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TheHWord.com is featuring several posts related to a theatre production being presented by the Hastings Junior Community Theatre (HJCT). This group will be performing “Higher” and “Illinois Jane and the Pyramid of Peril” starting tomorrow.

Both student directed one acts will be performed tomorrow and Saturday (June 4 and 5) at 7 pm at the Hastings Community Theatre in Good Samaritan Village. A special family matinee of “Illinois Jane” only is at 2 pm on Saturday.

This post contains three reports. Enjoy!

Sidekicks do the heavy lifting

By Grace Rempp

I’ve done a couple shows with Hastings Community Theatre, but this is my first experience with Hastings Junior Community Theatre.

Being the news kid I expected the awkwardness and hierarchy that is sometimes involved in high school theatre, but everyone involved with HJCT is super welcoming. And its great to meet some people who aren’t a part of the Hastings High crew.

For character development we’ve been having JT come work with us “Illinois Jane” kids on stage combat, involvement in this has production has been quite the adventure.

Its nice to have Chris Cottam work with us on character development; letting go of myself and connecting with my character takes a lot more thought than you’d expect and it’s helpful to have someone to push someone as new to this as me in the right direction.

In “Illinois Jane” there is a lot of fighting and falling that we have to do, and having JT come in and help with that has been fantastic. That guy is absolutely brilliant when it comes to punching, fighting, falling, dragging and even lifting heavy suitcases, which Sid (me) has to do a lot of (yeah, us sidekicks always get stuck with the heavy lifting).

My experiences so far with HJCT have been great. You can count on me to come back next year.

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Theatre Journey is a Gift

By Shea Hylden

Hastings Junior Community Theatre is a program that I have had the privilege of watching from the conception of an idea to the thriving solace it is today. I have been around the ‘theatre block,’ so-to-speak, a time or two and know when something is worth taking part. I have been by Christine Cottam’s side since she first spoke of her dream to me – and I know how much it meant to her to see it come to life. The gleam in her eye became determination that wouldn’t be shaken.

My thoughts have taken many turns on the road to where we are today: I started at gung-ho and slowly moved to wary to downright scared and all the way to proud. There are few things in life that many people get the chance to watch from the beginning and I know what a gift it is to have been a part of this journey.

Many kids, starting young, don’t have the opportunities to advance themselves in the ranks of a theatre. HJCT is one such program that not only allows those who have never tried theatre before to get their feet wet, but those who have been involved for most of their lives to really do something that shows them – us – what life behind the curtain really is. Chris’s dream became a reality that teaches children all the way through young adults skills that are helpful through the rest of their lives.

What HJCT really means to those of us who have become involved is the saving grace that comes with a creative outlet. Who knows what’s really going on behind the mask of the actors and crew people? For some it’s truly just a fun place to meet new people and that’s wonderful; for others, it’s somewhere to escape from reality for just a short while. What kinds of things do you suppose they learn while they’re there? I know that theatre saved me, more than once, and hope that this amazing program can do the same for someone else.

I, myself, have learned a lot since becoming involved in HJCT. For the first time I stepped off of the stage as an actor and walked to the front to become a director, something I would never have had the guts to do without Chris’s guidance and encouragement.

This year I’m taking on the roles of producer for “Illinois Jane” and “Higher,” and publicity. Both of these roles have had new and inventive challenges that have made me more responsible in the short month that these shows have been skillfully put together. I cannot express enough the gratitude and pride that I feel when I talk about HJCT and all of the people involved. This year is the best yet and there are so many yet to come.

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Shea Hylden just finished her first year at Wayne State College where she is studying English Education and Theatre. While theatre is her first passion, she also enjoys reading, writing, speech and coffee.

Shea is a big believer in the skills that she’s learned from HJCT and hopes to one day open a theatre of her own. Blessed be.

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Shedding the Shell Through Theatre

By Cassidy O’Neill

Hastings Junior Community Theatre is so much fun.

Last year when I first joined I was shy, but since then I have shed that shell.

I enjoyed being a psycho in “Wedded to a Villain” and I learned a thing or two from “Juvie.”

Theatre is a skill like playing an instrument, if you’re not very good at it, enjoy it anyway and get a few laughs in the process. Anybody can act, few choose to act, which is a shame to say the least.

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Cassidy G. O’Neill is a 17-year-old member of the graduating class of 2011 from Adams Central Jr.-Sr. High School. She enjoys helping and acting in One-Act at her school. She works for Russ’s IGA. And she is an Organ Donor.

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About the author: Christine Cottam

Christine Cottam’s life is regularly interrupted with bursts of spontaneous song and dance. She teaches voice in her privately owned Studio C and is a music and theatre student at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Christine is the chair for the Hastings Junior Community Theatre where she also directs summer theatre for teens. She lives with her husband, two kids, two cats, two frogs, and one freakishly fast snail.