Caribou Community Theater Guild takes stage

Like many parts of the life in the country, the Caribou Community Theater Guild is still making its way back from the disruption of the COVID epidemic and looking to begin larger scale productions again.  Plans for a full musical comedy in the summer/fall are in the early stages yet, but member Kelly Moore promises the details will be forthcoming.

As the guild looks to get up and going to full capacity again, the idea for a smaller scale production in the meantime was developed at a brainstorming session during a recent monthly meeting.  Moore, who directed last week’s “Once Upon: A Broadway Show” explained “We decided we wanted to do something small enough that it wouldn't take weeks and weeks of rehearsals.”  After holding open auditions, parts were assigned, and practice began.  Moore stated “The actors rehearsed mostly on their own and we put everything together at dress rehearsal.  This is one of the ways we try to accommodate everyone's busy schedules.”

The program itself involved a mashup of “Broadway hits and beloved fairy tale characters” who “collide when the fairy godmother takes on a new role as the matchmaker of music” who pairs characters together against songs from well-known musical performances.

Most of the vignettes involved a lead character, playing against another actor on stage in a dramatic staging of songs repruposed from the original contexts. David Torgesen, for instance, performed “Some Enchanted Evening” from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific in the character of Prince Charming from Snow White.  Kamorah Torgesen performed “I Could Have Danced All Night” from Lerner and Loew’s My Fair Lady.  Annie Brower as Anna performed “I Know it’s Today” from David Lindsay-Abaire’s Shrek musical. India Galloway took the lead as Rapunzel, singing “Mama I’m a Big Girl Now” from Shaiman and Wittman’s musical version of the John Waters film, with Trinidy Fryar as a disapproving Mother Gothel.  Fryar herself took the lead as Belle singing “I Hate Men” from Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate, with Jeremy Banks as the titular man.  Banks returned as Gaston to perform a rendition of “You’ll Be Back” from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, and with Benjimn Beckstead as Woody and Buzz singing “Anything You Can Do” from Irving Berlin’s beloved Annie Get Your Gun.  

The Community Theatre Guild also provides a chance for young actors to give performing a try, and there were several young performers in the show.  As Kelly Moore explained, “It was the first time on stage for some of our performers and I couldn't be more proud of them! It takes a lot of courage to try something new and when those lights hit you it's easy to get flustered.”  The young actors all came through without any of the feared flustering, and held the stage well.  Asher Brower took on the challenging “Defying Gravity” from the musical Wicked (incidentally, the film treatment is hitting theatres this weekend) with aplomb.  Addie Brower featured as Wendy in that piece, and then soloed as Alice singing "The Girl I Mean to Be.”  Samantha Muir took a turn as Vanellope Von Schweetz performing “Naughty” from the recent Matilda musical.  

The guild is made up of about 6 locals. Rebecca Fryar is the president and Jeremy Banks is the vice president.  Moore says that “We are always excited to welcome new members and ideas.  We are a small community theater group in a rural area but we know there are several patrons of the arts here. We aim to provide the community with a place to showcase our local talent, give an opportunity to be involved in the arts, and to entertain.  We would like to see growth in the future. It would be fantastic to have people come out to audition and to watch our shows.”

Community Theater has a long tradition in the area, and the it will be exciting to see what the group has planned for the upcoming months and years in Caribou County.  The performance was held at the Soda Springs High School auditorium.  After the recent school bond issue failed to receive the necessary two thirds of votes, a potential new auditorium is not in the immediate cards.  

A good crowd of supporters and theatre lovers was on hand to enjoy the show, despite the falling snow which had begun to blanket the valley on Friday night.

As announcements are made about upcoming auditions and events for the CCTG, we will keep you apprised of the times and places.