JUNE 1, 2021 - Picture this: you are the Director of Theater at a community college in southwest Oregon, and as people are returning to campus following a year of COVID shutdowns, you want to find the perfect way to get them back to enjoying the pleasures of live performance and finding a little hope. What do you do?

You turn to Star Trek, of course, and adapt the classic Original Series episode “Arena” into an outdoor musical now called, “Arena Gorn Superstar.”

That’s exactly what Dr. Christina Allaback did this past month at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, as she shared in an interview with local newspaper The News-Review. With songs by UCC’s Director of Music Jason Heald, “Arena Gorn Superstar” made its debut on May 21st at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association outdoor stage.

This is Allaback and Heald’s second Star Trek-themed musical, this time inspired by the opportunity to provide something on-stage for the first time since summer 2020.

“Jason thought ‘Arena’ would be a great musical and we have sort of been throwing that around for a few years,” Allaback explained. “With COVID, we knew any live performance would have to be outside and ‘Arena’ was just made to be outside.”

Local NPR affiliate KLCC covered the production, sharing a snippet of a rap performed by the Gorn captain, “[…] crush you, grab a little fella, will wring you into jello, when I crush you, crush you, crush you, twist your scrawny brain into nuthin’!”

Allaback sees some important themes in the story arc of “Arena” that shine a light on the chaos of COVID, reflecting, “Things are moving in the right direction, just like in the story, and there is always hope.”

You can get a taste of “Arena Gorn Superstar” on the KLCC YouTube page.