‘Bright Star’ the result of a collaborative effort

“Bright Star” Director Josh Rapp answers interview questions Wednesday at Ector Theatre. (Michael Bauer|Odessa American)

The end result of a unique collaboration will take the stage in April at Ector Theatre in the musical production of “Bright Star.”

The musical is April 27-29 at the Ector Theatre and tickets can be purchased online at theector.com.

This production is being put together by Odessa College, Basin Theatre Works and Odessa Arts and is the first collaboration of its kind.

A news conference was held Wednesday at the Ector Theatre to not only help promote the musical but also shine a light on the work all three organizations have done to work together on this project.

“Bright Star” is a 2016 Tony Award-nominated Best Musical that was written and composed by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.

It is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in the 1940s with flashbacks to 1923. The director is Odessa College Director of Theatre Josh Rapp.

“It’s kind of a wild ride,” Rapp said of the collaboration. “This play’s been on my brain for a long time. It’s been on my brain for a long time. I’ve been waiting for the right time to do it. The show’s been very special to me. I come from Appalachia so it’s connected to me in both music, story and narrative. It’s never felt like the right time to direct it until I got here and had a sense of new community. I got to meet (Executive Director of Basin Theatre Works) Jon Montgomery and (Odessa Arts Executive Director) Randy Ham and we had a good conversation about wanting to do something together.”

“Bright Star” is an American folktale that’s inspired by a true story. It tells a moving tale of love and redemption against the backdrop of the American South in the 1920s and 1940s.

“This show, both in narrative and musically, gives us a sense of community but also collaboration,” Rapp said. “When we had the opportunity to work on something, I tried as calmly as possible to bring this show here and they all read it and liked it and we wanted to create something unique in the area. This is the first collaboration to my knowledge between all three partnerships. This has never happened before and definitely not on this scale.”

The cast exhibits that as the production features Odessa College Students but also community members from all over West Texas, including outside of Odessa.

“It’s really a melting pot of talent and we’re all really excited about the project,” Rapp said. “We decided the best place to do this show was in downtown Odessa at the Ector Theatre.”

Basin Theatre Works Executive Director Jon Montgomery talks about the upcoming production of “Bright Star” Wednesday at Ector Theatre. The production is a collaboration between Odessa College, Basin Theatre Works and Odessa Arts. (Michael Bauer|Odessa American)

Montgomery moved to Odessa this past fall and immediately, the project was brought to him as a potential collaboration.

“I was excited because it kick-started the love of the community for me,” Montgomery said. “Already, out of the gate, we’re talking about working together all of the different arts groups. That got me excited about coming to Odessa and the job ahead of us and where we want to go in the future. We all understand from everyone that working together makes us stronger.”

Montgomery also said that “diversifying the audiences and bringing our audience members together to experience really cool story telling enhances our empathy and sympathy for one another.”

That’ll be no different with this production and Montgomery said they’re excited for future collaborations.

“This won’t be our last,” Montgomery said. “It’s such a great story to tell. This musical is unique and it has great concert content. The story-telling is great. We’re excited to be participating in this.”

Chair of Visual and Performing Arts at Odessa College Eric Baker talks about the upcoming production of “Bright Star” Wednesday at Ector Theatre. The production is a collaboration between Odessa College, Basin Theatre Works and Odessa Arts. (Michael Bauer|Odessa American)

Working on the music side, Chair of Visual and Performing Arts at Odessa College Eric Baker also talked about the production saying that there’s a band of at least 11 instrumentalists involved in the musical production.

“Most of those members are local, taken from our community,” Baker said. ”Some are string players from the West Texas Symphony. But we have a banjo, fiddle and mandolin and those three players are all coming from the Dallas, Fort Worth area. Those guys are professional players in their own right and we’re bringing them in as part of what is called the music masters series at Odessa College. It’s going to be an even bigger collaboration there.”

Rehearsals began back in January.

Baker also talked about what this musical collaboration says about the arts in Odessa as well as Downtown Odessa.

“As you know, from many years, there’s been a great initiative to redevelop and redesign downtown Odessa,” Baker said. “We have the Odessa Theatre and the Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center. All of this comes together when Odessa Arts works very hard in the city to fund nonprofits to give opportunities for our community. That trickles down to Odessa College and Basin Theatre works. Then we thought, why don’t we use our resources to do more than what we can do individually. When everyone comes together, there’s a great yield and a better return. It just demonstrates that family relationship that we all have in the arts.”

For more information about the show, go to theector.com.

If you go

  • What: “Bright Star.”
  • When: 7:30 p.m. April 27, 7:30 p.m. April 28, 7:30 p.m. April 29.
  • Where: Ector Theatre.
  • Where to purchase tickets: theector.com