RYTC’s production of famed musical lights up the Sunset stage this week

By Philip Shore

ASHEBORO — Randolph Youth Theater Company has put together a fully realized production of Oklahoma!: (Youth Edition) for your delectation. Able young players are fixing to knock your socks off, not only with singing and dancing, but, dare it be said, maturity and thoughtfulness. 

The show goes on Dec. 4 (7 p.m.), Dec. 6 (at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.) and Dec. 7 (at 7 p.m.) at the Sunset Theatre in Downtown Asheboro. 

Tickets at $10 a Pop — that goes for Moms and Bros and Sisses, too! — and available at the door or from rytc.org or at Brightside Gallery (cash only please). It behooves the general populace to commence the scurry. RYTC shows sell well and fast. 

The word “talent” is often splashed around as if there are specific definitions of the stuff. There aren’t. The effectiveness of a performance (in acting, singing, dancing, what have you) is located in energy, sincerity and polish, none of which are easily described in two syllables. RYTC is an on-the-hoof laboratory of talent in development. And a very effective one, too. 

Oklahoma! Is a play about love, life and social divisions in the barely civilized western United States of the early 20th century. It’s the ranchers bumping up against the cowboys, with modern touches brushed in lightly. 

Based on Green Grow The Lilacs by Lynn Riggs, it has tuneful Rodgers & Hammerstein songs with the character of a previous era: The Surrey With the Fringe on Top, Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’, People Will Say We’re in Love.

And thematic and dance elements, more common now, but groundbreaking in the ’40s. 

People in the show

Carlos Pena portrays Curly. He is a ranch hand lost in love with Laurey. Addison Gee is she. Gretchen Phipps is Ado Annie, a bit of a free spirit. Carson Shutt as Will Parker would like to be her beau. Country wisdom resides in the character of Aunt Eller, acted by Raleigh Brady.

Ethan Talley is Carnes, a very serious rancher. Austin Elia is the cantankerous Jud Fry — Jud is not someone to mess with. And into this mix of folks comes Aidyn Johnson as the peddler, who imports little bits of the uptown into the way-out-of town. 

Some of the actors have multiple responsibilities. Rebecca Bost understudies Aunt Eller as well as being in the chorus. Likewise Kaitlyn Evans understudies Laurie. Tatum White has a very special specialty: She performs as Laurey in the Dream Ballet and serves as dance captain. 

Other cast members include: Josie Gaukstern, Gracie Gonzalez, Sofia Delgado, Landon Allmon, Jack Duranceau, Colin Suggs, Cooper Price, Banx Robbins, Andy Vespa, Blair Phipps, Edith Gee, Eliza Turner, Lily Auman, Abby Vespa, Ava Thompson, Avery Martin, Chloe Mitchell, Courtney Crooks, Dahlia Neff, Faith Canipe, Kate Vespa, Maelee Laws, Payton Stanley, Seneca Mooney, Sydney Price and Sydney Thames. 

A sprinkling of adults assist with this production: Jim Shover is the Director/Choreographer, Kathleen Gee is Music Director, Clayton Morgan is Stage Manager (Clayton cut his eye teeth in RYTC productions), Anne Shirk and Candie Evavoid are the Costumers. Sets are by Jennifer Phipps, assisted by Kenton Williams. Props are by Hannah Beaton. 

Except for a few added years, the director and choreographer, Jim Shover, is the youngest cast member. He has worked with many regional theater groups and, locally, has guided RSVP and previous RYTC productions. He seems to have a mission to help people (young or older) grow and learn. If you speak with the cast, you will find immediately and forcefully that they each seek the motivation for the actions of their characters — this is the calling card of a real director. In this production, Shover lays the proper foundation for future development in community theater and, who knows, maybe further.

RYTC and, to a degree, RSVP have provided excellent opportunities for these young people. The lists of plays in which these actors have performed include Crazy For You, Something Rotten, The Music Man and numerous others. 

A word about this one

Oklahoma! opened on Broadway on March 31, 1943, and proceeded, during the beginning battles of WWII, to burst like a bombshell over the cultural life of America. In ancient parlance, it was a smash hit. The music was fully integrated into the story. The setting, while not exotic, had a blooming American freshness that was both balm on a warring world and an excitement of hope. 

The dances, choreographed by Agnes Demille, who even now gets credit along with Rodgers and Hammerstein, were explicitly modern, fresh and gorgeous to behold. Costumes were western rustic with the addition of some male dancers wearing what looked like racing silks. 

Audiences went to see one item of interest, a show based on a popular novel, and found themselves pleasantly opened to modernity, at a startling new kind of show. Action, some of it a little unpleasant; music, some of it a little curious for a romantic story; dance, some of it seemingly from Mars in cowboy clothes. It all CLICKED! Clicked hard enough to run for five years, the longest Broadway run at that time. 

Oklahoma! keeps coming back. It has been revived on the Great White Way five times. RSVP has put it on twice as well as by other area groups. It ran for 2,212 performances the first time. More recent shows have run in excess of 10,000 performances. But for sheer impact, Oklahoma! is the beginning of those mega-shows! 

That our local young people have undertaken this project speaks very well for Asheboro and Randolph County. That they are bound to please you with their work indicates that our local chicks and duckies and goslings are scurrying to adulthood. Catch them at the Sunset.