‘Kabaray’ is an original musical that engages its audience

How to go

What: "Kabaray with a 'K' "

When: 7:30 p.m. April 5-7, April 12-14

Where: Studio 307 (307 Phelps Hall), Miami University Hamilton, 1601 University Blvd.

Tickets: $10 and $5 for students/seniors. Call (513) 785-3022 to reserve seats.

“Kabaray With a ‘K’ ” isn’t a run-of-the-mill musical.

Co-written by members of the Miami Writes program, the show was created during improvisational exercises and touts original music and a tight-knit ensemble.

“Kabaray With a ‘K’ ” opens next Thursday in Studio 307 on Miami University Hamilton campus. This isn’t the first original production for the Miami Writes program, which creates new theatrical works with local playwrights and students.

“We like to do the devising process whenever there’s time,” said director and co-writer Bekka Eaton Reardon. “It’s very time consuming.”

But there are benefits to devising a musical, as well.

“The process creates really strong actors,” Eaton Reardon said. “It’s a collapsed intensive for writers. You take all the basic elements and then improvise them, and write from that.”

The show focuses on a musician in his 30s who falls into a dream world, where he must confront former friends and foes and discover what prevents him from forming intimate relationships, Eaton Reardon said.

While the show is part of Miami University Hamilton Theatre, community members are also involved in the production.

“It’s a completely community-engaged theater,” Eaton Reardon said. “Anyone — not just on Miami campus — can be involved.”

The show also will feature special guest artists from the community each night, including a belly dancer, a cup stacker and a drag queen. The show gets the audience involved, as well, Eaton Reardon said.

“We’ve written it so the audience is very engaged in it,” she said. “It will be an experience, rather than something you consume.”

“Kabaray with a ‘K’ ” boasts a close cast and an original take on community theater, which makes it a worthy production, Eaton Reardon said.

“That’s some of the charm of it, too,’’ she said. ‘‘The ensembles are usually very strong. We’re trying to do what theater does best. Which is to engage the audience in an intellectual, spiritual way.”