Seussical Opens Spotlight Acting School’s 24th Season With Two Casts and a Senior Send-Off 🎭

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

That simple idea sits at the heart of Seussical the Musical. It also fits the work Spotlight Acting School has been doing in Berea for more than two decades: every student matters, every role matters, and every young person deserves an opportunity to be heard.

Spotlight Acting School will begin its 24th season with Seussical the Musical, performed by its 14 to 18-year-old students from July 31 through August 9, 2026, at The Spotlight Playhouse. The production brings together some of Dr. Seuss’s best-known characters, including Horton the Elephant, the Cat in the Hat, Jojo, Gertrude McFuzz, Mayzie La Bird, the Sour Kangaroo, and the tiny citizens of Whoville. Behind the colorful costumes, playful language, and energetic music is a story about loyalty, courage, imagination, and standing beside people whose voices are being ignored. It is a joyful way to begin a new season. It is also an emotional final Spotlight Acting School production for several students preparing to leave home for college.

Two Complete Casts Take the Stage 🎟️

Spotlight’s production features two complete groups of performers. The Blue Cast will perform during the first weekend, July 31 through August 2. The Purple Cast will take the stage during the second weekend, August 7 through 9. Both casts include their own principal performers, featured characters, and ensemble members. The color names simply distinguish the two groups; they do not represent a ranking or indicate that one cast is considered more important than the other.

Producing two full casts is a major undertaking. Each group must learn the complete show. Every principal role must be developed twice. Music, choreography, blocking, costumes, rehearsal schedules, and technical needs must be coordinated for both companies. That requires more work from the directors and production team, but it creates far more opportunities for students.

Instead of one student receiving the chance to play Horton, Jojo, Gertrude, the Cat in the Hat, or another major role, two students can explore the character and develop their own interpretation. The audience also has the opportunity to see how different performers bring their personalities, voices, and instincts to the same material. The words and music may be identical, but the performances will not be, which is part of the fun.

Horton Hears a Who, and Everything Changes 🐘

The story begins when Horton the Elephant hears a tiny voice coming from a speck of dust. No one else can hear it. The other animals in the Jungle of Nool believe Horton is imagining things. They laugh at him, question him, and eventually try to stop him from protecting the speck, but Horton refuses to abandon it.

Inside that tiny world is Whoville, home to the Whos and a young thinker named Jojo. Jojo’s imagination often gets him into trouble because he cannot stop having unusual “thinks.” The Cat in the Hat becomes Jojo’s guide through a world where imagination can create wonderful possibilities and unexpected consequences.

Horton soon faces a second responsibility when the glamorous and unreliable Mayzie La Bird asks him to watch her egg. What sounds like a short favor becomes another test of Horton’s patience and loyalty. While Horton protects both the Whos and the egg, Gertrude McFuzz struggles to find the confidence to tell him how much she cares about him.

The stories eventually come together through danger, separation, a courtroom trial, and one final attempt to make the Whos heard. The musical combines ideas and characters from several Dr. Seuss books, especially Horton Hears a Who!, Horton Hatches the Egg, and the story of Gertrude McFuzz. The result is not simply a parade of familiar characters; it is one connected story about people trying to be seen, heard, and valued.

Songs Filled With Humor and Heart 🎶

The score was written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the celebrated musical theater team behind shows including Ragtime and Once on This Island. The musical begins with “Oh, the Thinks You Can Think,” an energetic invitation to imagine the world that is about to appear onstage.

“Horton Hears a Who” introduces the moment that places Horton on his difficult path. “Biggest Blame Fool” shows how quickly a community can turn against someone who refuses to follow the crowd. Horton and Jojo find an unexpected connection in “Alone in the Universe,” one of the show’s most touching songs. Although they live in completely different worlds, both understand what it feels like to be dismissed, misunderstood, or left alone with thoughts no one else seems to share.

Gertrude’s journey moves from the comic “The One Feather Tail of Miss Gertrude McFuzz” to “Notice Me, Horton” and the joyful “All for You.” Mayzie receives some of the show’s funniest moments in “Amayzing Mayzie” and “How Lucky You Are,” while the Sour Kangaroo and the Wickersham Brothers bring enormous personality to the Jungle of Nool. The score gives the cast opportunities to be funny, loud, thoughtful, vulnerable, and completely theatrical, making Seussical an excellent showcase for Spotlight’s oldest student group and for two casts filled with individual personalities.

From Spotlight Student to Lead Director 🌟

Senior Director Jazzlyn Threlkeld is thrilled to lead Spotlight’s 14 to 18-year-old performers into the new season. Her role in the production represents the kind of long-term creative path Spotlight hopes to build for its students.

Threlkeld began at Spotlight as a student. She learned the rehearsal process from inside the cast, developed her abilities onstage, and gradually accepted greater responsibilities. She continued her education, earned her college degree, and is now building her career while serving as one of Spotlight’s senior directors.

She is a true Spotlight success story. Students who once looked up to their directors can eventually become assistants, teachers, designers, technicians, and directors themselves. That progression is important. The purpose of arts education is not simply to produce one successful show; it is to give young people skills they can carry into adulthood and, in some cases, bring back to the organization that helped them discover those abilities.

Threlkeld now stands at the front of rehearsal rooms much like the ones in which she once learned as a student. She understands the excitement of receiving a role, the nervousness of opening night, and the work required to move from early rehearsals to a finished production. She also understands what this particular show means for the graduating members of her casts.

Spotlight’s Traditional Senior Play 🎓

The first 14 to 18-year-old production of Spotlight’s season has become its traditional senior play. Several cast members graduated from high school in May, and by the time Seussical closes, some will be only days away from leaving for college.

