By LAURa QUEZADA News Review Staff Writer– Heart & Soul: A Musical Journey, an original production presented by The Ridgecrest Musical Enrichment Society (RMES), plays for two weekends at Parker Performing Arts Center on the campus of Burroughs High School. The lights come up at 6:30 on Fridays and Saturdays, August 30, 31, and September 6, 7. Tickets for the two hour show are $12.00 General Admission, $10.00 Seniors (55+), Students, Military, $8.00 Children 12 and under, RMES Members, RMES Founders. Tickets are at Red Rock Books and are available online via a link on their Facebook page or website: rmesonline.com.
Heart & Soul is the brainchild of Director Britney Brown, who is also a statistician on the Base. She tells us, “I came up with this idea of a mind-swapping variety show back in 2016. I still have my old notebook, which I entitled Project 2016 B. And I’ve been revisiting it ever since.” Brown became a board member of RMES, and when they were trying to decide on a show, she offered her script. She says it was basically an outline, and with the help of the board, they fleshed it out. “They just filled in a lot of the gaps and came up with some really good ideas,” says Brown, “because every once in a while you hit a plateau, so it’s really nice to have just a whole group of people willing to step in and throw in such funny jokes.
“It’s a jukebox musical,” explains Brown. “We have a storyline, and then key plot points we just fill in with some of our favorite Broadway musicals. And the story is simply about a scientist who starts a new job and something goes awry, and she starts jumping into the minds of other people. And that’s how we were able to just feature a lot of our talented cast to just say, ‘Okay, there you go, now you’re that lead.’ Boom, jump into the next person. ‘Now you’re that lead.’ So it’s a variety show, but it’s there’s a story to it.”
Brown is a bit of a phenom. She transferred to UCLA as a Junior at 17 and graduated with a master’s Degree in Statistics when she was 21. This brilliant mind is housed in a talented body. She began dancing when she was four years old, studying at Sierra Academy of Dance (SDA). She tells us, “I highly credit Cate (DeMin, owner of SDA) with giving me a love for performing.” When DeMin heard these remarks, she emphatically stated, “Britney belongs on Broadway.”
“I took my very first voice lessons with David Hodgson when I was around 10 years old, and I’ve been doing music since I was four as well. My parents started me early, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.” Her primary instruments are violin and piano; she picked up the flute for a while. “I would never claim to be a flutist. I still play violin to this day at my church.”
A wrist injury changed the trajectory of Brown’s creative ambitions. She had planned to be a musician, but after the injury, she realized, “You know what? Maybe playing the violin, maybe playing the piano, it’s not going to be for me. So, I leaned into the dance, leading me to RMES.
“My very first RMES show was a variety show back in 2014 or 2015, Once Upon a Dream, and I was just a dancer. It was so much fun. The next time they had auditions was just a few weeks after I had hurt my wrist the first time, and I was like, ‘You know, I’m gonna try out singing,’ and I ended up getting cast as Beth March in Little Women. I’ve been in nearly every RMES show since then, I think, on stage or backstage. RMES, as people in general, are some of the most talented people I’ve ever met. But not only are they talented, they are also the most supportive people ever.”
This production pulls together some very talented Ridgecrest residents. The production team includes Brown as Director, Larry Cosner as Assistant Director (Brown says she would not survive the show without him), Marla Cosner as Musical Director, Natalie Grubbs and Inde Alexander as choreographers, and tap choreographers Stacy Jensen and Madeline Benson. Some of the lead performers are Krysten Coursey, Brian Cosner, John Cosner, Samuel Jensen, Beth Gabrillo, Jason Ertl and Becca Coursey. Brown appears in Act II as Shelby.
RMES supports the performing arts and asks that people wear show t-shirts from any performance group to opening night. Brown intends to highlight the fact that RMES is “totally nonprofit. Our proceeds will go back to Sierra Sands School District Art Music programs. This is all for the kids. Yeah, it’s a fun project for us, but we also know that the end result is to support students. And we have a lot of people who volunteer on set days. They’ve just been volunteering so much of their time, so much of their artwork and their talent.”
