Jets, Sharks take St. Viator stage

The day the Cardinals and the Steelers were set to face off in the Super Bowl, the Jets and the Sharks were squaring off in the auditorium of St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights.

During the dress rehearsal for "West Side Story," theater director and producer Kate Costello was shouting instructions to the cast, while under a lurid red light the rivals were engaged in a "rumble."

St. Viator will revive the classic work for its 43rd annual winter musical, playing the next two weekends in the high school auditorium.

The Arthur Laurents play, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, offering its variation on the "Romeo and Juliet" theme, is a natural for these high school students, giving them a chance to play characters their own age, while at the same time challenging their musical abilities.

More than 170 students are involved in the production, which will be performed by two different casts on alternating days.

Costello holds a special connection to the play. A St. Viator graduate, she appeared in it when she was in high school. This year, she chose the play because it was the wish of her son Phil, who expressed his desire while he was in the hospital last year.

"My mom (said), 'If you do any play, what would it be? I (said), 'West Side Story,'" said Phil Costello, a senior who plays "Big Deal," one of the Jets. "It relates to teenage life a lot."

"It's a great show for the kids," Kate Costello said. "They all relate to the Romeo and Juliet story, having read it in class. And they relate to the characters, because so many of them are their own ages. And it's fun to play a tough kid, most of them having grown up in the mean streets of the Northwest suburbs."

Costello said she knows she will get grief for some elements of the show: the knife fights; the violence; the hint of premarital sex; disrespect for authority. "It's not 'Sound of Music' or 'Annie Get Your Gun.'"

If the material is challenging, so is the music, although Costello said, "I knew we had some kids who could handle it."

Senior Francesco Castaldi, 17, one of the two boys playing Tony (the other is Franco Campanella), confirmed that the material is a challenge, particularly since he is a bass/baritone tackling a tenor part.

"It's very tough. Anything Leonard Bernstein is really challenging. If you talk to the orchestra, too, they'll tell you that it's taken them more this year than any other year.

"It's just a wide range, a different type of music than the usual musical theater stuff."

Timing the music with the dialogue is crucial, he said, whether doing a rumble or a love scene.

Some cast members have done plays before. Others like senior Kevin Fernandez, 18, who plays one of the Jets as well as Tony in a dream sequence, are taking the stage for the first time.

"This is the first time I have ever done a musical or anything in theater. I play a lot of sports, like cross country. I played lacrosse for a while."

For senior Lisa Sroka, 18, playing Maria was a dream come true. (Maria is also played by Alex Nowakowski.)

She said that she has been diligently studying the dialogue and the music since November, adding, "I have the DVD in my room all the time. Natalie Wood did such a great job with it in the movie, and I feel like I have to live up to that standard. So it's been hard, but it's very exciting at the same time."

Sroka added that she and Castaldi have known each other since kindergarten, which makes the experience easier.

Some of the actors are using their talents to bring the play a little more up to date. Senior Greg Turk, 18, one of the actors playing Riff (Joe Giovannetti is the other), said he is a self-taught hip hop and break dancer.

"I get some parts where I get to add the hip hop style into the '50s," he said.

Another challenge for some of the actors was getting the hang of the accents of the Spanish-speaking characters.

One of the actresses playing Anita, senior Molly Farwell (her counterpart as Anita is Colleen Kenyon), said, "I watched the movie several times and just kind of picked up the accent from people around me," adding that she sometimes uses it during the school day.