Date: Fri 26-Jul-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Heather-Gunn-basketball-drama

Full Text:

A Summer Of Developing Talents On The Stage And Court

with cut:

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

Heather Gunn had better be careful. With her busy schedule, she's liable to

accidentally bring her basketball onto the stage or break into song in the

middle of one of her AAU hoop games.

It's been that kind of summer so far for the talented 15-year-old Newtown

resident. She's been going non-stop these days, performing on both the stage

and in the cage.

Heather, the daughter of Peter and Leslie Gunn of Valley Field Road in Sandy

Hook, is going places this summer. She plays Marian the Librarian in the

musical comedy The Music Man , which opens Friday, July 26 at the University

of Bridgeport's Mertens Theater. The actress/athlete, who sings five solos in

the performance, became involved in the play as part of the Children's Rep

Summer Theater Workshop, which meets every day for voice and music lessons in

the morning and play rehearsal in the afternoon.

After removing her make-up and costume, it's off to the gymnasium.

"I wear all my basketball stuff there because I have to go right after. The

guys call me hulk woman," she joked.

Heather, who will enter her sophomore year at Newtown High School in the fall,

has also been living, breathing and eating basketball of late. She recently

completed a successful season for the AAU U-15 Wurstle Basketball Club where

she lead the team in scoring, assists, steals and foul shooting, swishing them

at an 80 percent clip.

Between May and July, she and her AAU teammates competed in 11 different

tournaments, traveling to Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, New Jersey and New

Hampshire. Though the season recently ended, Heather is still holding on to

the ball, now playing in the Danbury Basketball League with her NHS teammates.

A leader by nature, Heather often plays the lead role in theater, as she is

doing in The Music Man , and, in basketball, where she plays point guard,

where most key on-court decisions are made.

"If I'm not in a leadership position, I feel uncomfortable," she explained.

Heather's parents have been doing a lot of driving of late, actually piling up

about 100 miles per day driving down and back, down and back to Heather's

theater workshop in Bridgeport. Mr Gunn figures he does about 400 miles of

driving on some weekends when AAU basketball games are played out-of-state.

While she's passionate about playing basketball, Heather is said to be a

Broadway talent on the stage. She's already performed in Cinderella at the

Stratford Theater and in Oliver at Sacred Heart University.

Heather's father, a physical education teacher, says he's a coach at heart,

constantly giving his daughter pointers on basketball and an occasional bit of

advice for the stage.

"I love going to basketball games and watching the action. Then I go to the

plays and I cry," he noted.

Her mom, an art teacher at Sandy Hook School, is very involved in her

daughter's theater life and is expected to be at all eight Music Man

performances, helping out back stage.

Heather credits the work of voice teacher Joyce Erikson for helping her

develop into an accomplished singer.

Heather's brother, Taylor, 13, is also an accomplished singer and can pick 'em

up and put 'em down on the baseball field.

In addition to playing junior varsity basketball, Heather was a member of the

NHS varsity soccer team as a freshman and tried her hand at track & field in

the spring. Track became increasingly difficult, however, as she would compete

in several events and then go to AAU basketball practice for three hours after

that.

"I was pulling muscles all over the place," she said.

The NHS student said she always needs to be active and rarely gets a chance to

relax, so when the curtain rises for her next act or when the next jump ball

takes place in a hoop game, you can be sure Heather Gunn will be at the front

of the pack.