Emily Rudofsky, a senior at High School South, is coordinating the third annual Pirate Charity Theater event on Saturdays, February 2 and 9. She is producing and directing “Blithe Spirit,” a three-act comedy by Noel Coward about a man whose second marriage is haunted by his first wife.
All proceeds will benefit Families in Transition, an organization that temporarily houses homeless families, as they work to get back on their feet and into permanent homes. (www.trentonfamiliesintransition.org). Tickets are $5.
Cast members include Ethan Fishbane, Lena Phalen, Melissa Ogden, Liz Jerome, Julia Levy, Daria Schwartz, and Micah Langer. Katia Sherman is the assistant director and stage manager. Crew members include Kristen Robinson, Stephanie Bliach, and Zach Bauman. Barbara Jetton, an English teacher at South, has been the advisor for three years.
“At the age of seven, I played Marta in an off-Broadway production of ‘The Sound of Music,’ and my interest in drama and literature skyrocketed afterwards,” Rudofsky told the News two years ago. She lived in Staten Island until she was 10 and began attending drama programs weekends, summers, and after school at the Snug Harbor Conservatory when she was young. When the family moved to New Jersey, her parents, Neil and Sharyn, drove her back and forth for a while. She also took voice lessons and was involved in a few junior company operas.
At that time she was coordinating four performances of “The Importance of Being Earnest” at High School South as a benefit for Hudson’s Hope Foundation, an organization that helps people with epidermolysis bullosa. It was the first show that she produced and directed.
“The organization we chose, the Hudson’s Hope Foundation, not for its pivotal importance to the play itself, but because the little boy for whom it was funded is someone who I have had the pleasure of meeting, and who stole my heart,” says Rudofsky. The productions raised close to $1,”600 for Hudson’s Hope.
Last year she directed a benefit production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” and raised more than $1,”300 for ASPEN, a New Jersey-based organization which supports parents of children with Aspergers syndrome and other autism spectrum disorders. Rudofsky chose ASPEN as her charity based on conversations with her mother, a pediatric occupational therapist, her own experiences with individuals with autism spectrum disorders, and the recent media focus on the high incidence of autism. Jetton was also the advisor for that show.
“Since ‘Earnest,’ I’ve been working on learning more about theater and the theater world,” says Rudofsky, who interned at Princeton Summer Theater last summer. “It was a real learning experience with fantastic people.” She is planning to return there this summer.
“Although I am graduating, there will be another show next year,” says Rudofsky. “I am passing down the legacy, so to speak, to upcoming seniors.”
Blithe Spirit, High School South, Clarksville Road, West Windsor, 609-716-5050. $5. Saturdays, February 2, 2 and 7 p.m.; and February 9, 7 p.m.
