On location: NC Theatre Conservatory to stage cheerleading musical 'Bring It On' inside a transformed gym

Students from the North Carolina Theatre Conservatory, the flagship training program of NC Theatre, will present the hit Broadway musical "Bring It On" next week. But the show will be different from the standard theater experience where audience members watch the action unfold on stage.

Instead, the show, which runs July 5 to July 7, will take place in a site-specific theater setting where the audience will feel like they're part of the action. With "Bring It On," a show about the cutthroat world of competitive cheerleading, the Conservatory chose the Hermann Athletic Center at William Peace University as the venue for the production.

"As we like to stay on trend as much as we can, especially for our students sake, the idea of site-specific theater was an interesting concept and something the team felt would really bring this musical to life," Danni Dichito, the NC Theatre's sales and marketing manager, tells me. "Hence, the show will be performed in the gym at William Peace University, with bleacher-style seating and all. The goal is to make the audience truly feel like they’re watching a real cheerleading competition right in front of their eyes. "

Check out the stage design ...

The Conservatory's summer programs usually take place on the main stage at the Duke Energy Center, but a growing number of theater groups have launched site-specific productions in recent years.

The term was coined almost 40 years ago. Last year's Tony Award-winning revival of "Once On This Island," took an existing theater and transformed it into a beach. In London, "Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" took place in a London pie shop, according to Lauren Sale, executive director of the Conservatory.

"What makes a site-specific performance successful is using a space’s unique features to tell the story, but even more powerful is the feeling a space evokes," Sale writes in an article about site-specific theater. "Space and place anchors audience members to a specific feeling as soon as they arrive, and that helps to tell the story from the moment the doors open."

Tickets, which start at $25, are on sale now for the show, which might be a great way to pass the long July 4 weekend. More information is on the NC Theatre's website.