'An America Hero' to debut this week at River Campus

The production of a musical is a creative, demanding process.

It involves costumes design, makeup, lighting, casting, hours of plodding practices, instruction, advice, music coordination, choreography and the list goes on and on. And that’s with a script and score already in hand.

Imagine starting basically empty-handed, with nothing more than an idea. The task seems monumental, creating a storyline, script, putting it all to music, then tackling all the aforementioned.

That’s what makes “An American Hero,” a musical to be put on by the Conservatory of Theatre and Dance at Southeast Missouri State University, a truly incredible undertaking by Southeast professor Kenn Stilson and one of his former students, Cody Cole. To no surprise, Stilson is author of the acting textbook “Seeing is Believing.” The musical, which opens Wednesday and runs through Sunday, will debut about 2 1/2 years after Stilson began writing the fictional story, which revolves around an Irish immigrant who joins the U.S. Army, falls in love and fights for his new homeland in World War II. The production all started with a song brought to him by Cole, a student at the time. Stilson, intrigued by history, liked what he heard and was stirred by the potential. He went to work on a storyline and script, toiling with writes and rewrites as the story took shape, weeding some scenes and characters, then toiling more on refinement. Cole did the same with the music, piecing notes into a collection of songs.

They emerged with a work that already has received positive feedback and picked up for a staged reading by an off-off Broadway Company in New York.

While the musical production has yet to debut, let us be among the first to applaud the efforts of Stilson and Cole. To see an instructor and former student embark on such a project says much about their closeness, talent and mutual admiration. It’s also a testament of the depth of passion and quality of instruction at the Conservatory, which is chaired by Stilson.

With such an experienced, ambitious leader as its chair, it’s not surprising the Conservatory of Theatre and Dance at Southeast has gained national respect as it prepares students for professional careers.

We look forward to seeing the result of this hard work — and the talents of all involved.