Beginning Feb. 27, Hampton-based theater company Soulshine Performing Arts Collective Experience will stage four showings of the “Be More Chill” musical at Sunken Bus Studios in Ross.
Lacey Overholt, the company’s creator and show director, said the performances will be the first for SPACE, which she opened in January.
A paraeducator at Hampton’s Poff Elementary School, Overholt said she has been involved in Pittsburgh-area community theater for more than two decades, but the upcoming shows are her first go at managing her own act.
“Be More Chill,” a Broadway musical based on a 2004 young adult novel, follows a high school outcast who swallows a supercomputer pill that offers advice on how to be cool.
Overholt said the show is a favorite among her three children, each of whom is involved behind the scenes, and seemed a natural choice for her first production.
When it came time for auditions, she said she found the ideal cast.
“Everyone who auditioned was everyone we needed, not a person more or less,” Overholt said.
Shae-Lin Carr, who plays the show’s main character, Jeremy Heere, said he saw the audition listed on social media and went out for the role.
A fan of the musical, Carr said the weekslong rehearsals have kept the cast busy, but recently the group has “put the show on its feet.”
Featuring a live band, Overholt said the show will be “immersive” and “weird,” frequently parodying high school experiences and emotions and referencing pop culture.
Even if her first attempt at bringing a performance to life is rough around the edges, she said audience members should expect “authenticity” — and mocktails.
Levi Peacock, who plays popular high schooler Chloe Valentine, said “Be More Chill,” which discusses teenage sexuality and anxiety, is not a traditional musical drama. But that has made it a “nice change of pace,” they said.
After these performances, Overholt said she hopes to run semifrequent recurring performances.
The first show will premiere at 8 p.m. Feb. 27, followed by shows at 8 p.m. Feb. 28 and 3 and 8 p.m. March 1. Overholt said audience members should “pay what they can.”
