Cypress Ranch senior takes theater by storm
Fresh off winning a $3,000 scholarship at the Tommy Tune Awards, Rebekah Stanley starred May 7 in a new musical, “Group,” which was written by Caitlin Reynolds, a fellow senior at Cypress Ranch High School.
The show at Cypress Academy of Performing Arts was good practice, Stanley said, for showcasing a shorter version the cast will perform at Thespian Festival 2015, to be held June 22–27 on the campus of the University of NebraskaLincoln. “My favorite song in the show is ‘More,’ ” said the 18-year-old daughter of Kenneth and Roxanne Stanley. The song challenges six teenagers in a support group for minors with depression to ask themselves how badly they want to break out of dysfunctional situations, said Stanley.
She also starred in the dysfunctional world of “The Addams Family” when Cy Ranch produced the 2010 Broadway musical last fall.
Her performance as Wednesday Addams scored a nomination for Best Leading Actress in the 2014-15 Tommy Tune Awards competition, and she got to sing a duet at the show when winners were announced in a Tony Awardsstyle ceremony April 21 at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston.
At the event, which was taped for broadcast at noon June 21 on ABC 13-KTRKHouston, Stanley and the other 70 scholarship applicants gathered onstage in the first act, with Stanley and nine other students announced as winners.
“I will attend Western University in St. Louis and major in musical theater,” said Stanley, who spent recent summers studying acting in California, where she also filmed national television commercials for Academy, Gexa Energy and Raisin Bran.
She won several acting awards in this spring’s Univer-
sity Interscholastic League competition as Cy Ranch thespians advanced to the regional meet on April 25 with scenes from Jessica Swale’s drama “Blue Stockings.”
Stanley’s father recently sold his heating-and-airconditioning business to devote more time as a deacon at Prince of Peace Catholic Community near Tomball. Her mother teaches geometry at Cy Ranch.
Stanley has a sister, Sarah, who dances in New York City, and a brother, Aaron, who is a musician in Houston.
In “Group,” Stanley plays Hope, the leader of a teen-led support group.
“My character is clinically depressed, but she’s further along than the others,” said Stanley.
“One of my lines is ‘I’m the only one who’s considerably stable.’ ”
Reynolds wrote “Group” last year as a play without music and entered her script in the 2014 VSA Playwright Discovery Competition.
It was chosen from hundreds of entries to receive a weekend workshop with a director, dramaturg and actors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
“It was a completely cool experience. I was drowning in information,” said Reynolds, 17, whose friends call her “Cat.”
She returned home with ideas for transforming the play into a musical.
“I was one of the lucky few who got to hear the music first,” said Stanley.
Other “Group” cast members are senior Kerensa McMurphy, junior Michael Pham and sophomores Brendan Morrow, Abbey Weeks and Grace Whaley.
Reynolds, who also directed the production, is “pretty awesome,” said Jane Bankston, the Cy Ranch theater teacher who guided Stanley and “The Addams Family” to six Tommy Tune nominations.
Cheryl Bradford, the school’s fine arts chair and a theater and film director, added, “Cat has such a gift and passion for writing. I can see a very bright future for Cat in the industry.”
Reynolds said she was challenged by the Kennedy Center’s commitment to using theater as a “voice” for social issues and reform.
“‘Group” breaks the silence,” said Reynolds. “As a teenager, I’m just surrounded by the epidemic of teenage depression and mental illness. Everyone hurts and goes through struggles, but depression is a feeling that doesn’t go away. You can’t write it off as just having a bad day.”