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‘Any Dream Will Do’: Musical takes over St. Agnes stage

By Courtney Bell - For the Chronicle | Jun 16, 2023

The audience waits for "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" to be performed in St. Agnes Catholic Church this past weekend. Courtney Bell

SHEPHERDSTOWN — This past weekend, St. Agnes Catholic Church presented the first three showtimes for its production, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

Three more showtimes for the musical will be held tonight at 8 p.m., Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m

“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” featured whimsical, light-heartening aspects, intermixed with the somewhat dark story of Joseph from the Bible’s book of Genesis. Audience members flooded in to witness the story expressed through the lyrics of Tim Rice and music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The production was staged in the church sanctuary itself. After each show, the production team members worked to quickly reset the church as it was for the following services being held.

Director Joe Yates discussed how working with this cast and crew has been a wonderful experience.

Audience members approach St. Agnes Catholic Church to watch the production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" over the weekend. Courtney Bell

“Father Mat and I discussed doing it in 2015 as a way to get youth involved,” Yates said, referring to the church’s previous leader. “The first show we did was ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ with the same Joseph, narrator and Pharoah (me) as our current cast. We did a show every year until COVID-19 hit. This is our first musical since [the pandemic began].”

From working concessions and acting as a teenager at the Olney Theater in Olney, Md., to directing at Shepherd College, now Shepherd University, Yates wanted to share his creative world with others. He also conducted acting workshops and directed operas for years, after his time at Shepherd was done. When he started working with St. Agnes Catholic Church, he also directed “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Godspell,” “West Side Story,” an original piece called “A Face in the Crowd” and a number of murder mystery dinner theaters that he had written, depending on who the cast was at that time.

Casting actors for shows is usually rough when several people do not meet the rehearsal schedule requirements for various reasons. Still, Yates mainly wanted to focus on getting people of all ages to be a part of this community as best as possible.

“Age is always a challenge, and experience levels vary widely. But I am very fortunate to be a part of a community of very good people,” Yates said. “Experience doesn’t matter when you have a good attitude.”

Yates had expressed how fortunate they have been that Father Andy has given his full support on their usage of the building. Holding such a show in a space open to and for all, is a sight to behold once people step into the area. Many attendees said they were impressed by how the crew rearranged the room for the production.

For more information, visit https://stagnesshepherdstown.org/reserve-your-seats/ to reserve a seat to one of the production’s final three shows!