MCA Musical ‘Floyd Collins’ Displays Caver’s Search for Glory—and God

The Media, Culture, and the Arts program at King’s produced its third musical, Floyd Collins, on February 8-10 at the Salvation Army’s Theater 315 on 47th Street. In Floyd Collins, Tony award-winning composer Adam Guettel (The Light in the Piazza) and playwright Tina Landau (director of Bells are Ringing, Superior Donuts and the current SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical) tell the true story of a 1925 Kentucky caver who becomes stuck in a narrow cave crevice a hundred feet below the ground.

Floyd’s (Brittin Ward, MCA ’18) ambition is to discover a cave that will attract tourists and buoy the fortunes of his town. The news of his entrapment stirs conflict among his family and neighbors, who disagree on both the worthiness of his caving endeavors and on how to rescue him. His father Lee (Dino Mantinaos, Humanities ’19) would rather his son be working as a farmer and “following the Word” instead of following sinkholes. But his brother Homer (Kaleb Batman, Business ’18), sister Nellie (Keanna Irving, MCA ’20), and several of the local townspeople admire Floyd: “Striving where you can come to something, that’s where a man belongs!”

The residents of Cave City, Ky. are soon joined by a team of engineers and the young reporter Skeets Miller (Jordan Marshall, MCA ’21), whose article fuels a nation-wide media frenzy. As days pass and Floyd remains trapped, crowds gather at the cave’s entrance to see whether or not he will be rescued alive. Facing his end in the lonely depths, Floyd encounters God.

Director Misti B. Wills writes, “Ironically, Floyd’s dream of becoming famous is happening while he is trapped and unable to see the benefit. . . . He does discover glory of another kind, though, as he recalls that indeed he has had faith his whole life. It is the kind of discovery that can only be found in the moments where one grapples with the end of life and wonders if there is a heaven.”

Virginia Hart Pike provided musical direction and conducted the band of four other musicians (Tom Partington, Andrew Zinsmeister, Louise Owen, Andrew Nielson). The creative team included industry professionals April Bartlett (scenic design), Dan Henry (lighting design), and Josh Iacovelli (technical direction), with costume design by Kayla Redd (MCA ’16). Students made up the 16-person cast and 19-person crew, with Isabelle McCauley (PPE ’18) and Natalie Hustek (Business Dec ’18) as student producers.

Faculty producer Virginia Hart Pike and executive producer Dr. Henry Bleattler write, “This year we had the challenge of finding a show that would meet our needs for a growing number of talented students, and one that could be set effectively in the Salvation Army’s Theater 315, with whom we are grateful to be partnering for the first time. After sifting through various scripts and ruling almost all of them out, it felt more like the show chose us than we chose the show. That said, there’s not a show we would be more thrilled to share with the next generation of musical theater lovers than Floyd Collins.”

Photos by Kirstyn Hippe.