Charlie Brown Updated

Charlie Brown is being welcomed into the year 2007 through an original play being put on by the drama club at Middle School 74 in Bayside on Friday, June 8.
When Flushing resident Jason Spagnuoli’s son Thomas entered the school this year, he told the school that he would be willing to assist with the drama club since he has a BFA in dramatic writing from SUNY Purchase. After drama teacher Katherine Cooley had finished a large production of “High School Musical,” she approached Spagnuoli about doing something small with the students.
Rather than doing something that had been done before, Spagnuoli decided he wanted to do an original work that would appeal more to the students. He got the idea to take four of the Peanuts characters - Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and Patty - and place them into a modern day middle school setting. With the help of friends Josh Flower and Matt Maniaci, he was able to put the show “Yo! It’s Middle School, Charlie Brown,” together in a short amount of time.
“I thought it was really good. Jason did a really good job,” said seventh grader Sara Caci, who is playing Lucy. “I thought it was pretty original.”
Illisa Greenberg, also in seventh grade, said, “It’s cool to get to do a thing that nobody’s done before.”
During the show, the characters deal with personal conflicts such as asking a girl to a dance, dealing with a bully and making new friends. It also has modern elements such as a dance competition and hip-hop competition.
Chelsen Katz, an eighth grade student playing Patty, said that she likes the fact that, since this show hasn’t been done before, she can put more of herself into the performance. Eighth grader Shayan Afridi, who plays bully Big Paul, said that the show has been a good experience since he gets to play a character that is very different from his personality and from the ones that he has previously been. Tayler Bianco, who is also in eighth grade, is playing Schroeder, said that this is his first time getting to play a cartoon character.
“These kids are really, really talented and energetic,” Spagnuoli said of the club, which currently has between 20 and 25 members. “They bring their own unique voice to the characters they’re playing.”
Spagnuoli, whose ultimate goal is to write and direct his own film, said that the message of the show is to be yourself and that individuality is a good thing.
“You can learn that sometimes you don’t really have to impress someone for them to like you and sometimes when you want to do something, you should just go for it and be yourself,” said sixth grader Thomas Spagnuoli, who is playing Charlie Brown.
“Yo! It’s Middle School Charlie Brown” will make its debut on Friday, June at 8 p.m. at Middle School 74, which is located at the corner of Oceania Street and Horace Harding Expressway. It is free, open to the public and seating will be done on a first come, first serve basis.
“I’m just looking forward to seeing how everybody else does and seeing everything put together,” said Madison Kelly, a seventh grade student.
For more information about the upcoming performance, contact Shahira Payano at 718-423-1232.