Though she won’t be appearing in pajamas, Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons will continue a long-standing tradition by appearing in Curtain Call’s Summer Youth Theatre production of The Pajama Game, Thursday, August 11.
“Stamford mayors have participated in cameo roles with summer youth theatre productions for nearly 50 years,” said Lou Ursone, Curtain Call executive director. “The first one I remember performing is Mayor Louis Clapes. Here at Curtain Call, we’ve had every mayor since we’ve been in business (Stanley Esposito, Dannel Malloy, Michael Pavia and David Martin) and I have had a blast writing the brief scenes since 2001,” he added.
Throughout the years, Stamford mayors have shown their support of area youth by joining them on stage. “The kids have a chance to see a mayor as a person, not just an official, and that’s always a treat for the young participants, said Ursone.
Since 2001, Ursone has written a scene specifically tailored to the sitting mayor and issues of local relevance. In this year’s performance, Simmons will hit on the idea of building new schools, a new library and the notoriety of her being Stamford’s first female mayor.
“I love writing these short scenes each year,” Ursone said. “All of the mayors have been great sports about making fun of themselves and/or local issues,” he added. Ursone’s favorite scene to date was having then Mayor Malloy dressed in full Scottish kilt enter the stage reading a map in Curtain Call’s 2003 production of Brigadoon. When asked by the youth members of the cast what he was looking for, his response was, “I’m trying to figure out how to get to Hartford.”
Curtain time for this special performance is 7:30pm – the Mayor will take the stage around 8:30pm. The script for the brief scene is attached, however, mayors have been known to tweak their dialogue a bit.
