An Edward Little High School musician will direct, perform and graduate on Sunday.
By Daniel Hartill
Staff Writer
AUBURN
Begin on time, exactly. Shorten the intermission. Sing the songs a little bit faster.

Colin Britt has a diploma to accept.

The 17-year-old musical director jokes about speeding up his graduation day matinee, a 2 p.m. performance of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at Community Little Theatre.

Ballads could become hoe-downs.

If the show proceeds at its current pace, Britt and five others from the musical will have only 20 minutes from the curtain’s fall until their “Pomp and Circumstance” entrance as members of Edward Little High School’s class of 2003.

On Sunday, they’re scheduled to graduate at 4 p.m. Britt and the others may carpool to the ceremony. They might off-road it, too, running across Route 11 and up the steep, wooded hill that lies between the theater and the high school.

“My mother’s going to leave the show at intermission to get a seat,” Britt said. She’ll take along Colin’s little sister, Sydney, a member of the show’s chorus.

At the school ceremony, more than 2,000 people are expected to gather in the audience. And unless he’s late, Britt will sing the crowd a song he wrote.

It’s titled, “The Time is Always Now.”

Britt has become accustomed to the busy pace. Though he’s too young to vote, he has directed the music for several shows.

Since he was little, he has worked in 27 Community Little Theatre productions, singing, playing the piano and conducting. He’s performed with school groups and others.

He spends his free time writing and arranging music and learning new instruments. With his mother, Linda Britt, he’s written a musical, “Billionaire Vegans.”

It’s about a group of megalomaniac billionaire vegans who take over a fast-food chain. The main character’s name is Eton Veele.

They will oversee the production of the show in late June.

In the fall, Britt plans to attend the University of Hartford’s Harrt School of the Performing Arts. He will study voice and composition.

One day, he hopes to direct musicals or orchestras professionally. Even so, the amateur work has been a challenging head start.

On Thursday, as the cast of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” readied for their first performance before an audience, Britt called for the attention of the 35 kids and 40 adults.

Children in brightly colored T-shirts huddled beside a piano as the adults gathered. Some looked solemn. Others smiled. A pair of men in shaggy white wigs roamed.

Colin began playing scales, leading the singers through vocal exercises.

“Stop talking and start singing,” he told them. They proceeded through a few songs behind the theater as audience members filed in.

Ten minutes before the curtain would rise, he ended the warm-up and wished them luck.

“You have a long run and it’s going to go by awfully fast,” Britt said. ” So enjoy every minute of it.”