Needham Residents Perform in Premiere of Follow Your Hooves

Dover, MA – On Friday, August 17th and Friday, August 18th at 8pm the Charles River Creative Arts Program (CRCAP) will present the world premiere of the musical Follow Your Hooves, a new work by Walker Anderson, Cooper Evans and Josh Keehn. The show features performances by Needham residents Anna Oehlkers, Liz Richman, Alli Kaplan, Franny Hutchins, Matt Okun, Kat Fitzpatrick, Zoe Lockhart, Greg Ward, Chloe Savit and Julia Levine.

Follow Your Hooves is a coming of age story centered around two goat sisters, each on their own journey of self discovery. Along the way they must make tough decisions in order to find their purposes in life. The musical takes them through a magical land where they meet characters like a Toad God and giant stone monsters.  The family-friendly musical pairs a theme that all adults can relate to with larger than life characters, a vibrant set and costumes will appeal to the child in all of us. With over 50 campers in the cast plus a more than 50 other campers involved creating costumes, set design/construction and stage make-up the show is a Broadway-caliber spectacle that’s not to be missed.

Writers Anderson, Evans and Keehn are veteran Charles River instructors.  The team started crafting the show during their years spent playing in the pit band for over a dozen previous CRCAP musicals.  According to Keehn, “Playing in the band you get to see what works, what the audience responds to and what that campers’ strengths are.  We wanted to create a show that put all that together”. All three writers are thrilled to have the show going up at Charles River. “There is nothing better than spending a year creating a single piece of art and then passing it off to the talented artists in your art community,” says Evans. Though the writers all grew up in Holliston, the writing process happened with Anderson working in Dover (at the Charles River School) and Evans and Keehn off at Hampshire College.  “With Cooper and Josh off at Hampshire and me working at CRS, we had to do a lot of sending script pages and songs back and forth,” says Anderson. “It also involved a lot of us singing into phones and getting strange looks from passers-by on the street.”.

Saturday’s final performance is the cap of Charles River’s first camp session of the summer.  In addition to the performance of Final Vinyl, Friday is also Arts Festival Day.  Arts Festival is a day-long celebration of the arts.  Over 85 working artists and 300 artist campers will perform music, dance, comedy, theater and display visual arts in gallery displays, demonstrations, fashion shows, photography exhibits and original short films.  Families can choose from over 60 events throughout the day.  In addition to watching and enjoying the art, families will be a part of the experience through activities such as face-painting and t-shirt making or they can try their hand at creating a newspaper, or participating in an interactive improv show.  Volleyball, swimming and a home-run derby round out the activities.

Saturday’s Arts Festival starts at 9:15 a.m. and concludes at 4:00 p.m., with Follow Your Hooves starting at 8 p.m..  All activities are free and open to the public.  Tickets to Arts Festival and Follow Your Hooves are not required in advance.

About the Charles River Creative Arts Program

The Charles River Creative Arts Program has been a national leader in the summer multi-arts experience since 1970. With over 145 exciting courses offered every session, students design a summer that uniquely reflects their passion. Programs based on CRCAP have been established across the country and the world including six other programs in Massachusetts. Over the years, artists like James Taylor, William Hurt, YoYo Ma, Julie Harris, and Tracy Chapman have performed and shared their life experiences.

Photo Caption: Needham residents Anna Oehlkers, Liz Richman, Alli Kaplan, Franny Hutchins, Matt Okun, Kat Fitzpatrick, Zoe Lockhart, Greg Ward, Chloe Savit and Julia Levine in Follow Your Hooves at the Charles River Creative Arts Program.