Valley Voice Newspaper

Tulare - More than 50 current and past Encore Kids will present eight performances this month of “Can't Stop the Beat,” a revue written, compiled and directed by Susan Burley.

The action will take place at Encore High, where students are getting ready for the annual talent competition between seniors and underclassmen.

“The principal has decided the staff will participate this year and the staff is rebelling, because they think their principal is wacky,” Burley said. The first half of the production focuses on the rehearsals and the second half is the concert.

Nancy Grissom Gregg, an eighth grade teacher at St. Aloysius School and a member of the first Encore Kids group in the 1983-84 season, will play the principal.

“She's sort of been the glue that's held it together with every revue we've had,” Burley said.

Encore Theatre puts on a revue every five years and Burley said she has had no problem getting former “Kids” to participate.

“You can't say no to Burley,” Gregg said. “She's meant a lot to a lot of kids on the stage and I've known her a long time.”

Irene West was the founder of the group and when she moved to Los Angeles, Burley, who had assisted her, became director.

“I love it because it's a healthy thing for children and music and theater –it's my passion,” Burley said. Her two daughters, Karen and Sharon, have been Encore Kids.

Gregg said she use to hang around Encore Theater when it started because her older sister, Tina Grissom, was involved. Almost from the beginning there had been talk of forming a junior group, but that didn't happen until her senior year of high school.

Organizers wanted to limit participation to elementary and middle school students, but she and others protested.

“We begged them to make it go through high school,” Gregg said. “So we got to be in it one year. We loved it. We were totally theater geeks.”

Several Encore Kids have gone on to have a career in music and/or the stage.

Tony Wichowski, a singer/dancer in the off-Broadway production of “Rent” and Kasi Beck Beaney, a singer, are two who participate in the revue this year, Burley said.

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