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Kevin Alvord: Backstage

Kevin Alvord is going to shave his red beard, let his trimmed mustache grow to a full-handlebar extravaganza, put on a frock coat and for three days in March, become President Theodore Roosevelt. It will happen in this year’s Valley Regional High School spring musical, Newsies, Friday through Sunday, March 8, 9, and 10. Newsies has been both a successful movie and a Broadway hit, based on a real-life newsboy strike in New York City in 1899.

What is unusual about Kevin’s performance is that he is not a student at Valley Regional, at least not anymore. Kevin appeared as a junior in the school’s production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, where he played Baron Bomburst, and as a senior in Titanic, which won the six top prizes in 2012 at Connecticut High School Musical Awards including Outstanding Production.

Kevin, who played Titanic Captain E.J. Smith, was also nominated for a best lead actor award. In fact, he grew his beard to play the part of Captain Smith, but on stage it was not ruddy red. His newly grown facial hair was painted white for his role.

Unlike Captain Smith in Titanic, Theodore Roosevelt is not a major role in Newsies, though he does play a key part in the last act. Ingrid Walsh, longtime director of Valley’s annual spring musical, invited Kevin back to play the part.

“Upon reading the script, maybe my third time, I realized we would need to have an adult fill the role of President Theodore Roosevelt. But who? Then I remembered Kevin was local and quite frankly would be perfect. I am so fortunate to have him so willingly return, work with the students, be a part of a VRMP [Valley Regional Musical Production] show once again,” she notes.

Appearing in the play works out well with Kevin’s schedule at the Valley Railroad in Essex where he has worked for 2 ½ years. After the very busy Christmas season, when Kevin was a conductor on the North Pole Express, the trains don’t run regularly except for the eagle watching trips in February. The season starts up again with Thomas the Tank Engine weekends at the end of April and in early May. Kevin continues working as an administrative assistant in the railroad’s office, but his evenings are now free.

Kevin says he has always liked music; he played the alto saxophone starting in 4th grade and in high school played in both the band and a jazz group. For a while in college, he played with the University of Hartford’s pep band. It wasn’t until he heard the Valley Regional High School men’s singing group, Mad Men, that he gave vocal music any thought, however.

“I wasn’t interested in singing. I thought it wasn’t cool,” he admits.

Mad Men changed his mind dramatically.

“It was like I need to be a part of this,” he says.

In fact, he identified vocal music programs instructor Laura Hilton, the coordinator of fine arts at Valley Regional, as one of his most important high school mentors and a significant factor in his decision to attend Hartt School, a conservatory that is part of the University of Hartford.

Kevin, nonetheless, dropped out of Hartt in 2016 for what he describes as a chance to get real world experience, but he plans to use the downtime from the railroad to finish his degree now. His major is classical music management, but he thinks that professionally he may well end up in the computer field.

When he took a break from college, Kevin answered a job advertisement from the Valley Railroad. He had fond memories of the railroad from when he was a child and his mother, Elizabeth Alvord, now the director of the Ivoryton Library, took him to see Thomas the Tank Engine.

“I was a big fan of Thomas. We had recently moved from California and my mom brought me to the Essex Steam Train and I saw the big blue Thomas engine,” he recalls.

At the time, Kevin, now 24, was an ideal age for a Thomas ride: four years old.

He has worked his way up at the Valley Railroad from a member of the train crew to conductor, which involves passing a test set up by a group that establishes railroad rules. As a conductor, he has to be aware of both train safety rules and human behavior.

“People want to sit with their friends. They want to take your picture and then they want you to be in a picture with them. A lot of kids are nervous at first because they’ve never been on a steam train, and there are people who don’t realize that a steam train means real steam,” he says.

Kevin himself loves to be a part of the steam train experience.

“Every time I go into the yard, I watch the trains. They’re majestic, powerful, a part of our history,” he says.

And no matter what his future holds for him, he is sure that it will contain trains.

“I’ll always come back; it’s like a family of employees,” he says. “I’ll always be part of it.”

For the moment, however, he is also part of the cast of Newsies, and glad to have the chance to be in a VRMP once again.

“There’s great camaraderie, great companionship. I’ve made lifelong friends doing the musical,” he says, “and it’s not like I am a random adult with a part in the musical. After all I graduated from Valley Regional.”

As director Walsh put it, “We always say, once a VRMP, always a VRMP. You are a part of something bigger than yourself, when you join the family. My greatest admiration and appreciation go out to Kevin for sharing his love of theatre with us again.”

Newsies

Newsies comes to the Valley Regional High School stage on Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m., Saturday, March 9 at 1 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, March 10 at 1 p.m. Tickets are on sale at Valley Regional High School; for more information, call 860-526-5328.