This is Kenyon College, and you’re watching Disney Channel! Or, well, you were — if you were one of the 596 people lucky enough to score a ticket to the Kenyon College Players’ (KCP) sold-out, one-night-only shadowcast of “Teen Beach Movie.” On Friday, students dressed as surfers, bikers or some combination of both streamed into Rosse Hall for a wet and wild night of far-out fun.

“Teen Beach Movie” is a delightfully ridiculous and self-aware romp. The musical rom-com follows teen surfer Mack (Molly Laurent ’26) and her boyfriend Brady (JP Harris ’29), who are sucked into Brady’s favorite film, a 1960s musical called “Wet Side Story” about the forbidden romance between surfer Tanner (Tommy Sinclair ’26) and biker Lela (Kyla Keller ’29). Mack and Brady’s arrival throws a wrench into the film-within-a-film’s plot, as they accidentally get in the way of its protagonists’ meet-cute. The couple thus attempts to complete a dizzying array of objectives: make Tanner and Lela fall in love, end the surfer/biker feud, stop a pair of scheming villains from taking over the beach using a weather modification machine and get back to the real world. (I promise the plot is less confusing when you see it play out on screen.)

“Teen Beach Movie” is widely beloved by those who grew up watching Disney Channel, a certified Gen Z cult classic. Excitement levels were high, but so were expectations. Would KCP be able to pull it off? I mean, obviously. You read the headline.

The show was, to put it simply, phenomenal. (You’d never guess that the final dress rehearsal got canceled because of the tornado warning on the night of March 26!) Some past Kenyon shadowcasts have struggled to strike the right balance between directing audience focus to the live actors and the projected film behind them, but Teen Beach Movie did so perfectly, in large part because of the production’s huge cast. During big dance numbers, there were always enough actors on stage that the projected film didn’t overshadow the choreography. And during more intimate scenes where only the leads were on stage, Laurent, Harris, Sinclair and Keller all had enough presence and personality to ensure all eyes stayed on them.

At times, it was difficult to hear the film over the audience’s uproarious laughter and applause. And like any shadowcast worth its salt, Teen Beach Movie also featured callouts. There were only two of them, but man did they both get a lot of mileage. Callout one: Boo every time the villains come on stage. Callout two: Yell “Kiss!” anytime two characters hug. Readers will certainly not be surprised to learn that the audience was loudest whenever the female leads hugged. (Scenes featuring sibling duos or Mack with her aunt and grandpa were a wee bit awkward, but that just added to the show’s frenetic energy.)

With a 30-plus person cast and over a dozen musical numbers, bringing the “Teen Beach Movie” shadowcast to life was no easy feat. Beginning in mid-January, rehearsals were three hours each, four or five days a week. “While it was quite time-consuming, it was a wonderful opportunity to get to know the rest of the cast and crew,” Laurent wrote in an email to the Collegian. “I was able to meet so many wonderful people (cast and crew) through this experience.”

For first-time director Laney Goodrum ’26, the production was a labor of love. “Dealing with a cast so large was such an exciting challenge for me, because you want to create an environment where everybody is seen and heard and valued and also has an opportunity to shine on stage,” she explained. “ I do think that’s something we succeeded in. I think everybody had a moment where they really got to shine.”

If you were paying attention to the class years in paragraph two, you might have noticed that two leads were first years and the other two were seniors. This made for an interesting dynamic between the four co-stars. While Keller may be new to Kenyon, she isn’t new to theater and went into Teen Beach Movie with confidence: “I had very high expectations for myself in this role and I trusted myself when the time came.” Conversely, despite being a senior, Laurent has never done anything like this shadowcast before. “It was really crazy to think about performing in front of that many people,” she wrote in an email to the Collegian. But everything changed once she stepped on stage: “I was having so much fun feeding off the energy from the cast and audience. I could tell how quickly it was moving and wanted it to slow down.”

Harris and Sinclair’s bond runs even deeper, as both were in Kenyon’s fall “Rocky Horror” shadowcast. In fact, Sinclair might have more shadowcast performances under his belt than anyone else at the College. As a first year, he played Troy in High School Musical 2, so seeing Harris star in a similarly iconic Disney Channel shadowcast gives him deja vu. “It’s a sentimental feeling to have everything come back to where it started,” he said.

The four leads may have each entered into Teen Beach Movie with different perspectives and experience levels, but one thing they all had in common after the show was their effusive praise for Goodrum’s directorial talent and attitude. “She put so much heart into the production from day one,” Keller gushed. “Not only is she an incredible director, but she is an amazing human who genuinely cares about everyone. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to do a show with her.”

After the cast and crew took their final bows, dozens of audience members flooded the aisles to congratulate them. Seeing so much communal love and support was honestly the best part of the night (at least for this sentimental soon-to-graduate author). “I am just continually reminded how lucky I am to be in an environment where I am always surrounded by so much love and support,” Keller reflected.

Shadowcasts occupy a unique space in Kenyon culture. “I don’t think any other college does something like this. Shadowcasts are really not a big thing,” Sinclair explained. “They’re only typically done for Rocky Horror, so Kenyon’s kind of starting a new culture of its own, and I’m really excited to see where it goes.”

Do you want to be part of this new culture? Are you thinking about getting involved but feeling a little daunted? Well, whether you want to act or direct, whether you want to do choreography or lighting or set design, Harris has some advice for you. “You should just do it,” he said. “It’s really vulnerable, but in a really interesting and special way. … It’s also just, like, fun.”