Windsor grad scores female lead in San Francisco production of ‘Crazy for You'
Danielle Altizio of Windsor, a sophomore at UC Berkeley, is juggling more than the usual coursework and campus job duties this semester.
The 19-year-old actress is also making her San Francisco debut as Polly Baker, the lead female role in Bay Area Musicals' production of “Crazy for You,” running Nov. 10 to Dec. 16 at The Alcazar Theatre on Geary Street. The 1992 Tony-winning romantic musical comedy, based on the 1930 musical, “Girl Crazy,” features a score by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
As Polly - the sweet postmistress in Deadrock, Nevada, whose father is behind on his mortgage payments for the decaying Gaiety Theater - Danielle warbles her way through some of the most beautiful Gershwin songs ever written.
“Polly gets to sing ‘Someone to Watch Over Me' and ‘But Not for Me,'” she said in a phone interview from her apartment on the south side of campus. “I really love her story in the musical ... she is consistently a very strong character throughout and a really powerful force in her town.”
Despite the fact that the show is light-hearted and fun - with lots of zany plot twists and big chorus numbers drawn from the 1930 musical and other Gershwin productions - at its heart, the story offers a moving message about the power of art to help unite a community.
Polly's leading man, Bobby Child (played by Conor DeVoe), is a banker with a fondness for the stage who goes to Deadrock to seize Polly's father's theater, then ends up falling in love with Polly and putting on a show to help save the old building.
“A lot of the play takes place in the middle of Nevada in the 1930s, where Polly is the only woman around,” Danielle said. “To revitalize the town and bring hope and joy to these people's lives, they bring music and put on a show together. And it really speaks to the power that people have to change their communities.”
Danielle first played the role of Polly in “Crazy for You” with Santa Rosa's Roustabout Theater in 2016, so the musical was already on her playlist.
“It's my favorite musical ... I love the music,” Danielle said. “‘Crazy for You' is a classic, Broadway sound with the big, beautiful orchestra music.”
For Bay Area Musicals' current production, Director Matthew McCoy has re-created the original Broadway choreography by Susan Stroman for the production, an intimate version of the original musical. Bay Area Musicals is a professional, non-profit theater company dedicated to providing high-quality musical theater at an accessible price tot he community.
'It takes a lot of hours'
Try-outs for the role were held in April, and the Cal Bear got a call back in August. Her mother, Pattie Altizio of Windsor, said her daughter had a good feeling about her audition, and the whole family was beside themselves with excitement when she was offered the role.
“She's wanted to do something like this for so long,” said Pattie, who works as an executive manager for Redwood Credit Union. “It takes a lot of hours, so she really has to focus to keep her schoolwork going ... She's very motivated and dedicated.”
Once the musical went into rehearsal in late September, Danielle had to take BART to the city every day, attending evening rehearsals during the week and longer rehearsals on the weekends. She mapped out her schedule carefully in order to make sure she could get all her coursework done in the morning.
“I have to do my work weeks in advance and stay on top of that so that all of my extra time can be spent practicing for the show,” she said. “I'm taking 20 units, which is a lot of classes.”
Among her courses this semester is an acting class with actor/director and continuing lecturer Christopher Herold and a class on theater history and theory.
“What's been cool has been taking all that and applying it to the shows that I've worked on,” she said. “ Not just having the theoretical knowledge but using it.”
Although she has only declared only one major so far - in theater and performance studies with an acting focus - Danielle hopes to double major in sociology to take advantage of Berkeley's top-notch academic reputation.
Meanwhile, her parents and friends have snapped up tickets to the show's opening night, where they will be able to attend a special reception with the cast.
“Musical theater is all we talk about around here,” Pattie said. “It's become a big part of our lives.”
'It came out of nowhere'
As a child, Danielle was very studious and enjoyed the intellectual challenge of her school work, but theater was not on her radar.
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