Shoemaker students participate in original play

LYNN-Students at the William G. Shoemaker Elementary School took parents and audience members on a trip back to the 1950s Thursday night at the opening of their two-night production of the original play, The Soda Shoppe Show.Once an annual occurrence, the Shoemaker School has not hosted a school play in five years, something the PTO wanted to change this year so that outgoing fifth graders had a chance to participate in the theatre arts.Based on the success of the school’s annual Lip Synch Show, which frequently featured music from the ?50s and ?60s, The Soda Shoppe Show is a spoof of American Bandstand “set in the ?50s with an Italian flair,” according to PTO member and author of the play Linda Duntley.”It is like seeing a TV show in progress and also seeing all of the chaos that happens in between commercials when everyone is running around and scrambling,” she said. “There is a lot of singing and dancing.”Duntley, who works in architecture as a designer during the day, was picked by the PTO to write the play because of her past experience writing the Clubhouse Noodle children’s books.She says she looked to the scripts of past plays that her daughter Mileah, a fifth grader at the Shoemaker, had participated in, written by local playwright Barbara Moore. She was able to master the style of writing necessary, and from there she says the idea for the play just came to her.”It is a very simple format for kids to be able to follow,” she said. “It kind of wrote itself because I was thinking of the kids at the school and how we wanted it to be, and it just came to me.”While Duntley did the writing, PTO parent Karyn Dimeglio handled the choreography, along with the students, and Michelle Savia handled the organization and administration aspects of the production. Moore will play piano and help with the music during the performance of the show.Putting the play together was no easy task, as an overwhelming amount of students filled the school’s cafeteria the day of tryouts. Over 100 students in grades K-5 are actually participating in the performance, and that doesn’t include all of the people working behind the scenes to design the set and handle production.”It really is a true, one of a kind deal that everyone has been involved in,” said Duntley. “It is really important for kids to have an art background, and we really don’t have a lot of art in the schools anymore. It is very special to me to be able to give this experience to these kids.”A second production of the Soda Shoppe Show will take place tonight in the Shoemaker Elementary School gymnasium at 7 p.m.