VALDOSTA — “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” may prove Kathryn Smith a Theatre Guild Valdosta member who can wear many hats.
She closed last Guild season as an actor playing the comical heiress in the comedy “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940.” She opens this season as the director of the biblical musical “Joseph” playing three weekends starting this week.
“I would much rather be on stage than behind the scenes,” Smith says before a recent rehearsal. With a laugh, Smith adds that she didn’t volunteer to direct. She was drafted.
Though “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” marks her directorial debut with the Guild, Smith is no stranger to working behind the scenes, especially as the director of musicals.
On stages in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., she directed productions of “The Man from La Mancha,” “Kiss Me, Kate,” “1776,” “South Pacific,” as well as “Man for All Seasons,” and “Murder in the Cathedral.”
Smith brings this experience to the rock opera “Joseph.”
“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” is a 1960s musical based on the biblical tale from the book of Genesis. Joseph is one of 12 sons of Jacob, who shows his favoritism for Joseph by giving him a beautiful coat.
The other brothers are jealous not only of their father’s favor but of the dreams which reveal Joseph will rule over them. The brothers plot against Joseph and sell him into slavery.
What “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” does is tell this well-known story in a musical format with some modern touches for contemporary audiences.
Through the years, “Joseph” has been one of the most commercially successful musicals both for professional and amateur productions. Much of that success has to do with the show’s creators, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. “Joseph” marked their second collaboration after the mostly forgotten debut work of “The Likes of Us.”
“Joseph’s” success wouldn’t be noted until many years after its debut in 1968, as a short cantata for a London school. It really didn’t gain much attention until after Webber and Rice’s mega-success with “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
It wouldn’t be until 1982, that “Joseph” premiered on Broadway where it was a smash success.
For the Guild’s “Joseph,” Smith has spent the past two months working with a cast of Dosta Playhouse veterans and newcomers.

THE CAST: Autumn Overstreet, Michael Barlow, Lloyd Crawford, Jonathan Gray, Joseph Roberts, Brandon Bush, Dakota Baird, Ken Kinard, Carl Glasscock, Andy Conerly, Mary Ann Green, Josh Phillips, Justin Patten, Connie McWilliams, Caroline Strickland, Jessica Gillard, Cindy Dame, Melissa Dame, Stephenie Austin, Megan Maruyama, Daileigh Fussell, Patti Cook, Mary Helen Taylor, Savannah Phillips, Alexandria Phillips, Mary Margaret Tarpley, Destiny Bryant, Grace Ann Brooks, Jamira Thomas, Jackson Anderson, Hannah Williams, Clay Lee.
DIRECTION, PRODUCTION: Kathryn Smith, director; Ricardo Ipina, musical director; Carl Glasscock, set designer.

SHOWTIME
Theatre Guild Valdosta presents “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
When: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 5, 6, 7; 3 p.m. Aug. 8; 7:30 p.m. Aug. 13, 14, 15, 19 20, 21.
Where: The Dosta Playhouse, 122 N. Ashley St.
Ticket: $17.
More information: Call (229) 24-STAGE; or visit www.theatreguildvaldosta.com