To cut Footloose, head to the Alma Performing Arts Center

 

For those who stumbled through their formative years in the mid-1980s and succumbed to the fashion pressures of mullets and parachute pants, a big musical production at the Alma Performing Arts Center should serve as a welcome and enjoyable reminder.

“Footloose” is being performed June 10-13 by the Young Actors Guild at the Alma PAC. Performances are 7 p.m. June 10-12, with 2 p.m. shows June 12-13. (For ticket and other information, link here to the YAG website.)

This version of Footloose is a musical. Although based on the “Footloose” the movie, the YAG production delivers a different and fresh perspective on the cinematic version. The audience will get the chart-busting music from the movie, but the 46 members of the cast are singing the songs — Footloose and Holding Out For A Hero and Almost Paradise and Let’s Hear It For The Boy — WHILE they dance and act.

And no, that’s not a typo. There are 46 cast members, ages 11 to 19, from Russellville, Ark., to Panama, Okla., and numerous other communities in between.

Missy Gipson is the director, with Brenda Yelvington handling the musical direction. Gibson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre from Lyon College, has extensive experience in the New York City and Washington D.C. theatre scene. Gipson is also executive director of YAG.

Yelvington, co-owner of Omega Sound Recording Studio in Fort Smith, was — believe it or not — an accountant earlier in her career. She earned a doctorate from the University of Mississippi and has taught at several universities in Arkansas and Mississippi. Yelvington’s work with the YAG includes music direction and support with more than seven YAG productions.

Of the performance, Gipson noted this of the young people to hit the stage: “This is why they rehearse for 3 hours straight for several days a week, pushing their physical and emotional limits, all for this moment. That is what theatre is about … taking risks, pushing the envelope, rising to the challenge. Every single person onstage or on the crew has made monumental strides within themselves and within the confines of the show to reach beyond their comfort levels as dancers, singers and actors.”