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Broadway Comes to Sharon

by Rachel Louchen

It’s not every day the town of Sharon welcomes a talent from Broadway. Jennifer Werner’s career spans twenty years in theatre. Despite her current position as Associate Director on the Broadway smash, Book of Mormon, she is spending a few weeks at the TriArts Playhouse as director and choreographer of Monty Python's Spamalot. Werner, introduced to TriArts in 2009 when she choreographed A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, was invited to return by her longtime friend, Artistic Director John Simpkins. She is quite happy to be back in Sharon, enjoying the beautiful surroundings and the warmth of its people. “It's nice to be able to go off and relax; we're by the lake. There are so many little restaurants and things to do tucked here and there.”

In addition to Spamalot, this New York resident maintains her job on Broadway and her role as mother of three small children (she deadpans, “I don’t sleep a lot”). She commutes, and while her schedule varies, she usually rehearses in Sharon at 10 for the morning. “My day starts earlier than that as I have to prepare. I usually wake up to a million emails about the production. A Broadway show rehearses for about four weeks, work-shopping for several months. Regional theater has about two weeks of rehearsal time,” She explains. While a lesser director may have trouble balancing it all, Werner considers herself to be an extremely organized person. “I enjoy the pacing, but I wouldn’t be able to do it all the time, it's very intense.” Werner continues, ”I feel like the quarterback. I'm trying to get the whole team together so we can get to the end line.”

Thankfully, gathering her team has proven to be one of the easier tasks. While some directors walk into an already bonded seasoned cast, Werner feels nothing but enthusiasm and has been wholly embraced by the TriArts cast. “Everyone here is so fantastic and working really hard. I walked in the other day and people had come in on their day off and were reviewing the numbers and going over things. The crew is working over time because they love the material.”

Werner also enjoys the unique opportunity to work with musical theater students, who receive college credit for participating in TriArts performances this summer. “It is a really innovative program, almost like an internship. They get to work with professionals. When you're starting out just being on stage is really exciting and they learn a lot from the different directors.”

When the play is over, Werner plans to relax in the area with her children and husband, Thomas Cannizzaro. Cannizzaro plays King Arthur in the upcoming production and understudied Tim Curry in this role on the original tour.

Werner hopes to catch upcoming productions of Doubt and The Next Thing You Know, a play “written by two very talented young playwrights”. Talent is a word Werner uses often while talking about her experience here. “When you have a community supporting a cultural institution like this, it sort of snowballs and gets better and better. People get more invested, there is more to do, more fun, more children's programs and it gets bigger as it rolls along. That's what it's all about.”

Spamalot opens June 26 and runs through July 7. triarts.net

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