Central Florida Community Arts (cfcarts.com) has taken on some ambitious projects during its 13 years, but even their largest past efforts pale in comparison to this weekend’s massive concert staging of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Northland Church in Longwood. Nearly 250 participating members — including senior storytellers, young thespians and autistic adults — will come together Thursday and Friday, Sept. 7-8, under director of production Juan Torres. Torres made time in his busy schedule as a live entertainment production manager at Walt Disney World to serve as artistic director of his first show for CFCArts. I talked with Torres as he was heading into tech week about the challenges and rewards of assembling such a super-sized show, starting with …
… his history with CFCArts:
I will be celebrating 20 years with Disney in October, and that career has been amazing and has led to so many opportunities. … I’m not classically trained, so most of my training [was] going to UCF through Gene Columbus’ theater class; volunteer opportunities in Central Florida have really been my catalyst learning about entertainment. I’ve been with CFCArts for five years, and my big push with all of this work is truly the ability to give back. So many people have given to me in my career, and have taught me how to get to where I am, and all I want to do is be able to give that back to the people as well; allow them a space and an outlet to grow and be their authentic selves.
… expanding the usual definition of “concert staging”:
Justin Muchoney, our VP of production, has truly challenged our teams on how does this community organization with people from everyday lives come together and provide something unique to the community that is different than what people have seen before? We’re not going to have the full-scale setting that a theatrical venue or a Broadway show would have, but we’re going to have representation of all of that, so there will be costumes, there will be performers, [and] there’s going to be a 120- to 130-piece choir singing these great songs by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. There’s going to be 28 ensemble and principal members who are going to be the characters, helping us tell their story holistically. … Not even on Broadway do you really see a 50-piece orchestra — the bands are usually 15 to 20 — but there’s 50 members of our symphony orchestra coming together.
Beauty and the Beast was the perfect story at the right time to showcase on this big stage, while it’s not only celebrating its 30th anniversary, but Disney is celebrating 100 years.
… building a diverse ensemble:
In the current world that we live in, inclusivity, diversity, support and building community are all at the forefront of thought, so who can Belle be? Who can Lumiere or the Beast be? It doesn’t necessarily need to be something that fits the mold of the story. We’re telling our own story. We’re building our own community through the arts, through what Central Florida gives. So when we looked at casting all of the characters, we focused more on “What talents are you bringing to help us tell this story, [and] how can you be a collaborator in telling this story?” And that lent itself to finding a very diverse cast of not only color and race, but also gender inclusivity and body inclusivity.
… merging many different disciplines with only 17 hours of technical & dress rehearsals together:
My approach as artistic director has been collaboration. My reference with the cast is, we’re building a lasagna.
There’s all these various features in it that eventually will come together to create this great experience; we’re building all of these layers, and we’re building on top of each other [and] building those moments. Someone’s working in one room with one team, someone’s working in another room with another team, and now this week — as we get to tech week — is when all of those various layers come together to create the final product.
It really is a beast, for lack of a better word!
… the importance of “community” in CFCArts:
We want everyone’s expectations to be set that it’s a concert. What we deliver beyond that expectation is what the wow factor is, but the community part of it is the huge takeaway and this is a community engagement.
This is more about the members, and those volunteering their time to be a part of it, than it is about me [or] any of us on the creative team. We just want to make sure that these people have an outlet to be able to do what they love, and enjoy it.
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This article appears in Sep 6-12, 2023.