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Jake Moses from Seven Hills High School and Maggie Seibert from Highlands High School, playing Valjean and Cosette |
by Colin Moore
Starting Friday the 21st of July C.A.S.T. will begin
their latest production, Les Miserables, at Highlands High School. On stage it
may not look like much is different, with Les Mis following in the footsteps of
the successful and well-received C.A.S.T. productions of the last six years,
but behind the scenes there have been some big changes.
Commonwealth Artists Student Theater started off under the
umbrella of Fort Thomas Independent Schools, but this time last year Jason
Burgess and his wife Amy came to the conclusion that things might have to
change:
“We talked about how
we’d reached our maximum potential attached to Fort Thomas Schools. We realised
if we wanted to offer more, more productions, more workshops, that we’d have to
branch out and become our own non-profit, with our own board. We’ve loved our
partnership with Fort Thomas schools, and we’ll keep partnering with them in
some way in the future.”
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“Highlands and Fort
Thomas is very lucky to have the arts community that we have, it’s so engaged.
In a lot of other areas in Northern Kentucky it’s not the same. We can create
more opportunities for kids on stage, off stage and educationally. We can offer
kids educational experiences and other opportunities that wouldn’t be afforded
to them otherwise.”
Over a four to five year plan, Jason and Amy hope to grow C.A.S.T. at their own pace. They hope to add one more performance next summer (“one big musical as usual and a play” according to Jason) and possibly move to year long programming the next year.
What makes C.A.S.T. unique is that it’s not just for actors,
Jason explains: “What sets us apart from
other high school programs is that the entire cast and crew are high school
students, as well as the majority of the orchestra. We really put students at
the forefront.” Students range from incoming freshman to graduating seniors
in high school. The entire crew is made up of students including most of the
designers for the different departments involved in creating a production. “The ultimate goal is to open the doors of
collaboration to students from different high schools in the Greater Cincinnati
community to create and produce a show together and to establish new
relationships and create new friendships.”
This year for Les Miserables, One hundred local students are
involved, with fifty-two in the cast and the rest on the production side.
Auditions began in March, rehearsals started in May and they have been hard at
it for the last seven to eight weeks. The students meet to rehearse in the
evenings, and Jason and Amy are respectful of the fact that the kids have other
interests outside of the production. Jason notes, “They’re high school students, so we work around jobs and vacations and
that kind of thing.” While some of the cast and crew may have ambitions of
acting or production as a career or as a future college major, many of them
just see C.A.S.T. as a fun project over the summer. It’s not just for hardcore
theater kids.
Jason recognizes that there are challenges related to their
new independent non-profit status, not least funding: “It’s definitely a leap of faith, after these shows we have to start
applying for grants from organisations like Artswave, state and federal grants.
We have to create our own financial portfolio to be able to run more things.”
Despite their years running successful shows, they still
feel like they have a lot to prove: “One
of the biggest challenges is the fact that we’re new. We need to prove that
we’re worth peoples time, money and effort. We need to prove to people that
we’re viable and that we’re worth it.” Jason and Amy run C.A.S.T. on top of
full time jobs. Jason is Fort Thomas Independent Schools’ Theater instructor,
working at Highlands and at the middle school, as well as a full time teacher.
“There’s definitely a challenge in time
management involved.” He’s quick to point out that it’s not all challenges
for the couple, they do it because they love it. “It’s also a lot of fun. It’s a challenge that we readily accept and
look forward to.”
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Jason is confident that the audiences will love the show. “I think people will be really impressed
with the hard work and talent that the students are putting it in there. They
definitely won’t be disappointed.”
Tickets for the performances listed below are available at www.castnky.com and remaining unreserved
tickets can be purchased on the night, from an hour before each performance.
All performances are held in the Performing Arts Center at Highlands High
School.
Friday, July 21st, 7:30pm, Opening Night
Saturday, July 22nd, 7:30pm
Sunday, July 23rd, 2pm
Friday, July 28th, 7:30pm
Saturday, July 29th 7:30pm
Sunday, July 30th, 2pm, Closing Performance
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