Old Mill Graduate Stars in Cole Porter's 'Can Can'

For the past nine years, Caleb Williams, a recent graduate of , has been singing, dancing and performing with the Talent Machine Company.

The group was founded in 1987 by the late Bobbi Smith and is currently managed and directed by her daughter Lea Capps.

Williams will be taking his last curtain call with the company on August 14 as Hilaire Jussac, in Cole Porter’s Can Can, which opened Friday, August 5, at St. John’s College Key Auditorium in Annapolis.

It was Capps’ Aunt, Vicki Smith, who served as choreographer for the Talent Machine, that finally convinced Williams to audition for the company as a fifth grade student at Ridgeway Elementary School, after he was cast in The Whiz as the Scarecrow in fourth grade.

“Not only has he grown into such a great performer and dancer but also as an individual and young man,” Smith said. “He really has developed into a nice actor and well rounded performer.”

“Watching him blossom from a rowdy kid to a leading man has been very exciting,” said Capps. “He is talented and a very good dancer and singer.”

Capps is also excited that Williams will be attending her alma mater in the fall, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where he will double major in Biology and Dance.

“I don’t want to lose the ability to dance and I want to keep it in my life for as long as possible,” Williams said, who wishes to be graded on things he likes doing. “Dance has virtually no homework and will give me a chance to choreograph. I like to do that.”

Williams wanted to pursue dance in college because of the health benefits of exercise, the improvement of dexterity, hand-eye coordination, balance and most importantly, because he loves it.

With no real aspirations for Broadway, Williams said he could see himself doing community theater for the rest of his life and would love to turn choreography into a profession because “it lasts a lot longer than a dancing career.”

He hopes to gain more experience at UMBC along with the two dance numbers he already contributed in as a choreographer for the Talent Machine Company’s, A Year Without Santa Claus and Carol of the Bells.

“It was a real learning experience for him,” Capps said. “But he does have a real knack for choreography.”

Williams’ said his work with the Talent Machine gave him an outlet that most kids don’t have and is really sad to be leaving.

“The big senior goodbye was at the Christmas show, so this won’t be too emotional, just nostalgic,” Williams said.

Facing his last performances with the Talent Machine Company on a stage he has become intimate with over the last seven years, nerves were not a factor on opening night.

“I think it went really well,” Williams said. “This is the last opening I’ll have on this stage, it wasn’t sad, but it was bitter sweet because this is the last time I’ll perform in front of an audience on this stage with this group of people.”