Cuesta College’s Drama Department has invited audience members to experience “James and the Giant Peach,” a production adapted from the story written by Roald Dahl.
“James and the Giant Peach” is co-directed by Cash Costango and Kasady Riley and will run from Oct. 9 to Oct. 19 at the Harold J. Moissi Cultural and Performing Arts Center’s Experimental Theater.
James and the Giant Peach will be both directors’ first time directing in a professional environment. “It’s been challenging in its own rewarding ways. We’ve both been on stage as actors for years,” Riley said. “This is just a fun new perspective to have.”
The drama department often performs shows for young audiences. Over the summer, the drama department used play to bring “Charlotte’s Web” to young audiences.
Costago described his theater career. “For me, it’s been about 12 or 13 years,” Castango said. “I’ve been involved in something every year for the past 13 years.”
Cuesta’s Drama Department has used teamwork to create and build their sets, costumes and tech decisions. Costango elaborated on the organizational efforts behind the production. “If you’re thinking about other parts of the program as we’re coming into the show being put on,” Cosango said. “The stagecraft classes will start ramping up and have their meetings. You have Brian (Alhadeff) over there, the professor, will start planning his stuff out. You have Ryan (Flores) leading the lighting design class. Those classes will start looking at how the lights are going to be, and start moving that forward, so we all just kind of like start to meet. We all just start to converge at a certain point.”.
Cuesta’s nationally acclaimed Drama Department has been planning and rehearsing for the showcase of James and the Giant Peach for a minimum of 15 hours a week since Aug. 11, with efforts increasing as time approaches the showcase. “It’s all about seeing if it can mesh together, finding what works and what doesn’t,” Riley said. “I think of it kind of like sculpting. By this time, we pretty much have the show. We have this amazing show, but we have a little bit too much here, or it’s a little misshapen on one end. So it’s about really surgically making it a work of art.”
Both directors instructed future audience members to keep an eye open for the actor’s costumes.
“Everything is exceptional, from the actors to just the details on these sets, I mean, I love it,” Riley said, “There’s all these little details hidden everywhere in here that if you’re sitting in the audience and you have an eye for theater, it’s going to be like a little moment of cake, [as] we call it in theater. They’re sprinkled throughout this [set] and the lights and everything. And when it all comes together, it’s just a great experience.”
Tickets for James and the Giant Peach are on sale now. The production is for all ages. Children 12 and younger are able to get in for free, general admission tickets cost $25.00, and students can purchase tickets for $20.00 with their student ID.
