Gabriel Emery and Charlotte Dickens star as Curly and Laurey in SSTI’s ‘Oklahoma!’

After opening its 19th season in Beaufort with the audience hit “All Shook Up,” the Southeastern Summer Theatre Institute (SSTI) has turned to one of the most be­loved musicals in American theatre history, and local audiences are loving it.

Rodgers and Hammer­stein’s “Oklahoma!” is in full swing at Beaufort High School, bringing SSTI’s signature production scale to a classic story of romance, rivalry, and life on the Ameri­can frontier.

The production is directed by Tony Award nominee and South Carolina native Jenn Colella, making her SSTI directorial debut after many summers teaching with the organization. Colella, known to Broadway audiences for her Tony-nominated perfor­mance in “Come From Away,” brings both professional experience and a personal connection to the material. “Oklahoma!” was one of the first musicals she performed growing up in South Caroli­na, making this production a meaningful return.

SSTI’s staging leans into the sweeping imagery of the classic musical while offering the large-scale the­atrical design audiences have come to expect from the company. Set inside a giant barn, the production fills the stage with 10,000 stalks of artificial wheat and features a real surrey with the fringe on top.

The show follows SSTI’s successful June production of “All Shook Up,” which welcomed enthusiastic audi­ences to the company’s new Beaufort home. After years of producing award-winning musicals at Hilton Head High School, SSTI moved its season to Beaufort High School while its longtime venue undergoes construc­tion.

For audiences seeing SSTI for the first time, the com­pany’s scale can come as a surprise. Each summer, SSTI brings together perform­ers and technicians from across the country, working alongside professional direc­tors, designers, musicians, carpenters, electricians, costume artists, and stage managers. The result is a summer production model that blends education with professional-caliber theatre.

SSTI founder and director Ben Wolfe often describes the program as “the minor leagues of Broadway,” giving audiences the opportunity to see young artists at the beginning of careers that may one day lead to national stages.

With “Oklahoma!,” SSTI closes its Beaufort season with a musical known for some of Broadway’s most en­during songs, including “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” and “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top.”

“Oklahoma!” runs through August 2 at Beaufort High School, 84 Sea Island Parkway. Tickets and performance informa­tion are available at Summer­Musicals.com or by calling 866-749-2228.