Spotlight theater group to hold eight shows this year

Jefferson County’s Spotlight Community Theatre group has announced its shows for the 2024 season.

The Acting Troupe Showcase, made up of three 30-minute, one-act plays, will run from April 26-28 at Crystal City High School. Showtimes start at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Other shows for the 2024 season include the Teen Showcase on June 21 and 22; “Newsies the Broadway Musical Jr.” from July 19-21; “Oklahoma” on Aug. 8-11; Murder Mystery on Oct. 11; “The Odd Couple” on Nov. 7-10; “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Dec. 6-8; and the Holiday Showcase on Dec 13-15.

Acting Troupe Showcase

The showcase will feature performances by three troupes, each one comprising 20-30 actors. One troupe will be made up of actors who are 7-12 years old, one is for those 13-17 years old and the third is for adults 18 and older.

Auditions for the Showcase will be held from 2-5 p.m. on March 9 and March 10 at First Christian Church located at 415 N. Mill St. in Festus. Audition times for those 17 and younger will be from 2-4 p.m. and for those 18 and older, they will be from 4-5 p.m. The cast list will be posted on March 11. Rehearsals also will be held at the church.

Courtney Wisely, founder of Spotlight, said the Acting Troupe Showcase offers people a great chance to try out their acting chops.

“It’s very low pressure. If you want to be involved in theater but you’re nervous or you don’t sing or dance, this is the perfect opportunity because there’s no singing. There’s no dancing. It’s just acting. It’s funny,” Wisely said. “It’s just super easy. It’s not a ton of memorization because it’s only 30 minutes.”

Auditions are open to the public. To sign up, visit spotlightjeffco.org/auditions.

Membership, set directors named

Wisely said the community theater group recently filled two new volunteer positions. Lucky Perry has been named membership director and Chris Vancil has been named set director. She said the two roles are pivotal to ensure Spotlight continues to grow and thrive.

“Lucky was a big part of our community already. He’s been in theater his entire life,” Wisely said. “Lucky is now in charge of outreach to the people who have signed up to say, ‘I want to be involved.’”

Since 2022 when the group was formed, 457 people have filled out an online form with their contact information showing their interest in getting involved with Spotlight, Wisely said, and she and Perry will work together over the next few months to speak with each of them about their interest in participating and volunteering and letting them know what would be expected of them if they joined.

“We do require background checks for adults,” Wisely said.

She said about 150 people currently are involved in the theater on a regular basis, but the group always is looking for more, especially in roles behind the scenes, such as props, costumes, set construction, set painting, makeup and hair, stage management, front of house, and sound and light.

“Actors we have no problem getting at all. It’s always the tech side that we struggle with. In general, theater struggles to get tech. But for actors, we had 140 people audition for Wizard of Oz,” Wisely said.

She said naming Vancil as the set director seemed like a natural choice as well.

“He built the Steel Magnolia set by himself – him and his son. We had a conversation about him being the official set director so that every single show, he’s the person in charge of making sure the sets are being built, even if it’s not by him. He’s overseeing it, he’s making sure that he can answer any set questions, he’s helping with design.”

Lessons learned

Wisely said she recently attended the National Director’s Conference and was introduced to a helpful tool called Casting Manager, which allows the group’s actors to create a profile with a photo and their acting credits so directors may see their information in a more streamlined way. Actors will be able to sign up for auditions through the system, see any sides - particular selections from a play used to audition - as well as see callback information and cast lists as soon as they are available.

“It’s a really cool system. We’re using the app going forward,” she said.

Wisely said going to the conference also gave her insight into the differences between Spotlight and other community theaters.

“We are definitely the small fish in that big pond for sure. These kinds of conferences that we go to, some of these theaters are established, like they’ve been there for 100 years and have their own theater, and they have a staff of 10 or whatever. But it’s fascinating because whenever they hear about our community and how many people are involved and how supportive our business owners and everything are, they’re just like, ‘How are you doing this?’ They struggle with that.”

Another difference between Spotlight and other community theaters, Wisely noted, is cost.

“The other big thing that we learned is we are very, very, very cheap. Our tickets are $15 for our musical. They were basically laughing at us because of how cheap we were because they’re charging $40-$75 per ticket at these other theaters. And these are community theaters; they’re not Broadway.”

Wisely said even though Spotlight has low ticket prices compared to other community theaters, she has still heard people complain that the prices are too high.

“We’re trying to slowly teach the town how much it costs to do theater because they don’t really understand. We’re not a school. We don’t have a budget that is just handed to us. Everything’s from scratch. The rights alone for this season were almost $10,000, and that’s just to be allowed to do it. And then you’ve got to pay for all of the set construction stuff and the props and the costumes and all the things. So it’s a lot of money.”

Fundraising

Spotlight, a nonprofit organization, relies on funding from the community, ticket sales, donations, fundraising, ad sponsors and memberships.

“We’re always looking for sponsors because that’s a big part of how we can fund everything. And we have a membership program, so people can become a member of Spotlight and get benefits, like early access to tickets, VIP seating, early announcements, and they get entered into a ticket lottery. Those memberships are recurring revenue that help us continue to grow,” Wisely said.

She said the biggest fundraiser of the year for the group is Casino Night, which will be held in June at the Elks Lodge Banquet Hall at 4 Elks Drive in Festus. It is open to people 21 and older.

Tickets cost $25 a person or $180 for a table of eight. Beer, wine and soda are included in the ticket price. The event will feature craps, blackjack, roulette, chuck-a-luck, cash cage and 50/50 game. It also will include attendance prizes and a silent auction. All proceeds benefit Spotlight.

Links to purchase tickets may be found on the group’s Facebook page.

Last year about 100 people attended, Wisely said, adding that she hopes to see more this year.

“We definitely learned a lot from that first one and we will be adjusting some things this year so it’s not so chaotic. But, it was a blast,” Wisely said.

This year’s Casino Night will have space for 200 attendees.

For more information about the organization or its performances, visit Spotlight Community Theatre-Jeffco on Facebook or spotlightjeffco.org.