At 5, this Chesapeake actor was Elvis and he knew the stage was home
Stephen Culpepper was 5. He and his parents were enjoying a karaoke night in Kill Devil Hills. The juke joint’s scene, its noisy laughter and vocalists rotating up and off the stage mesmerized and reminded him of how he’d sing along to oldies in the car with his dad. The kindergartner asked if he could get up and sing Elvis’ “Jailhouse Rock” in front of the 50 or so people there.
His parents didn’t think he would do it. But …
“I had all the moves. I was swinging my hips, all the gyrating. Oh, yeah. I had everything going on.”
And he’s never stopped swiveling.
Culpepper, now 14, is starring in The Hurrah Players’ “All Shook Up” show Thursday through Sunday at the Susan S. Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center at Virginia Wesleyan University.
The rock ’n’ roll musical written by Tony-winning Broadway playwright Joe DiPietro features over 20 Elvis hits, including “Hound Dog,” “Blue Suede Shoes” and, obviously, “Jailhouse Rock.”
The show centers on a small, quiet town that is injected with energy and music when a guitar-playing roustabout rides in. Based on William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” characters fall in and out of love throughout the show, which includes many large choreographed dance numbers. In this production, adults will perform adult roles, and younger characters will be played by high schoolers.
Culpepper is the roustabout.
“He changes everything in the town, with his song and his pelvis,” Culpepper said.
The Chesapeake actor is a rising freshman at Deep Creek High School and the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk. He’s performed in more than 20 Hurrah Players shows.
He began taking Hurrah’s acting classes at the age of 5, not long after his karaoke night premiere.
At one of those first classes, someone happened to point out Hugh Copeland, the company’s artistic director, strolling through the building. Culpepper boldly walked up to him.
He held up a picture of Elvis.
“This is what I do,” he said.
“I remember it,” Copeland said, in a recent interview. “I remember turning and saying, ‘Who is this kid? Who is this kid?’ He was just so determined to be there and not just for any minute was he ever idle.”
Copeland put Culpepper in Hurrah’s junior company, Babes on Broadway, and Culpepper spent the next summer doing his by-then well-rehearsed Elvis song and dance routine at nursing homes and hospitals around Hampton Roads.
Since then, he has also performed with the Virginia Opera, Virginia Stage Company and Virginia Musical Theatre.
“The goal is ultimately Broadway.”
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If you go
When: 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Where: Susan S. Goode Fine and Performing Arts Center, 5817 Wesleyan Drive, Virginia Beach
Tickets: Start at $20
Details: hurrahplayers.com
