Midland Center’s Innovative RISING STARS Program Merges Professional Broadway Creatives with Youthful Amateur Talent

On June 28-30th audiences throughout the region will have an opportunity to catch the energetic uplifting mojo of the Broadway musical Footloose, which will not only serve as the first production of the summer on the outdoor stage at Midland Center for the Arts, but also mark the third musical production to emerge from the Center’s innovative Rising Stars program.

This intensive 30-day workshop connects young students interested in the performing arts with a creative team of bona fide Broadway professionals, creating unprecedented educational opportunities for the youthful cast and unexpected thrills for audiences fortunate to attend each of these three sold out performances.

According to Travis Kendrick, Manager of Produced Theatre & Theatre Education at Midland Center, the Rising Stars program was conceived & developed back in 2021 by former Midland Center CEO Terri Trotter, the current COO of the Center, Matt Travis, and Senior Manager of Community & Group Engagement, Katie Miller, who spearheaded the initiative while thinking outside of the box about ideas to open up stages silenced during the pandemic lockdowns.

“Vaccines weren’t happening at that time, so they came up with the idea of creating an outdoor program on an outdoor stage to keep folks safe while also giving upper level high school students who had their last Spring musical cancelled an opportunity to have their last big hurrah on-stage,” he explains. “At that time theatrical industry professionals in New York & Chicago were also distancing, so the idea of connecting professional Broadway-based creative teams with students here at the Center was born.”

“The beauty of innovation is that out of that crisis, this beautiful program was created that is now in its third summer of presenting outdoor theatre on our outdoor stage,” continues Travis. “Each year we are fortunate to have folks with professional industry credentials come to Midland in order to work with our young people, only it’s a more intensive and truncated process that only last four weeks, whereas most of these young students are used to rehearsals that can range anywhere from two to four months before being staged.  With Rising Stars they rehearse 7 or 8-hours per day for six days a week over this 30-day timespan, which helps them develop resilience and skills at sustaining the work that is involved if theatre is something they wish to pursue in the future.”

This year the Director of this year’s Rising Stars production of Footloose is Katharine Quinn, who is the associate writer of the Tony-nominated musical SHUCKED. A theatre creative based in New York City, her credits also include the Broadway production of Tootsie, and she has taught courses, master classes, and programmed for Northern Stage, Dallas Ballet Center, and Gulfshore Playhouse, to name but a few. She also won a Best Choreography award for a regional production of the Broadway show Newsies, is a full time voice actor, and has worked with Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Cruise Line.

When asked how her own interest and involvement with theatre gestated, Katharine says she is somewhat of a “theatrical Swiss-Army knife.”

“I grew up doing piano, choir, and dance, but wasn’t a theatre kid as a child,” she explains. “I was in an 8th grade musical that required mandatory participation from everyone in the school, and my first proper theatrical experience was when I was 13-years old; but even in high school I never had the lead in the show and was always in the ensemble. It didn’t occur to me at the time that there would be a place for me in theatre. My Dad was a financial planner and in the Navy and it simply wasn’t on my radar.”

“It wasn’t until I did a summer community theatre production after my freshman year in college that I got hooked,” continues Katharine. “The play was Thoroughly Modern Millie and it was such a fun and overwhelming experience that I transferred and got my BFA in Theatre in undergrad, met a bunch of people doing theatre in Dallas while in school, which opened connections to do this dinner theatre tour that got me out of town, which led to an audition that took me to Japan for a year working for Tokyo Disney, which led to working on their cruise lines, which then led me to moving to New York City.”

Quinn says her involvement with Footloose stemmed from her relationship with Kendrick. “We’d done a production of White Christmas together in Virginia and I found Travis to be very smart and engaging and we hit it off.  I respected him. He called me in January and said, ‘Hey, I am working at this new theatre in Midland, Michigan and have an amazing opportunity for you.’ 

Originally from Texas, while she has visited all 50 states on a national tour, Quinn says she was not that familiar with Midland, or Michigan for that matter. “My knowledge of the Midwest was somewhat limited, but Travis and I have always kept in touch so when he presented this opportunity to me, initially I felt that I was done working in educational theatre and wanted to only deal with professionals; but I love Travis and when he told me about this new Rising Stars program and explained how I could also build my own creative & technical team, I decided it would be a fantastic opportunity to work in a special community with a burgeoning educational program and all my favorite friends and professional colleagues.”

As for her impressions of the Rising Stars program itself, Katharine describes it as fantastic.  “The caliber of the students is amazing and what’s most special is to see much potential and eagerness in these kids, who come from all different schools throughout the region and state.  By creating their own little community throughout the intensive 4-week program, just two weeks into it the growth I’ve seen is phenomenal. We auditioned about 50 students for the cast and ended casting 20.”

As for the production itself, what was does Katharine feel distinguishes Footloose from other contemporary Broadway musicals that makes it so appealing?  “It’s a show about a community grappling with collective grief that has isolated itself from the rest of the world, which obviously over the last three years is shared experience, seeing as we’ve all been in various states of isolation and find ourselves re-entering the world with different priorities and perspectives.”

“Footloose is a play about kids finding their voice,” she continues, “and we’re still setting it in the 1980s because the film is so iconic to that era and I don’t want to mess with that; but the themes still resonate strong today in terms of finding joy and celebrating life. This is a play about youthful exuberance, forgiveness, and dealing with grief as a community,  rather than sweeping it under the rug.”

“Midland is a super special community and my entire experience here has been overwhelming in a very positive way,” concludes Katherine. “I’m really enjoying my time here.”

“The opportunity for a professional director to work with their own professional creative team, coupled with the eagerness of students to work with such a ‘dream team’ of professionals to very exciting and enticing for all parties involved,” reflects Travis.

“Unlike other programs throughout the Tri-cities, our reach extends through the entire state and this program is unlike any other outside of the Detroit area.  It’s really a pre-professional training program, so if kids have some level of theatrical interest, education, experience, or think they like theatre and might have caught the bug, they now have an opportunity dive deeper and build more advanced skills.”

“Footloose is a great vehicle for Rising Stars because it shows us generational similarities between parents and children and the ways they teach each other how to grow and be open to change. It shows us how dancing and music can be an opportunity to experience joy and celebration, which is one of the reasons we go to the theatre in the first place - to be uplifted.”

“It’s a search for common ground,” concludes Travis. “At some point in life there is a transition where parents and the older generation have taught and nurtured and invested so much to the younger generation and done their job so well there comes a time when an opportunity opens for youth to give something back to their parents - and that’s the beauty of Footloose.”

“We at the Center are very excited that this is the third year our Rising Stars production has sold out all performance before opening, but I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that this is the first year we have also created a Rising Stars Technical Theatre tract that allows five middle-high schoolers to work with professional technicians and learn about the technical elements of lighting, staging, and sound, which is also very exciting.”