Belting Out the Hits

Local Elementary Student Lands Role In Nationally Touring Musical

Karsen Taylor may only be 10 years old, but she’s already a star in the making.

The Jefferson County Public Schools student landed a role in an upcoming musical titled “Hits! The Musical,” which will take audience members on a journey through different decades and genres of music with unforgettable singing, spectacular dancing, costume changes, plus world-class lighting in a first-class, new production. Karsen is part of a young cast that includes 29 singers and 10 dancers selected from nationwide auditions, and will portray many well-known artists throughout the production.

“I’m really excited,” Karsen says. “I get to hang out with my friends. I know all of the other actors.”

Karsen began her quest of landing a role in the musical by way of an open audition that was held at the Seelbach hotel in Louisville, one of 31 cities nationwide to hold auditions for cast members. Karsen went through two auditions at the Seelbach before moving on to a third audition in Tampa Bay, Florida. Karsen was able to beat out thousands of other hopefuls to land a role.

“A cousin of mine sent me an ad for the audition,” says Tiffany Taylor, Karsen’s mother. “She knew Karsen could sing and the audition was coming to Louisville. We asked Karsen if she wanted to audition and she said yes. After the second round, they would be notified if they made the third round of auditions in Tampa Bay. About three weeks later we got that email saying she made it to the next round. That was for a whole week in Tampa. Out of 7,000 kids who auditioned, they cut it down to 70 kids and then to 30.”

Karsen and her castmates will perform a number of hit songs including “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours),” “Hero,” “I Will Always Love You” and “Singin’ in the Rain,” among other popular songs from the 1960s through the present day. The cast will change costumes for each song to reflect the appropriate time period. While Karsen enjoys singing, she and other cast members will also dance and act as they bring the songs to life for the audience.

The ages of the performers range from 10 to 22, making Karsen one of the younger cast members. There has never been a nationally touring show of this caliber with an entire cast between the ages of 10 and 22. The cast will have even more local flavor as fellow Louisville native D’Corey Johnson, a fifthgrader at Bates Elementary School known for his renditions of the national anthem, is also part of the production.

The family-friendly show should provide fun for everyone, featuring a diverse cast from all over the country. The show was created by Director Cynthia Nekvasil and Executive Producer Bob Gries, giving young performers like Karsen the opportunity to shine on a national stage.

Karsen is in good hands with Nekvasil, as she has overseen the development and careers of Jenna Rubaii, Chloe Lowery, and multiple other “American Idol” finalists, recording artists and Broadway stars. The rest of the creative team for the show has worked with a number of wellknown performers including Rihanna, Enrique Iglesias, Mariah Carey and Usher. Performances last about 90 minutes and include more than 100 songs.

Karsen is working hard to make sure she puts on a good performance. Karsen and her mom were in Tampa Bay leading up to the show, rehearsing with the rest of the cast. She is most looking forward to singing during the performances, which will include songs from her favorite singer, Michael Jackson.

“Practices are going really well,” Karsen says. “They’re really long. We have to be there at like 10:30 a.m. all the way to 5 or 5:30 p.m.”

Karsen, who was born and raised in Louisville, usually attends Stopher Elementary School and is in the advanced program at the school, but is doing home school while practicing and on the road, keeping her very busy.

“I have tutoring in the morning with some of my friends,” she says. “Anything I don’t finish in the mornings, I either do it when I have time during rehearsals or when I get back home.”

The tour of 50-plus cities began February 23 in Asheville, North Carolina, and will go coast to coast, concluding May 8 with a performance in San Francisco. Local fans will have the chance to catch Karsen live when the show stops at the Brown Theatre in Louisville on April 8. Many of Karsen’s family members and friends plan to attend. Lexington, Nashville, St. Louis and Chicago are also part of the tour.

“She will have a lot of family and friends there,” Tiffany says. “They started buying their tickets last summer when she found out she was going to be in it.”

Karsen says she is most looking forward to seeing her dog, Mocha, on her trip home. “I am excited,” she says. “I really want to see my dog. He is a poodle.”

Karsen, who has been singing since she was 3 years old, has done some plays at her school and in community theater, and this is her first touring production. In addition to singing, Karsen was a flyer on a national champion cheer team, which is her favorite sport, and also enjoys the TV show “Dance Moms.” experience has taught them a lot about show business. Tiffany or her husband, Kevin, will be with Karsen every step of the way as she embarks on this journey.

