Tea graduate, Coleman Peterson, brings original musical to Washington Pavilion stage

Tea graduate, Coleman Peterson is bringing his talents to the Washington Pavillion stage with a performance of his newest play, Parents’ Weekend.

A 2016 graduate of Tea High School, Coleman Peterson got his start in playwriting at a young age. 

“I started creating theatre with my mom and some local volunteers in the summers at the old Tea Intermediate/DEC building. From the 8th grade through my college career, I was adapting scripts for local elementary kids, and putting on shows with around 120 youth actors,” Peterson said.

Taking his first leap into becoming a playwright, Peterson sought guidance from those around him. 

“I was fortunate enough in 2016 while still in high school to co-write my first musical with the High School Choir Director, Janice Gilbert. We wrote and performed Puberty: The Musical together at Tea Area,” he said.

The first show was an instant success and gave Peterson the confidence boost he needed. 

“People really loved Puberty, I remember being so grateful that people overlooked its flaws and the various qualms I had with it. I am a perfectionist by nature, so while I know that nothing artistic can ever be objectively perfect, I learned that a piece can be perfect for a certain community at a certain time. I was afforded the opportunity to see first-hand how communities can rally around locally created art and how it brought people together to celebrate the talents and strengths of other local performers to highlight their skills,” Peterson said.

After graduating High School, Peterson continued his theater education at Augustana University, studying music, theater, and elementary education. Using his degree, he now works as an elementary school teacher and as a theatre instructor at the Spotlight Theatre Company in Sioux Falls. 

In his spare time, Peterson focuses on writing whenever he has the time. 

“I have written a few short pieces which are both mini musicals. One is called Golden, which is inspired by characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The other is named Crush and is a two person show which I recently got to re-up at the Icon Lounge with my great friend, Casey Schultz,” he said.

Building off the momentum of his previous work, Peterson has poured his heart into a full-length musical, Parents’ Weekend. 

“Parents’ Weekend is meant to be a blast of a show. When three sets of parents return to their alma mater for their kids’ first university Parents’ Weekend, chaos erupts,” Peterson said. 

Unlike previous family friendly performances, Parents’ Weekend is an adult only show. 

“This musical will be an R-rated musical following along as old flames ignite, relationships crack and find out if each family makes it through the weekend intact,” he continued. 

In writing the show, Peterson was able to think back to previous work and use what he had learned along the way. 

“I found that writing a full-length musical this time was both easier and harder than before. For one, I felt a lot more musically educated, having performed more, written more, arranged more, and listened to more music since the last one,” he said. 

The script, Peterson found more challenging this time around.

 “After getting some collegiate feedback on Puberty during the American College Theatre Festival, I knew that I wanted to be more intentional with the structure, characters, and dialogue of Parents’ Weekend. That’s easier said than done, though as it’s tough to generate the “perfect” line over and over again, so I decided to just write whatever came to Casey or I in the moment, and polish it up later,” Peterson said.

Working extensively to get the lines just right, Peterson wants the audience to enjoy a fun time and not take the characters too seriously. 

“Finding a balance between what’s funny, what’s well-paced, what’s best for the story, and what I can personally up with was tough. But I am pleased with the result, and I think it’ll be great for exactly the community it was meant to entertain and the audience experience I want to create,” he said.

Working with The Good Night Theatre Collective, Peterson found a professional theatre group in Sioux Falls committed to high-quality, locally performed theatre productions. 

“Each year, The Good Night Theatre Collective challenges themselves to produce a new, locally written work, and I was asked if I had any interest in writing something for them to perform as part of their season and chose Parents’ Weekend,” he recalled.

Casting began mid-December with Peterson looking for specific people in mind. 

“Casting was fun— of course, when you’re writing, you dream up who might be good fits for certain roles. Often, I found that having certain actors in mind influences the tone, choices, and humor of the characters,” Peterson said. Good Night has a great batch of tenured local performers and consistent, talented auditioners, so I knew we’d be able to make a lot of different configurations work. The cast that the universe gifted me with is so perfect for this first iteration. They are fully down for the experience of creating something from the ground up, filled with talent, and so ready to share the joy of this show. I’m already so proud of them, and we’re not even halfway through the rehearsal process,” he continued.  

Rehearsals remain underway as the cast looks forward to opening night. 

“We have a great production team with fun points of view and lots of individuality and will craft the sets and props with the rest of the Good Night team. There is lots of painting, foam-cutting, furniture-hauling, and other preparation to do, but Good Night has lots of helping hands and talented artists who all work together to make things happen,” Peterson said.

Parents’ Weekend runs February 19-21 at the Washington Pavillion. Tickets are available at https://www.goodnighttheatre.com/parents-weekend