On a recent afternoon at Fossil Ridge High School, Director Mikalya Assmus tells the students to grab their props and get into character. They’re about to run through a scene from a pilot show, Kimberly Akimbo The Musical – High School Version. Instantly, they go from using slang like “locked in” to saying, “get in the zone,” and referring to their phones as “tamagotchis.”
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“This is something I realized in the remount process, (that) going from being teenagers in 2026 is very different than being teenagers in 1999,” Assmus said. “When they're able to interact with each other without scripted words (before practicing), they learn some more stuff about their characters and are ready for whatever we’re doing that day.”
The students are practicing the show for four hours a day every day to keep it sharp for a rare performance this summer. This theatre troupe is one of twelve worldwide that have been selected to perform at the International Thespian Festival Main Stage, where thousands will be watching.
“It's a week of theatre kids supporting theatre kids,” Assmus said. “It’s my favorite week of the year.”
Senior Jonah Bryant, who plays Kimberly's dad in the show, remembers the day Director Assmus told the cast.
“She gave us a slide show, and she told us, ‘We got our feedback,’” Bryant said. “I remember looking over at Charlotte (in the room) and being like, ‘You see that over there? That's a camera to record our reactions.’ And I was correct about it.”
“I think immediately I just wanted to cry because we didn't really know if we were gonna get in or not,” Sophomore Charlotte Barstow said. “It felt more like a 50-50 chance, and kind of just being held up to the reputation of the upperclassmen before us that had gone.”
This theater program is no stranger to a national stage - they took the show Alice By Heart to Indiana two years ago. Director Assmus was thrilled.
“I was like, I don't know if we could do it again, it's really competitive, and there's a lot of awesome schools out there,” Assmus said. “Someone was joking that there's something fancy in the water at Fossil Ridge for theater. But we also just have a really talented performing arts program.”
That reputation is what drew Bryant to the high school in the first place – originally for choir, but now for theatre as well.
“I’m leaving more grateful than ever that I stayed all four years and was able to participate in this theatre program because it sparked my passion for what I want to do for the rest of my life,” Bryant said. He’s looking into a musical theatre degree.
It’s a similar story for senior Macie Patrias, who plays the lead role of Kimberly Lovaco.
“I wrote on every single college application scholarship, ‘My entire life was dictated by theatre and I don't regret it whatsoever,’” she said. “That is just how I introduced myself, is, ‘Hi, I’m Macie. I'm a theater kid,’ and I love that so much.”
The show tells the story of a high school girl who has a rare condition that causes her to age rapidly and shorten her life expectancy. Fossil Ridge was the first high school in the nation to work on the show. Junior Jonah Reyes, who plays Kimberly's love interest in the show, is excited to share this story with audiences.
“I think theater does an incredible way of giving an audience temporary empathy for an entire person's life,” Reyes said. “Audiences are essentially forced to ask the question of how can you live your life to the fullest?”
Sophomore Sawyer Suchy agrees. He plays Martin Doaty, one of the show choir students.
“A line that my character has in the show is, ‘Who cares? It's not like any of this counts,’ talking about once you get out of high school, that's whenever your life actually starts mattering,” Suchy said. “Kimberly doesn’t get that…I think it is a really big message of learning to cherish everything, no matter what.”
They’re not just practicing for the big performance in June – they’re doing encore performances in May to raise money to get to the Thespian Festival that's roughly 1,100 miles away. Director Assmus estimates that transporting all the students, their families, their set and all their equipment costs over $100,000.
She wants locals to support these talented students – not just for their fundraiser, but because they have worked hard to receive this honor.
“There's so much good theater and art in our high schools,” Assmus said. “Like everybody thinks about going to the Buell or going to the Lincoln Center and seeing all these professional productions, but we're seeing some professional level productions on our high school stages.”
Kimberly Akimbo the Musical runs Friday and Saturday. Tickets can be purchased on Fossil Ridge High School’s website.
