…commissioned the first version of the show.

 The Average Achievers Developmental History

Marcus Budline, Amanda Phelan, Sarabeth Hamberlin, Joe Pearl , and Gabe Nicholas as the five Average Achievers in the 2008 production at Acting Manitou.

In the fall of 2007, Benji Goldsmith and Jonathan Karpinos were commissioned to write an original musical for Acting Manitou, a summer theater camp in Oakland, Maine. Both had worked at Acting Manitou that summer—Benji as a musical director and Jonathan as a teaching artist. Because they were writing for young actors in a camp setting–and because Benji was a sophomore in high school at the time!–they set out to create a show that could speak to teenagers as well as adults.

Olivia Alperstein, Spencer Reed, Melissa Zambrana, Anna Gerretson, Justin Myhre, Shelly Horwitz, and Raye Keyser as teachers and parents in the AM production.

In August, 2008, a 70-minute version of the play (then called The Averageachievers Club) premiered at Acting Manitou, directed by Ben Steinfeld. Benji and Jonathan worked to expand the show into a full-length musical, and in February, 2009, Acting Manitou co-owners Steve Borowka and Tim Brownell produced an Equity staged reading with professional actors in NYC, again directed by Ben Steinfeld.

Matthew Stewart, Greg Nix, Joseph Lynch, Sam Taglienti, Ashlyn Stoner, Michael Linden, and Kate Kennedy in the University of the Arts workshop. Photo by Jillian Keys.

In October, 2009, Benji, Jonathan, and the titular song “The Averageachievers Club” were featured at National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Songwriters Showcase. In February, 2010, the show received a three-week workshop at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, directed by Kate Galvin.

In the summer of 2014 the duo got back together to work on The Average Achievers (as it was retitled) for a production at Hunter College High School, Benji’s alma mater (in the meantime, Benji had attended college and spent a year touring with the Yale Whiffenpoofs; Jonathan had finished grad school and started a family). During 2014 and early 2015 they worked closely with Meg Sturiano, a director and theater teacher at HCHS, to develop Average Achievers into an ensemble show for 23 actors.