Behind the Scenes of Memphis

<p>For three nights in a row, during sub zero temperatures, Memphis The Musical turned up the heat at The Stanley in Utica, NY. From January 21^st to January 23^rd the cast of Memphis had every show goer Rockin’ in their seats. Memphis The Musical is a Broadway Theatre League production that has been touring the United States for the past three months. The tour began in October (2013) and runs until June 2014, and with three months under their belts, the cast are Broadway pros at putting on a show stopping production!</p><p>Behind the scenes cast members spent the early evening hours preparing for what it felt like to be the first showing of Memphis. Each cast member with those pre show jitters but all ready to hit the stage and take the spot light.</p><p>Avionce Hoyles plays the sweet and memorable character known as ‘Gator’. Gator is the bartender in the downtown Memphis nightclub who always seems to be around the excitement inside of the club. He tends to keep to himself, until he decides to speak up and stand up for what is right.</p><div class="captionImage leftAlone" style="width: 351px;"><img class="leftAlone" src="http://www.thestanley.org/assets/_resampled/resizedimage351466-Memphis1_2.jpg" width="351" height="466" alt="" title=""/></div><div class="captionImage leftAlone" style="width: 351px;">Avionce Hoyles (Gator) is seen with Stanley Executive Director, Jerry Kraus</div><p> </p><p>Avoince said his favorite part of playing Gator, is when his personality comes through on stage. “If you’ve seen the show you know Gator has been rendered mute due to a tragic situation that happened in his life and people think he doesn’t have personality but he has lots of personality.”</p><p>Avionce admits he is a southern “boy” originally from Rock Hill, South Carolina. He said he started to sing when he was just three-years old and he performed in his first play in second grade. By high school, Avionce said he was bitten by the ‘bug’. “When I was a sophomore in high school, my theatre teacher told me that I was crazy if I did anything else and that I should peruse a career in entertainment and now here I am.”</p><p>While working with his agent, Avionce heard about open auditions in New York City for Memphis, so he packed his bags and headed to the big apple. “At the time of the audition I initially had about four-to-five callbacks and 10 days after my initial audition, I got the call to join the cast as Gator.”</p><p>Another memorable Memphis Character, known for turning up the heat during the second half with his show stopping number is none other than ‘Bobby’ played by Jerrial Young. According to Jerrial, “Bobby is mostly behind the scenes for the first half but he finally gets his chance to shine when he performs “<em>Big Love</em>” and he brings down the house with the song.”</p><div class="captionImage leftAlone" style="width: 472px;"><div class="captionImage leftAlone" style="width: 505px;"><img class="leftAlone" src="http://www.thestanley.org/assets/Memphis2.jpg" width="505" height="336" alt="" title=""/>Jerrial Young (Bobby) is seen with Stanley Staff Members Nichole Grant and Tim Hoda.</div><div class="captionImage leftAlone" style="width: 505px;"><p> </p><p>Throughout Memphis Jerrial’s character Bobby is seen on stage, but he admits that his favorite part of the entire musical is the very end. “The ending gives out a good message which is don’t let people break you down or tell you what to do because you only have one life to live, so don’t let anyone steal your shine.”</p><p>Originally from Connecticut and now living in Harrisburg, PA, Jerrial has always been musically inclined. Early in his youth, Jerrial set out on his ambition to sing opera. “From my sixth grade year until my sophomore year of college I sang opera and in-between there I did musical theatre but my goal was to really focus on opera until I decided my sophomore year of college that I wanted to do theatre.” Jerrial went to the theatre department and auditioned for a show. To his surprise Jerrial not only earned a part but he ended up with one of the lead roles. “This role was very important to the show and I guess you could say it was my claim to fame to do theatre.”</p></div></div>