Written by Cliff McCollum
News Editor
At Wednesday’s technical rehearsal for “Take the Repeat,” the Opelika High Theatre Society’s self- written one-act musical, the actors were all smiles and nervous energy as Theatre Society director Revel Gholston and Gholston’s proclaimed “make-up queen” Kelly Cox applied layers of white foundation to their faces.
The musical, a dream-like 1930s blues inspired tale written by Gholston and former student Wesley Ballew, will premiere this week in previews Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. at the Opelika Center for the Performing Arts, for its ultimate arrival on the OPAC stage for the Trumbauer District Drama Festival. Opelika has hosted the district theatre competition since 2005.
While the actors seemed to exude no stress, Gholston said the difficulties of writing and directing a self- written musical were a bit of an unknown.
“There’s added pressures with having written it yourself,” Gholston said. “Good or bad, however it turns out in the end, everything can come back to you.”
