YSU Students to Perform at Fringe Festival in Scotland
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A group of Youngstown State University students will get a world of experience this summer when they perform at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The theater and dance students, led by YSU musical theater lecturer Adam Day Howard, will perform the international premiere of the musical comedy “Here There Be Dragons” 10 times at Fringe Festival, which runs from Aug. 2-26. They will fly to Scotland on July 29.
“Dragons” is a show that matches the spirit of Fringe, Howard said, describing the festival as “a place to try out new things.”
Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival is “one of the greatest celebrations of arts and culture on the planet,” according to its website. The event, launched in 1947, is the world’s largest arts festival. It features over 50,000 performances and sells in the vicinity of 3 million tickets each year, making it the third-largest ticketed event in the world behind the World Cup and the Olympics.
“The performances can be anything from a one-man show to a multimillion-dollar production,” Howard said. “Anything is game.”
Howard is no stranger to Fringe. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Scotland, he has performed at the event several times.
Choosing “Here There Be Dragons” was an easy decision for Howard. He was the music director of the show during its original Off-Broadway run two years ago and will direct the production at Fringe.
Because Howard and the students are not attending as an official function of YSU, they have named their troupe the Steel Penguin Ensemble.
The trip is not costing the students anything.
The composer of “Here There Be Dragons” paid for the venue rental at Fringe, and an anonymous donor paid for the travel expenses.
“The fact that we get to do this is amazing,” Howard said.
He and some of his YSU students attended Edinburgh Fringe last year. “Many of them had never been out of the country before,” he said. The experience was eye-opening for them in several ways.
“It made them realize that theater as an industry and an art form is much bigger and more varied than they thought,” Howard said. “The students realized there are so many more career opportunities. … You can make your own theater career.”
The Steel Penguin Ensemble is composed of YSU theater and dance students Emalee Chappa, KJ Hudson, Chloe Downey, Laynee Sanger, Crystal Fisher, Natalie Horvath, Lauren Ladd, Ilse Zulstra, Mal Ehrhart, Sam Law, Cyrus Dzikowski, Ryan Bedi, Landon Eli and Begad Farid.
Inspired by the tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons, “Here There Be Dragons” follows a group of friends on the eve of their college graduation. As they play one last game of “Dungeons,” they confront their real-life challenges and fears about their futures.
The book and lyrics were written by Chase O’Neill, with music by Theo Teris, and orchestrations by Scott Wasserman, who is known for his work on “Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen.”
A special open rehearsal will take place at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, July 7, in Spotlight Theater in Bliss Hall. It is free and open to the public.
Pictured at top: Shown holding the script for “Here There Be Dragons” are, kneeling, Emalee Chappa, KJ Hudson and Chloe Downey; standing, Laynee Sanger, Crystal Fisher, Natalie Horvath, Lauren Ladd, Ilse Zulstra, Mal Ehrhart, Sam Law and Cyrus Dzikowski; and in back, Ryan Bedi, Landon Eli and Begad Farid.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
