JENNIE: “Sistas” Sendoff for Augusta Jr. Players as they head to regional competition
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)– Back in the fall, the Augusta Junior Payers presented “Sistas,” then performed in the community division of regional competition… and for the second year in a row, won first place! Now, they’ll represent the state of Georgia. It’s coming back for one send off performance only on March 12th.
Artistic Director Roy Lewis and Tegan Johnson, who goes to North Augusta High School, are Jennie’s guests. Lewis says it’s really an honor because the Southeastern Theater Conference is only taking the top six shows this year.
Roy Lewis: “So we are excited! And “Sistas” is just a beautiful show that is really reflective of women’s rights, social issues, you know, social justice things. What it means to be a single mom, what it means to be a black mother who raises her children as they unearth all this information that they find in the attic of grandma’s house. And they’re there to find a song to sing at her funeral. And as they do, they learn more about grandma than they thought they knew or that they knew about. And so it’s just a great and it’s such an honor for us to bring this show to life in front of our community here in Augusta. So we want you to come March the 12th for one last time, and then to give these the young ladies the proper sendoff that they deserve to go represent the state of Georgia in Mobile, Alabama. So it’s not a short journey for us. It’s quite the journey.”
Teagan is no stranger to the Augusta Players family!
Teagan Johnson: “I started with “Sister Act” and then I was just kind of hooked since then. I did “Joseph,” “Freaky Friday,” I helped tech “Snow Queen” and then I did “Ghost” recently.”
JENNIE: “Teagan, one of the things that I’m always impressed with, with the material that the Junior Players does is that it’s really a learning experience for the cast. What did you learn playing one of these characters? How did that inspire you?”
Teagan Johnson: “Roberta is like a very hard headed character. She just she goes into action without thinking so much. She’s just always quick to attack. And I feel like what I could learn for her is how to stand up for myself, but also to really assess the situation before I jump into it. She has so much trauma built up inside of her that she just needs to talk to someone. So that also taught me how to like, express myself and let people know how I’m feeling.”
JENNIE: “One of the things they were telling me before we before we came out here for this interview segment was the strict timing when you’re in a competition. And you have like 10 minutes to set up your show, an hour to perform it, 10 minutes to take it down, and they’ve got a timer on you. So you guys really you have to know what your role is, don’t you?”
Roy Lewis: “It’s a tight ensemble and everyone has their responsibilities and they execute them brilliantly. We do practice that is one of the things about okay, and rehearsals. This is a part of the rehearsal process because everyone has to fulfill their duties as not just, you know, fleshing out a three dimensional character and bringing that to life on stage, but then also learning, you know, the teamwork that goes along with it. And so, in essence, even though the and since the show is about family, we have become a family. And so it’s been quite the wonderful journey with these young ladies. And, of course, our amazing musical director, Selina Smith, our assistant director, Molly Baldwin… . It’s everybody working together and, it that doesn’t go without saying that. You know, with family sometimes you can agree to disagree but we I think we genuinely love each other and we support each other and everybody’s working for our common goal of presenting a great story.”
The Augusta Junior Players presents “Sistas” -a send off show- on Tuesday, March 12th at 7PM at the Kroc Center. Tickets are available at augustaplayers.org.
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