Speaker 1: Okay. So Sunday night, my daughter says, we have to
Speaker 1: go see my friend Haley perform in this play that
Speaker 1: they're doing in Aurora, and you have to go with me,
Speaker 1: and let's go. And we went. And first of all,
Speaker 1: was a show that I had not seen, and I
Speaker 1: had only heard good things about, and they are all accurate.
Speaker 1: The show is six. It is currently still on Broadway.
Speaker 1: It's going to be coming. The Broadway version is going
Speaker 1: to be coming through the DCPA this upcoming season. I'm
Speaker 1: relatively certain. Yeah, I think it's coming this upcoming season.
Speaker 1: But the show is about Henry the Eight's six ex wives,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to give up too much, but
Speaker 1: it is wildly entertaining. It's a musical. It's fun. The
Speaker 1: music is great. And on Sunday night we went and
Speaker 1: saw performance put together by a little student theater. Passion
Speaker 1: Project is the name of the company in this little
Speaker 1: theater that looks like it is a converted garage, and
Speaker 1: it is all high school students or early college students.
Speaker 1: Six young women on the stage doing the show. And
Speaker 1: the director of the show is another woman who when
Speaker 1: I saw her, I was like, I think she's twelve
Speaker 1: years old, but apparently she's older than that. Her name
Speaker 1: is Brooklyn Stevens, and she's joining me now to talk
Speaker 1: about her passion project, which is this theater group. Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: Well Brooklyn, first of all, how old are you?
Speaker 2: I'm eighteen years old?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, So I was not totally like that far
Speaker 1: off that. I was like, she looks like she's twelve.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about First of all, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about the Student Theater Passion Project. Then we'll talk about
Speaker 1: Roaming Gnome and what they do, because that's really cool too.
Speaker 1: I had never heard of them, so we'll talk about
Speaker 1: what they're providing for you. What is the Student Theater
Speaker 1: Passion Project. What happened here?
Speaker 2: No. I was introduced to a student led production of
Speaker 2: Haitiestown last summer, and I met a ton of amazing
Speaker 2: students and people there who really became a family. And
Speaker 2: I talked about the possibility of starting to direct my
Speaker 2: own show, and so did a lot of other of
Speaker 2: the a lot of other people a part of this production.
Speaker 2: And then I just decided, in like late November early December,
Speaker 2: that I was going to direct sixteen Edition throughout the
Speaker 2: spring and summer of this year.
Speaker 1: Now, tell me the difference for people that don't know
Speaker 1: about these teen edition shows, because they're not exactly like
Speaker 1: the show, but they're very very close. How how do
Speaker 1: they differ from the show you might see on Broadway?
Speaker 2: It differs as like the script has changed a little
Speaker 2: bit because of some perhaps innuendos or some language. But
Speaker 2: six is honestly a really family friendly show for a
Speaker 2: lot of people. It's a lot different than let's say,
Speaker 2: like Heather's teen Edition because that one's a lot darker,
Speaker 2: so a lot of lyric changes have to go towards
Speaker 2: that one. But six is pretty much the same show
Speaker 2: for teens and for the adult actors on Broadway.
Speaker 1: So this is all teen actor. How did you find
Speaker 1: the actors? Did you have tryouts and all that stuff?
Speaker 1: Tell me about that process.
Speaker 2: So this all started. I made an Instagram account after Thestcon,
Speaker 2: which was in early December, and a lot of people
Speaker 2: ended up seeing it on Instagram. When I sent out
Speaker 2: a whole casting call, and then I had virtual auditions
Speaker 2: start coming in, and then I gave everybody a callback
Speaker 2: for at least one character, and they all came to
Speaker 2: my house, which honestly seems a little sketchy for somebody
Speaker 2: who've never met. I definitely have another plan for when
Speaker 2: I do that again, as I know another little theater
Speaker 2: that I could do callbacks at and such. So then
Speaker 2: I did callbacks and then the rest is history. Casted
Speaker 2: the show and now it's on.
Speaker 1: Well, to be clear, you casted the show twice. There
Speaker 1: are two different casts that do this show. How did
Speaker 1: that pan out? Why did you end up with two
Speaker 1: different casts?
Speaker 2: I ended up with two different because I felt like
Speaker 2: to have I had about thirty people audition and I
Speaker 2: felt that just taking out of those thirty six girls
Speaker 2: was not fair to a lot of these girls. And
Speaker 2: so that's why I ended up doing two casts. And
Speaker 2: there was also just so much talent to go around,
Speaker 2: and I was just like so overwhelmed with so much
Speaker 2: support and love. And yeah, well.
Speaker 1: The show was dynamite on Sunday night. Now you're gonna
Speaker 1: have the I believe the Bolin cast is coming up
Speaker 1: in the next few productions. But let's talk about the
Speaker 1: Roaming Nome Theater. This little tiny space that has a
Speaker 1: little set, It has a little snack bar. I mean
Speaker 1: it has. It's like a little miniature theater. How what
Speaker 1: is the Roaming Nome Theater?
Speaker 2: Uh, Roaming Nome Theater. I've been a part of Roaming
Speaker 2: Home Theater since twenty twenty three when my mom found
Speaker 2: it out of the blue on Google or like with
Speaker 2: her coworkers, and I started doing shows there. My first
Speaker 2: show there was Loose and that was the great production.
