Peters Township troupe opens 2017 Pennsylvania Thespian Conference

An opening act generally faces a certain amount of pressure, and circumstances can add to that.
“The way it works is you have two hours to build your set on stage,” Jeanie Cygrymus said about an upcoming performance by Peters Township High School Thespian Troupe No. 185. “And then after the show you have one hour to take it down.”
In between, the troupe will present Gary Ray Stapp’s play “Daddy’s Girl” as the initial featured event of the 2017 Pennsylvania Thespian Conference at Central York High School. Showtime is at 2:15 p.m. Nov. 30, marking the Peters contingent’s first-ever appearance on the conference’s main stage.
A free preview show of “Daddy’s Girl” will take place at 7 p.m. Nov. 28 in the Peters Township High School auditorium.
Freewill donations will be accepted to help defray the cost of Thespian Troupe No. 185’s trip to York to participate in the 2017 Pennsylvania Thespian Conference.
“For the past two years, we have done one-acts, and I’ve had students do the directing,” Cygrymus, the troupe’s sponsor, said. After last time, they lobbied for a premiere slot at the conference and were accepted.
Such an undertaking was of initial concern to Cygrymus, especially when she learned her students would be taking the stage so early in the proceedings.
“Now I think it’s good, because we can get in there and do the performance, and then kind of sit back and relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend,” she explained.
As for the on-quickly, off-quickly set, Marty Reardon and Dan Mullan – with the Peters Township High School Thespian Backers, a group of parents who provide moral, social and supplementary financial support to the troupe – have been working to create something feasible. Students are assisting by doing all the painting and decorating.
“During the rehearsals, we’re rehearsing the play downstage and they’re painting upstage,” Cygrymus said. “We have everybody on there getting it ready.”

The troupe performed “Dracula” in the fall of 2016.
A veteran of the local theater scene, especially in her home community of South Park Township, Cygrymus has directed “Daddy’s Girl” before, first for the Grand Theatre in Elizabeth in 2012 and three years later as her first spring play at Peters. Some of the current troupe members were in the latter production as extras.
“They said, ‘We should do that one, Mrs. C, because you’re familiar with it,” Cygrymus explained. “With it being an added show in the season, we really had to jockey for time on the stage. The regular fall play was happening. Now we’re getting into Christmas concerts.”
“Daddy’s Girl” takes place in a 1950s-era diner called Maudie’s, where proprietor Bernard Muloovy has to contend with characters ranging from a talking portrait of his deceased wife to a mischievous angel named Michael to two possible long-lost daughters, both named Elizabeth.
“It’s funny,” Cygrymus reported, “but it also has moments where I personally get choked up.”
As the troupe’s sponsor, she is a successor to Barry Wood, the longtime Peters Township High School English and theater teacher who founded the group in 1971. Its number designates that it was the 185th such troupe to be established in U.S. high schools, and it was the first in Pennsylvania.
“They really do consider this a family, the whole theater group,” Cygrymus said. “They’re so close. It’s great for them.”