With a theme of “Anything Goes — Nautical … But Nice,” the ninth annual “Way, Way, Way Off Broadway” runs Saturday and Sunday at the Yuba College Theatre.
Showcasing the talents of area theatrical groups, regional troupes, soloists and special performances centered on Broadway’s greatest shows, WWWOB will also pay tribute to active and retired military personnel.
WWWOB is co-directed by Staci Johnson and Paul DeMeritt.
“The show brings together all of the performing arts groups in the community, and it allows us to celebrate on one stage how much performance art talent we have in the Yuba-Sutter area,” Johnson said.
“For a small community, we are very gifted and fortunate to have such creative artists as we do, especially in on-stage arts,” she said.
Johnson said all performance groups — ranging from The Acting Company, FCS Players, local high school drama departments and dance studios — are invited to bring a production number to be part of WWWOB.
“Way back when we first thought of doing this, our thought was if every group works on just one number and brings a show-stopper, then we will have a show filled with exciting production numbers back to back to back,” Johnson said.
“It has been great because there are certain people who go to every Yuba College Theatre production, for example, or they always go to the arts council but they may have never stepped foot inside The Acting Company theater or they have never gone to a Marysville Charter Academy for the arts production. But when they go to Way Off Broadway, they get a taste of what is available, and they can see the level of talent that is available on all of the stages in the community,” Johnson said.
A lot of the area’s stages are small venues, Johnson said, and WWWOB — which tends to sell-out every showing — gives performers an opportunity to perform before a large audience. In past years, WWWOB was staged at the Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds; this is the second year WWWOB has been staged at the newly renovated 314-seat Yuba College Theatre.
“For some of the younger performers, it’s such a great opportunity to be part of a higher-level production technically and content-wise. It can be a larger-scale production than many of them have ever been a part of before, so it’s a great learning experience for them,” Johnson said.
“And there is not a bad seat in the house at Yuba College. Sure, we could fit 800 people in at the fairgrounds and it was a fun crowd — cheering from 800 people is great energy. But it’s a really comfortable, beautiful environment at Yuba,” she said.
“Some people hesitate to go to certain productions because they don’t know what the level of quality will be. But this is one show where you can be assured that the quality is of the highest level, and the whole family will enjoy it,” Johnson said.
“This is the kind of show that everybody likes — even the spouse you can’t get to go to the theater with you will like this show because there is so much variety, and it moves so quickly that everyone has a good time,” she said.
Proceeds from the event benefit the Rotary Club of Yuba City’s performing arts scholarship and the Sutter Performing Arts Association.
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