Since opening its curtains in 2013, the Westerville Parks and Recreation Civic Theatre has made its name in the Columbus theater scene – boasting large casts and a creative twist on popular musicals.
Winning the Jebby Award for Local Production of the Year - Musical this spring for its 2025 production of Cats, the Civic Theatre continues to push the bounds of local theater and build a loyal community of cast, crew and audience in the process.
Picking the playbill
Evelyn Piamonte/Evelyn O'Clock Photos
Leading up to the selection of Cats for one of its 2025 productions, the co-directing team, Katheryn “Katey” Munger and Michael Ruehrmund, found themselves building a list of prospective shows, focusing on options that were both new and family-friendly. As they whittled it down, they were surprised to find that Cats remained a frontrunner.
“We had our list of finalists of our shows to pick from, and Katey and I just looked at each other one night and said, ‘I guess it’s Cats,’” Ruehrmund says.
From there, it was about getting the creative team on board, particularly choreographer Cindy Straub, who was skeptical at first of accomplishing the choreo-heavy show.
Evelyn Piamonte/Evelyn O'Clock Photos
“Cats was a real hallmark of dance in a musical… I met with Michael and Katey three times, saying, ‘I don’t see how we can do it because it’s a heavy, heavy dance show, and a lot of people in our shows haven’t trained in dance, or they’ve trained very minimally,” says Straub. “They were like, ‘It will work, it will work,’ and it worked fabulously.”
As they announced and cast the show, Munger shares that interest was high, as many seemed to be waiting for a production of Cats.
“People came out of the woodwork from different areas of the community because we were doing this challenging dance show that they’d always wanted to be a part of,” she says. “We ended up with a lot of very highly trained dancers who this was a dream show for, and that was really fun to work with.”
Feel-line out the show
Eric Bush
Anastasia
Theatergoers familiar with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats may know a few key components of the show, such as its traditional junkyard setting. However, since the original script does not provide a specific location for the show, Ruehrmund and Munger wanted to try a new setting to represent the show’s themes of growth and rebirth: a community garden.
“We’re doing a community show. It’s community theater. We’re bringing everyone together, and so we thought, ‘Let’s put it in a space that calls out to that,” Ruehrmund says. “This could be any space within a city, but it (was) designated as a garden that is either tended to or left to its demise by the people around it, (and) thecats claimed it as their own.”
David and Massillon Myers
Mary Poppins
Ruehrmund shares that ensemble storytelling is a signature part of the Theatre’s shows, especially when it came to Cats, which had a large cast size of 66. Along with blocking specific moments for each character to stand out, each cat added to the cast had a name based in literature and media, creating a backstory to heighten character choices.
Some notable nods to pop culture characters include Thomas Stern, after T. S. Eliot, and Bumbly and Mizzlemitts, inspired by an episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt featuring a Cats parody.
Jamie Turner and Katey Munger
Annie
Throughout the process, the directors and creative team made sure all the creative components came together in collaboration – from its dance sequences, to specially designed costumes handmade by Debbie Hamrick of Debbie’s Costume Shop.
“Everything has to be so collaborative in musicals because (of) how the music is done. The singing can impact the story and how it’s being told, and what the characters’ motivations are impacts the dance, and what the dance needs impacts what the staging (and costuming) is going to look like,” Munger says.
By the end of the show’s run, it became the highest-selling of Munger and Ruehrmund’s shows since they began co-directing in 2019, solidified by the winning of its Jebby Award at the 34th annual celebration in May earlier this year.
The next life
Westerville Civic Theatre
Tarzan
Following this summer’s shows, the Civic Theatre directors are already looking toward next year. One special show already on the books is the debut of an original musical by Westerville Civic Theatre’s own creative team, Munger, Ruehrmund and Assistant Music Director Michael Neary: Hoboken.
Inspired by their time studying at The Ohio State University and living near the train tracks, longtime friends Munger and Neary set out to create a story featuring an underrepresented population: unhoused people.
Westerville Civic Theatre
The Little Mermaid
Following main character Teddy, Hoboken is a coming-of-age story. As he sets off to escape the expectations of settling down and taking over the family business by living on the rails instead, he visits different spots around the U.S., meeting unique characters along the way.
The musical features original music inspired by the regions he visits, along with numbers featuring a 16-piece orchestra. With help from the theater community, the trio is excited to share the show in Westerville first.
“It’s going to be a world premiere, and it’s written by people from Westerville… We wrote a show that we wanted to do with the Westerville community,” says Munger.
Jane Dimel is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at jdimel@cityscenemediagroup.com.
