NEWS

A talented cast of ordinary teenagers stepped onto the boards of the Cain Center for the Arts for the first time to deliver an extraordinary drama that left me breathless!

These kids are not strangers to the theatre. I’ve been watching most of them singing and dancing on Lake Norman community and school stages around the area over the past few years. They’re polished. Then last week they hit the big time making their debut on a professional stage in Be More Chill at the Cain Center in Cornelius, designed and directed by Melissa Ohlman-Roberge with musical direction by Cory Davis.

Interested in attracting more young people and their families, the year-old Cain Center invited the prolific director Melissa Ohlman-Roberge who produces musicals at The ArtSpace she established at the Community School of Davidson High School, to direct a show that would attract a larger audience. Be More Chill became the vehicle. It’s a tough story told entirely in creative songs over two electrifying acts.

Be More Chill is a chilling drama of an all-too-common passage in the life of a teenager. Based on the novel by Ned Vizzini, the riveting story was adapted in a book by Joe Tracz to music and lyrics by Joe Iconis. The Cain Center’s production was presented by MORcreates, with support from Metrolina Theatre Association.

Garret MacIntyre played the lead as Jeremy Heere, an average high school dork who wants to attract his lovely popular classmate, Christine. He and his friend Michael Mell, portrayed by Connor Cooper, set the tone singing “More Than Survive.”

Christine Canigula played by Trulyn Rhinehardt is the coveted beautiful girl Jeremy would like to date, but Rich Goranski, portrayed by Jackson McRee, is in the way.

There are all kinds of high school kids. Chloe Valentine played by Cassidy Wade is a hot teen who sleeps around. Brooke Lohst portrayed by Amelia Rizzardi-Leazer, and Jenna Rolan, as Bailey Rowless are friends. So is Jake Dillinger played by Rhett Drennen.

Jeremy is convinced to swallow a pill that produces a supercomputer called The Squip—an incredible character played by Griffin Small, who takes control of Jeremy’s life. The Squip transforms the geek into the coolest guy in the class, telling him what to do, how to act, what to wear—suspending him at times into a state of psychedelic hallucinations.

The staging is fantastic—amazing and terrifying! The teenagers learn how that stagecraft can be accomplished at a more sophisticated theatre like The Cain Center, where frightening lights, designed by Katherine Harding, can be thrust upon the stage, along with electrifying projections created by Sigmon Theatricals. Not to be surpassed are Squip’s incredible costumes and paintings designed by Hannah Roberge.

Taylor Shiley as Mr. Heere, Nathan Zabinski as Mr. Reyes, and Lacey Stogdill as Scary Stockboy round out the cast.

All the main characters, along with the Students and Ensemble, including Hadley Ashcraft, Emerson Bishop, Avia Luttrell, Alex Mell, and Libby Slosson wrap up the colorful, eclectic, distorted hallucination by singing “Voices in My Head.”

The teenage actors never miss a beat. They’re in tune with events, understand a drama at hand which I, as an adult, might interpret as a nightmare. They’re terrific. So is   Melissa Ohlman-Roberge, who is so gifted in the way she teaches students everything she knows and loves about the theatre. Bravo! I’d call their delivery of Be More Chill a dramatic thrill!