25th annual Performance Edge showcase brings students with big dreams to Raleigh

Saturday, June 24, is the 25th anniversary of a local singing and dancing production that has launched the careers of some of Broadway’s brightest stars.

Forty of the area’s most talented young performers in the midst of a 6-day rehearsal prepared for Saturday’s Performance Edge Summer Showcase.

Ava Cobb is a second-year performer. She described the challenge that attracted her to the group.

"Performance Edge is only one week and intensive, and you learn an entire show in that amount of time. And I think it helps me become a quicker thinker and think on top of my toes, and still be able to be creative and do something I love so much," said Cobb.

Director Lisa Blair Hawkins has been putting on this annual show for 25 years, coaching and encouraging a select group of high school and college talent, to follow a passion that may one day lead to bigger and better things.

"We have a lot that want to do it, but I think it’s a perfect preparation because they have to learn a show, sing and dance, and put it on within six days. A lot of times you do that for Broadway," Hawkins said.

"I absolutely love it," Hawkins said. "There’s no other reason I would do this. I was thinking about it this morning because this is a hard day, and I absolutely love working with young people and taking them from A to Z."

If "A" is the first step in pursuing a career on stage, the "Z" represents where local native Ariana DeBose took her talents, including a Oscar-winning role in "West Side Story."

From 2009 to 2011, Debose made a name for herself on the stage of the A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater in Raleigh, before the bright lights of Broadway and Hollywood came calling.

Many of the performers dream about being the next DeBose. Lisa Blair Hawkins said, "I think a lot of them hope they can, but this particular group we do have, I would say, a good half of this group would like to pursue it for a career."

"I think that this auditorium has some of the Triangle’s most talented young artists. I think there’s a reason that so many kids who come out of this program go into performing professionally," Jake Bryant, a counselor for the group said.

Several of the students have gone on to a career on Broadway and are still there today. It’s easy to see, given the talent on this stage. You never know where the next DeBose is going to come from.

"That’s another reason that I’m still here, because I still have a joy in that and seeing the one that doesn’t really know their potential but I know they could, and I love that to be carried all the way through," Hawkins said,

There are two performances on Saturday, June 24, at the A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater in Raleigh. Show times are 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. For tickets, go to: performanceedge.net.