The Bloomingdale Senior High School (BSHS) Theatre program is excited to announce the cast lists for two productions coming this fall to Valrico.
On Friday and Saturday, November 14-15, audiences will enjoy the Peter Pan origin story, Peter and the Starcatcher. The Tony Award-winning Peter and the Starcatcher upends the century-old story of how a miserable orphan comes to be The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (aka Peter Pan). A wildly theatrical adaptation of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s bestselling novels, the play was conceived for the stage by directors Roger Rees and Alex Timbers and written by Rick Elice, with music by Wayne Barker. From marauding pirates and jungle tyrants to unwilling comrades and unlikely heroes, Peter and the Starcatcher playfully explores the depths of greed and despair, and the bonds of friendship, duty and love.
Featuring a dozen actors portraying more than 100 unforgettable characters, Peter and the Starcatcher uses ingenious stagecraft and the limitless possibilities of imagination to bring the story to life. It can be expanded or pared down technically to fit the specific needs and abilities of any theater company.
Bloomingdale High School announced a talented cast on September 5, featuring Nikita Diwan as Peter, Mariana Caraballo as Molly Aster and Luke Blankenshp and Violet Willis as Ted and Prentiss, Peter’s orphan friends. The pirates include Evan Valencia (Black Stache), Megan Simoneau, Kennedy Davis, Paloma Vasquez, Angelica Alvarez and Realyn Vilamarim. And playing the sailors who are loyal subjects to Her Majesty the Queen are Elixandria Llorente, Paloma Vasquez, Vikramaditya Pathania (Lord Leonard Aster), Holland Soncant (Captain Falcon Scott) and Heavyne Columna. The cast and crew are led by senior Allena Lopez as production stage manager.
The competition one-act for 2025 is Dinner with the MacGuffins, by Christ Sheppard and Jeff Grove. At first glance, this is a typical family comedy: teenage James (Evan Valencia) and girlfriend Karen (Aleena Lopez) try to make out one afternoon, only to face repeated interruptions by other members of James’ family, including Helen (Anjali Pathania), Grandma (Alesya Enyart) and Dwight (Elias Butler). But the ultimate interruption comes in the middle of the show, breaking the ‘fourth wall’ so that James can see the audience. As James tries to convince his increasingly worried family that a wall is missing from their house, and that people are watching them, the play takes more left turns than Bugs Bunny should have taken at Albuquerque — until it reaches a happy (if twisted) ending, featuring Pathania, Llorente and Caraballo. Freshman Taj (Jay) Melson and junior Caraballo lead the cast and crew as production stage manager and technical director.
Dinner with the MacGuffins can be seen at the Florida Theatre Conference in Winter Haven from Thursday through Sunday, November 6-9; at the District 9 One Act Festival at USF from Wednesday through Friday, December 3-5; and at the BSHS holiday show on Tuesday, December 9, at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets are available at www.bloomingdaletheatre.org. VIP seats, in the first five rows for Peter, are $15; adult ticket general admission is $10, with student general admission seats being $5. Tickets for the holiday production on December 9 at 6:30 p.m. are $5 for general admission for everyone.
