Summer Theater Proves Itself A Training Ground For Rising Actors
Posted
Staff Report-
Nearly every regional summer stock theater in the country can boast a slew of alumni who have gone on to star on Broadway, find a career in Hollywood or land a spot on a popular television show.
Summer theater has long proven itself the training ground for rising young actors. Most schools with programs in dramatic arts encourage summer work for their students' development and as a way to make vital connections to a professional actor's career.The Wagon Wheel Theatre is no exception, having an illustrious list of alumni with outstanding credits upon their departure from the little round stage in Warsaw. This year the Wagon Wheel will produce two shows with the highest-level Broadway stars attached to their titles.
When the Wagon Wheel last produced "A Chorus Line" in 1995, a rising young star named Karen Olivo played the Puerto Rican dancer Diana Morales, who leads the company in the hit song "What I Did for Love." Olivo won the Tony for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical for her Anita in "West Side Story".
In 1987, the Wagon Wheel produced "Brighton Beach Memoirs" with a young man named Brian D'Arcy James playing the lead role of Eugene. James was also nominated as Outstanding Actor in a Musical for his Shrek in "Shrek, the Musical".
But Wagon Wheel's reputation for training new and upcoming talent is not limited to the bright lights of Broadway. Its effects are felt in the neighborhoods where its artists live and work here in Michiana and elsewhere.
Over the past five seasons, the theater has implemented three programs for young actors and seen growth in all of them. They provide training in music, acting and dance for students ages 7 to 18 through Summer Play, Musical Theatre Workshop and its newest group, The Wagon Wheel Rising Stars.
Scott Michaels, the theater's artistic director, won a national award featured in the Oct. 3-5 issue of USA Today for his production of "Cats" at Arrowhead Union High School in Merton, Wis. The show featured all high school students and was named USA Weekend Showstopper of 2008.
