Setting the Stage

Palisadian Lara Ganz Leads Theatre Palisades Youth, Paul Revere Programs Into the Future, Despite Palisades Fire

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

In the face of uncertainty, Director Lara Ganz is working behind the scenes to ensure the show goes on for Theatre Palisades Youth and Paul Revere Charter Middle School students—with rehearsals continuing for upcoming shows slated to be performed in the coming months.

Palisades fire first began on Tuesday, January 7. Pierson Playhouse, which Theatre Palisades and Theatre Palisades Youth/Teen use as a performance space, was one of the first structures widely shown on the news to have been lost to the flames.

Just four days later, on Saturday, January 11, Ganz, despite losing her own home in the fire, had worked with her team—including choreographer Rebecca Brancato Barragan, who Ganz described as “literally a beam of light”—to secure a rehearsal space at St. Monica, where Barragan volunteers.

TPY is able to use the space for rehearsals through January, until the auditorium begins a remodel. Ganz said she is working on planning February and has received a few offers from spaces.

“Everyone is coming together to lift us all up—this massive outpouring of love, empathy, compassion, generosity,” Ganz said. “An entire community has been physically leveled, physically demolished and yet all of our surrounding communities are pulling together to literally lift us up out of the ashes … the phoenix from the flame … we will rise and we will return.”

Paul Revere students will be performing “Beetlejuice,” while TPY is working on “Crazy for You.” Though they were picked months before the Palisades fire, Ganz had unknowingly selected shows with strong ties to grief, loss—and the importance of music.

“‘Crazy for You’ is a top show,” Ganz described. “It’s all these old jazz standards—the song we were rehearsing—‘I got rhythm, I got music … who could ask for anything more?’—it’s the biggest number in the show and it’s so perfect.”

What’s more—“Crazy for You” is a “classic tale of a boy, a girl and a theater in need of salvation,” a synopsis described.

Bobby Child is working as a banker, but spends his free time practicing dancing and sneaking into auditions for shows. Sent to a small town for work to investigate a customer who has defaulted on their mortgage, Bobby falls for Polly Baker, whose father owns the “beautiful but decaying” Gaiety Theater, which Bobby was sent to seize.

“Now lovestruck, Bobby comes up with a plan: call in his friends, the Follies Girls, all the way from New York City, cast the locals—a bunch of rundown cowboys with latent musical talent—and put on a show to save the old building,” the synopsis continued.

Ganz said she was originally feeling connected to “Beetlejuice” on a personal level when she picked the show in October, but since then, the connection has deepened for the performers through a song called “Home.” It includes the lyrics: “Standing/Stuck on this impossible road/No idea which way to go/Whichever path I choose/I lose, you know/And I don’t know which way’s home.”

“All the kids, going through this hard time—they literally lost their homes,” Ganz said. “And the main song is ‘Home’ … it’s literally our song.”

She said there are also many touching and tender moments throughout the show, including a father connecting with his daughter, helping her get on her feet and grounded after losing her mom.

“The show is all about recovering from loss,” Ganz said. “So, even though it’s hilarious, it couldn’t be more perfect.”

Another throughline of the show, Ganz described, is the couple who moves into the main home and is attached to their belongings. The couple dies and the show features them in the afterlife.

“They’re attached to their belongings,” Ganz said. “All these Palisadians are going through this moment of losing all our belongings and whatever that means to you.”

At press time, it was unclear when Paul Revere students would return to its regular campus, having been temporarily relocated to University High School Charter. Ganz is following the news closely to see if TPY and Paul Revere will be able to perform their shows at the campus, or if securing an alternate space will be necessary.

Ganz explained that parents across the Palisades were clear that it was important to not let kids fall into “deep isolation” as they did during COVID.

“We are determined to unite them in passion and purpose and compassion for one another,” Ganz described. “Everyone is so scared of losing the community of love and performing arts that we all built together. We have so many ‘what ifs?’ flooding our minds, and we have to see ‘what if … we do everything possible to ensure that the show will go on?’”

Some of the members of the theater programs will have a chance to perform alongside actress and singer Kerry Butler, who originated the role of Barbara Maitland in the Broadway musical “Beetlejuice.” Butler is also known for roles in “Hairspray,” “Xanadu,” “Les Misérables” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”

TPY performers and Paul Revere students have been invited to join Butler on stage at Segerstrom Center for the Arts the weekend of January 23 to 25 to perform songs. Ganz was also seeing if it would be possible to bring students from the Palisades Charter High School theater program.

The connection was made when the sister of TPY member Zoë reached out to Butler to see if she could offer words of encouragement after the family lost their home, as Zoë is playing the role of Barbara. Butler took it even further than a FaceTime encouragement call, inviting cast members down to perform and also volunteering to spend an afternoon coaching the young performers.

Bringing the performers together and highlighting what she described as “Kerry Butler Week” is personal for Ganz, who wants to shed light on the importance of community across the Palisades.

“I think we can handle losing the stuff, but we can’t handle losing community,” Ganz said. “We have to keep encouraging—there’s reasons to stay, there’s reasons to push through. I hope everyone feels the same way.”

Tickets for future shows will be available soon.