North Lake Tahoe Bonanza: A peek at the Colarchik family rehearsal calendar proves a point - this family supports Star Follies.
"My calendar looks like hieroglyphics," said Michelle, who will be performing in next weekend's lip-syncing musical review, along with her husband, David, and their 11-year-old daughter Rachel.
Keeping track of multiple rehearsals is just one aspect of being the only complete family performing this year in the Star Follies, which will be held Friday and Saturday, April 27 and 28, at the Cal Neva Resort.
"It's fun that we could all do it together," said Michelle, adding that the rehearsal schedule hasn't been overwhelming. "I actually envisoned it being much worse."
She credited the Star Follies management team, Assistant Director Kathie Goldberg, and Karen Osborne who works with the youth for keeping her schedule sane.
The Colarchik threesome are in the all-cast numbers together, and each has a few additional numbers to perform. While there are other families with multiple members in Star Follies, the Colarchiks are the only complete family, said Goldberg.
How they came to that distinction depends on the family member:
Rachel said, "I got picked to do it, and I talked to mom, and mom talked to dad."
Michelle's version is that the family has always supported the Star Follies, especially since David, as a mortgage planner with Tahoe Lending Group, has been a sponsor of the Follies. Putting the whole family in the program was just a matter of waiting until Rachel entered 5th grade and was old enough to participate.
"I wanted to wait until I could be with my daughter. We're big fans of the show; we've gone the last five years," Michelle said. "It's fun. I've made some new friends."
Then David also mentions that he's doing Follies for the first time this year because of some additional encouragement from friend Bryan Wallpe and co-worker Jeanne Dunnett.
"I'm having fun," David said, adding that he had to practice lip-syncing quite a bit.
Follies Executive Director Ron Stichter said one of the best parts of being a Star Follies cast member is getting to know the rest of the participants. Traditionally, the cast has been composed of one-third each of schoolchildren, educators and community members. However, Star Follies is starting to open up the cast more to the community.
"I know most of the kids in this town because of the Follies," Stichter said.
Being a cast member creates a great dialogue as well between the community and Incline's school teachers, principals and staff. "There's so much education going on," he said, adding that he has learned a lot about Incline schools just talking backstage.
The Star Follies usually raises about $90,000 for Incline public schools.
"We'll try to raise as much money for the schools as we can," Stichter said.
Tickets are $??? and are on sale at The Potlatch. Goldberg said most of the tickets are sold before opening night, so there are not many left to purchase at the door.
With one week of rehearsals left to go, the Colarchiks are ready.
According to Rachel, her mother is the most nervous of the family.
"I think she'll do good. She's sorta mellow, very mellow," Rachel said.
Being a ham for the stage comes a little easier for Rachel and her dad, she said.
"I'm more like jumpy and hyper and just enjoy my life. He's not as hyper as me," Rachel said.
Tanya Canino
Editor
