There’s nothing like the feeling of selling out a show. It’s stressful but exhilarating for the actors and crew of the play, musical, or concert.
Junior Jacob Benson felt this rush over the weekend after selling out Jan. 11-12, both Friday and Saturday performances of his first production with New Threshold Theatre, a theatre company which he is co-creator of with two of his Fayetteville friends.
Fayetteville High School sophomores Coleman Clark and Reed Carson have been involved in theatrical productions with Benson at Arts Live Theatre in Fayettville since Benson’s freshman year. The trio based their brilliant idea off of a Florida theatre company where youth produces, directs, and acts in all of the productions, which they learned about through professionals at the Theatre Squared company.
Clark became the creator of New Threshold Theatre, with Benson and Carson as the co-creators.
“We thought that we could do that and accomplish that, and it would be a completely new thing for Fayetteville,” said co-creator Benson.
Producing a successful theatrical production is a challenge on any level and for any age group, so having a theatre company that is entirely ran by youth is a remarkable feat for Benson and his friends.
“We are all artistic directors,” said Benson. “We all contribute to the whole process of creating a show, and we all agree and come to a consensus about what is the best decision.”
However, Benson is not about the directing life. Since his freshman year, Benson has been acting in youth theatre plays.
“I’m not very interested in directing for theatre, at least,” he said. “I like to act for theatre, but that’s the only part I enjoy about it.”
The first production put on by New Threshold was “The Iliad, The Odyssey, and All Greek Mythology in 99 Minutes or Less” by J. Hopkins and John Hunter.
The shows were held Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday afternoons of last weekend. The Saturday and Friday shows both sold out, which is a promising indicator of the future for New Threshold shows.