Showtime Performing Arts is still a fairly new performing arts organization that has produced adult and youth shows in Springfield. Tonya Reynolds, one of the organization’s founders, proposed it was time to pull out all the stops, and she found the right show with “Songs for a New World” from Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown.
The show is described as exploring the moment you hit the wall and make a choice to take a stand or turn back. Reynolds fell in love with it and wanted to do it for local audiences, but at the right time.
“It’s really different and unique in that there are no spoken lines, but all music,” said Reynolds, who will direct and perform. “There is also such a variety of styles — gospel, funk, pop, modern musical theater — and it’s a lot of technical and demanding work for singers and I’ve waited for years to find the right group for this. Now it’s all fallen into place.”
Other cast members include Greg Willis, Kaitlin Musick, Sherry Holland, Mark Stickford, Tanner Chaffin, Steve Morgenstern, Gregory Welch, Lauren Karg and Jennifer McCurdy, who will play various characters in different situations finding strength in each other.
Reynolds is proud some of the cast started as Showtime youth students and are continuing as adults.
The setting will also be unique. As the State offers a bar as well as a theater setting, the setting of the musical will also be a bar.
“The State is a perfect setting for this the way it’s designed. We’ll get a glimpse of each singer’s life and there will be someone everyone can relate to in the end, and the audience can get their drinks while the singers are doing their thing,” Reynolds said.
The action won’t all be on the State stage, as the audience will also have the opportunity to become part of the show by joining in with a gospel number in the surprise finale.
In addition to offering winter live entertainment, Reynolds hopes the show will give the community a sense of what Showtime is about as it enters its third year. The group has done theater productions, education classes with youth and performed holiday shows at United Senior Services and in local nursing centers recently.
The organization is planning a youth production, “Winnie the Pooh and the Dark Cloud Too,” this spring, and a cabaret show in the summer.
“We’ve been blessed with people who have supported us. Hopefully, this will bring people out of their homes and out of the cold into a warm setting of local entertainment,” Reynolds said.
The State Theater is located at 19 S. Fountain Ave. For tickets or more information, go to www.showtimeperformingartsohio.org/.
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