Alumni Musical Productions’ inaugural summer stock season is poised to ‘Bring It On’ 

The leaders behind Alumni Musical Productions Inc., a new summer stock theater company in greater Atlanta, aim to give young theater artists their first professional theater experience. This inaugural season will start off with a high-energy, dance-heavy production of Bring It On: The Musical at School of the Arts at Central Gwinnett in Lawrenceville. The five-show run begins July 16.

Summer stock theaters traditionally present a series of shows during the summer season only, often in repertory using whatever materials are in stock, to give emerging theater talents a chance to hone their craft.

“The typical summer stock companies do more than one show, and the idea is that the same actors do multiple shows,” said Amanda Wansa Morgan, a member of AMP’s start-up team, a professor at Kennesaw State University and the musical director for Bring It On. “So maybe they’re in two or three shows, and it’s the same cast. And originally it derives from the stock system where they would play stock characters like the lovers or the bad guy or the funny friend. But now it’s just a term we use to talk about theater that’s produced exclusively in the summer so that it can entertain audiences in that way and give people a chance to work in between their jobs that might coincide with an academic year.”

For its inaugural season, AMP has scheduled only one show — but Bring It On, with music by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, is no small undertaking. The show, a stage adaptation of the 2000 hit cheerleader comedy, originated at the Alliance Theatre in 2011 before heading to Broadway. It is a very physical and stunt-heavy show, to be directed by veteran performer and theater instructor Lilliangina Quinones and choreographed by Melody Mills and Antwan Bethea, who were both members of the original Broadway cast and are now based in Atlanta. 

Quinones said that a summer stock program like AMP will thrive in Atlanta, giving young people between 18 and 25 the sort of positive first professional experience that everyone deserves.

“We wanted to create this opportunity for them to get high-level professional experience, network with some really amazing people and, if they happen to live here, be able to come home, spend some time in the summer and also work during the off-season,” Quinones said. “If they’re currently in college, it’s a really great opportunity to work in between the school year. If they’ve already graduated and they’re in an apprenticeship program, this is also between seasons. If they’re working professionally, it’s mainly between seasons as well.”

The team selected Bring It On because the musical started its life in Atlanta and concentrates on a large, young cast who are required to sing, dance and act their hearts out. Of the 120 auditioning performers AMP saw in December, a cast of 30 was selected.

Mills is excited to bring much of the original choreography and spirit of the show she loves back to the stage.

“What made the original cast so special was we were literally all from different backgrounds,” she said. “So to design this, I’ll just be pulling from cast members who have inspired me  — and I grew up doing competition cheer [and] competition dance. We traveled and did different nationals. There’s so many things that I’ve been exposed to. That’s part of the experience I want to bring to the cast here — letting them experience those different styles.”

Morgan said the summer stock experience should provide a nice gateway for young people entering professional theater for the first time. Without these opportunities, some first professional experiences can be challenging in different ways.

“There’s something to be said about being thrown in the pool — like being thrown in the deep end in this business,” she said. “That’s a way to learn. That’s a model that works for some people and has worked for many and has worked for theaters and artists alike.”

The quick turnaround of summer stock — which involves only three weeks of rehearsal — mirrors a lot of professional theater.

“It’s fast, and the expectations are high,” Morgan said. “We want them to come in with their material learned and choices being made based on the training that they’re getting elsewhere in their programs. That structure is still there. But, yes, I would say that our mission as artists here tends to align, in terms of making sure that these artists are getting a little bit of mentorship in the process.”

Where and When

The Alumni Musical Productions’ Bring It On: The Musical will be onstage at School of the Arts at Central Gwinnett in Lawrenceville July 16 through July 19. Tickets start at $35.
564 W. Crogan St, Lawrenceville

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Benjamin Carr is an ArtsATL editor-at-large who has contributed to the publication since 2019 and is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Dramatists Guild, the Atlanta Press Club and the Horror Writers Association. His writing has been featured in podcasts for iHeartMedia, onstage as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and online in The Guardian. His debut novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant.