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Sarah Baglione, Jeff Elwell and Phaelon O’Donnell agree that this charming story of young love and remembrance is ageless. The talented trio may be short in years, but they are all long in theatrical experience: each one has participated in more than 18 plays in seven years.
Baglione, age 17, lives in Round Pond and will be a senior this fall at Lincoln Academy (LA). She appeared in her first play at age 10 , playing a lead role in Midcoast Children’s Theater’s (MCT) production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” She has been acting, singing and dancing her way through no less than 19 plays since.
In “Fantasticks,” Baglione plays the ingenue daughter, Luisa, and she is sure this role will be one of her favorites. She loves the play because “it’s very intimate, and with a small cast you can bond more and have more fun.” Baglione hopes to attend Northwestern University and pursue a career in musical theater.
Also a veteran actor at age 17, Elwell will be a senior at LA this fall. A resident of Damariscotta, he has performed in several plays with MCT, LCCT and The Chocolate Church Arts Center. Cast opposite each other as Linus and Lucy in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” he and Baglione are now playing the young lovers, Matt and Luisa, in “Fantasticks.”
Elwell feels this show is timeless because it lets the audience “remember how it was when they were 17 and in love, their first kiss, and their strict parents.” Although he knows acting will always be a part of his life, he plans to major in psychology at Drexel University.
Rounding out this teen triad is 14-year-old O’Donnell, an LA sophomore who lives in Wiscasset. She began performing at age seven in “Godspell,” and has appeared in several plays with Baglione and Elwell, including “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” She was also on stage in “Camelot,” “The Wizard of Oz” and “Fiddler on the Roof” at The Chocolate Church.
O’Donnell regards her role as the Mute in “Fantasticks” as “cool,” as she does not utter a word on stage. This challenging part lets her “interact with all the characters through movements and actions, not words.” She plans to study performing arts in college and make it her career.
All three give credit to MCT director Aaron Robinson for instilling in them a love and enthusiasm for the theater, and for encouraging them to develop their talents.
LCCT will present “The Fantasticks” at 8 p.m. July 25-27 and Aug. 1-3; and 2 p.m. Aug. 4 at the Lincoln Theater.