YOUNG TELEVISION STARLET TAKES HER FINAL BOW ON THE GATEWAY CHILDREN?S STAGE, WHERE SHE GOT HER START
Gateway 60th Season Celebration continues with the long-standing classic – The Wizard of Oz.
(Bellport, NY) Gateway Children’s Theater welcomes a long time student and television actress, Teresa Celentano to its roster of young talent in The Wizard of Oz, opening Friday, August 7th, and running through to Saturday, August 22nd, at Gateway Playhouse in Bellport.
Gateway Children’s Theater is a way for children, many of whom study year round and for many seasons at Gateway’s Acting School Division, to perform in a professional environment. Teresa Celentano who will be playing the coveted role of ?Dorothy?, started her theatrical journey following in her brother and sister’s footsteps taking acting classes and auditioning for young roles on Gateway’s Main Stage and in the Children’s Theater. Explains Teresa, “My older brother and sister did a lot of the Main Stage Shows, and I remember seeing the shows and wanting to be in them so bad. I begged my mom, if I kept playing the violin that she would let me audition for a production of Here’s Love, and she did! So, right away I started practicing, so she would let me audition.” When asked if she still played the violin, she replied with a smile, “No, I dropped that a long time ago.”
Here’s Love was Teresa’s first Main Stage show at Gateway from which she went on to perform in South Pacific, Fiddler on the Roof and as ?Baby Louise? in Gypsy. The lovely brunette actress won the role of ?Lydia?, playing the daughter of Elizabeth McGovern on the ABC Family Series, ?Three Moons Over Milford? which aired in 2006-7. It was a lucky break that resulted from many years of training, her own passion and desire, and, recalls Robin Joy Allan, her teacher and Gateway’s casting director, a tremendous amount of talent. “Teresa, very much like her older brother James, has something very special. When she performs, it is hard to look elsewhere.”
Teresa was enrolled in the advanced classes at Gateway in 2005 when Robin began Gateway’s Showcase program, where competitive students are given a chance to perform for agents and casting directors in Manhattan. It was from this program, that Teresa was able to land an agent and begin her auditioning which eventually led to the series. “I coached for the role of Lydia with Robin, it was for my third callback. She tuned and polished everything,” Teresa remembers. Robin recalls, “Teresa was already on the right path, she had the callback and we had already read the scene in class, and I knew she was right for it, and actually she was doing pretty well on her own, but there were just a couple of things missing, things that I knew she needed to think about.? We asked Teresa what it was like to move to Canada and work full time on a TV show at a young age. Our reply from Ms. Celentano: “It was really exciting, it was my dream basically. But, it wasn?t that challenging because I was so excited, I had so much energy, and I felt really prepared from Gateway? I knew everything that I needed to know.? Teresa has also appeared in high profile National Commercials, her last one still running, for BING.COM, in which she asks her dad if he?s found her a new cell phone.
For this production of The Wizard of Oz, she?s working with a lot of other students who she?s worked with at the Gateway Acting School since she was 9 years old. Now, at 18, they?re moving on and taking their next steps in life. ?It?s really scary, but when we think about it, it is like a goodbye. I?m just trying to enjoy it, and try not think about that.?
When asked about the role of ?Dorothy?, and her approach, she replied, ?Basically it?s just a girl who doesn?t realize what she has until it?s gone. I think everyone can sort of relate to that a little bit. It?s about her journey home and, learning to love what she has.?
After The Wizard of Oz, Teresa will pursue theatre when she attends Pace University in New York, and will continue auditioning for her next TV or Film project.
The Wizard of Oz opens on the Bellport stage, Friday, August 7th with performances through Saturday, August 22.