Bluefield Youth and Community Theatre Season Preview
Photo provided by Rampage student photographer Elei Haynes.
Bluefield Youth and Community Theatre (BYCT) has four shows planned for the 2025-2026 season. In the fall, BYCT will present You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Annie with Romeo and Juliet and Hadestown to follow in the spring.
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown brings several changes into the BYCT management — the main change being that Ashley Burton-Pruitt will be directing this show instead of BYCT’s regular director, Charles Reese.
Though Reese will direct the shows in the lineup for the rest of the season, Burton-Pruitt, who is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in theatre directing from Randolph College, will be the sole director for You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
“This is such a fun, colorful show that sparks everyone’s inner child,” Burton-Pruitt said. “Directing this group doesn’t feel like work. We are always laughing and learning from each other throughout the script, songs, and dances. BYCT is such a special program to me, and I feel incredibly honored and privileged to be their director in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”
In addition to director changes, Dr. Jeremy Yowell will be the music director of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown with his wife, Melissa, assisting him for the production. Considering the couple participated in last year’s production of Fiddler on the Roof and their enjoyment of the program, both the Yowells and the directors of BYCT agreed that the two were perfect additions to the show, as they lend their musical expertise to the production.
Reese will resume directing for BYCT’s second fall production, Annie. He said he’s looking forward to the production.
“I’ve directed Annie multiple times before,” Reese said. “It’s one of my favorite shows.”
Reese hopes that, given the fact that Bluefield has shown the junior version of this particular play before, some of the previous actors will return to the stage for this year’s production.
“We did a junior version of it here in 2016, and we’re hoping that some of the people who played roles in that junior production are going to come back this time and play some of the adult roles in this full staging of it,” Reese said.
As for Romeo and Juliet in the spring, Reese said that this particular production will broaden BYCT’s horizons into doing student matinees that will appeal to older audiences.
“We rarely have something that will appeal to educators in the older grades,” Reese said, “and we’re hoping we’ll be able to get some high school and middle school tour groups in to see Romeo and Juliet.”
BYCT’s 2025-2026 season will end with a new show to the program, Hadestown, which Reese is most looking forward to this season.
“The biggest thing I am looking forward to is Hadestown,” he said. “It’s such a fun musical; it’s got a lot of jazz music and a great score, so we’re really looking forward to that one.”
Hadestown is the most contemporary show that BYCT has tackled in years. The show is one that many of BYCT’s actors were interested in. With this show catering to older youth and college-aged students, this show will be an interesting addition to BYCT’s tradition of ending the season with a large musical production.