Library shoe fundraiser takes on island vibe

A Source of Joy Theatricals, the producers of Broadway In The Hood, and Shoes for Children are presenting “Once on This Island,” Friday through Sunday at the West Las Vegas Library Theater as a benefit to help collect shoes for underprivileged children.

Nominated for eight Tonys on Broadway, including best musical, “Once on This Island” uses Calypso-flavored music and dance to tell the story of a young Caribbean girl who falls in love with a wealthy boy from the other side of her island.

The play borrows from “The Little Mermaid” to tell a story about love and compassion overcoming prejudice and death, explains Torrey Russell, Source of Joy Theatricals founder and director and choreographer for this production.

The Tony Award-winning songwriting team of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, who wrote “Seussical” and “Ragtime,” wrote the play.

Costume design is by Source of Joy Theatricals co-founder Preston Coghill.

Comedian “Sweet” Lou Collins and the West Las Vegas Library Theatre started the Shoes for Children Drive in 1995 and this will be the 20th annual drive. Shoe drive donations will be accepted at all benefit performances and will also be accepted through Dec. 23, at all Las Vegas-Clark County Library District branches. New pairs of children’s athletic shoes sized to fit preschoolers to high school youth are requested.

Since its inception in 2010, Broadway In The Hood has produced major original productions and such Broadway blockbusters as “Dreamgirls,” “The Color Purple” and “Rent.”

The organization has been given awards by the NAACP and the American Theatre Wing and was nominated for an Emmy in 2014.

An encore performance of “Once on This Island” will be presented at the Troesh Studio Theater at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts on March 13, 14 and 15 as a benefit fundraiser for Broadway In The Hood. Tickets are $21 and are on sale.

Russell and Coghill founded A Source of Joy Theatricals as “an opportunity for youth” residing in communities plagued with poverty and violence “to be involved in professional level theater.” The national organization is based in Las Vegas.

Russell says he grew up poor and abused, and “theater became a saving grace.”

He later served as manager for the late poet Maya Angelou who said that the talented young performers in Broadway In The Hood are “a rainbow in flowers, not only to the community, but to the world.”

Las Vegas native Teshi Thomas, who recently starred on Broadway as Young Nala in “The Lion King,” says that a school friend told her about Broadway In The Hood.

“Go to this audition, it will change your life,” she says the friend recommended. Thomas, who is now 12, auditioned for Russell when she was 7.

Russell says that when he saw Thomas perform, “she had such a sparkle, I went home and wrote a two-hour musical for her.”

Thomas performed as Angel in the acclaimed Broadway In The Hood original production, “Orphan Blues: A Gospel Musical.”

Other success stories include Dani Corley. When Gladys Knight saw Corley as Essie in the Broadway In The Hood production of “Dreamgirls,” she hired her as a backup singer for her act.

The 2013 “Do You Think You Can Dance?” winner De-Shaunt “Fik-Shun” Stegall also performed with Broadway In The Hood.

Admission to the benefit performance is free, but tickets are required and may be picked up two hours before each performance on a first-come, first-serve basis at the West Las Vegas Theater box office. There is a two-ticket limit per person.

Russell notes that the theater seats 400 and “we turn away 300 or more people from every show.”