By Jackie Demaline
Enquirer staff writer

New Stage Collective was born over a cup of coffee - several cups, really - when a posse of Sycamore High grads got together over spring break last year.

They were all majoring in musical theater on campuses across the United States and thought, "Wouldn't it be great to spend summer vacation putting on a show?"

IF YOU GO

What: Side Show When: 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday Where: New Stage Collective, Gallagher Student Center Theater, Xavier University, campus entrance on Dana Avenue at Victory Parkway Tickets: $7 in advance at (513) 293-6063 and www.newstagecollective.com, $10 at the door.

Last summer, they put on a series of small, showcase events including Merrily We Roll Along and the regional premiere of The Last Five Years.

This year they're back with a three-show season. The centerpiece is the regional premiere of Side Show, the musical bio of Siamese twins Daisy and Violet Hilton with a tuneful score by Dreamgirls composer Henry Krieger.

Allison Elfine, a private piano/voice teacher in Fort Thomas, plays Daisy; Kera Halberlsleben, who will enter New York University in fall, plays Violet. Side Show plays for just three performances, at 8 p.m. Friday and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday at Xavier University's Gallagher Student Center Theater.

"We wanted to do shows we care about," explains New Stage artistic director Alan Patrick Kenny, who graduated from New York University this year.

Along with a degree in vocal performance and musical theater, Kenny, who lives in Symmes Township, lists business experience including masterminding cookie sales in elementary school.

Slight with a mass of curly dark hair and a well of passion, it's easy to imagine him as a pint-sized CEO. "I was like a 40-year-old in a fourth-grader's body."

Side Show is an enormous challenge, Kenny says, with its cast of 17 and a full orchestra.

The cast, mostly recent high school grads and college students, come from across the region. In rehearsal they sound terrific.

The young cast fulfills one of New Stage's primary goals - giving young performers the opportunity to work in first-rate if rarely produced pieces and to develop pre-professional artists. The group recently filed paperwork for not-for-profit status.

Kenny talks in terms of the future, of pursuing a master's degree in directing, of upcoming seasons for the company.

And he confidently offers the two words that make all things possible. "Why not?"