Where Community Takes the Stage
For many students, college theatre becomes one of their most meaningful experiences. But after graduation, those opportunities don’t always follow, especially for those who relocate to communities with limited performing arts outlets. While many miss the stage, few imagine helping to build a company. That’s exactly what Lubbock Christian University (LCU) alumni Devon (Langford, ’13) and Kyle (’13) Bullock did when they became part of the early development of the Way, Way Off-Broadway Theatre Company alongside its original founders.
“We definitely came in on the ground floor,” shared Devon, who graduated from LCU with a degree in vocal performance. “We weren’t part of its conception per se, but a couple who would become some of our very best friends, Tony and Summer Souza, had already been trying to get involved in community theatre in Roswell.”
Originally from California and raised in a thriving arts scene, the Souzas realized while working with small community college programs in Roswell that their vision for community theatre in the small New Mexico city would require something beyond the existing programs.
“They both had really big dreams and goals that were not going to be realized in the way that it was set up before,” Devon explained. “So, they said, ‘Well we're just going to start our own company and do it the way we want to do it.’”
The Souzas officially launched the Way, Way Off-Broadway Theatre Company in the summer of 2014, the same summer Devon and Kyle Bullock returned to Roswell. A Roswell native whose family has owned and operated Bullock’s Jewelry for more than 90 years, Kyle returned to continue the family business after graduating from LCU in December 2013 with a degree in psychology.
“The company had just started, and we attended its first fundraiser concert that fall,” Devon explained. “I had met Summer through choir at church, and because I was helping with the choir, she learned about my music degree. Later that fall, she invited me to coffee and, sitting in Starbucks, asked, ‘So. . . how would you feel about music directing Les Misérables?’”
Of course, Devon was surprised. Though she had been heavily involved in LCU’s music and theatre programs, she had never directed a show—certainly not one with the scale and technical demands of the Tony Award-winning Les Misérables.
“I was like, ‘What? I mean, if you think I can do it, I’m up for the challenge,’” Devon said. “And Summer just replied, ‘Well, I think you have more musical knowledge than I do, so let’s do it.’”
That conversation became the foundation of the Way, Way Off-Broadway Theatre Company partnership. “We went all in on that first show, which was probably the biggest, craziest show you could choose to start with,” Devon added with a laugh. “But we did it, and it was very successful. We had some incredibly talented people, and it’s been a learning process ever since.”
Kyle, who had also been deeply involved in LCU’s theatre productions throughout his college career, jumped on board as well, joining the company’s board later that same year and quickly becoming a staple performer and producer. Devon directed the first five shows the company performed before they began bringing in other directors, and the company continued to shoot for the stars.
“Our first show was Les Misérables, and we've done Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, which we’re actually doing for the third time this summer,” Devon explained. “We've done Disney shows—Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid—and we've done Guys and Dolls, The Music Man, Matilda, The Sound of Music, Into the Woods, Young Frankenstein. We did a wonderful play that Kyle actually wrote back in college called Those Unforgettable Black Rims—I mean, I could list a bunch, but I do think that The Wizard of Oz, which we opened this spring, might be close to our thirtieth show.”
Beyond directing, both Kyle and Devon have been staples on the Roswell stage—the two performed in many of the shows that the company has performed, including lead roles in Mary Poppins.
“Kyle was the lead character in Clue! On Stage (Wadsworth), and it was the best comedic acting Roswell has ever seen,” Devon shared, adding that she may be a little biased. “I was the Witch and Kyle was the Baker in Into the Woods; Kyle played Lurch in The Addams Family and I played Alice Beineke; in Singin’ in the Rain, I was Kathy Selden and Kyle was Cosmo Brown.”
Beyond the stage itself, some of Kyle’s favorite moments have come from the production side of the company, where he has spent more time behind the scenes than performing. He said one of the most rewarding parts has been watching the company’s evolution and the “why can’t we do it?” spirit that has defined Way, Way Off-Broadway from the beginning.
Despite having almost no budget, the team’s first production, Les Misérables, featured an ambitious, moving set. Kyle still marvels at what they managed to accomplish after “scraping the pavement” to raise a few thousand dollars and relying on the determination and creativity of volunteers.
