Nolan Maddox & Nora Yesowich to star in ‘All Shook Up,’ a musical based on the songs of Elvis Pressley (photos by SSTI) 

By Addison Alberda 

After years of producing award-winning musicals at Hilton Head High School, SSTI will bring its nineteenth season to Beaufort High School while its longtime Hilton Head venue undergoes construction. For founder and director Ben Wolfe, the move admittedly comes with both strategic challenges and much anticipation. But Beaufort, he says, already feels like a natural extension of SSTI’s Lowcountry home.

“We know Beaufort has a very strong arts and culture scene,” Wolfe says. “We’ve had audience members come from Beaufort each and every summer to see our productions on Hilton Head. So we have faith and trust that the audience that has voted us Best Live Theatre in the Lowcountry on three separate occasions is prepared to travel in reverse.”

That “reverse” trip is part of the invitation. Wolfe hopes longtime Hilton Head audiences will venture to Beaufort for downtown shopping, an early dinner, and what he believes may be SSTI’s biggest season yet.

The first production of the summer is All Shook Up, the high-energy musical built around the songs of Elvis Presley. Set in the world of 1950s Americana, the show taps into an era audiences often remember with affection: diners, motorcycles, small towns, young love, rebellion, and rock-and-roll. For SSTI, it is also a natural follow-up to last summer’s audience favorite, 9 to 5, which brought the music of Dolly Parton to the SSTI stage.

“We had such success last summer with 9 to 5, which obviously featured many songs by Dolly Parton,” Wolfe says. “I felt like All Shook Up was in a similar vein. The music of Elvis Presley is timeless, and I know that is a genre and range of

Nora Yesowich as ‘Natalie’

songs our audiences love and will appreciate.”

Like 9 to 5, this production is directed and choreographed by Jelani Remy, a four-time Broadway veteran of productions like “Back to the Future”, “Ain’t Too Proud”, and “The Lion King.” Remy envisions a production that will lean fully into

the period, complete with the visual nostalgia of 1950s America and even a real vintage motorcycle onstage. But as with all SSTI productions, the appeal is not only the material. It is the scale of the production itself.

For nearly two decades, SSTI has built a national reputation as a theatrical training program that operates as a professional producing company. Each summer, performers and technicians from across the country are selected through a competitive process. Professional directors, designers, carpenters, electricians, costume artists, stage managers, and musicians are then brought in to lead the work.

At any given time, Wolfe says, SSTI is housing and supporting 75+ artists as they build the season. “Our productions not only house actors and technicians who are amazing young artists from all over the country,” Wolfe says, “but we’re bringing in a professional staff and a professional orchestra.”

Nolan Maddox as ‘Dean’

By January, SSTI creative teams are already planning the upcoming summer. By the time the cast walks through the door, there are roughly two weeks until opening night. Production manager Kelsey Byrd, in her fourth summer on campus, oversees this advance planning and operation. “The staff has every costume designed for them months in advance. The wigs team has studied everything down to their natural hair color and hairline, designing handcrafted wigs for multiple costume changes for each performer,” Byrd adds.

That kind of detail is part of what often surprises first-time audience members.

“I love talking to audience members at intermission who perhaps arrived skeptical, and maybe even a little scarred from sitting through a typical high school musical,” Wolfe says. “Their jaws are on the floor.”

He often explains SSTI with a comparison from the world of sports.

“Attending an SSTI show is like going to a minor league baseball game,” Wolfe says. “You’re watching the future of the art form on our stage.”

It is a comparison that has become increasingly literal. Alumni and recent SSTI performers have gone on to work on stages and screens around the world, including in the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of The Outsiders. For audiences, Wolfe says, the thrill is not only seeing remarkable young talent, but seeing it at the moment just before the rest of the world discovers it.

That professional standard also extends backstage. This season, All Shook Up will include a first for SSTI: automation. The production will feature a motorized turntable using the same style of theatrical technology seen in major Broadway productions such as Hamilton.

“We’re bringing really and truly an extraordinary level of production value,” Wolfe says, “the kind rarely seen outside of major regional houses, Broadway, and national tours.”

That is part of what makes the move to Beaufort significant. SSTI is not simply relocating a summer program. It is bringing a full theatrical operation into the city: performers, technicians, faculty, musicians, housing, transportation, meals, vendors, and an audience base that has grown steadily over the years.

With All Shook Up, SSTI is offering a production built to welcome a new audience in with familiar music, 1950s nostalgia, a live professional orchestra, major production values, and a cast of young artists performing at a level that has become SSTI’s signature.

All Shook Up will be performed at Beaufort High School, 84 Sea Island Parkway. Performance dates are June 26, 27, and July 3 at 7:30pm and June 28 and July 4 and 5 at 1pm. All tickets are $45 and all seats are reserved. Tickets are on sale May 1st at SummerMusicals.com or by calling 866-749-2228.