Fun and creativity is back this summer in full force with the first of three offerings from the Jim and Ida Williams Summer Youth Theatre, housed in The Brass Ring.
Tonight marks the opening of “The Island of Tomorrow,” an original musical created by Brass Ring students who teamed for the second year in a row with Brent Black of New York City in his summer workshop, “Let’s Make a Musical II.”
Black led many of the same students in last year’s workshop, where they created from start to finish the delightful and heartfelt show “The Tenor: A Justin Credible Musical.” Youth between the ages of 7 and 17 auditioned, were selected and were split into three groups to create the original musical, writing the script, the lyrics and the musical score. Then the performers brought it to life on stage.
The same process was employed again this time around but, according to Black, this year’s production is decidedly “a lot darker of a score than last year,” and also a more mature offering from the talented youth who wrote a story of hope, challenge and heart-wrenching decision making.
“The Island of Tomorrow” opens on a darkened stage with a lone spotlight on Tara, a 19-year-old college student singing about her long-lost father and her search for the man who is presumed dead by everyone but his hopeful offspring. Kennedy McAlister creates Tara as a grounded young woman who is ready to do anything it takes to find her father and bring him home. McAlister’s portrayal aptly delivers the character’s optimism and determination of fulfilling her goal.
She is helped on her journey by the addled Professor Flank, played by Samantha Reser, who gives Tara a box containing some Mayan artifacts her father collected on a dig in the Caribbean. She learns of a mysterious island named Lumil Xiimbal where time stands still. She reads aloud a riddle that transports her to this magical place where inhabitants come from all walks of life and from all times, never aging, but never free.
She also finds her self falling — literally — for the handsome English military man, Charles, played by Trenton McFatridge, who brings a sophisticated, yet hopeful, air to this 1700s gentleman longing to find an “adventurous girl with a feisty heart.”
He is accompanied by Marty, a rather boisterous, colorful pirate played by Antonio Rodriguez. Marty — along with his rather stoic pet parrot — gives the serious show a spice of comedy, with a rousing dance sequence and Marty’s hilarious attempt at CPR.
