Stardom all started with the Hurrah

At the theater in Norfolk where Adrienne Warren grew up, there is no ceiling.

"There is no role I can't play," said the actress, now 21. "You can tell me I'm too short, you can tell me I'm too skinny - whatever - but you can't tell me that I can't play a role, because I can make you believe it. Because I made Hugh believe that I could play 'Annie.' I did what a lot of people thought I couldn't do. Now I believe that I can do anything if I really want to do it."

She is referring to Hugh Copeland, founder and artistic director of The Hurrah Players Inc., which celebrates its 25th season this year.

Under Copeland's direction, Warren became the first African American to play "Annie" in a regional production, gaining national attention.

Hundreds of children have taken bows in Hurrah Players productions since it started in 1984. Copeland said he and his company have tried to teach them how to act, dance and sing, and also instill in them confidence and a sense of self.

Warren remembers becoming a Hurrah Player at age 6 when she lived in Chesapeake. Her first performance was in "Aladdin."

"I had no lines, and my mom had to make my costume. I was so excited to be onstage, I just kind of walked around."

She learned and grew and was ready for her big break in 1997, at age 11, when the lead role in "Annie" came along.

"It just felt like I was doing what I loved to do, but it just happened that I was African American, and at the time I didn't really understand what the hype was, and to this day sometimes I don't really understand it.... "

She now lives in New York City and is one of four female vocalists in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The group, which combines rock and orchestra elements in a huge effects-laden Christmas show, will tour the East Coast and Canada during the holidays with a stop at Richmond Coliseum on Nov. 8.

Warren is a theater major at Marymount Manhattan College. She was a lead dancer in "Dream Girls" in Atlanta last year. This summer she was in "Little Shop of Horrors" in Aspen, Colo.

Copeland taught her that not even the sky is the limit, she said.

"I've learned to always go after what you want. Hugh has made me a - I don't want to say a perfectionist - he has made me a very hard worker, and I won't take second best, and I will work extremely hard to get what I want and to make my dreams come true, and I know that nobody can take that away from me."

Not all of the hard work was on the stage, she said, recalling times that performers had to walk along city streets in crazy costumes to drum up publicity.

"It didn't matter what time it was," she said. "You would always run into someone you went to school with and you're dressed up like a clown or a fish or something.... And you are like, 'Great! This person is going to go and tell everyone that I was dressed like a blue fish during the weekend when all my friends are at the mall."

After that, she said, nothing embarrasses her.

She will always consider herself a Hurrah Player.

"Like a family, you are always in it."

The Hurrah Players Inc. raised its curtain in 1984 in a rented space in the basement of Ghent United Methodist Church in Norfolk. The family theater company's mission has been to present plays and teach children and adults to sing, dance and act.

The curtain rises on the company's 25th season Friday with "Seussical... The Musical" at Tidewater Community College Roper Performing Arts Center in Norfolk.

"I never thought it would be so big," Copeland said. "When we started we used to have maybe 20 enrolled in classes."

Now they have around 180 students signed up in each of the fall, winter and spring sessions, plus they offer summer theater camps.

The Hurrah Players average seven main stage productions a year and have shown off their talent in faraway places. They performed their patriotic Fourth of July show at Pearl Harbor in 2002 and 2005, and at the American Embassy in London in 2003. They also performed in a Macy's Parade, at Epcot Center in Florida and on cruise ships and the Capitol steps in Washington.

"When you learn theater, you learn lessons in life," Cope-land said. "That's the little speech I give every session, because you've got to learn responsibility, you've got to learn time management and commitment. We have a bumper sticker that says, "I Can't... I Have Rehearsal.' "

Quentin Araujo has been on a nationwide tour since September playing the lead in Music Theatre Associates' "Oliver!"

The 11-year-old from Virginia Beach was in Colorado Springs, Colo., last week.

Quentin started Hurrah Player classes when he was 6. His first show was "Wizard of Oz."

"I was a Munchkin. I built a lot of confidence during my first and second shows, and about the fourth show I got over the nervousness. I learned a lot of tips on acting, and we had a lot of dance coaches. I also met a lot of friends."

After this tour he plans to rejoin the Hurrah Players.

What is he going to be when he grows up?

"Definitely an actor."

Mary Kathryn Wood is another of the thousands of Hurrah Players' past students.

She remembers having her face painted like a parrot at age 5 for her part in " Aladdin."

"I always was the supporting wacky character," said the 25- year-old from Norfolk. "I never had the sexy roles."

Wood is also known around Hampton Roads as Woo Woo, on "The Morning Point With Chuck, Heather and Woo Woo" on WPTE-FM (94.9).

Wood gives the morning Holly Woo Woo Report. She said the classes at Hurrah Players were just the ticket for what she is doing. She also had a public speaking class taught by Cope-land at Old Dominion University.

Being a Hurrah Player gave her self-esteem and brought out her personality, she said.

"Hugh embraces your quirkiness, you know, your fun, your talents. He's not going to put a terrible dancer front and center, but he'll find something for them to do where they shine....

"My mom is 64 and has been a Hurrah Player since I was little. The last 10 years, she's had a role in their Christmas play."

And about those public speaking classes with Copeland?

"I could talk to a room of a million people and I wouldn't be scared."

Dustin Elsea from Virginia Beach is also 25. He remembers starting Hurrah classes at 7. His first role was in "Snow White Goes West."

"I was the heavy-duty porcupine," he said last week from New York City. "That's what the role was called. I'm not sure why it was heavy-duty. I had like one line."

Now you can find Elsea on- stage, eight times a week, at Orpheum Theater performing in the high-energy show "STOMP."

"We don't speak, but we make music out of ordinary objects" he said. "It's all about the discovery of music. It's dance, music and comedy all rolled into one. Hugh is really the one who inspired me - from the minute I started, to now. He is the one who actually told me about the auditions in New York for "STOMP" and made me go, and here I am."

For Elsea, there have been a few bumps and bruises along the way - especially when he was 8 years old.

"I was coming to rehearsal and got out of my mom's car. I guess I wasn't looking and got hit by a car and flew in the air about 15 feet. The ambulance came, and I said, 'I'm good. I can go to rehearsal. I can't miss rehearsal.' That's how in love I was with theater at the time."

Elsea said his only theatrical training has been with Cope-land and The Hurrah Players. And here he is, making a living out of it.

"Hurrah's motto is making dreams come true, and I can honestly say, they have completely made my dreams come true."

Roy Bahls, (757) 446-2351, roy.bahls@pilotonline.com