Rowley Theater Group Performs ‘Little Shop’

ROWLEY – The Clark School opened its Theater at the Bell last week for a new community theater with plans to become a major player in the North Shore performing arts world.
With a cast of 11, the company is staging the Little Shop of Horrors for its inaugural feature in the 110-seat theater at the school on state Rte. 1.
Performances this week are at 7 p.m. Friday through Sunday at 26 Newburyport Turnpike. Tickets are $25 online, purchased at Ticketleap.com, and $30 at the door.
The brainchild of headmaster Jeff Clark, himself a theater veteran, the new company for its first production has attracted locals like Adam Kerry Boyles of Rowley, who is playing the lead, and other cast members from far away as Brookline.
Brittany Savage of Beverly, who heads the Clark School’s performing arts department, is the director. “We are so excited,” she said last week before the final rehearsal. “I hope this puts us on the map.”
Savage said she chose Little Shop because “I want people to come in, let go of the outside world, release everything from the day and be part of the experience. It’s a great show with an awesome score.”
The show has a great score and features a puppet that eats people. “What more could you want,” she asked.
The team performed Little Shop of Horrors four times last weekend and will perform the wacky comedy four more times this weekend.
Clark, who is producing the musical, said he has long wanted to establish a community theater at the school. Rowley, located between community theater-rich Newburyport and Ipswich, did not have a theater group of its own, a vacuum he felt personally.
He performed in his first community theater show, Christmas Carol, in Salem and went on to tour nationally with a Broadway show. One year, he performed in 20 different shows from here to California. At Salem State, he studied theater management.
As the head of the Clark School, which was founded by his parents, he recognized the opportunity to add community theater. “Schools have chunks of time when the buildings are not being used,” he said.
Clark said he believes having the community theater productions will be the next step for students in the performing arts departments. The school already produces three or four plays and musicals each year.
He is impressed with the cast that is performing Little Shop of Horrors and is particularly pleased with Savage as the director. The cast includes Boyles, who plays Seymour; Philip Curcuru of Gloucester, who is in the ensemble and will play Seymour in two shows; John Cot of Andover, a teacher at Clark who is the voice of the plant, and Declan Callahan of North Andover, a junior at Clark School, who is the puppet master for the plant.
Clark and Savage said they plan to perform The Secret Garden in the winter with Clark directing and performing. “That’s one on my bucket list,” he said.