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The cast list for Annie Jr. is out, and the wait for students at Patrick M. Villano School is over! Everyone who auditioned for the annual school play learned what role they will be on stage.

“It was really great!” Daniella Beahm exclaimed. “It was so exciting to see that I made the lead role in the play that I started crying tears of joy.” Beahm, a sixth-grader, will portray Annie in Annie Jr. The play is about an 11-year-old orphan who befriends a shaggy dog and charms a millionaire into adoption.

“I was so happy to get Miss Hanigan, and it felt like I was going to explode as I jumped up and down,” Olivia Gagliardo said. The sixth grader will play the head of Annie’s orphanage.

“It was a very difficult decision,” Amanda Binetti said.

Binetti, the school’s social worker, is directing the play with Joseph Gibbs, the choir and music instructor. Binetti said it took a long time to decide the cast list because they wanted everyone’s role to fit perfectly. Binetti believes they made the perfect choices.

Another hard decision was choosing the right play. Binetti and Gibbs wanted a play that was well known. Annie Jr. is based on the Broadway hit Annie. Two differences, according to the website for Music Theater International, “Annie Jr. is a roughly 60 minute version of the show adapted for Middle-school aged performers, and songs have been edited and keys changed to ranges appropriate for middle-school aged voices.”

The play is scheduled for Tuesday, April 4, and Wednesday, April 5 at Patrick M. Villano School. Show times start at 7 p.m.