“Children of Eden” begins tonight at the Geyer Performing Arts Center
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The leads of “Children of Eden” are (top, from left) Courtney Harkins (Eve/Mama Noah), Dan Brady (Father), Andy Hayes (Adam/Noah) (bottom, from left) Grace Phillips (Yonah) and Jesse Glover (Abel/Ham). The show will be staged tonight at the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale and will run through March 20.
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Andy Hayes (Adam/Noah) and Courtney Harkins (Eve/Mama Noah) star in the musical production of “Children of Eden” tonight at the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale. The show runs through March 20.
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Courtney Harkins (Eve/Mama Noah) in a scene from the musical production of “Children of Eden” at the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale.
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Andy Hayes (Adam/Noah) and Courtney Harkins (Eve/Mama Noah), act out a scene in the production of “Children of Eden” at the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale.
By Mark Hofmann
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@obsever-reporter.com
A musical of biblical proportions will be staged at the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale through this weekend, as Actors and Artists of Fayette County present “Children of Eden”.
“Children of Eden” is a 1991 two-act musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by John Caird.
The musical is based on the Book of Genesis, with the first act covering the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel, and a second act that deals with Noah and the Flood.
“It’s never been done at our venue before, and it has a lot of incredible music and it’s totally family friendly,” said Mike Hamilla, the director of the show. “You can bring anyone to it – from the kids to the grandparents.”
He said the show is not necessarily a direct reflection of the stories in the Bible, but an artistic interpretation of them. Hamilla said the show has a little bit of a twist that people may not have seen before.
Patrons’ biggest takeaways from the musical will be the quality of music and the performances, as Hamilla said some of the cast members have to take on dual roles.
“The actor who plays Adam also plays Noah, and the actress who plays Eve also plays Noah’s wife,” Hamilla said.
He added that the dual roles are written that way so the actors get a chance to create two different personas, but the character arcs carry over from the character in the first act and conclude with the actor’s role in the second act.
“Adams’s story doesn’t resolve … until Noah,” Hamilla said.
Hamilla said putting the show on at the Geyer Performing Arts Center has been a two-year process. The cast was already selected and was three weeks into rehearsals in 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions shut the production down.
“We didn’t know if we could be able to finish it,” Hamilla said, adding they then received the green light to do the show a couple months ago, which gave them a short turnaround to get the show on stage. Rehearsals started a little over a month ago. “That’s something you don’t see a lot. Normally, shows at the Geyer are rehearsed for two months.”
Children of Eden will be performed at the Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale at 7:30 p.m. March 18 and 19, and at 2:30 p.m. March 20.
Tickets are $15 each and can be purchased at geyerpac.com