Luck Be a Lady: Ormond's Halifax Repertory Theatre to present 'Guys and Dolls'

The nonprofit theatre company is presenting Tony Award winning Broadway musical at the News-Journal Center, opening at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 25.

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Ormond Beach's Halifax Repertory Theatre hopes audiences fall in love with their upcoming production — perhaps enough for "a bushel and a peck."

Through special arrangement with Music Theater International, the nonprofit theatre company is presenting Tony Award winning Broadway musical "Guys and Dolls" at the News-Journal Center, opening at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 25.

Set in the streets of New York City in the late 1940s, the romantic comedy follows two love stories — that of gambler Sky Masterson (played by HRT's producer Jack Cook) and mission worker Sarah Brown (played by Ashley Ricci Garcia), and the story of showgirl Adelaide (played by HRT's Artistic Director Jennifer McGill) and her fiancé Nathan Detroit (played by Noah Clark).

The show features a large cast of 30 actors, from as young as 10 years old. 

The range in age reinforces what HRT often talks about — how it is a professional hybrid of a theatre company, McGill said. 

"We are not a community theatre, we are your community's theatre," said McGill, an Ormond Beach resident. "That is represented by the age range, by the diversity of our group."

This will be Garcia's first show with HRT. The New York-based actress saw an ad for the role of Sarah Brown on Playbill magazine, and it was one she'd wanted to do for a long time. Garcia has been acting for 14 years, and said being part of the cast of "Guys and Dolls" has been a fun experience.

"I love doing big shows, and it's been a while since I've done one, so I'm so excited to meet all these new people, and the energy that a big cast brings is always really fun," Garcia said.

Both of her grandparents were both actors. She has many memories of them singing scores to older musicals, like "Guys and Dolls." That makes this show nostalgic to her, and she said she'll be happy if she can activate similar memories for people in the audience.

"My goal as an actress is to really help people get through that mundane part of their lives," Garcia said. "If they're down in the dumps and they need a laugh, I want to give them that. If they need to feel, a nostalgia, I love giving them that."

Bringing talent into Ormond Beach is a large part of why Cook and his wife Sandra, executive director of HRT, wanted to start the theatre company. It's why they recruited McGill, a former Disney Channel Mouseketeer, and moved her to Ormond, where the Cooks grew up. 

"We all benefit from it — from the kids here to our audiences out there," Cook said. "They come out of our show saying, 'Wow, this was just a lot more than we expected.' The caliber, the quality of it all, and that's exactly what we hope to continue to deliver to the community by being able to bring in talent like this."

Having Sandra Cook direct "Guys and Dolls" gives the musical a strong female perspective, which Jack Cook said is what is setting HRT's production apart from others. When the show was written, the "dolls" were plot points, but HRT has taken a different approach. What are they thinking? How can lines be delivered to convey that?

"So I love this approach because both of these lead female characters have added such a complexity on it that you find the guys back on their heels to the dolls," Cook said. 

In addition to putting on productions, HRT hosts dance classes, voice lessons and acting workshops. A portion of proceeds from every show is donated to organizations such as Children's Musical Theatre Workshop to continue fostering a love of theatre and arts in the community.

Making sure education is at the center of everything HRT does is a goal of McGill's.

"We make sure that we're educating and supporting and nurturing up and coming talent," she said. "Not just people who have already arrived and are awesome at what they do because they've been doing it forever. We also really nurture the community who wants to get into the arts more and see more people like them up there."

The Cooks founded HRT because they saw that the community wished to be an "art center" in Central Florida.

They were on board with that mission.

"We're going to make sure that that can happen with performance and live art, and that's we're going to continue to do," Cook said. "The only help we need from the community is put your butts in the seats. Tell everyone you know because as long as we have the people coming out and loving what we do, we're going to keep bringing them more."

 

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