Take a trip of imagination through Souza’s ‘Phantom Tollbooth Jr.’

CENTRAL VALLEY — The Souza Scholarship for the Performing Arts will present “The Phantom Tollbooth Jr.” at the beginning of August this summer at Monroe-Woodbury High School, restoring the new tradition of annual Souza Summer Shows.

“Those of us who work on productions for Souza have been very lucky that so many young people have joined the cast, orchestra, and crew for our last four productions,” said longtime Souza chairman Bob Curtis. “Those shows have been great successes and have allowed us to continue our mission of investing in young performers through our scholarships. But this year, two veterans of our program have stepped up to co-direct our next show, ‘The Phantom Tollbooth Jr.’ and we are very grateful.”

The show is being co-directed by two Souza “alumni” who have themselves appeared in many previous Souza productions – Sarah Fields and Dominick Pascullo.

Giving back “Sarah Fields and I have been given the opportunity to create a piece of art, a piece of live theatre, that utilizes some of the wonderfully bright and talented young actors of our Monroe-Woodbury community while at the same time allowing us the opportunity to raise money for the Souza Scholarship Foundation,” Pascullo said in the press release announcing the shows. “As first a performer in the Souza shows and now stepping behind the scenes, I have the luxury of being able to do all I can to give back to the programs that benefited me when I was a student going through the M-W Theatre and Music programs.”

The story “The Phantom Tollbooth” is based on a popular children’s book by Norton Juster, a work that has been described as having the appeal here in America of England’s “Alice in Wonderland.”

In an article called “Broken Kingdom” celebrating the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication last year in The New Yorker, writer Adam Gopnik described the story of protagonist Milo’s fantastic journey this way:

“Milo finds that the strange land on the other side of the tollbooth is sundered between words and numbers, between the land of Azaz the Unabridged, the King of Dictionopolis, and his brother the Mathemagician, the ruler of Digitopolis. The only way to reunite the kingdoms is for someone—why not Milo?—to scale the Mountains of Ignorance, defeat the demons, and release the banished princesses of Rhyme and Reason from their prison.”

Cast of young people Co-director Sarah Fields is thrilled to be directing cast of young people in a vehicle in the realm of children’s theater. “My best theatrical experience by far involved a cast I truly cared for, a show I found both fun to watch and to perform, and an audience full of smiling children. Children’s theatre was something I had never been involved in, nor something I ever imagined doing,” said Fields. “My hopes for ‘The Phantom Tollbooth Jr.’ include not only raising money for student scholarships, but creating a great new theatrical experience for both the audience and our incredibly talented and committed cast.”

Curtis, who is co-producing this show along with longtime Souza treasurer Ronnee MacDonald, feels this will be a special show.

“We are indeed fortunate that Sarah and Dom volunteered to take on the project,” Curtis said in the press release. “I know that this is going to be a great show, which appeals to both grownups and children alike. The concept of a production being coordinated by ‘graduates’ of the Souza program adds a dimension worth shouting about. And believe me, I’ll be shouting.”