “Circle Game,” “All for the Best” from Godspell and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz (1988, 1996, 2004).
The Dec. 30 show – Theatre Xavier: Love and Community* – includes “Everybody Rejoice (Brand New Day)” and “Be a Lion” from The Wiz, “Meadowlark” from The Baker’s Wife, a Broadway salute from Great White Way veterans Kevin Kern, Jessica Hendy and Sharon Wheatley and a Wicked tribute including “As Long As You’re Mine,” “For Good” and “Defying Gravity” to close the first act.
Act II opens with comedy by Second City veteran Tara Pettit and Ringling Clown College graduate Gerry Born. Also featured will be Not Just for Kids with Grammy nominee Zak Morgan, Backstage Entertainment with “Great Balls of Fire,” Sondheim’s “What More Do I Need” from Saturday Night, Gershwin’s “Nice Work if You Can Get It,” “Tonight” from West Side Story, KORBEE, with husband-wife recording act Tom and Jenn Korbee, “Sweet Jesus” from Shades (1998), a tribute to TX’s pre-show circle and Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run” from Godspell (1992, 2003).
Registration for tickets and sponsorship opportunities are available online at www.stxavier.org/blackandwhite. Only 500 tickets will be sold each night.
Among the 30-plus performers scheduled to appear are Broadway veterans Kevin Kern (’92), Pat Mellen (’94), Jessica Hendy (’89) and Sharon Wheatley (’85). Hollywood actor Joey Kern (’95), the Cahill Family (Brian ’83, Dan ’85, Kathleen ’87, Sean ’89 and Tim ’90), Matt (’04) and Josh Borths (’08), recent CCM grad Joe Moeller (’07), local musician and CCM grad Beth Roe (’93), past TX musical directors Doug Schmutte (’87), Matt Phelps (’97) and Jeremy Helmes (’97), Grammy nominee Zak Morgan (’88) and the composer of TX’s original musical SHADES, CCM grad Tom Korbee (’98) also plan to perform. A host of other TX favorites over the years – including collegiate and professional entertainers spanning Mascari’s St. X career – also will be on hand to honor their high school director.
Mascari was the 2010 Acclaim Award winner as Cincinnati’s best theater educator; her students have earned more Cappie awards than any other school in the city. She has directed more than 70 productions at St. X and her students have gone on to perform – on stage and backstage – at some of the country’s top theatrical institutions. She’s even taught and directed a Tony Award winner in 2008 choreography winner Andy Blankenbueheler (’88).
“We’ve been blessed with some incredibly talented people over the years,” Mascari said. “That so many of them are willing to come back and share their music again is a wonderful, humbling gift. I’m looking forward to two unforgettable nights with some of my favorite people in the world.”
Josh Borths (now a senior at the University of Michigan studying opera) and Lindsay Greiwe (’03, theater director at Turpin High School) conceived and will direct the benefit performances.
The two nights will have different themes. The Dec. 29 show will feature a stroll through 30 years of TX shows with favorite songs from three decades of musicals in including American standards like Oklahoma, West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, popular Andrew Lloyd Weber shows Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Phantom of the Opera and Cats, British spectaculars Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, Sondheim favorites like Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd, quirky productions like Das Barbecu and Starmites, as well as family favorites Children of Eden, The Wizard of Oz and Godspell.
The Dec. 30 show will feature favorite songs of Mascari’s from both the theater canon and popular music sung by the alumni stars.
TX alumni parents Julie Borths and Tammy Silvestri hatched the idea last spring, got approval from the school and have been hard at work gathering an all-star team of performers, crew members and behind-the-scenes collaborators to reach the $50,000 needed to start the endowment.
“Michele isn’t retiring; this isn’t a farewell,” Julie Borths said. “In fact, when we approached her about the idea, she wanted to look forward to a time when there was scholarship money available for fine arts students. We thought that was a terrific idea and are running with it.”
“Michele has had a deep impact on our kids, our whole families,” Silvestri said. “We know we aren’t alone in thinking that and wanting to thank her. Over her 30 years with TX, there have been thousands of kids on her stage and that many more in her classroom.”
About St. Xavier High School
Since 1831, St. Xavier High School has been helping boys across Greater Cincinnati transform into leaders and men for others in the Catholic faith and Jesuit tradition. Located on a 110-acre suburban campus, its committed faculty and staff inspire the students to pursue excellence across a wide array of rigorous academic programs, enriching extracurricular activities and community service. Students experience a broad diversity of thought, people and opportunities designed not only to prepare them for college, but to propel them successfully through a lifetime of personal, intellectual and spiritual growth.
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