The stars came out at Nucla High School as the Mustang Theatre took to the stage on April 20 to mount a long anticipated and desperately needed revival of the theatrical arts in the West End Public Schools District.“Much Ado Out West” by Wade Bradford was produced and directed by Brock Benson, featuring a star-studded cast of the West End's finest actors.
Centered around "the boys" returning home to Aunt Sue's ranch after the Civil War, this comedy touched on themes of sexism, romance, mistaken identities, and cattle rustling, as the girls forced the boys to earn their place back on the ranch, which had "been running just fine without them" for the past four years. Audiences enjoyed two sold-out performances with around 100 people attending each night.
The group set out about 85 chairs last Thursday and had to add more seats as folks kept coming in the door. The feedback from the audience was tremendous, and the producers are proud of all of the students that committed to putting on such a great performance.
The play was the final project for the theatre students that signed up for the elective course taught by Benson last fall.
“I'd also like to mention how fortunate we are that everything came together so perfectly, given the challenges of finding a script that meets the demands of having enough roles for all the actors, while also telling a story that is entertaining and relevant to our small community,” he said in a news release. “To find such a funny script that had a perfect role for all of our actors that was also on-brand with what our community would like to see on stage was nothing short of an act of God.”
Also, only having two men to work with made for some interesting casting decisions.
“Anton Pierce and Paxtin Caruso did an absolutely outstanding job carrying all of the masculine energy through the performance, while also killing us with comedy,” Benson said. “Destiny Spor, Kylie Smith and Berlynn Tomlinson deserve an honorable mention for playing roles traditionally cast as men.”
The rest of the cast included Sophia Anderson, Ashlee Meeks, Akyma Rynn, Destiny Spor, Marrissa Rhoades, RyLee Rankins, Anika Saxton, Natalie Anderson and Alyssah Johansen. Kira Rowan stepped up as the assistant director and did an outstanding job keeping things on track.
“We want to thank everyone who came out to support the students and enjoy some live theatre and to let everyone one know that they can expect bigger and better shows, now that we know how much raw talent there is within our student body,” Benson said. “I also want to thank everybody from this community, and the many people who are not, who gave so generously to the program.”
Benson raised more than $1,500 to produce the show and take his classes on three field trips in this last year to see performances at Colorado Mesa University. Anyone who would like to support the program can make a donation to the Nucla High School Theatre fund at any time during the school year.
