The Moorestown Theater Company is in its 12th season and has come a long way since it first began.
“When we started 12 years ago, we did one play,” Producing Artistic Director Mark Morgan said. “We didn’t have the Summer Stage Musical Theater Camp or any official employees then. But, 12 years later, we’re doing some pretty miraculous things.”
Throughout this summer, MTC will present five different musicals. The first performance of the summer was “Annie,” which took place between July 9 and July 11.
“‘Annie’ is the big draw for many of the kids,” Morgan said. “It’s a musical most of the kids know and it was really great. We sold out four of the six shows, and the performances were outstanding.”
Each musical provides a challenge for Morgan. The casting and rehearsals for most of the plays are done within a two-week period before the play opens.
“It definitely makes it tough, and parents are always amazed when the production come out,” Morgan said. “They can’t believe that in only two weeks, we manage to put these musicals together.”
The MTC is currently performing “Fiddler on the Roof,” which opened on July 17. There are also performances scheduled for July 24–26.
“Fiddler is a little bit different than the other summer musicals,” Morgan said. “We put together the cast in May and have been rehearsing for the past two months for this one. It should be a great show, and we hope to pay homage to the play on its 50th anniversary.”
With so many rehearsals and performances, Morgan has been quite busy throughout the summer. On top of his duties as the director for the MTC and running the Summer Stage Musical Theater Camp, Morgan will also be directing two of the musicals this summer: “Fiddler on the Roof” and “My Son Pinocchio.”
“I don’t have much downtime, that’s for sure,” he said. “But, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it. Every year, we get more requests from parents and performers that want to do more musicals, so we keep adding things.”
According to Morgan, the more he adds, the more difficult it becomes because the MTC does not have its own building. The musicals are performed on a variety of stages in Moorestown, including the William Allen Middle School and various churches.
“It definitely makes it much harder to put on the musicals without our own building,” he said. “We have to end rehearsals early so we can clean up and move things to the next building, and that cuts our time to practice.”
Morgan hopes that in the future, they will have their own building, now that the program has grown so much and the foundation is there for a successful performing arts organization.
“We have more and more kids signing up each summer,” Morgan said. “That’s where success comes from. Some of these kids are there for the entire nine weeks and they never want to leave. We have the foundation set, now all we need is a building to call our own and then there is no telling how much it will grow.”
For a complete listing of performances and show times, visit www.moorestowntheatercompany.org.
