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Printer-Friendly ModeBat Boy to hit theatre stage in late October
September 12, 2005 —
You may not be interested in flying nocturnal mammals that eat bugs or the half of the human species that has the Y chromosome, but you are sure to find SVSU Theatre's fall musical production of Bat Boy highly entertaining.
"Bat Child Found in Cave!" read the tabloid headline June 23, 1992, and writers Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming were inspired. At first thought, a musical production about a boy with bat genes does not exactly sound like something award worthy, but Farley and Flemming somehow created a dramatic tale of love and acceptance with a twist of the bizarre and some great music.
The scene: a small town, nestled in the mountains of West Virginia called Hope Falls. The characters: a boy straight out of the Jungle Book theme, raised in the wilderness only to be found and "civilized" by a handful of small town folk. The twist: blood and guts, an unaccepted Romeo-meets-Juliet love affair, and just about every genre of music you can think of. It all equals up to a fun yet dramatic musical like SVSU has never seen.
The production is "a high-octane rock musical ... the perfect show for the Halloween season," says assistant professor of theatre Rick Roberts, who will use his over 20 years of directing experience to be the musical director for Bat Boy.
Roberts feels the play will be entertaining as well as educational.
"The theatre department is really working hard to select shows for our season that not only satisfies the educational aspects that we must provide for our theatre majors, but also shows that will be interesting and exciting for our on-campus community," he says. "Bat Boy fits that bill perfectly. It is very challenging for our department, and yet we feel it has the potential to sell out each show due to the non-traditional rock format that the show is in. Every genre of music is represented from Broadway to country western to even rap."
Casting for any theatre production can take a lot of work, but the stakes double for musicals. Just because a person can act, does not always mean they have been gifted with musical talents as well. However, the directors of Bat Boy lucked out this time.
"We were pleasantly surprised by an amazing amount of musical talent," Roberts says. "I am pleased that we cast the show with 22 actors that can sing."
Leading the cast as director is Dr. Steve Erickson, theatre professor. Chad Baker will play Edgar, the Bat Boy, while his father and mother will be played by Ben Hurst and Kristin Hemingway, respectively. Patrick Konesko will be the Sheriff and Meranda Stuart will play Edgar's love interest.
The auditions were quite competitive this time around.
"This was one of the toughest auditions in the theatre department's history," he says. "We have really grown in the last couple of years and the auditions are becoming much more competitive. It was very obvious who prepared for the audition and who did not. That combined with an superb class of incoming freshman theatre majors, gave us a great pool of actors to choose from."
Roberts hints that audiences should look forward to a multitude of special effects including a lot of blood and even "six dancing emaciated cows." But excited theatre-goers will have to be patient, as Bat Boy will not come to stage until the weekend of Oct. 21.
"This will not only be a challenge to the actors, but also to myself," Roberts says. "I have an enormous background in musical theatre, but I have never performed in or worked on a show like Bat Boy."