By Stewart Lytle, Sr. Reporter
REGIONAL — Olivia Riley caught the acting bug at Amesbury Middle School, when she performed in The Little Mermaid, the school musical. She sings in its choir and plays the trumpet in the school band.
This summer she got an extraordinary opportunity to be a cast member in the North Shore Music Theater’s production of JOSEPH AND THE TECHNOCOLOR DREAMCOAT. The sixth grader is one of 24 young people from the North Shore who make up the choir and are on stage at the award-winning theater for about one-third of the show and sing off-stage for the rest of the show.
She auditioned for the chance and heard from the professional staff about a week later that she was selected. She and the other chosen performers rehearsed at the theater for two months before joining the professionals for another week of rehearsals.
“The best part is getting to work with the professionals,” Riley said. “I am so lucky.”
The program for giving North Shore youth the chance to be in the cast for major productions has part of the theater’s education program and being in the production is the culminating event.
Olivia, 12, gets to work with Kyla Moulton, the theater’s education director, and Simon Byrne, the musical director, as well as the adult actors.
“It gives the young people the opportunity they never could have otherwise,” Jen Riley, her mother, said. “It opens the door for a lot of young people.”
The Riley mother and daughter credited the school and several of teachers for encouraging her in pursue the North Shore Musical Theater opportunity. Specially she cited her choir instructor, Johanna Kimball; her band teacher, Daniel Fijalkowski, and her math teacher, Mark Rinaldi, for helping her pursue her dream of acting.
North Shore Music Theatre offers year-round educational programs for both adults and children, as well as a three-week summer intensive and the opportunity to audition for shows like JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT.
JOSEPH ran from July 8-19.
“They joined the adults two and a half days into rehearsal,” Moulton is quoted. “The adults had already staged Act 1 at that point, and one of the coolest things on that day was seeing the [children’s] reactions when they heard Olivia Valli sing for the first time. They really look up to her so much.”
Getting to perform with and learn from professional actors like Valli, who plays the narrator, and Nikita Burshtey, who plays Joseph, is a unique opportunity that spawns dreams in the young people.
For Olivia, her dream is huge. Asked if she was thinking of being on Broadway one day, she said, “YES!”
