THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 17, 1995 TAG: 9503150117
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Chesapeake doesn't just raise good kids, it raises good performers.
Just look at the good crop of home-grown talent that will be featured when the Hurrah Players reprises one of its most popular productions, ``Starmites,'' a splashy, pyrotechnical space-age musical playing this weekend and the next at the Virginia Beach Pavilion.
A little more than one-fourth of the cast is from Chesapeake.
``We've had a greater increase from Chesapeake than any other city,'' said Hugh Copeland, artistic director of Hurrah Players Inc., the Norfolk-based regional family theater company.
Copeland said the musical will feature 11 Chesapeake youngsters in the cast, including two of the leads in Trey Ore as the ``heart-throb of the universe,'' Space Punk, and Angel Trent as the bumbling Bizarbra.
The production will include a cast of 44 youngsters and adults from all over Hampton Roads, including performers from Denbigh and Poquoson on the Peninsula and Moyock in neighboring North Carolina.
``Chesapeake is a growing city and has a lot of families,'' Copeland said from the Hurrah's Norfolk headquarters in Ghent. ``And I'm just glad many of them found us.''
Copeland thinks the Hurrah's special Chesapeake support comes from word-of-mouth, the exposure it gets from its annual Chesapeake Jubilee appearance and those special performances it gives yearly at the Chesapeake Central Library at Cedar Road.
He said when the troupe was first asked to do the library, they thought the appearance would be at some quiet book club in the corner of the library. Not so.
``Right from the start it was packed. We had in excess of 200 people in the audience,'' Copeland said. ``It wasn't a quiet crowd, either; they had a good time.''
Since then, that annual Central Library gig has become a top public relations appearance for the Hurrah company.
Copeland said he never has to beg his young performers to be part of the ``Starmites'' cast. They beg him.
``It's a rock musical, full of high energy,'' he said. ``The kids simply love it. They love to perform in it. If it was up to them, they'd do it every month in someone's backyard. We had to double cast the production, so many wanted to be in it. No matter what we do, people always ask me, `When you going to do `Starmites'?'' ''
Several Chesapeake performers who have worked with the Hurrah Players include Disney Mousketeer Thomanita Booth, Virginia Opera performer Sean Petersen and Miss Chesapeake 1993, Kelly McClung.
Copeland also said his shows are always sparkling with eye-catching set and costume designs, thanks to Chesapeake residents Lonna and Mike Trent.
The Trents have worked with the Hurrah Players for several years. For each production, the Trents turn recyclable trash like empty plastic two-liter soda bottles, carpet samples and other like items into lavish stage settings that earn praises from critics and theatergoers.
For ``Starmites'' the Trents will create such fanciful locales and sites as Shriekwood Forest, the Great Hall, the Castle Mortuary and the Chamber of Psychosorcery.
Besides the Trents, Copeland said he's enlisting the services of computer expert Ted Young and other local special-effects wizards to present a family fantasy production that's like a combination ``Alice In Wonderland,'' ``The Wizard of Oz'' and ``Star Wars.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Chesapeake youngsters performing with the Hurrah Players are, back
row, from left: Jason Eure, Melissa Vaughn, Jennifer Hartung,
Lindsay Eure, Sagay Johnson, Austin Meincke and Jen Jenkins. In the
front row, from left, are: Angel Trent, Trey Ore, John Kelly and
Riki Jones.
by CNB