Listen Here
By Gabe Asamoah-Addo
addog@findlay.edu
The University of Findlay theater program is back and preparing its spring musical, the humorous Wild Dust: The Musical, from March 27 to 29.
The program, working on its third production of the 2025-26 academic year, held auditions on Jan. 20 and 21. Callbacks are held for re-evaluation of casting, for the directors to see which final casting decisions shall be made.
Kloey Kinnear, a junior at Findlay and Sonography/Theatre dual major, is playing the role of Marion. She has participated in every UF theater production as a cast member for all but one production, that being “A Servant of Two Masters”, where she helped with lighting for scholarship assignments.
All in all, the process of auditioning has become natural for her.
“The longer I’ve been here, the more comfortable I’ve gotten,” Kloey said. “For the first couple shows, I was really anxious going into auditions, and once you’re anxious, you can’t show your full potential.”
Cynthia Stroud, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Teaching in Theatre has directed at UF since 2018. With her directing, there is a set schedule of priorities from auditions to show weekend.
“We rehearse four or five nights a week.” Stroud said. “From now until then, the actors will have two nights a week of music rehearsals.”
The music rehearsals are led by the Associate Professor of Music and Chair of Visual and Performing Arts, Dr. SeaHwa Jung, who also conducts the pit orchestra during the show.
“For the next month at least, the cast will have two nights a week of choreography rehearsal,” Stroud said. “Where they learn all the dance numbers.”
These choreography rehearsals are led by dance instructor, Elise Hanson, part-time faculty of theatre. She teaches dance classes at the university and regularly writes the choreography for musicals.
“Then they will have one acting rehearsal for the next couple weeks, when then expands to two or three acting rehearsals a week,” Stroud said. “This expands once they’ve learned all their music and choreography.”
Amongst other staff that assist in other elements of the musical, Stroud puts it all together by working with the cast with acting elements and techniques that work best for the show.
Wild Dust: The Musical’s music was written by Dennis Poore, with the book written by Cindy Marcus and Flip Kobler.
“It is a Western,” Dr. Stroud said. “There’s a mysterious stranger who comes into town and busts his way into the local saloon. It’s set during a dust storm, hence why it’s called Wild Dust. The ladies who work in the saloon are sheltering from the dust storm, and the ladies who live in town have to shelter in the saloon as well, since it’s the most stable building in town. There lies a lot of culture clash between the people who work in the saloon and the rest of the town. Along with the stranger, there’s a dead body, which the characters are trying to figure out the mystery within that.”
Stroud hopes for audiences seeing this upcoming musical to have a good time watching, saying she wants them to have a few laughs, but also to take some time and think about their own path.
“Did they make their own choices about their lives based on what they wanted, or were they pushed by someone else,” Stroud said.
This musical will be performed at the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts, at 7:30 p.m. March 27 and 28, and at 2p.m. on March 29, free for all UF students and staff.
