Twice as much ‘Annie’ promised by JCompany

LA JOLLA, California (Press Release) — J* Company Youth Theatre launches their third show of Season 2015 with a rollicking classic, Annie. Directed by Joey Landwehr, this delightful musical tells the rags-to-riches Depression-era story of a spunky orphan who, unlike the other children at Miss Hannigan’s miserable orphanage, believes that her parents are alive and will return to claim her. When billionaire Oliver Warbucks offers to adopt her, she asks him to help find her real parents instead. Warbucks’ whopping reward for Annie’s parents attracts the attention of con artists Rooster, Lily, and the wicked Miss Hannigan, who hatch a plot to kidnap Annie and take the $50,000 reward. But don’t fret: this classic family musical has a happy ending for Annie, Daddy Warbucks, and the whole gang.

What makes this production different from all the other productions of Annie in San Diego, is JCompany’s double cast process – A Reflection on Willingness & Example. Landwehr, the Director states “there was such incredible talent seen at auditions, I felt we needed to present two casts for our production of Annie: Our Willingness Cast (Ages 7-12) and our Example Cast (Ages 11-18).” These casts are mirror images of each other in amazing talent and ability and we are so excited to be working with all these terrific young artists, together, on this great production of Annie!”

Landwehr goes on: “Together is a word that has greatly inspired the casting of this show.  It is our hope that our two casts: Willingness and Example support each other through acts of willingness to work together and to be examples for one another throughout our entire rehearsal and production process. For the most part, the Example Cast, are older artists that will serve as mentors and work with our Willingness Cast, our younger artists, as they both grow, create, and develop the show.  By building a diverse community of artists, we are so very excited to foster a sense of collaboration, not competition.”

This collaborative process will culminate on the final day of performances, during which they will have each of the casts perform for each other (and the audience, of course) and cheer each other on.  For the closing day, 1:00pm performance, our Example cast will perform and our Willingness cast will enjoy prime seats in the house to support their fellow teammates.  And for our 4:30pm, closing day performance, our Willingness cast will take the stage and our Example cast will help cheer them on in the house!  The Closing Night will wrap up with both casts.

Featured in the Willingness cast are Lindsay Van Winkle as Annie and Mikel Lemoine as Warbucks.  Those parts in the Example cast will be played respectively by Ella Shreiner and Collin Seaman. The production includes 92 youth cast members.

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Preceding provided by JCompany