Tantrum Theater to present “The Prom” from Feb. 27-March 8 in OHIO’s Forum Theater

The plot of the musical “The Prom” follows a group of New York City actors as they travel to a small Midwestern town to sing and dance alongside a younger generation of performers. In a moment of art imitating life, these are also the circumstances surrounding the cast of guest artists visiting Athens for a Tantrum Theater production.

The show tells the story of four washed-up actors from New York City who travel to Indiana to advocate for a lesbian high schooler facing prejudice from her peers. Tantrum Theater’s production, which opens on Feb. 27, features three visiting artists from New York City who, although certainly not washed-up, have also traveled to a Midwestern town and spent the past month rehearsing alongside a company of OHIO students. 

The four key characters are Dee Dee Allen, Barry Glickman, Angie Dickinson and Trent Oliver, the first three played respectively by guest artists Rebecca Eichenberger, James Beaman and Kelsey Stalter in Tantrum Theater’s rendition of the show. The fourth role, Trent, is portrayed by Reed Hickerson, a senior studying acting.

“It’s very meta in many ways…I’m just excited that we get a little bit of that real world truth in our setup, in our cast, to help tell this story,” Steve Pacek, the show’s director and choreographer, said.

Pacek, also a New York based performer, works largely as a freelance artist and has thus visited many universities, but wasn’t quite sure what he would find at OHIO.

“I didn't know what to expect coming here and I was more than pleasantly surprised,” Pacek said. “The students are amazingly talented, the energy of the room is awesome. They’re getting great training from whoever is training them.” 

Part of this training in the School of Theater is the inclusion of guest artists in the performance circuit. By teaching classes during the day and rehearsing alongside students at night, these visiting artists are intended to give students a taste of real-world experience and professionalism.

“The NYC actors are amazingly talented and have been doing this for a long time so they know how to jump in, make big bold choices and just go for it, which is an awesome thing for young artists to be able to see,” Pacek added.

As the only undergraduate featured in the group of four key characters, Hickerson has an extra advantage of working closely with the three visiting artists.   

“When I realized that I could be working closely with them on my way out into the industry when I graduate, I thought that was really exciting, so I set my sights on really working hard to try to get that role,” Hickerson said.

This experience will be valuable for Hickerson when he enters the industry of actors with varying levels of experience and talent, having been able to explore collaborative acting in new ways while a student.

“The actors are very welcoming and kind, so I feel comfortable working with them, but I also am definitely intimidated at times,” Hickerson noted. 

Some of the visiting actors felt a similar pressure coming into the rehearsal space that was pleasantly negated by the openness and generosity of the students.

“I’m old enough to be most of their fathers…but there’s no barrier there…we’re able to connect with each other and they’ve been so awesome to me,” Beaman said.

According to Beaman, he and his fellow guest artists have learned just as much from the students they are mentoring. Pacek believes the energy of the students creates a reinvigorating rehearsal process for the New York actors.

“I remember what it was like starting out and the enthusiasm to be in musical theater, and now I’ve been in it for 35 years professionally…so it’s good to remember how wonderful it was at the beginning and how it can really motivate you throughout your life,” Eichenberger said.

Beaman agrees that the energy of the younger cohort has been an inspiration to the more seasoned performers.

“People should be really proud of this community, I think there’s a really cool artistic community here,” Beaman said. “...at least in the theater area, there’s a really powerful ethos of hard work and showing up. I don’t see people on their phones throughout rehearsal, I don’t see people showing up late or calling out. Everyone is in it to win it, and that raises my game.”

Additionally, some students have valued Beaman for an additional facet to his mentorship that he brought to this project through his own identity.

“My character gets to be this beacon of older, queer, positive energy, and I never thought of myself as sort of embodying that for younger people, but…being an older gay person in this environment with a lot of gay, queer, trans, non-binary people, a couple of them have pulled me aside and said to me, ‘You’re such an example of who I would like to be,’ and that part of it I didn’t expect.” 

As the performers rehearse, they have also been working to layer a similar experience throughout the show, furthering the meta-aspects of the production.

“The show asks us to be a little bit more open-minded and lighthearted in the approach to how people are the way they are,” Pacek said. “It does it in a really fun, accessible way where it’s putting these two extreme opposites in contrast with each other, they each have a lot to learn from each other.”

Hickerson looks forward to sharing the message through the spectacular lens of musical theater.

“I think it’s going to be really good and funny, which is kind of the main thing,” Hickerson said. “But the lessons of it I really love, and it’s surprisingly nuanced in the commentary on prejudice…there’s this assumption of basic human goodness, that everyone is good deep down and that’s something I really love.”

Although the show certainly brings the pizazz of musical theater, full of “sparkles and rainbows” according to Beaman, it promises to be accessible to a wide audience, theater-lovers or not.

“Anyone who thinks they might not be able to relate to it, I have to say we all relate to it,” Beaman said. “We all have had a moment in our lives where we wanted to belong…and where we hopefully found friends and allies.”

Eichenberger believes the show is an important example of that allyship, between members of the artistic community and between the arts and society as a whole.

“We all need to embrace the diversity in our culture right now and we need to embrace the arts, and we need to understand that understanding can come through the arts,” Eichenberger added.

Tantrum Theater’s “The Prom” will run from Feb. 27 through March 8 in the Forum Theater in the basement of the Radio, Television (RTV) Building on the Athens campus. For more information and tickets, visit tantrumtheater.org.