Indiana Drama Club and Arts for Lawrence present Power Rangers musical

It is called “Super Cyber Battle Rangers,” and it’s a musical about the Power Rangers.

Yes, you read that right.

Indiana Drama Club (IDC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to offering high quality theater education for 6th-12th grade students at little or no cost, presents the original musical “Super Cyber Battle Rangers” Nov. 15-17 at Arts for Lawrence.

“I was drawn to the fact that through our generation, and all the generations of the kids that would be auditioning for us in IDC, Power Rangers, has stayed the same,” said Rai Ortman, co-founder and director of IDC.

“Super Cyber Battle Rangers,” written by Indiana native Andy Sterneman with music and lyrics by former Hoosier Nathan Mensah, is about a group of washed-up actors navigating less than ideal circumstances and feelings of irrelevance 10 years after their popular ‘90s action TV show was canceled.

Rai Ortman and Amanda Gwin, directors of IDC, founded the organization in 2021 and initially expressed interest in the show as something both their club members and audiences would be able to connect with. After all, Power Rangers brings a sense of nostalgia for adults and excitement for kids today who enjoy watching newer versions of the show, Ortman said.

The bad effects, action-packed scenes and catchy music made the show ideal for the stage and showcased the IDC kids’ diversity of talent through singing, dancing, martials arts and gymnastics.

But more importantly, it was imperative for Ortman and Gwin to pick a show that featured roles specifically designed for actors of color.

“One of the founding principles of IDC in general is just having access to excellent theater for kids, no matter their demographic, where they live, socioeconomic (status), and then producing shows that give lead roles to underrepresented communities,” Ortman said.

The show includes an important scene between the Yellow Ranger and the Black Ranger that discusses the underlying meaning behind those roles casting an Asian person and a Black person respectively. It was important to IDC to cast those roles appropriately, even if it would take three years.

Nearly four years after the show was written, IDC was selected to premier “Super Cyber Battle Rangers” during IndyFringe Fest 2024. IDC participates in IndyFringe Fest each year as it is a safe space for new, unusual and “odd” shows, Gwin said. Since the festival only allows up to an hour for a performance, IDC was only able to perform act one, leaving the story unfinished.

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However, the upcoming performances at Arts for Lawrence — a visual and performing arts nonprofit organization at Fort Benjamin Harrison — marks the first time “Super Cyber Battle Rangers” will be produced and performed in its entirety since the show’s conception in 2020. 

“I’m excited to see what people think and how people feel, especially at the end,” Sterneman said. “Are they feeling like they have a little bit more hope and excitement for the rest of their lives, even if they feel like their glory days are behind them?”

“Super Cyber Battle Rangers” was one of five ideas pitched between Mensah and Sterneman in their attempt to create a show to reflect the nostalgia for the “glory days” in a time where media is starting to appeal to younger generations.

“We’ve seen all these different things from our childhood come back in lesser formats and not as good, trying to say, ‘Hey, the best days are not behind you.’” Sterneman said. “That is kind of what led to the entire theme of the show, is that nostalgia is all well and good, but it’s about looking forward and not just looking back.”

The musical inspirations for the soundtrack are “as wide reaching as video game music to things you’d hear on shows like Steven Universe to old artists like Michael Jackson to random jingles you’d hear on the (radio),” Mensah said. 

He drew inspiration from Ron Wasserman, who composed the music for the original 1993 “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” blended it with the likes of Van Halen, AC/DC and Megadeth — but still found room for the traditional musical theater love ballads.

Children’s theater was never the goal when writing “Super Cyber Battle Rangers,” Mensah said. The show was written to be played by actors of the respective ages of the characters — a.k.a. adults.

However, the originating cast and crew, including the five lead roles and most of the ensemble, is made up of middle and high school students.

“It was a beautiful, happy accident,” Mensah said. “There is no wrong answer in theater.”

Despite not growing up with the same nostalgia for Power Rangers as the show’s writers and directors, the IDC members brought the characters to life and made it their own with every aspect of the show, including costume and set design, stage fighting and choreography, Ortman said.

Both Ortman and Gwin felt the show was a good balance between letting the kids be kids, while also challenging them with more complex characters and situations they may experience in their teenage and adult years.

“I just think it’s important to have our students experience roles that may be a little bit outside of what they normally do,” Gwin said. “This is part of where they learn and grow as actors, and they are experiencing a role that has to make them think outside of themselves.”

The show features five main characters, which Sterneman said gives audiences five different viewpoints in which to watch people “missing the glory days” and potentially coming out on the other side of the conflict with different answers.

“I do love that the directors gave them (the actors) homework of watching the original Power Rangers shows,” Sterneman added. “But it is very humbling that it’s still something that they gravitated towards, despite not having the same memories associated with it as people our age.”

“Super Cyber Battle Rangers” is onstage for four performances Nov. 15-17 at the Arts for Lawrence Theatre at the Fort, 8920 Otis Ave. Tickets are $15 online and $20 at the door. For more information, visit artsforlawrence.org/events-1/super-cyber-battle-rangers.

Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.