Date: Fri 13-Dec-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A18

Quick Words:

Kreminitzer-actor-Runaways

Full Text:

(feature on actor David Kreminitzer, 12/13/96)

Young Actor David Kreminitzer Will Never Run Away From The Stage

(with photos)

BY SHANNON HICKS

Elizabeth Swados' Runaways is not your typical musical production. For one

thing, it is not based on a book (or television show or feature film, as seems

to be a current musical trend). And it is not your happy-ending, live

happily-ever-after, walk away from the theatre unaffected story, either.

Runaways is a collection of songs sung by children, each a runaway from a

broken and/or troubled home. Employing no more than a cast of 20 (typically 11

males, nine females), none of the characters portrayed is older than 18 years

of age.

Swados wrote the play to be a collage. After interviewing hundreds of kids,

she created the ensemble piece of the kids telling their stories through

monologue and song.

When it debuted on Broadway in May 1978, Newsweek called Runaways "an

immensely affecting show."

Newtown resident David Kreminitzer, 14, has returned to the stage where he

started his acting career, to take part in Danbury Theatre Co.'s current

production, Swados' Runaways . David made his debut four seasons ago, when the

company was still under the Danbury Actors Repertory Theatre moniker (aka

D'ART; the company's name and management changed hands earlier this year), and

the production was Democracy .

Since that debut, David has appeared in D'ART's `Twas A Time Before Christmas

and The Haunted Diner , a children's theatre D'ART production; and has done

shows with the Emanuel Lutheran Players. He also had a walk-on part in the

recently-released feature film, Sleepers , but it is the stage and its

immediate response from an audience, David wants to make a career on.

His big break, David feels, was when he was cast as Bottom in a production of

Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream , during the Hartford Symphony

Orchestra's 50th anniversary season in March, 1994. The production was a

collaboration with the HSO, the Connecticut Children's Chorus and students

from the School of the Hartford Ballet. David, who did not have to audition

for the role, found himself on a stage in front of an audience of 3,000

people, the largest live audience he had been in front of to date.

"I like to be in front of people," David, who wanted to be a clown when he was

younger, says. "I like a lot of attention." He is a vocal student of four

years of John Shackelford, the music director at the School of Performing Arts

in New Milford; has taken dance lessons (jazz, ballet and modern dance), also

at SOPA, for three years; and has studied Tang Soo Do karate.

David's hope is to be a stage actor, although he says he would like to appear

in a few movies, as well. He has already been seen on the big screen. Last

year when the area was swept up in " Sleepers Fever" - the summer and fall

weeks film production crews spent shooting scenes at Fairfield Hills Hospital

in Newtown for the Barry Levinson-directed feature - David was right in the

thick of it. Taking a break from stage acting, he was cast as one of the

students at the Wilkinson School for Boys, the detention/reform school the

four primary characters in the film are sentenced to.

As a matter of fact, David is now a first degree link in a current game that

started on the West Coast a few years ago. Called "Six Degrees of Kevin

Bacon," the game challenges players to find, in six steps or less, the link

between Kevin Bacon, who has starred in or had small roles in nearly 30

feature films, and nearly any given actor or actress. Along with Robert

DeNiro, Brad Pitt, Brad Renfro and Jason Patric, Sleepers also stars Kevin

Bacon.

David's work as an extra on the set of Sleepers put him within one "step" of

Kevin Bacon: In two of the scenes David was in, Bacon's school guard character

also appears. David and the Hollywood actor both are in a cafeteria scene

which escalates into a food fight, and they are also in a classroom scene

where David's character is seen bumping into Bacon's sadistic head guard.

It was after the work with Sleepers that David decided to return to the stage.

An eighth grade student currently at Ezra Academy in Woodbridge, David will

make the change to a public school system next fall, when he begins attending

Newtown High School. He is already looking forward, he says, to becoming

involved in the drama department at the high school.

"The main thing is acting, to me," he said. "I just really like it."

And acting seems to agree with him. He is currently in the midst of the

Runaways run on the Danbury Theatre Co. stage. The show is all monologues and

songs, with a great multi-ethnic taste and feel to it. There are numbers using

Spanish music (and language), a reggae number, a country number, honky tonk,

rap, hip-hop... Each of the kids in the show uses a very flavored music to

indicate his or her past. An ensemble piece, there are no defined leads in

Runaways .

"It is a series of monologues, told through the eyes of these children, who

have opted to run, as the only choice they have," explained Tony Saracino, the

director of Runaways . "There is a lot of truth in the monologues and songs.

"The songs, and the show, are dark," the director continued. "The music is

haunting. Some of the monologues are quite powerful. It's a musical and it's

kind of a poetic thing. The kids really pour their hearts out.

David's character opens both of the show's acts. He portrays a character who

is deaf, whose parents do not understand him. David's deaf boy also plays the

violin, something David learned very quickly for this part.

"I think he's very talented," Mr Saracino said. "He's a quick study, he is

easy to direct, and he is eager to learn.

"He is one of the youngest players in our cast, but he brings a maturity and

experience to the stage. He is truly a team player, and in this show, you

really have to be."

A few of the musical parts of the play become full-fledged productions

themselves.

"There is a lot of confusion when everything is going on," David related.

"It's a very physical role; it takes a lot out of you," he added. "But

everybody plays their part very well. It seems everybody is right for their

part, too."

Another member of the Runaways production, actress Kristi Petersen was seen

most recently in RWPA's Educating Rita . A member of the pit band for Runaways

, Ms Petersen says the DTC show is "phenomenal! The first time I saw it, it

was in rehearsal and even then, some of it made me think. The cast is

wonderful. The kids are so close, very supportive of each other."

Danbury Theatre Co. will present Runaways through December 21 at its theatre,

at St. James Church, 25 West Street in Danbury. Curtain is Friday and Saturday

at 8 pm, Sunday at 7. Tickets are $15 general admission, $13 students and

seniors. Call 790-1161 for details.