Citizen photo by André Ward

Susan Kulp, left, and Justin Scalzo rehearse the famous piano scene from "Big" as they prepared for a show last weekend at the Jared Andrew Studio at the High Lane Club.

"This club is a great place," Jared Andrew Brown said as he watched his actors gather props and warm up their voices, preparing to take the stage at the High Lane Club. "Why go to New York and pay for a show when you can come here?"

Brown and his company, the Jared Andrew Studio, hope that they can draw some of that Broadway audience to North Haven. Last weekend, they presented their summer musical, "Big," in conjunction with Quick Change Productions.

Brown operates his own studio in town, but also wanted to help build an arts program from the ground up in North Haven. He hoped to give kids something to do in the summer, and do his part to keep theater going.

"I approached the town because I wanted to start a community theater," said Brown. "We've been making a great name for ourselves."

He was able to secure sponsorship by the High Lane Club, which seats around 200 in its ballroom. Brown was thrilled to be able to perform in the space, which he said reminded him of the ballroom from "Dirty Dancing." Last year, his studio put on its first production, "Footloose."

Brown's cast is a mix of adults, teenagers, and younger children, a nice departure from the traditional adults only mantra of many community theatres. The studio's other plays require an actor to be at least be a freshman in high school, but Brown opens up the summer musical to anybody who wants to audition.

For a musical like "Big," which is based on the movie starring Tom Hanks, the varied cast makes the play a little more special. In the story, young Josh Baskin has his first crush, and he plans to ask Cynthia Benson to ride the roller coaster at the carnival with him. But when he gets there, Cynthia already has a date, and Josh is pronounced too small to ride the coaster. Discouraged, Josh stumbles upon a fortune teller who tells him he will grant a wish. Josh asks to be "big" and the next morning he wakes up as a full-grown adult.

Many of the actors and crew at the studio are regulars, and relished working on a play that let them goof off.

"I just like acting like a kid, and working with the kids is great," said Hamden's Justin Scalzo, who played the grown-up Josh.

"All the practices have been fun," said 10-year old Austin Iovanna of North Haven, who played Billy Kopecki, Josh's best friend. "Just hanging out with everybody, and all the singing and dancing."

Iovanna was recruited for the play by his friend, 11-year old Christopher Parisella of North Haven, who played the young Josh in the show. Parisella had acted in the theater's production of "Footloose" last year, and the experience got him hooked.

"It was my first play, and I didn't expect it to be so good," said Parisella.

The play was sponsored by the Jamie Hulley Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting young artists. Hulley was an artist, dancer, and singer who lost her life to lymphoma at the age of 20.

For the producers of the show, the play offered a chance to stretch and take on a musical that's not always thought of as a popular choice.

"This experience has been interesting, because it's a bunch of little kids, which I'm not used to working with," said Amy Borysewicz, the show's choreographer. "It's totally different."

"I picked the show because, as adults, we get too stuck in our rational worlds," said Brown. "Doing a show like this keeps our imaginations active."

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