This year’s Broadway Intensive program at The Plaza Arts Center closed Sunday afternoon with the final presentation of “Working: A Musical.” The final performance drew the largest crowd in an eight-show run over the past two weekends.
The Broadway Intensive, funded by the Oconee Performing Arts Society (OPAS), represents a collaboration between The Arts Barn and The Plaza Arts Center.
Over just three weeks, it provides a complete theatrical experience—learning lines and songs, building sets, establishing cues, making costumes, and following choreography – to a group of 15-to-25-year-old performers. The experience is capped off by putting it all out there in front of family, friends, and strangers.
“It’s called intensive, and it really is. It’s a lot of work for everyone to put in over a pretty short period of time,” Assistant Director and founder and president of The Arts Barn Lora Garcia-Carreras said shortly after the final curtain fell. “But I think it went great.
“I think The Arts Barn and The Plaza just continue to grow the Broadway Intensive family, which is exciting,” Garcia-Carreras added. “I guess the part that’s most important to me, though, is how connected they all are and how inclusive. Everybody is kind to each other. We move from a place truly of love, and we work hard. We know how to work hard, we know how to focus, but we also respect the individuals and their space in the process. It couldn’t have gone better.”
“Working: A Musical” is based on a 1974 non-fiction book by author Studs Terkel that explored not only different jobs held by different people but how their work influenced various parts of their lives and how it ultimately defined them, not only practically or financially, but existentially. At times humorous, at others downright depressing, and frequently poignant, “Working: A Musical” literally reflected the words of Terkel’s protagonists in both song and spoken word.
Garcia-Carreras said all 24 actors (22 on stage, two understudies) were, at minimum, required to read the chapter of “Working” that corresponded to the character they played.
“Every story, every lyric, comes directly from his (Terkel’s) actual interviews with people,” she said. “They (the actors) thought it was just going to be similar. They didn’t realize it was going to be word for word.”
With 12 young women and 12 young men, this year’s cast was the largest so far for the Broadway Intensive, Garcia-Carreras said. However, it also represented the first time the directors had to turn away some who auditioned. She recognizes that this is unfortunate, but it also represents growth for the program, which has completed its fourth year.
Among the young women was Sha’Kechia “Peaches” Mitchell, a 24-year-old teacher’s assistant at Putnam County Middle School who played a cleaning lady determined to break the cycle and provide a better life and career for her young daughter.
Mitchell said she’s had a lifelong desire to perform and credited her eighth-grade drama teacher, Emily Gibson, for giving her the encouragement and confidence to audition for school plays and musicals.
She initially joined the Broadway Intensive three years ago as its stage manager, before “Working: A Musical” Director and Choreographer Henry Scott suggested she audition for a speaking/singing role. Now, she’s hooked on performing and may even pursue it as a career.
“The Broadway Intensive is a good opportunity to learn how far you can go or how much you need to improve,” Mitchell said. “So it is intense, but it’s also fun, and you get to build bonds and relationships with people that come in every year.”
According to Taylor Surman, The Plaza's marketing director, the Broadway Intensive is one of the organization's most important annual projects.
“We like to think of it as something that the founders envisioned for The Plaza,” she said. “Our founders rebuilt this building with the idea of bringing young people to the arts or bringing the arts to young people. So, this intensive is exactly what that does because OPAS sponsors our scholarships, which is huge because nobody has to worry about finances to be able to participate, and that would limit some of our cast. So, we are so grateful because, I mean, it’s a huge deal to have these kids be able to come for free. It makes all the difference.”