Since launching the pre-professional youth theater company Ponderosa Players in 2023, founders Kisky Holwerda and Grey Conant have produced their first two shows to a sold-out crowd.

In preparation for their upcoming production, “Ride the Cyclone (High School Edition),” premiering Wednesday at Open Space Event Studios, they’ve arranged for Emily Rohm, original cast member of the Chicago Shakespeare production, to teach a masterclass to the cast.

The company’s goal is to host a professional actor to work with its students for each of its MainStage shows.

“It’s a unique and exciting experience for the kids to get to work with these professionals,” Holwerda said. “We’re an educational theater and so for us, allowing the students to work with outside professionals is really important.”

A TikTok sensation

The cult hit musical “Ride the Cyclone” amassed a following during the pandemic, when clips from a Washington, D.C. production went viral on TikTok, according to a press release. The dark comedy centers around six high school students who perish on The Cyclone, a faulty roller coaster. Trapped in purgatory, the students must sing and dance for a fortune-telling machine for the opportunity to come back to life.

Despite the macabre premise, the show is lighthearted, heartwarming and funny, Conant said.

“It’s really about the relationships between the kids,” they continued. “They each get their solo musical number and they’re all vastly different. One of them sings about being a French woman, one of them sings about being a galactic space hero. It’s all different styles of music, and you get to see each of the kids’ individuality.”

The next generation of performers

Holwerda and Conant chose the musical after judging a regional thespian competition and noticing students performing monologues and songs from the musical.

“It’s fun for the teens to get to play characters that are their age and explore those kinds of feelings and relationships and conflicts,” Holwerda said.

An integral scene shows Aurora Dixon performing a song as Jane Doe while rigged up to a fly system and soaring around the stage. Actors and parents of performers wondered how the Ponderosa Players would pull off such a feat, Conant said.

Open Space doesn’t have a fly system, so the founders recruited former University of Oregon cheerleading coach, Kasey Holwerda, to teach a series of lifts.

Kasey collaborated with Kisky, who is also her daughter, to create a sequence with the impression of flying through movement and dance.

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Tickets are still available, but given the popularity of previous productions, they likely won’t be attainable for long.

“We have created an environment where the kids feel really uplifted and supported and empowered and they’re free to step out of their comfort zone and be silly and go above and beyond and explore all their different talents,” Kisky said.

“It’s the next generation of amazing performers.”

If You Go

What: “Ride the Cyclone”

When: 7 p.m. Feb. 19-21, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Feb. 22

Where: Open Space Event Studios, 220 NE Lafayette Ave. Bend

Cost: $15 youth, $25 adults

Contact: ponderosaplayers.com/tickets, 541-410-1487