Arlington Friends of the Drama

"Winner of six Tony Awards, The Light in the Piazza represents an ambitious departure from the pop-inflected formula typical of contemporary Broadway musicals. Adam Guettal's score is unusually lush, moody and dramatic, reaching back for inspiration to neo-romantic orchestral music and classical opera."--Sydney Morning Herald The first production of our 95th season is the romantic Tony award-winning musical "The Light In The Piazza," with a book by Craig Lucas and music & lyr

That's Ryan with the lovely Daisy, our choreographer. Ryan Began, joining AFD for the first time as Director of "The Light In The Piazza," is a freelance theater director who is passionate about telling compelling stories that both entertain and engage. He recently directed a workshop of the new musical "one state two state / red state blue state" at The Poets' Theatre. Other recent directing credits include "Fiddler on the Roof" with Colonial Chorus Players and "Lost In Yonk

Daisy Giunta, joining AFD as Choreographer of "The Light In The Piazza," begged her parents to bring her to dance class at the precocious age of two, and has been dancing in some capacity ever since. She carried out her formal training at Garden State Ballet School, New Jersey School of Ballet, and The Joffrey Ballet NYC, and performed with those companies throughout grade school and high school. Daisy went on to study Special Education at Boston University, where she was int

What a fantastic performance in a wonderful show. Janet was riveting in the production, and we're so happy for her win! All our love, get ready for your close up!

Wonderful, amici! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard pulling together this stellar cast -- and to everyone who auditioned. Should be a beautiful production. We're especially happy to welcome our good and indefatigable friend Charlie Carr to the ensemble! Final cast: Margaret Johnson: Karen Fanale Clara Johnson: Suzanne Reese-Mills Fabrizio Naccarelli: Gary Ames Signora Naccarelli: Stephanie Mann Signor Naccarelli: Dan Moore Franca Naccarelli: Emma Boroson Giuse

As soon as we had a cast, we started rehearsing! Welcome to all the lovely and talented performers. (l to r) Emma Boroson as Franca Naccarelli and Suzanne Reese-Mills as Clara Johnson. Director Ryan Began, AFD Program Director Steve Atwater, Producer Sandy Armstrong, and Stage Manager Sarah O'Neill. Music Director John Eldridge.

Once again, our wonderful theater community brought us many talented, dedicated, and radiant performers. We had two days of auditions, and a day of callbacks, but it was still difficult to make decisions. We send our love to everyone who turned out! We love our cast, and hope you will, too. Please let us know if you want to volunteer in any way as we get ready: building sets, helping with costumes, running a spotlight, selling tickets -- we need you!

The lovely Emma Boroson, who wowed audiences last season in our production of "Spelling Bee," wowed the production company with her lovely audition. She will be Franca Naccarelli in our upcoming "Light in the Piazza." Don't miss it. left: Music Director John Eldridge. Choreographer Daisy Giunta and Stage Director Ryan Began enjoyed the many hours of auditioning... That's Sassy. Also, that's Producer Sandy Armstrong. Stage manager can be fun, too! Sarah O'Neill is doing a grea