Actress advises on High Street production





Vanessa Townsell

Vanessa Townsell

In “Dreamgirls,” the 1983 musical modeled after the rise of Berry Gordy Jr.’s Motown empire, a female trio called the Dreamettes has visions of making it big on the national record charts. In High Street Arts Center’s current production of the show, Vanessa Townsell was reliving her own dream when, as a 22-year-old actress, she spent a year and a half on Broadway playing the key role of Effie Melody White in the show.

Townsell was working as a telephone operator for Pacific Bell when she and some friends went down to the now-defunct Shubert Theatre in Century City to audition for what she thought was a local production of “Dreamgirls.”

After completing her audition, she was called by director/ choreographer Michael Bennett, who told her she was headed for Broadway, where she would understudy for Jennifer Holliday as Effie. After taking time off from work to fly to New York, Townsell was shocked when, after just two weeks, she learned she was replacing Holliday in the cast.

Townsell not only played the role of Effie for a year and a half on Broadway, she also did the national tour. Since then, she’s become a respected voice teacher for Henson’s Music Company, which has studios in Oxnard and Camarillo. But despite being offered her old role back at various times since she left the tour, she has not seen “Dreamgirls” since.

“I was teaching in the area and knew Ken Rayzor, the director, from using his theater for productions and showcases and such,” Townsell said. “Some of my students were performing in shows out there, and they had been asking him for a while to do ‘Dreamgirls,’ but Ken didn’t think he could pull enough African American talent to Moorpark to even do the production, so he kind of thought about it and discussed it with others and decided to give it a go.”

Rayzor knew that Townsell had a connection to the show and called her to help because he thought some of her current or former students might be interested in auditioning. What he did not realize was the extent of Townsell’s experience with “Dreamgirls.”

“It was challenging, it really was,” Townsell said about the High Street production. “But people came from everywhere because they just want a chance to perform anywhere, and when you get a good role like this, you jump at the opportunity. There are a lot of people in the cast traveling from the LAX area, from North Hollywood and elsewhere, but there are couple of cast members who are also locals.”

One cast member, veteran actor Hardy Keith Edwards, who plays Marty, went to school with Townsell, and he even attended that long-ago audition at the Shubert when Townsell landed the role of her lifetime.

Townsell’s official title with the Moorpark production is “production consultant.”

“I helped with casting; I would help the singers and performers vocally—not all of them, but Hannah Davey especially, who is playing Effie,” she said.

“Hannah is a wonderful talent herself. I’d give advice and notes to the cast members, explaining where the emotions and some of the story lines were going. I knew they had it in them from the auditions, but they exceeded my expectations.”

“ Dreamgirls” is a show that doesn’t often get staged in small community theaters, but as Townsell found out, Rayzor decided to distill the show into a concert setting, dispensing with elaborate sets and putting a live band on stage.

“When the band came and I saw it, I realized that he knows his theater. And it works perfectly,” Townsell said.

As a result, High Street’s “Dreamgirls” has given Vanessa Townsell a rare chance to relive her own personal dream come true.


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