Author Archives: lsegel

Each year the Eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theatres (EMACT) evaluates shows and makes nominations for DASH Awards (Distinguished Achievement and Special Honors) in many categories. The nominees for the 2024-2025 season were announced on Sunday 20 July 2025.

The Theatre Company of Saugus (TCS) production of Evil Dead the Musical, presented in October 2024, earned some nominations:

• Best Production of a Musical
• Outstanding Performance by the Cast (Ensemble) of a Musical
• Set Dressing of a Musical – Patrick Cleary, Jason Hair-Wynn, Lauren Thompson
• Sound Design of a Musical – Mel Ingalls
• Prop Design of a Musical – Patrick Cleary, Jason Hair-Wynn

In addition to those nominations, Evil Dead is also the winner of a Consultants Choice Award for “Excellence in Blood Creation and Execution”, to Lauren Thompson, Vanessa Phelon, Jason Hair-Wynn.

Longtime TCS member Larry Segel was one of the recipients from several EMACT member groups of the Lifetime Achievement Award. TCS member Nathan Fogg Desisto was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with Hingham Civic Music Theatre.

Several current or former members of TCS were also nominated for their work on shows for other community theatre groups:

• Richie DeJesus – Lead Performer in a Musical-Comedy – First Date at Colonial Chorus Players
• Kristen Sehn – Supporting Performer in Musical-Comedy – First Date at Colonial Chorus Players
• Mel Ingalls – Sound Design of a Musical -Comedy – First Date at Colonial Chorus Players
• Matt Garlin – Sound Design of a Play – Working for Crumbs at Burlington Players
• Patrick Cleary – Prop Design of a Musical – Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! The Musical! at Theatre III
• Kris Reynolds – Costume Design of a Play – The Book of Will at Burlington Players – WINNER
• Em Sheeran – Costume Design of a Play – The Secretary at Hovey Players
• Monica Bruno – Stage Management of a Play – How I Learned to Drive at Concord Players
• Molly Scrivens – Stage Management of a Musical – Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! The Musical! at Theatre III

Patrick Cleary is also the winner of a Consultants Choice Award for “Best Puppetry and Design” for Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! The Musical! at Theatre III.

The winners were announced at the annual EMACT DASH Gala, which will be on Saturday 23 August 2025 at Cary Hall in Lexington, Massachusetts. For complete details and tickets, see Emact.org.

The cast of Evil Dead performed some musical numbers at the gala, because of our nomination for Best Production of a Musical.

Deadline Extended to July 26

In addition to putting on shows, the mission of Theatre Company of Saugus (TCS) has been to educate our membership about theatre.  We have done this through many workshops over the years, as well as through our annual summer Youth Theatre Workshop.

For many years TCS has awarded a modest scholarship to a graduating college-bound senior at Saugus High School (SHS).  This has been named the Leo Nickole Scholarship, in honor of our founder.

With the recognition that many TCS members are not living in Saugus, we initiated a new additional scholarship intended for TCS members that do not go to SHS.  This has been named the Rosemary DeGregorio Scholarship, in honor of our lifetime member.

The scholarship amount is $300, and is intended for those who will be attending college or graduate school in the fall of 2025.  The recipient should be a participant in past or current TCS productions or activities.  Preference is given to those who intend to study theatre or related arts.

Applications for the third annual award of the Rosemary DeGregorio Scholarship are now being accepted.  The online application form asks questions about your plans for school, and your experience with TCS.  The application deadline has been extended to July 26, 2025.  The winning recipient will be announced in August.

Access the application by clicking on this link.

If you have any questions about the new scholarship or the application, please write to us at:  tcsaugus@gmail.com.  (The recipient of the Leo Nickole scholarship has been selected and will be announced by SHS.)

We need your help to complete the next phase of our costume-props-storage reorganization project. On Saturday 17 May 2025, starting at 10 AM, we will tackle the basement storage area of the American Legion building that is our home. We will expand the safe storage area on the old bocce court.

First, we will take everything off of the bocce court and carry it outside. This includes the furniture, drapes, shelves, and bins. (We do not need to touch the heavy stack of seating risers and floor panels; these are already in the correct place.) Then we will cover the sand on the bocce court with wooden pallets, so as to provide a separation between the sand and stuff stored above it. (We have the pallets.) Then we will cover the pallets with sheets of plywood or Masonite panels. If you have extra scrap sheets or panels, we could use them please.

After the new surface is set up, we will put all the stuff back, reorganized. We will have teams to work on specific areas: Furniture, Shelves, Bins, and Drapes. We should be done by mid-afternoon.

Click here to sign up so we know you are helping. Thank you!

Thanks to all who helped out with our costume storage reorganization project, led by the chief organizers Vanessa Phelon and Patrick Cleary. Others who helped out the first weekend include: Jeanette Amaru, Samantha Dawson, Caroline DeBrota, Cambria DiCecca, Amanda and Cheryl-Lynn Goolsby, Liz Hartsell, John Leonard, Tom Monahan, Dana Murray, Larry Segel, Shawyoun Shaidani, Tricia Smith, Lauren Thompson, David Vincent, and Valerie White.

On the second weekend we had the help of Kathy Bedard, Heidi Fisher, Billy Jenkins, John Leonard, Melissa MacNeil, Stephen Nedell, Ian Page, Larry Segel, Avonne Thomson, David Vincent, and Valerie White; again all led by Vanessa Phelon and Patrick Cleary.

Here is the costume storage rental unit Before:

After we filled the storage unit with all the bins, Vanessa and her kids Mels and Joy went in and rearranged all of it. Here is the After:

Still to be done in the coming weeks is filling in the detailed database with all our costume holdings, which will allow costumers to search and find out if we have what they need.

On Saturday 17 May 2025, starting at 10:00 AM, we will do a related project to remodel the Legion basement and reorganize all the stuff that is stored there.