Petaluma’s ‘Superstar’ performers

A trio of local actors join hard-working ensemble of SRJC rock opera|

For some theater artists, the goal is to move from ensemble roles to leads as quickly as possible. For Petaluma-based theater students Cheyenne Jordan, Grace Reid and Asher Berezniy, all of whom are currently rehearsing for Santa Rosa Junior College’s upcoming production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” there is no place they’d rather be than singing, dancing and acting-up-a-storm in the show’s large and ever-moving ensemble.

“This is one of the most physically intense shows I’ve ever done in my life,” says Berezniy (a first year JC student), who’s got one leg in a brace to prove it, following a mild injury sustained, he says, while rehearsing “the 39-lashes scene.” Confident he’ll be fully recovered by this weekend’s opening, Berezniy adds, “The ensemble is pretty much on stage the entire show, constantly dancing and singing, helping to tell the story. I love being in the ensemble.”

“It’s crazy how hard we all work,” says Reid (also a JC student). “There are people like Pontius Pilate - arguably one of the main characters of the story - and he’s only on stage a few times, while we are only off-stage a couple of times, and then only for a few minutes. And then we’re almost always running, running from the backstage, all the way outside and around the building and up the steps, so we can enter through the lobby, and then run down the steps onto the stage. It’s constant movement, all the time.”

“It’s intense,” says Jordan (currently a student at Casa Grande High School). “It’s really hard. And it’s really fun.”

“Jesus Christ Superstar,” by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, was once considered avant-garde and even sacrilegious, using rock music in a highly theatrical, operatic fashion, to tell the story of Jesus’ last week, from his entrance into Jerusalem to his crucifixion. For young theater artists like these, however, the show has the feeling of a classic. This JC production, featuring a performance by acclaimed Bay Area singer-actor Phillip Percy Williams as Jesus, is proving as electrifying and transformational as the music originally appeared to the world when it was first unveiled in 1970.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it,” admits Jordan. “And the way our director, Leslie McCauley is doing it, it’s really going to be good.”

The trio of Petalumans - who carpool together to each rehearsal at Santa Rosa’s Maria Carrillo High School (where the show will be staged, since the JC’s Burbank Auditorium is still closed for renovations) - are taking a break to do this interview. But they are clearly all fired up to get back on that stage, from which can be heard the sounds of hammering and sawing. For days, the cast of over 30 performers has been rehearsing the show’s opening scene, in which a mob swarms the stage and tears down an enormous statue. Until now, the ensemble has been merely imagining the edifice itself, but this afternoon, the actual prop was delivered, and Jordan, Reid and Berezniy can’t wait to get their well-practiced hands on it.

“That scene is going to be so badass,” says Reid with a smile.

According to Reid, she began acting in second or third grade, did a number of seasons in the Young Rep program at Cinnabar in Petaluma, and has been performing off and on ever since. In recent JC productions, she appeared in “The Little Mermaid” and “Shrek.” She was doing tech work in last year’s “Into the Woods” when it was announced that the school would be doing “Jesus Christ Superstar” in 2019. Reid says she’s wanted to be in the show ever since hearing the song “Heaven on Their Minds,” a few years ago.

“When I first heard that music,” she recalls, “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, these vocals are really insane. I have to be a part of this somehow.’ When I found out the JC was doing it, I was so excited I finally had a chance to be part of it.”

As for Berezniy, who estimates he’s been doing theater since he was 10-years-old - much of it at Cinnabar where’s he’s appeared in several shows alongside Reid – “Jesus Christ Superstar” is the first show he’ll have done at the junior college.

“I knew about ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ but I didn’t really know it very well,” he admits. “I was just excited to be a part of this theater community at the JC. But now, now that I know the music and have had a chance to work on this, it is now literally one of my favorite musicals ever. This whole experience is definitely up at the top of my favorite shows I’ve ever been part of.”

Jordan, who began as a dancer at age 12, says she did not start doing theater until she was 14, and has been eager to be part of a large-scale musical production.

“My school doesn’t do a lot of big musicals,” says Jordan. “We do a lot of plays and original stuff that students write, so I was really looking for something to do that was a musical, and this was one I really wanted to be a part of.”

Once cast, Jordan says, she’s bonded with the ensemble in a powerful way.

“I love how well we support each other,” she notes, adding that one of her favorite moments in the show itself is one she’s not even in. It’s the song that King Herod sings when Pontius Pilate sends Jesus to him for judgement. “There are only four performers in it, but they make it so funny, and so interesting and great. It’s one of the few moments I get to stop backstage and watch the other performers. They’re all so good.”

“The cast is so dedicated to making this a great show,” agrees Reid. “And that definitely goes for the ensemble. We practice the dances 24/7, we work on the harmonies 24/7, and we work really hard on our acting, because, you know, this is a very acting-heavy show. We’re on stage with a guy getting crucified for four minutes and we’re there, reacting to that and it’s horrifying, and emotionally taxing - as it should be.”

“I think, for me, as an actor, my favorite scenes are the hardest ones, both physically and emotionally, and those are the scenes with the lepers, and the lashing of Jesus,” says Berezniy. “It’s such a mix of emotional weight and physical effort. It’s a good acting experience.”

“I really love doing this show,” says Jordan. “It’s been so great and so fun, and now I just want it to open so we can show everyone what we’ve been working so hard on.” As Beresniy and Reid nod energetically, Jordan adds, “We kind of want everyone to come see it - because we really can’t wait to share it with people.”

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