WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — For the 2023 Summer Youth Musical, Backdoor Theatre is bringing “The Lightning Thief” to the stage.

Carney Porter: Joining us now is Chloe Sokora and Katie Mae Miltner. They’re here with Backdoor Theatre. They have an upcoming musical, and they’re here to tell us all about it. Thank you, ladies, for joining us today. All right. So tell us a little bit about this musical and what we can look forward to.

Katie Mae Miltner: So, The Lightning Thief is about Percy Jackson. He is a young high school student and his best friend, Grover, and Percy figures out the truth about himself and who his father is.

Carney Porter: Gotcha. Now, who do you play?

Katie Mae Miltner: I play Clarisse, daughter of Ares.

Carney Porter: Gotcha. And then who is your character?

Chloe Sokora: I play Katie Gardner. She is the daughter of Demeter, and I am also the Annabeth understudy.

Carney Porter: Okay, look, all right, We have a little bit of everything for you right there, just in case. Now, how much goes into, you know, putting on a performance like this? I’m sure, I don’t know if this is your first or second performance you’ve gotten to do, but, you know, do you have a newfound appreciation for it after you start it?

Katie Mae Miltner: Definitely. Definitely. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes that I feel people who are just the actor or just the technician really, I would love for them to experience everything because there’s so many moving parts to get a beautiful show up.

Carney Porter: Yeah, it’s going to be great and it’s going to be happening. People get to see it, you know, If they can’t see it one night, a second night, they have, I believe, two weeks almost to see it. They have a two week timespan to come and see it. What date are y’all going to be opening?

Chloe Sokora: We open July 14th and we run through the 29th.

Carney Porter: Gotcha. And if people want to come see it, it’s going to be at Backdoor Theatre, I assume.

Chloe Sokora: It’s on their main stage.

Carney Porter: Perfect.

Katie Mae Miltner: And you can get tickets on their website, backdoortheatre.org or call the box office at (940) 322-5000.

Carney Porter: All right. Now, since y’all are the cast members, some of the cast members, what is it that you’re looking forward to most when this you know, when you finally get to show it to everyone, what’s going to be something you look forward to?

Chloe Sokora: Definitely seeing how the audience reacts to it because I love putting things in front of an audience and just making it theirs.

Carney Porter: Right.

Chloe Sokora: To get to experience.

Carney Porter: How about you, Katie?

Katie Mae Miltner: I’d have to agree. Seeing their reactions when we get on stage, and we tell a story with our art really is- it’s a special thing to watch the audience to react to.

Carney Porter: Now, are y’all both going to be singing?

Katie Mae Miltner: Oh, yes.

Carney Porter: I was like, ‘No one’s escaping the singing, right?’ Okay, so everyone’s fair game.

Katie Mae Miltner: Everyone’s singing.

Carney Porter: I bet y’all are all going to sound great. Like we said, it’s happening from the 14th through the 29th at Backdoor Theatre. We’ll have all that information on our website if you’d like to attend. Thank you, ladies, for joining us. We’ll be right back.