Hey kids, let's put on a show! LP and local high school alums reunite to raise funds for nonprofits

By Lori Caso

Special to Niagara Frontier Publications

My phone rang over the summer, and it was my old high school English teacher, Frank Scelsa, with the message I’ve been waiting to hear for 40-plus years: “Lori, we need you back on the stage!”

What vehicle would bring me back to the footlights? A unique fundraiser for the Lewiston & NOTL Rotary Club!

“Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple” will be presented “cabaret-style” on the last two weekends in October at the Lutheran Church of the Messiah in Lewiston. “Cabaret- style” means you’ll be enjoying a personal charcuterie, along with a beverage, while you watch the comedy.

All proceeds will benefit HART, Care-n-Share Food Pantry, Heart, Love & Soul and Lutheran Church of the Messiah. Tickets are $40 a person (or a special price of $35 a person, if you can gather enough friends to make up a table of eight.)

This was the brainchild of Scelsa, who is a veteran director of local theater productions. He ran the idea past fellow Rotarian Ron Danielewicz (another L-P English teacher of mine) and enlisted the help of current L-P English teacher Lisa Scelsa as box office manager (is anyone else seeing a pattern here?). The local cast of characters involved in this production is a “who’s who” in the community and may likely be someone you knew from high school. …

•Lewis Bean (Oscar Madison) operates Hill of Beans Coffee Shop in Youngstown and has appeared in local productions at the Fort Niagara Post Theatre.

•Jack Agugliaro (Felix Unger) has been performing and directing plays in Western New York for over 20 years. He was part of the Class of 1971 at NFHS.

•Mark Roy (Roy), a 1976 L-P alum, was in the 1975 LPHS production of “The Odd Couple” as Felix! He’s now a retired English teacher from the Newfane School district.

•Leo LiPomi (Vinnie) is an accounting manager for Gurney, Becker and Bourne Real Estate by day, and an active participant in local theater companies on nights and weekends. He graduated from NFHS in 1989.

•Sam Graneri (Murray) has been involved with a plethora of local stage productions and has been self-nominated for a few nonexistent acting awards. A NFHS grad from 1975.

•Taylor Ruckh (Speed), another L-P alum (Class on 2007), who was cast in a LPHS production of “The Odd Couple,” was so keen on being a part of the project he attends rehearsals virtually from his home in New York City.

•Anne Belin (Cecily), a former paralegal, now retired, is a veteran actress with Theater in the Mist. She graduated from Madonna in 1971.

•Matt Lord (stage director), an L-P alum and formerly part of the high school stage crew, is now a successful film director with Mighty Niagara Productions, and obviously has a soft heart for Frank Scelsa productions.

•Lori Caso (Gwendolyn), L-P Class of 1981, is not an actress or a cook … but sometimes I play one on TV.

Please join us for a night of laughs that will benefit four wonderful nonprofits in our community.

Show times are 7 p.m. Oct. 18, 19, 25 and 26, and 2 p.m. Oct 20 and 27. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://www.onthestage.tickets/show/rotary-club1/66b11b24b1d6db12be1b2693#localtheater.