Prestage

Prestage

<p>Promotion stills of Stephanie Prestage, as Sandy, and Mathis Turner as Danny from the Opera House Theatre Company’s production of ‘Grease,’ which opens July 7.</p>

Promotion stills of Stephanie Prestage, as Sandy, and Mathis Turner as Danny from the Opera House Theatre Company’s production of ‘Grease,’ which opens July 7.

<p>Danny and Sandy, Mathis Turner and Stephanie Prestage, pose for a promotional shot for the Opera House Theatre Company’s production of ‘Grease’. Show times are Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 7:30 pm, and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. at Thalian Hall in historic downtown Wilmington.</p>

Danny and Sandy, Mathis Turner and Stephanie Prestage, pose for a promotional shot for the Opera House Theatre Company’s production of ‘Grease’. Show times are Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 7:30 pm, and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. at Thalian Hall in historic downtown Wilmington.

<p>The ‘Grease’ cast pose for a photograph.</p>

The ‘Grease’ cast pose for a photograph.

Stephanie Prestage was a youngster when she first appeared as one of the Vonn Trapp children in Sampson Community Theater’s production of the Sound of Music. It was there, in the local theater, that the acting seed was planted.

Now a rising senior at the University of Michigan, where she is working toward her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a minor in performing arts management and entrepreneurship, the Sampson native readily admits that first experience with a live audience was the catalyst for what would soon become a full-blown passion for performing.

She is bringing that passion to a new role this summer, that of Sandy in the Opera House Theatre Company’s musical “Grease,” which opens July 7 at Thalian Hall Center for the Performing Arts, 310 Chestnut St. in Historic Wilmington. Shows, which run through July 24, are at 7:30 pm on Thurdays, Fridays and Saturdays; matinees are each Sunday at 2 pm.

“I am thrilled to be a part of this cast and this production,” Prestage said during a telephone interview earlier this week. “It is going to be fun attempting to navigate this role. There are so many different sides to Sandy, and there have been so many changes to the production through the years, it will be an exciting challenge. I am trying not to play her exactly like Olivia Newton John did in the movie, but I guess people will have to come out to a performance to see what I really do with the role.”

Energetic and always personable with a smile that lights any room, Prestage still has the exuberance of that first role as young Brigitta Von Trapp, a role that brought down the house with each of her performances in the SCT production.

“Oh, I so loved the part,” she gushed. “Actually I loved everything about being in the Sound of Music that year, the role, the cast. It was the best summer of my life,” she exclaimed, recalling how her voice teacher Angela Martin had urged her to audition, something she continues to be grateful for to this day.

“I don’t think I really knew my passion when I first started on that stage; I was sorta dipping my toe in for the first time, but I’m so glad I did.”

Rather than being at the beach that summer, Prestage opted for rehearsals and many days inside the four walls of the old cinema turned community theater versus the hot sun and sand, but she never regretted a single minute. “My grandmother would take me to practice, and many times I’d be at the theater for a good part of the day. I loved it!

“When I think about that experience now, I know it was exactly where I wanted to be.”

Today, the Sound of Music is her favorite musical and the love of performing has moved far from a summer hobby into a true passion.

It is the main reason she decided to spend her high school years at St. Mary’s in Raleigh. There her love for performing grew and her opportunities to mature in the theater blossomed.

During her freshmen year, she worked backstage on the production of Pride and Prejudice. As a member of “the costume crew,” Prestage said she got immeasurable experience and a true appreciation for what goes into making a production.

From there she moved to the stage in Legally Blonde and then, in her sophomore year she appeared in the 1920’s adaptation of The Boyfriend. As a junior, there was a role in the stage adaptation of Mean Girls and later, in her senior year, she was given the opportunity to take on one of her favorite roles as Jo March in Little Women.

“I would have to say that Jo March was one of my favorites,” Prestage acknowledged.

After graduating from St. Mary’s in 2019, Prestage headed for the University of Michigan, a huge jump from small schools in North Carolina to a big campus setting.

“I was nervous at first. I mean I was used to small schools like Harrells and St. Mary’s and here I was about to embark on an education at a place like the University of Michigan. It was a little intimidating,” Prestage admitted.

But it didn’t take long for the vivacious freshman to find her footing, joining a sorority and entrenching herself in the university’s theater program, where she soon learned there were just under a 100 students involved each year. “I found it to be a very tight-knit group. Between those in my program and my desire to get out and get to know people on campus, I soon discovered that it was not only a nice community but not nearly as big as I once imagined. It has been a wonderful experience, and the rigors of the courses have made it a really great educational experience, too,” Prestage said.

Her first theater work at Michigan was backstage, a requirement of the program, but also one that taught Prestage a lot about the interworkings of a production. “Like all my experiences in the theater, the time I spent working backstage helped me to grow and learn.”

From her backstage stint, Prestage moved to onstage performances with parts in Circle Mirror Transformation and Hair.

Each role, she said, only enhanced her love for the stage and intensified her desire to perform.

“Once I graduate, I want to move to New York City and audition for shows, maybe use my minor degree to work in producing and casting shows. I can’t imagine not being a part of the theater in some way. It is my passion,” Prestage attested.

Grease

It was her passion for theater that drove Prestage into search mode for a summer production. Armed with a strong desire to do theater work during her time away from school, she began searching for roles she was interested in and preparing herself for what would be online auditions.

