By STU CLAMPITT
Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre’s Young Artists Program (YAP) will present REVUE at 6 and 8 p.m. on Tuesday, June 28 in The Studio Theatre, 4 Carter Green, Carmel.
High school students from across central Indiana will present a showcase of scenes, dance, solo, trios, and small group numbers for an evening full of fun cabaret-style entertainment.
The Studio Theater provides a more intimate setting than other performances at the Center for the Performing Arts, so there will be only 220 seats available for each performance.
Civic Theatre’s Johnna Tavianini told The Reporter she has been involved in this annual production for only two years.
“The best way to describe it is as a cabaret-style show in that we are using music and monologues to help the students tell stories about themselves and to create a relationship with the audience through music,” Tavianini said. “The monologues are completely created by the students themselves. The show is put together very much by them.”
This year’s show has come together very quickly, with only 10 rehearsals.
“My colleague Kenny Shepard is a fantastic director of the show,” Tavianini said. “He comes up with a set of ideas about what we want the show to encompass through questions we want the students to answer regarding issues that affect them as young people in the world today. He then collects all their answers to all these questions, which might be able bullying, or social media, cell phone addiction or whatever the case may be.”
The answers to those questions become the heart of the show.
“From there he puts together a script which is often verbatim what the student has said in response,” Tavianini told The Reporter. “It makes is very personal about how they feel about themselves, how they fit in the world around them, and how they are relating to one another. Then we choose the music that will help to enhance that story. We might reframe the songs a bit. We might change lyrics. We might create slightly different arrangements of the songs. It really personalizes the music and allows us to choose the music to continue allowing the student to tell the stories they are trying to share with the audience.”
YAP’s REVUE has a cast of 14 young people. The youngest is 13 and the oldest just graduated high school and is getting ready to leave for college in the fall.
“These kids are working incredibly hard, and they are being fantastically brave in the things they are wanting to share with the audience,” Tavianini said. “It has been a lovely collaborative experience. It is a unique one for these kids because typically they would audition for a show, they would get a role, they would play that role and have that expectation. This is unique because it is truly coming from them.”
Tavianini said audiences can expect a show that is a mix of the heartfelt and the funny.
“There is a lot of laughter in the show, but also some very poignant, very brave and very exposed moments. These kids are allowing us to have a little window into their lives,” Tavianini said. “It is a great experience to get to watch these young people share that.”
Buy tickets online at civictheatre.org or call the box office at (317) 843-3800.