Education & Youth | Arts & Culture | Musical Theater | New Haven Public Schools | Nathan Hale School
Top: Elijah Cross said that the performance has made him think about the power of working as a team. Bottom: The run-through gets into full swing. Lucy Gellman Photos.
Eighth grader Elijah Cross had found his voice—and was ready to use it. On the lip of Nathan Hale School’s stage, he stepped into the light, and let out a perfect A sharp. A rolled-up newspaper rested between his palms, as if it was waiting for just the right cue. He raised his face toward the ceiling, and two dozen fists punched up at exactly the same time.
1899 has run right into 2023 in Nathan Hale's production of Newsies, Jr., running now through Sunday at the school’s Townsend Avenue auditorium. One year after the school’s theater program roared back to life with Aladdin, Jr., the show is a testament to the power of collective organizing, both onstage and off. It is based on the 1992 film of the same name, which was later adapted into a Broadway musical. Tickets and more information are available here.
It marks a bittersweet farewell to Briana “Ms. B” Bellenger-Dawson, who has held the school’s drama and dance programs together while working part-time for the district. In February, she will join Wesleyan University as its new coordinator of community partnerships.
Ms. B. in action.
“I’ve always loved the story of the underdog,” Bellenger-Dawson said Wednesday, helping students with their tiny cotton and corduroy suspenders, soft black boots, and tweed newsboy caps before a dress rehearsal. “I remember when I first saw it [the movie], I was like, ‘This is real? This really happened?!’ Now we’re teaching students ‘This really happened, like, to kids around your age.’”
Based on the real-life Newsboys’ Strike of 1899, Newsies, Jr. tells the story of Jack Kelly (Elijah Cross) and his ragtag band of New York City newsboys as they fight cost hikes in the newspaper industry. The stakes: a 10-cent increase in the papers they sell, and the thousands of children who are working in unsafe labor conditions across the city. For context, $1 in the early 20th century is equal to about $30 today, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.
After deciding to unionize and strike, they must go against wealthy newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer (a mustachioed Emilia Mammana) and William Randolph Hearst, in a story of working class power versus corporate greed that still resonates today. Enter journalist Katherine Plumber (Fiona Cox), who has her own battles to fight as a woman in journalism, to tell their story.
Suddenly, the newsies have tap shoes, newspapers are props, and even a typewriter feels like a musical instrument.
For Bellenger-Dawson, it was a natural fit for the school, which has grown its musical theater program out of a few teachers willing to stay after hours, often for months on end. After discovering Newsies as a kid, she kept returning to its history, nerding out over the child labor laws that the 1899 strike gave rise to. For her, the show is about kids banding together to make social change—and speaking out when they feel something’s not right with the world.
“I’ve always prided myself on being the teacher I wanted when I was younger,” she said. Often, that just means listening to her students, and trying to problem-solve with them. She’s found, over and over again, that there is a role for everyone in the theater. It's just about raising one's voice, and learning which one.
“Pulitzer May Own The World, But He Don’t Own Us”
The cast listens to notes. Gia Dupuis, who plays Crutchie, is one of the more senior members of the cast.
From the moment the curtain opened Wednesday, three dozen young actors let themselves time travel back to 1899, some of them putting on their best Brooklyn accents as they traded sweatshirts for suspenders, high tops and hoodies for high-waisted day dresses. Behind the stage, a crew of close to 30 students scurried around, adjusting props, helping with costume changes, ensuring mics were turned on and off at the right time.
While Cross and Cox lead the way in the show, they are far from alone: Gia Dupuis, who plays Crutchie, has a way of stealing every heart in the audience, and lands the character's mix of comical and no-nonsense delivery. Dirt-smudged newsies Vivian Cox and Ella Mammana, who are real-life friends, become fun to watch as they throw their arms around each other and tap their way to social change. As the pint-sized villain, Emilia Mammana throws down, making Pulitzer into something of a barbed and welcome punch line.
Even the ensemble makes a mark, as young members turn choreography into a call to action. By the track “The World Will Know,” the drama is thick and catchy, as if it’s the eve of a real-life union vote in New Haven. In “King of New York,” the stakes really do feel like human lives and livelihoods. When Cross sings the words “Pulitzer may own the world, but he don't own us!” with total conviction, it’s hard not to stand up and cheer for his fight.
Top: Lucas Granucci as Davey. Bottom: Lillyanna Dunbar as Medda Larkin.
Many of the students have taken those lessons home with them. Seventh grader Journey Rosa, who plays both a scab and the character Ada, said that the play has helped them adjust to life in a new town, and at a new school. Prior to this academic year, Journey was a student in Chicopee, Mass. They relocated to New Haven with their family in 2022, intimidated by the prospect of having to start over. The play has helped them break through that, they said.
