Those about to rock … are already rocking | John Moore

A veteran stage actor’s program is typically filled with past performing glories in “Les Misérables” or “Beauty and the Beast.” Not often do you see way more interesting life details revealed, like: “Ethan also plays flag football”; “Liam has been taking drumming lessons since he was 5”; or, “Christopher hopes to one day be part of a great teen cover band.”

That’s how you fill the space when your bio only spans about a dozen years. (But aren’t kid bios so much more interesting to read?)  

“School of Rock,” which requires about a half-dozen such ukulele-sized players, is a musical that demonstrates the power of music to transform misfit kids into confident, purpose-driven little rock stars when they are simply encouraged to lean into what they’re truly passionate about. And not just the characters onstage. It happens to the young actors playing those characters as well.

Local audiences got two excellent chances to see that play out in 2024. First with a large-scale staging by the new Veritas Productions in Parker, followed by a more intimate take at the Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden.

Two little local rockers were featured in both productions: Liam Dodge (then a 9^th grader) on drums, and Christopher Gawlikowski (then an 8^th grader) absolutely shredding his guitar.

“School of Rock” is based on the morally dubious 2003 Jack Black film about a failed, wannabe rock star who decides to earn a few extra bucks by posing as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school. There, he forgoes teaching the students, well, anything else as he turns a bunch of stressed and repressed straight-A students into a mind-blowing rock band. While also (just go with this) helping their uptight parents rediscover their wild child within.

Stage directors often speak wistfully of finding the elusive “triple-threat” actor – that’s one who can act, sing and dance. Hard to find at any age. But in “School of Rock,” they also must be able to legitimately play an instrument – and crazy well. “You have to come loaded,” said Warren Sherrill, who directed the Miners Alley production that came six months later.

You’d think finding these pint-sized prodigies, preferably not yet in their teens, might be a little like finding a bona fide leprechaun in Ireland. But about 100 wee hopefuls showed up to try out for the Parker staging. 

And from the first auditions in December to closing night in February, producer Nancy Evans Begley saw Liam and Chris become completely different kids.

“When Liam came in to audition, we were like, ‘Oh my God, he is our drummer,’” she said. “But his mom told us Liam wasn’t doing great in school, and he was having a hard time focusing.” Even more so with Christopher, who was withdrawn, she said, and was having trouble clearly communicating.

Enter directors Katie Reid Milazzo, and music directors Michael and Amy Pickering.

“The second you got Liam behind a drum kit doing the thing that he loves most, he blossomed into this really confident kid,” Evans Begley said. “And the minute Chris got that guitar in his hands, he just transported onto a different plane of existence.” By the time the show closed, she said, Chris was rocking it so hard, he was putting the guitar behind his head, “and he just ripped.”

What Chris loves most about the musical is what he loves most about rock: “The freedom,” he said. “I feel like it allows you to explore.” For Liam, the show’s mantra is now his own: “Don’t be a robot. You don’t have to do everything everyone says. Be passionate about what you do.”

When Sherrill set out to cast his kids for a July opening in Golden, he was no dummy: He scooped up Liam and Chris. And when those rehearsals started with an otherwise fresh slate of musician kids, Liam and Chris were different people – and by now inseparable best friends.

“They brought this camaraderie onto the room, and I think that was a really huge lift for us, because all the other kids looked up to them,” Sherrill said. “That automatically made them the leaders of the group. And they freely took on the responsibilities of leadership. They really wanted to make sure we were all doing this thing right.”

And that, in a coda, is what “School of Rock” (at its best) is all about. “Sure, it’s about being a misfit and finding a way to fit in,” Sherrill said. “But ultimately, it’s your passion that will make you happy – as long as you pursue it and don’t let anybody stop you.”

That can also be said of pretty much any kid who goes into their school theater program looking for a place to belong. “Once these kids come in and they feel secure and supported and they meet other people that are like them, it’s amazing what that can do for them,” Sherrill said. “And that, I feel like that was the experience we had with these guys.”

Caleb Reed, who played Dewey in Parker and came Golden to cheer his crossover castmates on, said the “School of Rock” experience(s) will live long inside Chris and Liam.

“Rock and roll is awesome,” he said. “Whatever that is – the mentality; the spirit of it – those kids created bonds that make it look like they have known each other their whole lives.” 

Sir Ethan Hershman

For any look back at the Colorado theater year, attention must also be paid to now 11-year-old Ethan Hershman, who played Mason (the band’s tech-savvy effects designer) in Veritas’ “School of Rock” but was not available for Miners Alley’s summer staging because he was already tapped to play young Joseph in Performance Now’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at the Lakewood Cultural Center.

This after charming audiences (and becoming the youngest winner in the 18-year history of the Henry Awards) for his starring turn as lisping young Winthrop Paroo in Performance Now’s winning production of “The Music Man.” Ethan, whose acting is a little scary good for his age, had crowds weeping at the end of Act 1. For both “The Music Man” and “Joseph,” he was 10 years old.

Right now, he’s the featured falsetto singer in Sherrill’s production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s mini-opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” at the Wellshire Presbyterian Church. That’s a 2024 slate that few actors of any age can match. (All while going to school. And, evidently, playing flag football.) He’ll start the new year as one (of two) kids playing Michael Banks in Give5 Productions’ “Mary Poppins” at the PACE Center. 

Did I mention he’s 11? He’s not. 

“He’s 35,” Sherrill said. At least by any measure of experience.

“That kid works like he’s a 35-year-old professional actor,” Sherrill said. “He listens, he takes notes, he has fun, he explores, he’s focused.”

He’s honed his craft for half his life as an almost-annual cast member in a huge annual music revue called Magic Moments, along with much of his family. But even when he was 5, says his mother, local choreographer Allison Hershman Owens, “it’s always been Ethan’s choice.”

But was there ever, really?

“I was teaching a dance class right up to when I went into labor,” she ‘fessed up with a laugh.

“But he truly loves every second of it, she said, “and has chosen to keep pursuing it.”

Having directed Liam, Chris and Ethan in 2024, Sherrill points out that the power of working with youngsters is a two-way energy.

“You walk away every night after rehearsal just feeling younger, feeling enthused, knowing full-well why you’re doing this,” he said, “because you know that you’re having an effect on their lives – and they are having one on yours. I loved every minute of it, to be honest.”

Note: The True West Awards, now in their 24th year, began as the Denver Post Ovation Awards in 2001. Denver Gazette Senior Arts Journalist John Moore celebrates the Colorado theater community by revisiting 30 good stories from the past year without categories or nominations.