This production began just twelve weeks ago with a script, a score, and a room full of students willing to leap into the unknown together. Since then, this company has built an entire world through music, movement, storytelling, problem-solving, imagination, and an extraordinary amount of teamwork.
Over the past three months, these students have balanced rehearsals, choreography, music, design work, crew responsibilities, memorization, and the hundreds of tiny acts of collaboration that audiences never fully see. What unfolds onstage tonight is the result of commitment, creativity, resilience, and trust in one another.
One lyric from The Lightning Thief has stayed with me throughout this process:
“Why be blah, when there's aquamarine?”
Though the line does not appear in this particular version of the show, its spirit lives at the heart of this production.
Percy Jackson is a character who spends much of his life believing the things that make him different are problems to overcome. His dyslexia, ADHD, impulsivity, and struggles in school make him feel like he does not fit the world around him, until he discovers that those same traits are connected to hidden strengths, courage, instinct, creativity, and resilience. That idea feels deeply personal to me.
This production is, in many ways, a tribute to the young people I have known and loved who are still discovering what is possible when they learn to see their differences not as shortcomings, but as gifts. Again and again, I have watched children flourish when they are given the chance to create boldly, think differently, move differently, imagine differently, and fully be themselves. That is what this ensemble has done.
Every person involved in this production brought something entirely unique to the process: bold acting choices, inventive design ideas, technical skill, leadership, humor, empathy, musicality, courage, focus, generosity, imagination. No two contributions looked the same, and that is exactly why this show works. Theatre is collaborative by nature, but it only becomes meaningful when people bring their full selves into the room.
Again and again, these students showed what is possible when young people are trusted with big ideas and given the space to create bravely.They turned challenges into opportunities. They supported one another through setbacks and celebrated one another’s successes. They imagined bigger than the limitations in front of them. That is the real magic of theatre.
Thank you to our families, faculty, and community members who helped make this journey possible. Your support matters more than you know.
And to this incredible company: thank you for reminding us all that imagination is powerful, collaboration matters, and there is nothing more compelling than people brave enough to be fully themselves. I could not be prouder.
