2 Macon theaters launch their summer musicals soon. Get a peek at the crews’ preparation

It’s Monday night and the auditorium at Macon Little Theatre is tense.

JP Haynie, the theater’s artistic director, is watching the dress rehearsal for “The Prom,” Macon Little Theatre’s summer musical. The cast members are in an array of candy-colored dresses as they stage an equally colorful prom scene, complete with swelling songs and involved dance numbers. It’s a big operation, and there are just days left before opening night.

Meanwhile, Tuesday at Theatre Macon, a similar scene unfolds. Richard Frazier-Sostillo is an intense audience of one as he watches a cast of mostly kids, teens and college students dash around a set of fake scaffolding as they arrive at their final rehearsals of “Newsies.”

The pressure is real, but so is the excitement as both theaters prepare to open their major summer musicals Friday. While competing opening nights can be challenging, both theaters’ cast and crew hope the productions can offer Maconites a chance to appreciate their community’s diversity and talent.

“We’re not Broadway, but at the same time, everybody wants to do their best and is willing to push to create something that they are going to be proud of and that our community is going to be proud of,” Frazier-Sostillo said.

A way to communicate with the community

For these two community theaters, summer musicals are no joke. With kids off of school and families looking for summer activities, community theaters can be a creative outlet and a way to pass time as temperatures rise.

Haynie said part of the beauty of community theater is the opportunity to choose plays that will resonate with a specific audience. Macon Little Theatre is commemorating its 90th anniversary this year, and wanted to prepare a slate of productions that felt celebratory.

“We really wanted to do a lot of things this year with it being an anniversary for the theater,” JP Haynie said. “(‘The Prom’) really fit into that theme of celebrating how far we’ve come as an organization.”

“The Prom” follows Emma, a lesbian high school student whose school prom is canceled after she tries to bring another female student as her date. In an attempt to help Emma and to improve their own public image, a set of Broadway stars arrive to organize a new prom, but find themselves overwhelmed and out of touch with the situation.

The Macon Little Theatre’s production came together after years of waiting for the rights to become available. The production’s director, Sylvia Haynie, saw the musical and immediately wanted to bring it to the community theater stage.

However, due to copyright restrictions, they had to wait until the play stopped touring. JP Haynie said Macon Little Theatre wanted to put on its own production during the musical’s tour, and it’s one of the first community theaters to receive the rights.

“As soon as the (rights) became available, we got jumped to the top of that list and knew that we wanted to work it into our season as fast as possible,” JP Haynie said.

Frazier-Sostillo similarly wanted to connect with the Macon community through Theatre Macon’s production of “Newsies.”

“Newsies” is a fictionalized account of the Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City. The play follows Jack Kelly, the informal leader of a group of orphaned and homeless newsboys, as he leads a strike against newspaper owners after they raise prices at the newsboys’ expense.

Frazier-Sostillo said he thinks the musical is especially important in a post-pandemic era when Americans are rethinking their relationship with work.

“I think the story just speaks a lot to the type of world that we are coming into,” Frazier-Sostillo said. “And how we are, not just as a nation, but as a world and as a society, learning to find more of a balance.”

What does it take to put on a musical?

Macon’s community theaters take months to prepare their summer productions.

Theatre Macon opened the first round of auditions, which took place virtually, at the end of April. Macon Little Theatre began auditions for “The Prom” around the same time.

About 100 people auditioned for “Newsies,” Frazier-Sostillo said, causing Theatre Macon to extend their usual day of in-person callback to two days just to accommodate the enormous amount of interest. Of the 100 actors who tried out, Frazier-Sostillo casted 48.

“For us, that’s a large cast,” Frazier-Sostillo said. “We’ve had to get creative on how we utilize people.”

Key to building a strong cast is being able to identify actors’ strengths and weaknesses and place them accordingly. Frazier-Sostillo said he pays close attention to who is a good dancer or who is a good singer to find the most fitting place for them on stage.

In addition to casting, theaters prepare for productions by designing sets, costumes and the overall atmosphere of the show. JP Haynie and Frazier-Sostillo said their goal is to maintain the integrity of the original script while still making it a unique experience.

“The script is our Bible of what we’re going by,” JP Haynie said. “But we also try to make really creative, original choices that stay within the confines of the world that we’re trying to tell.”

“The Prom” built sets and props specifically for their production and found innovative ways to transition between scenes and move pieces on and off stage. “Newsies” brought local charm to their theater by borrowing scaffolding from a production Warner Robins High School put on in 2022.

Finally, cast and crew practice, practice, practice. Starting with simple script reads in the early stages of rehearsing and working up to full run-throughs complete with lights, costumes and music, community theater can take months to prepare a play as it works around challenges presented by smaller spaces and actors’ day jobs. The directors said, though, that it all pays off to see the finished product.

“It’s been such a pleasure to watch (the cast) grow, watch the show grow, and really watch them take ownership of this piece,” Frazier-Sostillo said.

‘Putting the show out into the community’

As the curtains close on the final nights of rehearsals, a sense of anticipation fills both theaters. Cast members cluster together before and after, delighting in friendships formed through many evenings on stage.

JP Haynie released the programs for “The Prom” on Wednesday, their pages filled with the smiling faces of the cast. Meanwhile, Frazier-Sostillo said “Newsies” is already half sold out, with opening night still yet to happen.

“We’re just very proud already of the show,” Frazier-Sostillo said. “We’re just really looking forward to putting the show out into the community.”

But, for both directors, there is still work ahead. As their rehearsal went on, Frazier-Sostillo reminded young actors to keep their faces expressive even as they sat in the background of scenes. JP Haynie continued to adjust lighting and microphones during his rehearsal, wanting to bring the production as close to perfection as possible.

“This is the most stressful and rewarding part,” JP Haynie said. “You get to that last step where all you’re waiting on is an audience.”