Mac Cherny will direct the upcoming Mandell JCC Summer Theater Camp production of ‘Cinderella.’

Submitted by Larah Winn, Mandell JCC

The Mandell JCC is excited to announce that Mac Cherny will be the new Theater Camp director for the summer 2017 program.

Cherny will direct the upcoming performances of Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella Jr. this summer in the Herbert Gilman Theater at the Mandell JCC, Zachs Campus, 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford, CT.

Registration for the program is open and space is still available.

A recent University of Connecticut Graduate with a B.A. in Theater Studies and a minor in the Puppet Arts, Cherny returns to the JCC, having grown up in the theater program. He is an EMC actor who has worked in regional theaters such as the Sharon Playhouse, Ivoryton Playhouse, and Playhouse on Park. Recently he acted alongside Tony award winner Karen Ziemba in a production of Gypsy as well as the Boston Pops Orchestra in Symphony Hall.

As a director Cherny has directed public readings of new plays and assistant directed Connecticut Repertory Theater’s production of The 25^thAnnual Putnam County Spelling Bee. In 2010-2012, he created a student run theater program at the Mandell Jewish Community Center, directing 13! The Musical, and The Wedding Singer. In previous summers at the JCC he was the executive director of a Unified Theater production and taught puppetry workshops for children ages 8-14 years old.

Outside of theater, Cherny works for the West Hartford Public School system as a substitute teacher and a paraprofessional.

Emily Weiser is excited to return as musical director. She is a rising senior studying Choral and General Music Education at the University of Maryland, where she is a member of the UMD Chamber Singers.

Weiser has been playing piano for fourteen years and teaches private piano lessons. She has spent the last several summers as a counselor at Camp Ramah New England, the University of Maryland Summer Youth Music Camp, and, of course, the JCC Theater Camp. Last year she had the opportunity to serve as a long-term substitute music teacher at Solomon Schechter Day School, and she has spent the last year in elementary and middle school music classrooms before her student teaching. She is looking forward to being a part of this summer’s production of “Cinderella.”

The Mandell JCC Theater Camp is open to grades 3-8 as of fall 2017 and will run from June 19-July 14, 2017. This summer’s production will be Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic tale of Cinderella. This beloved story is about a young girl, Cinderella, living an unfortunate life with her evil stepmother and stepsisters. She realizes, with a little bit of magic, that “impossible things are happening every day.”

Performance dates for Cinderella Jr. are Thursday, July 13, 7 p.m. and Sunday, July 16, 1 p.m. For more information, contact Jane Pasternak, 860-231-6342, [email protected].

The Mandell Jewish Community Center is open to everyone and supported by funds raised by the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford, a recipient of funding from the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Hartford, and a member of the JCC Association of North America. For updates, follow the Mandell JCC on Facebook and Twitter. All dates and programs subject to change.