Speaker 2: Roamingnome has really been such a detrimental part to our success,
Speaker 2: And honestly, I think if we had an even bigger
Speaker 2: space for six, we wouldn't know what to do with
Speaker 2: the room, if I'm being completely honest, because the show
Speaker 2: is just so good and it's so tiny. But it's
Speaker 2: like if we had like a four hundred theater theater,
Speaker 2: I would not know what to do. I would have
Speaker 2: felt so overwhelmed. But Roamingnome helps set up tickets for us.
Speaker 2: They're obviously do they're doing the snack bar. They've really
Speaker 2: been just so helpful, and they have summer camps going
Speaker 2: on like every single day, so it's like they're doing
Speaker 2: summer camps all day long, and then we'd come in
Speaker 2: at night to come and rehearse and set up and
Speaker 2: do everything and I'm honestly just like so grateful for them,
Speaker 2: especially Alex Oliver Boston. She's one of my favorite directors
Speaker 2: and she's just like the kindest human soul.
Speaker 1: Now that's a big thing to step in and direct
Speaker 1: a show. And is this the first time you've directed
Speaker 1: a show yourself.
Speaker 2: Yes, this is the first time I've directed a show.
Speaker 2: I plan to go into theater education at the University
Speaker 2: of Northern Colorado Go Bears, And I've met so many
Speaker 2: people up there already, and so many people are actually
Speaker 2: interested in coming down and you know, doing a show
Speaker 2: under me in the future. Up there already, and so
Speaker 2: many people have already reached out to me, especially after
Speaker 2: this first weekend, which the show was just gonna get
Speaker 2: better in my opinion, especially with two casts.
Speaker 1: And what I love about this is like our audience
Speaker 1: was full of the friends and family of the girls
Speaker 1: who were on the stage, so they were into it
Speaker 1: and they were clapping and having fun. It was just
Speaker 1: a blast. And I got to tell you, the young women,
Speaker 1: how old are how old is your cast? Like? What
Speaker 1: range do you have in this cast?
Speaker 2: So between both casts, the cast ranges from girls who
Speaker 2: just finished their freshman year of high school to girls
Speaker 2: who have just finish high school year of high school
Speaker 2: and are not going to college. So it's really like
Speaker 2: fourteen fifteen and up, which is honestly so great. Yeah,
Speaker 2: our youngest queen on that stage that is going to
Speaker 2: be in the Ballink Castes are Anna of Cleaves. Her
Speaker 2: name is Kiir Cantrell. She is the funniest human being.
Speaker 2: And then it's like, then, we've got a lot of
Speaker 2: seniors in the show, so it's really great. A lot
Speaker 2: of them are going into their senior year though.
Speaker 1: Oh but that's okay. Brooklyn Stevens is my guest. She's
Speaker 1: with the Student Theater Passion Project. Now, Brooklyn, this is
Speaker 1: the first year of the Student Theater Passion Project. Have
Speaker 1: you chosen a show to do next time? You and
Speaker 1: I were kind of talking off the air and You're like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll do a bunch of one acts or something
Speaker 1: like that. Are you kind of trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what you want to do next?
Speaker 2: Yes, I totally am. Next summer, I really really want
Speaker 2: to do Mama Mia. That is a show I've been
Speaker 2: wanting to do for many, many years. I'm right now
Speaker 2: just depending on when those auditions and stuff. Go out
Speaker 2: right now, it's looking like we'll be at Roamingnome again
Speaker 2: and like do a lot of fun things there. But
Speaker 2: it's like, if we get like fifty people to audition,
Speaker 2: then then it's like I could get an even bigger theater.
Speaker 2: And then I was talking about maybe doing a one
Speaker 2: act festival with a couple of people, which I would
Speaker 2: be so excited to do because I just love one
Speaker 2: act there. I find that the best monologues.
Speaker 1: Come from yeah, oh yeah, because you got to do
Speaker 1: a lot in one act. You got to tell the
Speaker 1: whole story in one act.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: That's there's a lot of pressure on those one act
Speaker 1: shows to get that entire story arc in very very quickly. Well,
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Stevens, I'm a fan. I can't wait to see
Speaker 1: what you guys do next. I need you to put
Speaker 1: out a newsletter or something, or a Facebook group that
Speaker 1: I can join and follow along so I can keep following.
Speaker 1: The next performances of six at the Roamingnme Theater are
Speaker 1: July even, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth. Be clear from my audience,
Speaker 1: this is community theater. You're not going to go there
Speaker 1: and expect Broadway. That is unrealistic. But these girls that
Speaker 1: I saw in this cast, and I'm assuming in the
Speaker 1: other cast as well, are so talented and they left nothing.
Speaker 1: They left nothing on the stage. They just went all
Speaker 1: out and I loved it. I thought the performances were
Speaker 1: fantastic and for a first time director, hats off to you,
Speaker 1: Brooklyn for such an amazing job.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. That really means the world to me.
Speaker 1: Oh, it was great. I can't wait to see what
Speaker 1: you do next to Maybe we'll have you on in
Speaker 1: the future to talk about the next Student Passion Project production.
Speaker 2: Yes, that would be great.
Speaker 1: All right, thanks Brooklyn, Thank you all right. I've got
Speaker 1: links on the blog for both things. I've got links
Speaker 1: to my tickets to the teen edition of six and
Speaker 1: I also have links to the Roaming Home Theater cutest
Speaker 1: little theater you ever saw in your life.