CD Features ACTC Theatre Singers

Eighteen area singers are featured on Snow White and the Evil Queen, a new CD produced by composer Bernard J. Taylor and recorded at Ashland Community and Technical College.

A party celebrating the CDs release will be held October 29 from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. in ACTCs J. B. Sowards Theater at the College Drive Campus. During the party, videos of the recording sessions will be shown on the big screen.

The CD was recorded last summer after Taylor asked ACTC Theatre Director Edward Figgins to assemble a cast to sing his newest musical. Two of Taylors works are featured in the 2011-2011 ACTC Theatre Season: Nosferatu - The Vampire and Wuthering Heights: The Musical.

The abundance of singing talent in the area led Taylor to produce his recording in Ashland. It was an exhilarating experience, said Taylor. It was rewarding to give a wider public platform to young talent and to see the enthusiasm with which this cross-section of the community embraced the music.

With the help of Kathy Saltsman, ACTC Theatre Musical Director and a music teacher in the Greenup County School System, Figgins assembled a cast of 18 singers who were all experienced ACTC Theatre performers and musicians.

"The show is hilarious, creepy, brilliant, with great characters and great lyrics, said Lindsay Saltsman Taylor, an Ashland resident who sings the role of the Evil Queen.

In addition to Taylor, Figgins and Kathy Saltsman, the singing cast included Eric Akers, ACTC Orchestra Director and Orchestra Director for Cabell County Middle School; Roger Hagley, ACTC Information Technology Staff Member; Max Jackson, ACTC Emeritus Professor of Music; and Paula Krepsik, ACTC Theatre costumer.

High school singers were Caroline Clay and Haley Clay from Russell High School, Blaine Roberts from Raceland/Worthington High School and Lauren Saltsman from Greenup County High School.

College singers were Anna Baker from Kentucky Christian University and Lauren Curnutte from Morehead State University; and Megan Woods, a Russell High School graduate and Western Kentucky University student currently interning at Disneyland in Florida.

Area residents on the cast were Karen Curnutte, a Boyd County Board of Education employee; Molly Maynard, Boyd County Extension Office Arts Coordinator; Andrew Potter, a paralegal with The Potter Law Firm in Ashland; and Jesse Riggs, a Marshall University graduate from Huntington.

The CD Release Party is free and open to the public. Those attending are invited to wear costumes since the party is on Halloween weekend. For more information, contact Figgins at (606) 326-2073, email: edward.figgins@kctcs.edu.