- April 5, 2025
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Actors Austin Butcher, Andrea Oliveras and Eric Barnum perform as Grover, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson in the Spotlight Performers' production. Photo by Sierra Williams
Pictured: Sara Story's Clarisse against Andrea Oliveras' Annabeth Chase. "The Lightning Thief" features many complicated lighting changes to match the scenes, directed by light designer Kian Mahoney. Photo by Sierra Williams
Eric Barnum was cast as Percy Jackson for the Spotlight Performers, but has also performed as Luke for Theatre for Young Audiences' national tour performance of "The Lightning Thief." Photo by Sierra Williams
Sara Story plays Clarisse, a daughter of Ares, the god of war. Photo by Sierra Williams
Austin Butcher plays both Grover the Satyr and "Mr. D," the greek god Dionysus. Photo by Sierra Williams
Eric Barnum plays Percy Jackson in the Spotlight Performers' production of "The Lightning Thief." Photo by Sierra Williams
Nando Rivera plays Chiron the centaur. The show only has 11 cast members so all but the lead role of Percy Jackson play multiple parts. Photo by Sierra Williams
The Spotlight Performers' cast of "The Lightning Thief: the Percy Jackson Musical." Photo by Sierra Williams
Kelly Rivera as Sally Jackson with Eric Barnum as Percy Jackson. Photo by Sierra Williams
"The Lightning Thief" has several fight scenes using face swords. Sara Story as Clarisse fights Eric Barnum's Percy Jackson. Photo by Sierra Williams
The cast runs through a sound and lighting check before a full run-through. Photo by Sierra Williams
A choreographed fight scene between Clarisse, played by Sara Story, and Annabeth Chase, played by Andrea Oliveras. Photo by Sierra Williams
Eric Barnum plays Percy Jackson in the Spotlight Performers' production of "The Lightning Thief." Photo by Sierra Williams
Actors Austin Butcher, Andrea Oliveras and Eric Barnum perform as Grover, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson in the Spotlight Performers' production. Photo by Sierra Williams
Flagler County’s youth community theatre group, Spotlight Performers, will be showing its summer production of “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” at the Flagler Playhouse.
“The Lightning Thief” is based on the popular youth fantasy book by Rick Riordan. Spotlight Performers co-founder and co-director Collin Sloan said he is excited to portray the adaption of one of his favorite book series. The show will run once a day from July 6-9.
“It’s crazy that we’re able to make this ... into something brand new and something more modern,” he said.
The show runs for two hours, with a 15-minute intermission.
Tickets are $22 per person, and attendees can choose to watch the 7 p.m. showing on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, or catch the final performance at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 9.
There are 11 cast members: Eric Barnum as Percy Jackson; Andrea Oliveras as Annabeth Chase; Austin Butcher as Grover and Mr. D; Seth Kirk as Luke; Sara Story as Clarisse; Nando Rivera as Chiron; Kelly Rivera as Sally Jackson and Charon; Lora Thompson as the Oracle and Medusa; Abigail Andrade as Katie; Leah Lehnertz as Silena; Tyler Lokken as the farmer and train conductor.
The show also has three dedicated technicians: Kian Mahoney on light design; Robbie Miller, sound technician; Tyler Giblin, spot operator.
Sloan founded Spotlight Performers alongside his mother — Jennifer Sloan, who is also co-director of the show — while he was a junior in high school in 2017.
Now, six years later, the Spotlight Performers are showing a nationally toured play.
Most of the cast is from the Flagler County area, Sloan said.
Jennifer Sloan said she is incredibly proud of her son for creating and running Spotlight for all these years.
“He is absolutely the visionary,” she said. “He has these insane visions of how he wants things to come together and how he sees them come alive on the stage.”
“The Lightning Thief” is an example of how theatre kids and performers often have to think on their feet to make a show work, Collin Sloan said.
The organization doesn’t have a lot of funding, Sloan said, and often builds sets from materials found at craft and thrift stores.
“You have these Greek gods and goddesses and demigods that you have to bring to life,” he said. “So it’s kind of coming up with solutions with what you have on hand.”
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