“It’s the place I want to be,” they said, motioning at the nearby stage. Rehearsals, which stretch for hours after classes have ended each day, have given them a built-in group of friends. “I see this as a place to express myself. I really appreciate the fact that I’m even allowed to be here.”
Sixth grader Harper Holloway chimed in that she’s excited to be on stage for the first time ever this year. A year ago, her stage fright kept her from trying out for Aladdin, Jr., and she spent months in the crew instead. “I just didn’t have the guts,” she said, eyeing the floor before rehearsal Wednesday. This year, she decided to go for it, and landed the role of Pat.
“I just got not stage-frighted,” she said. On stage, “I’m allowed to be free.”
Cox, who leads with persistence and pluck, said the role has given her more self-confidence both onstage and off. In the play, it’s Plumber who chases the story of the newsboys’ strike, much to the chagrin of her family and what seems like every man in America. For her, the scoop is worth the risk because it speaks truth to power. As Cox stands on the cusp of high school, she said, the play has helped her feel ready for that transition.
“She [Plumber] really is confident, not really caring what other people think of her,” she said. “I love it. I think it’s really fun. I like the fast pace of it. I like asking all the questions.”
Cross, whose on-stage chemistry with Cox has that quintessential Broadway snap and schmaltz, added that he sees the show as very meta. In the newsies’ fight for equal pay, there’s the same kind of collaboration that unfolds each time a musical rolls into the school.
“The story is a good one to pay attention to,” he said. “It’s like, a number of kids trying to make a difference.”
As younger students have watched their peers step into leading roles, it’s inspired them, too. Pulling up a pair of red corduroy suspenders, fourth grader Kendall Granucci said that she’s learned “to not give up.” Last year, she caught the theater bug while acting in Aladdin, Jr. for the first time.
When she returned to the stage this year, she became inspired by the story of kids, some her age, fighting for the rights of their peers.
Keeping The Magic Alive
It makes sense that the show has resonated in this space. Students have in Bellenger-Dawson their own modern-day Jack Kelly, with more steadfast resolve and energy than Kelly himself. On Wednesday, she was rallying the troops when one young actor sat down in a chair, and announced that she wasn’t going to get into costume.
It was just after 4 p.m., when the run-through was supposed to begin. Bellenger-Dawson’s brows furrowed in concern.
“I’m tired and I don’t feel good,” the student said, making a face.
“What if I bedazzle your tap shoes tonight?” Bellenger-Dawson said. An instant smile came from the student. She had saved the day.
Bellenger-Dawson is quick to say that she doesn’t do any of it alone. Just like the young newsies in the play, colleagues from around the state have come out of the woodwork to help.
In addition to 77 costumes and additional props from Musical Theatre International (MTI), there are props borrowed from Center Stage Theatre, Arts Place Cheshire, the Cabaret on Main, Wexler Grant Community School, and Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School.
“This was a collaborative effort with the community,” Bellenger-Dawson said. That was true even Wednesday, as band director Arick Lyde and science teacher Kristen Satawhite-Shoate popped in to provide another set of hands.
As it opens, the play feels surprisingly timely. Jack Kelly may be stuck in 1899, but his fight for a fair wage is one that continues today, including in New Haven. Union power is still an ongoing discussion, from the New Haven Federation of Teachers to newsroom picket lines. The news itself is still threatened by a profit-driven model in which consolidation has become the norm. And in the thick of it, Cox’s Plumber is a reminder that history still shortchanges pioneering women journalists such as Ida B. Wells and Anne Newport Royall.
For Bellenger-Dawson, it all amounts to leaving on a high note. As a kid, she remembered Wednesday, she had a small, high-pitched voice that people often spoke over, or refused to take seriously. When she stepped into the classroom as a teacher, she promised herself that she’d never do that to a student, no matter the size of their voice or the shape in which they came to her. She’s kept that promise—and helped amplify hundreds of young people in the process.
While she had no way of knowing that she’d be leaving when the school got rights to the play, she thinks of it as a sort of full-circle moment. Her work coordinating summer arts programs at the school prepared her for this new role at Wesleyan, she said. It was also at Wesleyan that she discovered, as a student in the Center for Creative Youth program years ago, that she wanted to be a director. She plans to help the school later this year, when it brings back its musical theater camp this summer—and hinted at a new project on the horizon.
“There are plans to keep the magic alive,” she said with a smile.
Newsies, Jr. runs at Nathan Hale School through Sunday Jan. 29. Tickets and more information are available here.