Broadway props gifted to Cape's Theatre Academy

Cape Henlopen High School's stage is now crowded with canvas crates marked with the images of three of Broadways' iconic musicals – Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon.

It's all part of a windfall donation to Cape's Theatre Academy from Cameron Mackintosh, producer of some of Broadway's best known musical theater.

Theatre Academy director Martha Pfeiffer and theater technical director Derek Dutton traveled to an Albany, NY., warehouse this week to retrieve some of the items.  They plan to return to the warehouse in June, Pfeiffer said.

The items have not been sorted and inventoried yet, said Pfeiffer.  Students will help with that task when they return from spring break Monday, May 2.

Dutton said he, Pfeiffer and Cape students traveled to New York to see "Mary Poppins" earlier in the year.  "Coincidentally, it's produced by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh Limited.  My cousin, Karen Zabinski, has worked with Mackintosh for many years," Dutton said.  She is working on "Mary Poppins."

During the visit, they discussed Cape's theater program.  "When you build a new building like that, you don't get a lot of money after its built to stock it with different goods, drops and specific lighting," Dutton said. He said Cape's theater is a fantastic space with good theater equipment, but a limited inventory.

By another coincidence, Zabinski said the national tours of Les Mis, Phantom and Miss Saigon had just closed and would not go on the road again, Dutton said.

Zabinski's husband, Marvin Crosland, had been tasked with organizing all the items from those tours, Dutton said, and Crosland and coworker boss Jake Bell, arranged to donate the items to schools.

"We came up as one of the first schools invited.  I told them what I was looking for and they put it together and let us take it," Dutton said.

Pfeiffer said, "We were not allowed to take costumes, because they are copywritten for the specific shows.  But, we were allowed to take soft goods, curtains, props."

Some of the light and sound equipment will be used for the academy's big spring performance.  "We have a moonbox, which will be perfect for Midsummer," said Pfeiffer.  Other lights mix gels to create a specific color, she said.

"It will be incredible.  It'll be Broadway," said Pfeiffer.

Academy students will perform Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Friday - Sunday, May 20-22 and May 27-29.

Pfeiffer took over the theater academy at the start of the school year.

Theater academy students have drawn attention by winning a string of area and regional stage competitions and have worked with university theater directors and professional actors.

For more information and photos, see the Tuesday, May 2 edition of the Cape Gazette.