Education

NHS's 'Beauty And The Beast' Rehearsals Continue

By Eliza Hallabeck

Published: Mar 05, 2016 12:00 AM

Newtown High School students continue to work toward bringing Disney's Beauty and the Beast musical to the school's stage March 16-20.Beauty and the Beast tells the story of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a selfish and unkind young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end. But time is running out. The Beast must learn his lesson soon or he and his household will be doomed forever.gofundme.com/nhsbeauty, to offset the production costs.nhsc.booktix.com. Tickets will be sold the day of the shows if they are available.

Rehearsals over the last couple of weeks have had students practicing scenes, songs, and dance moves.

On Friday, February 19, Jane Matson, the production's director, noted a "happy moment" for her: On stage students in the production's crew were showing fellow students how to use a part of the stage, designed to move during a scene.

"I think I scared him, Mama," Reed Intermediate School fifth grader Andrew Sposato said rehearsing a scene as the character Chip.

Rehearsals the following Friday had all of the high school students in the production working on blocking another scene.

The high school is seeking both sponsors for the production and audience support, online at

The show's title sponsor is Ingersoll Auto of Danbury. Ingersoll Auto of Danbury is also matching donations dollar for dollar, up to $10,000, in donations to the GoFundMe account, according to the school. Local businesses interested in sponsoring the production can contact Janice Gabriel at 203-426-7646.

Those planning to attend the show are asked to purchase tickets via the online box office site,

The performance schedule at the high school, 12 Berkshire Road, is Wednesday, March 16, through Saturday, March 19, at 7 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, March 19 and 20, at 2 pm.

Tickets are $18 for adults and $14 for students and senior citizens.

Along with Ms Matson, the production crew includes producer by Janice Gabriel, musical director Brett Boles, Kurt Eckhardt as rehearsal pit conductor, and Brian Tenney as technical director.

BOE Referendum, Round Two, UnderwayRegistered Newtown voters are heading to the polls today, for the second attempt by the Board of Education to get a budget for the 2024-25 academic year passed.Registered Newtown voters are heading to the polls today, for the second attempt by the Board of Education to get a budget for the 2024-25 academic year passed.All voting is again taking place at Newtown Middle School, 11 Queen Street. Polls opened at 6 am and will remain open until 8 pm.Following a rejection of the school budget by 507 votes at a referendum on April 23, the Legislative Council at its April 29 meeting slashed $1,408,307 from the Board of Education’s proposed 2024-25 budget.The reduction was unanimously approved by all 12 councilmen, in contrast to a previous, pre-referendum meeting on March 27, where no bottom line for the school budget drew more than a simple majority of seven votes.The new bottom line of $87,409,066 is a $2,339,415 or 2.75% spending increase over the 2023-24 budget, which places it in line with the municipal budget, which was passed by voters.The previous proposed 2024-25 BOE budget rejected by voters was $88,817,373, which would have been a $3,747,722 or 4.4% spending increase.The education budget failed, 1,701 No votes to 1,194 Yes votes.On the secondary question to the education budget — If the proposed sum for the Board of Education is not approved, should the revised budget be higher? — the responses were 727 Yes and 2,071 No.The Registrar of Voters reported 15.1% of Newtown’s registered voters participated in the April 23 referendum, with 2,952 people showing up at the middle school to vote and another 47 turning in absentee ballots.

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It is a shame but yes, we are so broke... The NIMBY crowd will not allow any new development so there is no ability to add to the tax base... got to hire strangers to park at our schools, and grocery stores and sneak around on our property to ensure our kindergartners Spanish class doesn't get canceled.

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I was the recipient of such a invasion of my privacy when my daughter was visiting her boyfriend in Waterbury. They tried to get me to pay them taxes instead of Newtown. They were rude, offensive and threatening and I had to call the mayor of Waterbury to finally get it cleared up after being threatened. It was a long drawn out process to get this overturned. Are we that broke that we have to turn our residents over to these mercenaries? This is beyond belief. How dare you hire these rent a cops to harass and threaten us?

Thanks for the quote, many people don’t realize Newtown does not exist in a silo and we have peers to benchmark against. For example Trumbull also spends less per student and outperforms us. ALL students benefit from consistent policies and quality education. Affordability matters, especially to less affluent families which tend to skew more heavily minority based on census data.

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Why should it be a town decision? The town does not own the land. This town is not one big HOA.

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Spot on, tomj. One's personal life, family and/or business will be targeted if they're an outspoken R in this town.

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NHS's 'Beauty And The Beast' Rehearsals Continue

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