Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ is all in the family

No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you.

When browsing the program for Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” you’ll notice several last names multiple times.

There’s Elsie and Nyla Hess; Jared and Adeline Kraft; Maisee and Amelia LaPlante; Emma and Declan Leavitt; Amelie and Lennox Miller; Benjamin and Asher Milonas; and, last but not least, Andrea, Drew and Axl Olsen.

It’s a true family affair.

Though all three Olsens have appeared on stage before, this is the first time the trio will be in a show together. Andrea plays the narrator; Drew plays Simeon, one of Joseph’s brothers, and the baker; and Axl plays a student and is a member of the children’s chorus.

“We’re looking forward to doing something as a family,” Drew said. “Not every show has parts that fit from kids on up to adults.”

“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” features music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical is a retelling of the biblical story of Joseph. Spokane Valley Summer Theatre’s production opens Friday and runs through Aug. 17.

The show opens with the Narrator (Andrea Olsen) introducing her class of students to the story of Joseph (Landon Toth). Joseph shares some inspiration through song before the Narrator introduces Jacob (Dan Griffith), Joseph’s father, and his 11 other sons: Reuben (Sam Schneider), Simeon (Drew Olsen), Levi (Dakota Moses), Judah (Gatieh Nacario), Dan (Grant Measures), Naphtali (Abe McKinney), Gad (Aidan Headley), Asher (Ayden Gilbreath), Issachar (Jared Kraft, who also plays the butler), Zebulun (Josh White) and Benjamin (Benjamin Milonas).

Jacob fawns over Joseph and gives him a multicolored coat to show his favoritism. Joseph is excited by the gift, while his brothers stew in their jealousy. They’re also jealous because of Joseph’s dreams, which seem to imply that he will one day rule over them all.

To stop this dream from becoming reality, the brothers try to kill Joseph by throwing him in a pit. They then change their minds and decide to sell him to some Ishmaelites passing through the area.

To hide Joseph’s sudden disappearance, his brothers and their wives tell Jacob that Joseph has been killed, showing Joseph’s coat, which is now torn to pieces and covered in goat’s blood, as proof. A devastated Jacob soon leaves before his sons and their wives celebrate.

Joseph is taken to Egypt, where he is bought by the wealthy Potiphar (Schneider). Through a lot of hard work, Joseph is promoted and eventually runs the household, where Mrs. Potiphar (Sophia Dompier) makes advances toward Joseph, which he declines.

Potiphar sees them together though and gets the wrong idea and decides to throw Joseph in prison. In prison, Joseph interprets the dreams of two fellow prisoners, former servants of the Pharoah (Vanessa Cole). The prisoners, in turn, encourage Joseph to follow his dreams, but it won’t be an easy journey for Joseph.

The wives are played by Cole, Jocelyn Caughlan, Dompier, Amanda Guariscoa, Chloe Kelly, Adeline Kraft, Dahlia Kothare, Nicole Ostlie, Sydney Petersen, Alex Read and Megan Sok.

The students/children’s chorus are Kensington Dean, Harper Drake, Alexandria Germeaux, Hannah Gigstead, Maisee LaPlante, Amelia LaPlante, Declan Leavitt, Amelie Miller, Lennox Miller, Asher Milonas, Axl Olsen, Mia Sims and Sophia Winings.

The orchestra features Christian Skok (piano/conductor), Isabella Mesenbrink (keyboard 1), Deborah Rambo Sinn (keyboard 2), Rob Peterson (bass), Tim Zilar (guitar), Jennifer Brummett (horn), Craig Catlett (woodwind 1), Jill Cathey (woodwind 2), Bryan Swenland (percussion 1) and Taylor Belote (percussion set).

The show is directed by Collin J. Pittmann, music directed by Skok, choreographed by Angela Rose Pierson and stage managed by Braeden Rowland. It features technical direction and scenic design by David Baker and costumes by Esther Iverson.

Jeanette Brenner is the hair and wig mistress, Daniel Urzika is the senior sound engineer and Logan Tiedt is the lighting designer.

At home, the Olsens practice in their own ways. Axl has the songs he performs loaded on his iPad, while Drew will watch videos of choreography from rehearsals in the living room.

They all call on each other when needed though, with, for example, Andrea running lines with Axl and Drew asking Andrea for choreography help.

“I’ve wanted to be better at choreography and dancing and singing, that’s been a goal of mine over the past few years, and a challenge to myself as someone who didn’t grow up doing theater,” Drew said.

“So (‘Go, Go, Go Joseph’ is) a frustrating number, because it’s putting together singing, acting and dancing at the same time, but it’s challenging me to learn a new skill as an adult.”

Axl doesn’t have a favorite song, but he is excited for audiences to see the dreamcoat, designed by Linay Robison, and the set, designed by Baker. He’s one of the few children who get to walk on a platform being used as a bridge that he estimates is more than 10 feet off the ground.

Pittmann said seeing the younger actors be so excited about the show, the set and the adult cast members who they see as role models has been a heartwarming experience. Pittmann, who was in a production of “Joseph” as one of the brothers in 2018, saw the show for the first time as a child and fell in love with its spectacle and joy.

Each song, he said, is a big company number and there are a lot of musical styles represented.

While some directors choose to cut the children’s choir from their production, Pittmann leaned into what it’s like to experience this show as a young person and has made the Narrator a school teacher who is guiding her students through the story of Joseph, ” ‘Magic School Bus’-style.”

“That, to me, is really the heart of the story,” he said. “It makes it so much more powerful and so much more heartwarming to have the students really be an integral part of it.”

The size of the cast and those diverse musical numbers can sometimes deter directors from tackling the show, Pittmann said, but he wasn’t intimidated, knowing he was supported by the Spokane Valley Summer Theatre team, who he sees as chosen family members.

Baker, he knew, would come up with an “outstanding and brilliant” concept for the set, while Pierson, who Pittmann said speaks the same artistic language as him, created “stellar” choreography that highlights the anticipation around the coat. He also had the mentorship of Executive Artistic Director Yvonne A.K. Johnson.

He also has Andrea Olsen, his former voice teacher, as the narrator, a role he called the through line guiding the cast and musicians, as well as the audience, from one song to the next.

“From the get go, I feel like I was really set up for success, for it to be grand and quite the spectacle,” he said.

Part of the spectacle of the show, of course, comes from the coat Joseph receives from his father. Pittmann wanted the coat to be special to his production, so he decided not to borrow a coat from another theater and instead enlisted Robison to create (small spoiler alert) three dreamcoats for the production.

The coats feature constellations sewn into the trim to “highlight the idea that our show is all about the cosmic power of dreams,” Pittman said.

As the narrator, Andrea Olsen has helped guide the younger actors through the importance of dreaming to Joseph and characters like the baker and the butler. They’ve also talked about how they would feel if a sibling received a gift like the dreamcoat and they didn’t.

When working with the adults, Pittmann asked them to remember the dreams they’ve had for which the stakes felt as high as they are for Joseph.

With all the dream talk, Pittmann said “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” is a perfect show for Spokane Valley Summer Theatre.

“SVST, as an organization, from the very beginning, has been all about dreams and really attempting to set a standard for definitive productions regionally,” Pittmann said.

“What greater show to really embody that than this show about, literally, dreams and the power of those dreams? It’s really exciting, and it feels like such a celebratory way to close out our tenth anniversary season, too.”