By Devyn Young
[email protected]

WEST SIDE STORY
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Aug. 30
Where: Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, 1301 5th
Admission: $15-$35

For most teenagers, the last two weeks of summer are spent relaxing outside and soaking up every ounce of sunlight possible before school starts again. However, for some teenagers, especially those in Old Capitol Opera’s boot camp, the past two weeks have been more intense.

West Side Story will be performed at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, 1301 Fifth St., Friday through Aug. 30. The production is led by professional performers from the Iowa City and surrounding areas. The cast, composed of 29 actors ages 14 and up, put the show together throughout a two-week camp.

Megan O’Brien, the director and actor playing Anita, got her start on stage as an opera singer. She founded Old Capitol Opera last year to showcase local professional performers and nurture young talent. The boot-camp-into-musical model was conceptualized in March 2014; the group’s first musical, Chicago, followed the same basic schedule last year.

“[Chicago] ended up being a really big success,” O’Brien said. “Then it spawned from there, and it became nonprofit after that.”

West Side Story, inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, tells the story of Tony and Maria as they fall in love in 1950s New York City. The musical explores love, tragedy, and ethnic tensions between two different street gangs, the Sharks and the Jets.

The show will take the stage this weekend, and the past two weeks have been filled with master classes and choreography.

Jeff Rickerl, a 19-year-old participant in the workshop, will play Riff, the leader of the Jets. He heard about the workshop through a mutual friend of his voice coach,O’Brien, who invited him to audition for the camp.

The day, noon until 10 p.m., is spent doing scene work, music work, master classes with professionals, and choreography.

“It’s a very intense program,” Rickerl said. “The vocal workshop was my favorite. I got to sing for that one, and it’s fun to watch all of the younger students sing.”

Rich LeMay, playing Chino, had a very different favorite workshop in the camp. LeMay performed in Chicago last summer and was informed about this camp by O’Brien.

“As an aspiring actor, I most appreciated the master class taught by Chris Cruz,” LeMay said. “His understanding of the art of movement and purpose helped to shape the show.”

Choreography took up a large part of the camp.

“We have to dance and sing a lot, so keeping the energy high is a hard thing to do,” Rickerl said.

O’Brien believes everyone who comes to the performance will be affected by it.

“We would love for an audience to see this new company,” O’Brien said. “I’m not joking around when we say we are professionals and that we have some of the best singers involved, whether they are younger and up-and-coming or whether they have done this for years. Everyone has given their blood, sweat, and tears to make this production be beautiful.”

LeMay agreed, stressing the individuality of the new program.

“This show demonstrates the birth of a new face of local theater and a new method of introducing aspiring actors to the world of theatrical performance,” LeMay said. “It’s been a unique experience to say the least, and I’m so excited to see how this company integrates into the community.”