BY STEPHEN H. COWLES/ CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Playback58@gmail.com

COURTLAND—Maria Logan is confident that whenever she and her cast mates perform, they will make their presence on stage memorable — time after time.

Logan and company will get yet another chance to prove it when “TAP—The Show” comes to Southampton High School auditorium in Courtland on Monday, March 18. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. and is being presented by the Franklin-Southampton Concert Association for its 35th season.

Going into her third year with the show, Logan, 25, understands why people might think she’d be tired of it all.

“But there’s something about it. I’m never tired of it, not even for a second. The cast makes it fresh every time. It’s a blast,” said Logan. “We’ve been getting a wonderful response.”

In addition to dancing, she and Soren Wohler are also singing; there are eight other dancers in the program.

A native of Nashville, Tenn., Logan began learning tap at age 5 in a community studio and continued dancing throughout the time she was getting her degree in musical theater at Belmont University.

“I definitely took jazz and ballet as well. But tap registered better with me,” she said. “The physicality and musicality and feeling the rhythm in my body was very easy compared to the slight movements in ballet.”

Matt Davenport, whose company produces the show, approached her during one of his Christmas shows that she was in, explained Logan. He offered her a part in the new production.

“I could not turn it down. A whole show about tap really struck my fancy,” she said. “I think the most really interesting and unique thing about the show is we go through the |entire gamut around the world and time.”

Irish step dancing, flamenco and street tapping or hoofing, as it’s also known, will be performed Monday. She also pointed out how vital tap was to such movies as “Singin’ in the Rain.”

The source of all these toes tapping comes from Scott Seidl, the show’s creator. In 2007 he was working for Davenport and had been asked to come up with a show idea.

“Literally woke up at 3 a.m., and by 6 a.m. I had finished writing the show,” said Seidl, 50. “That’s a reason why it’s lasted so long. It’s not forced, it wrote itself.”

He acknowledged that there’s been a bit of evolution early in the program, such as going from its original 30 minutes to nearly two hours with an intermission. But otherwise there haven’t been many changes since.

Seidl, who’s living in Nashville and working on two new shows, said he started out career-wise as a drummer, but has always been a fan of the tap.

While teaching music in the same high school he attended in Wisconsin, Seidl was asked to fill in for the theater program. He dove in – learning the craft.

This led to Seidl’s realization that his passion is writing and directing theater or theatrical events.

“It’s one of the best jobs,” he said, and began to praise cast members such as choreographer Mike Minery as “amazing.”

The show’s continuing success is not just in content, for there is “something for everyone – but the talent as well,” said Seidl, acknowledging how the long-lasting cast loves the material and takes care of one another.

“They eat and breathe tap and get to do what they love,” he said.

Tickets cost $30 for adults, $10 for students. For more information, contact Association President Nancy Rowe at 653-2498.