Nothing turns a head like a bearded man in a pink tutu. Throw in a bushel of the sparkly stuff, and you’ve got the makings of celebrity. In this case, the would-be stars are The Tutu Dads, part of the Florence-based children’s theater group C.R.O.W.

Until recently, there were no men in frilly pastels executing pliés on stage; nor was there really any children’s theater in the small coastal town. While that might not seem like much of a loss in a largely retirement community, to former schoolteacher Melanie Heard, it was big.

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“I am blessed to have a strong arts background,” said Heard, who moved to Florence from L.A. with her husband, Chris, in 2008 looking to escape the rat race. “I know the value in a child’s life of having those opportunities. They improve interpersonal communication skills, self-confidence, teamwork, dedication, and cooperation, plus the ability to stick with projects — even when they are a challenge. This experience in the arts will impact them for the rest of their life.”

While sitting around the dining table with friends talking theater — or in this case, the lack of — Heard came up with C.R.O.W., an acronym for Children’s Repertory of Oregon Workshops, but also the name of the clever black bird in the genus Corvus. “Crows are resilient, smart, loyal, fierce, and unafraid to be themselves,” she said, the same qualities she hopes to model for students in the group.

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C.R.O.W. held its first camp in 2011 and received nonprofit status the same year. In 2012, it put on Beauty and the Beast, the first of what has become the annual spring musical. Since then, C.R.O.W. has grown to include dance classes, workshops, community performances, and, this year, the first free Day of Dance on Saturday, July 12. Dance classes are open to all ages: “I have two students in my tap class who are both 78 years young,” Heard said. She also includes adults over 18 in the annual musical.

Unlike many children’s theater groups, C.R.O.W. does not charge a fee to attend auditions or take part in performances. Dance classes cost about $12 and around 40 to 50 percent of students receive full or partial scholarships to attend classes and summer camps. And, as evidenced by The Tutu Dads, family is a big part of the fun.      

From the start, it was a constant scramble to find a home for the group. In time, they were able to move into a building with the understanding that they would buy it within two years. When C.R.O.W. failed to raise the money, Heard’s father, who once broke his leg on stage in a performance of How to Succeed in Business, stepped in, selling a piece of property to raise the funds to buy the building himself.

That was one problem solved, but a host of costly others remained. The 3,200-square-foot building needed new plumbing, electric, floors, and heat. The kitchen had no appliances, no cabinets, and the ceiling was too low for dancers to jump. Grants and fundraisers paid to raise the roof two feet, as well as covering kitchen cabinetry, a parking lot, HVAC system, floors, an ADA-compliant bathroom, a play yard, and even a drinking fountain.

“Over the years, we’ve been very hard working and a little bit scrappy to figure out how to overcome obstacles,” Heard said. She added, “We learned a lot, had growth spurts and growing pains, and kept doing our best to provide what our community asked of us.”  

Today, C.R.O.W. operates on a rigorous year-round schedule: the April musical performance, the May Dance Showcase, summer camps, the October Halloween Maze, and December Holly Jolly Follies. Between events, they participate in local events and put on mini performances at senior centers.

Last year, they brought the spring musical, Newsies — a Disney production based on the 1899 newsboys’ strike in New York City, to Shorewood Senior Living, where they previously presented Frozen. “Everybody just gushes over the costumes and the outfits,” said DeAnn Hawkins, former director of the senior center. “They love the music and how talented these kids are. It reminds them of when they were young and kind of sassy. They’ll talk about it for weeks.”

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It takes more than 100 volunteers and a dozen or so teachers to make the events happen for roughly 250 students a year.

Cameron Utz, a DJ at Florence’s KCST radio station, was 13 when he and his brother, MacKenzie, auditioned and won parts in The Music Man. “Showtime, the seats were filled, and we got such a big reception from everybody,” Utz said. That was 2013.  From then on, he auditioned for and won a part in every play C.R.O.W. produced until he graduated from high school.   

But C.R.O.W. did more for Utz than just instill a love of the theater. “I was a pretty shy kid,” he recalled. “I was a shut-in a lot of the time. I didn’t actively try to make a lot of friends. I never played sports, didn’t go to social events. But I always did well when I was able to do something like reading a book for the class. The fact that C.R.O.W. was there to give me a stage to perform on…. I think that I would not have made a lot of the strides that I have in life if C.R.O.W. didn’t instill that confidence in me.”

Family is a key part of C.R.O.W, and it’s not unusual to see families like Utz’s working together on stage. MacKenzie Utz continued with the group until he left for college, where he joined the theater department, and younger sister, Zoey, is also now part of the group.

It was the desire to make C.R.O.W. a family affair that led to The Tutu Dads.

“Basically, we were looking for a way for our fathers and father figures to be more involved,” Heard said. “I am a big believer in laughter. I just had this funny idea: fully grown men dressed in tutus and doing actual dance choreography. They learn ballet choreography, and they work really hard. It’s charming and endearing, and they have become locally recognized celebrities. They get stopped in the grocery store.”

Andrew Bilbrey got his first taste of The Tutu Dads 2½ years ago when he picked up his daughter, Chloe, at rehearsal for the Holly Jolly Follies. She asked him to stick around to watch the men rehearse. “It was really funny, really great,” Bilbrey said. “She said she wanted me to do that. I said, ‘Oh no, not going to do that.’” Five months later, it was time for the Spring Dance Showcase and Chloe made her plea again. “I gave in,” said Bilbrey, a welder by trade who didn’t dance even as a kid.

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For his first show, an ‘80s mash-up of songs, Bilbrey wore a pink tutu with rainbow-colored leopard leggings, a feather boa that lit up, and glitter — lots and lots of glitter.

“There’s children that don’t know me by name or who I am other than I am Glitter Beard,” Bilbrey said. “Some people just out taking a walk, are like, ‘Hey, I saw you last year at the Holly Jolly Follies. You’re one of The Tutu Dads … the guy that had all the glitter.’”

This time of year, while students hone their theater skills at summer camp, the Halloween crew is prepping for the Haunted Maze, an event that drew roughly 1,200 people last year and in 2018 was named Best in the State by Oregon Haunted Houses.

This year’s maze is themed around an abandoned theater featuring Victorian furniture and antique cars.  

As with everything at C.R.O.W., volunteers are a big part of the show. For the Haunted Maze, that includes locals Brian Sandahl, a former senior art director at Disneyland known there as the “pumpkin king” for the large pumpkin Mickey Mouse that greets visitors, and maze co-designer Tina Ferkey.  

“Her entire family contributes tremendously to C.R.O.W. by designing jaw-dropping props … and volunteering literally for every event and opportunity they can,” Heard said.  “A personal favorite is a spirit walker on stilts they created. Their daughter, Karli, a gymnast, scared the pants off of a lot of people. I call them the fabulous Ferkey family.”

C.R.O.W.  has been producing the maze since 2015, and among many particularly memorable moments, one stands out, Heard said. In 2018, the theme was “quarantine.” Actors in hazmat suits gave visitors antidotes to drink to combat the “zombie virus” they had been exposed to. One C.R.O.W. student came ready to frighten guests dressed as the clown from Stephen King’s horror novel It.

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“He was about 15 at the time, scaring everyone in line for the maze and loving the attention,” Heard said.  “However, the moment he entered the maze, he suddenly became completely terrified and screamed the loudest of any previous patron.”

As the maze actors laughed, then chased him into the parking lot, “You could hear him scream…,” Heard recalled. “The same student recently was accepted to study fashion in Paris…. He promised to make me an opening-night gown someday.”