Five, six, seven, eight … and curtain up! Every player plays. But, behind the glaring spotlight on every Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School (RFH) Tower Players stage performer is a lot of rehearsal and skill honing.

The RFH Tower Players, after the curtain fell on the traditional spring musical, Anything Goes, took their talent, drive to perfect performance skill and showcase all of it to the 54th Annual Bucks County Playhouse Student Theater Festival recently. The stage moms behind the talent and drive to the venue, among other things, were showcased themselves.

Now, it’s the day with the students in the spotlight on stage and in workshop mode that gets the limelight (below).

The festival was “originally known as Dramafest for one act plays,” literature from Bucks County Playhouse says. It has since, “evolved into a multi–week celebration showcasing talented student performers from all over the region. Students perform on the historic stage, take workshops to develop their knowledge and skills in the arts and receive feedback from theater professionals.”

As is pretty common knowledge, the trek to Bucks is an annual one for RFH performing arts students and company. They make their way each year to the theater in “New Hope to present their school productions on our historic stage, adding their names to a long list of extraordinary theater artists who have performed at the Playhouse, including Robert Redford, Grace Kelly, Justin Guarini, Jessica Walters, John Tartaglia, Ben Fankhauser, Angela Lansbury and hundreds of other artists,” Bucks County Playhouse literature said.

In addition to collaborating and celebrating camaraderie among theater friends from different high schools, RFH Tower Players played, trained and won. They took some tap dance workshops, expanding on their tap training and triumph in Anything Goes. They performed excerpts and numbers from the show and they won recognition and just plain celebrated among theater friends — and moms.

Take a look and get a glimpse into the day with the players (Click on one photo to enlarge and scroll.) …

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• In Memoriam: Little Silver-Raised Red Bank High School ’56 Grad, Ed Apy, 88
• Scene Around: RFH Tower Players’ Dressed & Set for ‘Nutcracker’
• Police Report: $2.2K Theft, Aggravated Assault, Weapons Possession, Terroristic Threats, Drug Possession, Fugitive from Justice, DWI, Disorderly, Criminal Mischief
• In Memoriam: Red Bank-Raised Longtime Rumsonite Ted Leddy, 87