By Lisa Green Most college kids, home for the summer, get a job, hang out with their high school buddies, take a road trip.
Not Jackson Teeley. No, the 2012 Monument Mountain High School graduate produces a musical he wrote in, oh, about four months. Along with his good friend, co-director Corey Potter, who is also the choreographer, Teeley is mounting a production of Arrowhead: The Musical, with a cast made up of their high school theater friends. It’s going to be presented at the McConnell Theater at Simon’s Rock on June 19, 20 and 22. Teeley, 20, who’s studying music composition and musical theater at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, has worked up ideas for musicals and performed in workshops since high school. In fact, most the performers met through the Barrington Stage Company’s youth theater program. But this is the first show he’s completed. He began writing it in February, and when he realized he had a group of willing cast members, he kicked it into high gear. The show is a series of vignettes that take place in a coffee shop, and focus on — what else? — young love. Electronic communications have put a twist on Millennial love (the name of one of the songs) that didn't affect previous generations. Arrowhead reflects the state of relationships in the 21st century. You wouldn’t think trying to connect would be so difficult. In “Millennial Love," the character details a laundry list of devices and social media apps that are the connectors to his peers, but concludes “I guess there’s nothing left to do as we grow dull and dumb, except accept the sad aspect of what we have become… it’s generational, it’s our millennium." “It’s the malaise of my generation," Teeley says. Always wanting to have face-to-face, here-and-now conversations, he finds it “so irritating when people aren’t talking to you, they’re just staring at the phone."
The cast in rehearsal.
Other themes lead back to love: two sisters heeding their mother’s advice about dating, a college kid in love with his TA trying to convince her he’ll be her “Super Hero Man." The production is self funded, although except for the cost of the theater rental, the expenses are minimal. No one is getting paid, and the admission is free, but there will be an opportunity to offer a donation at the door. “These are close, dear friends of mine, and are an absolute pleasure to work with," Teeley says. Aside from himself and Potter, who’s an acting major at Emerson College, most of the cast members are not studying theater, but you’d be hardpressed to know who was and wasn’t from the promo video [below]. In the Berkshires, when they say “let’s put on a show, we can use the barn," it’s a literal statement. But that’s about as close as these kids come to the old way of doing things. Welcome to summer stage, millennial style.
Arrowhead: The MusicalJune 19-20 at 7:30 p.m.; June 22 at 2 p.m. Bard College at Simon’s Rock The Daniel Arts Center 84 Alford Road, Great Barrington
