Tommy we can hear you

Small busineses line the main road, Route 11. They are the kind of businesses drivers could miss easily since they sit mostly in strip malls. Light traffic and a speed limit that forces motorists to travel at what feels like a crawl provide more time to look.
The 10 to 15 people milling about the entrance to ShenanArts are smoking, talking or seemingly just waiting for something or someone. The murmur of voices is an indicator of Smalltown, USA, where life, like the traffic on Route 11, follows a slower, gentler rhythm.
There is no need to hurry inside because danger might lurk outside.
This is where “Tommy” the New York City kid with the English heritage, has come to visit. He’s brought his dark, frenetic tale of twisted family relationships. How well Tommy will fit into this quaint, God-fearing community is anyone’s guess.
“We talked about it a lot,” says director Jeff McDaniel. “We wanted it done as tasteful as possible. It’s here in the world and it’s not gonna go away.”
“Tommy” is the story of a boy traumatized into the embodiment of the adage: Kids should be seen and not heard. No matter the family or personal traumas or abuses endured.
“We wanted the kids exposed in a safe environment and to let them know they’re the same kids before and after, when the costumes come off,” McDaniel says. The 60-plus actors and crew are mostly youths and McDaniel received parental approval prior to production.
The gathering for Tommy’s entrance is intimate. Scanning the crowd of roughly 200 onlookers, many appear to be middle-aged, with a sprinkling of some younger folks in and among them. Everyone quietly murmurs in two stadium seating sections.
A hush falls over the audience as McDaniel walks to center stage. He tells the audience that they are in for a high energy experience he promises will awaken even the drowsiest of the 3 p.m. Sunday viewers.
Then the lights dim.
In the darkness, the Overture to The Who’s “Tommy” begins to play. The lights begin to rise. The collaboration of shortened score verses accompanies a group of youthful bobby-soxers that crisscross the stage, with one group of girls and boys finally shuffling to the center of the stage as images of high school hallways and lockers display behind them on a screen.
Through musical vignettes, video clips, strobe lights, smoke, dance and song Tommy’s rapid-fire scenes set the background of a young couple — Tommy’s parents — from high school through the draft and war to Vietnam and the young man, Tommy’s father, in a POW camp.
After Tommy’s father is freed from the POW camp, the story slows its quickened pace down in order to allow the audience to view some more important events of Tommy’s life from his birth to his early 20s or 30s.
  “It was kinda hard to keep a straight face,” said fifth-grader Michael Hawes, of Churchville
Elementary, who played Tommy at 10 years old. “There’s a lot of excitement throughout the play.”
He’s among of the youngest cast members, along with another Tommy character, Izzy Hummell, 6.
“I didn’t know the story behind Tommy, so I researched it. I always do research on my characters,” said Caitlin Alexander, 19. “It gives more depth to the character and helps the audience to understand.” Alexander plays, Mrs. Walker, who is central to Tommy’s story.
“My character begins in high school and goes to about 35 years of age,” Alexander said. “I had to get down different age levels.” And as Tommy’s mother, “All my focus is on Tommy.”
Alex Sheets, a junior at Shenandoah University and 15-year veteran of community theater, digs into his work too.
“I did a lot of research. It was an interesting role and a stretch for me,” Sheets said. “He’s a larger-than-life messiah character; it was hard to get into character.
“But I could empathize,” which helped Sheets play the older Tommy character.
McDaniel says he’s not sure how many people in each audience really know “Tommy,” even after the show.
Says McDaniel, “One older couple came up to me and said, ‘We didn’t know quite what was going on, but then again, we didn’t need to.’ ”