St. Agnes Catholic Church hopes to serve up something the whole public will enjoy, as members of the parish and members of community come together to perform “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

The curtain will rise tonight, June 12 at 8 p.m. for the first performance of six.

St. Agnes Church member and Shepherdstown resident, Joe Yates is directing the musical.

“I look at this show as an opportunity for us to invite the community into what we do.”

What began as a Sunday School project blossomed into a community project, that Yates hopes will be embraced.

“It’s a special thing for our community to do,” he said.

The musical fable is based on the well known biblical saga about Joseph and his coat of many colors.

Originally written as a 15 minute pop cantata for a school project, and then later produced for the stage, Technicolor Dreamcoat takes the Old Testament story and sets it completely to music with lyrics written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Yates explained that the church’s performance will stay true to the story as fans know it, but also offers something new.

The show will incorporate a dance element called the “Penta,” that the cast believes will add to shows excitement.

“That should be a real crowd pleaser,” said 16-year-old Lauren Zaglifa a member of the Penta and accomplished gymnast who will be performing some gymnastic moves as part of the show.

“We dance to sort of connect the storyline to modern day,” said Kelsey Eackles, 18, assistant director and choreographer.

Cast member and member of the church, Chuck Pierpont, has performed in several of St. Agness dinner theater murder mysteries in the past.

“This is the first big musical we’ve done,” he said.

He described it as a “very, very intriguing” interpretation of the popular production.

“There’s a completely different take, so if you think you know Joseph, you don’t,” he said.

Musical Director Matt Lind, directs the 11 member of the pit made up of student musicians.

“It’s much larger than a standard musical pit,” he said

“With that comes a little bit more challenges.”

Lind, who came in as a replacement last month said the biggest task has been bringing all the moving parts together and synching the musicians and the actors on stage.

“They’ve been doing incredibly well,” he said.

Lind described the music as a compilation of several genres.

“It’s really interesting to the ear,” he said.

We cover some French music, we cover Jamaican music, do a little bit of Raggae, we do some Calypso music, we have your standard rock opera, we do rock ballad from a music standpoint if covers almost every genre you could imagine, he said.

Yates said the show is 100 percent family friendly full of lighthearted fun.

“We think it is going to be a very fun experience for everyone to have,” he said.

Shows will be held beginning tonight June 12 and continuing, June 13, 14 and 19, 20, 21. Friday and Saturday shows will begin at 8 p.m. and Sunday shows will be held at 3 p.m.

General admission tickets are $15. Students can purchase tickets for $12. The performance takes place at Shepherd University’s Reynolds Hall.

To purchase tickets, call 304-876-6436 or visit www.StAgnesShepherdstown.org.