Paul Leavy | Valdosta State UniversityJennah Cruz prepares wardrobe in the Peach State Summer Theatre costume shop. The costume shop will create wardrobes for three shows – 'Million Dollar Quartet,' Disney's 'Newsies' and 'Hello, Dolly!' – in a matter of weeks. 

VALDOSTA – PSST! It’s back.

Peach State Summer Theatre actors, directors, designers, set builders, backstage staff, they’re back and more are coming.

Rehearsals started earlier this week for the first show, “Million Dollar Quartet,” which opens in less than a week. In the coming weeks, PSST! will open two more shows: Disney’s “Newsies” and “Hello, Dolly!” with all playing in rotating repertoire through mid-July.

Peach State is a professional repertory company that hires working actors and technical staff during auditions throughout the Southeast and in the North while giving professional experience to many VSU Theatre & Dance students. PSST! operates under the umbrella of VSU Theatre & Dance.

Peach State has been part of Valdosta summer for more than a dozen years. The Georgia General Assembly designated Peach State as the official musical theatre of the State of Georgia. 

PSST! 2018 season opens with its smaller-cast show this season, said H. Duke Guthrie, PSST! managing director. “Million Dollar Quartet” is the type of show that usually opens during the middle spot of the Peach State season.  

Hank Rion returns to direct “Million Dollar Quartet,” which imagines the night Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins gathered with Sam Phillips at Sun Records. 

Rion knows his way around the subject matter PSST! and the Valdosta State University Sawyer Theatre stage where the shows are performed. He directed the past PSST! Johnny Cash show “Ring of Fire” and he is an alum of the VSU Theatre & Dance program. VSU Theatre & Dance is the umbrella organization for PSST!

Rion is joined in “M$Q” by other folks related to VSU Theatre. 

Ethan Parker, who graduated the VSU program a few years ago, plays Jerry Lee Lewis; he’s been performing professionally since graduation, even playing piano-rocking Lewis in other professional productions of “M$Q.” And Parker plays piano.

Chance Michael Wall is another VSU Theatre and PSST! alum. He returns to play Carl Perkins. The Perkins performer plays guitar onstage during “M$Q.” Wall has experience playing guitar on stage; he played guitar in the PSST! production of “Ring of Fire.”

Joe Mason is a VSU Theatre faculty member and PSST! alum. He plays Sam Phillips.

They joined other professional actors in “M$Q” rehearsals following the May 11 arrival. The set was mostly built a couple weeks ago, Guthrie said. 

“Million Dollar Quartet” opens 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 25.

Set construction is also underway for “Newsies,” which is based on the 1992 movie “that tells the story of a group of newsboys in New York City who stand up against the publishing giants of Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst,” according to PSST! The show is inspired by the real newsboy strike of 1899.

Guthrie said additional PSST! cast is arriving this weekend to start “Newsies” rehearsals next week. Jacque Wheeler, PSST! artistic director, directs “Newsies.”

“Newsies” opens June 8.

Wheeler also stars in the third show, reprising the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” The multiple Tony Award-winning musical is about a “headstrong widow, matchmaker and meddler” who seeks a match for “the well-known, single, half-a-millionaire” Horace Vandergelder.

Rehearsals start for “Dolly” in coming weeks, Guthrie said. Randy Wheeler, a veteran PSST! director and Jacque Wheeler’s husband, directs “Dolly.”

“Hello, Dolly!” opens June 22.

Once all three shows open they continue in rotating repertoire, through July 15.

 

 

SHOWTIMES

Peach State Summer Theatre opens with “Million Dollar Quartet,” 7:30 p.m., May 25; followed by Disney’s “Newsies” opening 7:30 p.m., June 8; followed by “Hello, Dolly!” opening 7:30 p.m., June 22, then all shows play about a dozen times each in rotating repertoire through July 15.

Where: All shows, Sawyer Theatre, Valdosta State University Fine Arts Building, corner of Oak and Brookwood. 

Reservations, more information on performance schedules, call the box office (229) 259-7770, or visit www.valdosta.edu/psst.