That timing is intentional. Many schools and youth organizations attempt to squeeze senior recognition performances, banquets, concerts, and final productions into a very narrow graduation window in May. That is already one of the busiest periods in a student’s life, as seniors are completing exams, attending ceremonies, preparing for graduation, finishing extracurricular activities, and trying to spend time with friends before everyone begins moving in different directions.

Spotlight does not have to compete for that crowded window. By placing its senior production at the beginning of the new season, graduating students can finish school, breathe for a moment, and then return to the stage for one final show with the friends and theater family beside whom they have grown up.

The production becomes a bridge between two parts of their lives. These students are no longer high school seniors, but many have not yet left for college. For a few final weeks, they remain together in a familiar rehearsal room, working toward a shared opening night. Then the curtain closes, the set comes down, and another kind of departure begins.

Some Will Leave, and Some Will Stay 🧳

Some of Spotlight’s graduating students will soon leave Berea to attend college. They will enter new classrooms, meet new people, and find new creative communities. The confidence, discipline, and teamwork they developed through theater will travel with them.

Other graduates will remain in the area and continue performing through the Bluegrass Players, Spotlight’s open and competitive community theater company. That transition gives students another path forward. A young performer does not suddenly stop being an artist because high school has ended. The Bluegrass Players allow graduates to work alongside adult performers, take on more mature material, and continue developing without aging out of the Spotlight community.

Some students may return during college breaks, some may volunteer backstage, and some may eventually direct, just as Threlkeld has. Others may follow careers completely outside theater while carrying the lessons they learned from it. Spotlight’s job is not to decide where every student must go; it is to help them become brave enough to go there.

A Musical About Being Heard 📣

That makes Seussical an especially meaningful senior production. Horton believes in the Whos even when everyone around him calls him foolish. Jojo learns that having a different imagination is not a weakness. Gertrude discovers that becoming worthy of love does not require turning herself into someone else.

The Whos survive because one small voice voices finally join the others and makes their entire world impossible to ignore. Those ideas matter to young performers preparing to enter adulthood. They will encounter people who underestimate them, they will enter rooms where they feel small, they will make choices that others do not understand, and they will sometimes need the courage to speak when no one appears to be listening. The message of Seussical is not that the loudest person is always right; it is that every person has worth, and every voice has the potential to matter.

A Show That Found Its Home Beyond Broadway 🎟️

Seussical opened on Broadway in 2000 after development in New York and Toronto. The original production was large, elaborate, and expensive. Although audiences enjoyed the characters and music, the Broadway version did not become the long-running commercial success many had predicted.

Ahrens and Flaherty later returned to the material for a national tour. They simplified the physical production, strengthened Jojo’s role, and placed more attention on the story, music, and imagination. The revised version received a warmer response. When performance rights became available to schools and community theaters in 2004, Seussical found the theatrical life it had been seeking, becoming one of the most frequently produced shows in the Music Theatre International catalog.

That history feels appropriate for Spotlight. The show discovered that it did not need the largest stage or the biggest budget to succeed. It needed committed performers, inventive directors, and audiences willing to use their imaginations. Those are resources that community theaters and acting schools understand very well.

Beginning the 24th Season 🎉

Starting a 24th season is worth celebrating. Thousands of rehearsals, performances, auditions, and opening nights stand behind that number. So do the students who began as nervous children and grew into confident teenagers, college students, working adults, volunteers, and directors. Some remained in theater, while others carried what they learned into classrooms, businesses, families, and careers that may never place them beneath a stage light again.

Each season begins with new students stepping forward, and each season also includes a few who are preparing to take their final Spotlight Acting School bow. Seussical holds both experiences at once. It opens the door to another year of creativity while giving Spotlight’s graduating seniors time to say goodbye. The Cat in the Hat asks audiences to imagine all the things they can think. For Spotlight’s students, the more important question may be what they will do next.

Performance Details 🗓️

Spotlight Acting School will present Seussical the Musical from July 31 through August 9, 2026, at The Spotlight Playhouse, located at 214 Richmond Road in Berea.

• The Blue Cast will perform July 31 through August 2.
• The Purple Cast will perform August 7 through 9.

The production features Spotlight’s 14 to 18-year-old students and is led by Senior Director Jazzlyn Threlkeld. Complete performance times and ticket information are available through The Spotlight Playhouse website. The show is filled with colorful characters, memorable songs, comedy, imagination, and a message that remains as important for adults as it is for children: a person’s a person, no matter how small.

About the Author 👤

Chad Hembree serves as the Executive Director of Spotlight Acting School, The Spotlight Playhouse, and Spotlight Performing Arts. A resident of Berea, Kentucky, and a former member of the Berea Council, he has spent decades working in community theater, arts education, and local journalism. Since 1995, he has operated BereaOnline.com, focusing on local news, civic issues, and stories that highlight community collaboration and grassroots efforts across Madison County.

Related Stories 🔗

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• Finally A Broadway Revue Brings Broadway Dreams to Life at The Spotlight Playhouse
• The Spotlight Playhouse Presents Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical JR.

Upcoming Community and Theater Events 📅

• July 31 – August 9, 2026: Seussical the Musical (Spotlight Acting School students ages 14 to 18) at The Spotlight Playhouse.
• August 14–23, 2026: Puffs: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic (Spotlight Acting School, Young Wizards version) at The Spotlight Playhouse.
• September 11–13, 2026: The Velveteen Rabbit (Spotlight Acting School intergenerational production) at The Spotlight Playhouse.
• October 2–11, 2026: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (The Bluegrass Players comedy-mystery dinner show) at The Spotlight Playhouse.

Sources 🧾