DIRECTOR……………..TERRY SANDS
CO-DIRECTOR…………..MARY CURTIS
PRODUCTION MANAGER…….SEANIA McCARTHY
MUSICAL DIRECTOR………MARCIA GROOME
CHOREOGRAPHER…………DONNA “DEEJ” VIAU
LIGHTING……………..RINGO TARR. AEDAN McCARTHY
SOUND………………..WILL HUNT, AEDAN McCARTHY
COSTUME COMMITTEE……..SEANIA McCARTHY
SETS…………………CHICKI HOLLETT, TOM MORIARTY, JIM FRICK, TIM REILLY
PROPS………………..JUDI MASCIARELLI, SEANIA McCARTHY
TICKETS………………LINETTE FRENCH, KERRY McKENNA, MARY FLAHERTY
BANNER DESIGN…………CHICKI HOLLETT
PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHER..DAPHNE PAPP
WEBMASTER…………….JETHRO HAYMAN, KERRY McKENNA
FACEBOOK……………..SARA LEHMAN
INSTAGRAM…………….GINA MILNE
TREASURER…………….STEVIE NEAL
ORCHESTRA…………….MARCIA GROOME (Conductor, Keyboard) JOHN NEWCOMER (Bass)
AD COMMITTEE………….KERRY McKENNA, MARY FLAHERTY
2021 NEWSLETTER……….MARC KAUFMAN (Digital Design Group)

Mary Curtis, Co-Director

Mary’s has been with AVP since 1991. She played the lead in Guys and Dolls, Kiss Me Kate, King & I, Carousel, Robert & Elizabeth, Blythe Spirit, Anything Goes, in Dover, MA, as well as serving as their director for 10 years. While a member of the Chorus Pro Musica, she sang with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood and in Symphony Hall. She wrote music for The Vincent Club of Boston. She directed for the Wellesley Players. She co-wrote 2 musicals successfully produced in local theater. Mary has published 17 novels and is a member of The Authors Guild and the Dramatists Guild.


Terry Sands, Director

Terry has directed the Annisquam Village Players annually since 1990, and what a fabulous experience it has been!  Working with casts and crews ages 5 to 90 -with backgrounds as varied as doctor, lawyer, judge, artist, CEO, student, businessperson, professional actor, and everything in between- has been a blast.

And each year is a totally different experience from the one before. In the past 23 years, we have produced many of the Broadway classics from musical theater, and have had only one repeat show-The Sound of Music, which was written here in Annisquam.  (Please see the History of the AVP.)

When not directing, Terry has been a judge on the Massachusetts Land Court for the past ten years, and before that a real estate lawyer for 32 years.  By the way, there is much similarity between the courtroom and the stage. Didn’t Shakespeare write that, “All the world is a stage.”

In order to keep in shape for the active rehearsal schedule, Terry has run the Boston Marathon almost every year since 1991 (as well as the New York City Marathon and the Washington D.C. Marine Corps Marathon). The characters he has met along the racecourse could easily fill the AVP stage.  And to keep it all in perspective, Terry has written two mystery novels, which he hopes to eventually publish when he has the time to work on edits.


Seania McCarthy (Production Manager) is thrilled to be part of AVP.  She divides her time between being a mother of three sons (Aedan, Rowan, and Liam), running tours of Dogtown and Rockport, working with husband Dan at their graphic design studio Twin Lights Design and as choreographer and technical director (a job shared with Dan) of the Rockport Middle School.   Seania has been the AVP  Production Manager since 2010 and is excited to be working once again with such a talented group of people.


Deej Viau, AVP ChoreographerDeej Viau, Choreographer

Deej has been with AVP since 2008, and absolutely loves working with the cast and crew each year. Meeting Terry and Mary has been a gift. She loves the process, the history, the community and heart of all of it.

Donna “Deej” Viau began dancing and doing theater work at an early age. President of her high school drama club, then a theater major in college before transferring to dance, she received her BFA in Dance from UMASS at Amherst in 1982.

For many years she danced with The African/Caribbean Dance Company, Cle Douglas Dance Theatre in Boston as well as VIVA Dance Company of Cape Cod. She was artistic director and choreographer of her own nonprofit dance company, DanceVisions that performed all over New England- donating all profits to various charitable groups.

Deej combined her love of dance with fitness and was a certified instructor for nearly 15 years. Deej has also done residencies, enrichment and grant programs teaching her Dance/Theatre/Fitness programs at the Gloucester Prevention Network, Sandy Bay, Fuller School, East Gloucester Elementary, Little Sprouts, Art Harbor, Eastern Point Day School, Brookwood, Harborlight Montessori and Hamilton Wenham High School.  She has been teaching at Hamilton Wenham School of Dance since 1999 and became the new owner and artistic director of HWSD in 2017.

Deej resides in Gloucester with her two sons and artist husband Robert Viau, where they have a business, StudioVO: Commercial and Fine Art Studio.


Linette French,  Ticket Master

Having no desire or (ability) to appear on stage with the Annisquam Village Players, Linette decided it would be fun to get involved by becoming the “ Ticket Master” of Annisquam.  Progressing from hand-written lists and charts to using the computer, she has thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the children and their parents.  Everyone has been so patient and understanding with her, as she endeavored to give each of them the “Best Seat in the House.”

Linettes’s only appearance on stage was as a nun (in the back row) in the opening scene of the AVP’s first production of The Sound of Music!!!!!


Kathryn (Chicki) Hollett, Set Designer

chick 2Chicki’s first connection with AVP was working on the set of the 1992 production of The Sound of Music and she has been designing the sets ever since. She has seen amazing growth through the years for the cast, the crew and even for the audience.  It’s a joy for her to be around creative people, working with Mary and Terry, and in her case, getting a great summer workout without going to the gym. She has tried to retire several times but Terry’s standard response is “Overruled.”   Next year, Judge?


MARCIA GROOME (Music Director/Keyboard) Marcia is delighted to be returning to the AVP family as Music Director in a role she has held since the 2015 season. She moved to Boston from North Carolina to attend graduate school at the New England Conservatory after earning her BS in Music Education from Elon. Marcia has been active in all aspects of theater since childhood working both onstage acting as well as behind the scenes directing, stage managing and designing sets and lights. From North Carolina to Maine, her experience ranges from community and children’s productions to summer stock and regional theaters. For the past 11 years, Marcia has been the Music Director for the main stage productions with the North Shore Players. She is currently on the faculty of the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute (BUSTI) and CFA. Other music directing credits include Turtle Lane Summer Theatre Workshop, ACT, Manchester SummerStage, Georgetown Royals Stage Ensemble, Hot Summer Community Theatre Project, The Yellow School Center for the Arts, Act I Arena Theatre, Moonlight Productions, and Emerson Stage. She also maintains a private studio in the Boston metro area and serves as the service musician for Newbury Court in Concord. Other musical and theatrical studies include Greensboro College, UNC- Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro and the North Carolina School of the Arts.