Stanaway Performs World Premiere at Michigan Theatre

(November 18, 2021 7:56 PM) Jackson High School graduate Luke Stanaway has come a long ways from his role as cowboy No. 2 in the musical “Footloose.”

On Thursday, he showed an audience of Jackson area residents, friends, and family members how far.

Stanaway performed the one-man play called “Heaven” at the Michigan Theatre and called it a world premiere of the production. The production is somewhat autobiographical, but drifts into the what-if sector. 

“I wrote this two years ago to honor my mother,” Stanaway told Bart Hawley on the “Bart Hawley Show” earlier in the week. “One little event in your life can have a ripple effect.”

Stanaway caught the theater bug in his junior year of high school. Although he earned the part as cowboy No. 2, he had to give up the limelight for a short time due to a job. 

He went on to study theater and communications at Jackson College and Siena Heights University. Stanaway eventually moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting and writing career. 

Stanaway will be performing “Heaven” three times in Hollywood later this year and hopefully in New York in 2022. 

In 2018, Stanaway made “When is Now,” a short film he wrote with longtime friend Adam Lehnert-Spalding. In early 2021 it was released on Amazon Prime Video. The filmmakers plan to make “When is Now” as a feature sometime in 2022. In the meantime, he is writing and working on several projects across different mediums.

He is trying to get both productions into film festivals around the country.

Stanaway credits himself with more than 150 impersonations with his most popular being Matthew McConaughey and Aaron Paul.

His work can be seen on YouTube – LovelyLuke – where he posts original characters and impressions. 

Photos by Jeff Steers, JTV News.