This coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday, June 20-22, Theatre in the Wood presents: A Moveable Musical Feast. Not only is it a dinner party to enjoy with your significant other, family and friends, but it’s also a musical. A classic two-for-one! 

A Moveable Musical Feast, will take place at the Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco in the Great Hall on June 20, 21, 22. Though it might seem it’s a distance from Peekskill, within a short 25 minutes, less time than a Netflix episode, you will arrive in Mount Kisco ready for a a feast and a musical. On top of that, the Moveable Musical Feast is full of local actors, talents and food from Peekskill, Cortlandt and the local area. 

The “tasting menu” of music in the show comes from several well-known and a few lesser-known Broadway shows which is seamlessly integrated into a carefully curated meal. Songs such as The Baker’s Wife by Stephen Schwartz of Wicked fame and a few songs from the musical Waitress by Sara Bareilles, and many others. The audience becomes integrated and immersed in the show when during group numbers the actors leave the stage and surround the audience, lending to the immersive feel of the show. 

Throughout the show, the talented cast of six professionals – each unique in their experience, training, vocal styles, and character types – offer a high-level interpretation of the selected songs and still manage to get the food to the tables!

Conceived and directed by Katie Schmidt Feder with musical direction by Giocille Shaw, the professional cast includes Laura Donaldson-Inzeo, Mario Giacalone, Joel Weber Knopf, Melody Munitz, Travis Ramirez, and Katie Schmidt Feder. Tickets are $150 and includes the performance, salad, a choice of one of three entrees, approximately two glasses wine/beer/mocktail, dessert & coffee/tea. Ticket sales end at noon on the day of the performance. No tickets will be sold at the door. Tickets can be purchased online at www.theatreinthewood.com

​Director-producer-performer Katie Schmidt Feder, formerly Executive Director of Embark Peekskill and Garrison Art Center, has created A MOVEABLE MUSICAL FEAST to spread the word and establish an audience for Theatre in the Wood, a new theatrical and culinary production company she formed last fall.  Schmidt Feder conjured a traveling musical revue that craftily combines music – often relating to food – with staging and choreography which cleverly delivers a meal to the guests who are seated at elegant dining tables. The goal is to capture the feel of a dinner party where your hosts provide not only elevated food, but high-level entertainment as well.

Mario Giacalone, from Croton, brings over 50 years experience as musician, actor, director Laura Donaldson-Inzeo is well known to Westchester audiences for her roles including Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Fantine in Les Miserables, Florence in Chess, The Witch in Into the Woods, and many more. Travis Ramirez, from Peekskill, is a classically trained opera tenor, has performed many leading opera roles and on main stage opera houses throughout the Hudson Valley. Joel Weber Knopf, a new resident to Peekskill, is a composer/lyricist whose musical The Last Ibex was produced at the Colorado New Music Festival (Wellspring Theater) and was developed at Off-Off Broadway Theater The Tank in New York City. Melody Munitz, from Cortlandt, has performed in many regional and tour performances including Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. Katie Schmidt Feder, brings 40 years performance experience in all types of theatre with roles such as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Squeaky Fromme in Assassins, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and most recently, Mr. Bennet/Charlotte in Pride and Prejudice. 

In addition to the actors, of which are almost all local Peekskill, Cortlandt or our neighbors, much of the staff are local as well. Technical director Gene Panczenko is from Peekskill, Lead house manager and food coordinator Christine Fonsale-Rogerson is from Cortlandt, and server/singer/helpers: Nick Nazario is from Peekskill and Jessica Beitscher of Mohegan Lake. Desserts even come from local Baked by Susan bakery. As News 12 once said, A Moveable Musical Feast is as local as local dinner-theatre gets. 

Theatre in the Wood is a newly-formed small professional theatrical company whose mission is to combine musical theatre with a heightened culinary experience. The vision of Theatre in the Wood encompasses a little of the nostalgia and fun of dinner theatres of the past with elevated culinary expectations staged in romantic, historical & nature-inspired settings. The mission is to perpetuate the art of musical theatre and provide work for its practitioners. 

The inaugural production of A Moveable Musical Feast was staged at the 4th Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Strawberry Road in Mohegan Lake in February 2024. The sanctuary with its many windows, nestled in a wooded area provided an intimate setting for the first production. The three performances were nearly sold out and the audience response was overwhelmingly positive.

To learn more about this project or Theatre in the Wood, contact Katie Schmidt Feder [email protected]. Also visit Theatre in the Wood on Facebook and Instagram.

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