Every Staples Players show is special.
But the fall 2008 production was especially special.
For “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” directors David Roth and Kerry Long made an inspired cast choice.
Principal John Dodig delivered a tour de force — and, to some audience members, unexpected — performance, near the end of the musical.
Many did not know that the popular educator had experience in community theater. Watch his “Brotherhood of Man” number here, or below — taped and edited by former media teacher Jim Honeycutt — to see.
Dodig retired a decade ago. But some fellow cast members — all decades younger — have gone on to remarkable careers, in the entertainment world. For example:
Max Stampa-Brown appeared in “The Third Man,” “FREUD” and “The Garret East,” after studying acting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He now works as a mixologist at Borochito in NYC.
Eva Hendricks is a lead singer, and Dan Shure plays bass, in Charley Bliss, a successful New York band. Their current release is “Back There Now.”
David Ressler is an actor and singer currently performing in a Bay Area Opera Collaborative production of “Pirates of Penzance.”
Chris McNiff is an actor, singer, dancer and choreographer based in New York. Notable credits include Phil Davis in “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” Don Lockwood in “Singin’ in the Rain,” and Claude in “Hair.”
Brittany (Uomoleale) Baron is an actress, best known for her role as Justine Biagi in the TV series “GLOW,” and for voicing Tifa Lockhart in the “Final Fantasy VII Remake” franchise, for which she received an award for Best Supporting Performance.
Zoe Apoian is a model, an actress and dancer. She starred in the 2015 movie “Karina Jones: Lazy.”
Matthew Van Gessel is an actor, director and writer based in New York. He played Isaac Goodenow in the “The Sudbury Devil,” appeared in the film “Bookworm,” was featured as an actor in the project RedDrop, and was cast as Father Rand in “The Vampires of New Orleans.”
Max Samuels is a New York-based stage and screen actor known for his roles in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” He also appeared in “George Kaplan,” “Angry Young Man,” “The Winter’s Tale” and “The Brothers Karamazov.”
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Great encore performance in a nutshell! And Principal John Dodig singing and hoofing it at the end is priceless!
I didn’t want to post first. But withheld since you kinda ‘own’ these Glory Days stories. Plus you’re the only one to ever comment. Cute though.
Wash/Rinse/Repeat
Hi Mr Griffin-
Bottom line is we have lived in Westport since 1973 and have gone to see every Staples production possible. I find it great to see many encore plays that we saw in person. And- we know about many of the now grown up kids who were in these plays.
We have a granddaughter who is graduating this year and was in all the productions for the last four years. Hopefully her plays will be nutshell encores someday and someone who knew her will enjoy seeing the plays and her again.
Just my opinion – When someone does something “great” like creating nutshells like Mr Honeycutt and putting it up on the blog like Dan Woog are doing, the least someone/ anyone can do is say thank you!
Hopefully Wash/Rinse/Repeat is just your way to say “thank you” as many times as these nutshell encores are posted.
Interesting that you commented on my comments but haven’t commented on the nutshell posting. Just an observation.
Can I suggest that next time you can comment STAT and I will gladly second you ASAP.
Wash/Rinse/Repeat to Infiniti and Beyond