Paisley prints, rock ’n’ roll pharaohs, a vibrant varicolored garment and the ancient story of a cast-out brother’s journey toward forgiveness – the rock musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” will hit the stage of the Durango Arts Center this weekend.
The DAC’s production will open Friday and continue through Dec. 20. The colorful performance features a cast of more than 60 young actors, a handful of lively dance numbers, big singing ensembles and messages of kindness, compassion and forgiveness.
“The messages really tie into the holiday season,” director Theresa Carson said.
The DAC traditionally stages a family friendly holiday show this time of year – and usually incorporates young actors into the performance – but it’s not typically a children’s play. “Joseph” marks a change of direction with a cast made up almost entirely of actors ages 4-16.
“We decided that for our holiday show, since we like it to be geared toward family, we could do it with our children and the DAC Applause musical theater program,” Carson said.
“Joseph” is written to accommodate children actors, and it comes with plentiful roles and lots of song and dance numbers – which made it a good fit for DAC’s giant cast and capable singers. Staging a performance of this size has been a good challenge for Carson, choreographer Shea Costa and DAC teachers Thea Zastrosky, Gevene Sherman and Erika Beardsley.
“This is our first year of producing something of this magnitude with this many children,” Carson said.
The result is a big, energetic musical performance that tells the Biblical story of a boy and his dreams through glittery costumes, line-dancing hoe-down numbers, a pharaoh who resembles Elvis and a multi-hued coat. Aside from Landon Newton as Joseph and local fathers playing Jacob, the musical is staged entirely by young thespians.
“It’s all kids on the stage, just them,” Carson said. “And I think that’s a huge challenge and a huge accomplishment.
While Tilly Leeder, Ana Koshevoy and Kiersten Langford lead the audience through the story as singing narrators, dancers such as Zastrosky and Laura Clark create clever on-stage movement, and Joseph’s brothers provide humor and a rowdy atmosphere. With actors as young as 4, there also is a whole lot of cuteness in this “Joseph,” and when all the young voices join together on stage, it’s enough to soften even the grumpiest Scrooge.
The play, which is based on a tale from the Bible’s book of Genesis, tells of a boy named Joseph with big dreams whose coat of many colors is seen by his brothers as a symbol of his father’s preference for him. Envious, the brothers hatch a wicked plan to get rid of him. Joseph ends up enslaved in the home of a wealthy man in Egypt, shackled in a jail cell and despondent before his gift of interpreting dreams gets him a meeting with the pharaoh. He rises to power, and when he again is faced with his deceitful brothers, he employs compassion and forgiveness in place of vengeance.
Carson said the audience and cast alike can get something out of the play’s themes.
“That’s a goal of our holiday show, to do something with a message that’s really relevant with our holiday season,” she said.
Carson said the young cast has worked really hard on “Joseph.”
“They’ve risen to the challenge, and they are so excited,” she said. “I think they can hardly wait for an audience.”
kklingsporn@durangoherald.com
If You Go
“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” will open with a performance at 7 p.m. Friday at the Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave. Performances will continue at 7 p.m. Dec. 18, and 1 and 7 p.m. Dec. 20. Visit www.durangoarts.org for more information or to buy tickets.
