Madalynn Wilson
Lantern Staff
Khyah Van Es, a freshman at Butler, just wrapped up her final performance of Memphis at the Forum Theater in Wichita a couple weeks ago. She performed from Friday, Sept. 27 to Friday, Oct. 13 every Thursday through Sunday.
Van Es is majoring in music education and is on scholarship for theater performance.
This was her first time performing for the Forum Theater, and she heard about the auditions from her grandma’s neighbor.
“My grandma’s neighbor gets season tickets for the Forum, and she saw that they were doing Memphis and was like ‘Oh my gosh, you should audition’,” Van Es said. “…she tagged me on Facebook, and I told a couple of my buddies.”
Her best friend Emerson, who attends Wichita State University, decided to audition with her. She had to prepare an upbeat song and ballad for her audition, so she chose “Almost There” from Princess and the Frog and “The Color Purple (Reprise)” from The Color Purple. Both she and her friend were cast as bill street dancers and a part of the ensemble.
Once she got the part, Van Es had rehearsals Monday through Thursday from seven to 10 p.m. starting Monday, Aug. 26. She continued with that schedule, along with a full load of classes, until tech week began on Sunday, Sept. 22, and she had rehearsal until midnight every night. Then the show began.
“I would get my makeup on, get my costume and we’d start the show and it got done pretty quickly,” Van Es said. “It was like a two hour musical, but it felt like it went by really fast, and I had a lot of fun, had a lot of energy throughout the whole show, so show nights went quick.”
The show was sold out so many times that they even added an extra one on the final Sunday.
“I would like to [be in another show] in the future, but I can’t while I’m on scholarship here because they need me to be available in case I’m in another show here,” Van Es said. “They don’t want to have conflicting schedules.”
She has already begun rehearsals for her next show, “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus,” at Butler. She will play three parts: a scholar, the Duchess and a friar. There will be four performances from Thursday, Nov. 21 through Saturday, Nov. 23.
