For more than a quarter of a century, young adults from around the Pikes Peak region have spent five intense 40-hour weeks every summer preparing to become Tony Award winners.

And the rest of us have enjoyed the fruits of their labor.

Almost 50 high school students, who auditioned and were accepted into the Youth Repertory Ensemble at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, will present the grand finale of their hard work, a full-length production of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical “Kiss Me, Kate,” with music and lyrics by Cole Porter and a book by Bella and Samuel Spewack.

“For those kids who want to follow this as a career path, we want to support and help coach them on how to apply to college and find that path,” said FAC Producing Artistic Director Chris Sheley. “Most of these kids become passionate about the arts and lifelong theatergoers and aficionados, and that’s a huge success.”

Who is Kate, and why does she want me to kiss her?

This year’s offering, a throwback to the Golden Age of Musical Theater, is the 1948 comedic show “Kiss Me, Kate,” a musical within a musical. In it, a divorced couple must share the stage and leading roles in a musical production of William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.”

“It helps to recall that good farce is always knockabout, regardless of gender; it’s a pleasure to roar at suffering that is big and fake and somebody else’s. “Kiss Me, Kate” is cleverly constructed to provide that pleasure squared,” wrote New York Times critic Jesse Green in 2019 about the show’s Broadway revival.

Memorable songs include “So in Love,” “Wunderbar,” “Tom, Dick or Harry,” “Too Damn Hot,” “Always True to You (In My Fashion),” and “I Hate Men,” Green wrote.

“Porter’s score remains an astonishing encyclopedia of musical comedy style. Zooming through time from Italianate pavanes to Latin pastiche to vaudeville turns to ‘hot’ jazz and beyond, the songs, in their variety, establish the idea that different eras bring different perspectives on love to the table,” Green wrote.

Why this show?

A Youth Rep show needs to meet several criteria, including having some name recognition; lots of roles for women, as the majority of students in the program are female-presenting; and having a large cast, so students get a chance to be on stage.

This year’s Golden Age selection rounds out the last four years, which included a jukebox musical (“Footloose”), a contemporary pop show (“Mean Girls”), and a contemporary drama (“Hadestown”).

“I can use shows like this to explore history. If you stay with contemporary, you can never grow until you know what came before. Nothing starts without the Golden Age,” said director Shabazz Green, who’s directed the Youth Rep shows for four years.

What is the Youth Repertory Ensemble?

Now in its 27th year, the Youth Rep offers a program for students ages 14 through 18 a chance to learn from theater professionals.

Students audition and interview earlier in the year for two tracks: performance or the design/technical track, for those who want to be behind the scenes. Once accepted, performance students audition again for the summer musical, and design/tech students receive their assignment for the show.

The five weeks serve as a pre-professional program. Students take classes in the mornings and rehearse the show in the afternoons. They’re taught by more than two dozen professional instructors, like Green, in a range of theater topics, including puppetry, Shakespeare, fight choreography, auditions and callbacks, dance and general health and wellness needed to succeed in the industry.

It’s all capped off with a performance in a more than 400-seat house alongside musicians who play in the pit for Fine Arts Center productions during the regular season.

The ratio of students to professional teaching artists is often two or three to one. And if students can’t afford the tuition, financial assistance is available.

“They’re getting an ethos and work ethic as much as specific skills,” Sheley said. “There’s a fine line between process and the product. We always want it to look like a show you’d come to see as part of the theater company’s regular season, but at the same time, we’re making sure they’re growing as young artists and learning. We try to not make it all about the show.”

If you go

What: “Kiss Me, Kate,” by Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College’s Youth Repertory Ensemble

When: 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, ASL interpretation on Sunday

Where: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, 30 W. Dale St.

Price: $21; 719-634-5581, fac.coloradocollege.edu