{"id":225206,"date":"2018-06-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/captain-hook-theater-says-hello-to-bye-bye-birdie\/"},"modified":"2018-06-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-22T07:00:00","slug":"captain-hook-theater-says-hello-to-bye-bye-birdie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/captain-hook-theater-says-hello-to-bye-bye-birdie\/","title":{"rendered":"Captain Hook Theater says hello to \u2018Bye Bye Birdie\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

por Alex Owens<\/p>\n

Typically, you don\u2019t want an actor to phone in a performance \u2014 unless, of course, the play requires them to do so.<\/p>\n

But even then, there can be challenges, as Dr. Mark Arapostathis discovered while rehearsing his students for Captain Hook Theater\u2019s upcoming production of the classic musical, \u201cBye Bye Birdie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The musical takes place in the 1950s and centers around a town excited about the appearance of rock singer Conrad Birdie before he goes off to the Army.<\/p>\n

The students liked the period hairstyles, letterman jackets and poodle skirts, but some parts of the era confused them, Arapostathis said.<\/p>\n

\"Captain<\/a>
(l to r) \u2018Bye Bye Birdie\u2019 cast members Vanessa Mann, Fiona Salbato, Elizjah Jack, Mackenzie White, Kamryn Johanns and Rachael Casady (Courtesy Captain Hook Theater)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn one of the scenes the characters are standing next to a phone booth and some of the actors didn\u2019t know what that was,\u201d Arapostathis, who is also the mayor of La Mesa, said. \u201cThere was also confusion about which end of a landline phone goes next to the ear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arapostathis uses both the Captain Hook Theater and its pre-high school counterpart, Peter Pan Junior Theater, as a vehicle for cultural literacy.<\/p>\n

That meant explaining things like how men were drafted into the military, as well as watching Elvis Presley\u2019s performances on the \u201cEd Sullivan Show,\u201d since he\u2019s the inspiration for Conrad Birdie.<\/p>\n

Sullivan is an off-stage presence in the stage musical, and the kids had strong opinions of him after watching his show.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one knew who Ed Sullivan was, but we watched a few episodes and the kids asked, \u2018Why was he famous?\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, you can say the same about Ryan Seacrest.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Arapostathis also worked with actor Elizjah Jack, who plays Birdie, to help him get into character.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to deal with screaming girls and be comfortable onstage,\u201d Arapostathis said. \u201cHe learned to swing his hips, but he\u2019s a humble musician. It took time, but he did watch some Elvis movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other roles were easier for the teenage actors.<\/p>\n

\"Captain<\/a>\u201c\u2018Bye Bye Birdie\u2019 has a lot of unique characters that allow the actors to stretch their acting chops, but there are a lot of parts where teenagers play teenagers, as opposed to a middle-aged person,\u201d Arapostathis said.<\/p>\n

This is the third time Peter Pan Junior Theater and Captain Hook Theater have put on \u201cBye Bye Birdie,\u201d and Arapostathis says its selection is indicative of where the program is headed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been told we\u2019re the junior theater that does the classic musicals, as opposed to other companies that do newer productions, and we\u2019ll take that,\u201d Arapostathis said with a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cBye Bye Birdie\u201d runs June 27-30 at The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center Theatre, 6845 University Ave., San Diego. Evening performances begin at 7 p.m. while the Saturday matinee begins at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

Tickets cost $15, but can be purchased for $10 at chooktheater.com with this code: CHOOK2018. Thursday night is Student Night with tickets costing $5 for teens with school I.D.<\/p>\n

\u2014Alex Owens is a La Mesa-based freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alex Owens Typically, you don\u2019t want an actor to phone in a performance \u2014 unless, of course, the play requires them to do so.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":764,"featured_media":225207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Captain Hook Theater says hello to \u2018Bye Bye Birdie\u2019","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-la-mesa-courier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/764"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}