The Official Contemporary Youth Arts Company of Charleston Website

(Left to Right) Shawn Casey, Evan Wilson, Michelle Spencer,

Erin Martin, Nik Tidquist

 

 

The long awaited premiere

of the new Dan Kehde play...

Shadowman,

arrives 8 pm Thursday, July 23rd

at the historic WVSU Capitol Center,

123 Summers Street, Charleston. 

After more than three years in development,

the play centers around the sin and

redemption of a convicted rapist

Jeremiah Fleetwood as he returns

to his home town after fifteen years

in prison.  Hired as counter man in

the local pornography shop, Fleetwood

confronts his victim, his former

friends and the town sheriff before

discovering that his only possible act

of redemption is even more heinous

than his original crime.  Featuring the

talents of veteran actors Evan Wilson,

Erin Martin, Nik Tidquist, Madeleine Ranson,

Michelle Spencer, Shawn Casey, Kirill Gura

and Shane Belcher, the drama is adult themed

and not suitable for children.    

    

(Left to Right) Nik Tidquist, Michelle Spencer, Evan Wilson

 

 

Performances run July 23-25, 30, 31

and August 1 at 8 pm with tickets--$5.50 for

Students/seniors, $9.50 for adults-- available

the evenings of the performances.     

 

          

(Left to Right) Erin Martin, Evan Wilsion, Michelle Spencer                                     

Auditions! Auditions! Auditions!

From the Playwright...

          With every new play I write come the

same old questions: “Why do you do this? 

Why aren’t you doing shows that people want

to come to see?  You could make a lot of

money if you just did “Jesus Christ Superstar”

again or “Across the Universe”.   Nobody wants

to come to the theater to see depressing drama

anymore.  Why do it?”  You’ve heard it. 

Hell, some of you may even have asked me

those questions yourselves.

          So, why are we going to premiere Shadowman,

 another depressing drama? 

          Okay.  Because, at its core,  live theater is not

about entertainment, despite the fact that the living

stage is often the venue for it.  If live theater were

only about soliciting audience, then the concept

of the stage would have been altered or replaced

altogether after the first Olympics, or the first time

the lions devoured the Christians,  or the first public

crucifixion, or the first superbowl, the first time

the Beatles played Yankee Stadium,  or any other

first time a crowd gathered to watch a spectacle. 

Conversely, if live theater were only about money,

then its works would reflect only the most superficial

values of the current generation.  And while those pieces

must always exist, it would be insulting to consider

them the sole purpose for a three thousand year old institution. 

          No, the true potential of the living stage is for

 the constant confrontation of ideas and emotions

to the human condition, whether humanity is in the

mood to see it or not.   The living stage is where

audiences see themselves not as a mirror images,

but as portraits: the interpretations of an artist/playwright,

where all the warts and faults and failings can be

highlighted or erased at the whim of the writer who

creates it and actors who portray it.  There is no place

in the world that can equal the sheer intimate power

of the living stage.  No movie theater, tv screen,

stadium or coliseum can offer an audience anything

near to the experience of sitting within twenty feet

of human beings creating the human experience. 

And regardless of the harshness of the civilization,

or it’s technological advancements, in spite of war,

the dark ages, and threat of nuclear annihilation,

the living stage continues to exist because it holds

a place in human artistry--in human existence-- like no other. 

          What I do isn’t new.  It isn’t even unique. 

[And often times it may not even be very good.]

There are hundreds of playwrights all over the

world right now writing for the living stage, using plot,

character and dialog to portray the human condition, 

striving to create moments so powerful that the actors

and the audiences breathe and cry as one being, so moving

that even the silences between the words are remembered

long after the final curtain, and written with such

discomfiting honesty that audiences must often times

look away.  But that is the purpose of the living stage

and it must be acknowledged. It must be remembered.  

For just as a thousand amateur groups in this country

will be recreating Oklahoma to the delight of their resident

communities this summer, there will also be playwrights

like me, who, far from the pressures and constraints

of the community standards of the day, are defiantly

creating new dramas that, in their own ways, remind

the members of their audiences, however few, just how

irreplaceable the living stage is, and just how powerful

the living stage can be.

          So come.  Be part of something you’ll see no place else.

 

Dan Kehde

The Contemporary Youth Arts Company of Charleston, WV,  began 12 years ago as a place where artistic high school students, [mostly those who, due to schedule, talent or attitude were unable to work within the restrictions of local community theater,] would have a chance for hands-on experience on stage and in the creative process of bringing new performance pieces to the public. Little has changed, except for the constantly growing number of participants and performances annually. Working closely with Charleston-based playwright/director Dan Kehde, his wife, Penny and award winning composer Mark Scarpelli, teenagers and young adults have helped premiere over twenty new works from operas to dramas to comedies to touring social action plays while exploring, learning and participating in nearly all aspects of the process: as actors, assistant directors, lighting technicians, sound designers, stage managers, arrangers, choreographers, set designers and carpenters.  An unfunded corporate subsidiary, [not a 501c3] CYAC relies solely on revenues generated by its productions, generally 6-8 main stage productions [running one-two weekends] plus performances of its four touring social actions plays: Love Is Not An Angry Thing; The Girls Room; Gone Tomorrow; Keeping Bobby Close.  

 

 

 

 

This year we presented 7 mainstage productions:

Fireflies , a play by Dan Kehde

The Trial Of President George W. Bush  [premiere] a new play by Dan Kehde

The Word Is Love [premiere] a new musical by Mark Scarpelli and Dan Kehde

Boxes 9 [premiere] written by several young writers including Brian Edelman, 

     Courtney Forbes, Nik Tidquist, and Maria Fioravante

Fred and Harriet [premiere] another new play by Dan Kehde

Jack the Ripper [premiere] a new opera by Mark Scarpelli and Dan Kehde

Mary [12^th year] a rock opera by Mark Scarpelli and Dan Kehde

 

We launched a total of 42 performances on the stage of the historic WVSU Capitol 

Center Theater in Charleston, providing possible roles for more than 100 performers.     

In addition, to date, CYAC has performed its latest touring piece, 

“Vinnie B Doesn’t Go Here Anymore” before a total of more than 5000 students in Kanawha County.