“It was during my performances in Hair that I began to think about what I wanted to do during the summer; I knew if I wanted to be in summer stock theater I had to start working toward that, and I did. I auditioned for several as far away as Virginia and Colorado. Many wanted online auditions, including the Opera House Theatre. My mom sent me a Facebook post from the Opera Theatre about their planned production of Grease. I was really excited about that; I love Grease,” she recalled. “I thought it would be really fun to have a part in that production.”

Excited about the opportunity to come home, spend time in Wilmington and perhaps be cast in a role from a production she loved, Prestage sent in a tape. “I sang a song from Fame, learned a few dances and then sent in three different dance tapes including one of me tapping and one of me doing the hand jive.”

The director liked what he saw and got in touch with Prestage, asking her to send in a tape of her singing “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” one of the songs from the musical.

“I recorded myself in my room at Michigan and I sent it in, and I got the part,” Prestage exclaimed.

She is currently in rehearsals and thrilled about the opportunity to perform on a theater stage close to home so her friends, family, and especially her grandparents, will have a chance to come see her.

“I am so excited for this opportunity; it feels pretty surreal,” she noted. And she is hoping that people from her hometown will venture over to Wilmington and see her in the summer production.

“Sure I would love to have people from my hometown come see this production. It’s going to be really good,” she shared.

Prestage said she would like to thank director Jason Aycock for giving her a dream role, and her friends, family, and fellow Greasers for their love and support.

About OHTC’s Production of Grease:

The show is directed by Jason Aycock and co-choreographed by Jason Aycock and Erin Sullivan, who was in the Broadway National Tour of Grease; the music is directed by Broadway Veteran, Brian Whitted.

You can buy tickets online: https://www.thalianhall.org/ohtc-grease-22 or by phone: 910.632.2285 1.800.523.2820 The Box office is open Monday – Friday: 2 pm until 5 pm or one hour prior to curtain on performance days.

https://www.thalianhall.org/when-you-visit

Co-Starring:

Other cast members include: Mathis Turner, (Danny), Ethan Hall (Kenickie), Chad Hsu (Vince Fontaine), Brian Whitted (Teen Angel), Logan Siu (Johnny Casino), Sydney Jones (Cha-Cha), Lilly Zukerman (Frenchy), Sydney Short (Rizzo), Bianca Shaw (Patty Simcox), Kaitlin Baden (Marty), Suellen Yates (Mrs. Lynch), Katie Mahn (Jan), Bradley Barefoot (Roger), Jakob Gruntfest (Doody), Adam Compton (Sonny), Luke Sutton (Eugene). The ensemble includes: Avery Harper, Chance Brantley, Colin O’Donnell, Eli Ponder, Fletcher Sholar, Grace Vera, Hailey Muraca, Kiley Canter, Lindsay Wright, Michael Nigh, Saylor Seufert, Valadie Cammack and Wells Jackson.

OHTC’s production of Grease is Sponsored by:

Dogwood State Bank, The Audio Lab of Wilmington, Kaldi Coffee, YoSake Restaurant, Anne Bonny’s Bar & Grille, Albert & Paula Corbett, Chuck Whitlock, Atlantic Packaging, StarNews Media, Dr William Eason, Charles & Tina Leak, Harold & Sadie Pollock, C. David Ward, State Farm Insurance, Dr Ken & Lena White and The Opera House Theatre Company Board of Directors.

Opera House Theatre

In March 1985, Opera House Theatre Company Founders, Broadway actor, Lou Criscuolo and Mary James Morgan opened their first production, “Cactus Flower”, starring Joe Namath and his wife, Deborah Mays. After rave reviews, it was followed by “Fiddler on the Roof”, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, followed by “Arsenic and Old Lace”, which debuted Frank Capra, Jr.” And so the tradition started, of bringing in guest professionals to inspire and work alongside local performers. Over the past three and a half decades, thousands of local actors, directors, choreographers, musicians and technicians have developed their craft working among professionals with Opera House Theatre Company. Several have since followed their passions touring the world, performing with symphonies, dance companies, cruise ships or working behind the scenes on creative crews. Alumni have joined the casts of fourteen Broadway shows and sixteen National tours such as: “Hamilton”, “Wicked”, “Cats”, “Fosse”, “Les Miserables”, “Motown the Musical”, “Book of Mormon”, “Oklahoma”, “Monty Python’s Spamalot”, “Wizard of Oz”, “Dirty Dancing”, “Cabaret”, “Sound of Music”, “Grease”, “A Chorus Line”, “Footloose”, “Legally Blonde” and “Hairspray”. OHTC produces two winter and six summer musicals (2 are Apprentice Theatre), totaling ninety full length shows annually with casts of 30-55 technicians and entertainers ages 7-83. Through these shows, small paid positions are created for local independent contractors, musicians and technicians affording Wilmington artists an opportunity to perform alongside family, friends and current Broadway, TV & Film professionals.

In February 2019, under the leadership of OHTC’s new Executive Artistic Director Justin Smith, OHTC’s two person show, “Always…. Patsy Cline”, attracted over 3,400 people. By the end of 2019, OHTC broke all ticket sales records, with over 25,000 people attending the 2019 season shows, far surpassing any other renter, in the history of Thalian Hall Center of the Performing Arts. January 1, 2020 – March 8, 2020 over 9,600 people supported OHTC, by attending the two winter shows, “La Cage Aux Folles” and “The Sound of Music”. Post Pandemic, “Footloose” was OHTC’s first full scale musical back on the main stage since March 8, 2020. It was celebrated with over 3,900 audience members and sold out houses February 18-20 + February 25-27, 2022.

More information about OHTC and its creative team can be found at https://www.operahousetheatrecompany.org/about