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Little actor going on tour
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
By KATHIE RALEIGH
MILLVILLE — Jan. 23 looms large in the lives of the Goff
family of Forest View Drive.
It’s the start of an opportunity, a commitment, an endurance
test — and quite a thrill, because that’s the day Jonathan
Goff sets off on a national tour in the musical “Gypsy.”
Jonathan is a trained singer and dancer with an agent and a
resume of regional performances, but this is the first time
his career will take him away from home. After all, he’s
only 10.
But he’s also very sure this is what he wants to do.
“I’m going to miss you, but Mommy, I want to go,” he said.
Calls about professional auditions have come periodically
since Jonathan won a Talent America competition in New York
City when he was just 7. He placed first in the nation for
solo performance and was voted Most Broadway Bound and Most
Photogenic. Right after the competition, he signed with the
Nouveaux Talent Agency.
Last May, he auditioned for “Les Miserables” on Broadway,
but when the producers decided to re-do the auditions, the
Goffs bowed out. They weren’t interested in chasing every
possibility.
In December, however, Jonathan got a contract, and life has
been hectic ever since. Michelle has a stack of papers
detailing all that needed to be done.
Since Jonathan would be away for so long, arrangements had
to be made for home schooling (there will be a tutor on the
tour). A performer’s trust fund had to be set up, a
requirement than ensures a youngster’s earnings stay with
the youngster.
His parents, moreover, had to ask for leaves of absence from
their jobs; Michelle is a nurse with the Visiting Nurse
Service of Greater Rhode Island, and David is a machine
operator at General Cable in Franklin.
“So it’s a sacrifice,” Michelle admitted, financially — and
emotionally, because of the separation. Jonathan will be on
tour through May, but one parent always will be with him.
David will accompany Jonathan on the first leg of the tour,
then Michelle will meet them in Boise to take over as
chaperone for the second leg.
The tour will take them as far north as Thunder Bay,
Ontario, south to Palm Desert, Calif., and Texas, with
forays into the Midwest. (The East Coast shows already have
been done.) Because of the Canadian shows, they all had to
get passports.
Well before this opportunity, Jonathan had done plenty of
singing and acting right here, touring with the Cranston,
R.I.-based Kaleidoscope Theatre and appearing in several
Encore Repertory Company productions at the Stadium Theatre
in Woonsocket, including stepping in as Michael in “Peter
Pan” on just two-weeks notice.
Encore director Fred Fortier of Woonsocket has directed
Jonathan in most of those shows.
“When he first came to audition, the choreographer taught
him a dance and he knew it the next day. We knew this kid is
going to be something special,” Fortier said.
Jonathan also performs regularly with One Voice Studio in
Slatersville where he has been studying since he was 6 years
old. Michelle enrolled him after a neighbor, who had heard
Jonathan sing at Millville Elementary School, told her, “He
belongs on stage!”
Natalia De Rezendes, owner of One Voice, isn’t surprised to
hear that story. “He will stand out, absolutely,” she said.
“He has a natural talent.”
“He’s always prepared for his lessons,” added Esther
Zabinski, with whom he studies at One Voice. She also says
Jonathan knows his own mind.
“He’ll say, ‘I don’t like to sing that song,’” Zabinski
observed, and she often goes along with him.
Besides singing, Jonathan takes dance lessons at Broadway
Starz in Cumberland. Because lessons and rehearsals take so
much of his time, his parents always are asking their son if
he wouldn’t rather be having fun boating or fishing or
swimming in their pool.
“This is my fun,” he’s told them.
The fun gets serious starting Wednesday when Jonathan and
his father head for Modesto, Calif., with the first show
just two days later. “Gypsy” is based on the memoirs of
burlesque stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, whose ambitious “stage
mother” thrust her into that career. Jonathan appears as one
of four newsboys in the number, “Extra, Extra,” announcing a
appearance by Baby June, Gypsy’s older sister.
There won’t be much time to rehearse – or get homesick.
Jonathan admitted he will miss his brother, Caleb, 7. And
his grandparents, John and Pauline Felicio of Woonsocket,
will miss him.
But he’s taking the long view of what might come of his
national tour.
“Maybe I’ll be in a movie,” he grinned.
“If he gets to move on, that’s wonderful. If not,” Michelle
shrugged to indicate it didn’t really matter. “I just want
him to have fun.”
“It would be nice to see him move on to bigger and better
things,” David said. “But if nothing comes of it, he will
have an experience he will remember for the rest of his
life.”
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