Stargazer Collaborative Theater wants to bring its performances to rural northern Arizona

Music Director Sarah Casey was running a group of actors through lip trills in a tiny studio in downtown Flagstaff on a recent Monday night.

It’s all in preparation for the group’s upcoming November performance of "Cabaret," a dark musical that performer AJ Meniglia explains this way.

"It’s a funny show at times and it’s a dramatic show and it’s a really heavy show. It really is unafraid to get right up to the point of what it’s about, which is, it’s not a pleasant thing to tell a story about but the way that it’s handled is really important and really beautiful, I think," he says.

The play centers on the fading days of an age of expression in Berlin before the rise of Nazi power.

"How quickly that can creep up on you before it’s too late. The show does a very good job of illustrating that, in making you feel very safe until you’re not, and then all bets are off," he said.

This new theater company in Arizona’s high country wants to bring the sounds and experience of its performances to rural schools in the northern parts of the state.

The upcoming play is one performance hosted by the Stargazer Collaborative Theater, said co-founder Dani Commanda.

"When we were creating this, we wanted to make sure that we created a group that supports other Flagstaff staples, other Flagstaff companies in a place that can create something really cool," she said.

Stargazer Collaborative Theatre

The theater has collaborated with everything from local coffee shops to the Humane Society.

"Bring a can of dog food and you get $5 off to see the show or something like that. We just want to make sure that we are supporting our community, other groups within our community," she said.

For next season, that’ll mean students. Stargazer Collaborative will be taking its spring show on the road opening with another classic, "You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown." Commanda said the audience will be rural schools, stretching from outside of Flagstaff all the way to Page.

"It’s such an important part of life. Theatre teaches you how to speak in front of people, it boosts your confidence. It’s more than just watching a show," she said.

The theater is also bringing in special needs children and "giving them an opportunity to sing and dance and play once a week with friends at a theater," said Julie Bouck.

She is a pediatric physical therapist who worked in a special needs theater in Utah and brought her skills to Flagstaff. She is helping to plan a program where kids could perform a shorter routine ahead of a larger audience.

"I think sometimes we put limits on people and we don't realize that they really can do things that we are thinking that they can’t do," she said. "And then we find out and they show us that they can do it for sure."

Which brings us back to "Cabaret." The show opens at the Coconino Center for the Arts on Nov. 8.