That same ambitious spirit only continued to grow. A few years later, the company staged Mary Poppins with fly rigs and a massive rotating dollhouse set, and more recently invested in a professional projection system similar to those used on Broadway productions. Devon explained that the technology now allows the company to rely more on projected backdrops and modular set pieces rather than building entire practical sets, significantly reducing costs and expanding creative possibilities.
Kyle points to Singin’ in the Rain as one of the company’s proudest technical achievements. Because the production required real rain on stage, volunteers with experience in plumbing and construction designed and built a custom sprinkler system above the stage. Watching the lead actor tap dance live in the rain for the first time, Kyle recalled, left much of the production team emotional. “We were all asking, ‘How in the world did we do this?’” he said. “It was so beautiful.”
Both Devon and Kyle credit much of that self-reliant attitude and their resourcefulness to their time at LCU.
“I think one of the things LCU really taught us is that we didn’t have the biggest budget, but we learned how to do everything,” Kyle said. “We weren’t just doing one part of a production, we were often doing multiple roles at once. And we also just got more exposure. At a larger university, we may have only been in a couple of shows during our careers, but at LCU we were in everything. If you didn’t step in, there wouldn’t be a show, everyone had to do something, even if in the ensemble. And that gave us an enormous amount of exposure.”
“Even during my time in Best Friends,” Devon recalled, “We were basically roadies, setting up sound equipment, helping our sound technician set up before we performed—even the fact that I understood how a sound check worked was important. We had the opportunity to be exposed to so many different types of performance, different types of production and design, both behind and in front of the scenes. We were told that if we wanted to try it, then go for it. We’re capable—that's just something that was instilled in us.”
Kyle agreed. “It’s one of the best things you can give an artist, because it teaches you that if you work within the lines, you can actually be much more creative sometimes with constraints. And we really cut our teeth on that mindset at LCU.”
Devon and Kyle both attribute much of the company’s success to the support of their Roswell community—a relationship that has blossomed into great mutual benefit.
“Right now, I’m working on a project with our economic development group, which I’ve been involved with for a long time,” Kyle shared. He said the effort is focused on creating artist and performance spaces the community currently lacks, bringing together the business and performance sides of the arts.
“Way, Way Off-Broadway has put us in a unique position to advocate for projects like this,” he added, noting that just ten to twelve years ago, conversations like this weren’t even happening in the community.
“We had a program called Broadway-Bound Kids that Summer and I ran on weekends for children ages seven and up, but COVID really hurt it,” Devon admitted. “We haven’t been able to bring it back since. We do, however, put on a kids’ musical every summer that functions like a camp—they start in early June and rehearse three days a week in the afternoons for six weeks, and it’s a very educational program.”
The Way, Way Off-Broadway Theatre Company has not only been a blessing to the greater Roswell community, however. The Bullock’s both agree that it’s had a deep, profound impact on those who participate.
“To me, the most important thing about the company is that we do this because it’s our community,” Kyle emphasized. “For many seasons it’s been our church, our ministry, our closest friends. Everybody involved sacrifices so much—thousands of hours. Over twelve years and dozens of performances, we’ve had friends pass away, get married, have kids, go through recovery. You don’t often get something that brings so many diverse people together with the chance to truly care for one another like this. That sense of community has been so important since college. The shows are great, but that’s not why we do it—if it was, we would’ve stopped a long time ago. We do it because we love these people, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Devon continued, “We’re so grateful that the people we get to do this with—Summer and Tony, who started this from the beginning—share our desire for people to know the Lord.” She said that shared foundation shapes not only the leadership but the culture of everything they do, creating space for inclusion, belonging, and care for every person involved.
She explained that the goal has always been to make every individual feel welcomed and valued, adding, “We want every single person to feel like they belong to something and like they’re part of a family—we get to show them God’s love through this. This really is a ministry for us.”
Devon noted that, while Way, Way Off-Broadway is not an explicitly Christian organization, the leadership’s foundation is clear and intentional. “I think one of the cool things about how the company operates is that there is no question that that foundation serves as our guiding light in what we do, how we do it, and why we do it,” she said. “We know that even if someone is only with us for one production, they have been prayed for, they have heard the name of Jesus, and they have felt the love of Jesus.”
For her, that commitment reflects a larger vision of community. She described it as a space where “everybody is welcome, everybody feels like they belong, and everyone can feel loved and valued,” adding that it is a perspective she and Kyle both carried forward from their time at LCU.