--- This Kid Is All right Steven Eubank is a college grad, a director and part owner of his own production company. Not bad for a guy who can't drink legally. By Mike Bauer, Jayplay writer At 18 months old, when most kids are struggling with two-word sentences, Steven Eubank said "investigate" clear as a bell. When he was 2, he told his parents he wanted to be an actor and deliver pizzas for Pizza Hut when he grew up. In sixth grade, Steven started growing a mustache. By 19, he had graduated college. Now 20, Eubank has reached his goals faster than most of his peers. He's not acting or delivering pizzas, but he is directing plays, most recently The Rocky Horror Show at Liberty Hall last February. Steven speaks quickly and precisely for a person his age. He sounds like a professor. He never stops to breathe, yet never misses a word. Steven describes his experience directing Rocky Horror as weird, especially when it came to casting. In his previous plays he chose people older than him. Steven's casts never knew his age and were shocked to find out that a person much younger than them was directing the play. In Rocky Horror, the cast consisted of people his age for the first time. Steven has always done well with older people, perhaps because he was teased by his classmates in grade school and would spend recess talking to teachers. When he began college at age 14, no one thought he looked too young to be there. His friends never knew his age until they got to know him better. He says he actually was more social in college than in grade school, often hanging out with his classmates at theater parties. Steven recalls one of his earliest memories of wanting to be involved in theater. At age 4, he saw Beetlejuice with his parents. After seeing the movie, he would make up new stories with those characters and direct them. When Steven was 8, he was given a role as the Young Fool, a part normally given to 20-year-olds, in the play Big River at the Starlight Theater in Kansas City. Steven was 14 years-old when he decided he wanted to direct, but he didn't think a professional production company would give someone his age that opportunity. He suggested his photos: Jeff Brandsted parents start a production company of their own and let him direct and Eubank Productions was born. Steven is the company's only director and he runs all the auditions himself. Eubank Productions made one play its opening year in 1998 (Ruthless the Musical at Powerhouse Theater in Independence, Mo.). The company increased to five plays in 2003, which was exhausting to Steven. After breezing through middle school, Steven bypassed high school and went straight to college. He took general requirements at Longview before getting his GED and moving on to Southwest Missouri State at 16. Steven says the reality of graduation has already caused him anxiety. He wants to study theater in graduate school, but has decided to hold off for a few years because of admission age requirements and fears that the schools won't take him seriously. Until then, Steven will continue to work in theater. He hopes to have another project in the works before summer. Steven is also working with an attorney in hopes of turning Eubank Productions into a professional production company someday. Who knows what else he'll accomplish in the next 20 years, but he knows whatever he does his parents will back him up. "I keep coming up with absurd, radical ideas and they're 100 percent willing to try it." Steven says. Mike Bauer can be reached at mbauer@kansan.com. WAKARUSA MUSIC & CAMPING FESTIVAL June 60+BANDS 18 19 20 3 DAYS 3 STAGES CLINTON LAKE • LAWRENCE, KANSAS www.wakarusafestival.com MUSIC LINE-UP Robert Randolph Keller Williams C The Family Band O.A.R Galactic Sound Tribe Sector 9 North Mississippi All-Stars Jazz Mandolin Project Particle Dirty Dozen Brass Band Los Lonely Boys Derek Trucks Band The Donna's Benevento/Russo Duo Leftover Salmon Indigenous Perpetual Groove Hackensaw Boys ekoostik hookah Mofro Drive By Truckers Lucero Big Wu BR5-49 Split Lip Rayfield Battle Rockets Donna the Buffalo Hairy Apes BMX Drums & Tuha Monte Montgomery Chris Duarte Group James McAurtry Greyhounds Lost Trailers The Schwag The Motor Robbie Fulks Shanti Groove Tea Leaf Green Kaki King Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey Jennifer Nartswick Band Weary Brothers Bob Schneider Speakeasy Bockman's Euphio Mindy Smith Theresa Andersson Steve Poltz Woven Mountain of Venus ...and many more TICKETS ON SALE NOW The earlier you buy, the less you'll pay! PURCHASE BY: April 30th May 31st after May 31st $75* $95 $105 $75* $95 - The 375 ticket is available in limited quantities. When the initial allotment is sold out the price will increase without notice. Purchase tickets at www.wakarusfestival.com. All tickets are a day passes. They include camping and parking. All sales are final. No refinements. All acts subject to change. Tickets are subject to service charges.