Teens Are An Integral Part Of Town Players Crew

By Laurie Borst

Anna Chamiec-Pauneto and Margot Isaacs are sophomores at Newtown High School who share an interest in theater. The young ladies have been involved with drama productions since middle school.

Currently they are working with Town Players of Newtown, serving in crew capacities on the production of Dinner With Friends. (See a review of Dinner With Friends in the Enjoy section this week.)

Anna runs the lights and sound equipment. This is her first time doing lights and sound, which she described as tricky at first. She explained the need to coordinate and time music to cover the moving around of props.

She has both acted and worked backstage on costumes and props. Her first acting experience came with a summer theater camp in 2005 at TheatreWorks New Milford. She was the narrator in the camp’s performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

In middle school, Anna was in the crew of Sleeping Pretty and played a Who in Seussical. She then worked on costumes for last year’s high school production of Into the Woods.

Margot is the stage manager on Dinner With Friends. She described the role of stage manager saying she sets up every prop, reads lines with actors, and whatever else needs doing to make the play happen.

Margot was also in the crew of Sleeping Pretty and worked on scenery for Suessical. Last year, she did sound on the performances of A Streetcar Named Desire and Into the Woods. She has also taken part in summer theater camp, and worked with Town Players in May, handling props for its production of London Suite.

“I like being behind the scenes,” Margot said. “I’m not good at memorizing lines.”

Anna said she likes doing both. She enjoys helping out with the actors and the performance run, but admitted she likes performing too.

“I like to entertain people,” she explained.

Suzanne Kinnear is the producer on Dinner With Friends and a board officer of Town Players. While preparing to open the play last week, she took the time to e-mail some comments about Margot and Anna.

“Both Margot and Anna are lovely young women who are a pleasure to work with and who are fine examples of young people who take pride in everything they do,” she wrote. “We, the Town Players, are so fortunate to have them working with us on this production. Backstage people are becoming harder to come by within our community theater circle.”

The admiration goes both ways. Both young women found the experience with the Town Players rewarding.

“It’s much more organized working with adults,” Margot said. “They are adults, not kids playing adults.”

“They are more sophisticated actors,” Anna added. “It’s enjoyable to watch a different age group of actors.”

Both Anna and Margot agreed the Players are a “nice, humble group who don’t brag.”

Margot explained that Ms Kinnear is very involved, helping a lot with props and scenery when needed. The students found Larry Kinnear, director of the play, supportive and encouraging to both of them.

“It is important to respect the young people of today, and, in some way, help them to grow in their own self-confidence,” Ms Kinnear wrote. “I like to think [Town Players] helped give them their start. Or, at the very least, in life, we’ve given them the confidence to know their capabilities in whatever direction they eventually choose.”

While both students are enjoying theater work, neither is sure about future plans. Anna felt she would help with plays when she gets to college. Margot also wants to stay involved.

At the moment, both students stay quite busy. Both have lots of homework, they say, and both babysit. Sports take up some of their time, including soccer, skiing, snowboarding, volleyball, and hip hop dance.

They find time to squeeze in some clubs, including the ecology club, Interact, NYCAAP, SADD, and GSA to name a few.

(Performances of Dinner with Friends continue on weekends at The Little Theatre on Orchard Hill Road until September 28. Call 270-9144 for full performance and ticket reservation details.)