At Gateway Playhouse in Somers Point, ‘kids are the backbone’
SOMERS POINT —– Bringing in a Broadway star is just one way the Gateway Playhouse on Bay Avenue puts the emphasis on young actors in the Cape-Atlantic area.
The Gateway to the Arts program is meant to enrich young people while teaching them more than learning how to act.
It features summer classes for three age groups, 7-9 (Musical Munchkins), 10-13 (Shining Stars) and 14-18 (Rising Stars), that culminate in productions. The youngest are doing “Destination America: A Coast-to-Coast Musical Tribute,” the older ones “Matilda Jr.: The Musical” and the oldest “Rent: School Edition.”
It is for this last group that Anthony Rapp, who originated a role in “Rent” on Broadway and starred for five seasons on TV in “Star Trek: Discovery,” held a morning workshop July 2.
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“Phil and I have this challenge every summer that we’ve now set the bar incredibly high,” Katie Calvi, chairman of the Gateway Playhouse Board of Directors, said of herself and director Philip Pallitto. “Bringing in Anthony was almost like a pipe dream. Like, let’s just go shoot for the stars. We thought, ‘What can we do?’ Well, an original cast member from ‘Rent’ would be the ultimate dream. So you just have to ask.”
Pallitto had a connection, got his email and reached out. Calvi followed up. Although Rapp lives in Chicago with his husband and their two toddlers, he was going to be in New York City for a production this summer.
“He was like, ‘I can come next week,’” Calvi said.
That prompted a happy scramble and a generous donor helped make it happen.
“We have a very supportive community in that sense. While we don’t have huge corporations down here that are helping us with our fundraising goals, we have very special individuals that value the arts here in town and see the importance of what we do, and see the importance of our mission and how and what we do to transform kids.”
Last year, the Gateway to the Arts featured Baayork Lee, a Broadway legend from “A Chorus Line,” when the students performed in that production.
Pallitto explained the importance of importing Rapp for a workshop because of his direct connection to playwright Jonathan Larson so he could tell the students they should understand the importance of what the play was all about.
“Yeah, we’re singing songs that are fun and we’re doing dances and we have lights and costumes and all that stuff, but at the end of the day, we’re telling a story,” Pallitto said. “We’re telling a story of a different group of people and we try to make that connect and relate to our audiences.
“As Anthony kept saying, to be able to continue the legacy that Jonathan planted with all of these seeds is really powerful and is something that I know our kids are never going to forget,” he added.
Calvi said they wanted to show the students that Rapp is “just another human, just like you, and he cares about you because he was you when he was small and beginning his career. He’s not this fictitious character, he’s a real person that cares and wants to come down and spend time.”
“The magnitude of the story that we’re telling and the importance of it deserves somebody like Anthony to come and share his story. The kids deserve it. Anthony deserves to keep telling his story as well,” Calvi said.
“He made it about the kids, having the best experience with him, rather than about him,” Pallitto said of Rapp. “He wanted the kids to get the most out of the morning as opposed to, ‘Here I am in this big movie.’”
Pallitto, vice principal at Charter Tech High School who also directs the plays at Mainland Regional High School, remembered watching Rapp in the movie “Adventures in Babysitting.”
“I’m starstruck and he’s so humble and so wanting our kids to have the best experience. In one of our conversations, he said, ‘I don’t want to step on your toes as the director.’ I was like, ‘Step away, please.’”
“I’m pretty sure it resonated with all of the kids that you can go out and want a certain role or be the lead, but at the end of the day, it’s the community of the cast (in ‘Rent’),” Calvi said.
She said Rapp didn’t just spend his time with the leads of the musical.
“He wanted to be with the whole ensemble and show everybody this is a community of people,” she said.
Kids are the backbone
“The kids are the backbone to the Gateway Playhouse,” Calvi said. “Since day one when we (re)opened eight years ago in August, the Gateway to the Arts program was immediately successful because of Phil Pallitto and the team that he implemented,” Calvi said. She was on the board at the time, later becoming vice chairman and now chairman.
“It is the one program that the community votes for and they vote with their sponsorship dollars. The lights would not be on here if it wasn’t for this program,” she said.
“This is our hub for South Jersey, for the arts for kids, in my perspective. Yes, they get it in their schools, but what’s next? Well, guess what? You can walk into the Gateway Playhouse and it’s beautiful,” Calvi said. “It is high tech and there’s a bar and concessions and a proper box office and all that jazz. You’re not performing just at your school. We’re taking you to the next level and showing you that you deserve it and it’s obtainable and the sky’s the limit. You can do whatever you want next.”
“We really try to provide kids with as professional of an experience as possible from the set to the costumes to the way that the production team interacts with them,” Pallitto said. “They’re in high school, they’re in middle school, but we treat them … how they would be treated in industry. And we really try to paint that pathway for them — you can have a real job and do this for fun, or you can go major in it and make it big. You can find who you are through the arts … you can come here and have a voice.”
“I am confident that one of our Gateway to the Arts students will be on Broadway, will be famous, and will be coming back to say thank you,” Calvi said.
SJ AIDS Alliance
The Gateway Playhouse is partnering with the South Jersey AIDS Alliance to discuss the time period of the play — the height of the AIDS crisis — and current issues as well.
Pallitto pointed out when the show came out, it was reflective of Larson’s world in 1994 and 1995, and Rapp said in 2025 it is a period piece from the time when AIDS was a death sentence.
Larson, who died just before the musical premiered on Broadway, wrote that the tale about struggling artists in New York City was meant to shed light on the AIDS crisis and deal with the themes of addiction, homophobia and creativity.
To learn more about the Gateway to the Arts program and the Gateway Playhouse, visit gatewaybythebay.org.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