“It’s all new to us, understanding the business and how things work,” Tiffany says. “The play is wonderful. It’s going to be really awesome. The dancing and singing are very good. Louisville should be proud that two of their own made something so big like this play.”

Karsen says she hopes one day to have her own TV show.

“We’re really excited and very proud of her accomplishments,” Tiffany says. “We can’t wait to see what the future holds.”

For tickets, tour dates and more information on how you can see Karsen, go to thehitstour.com. You can also follow “Hits! The Musical” on social media. Cast members have racked up thousands of likes and views on TikTok.

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Prior to 2013, Joel Gonia was working full time as a business consultant, meeting with accountants and attorneys regarding various business acquisitions. Following the recession, however, much of that work fell away, so Gonia began searching for something to fill the void. He stumbled upon beekeeping and enjoyed it, because he loves being outdoors and learning something new.

“I got stung a few times, but that’s part of the deal,” says Gonia, who started out with two hives and grew to 400 within three years. “I thought I could do my part in helping to save bees because the pollination they provide is essential to our food chain.”

Beekeeping, which was a hobby at first, quickly turned into a commercial venture after Gonia attended several beekeeping

HONEYBEAR FARMS FOUNDER OPENS TWO HONEY DEPOT & COFFEE HOUSE LOCATIONS

conferences. He chatted with speakers, who became resourceful mentors. With their assistance, Gonia began teaching seminars and hosting the Louisville Bee School, a popular activity that has drawn as many as 200 participants in years past.

In 2018 Gonia decided to open a beekeeping store called HoneyBear Farms (doing business as The Honey Depot), where he sold beekeeping equipment and honey to the Louisville market. According to Gonia, the fastest-growing segment of the population showing an interest in beekeeping is women, followed by teenagers.

For three years the business was going strong. For instance, schools used to take field trips to the farm to learn all about beekeeping. The Honey Depot was also one of the five approved excursions in the area for Airbnb. That meant that anyone who booked an Airbnb reservation when coming to Louisville would be asked, after making their reservation, if they would like to visit The Honey Depot. That exposure meant they did close to 100 tours in 2020. These tours were not indoor seminars. They were hands-on, interactive tours in which participants learned all about honeybees and safety.

“We put on the [beekeeping] clothes and took [participants] outside,” Gonia says. “It was a three-hour tour and people loved it.”

Unfortunately, in the fall of 2021, Gonia was notified that he would have to vacate his property due to a road-widening project. He searched for another location that would work but never did find something that fit the business model. They ended up relocating to their warehouse in Fisherville, Kentucky, two miles down the road, but it was a different market without any traffic exposure, and that was significant.

“We had a stabilized business before, with a very high traffic count and a very low overhead environment because we were able to operate as a farm,” Gonia says. “Since operating commercially, it has been extremely challenging.”

In the last year Gonia has been trying to think outside the box, figuring out next steps for his business to survive. In August he opened Honey Depot & Coffee House, located near downtown Mount Washington on Bardstown Road. It was a segue into a new concept for which they roast, grind and sell their own coffee, and also sell honey, honey-based products like beeswax candles, jams and jellies, soaps, bee-themed jewelry, and other bee-themed merchandise.

“Our coffee is sourced globally and roasted locally,” Gonia says. “We refer to Honey Depot & Coffee House as the artisan community coffee shop that sells honey.”

In September of 2022 they opened a second

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location in downtown Jeffersontown on Watterson Trail, in Gaslight Square, and are currently in the process of incorporating a drive-through there. Their honey is also available around town at many stores, including the Fire Place and A Taste of Kentucky, and at neighborhood farmers markets throughout the spring and summer.

Eventually, Gonia hopes to open a total of five Honey Depot & Coffee House locations. First he wants to get the two stores stabilized. He would also like to get reconnected with schools and other organizations, as they were before the move.

“We have always been community oriented based on our previous experience operating as a farm,” Gonia says. “Now as a commercial enterprise, it just takes longer to reconnect with those organizations.” Although they used to sell their own honey, they can no longer do that since they don’t have as many hives. Therefore, they purchase honey from other beekeepers from around the state - but it still tastes great. They sell different flavors of honey. Their base honey is Kentucky wildflower because it is predominant in Kentucky and surrounding states.

“We don’t have any fields of flowers large enough to have a predominantly single source like clover so we can’t have clover honey,” Gonia says. They take the area’s wildflower honey and infuse it with different flavors like bourbon honey. They also sell their bee venom flavor, which is a spicy honey, as well as cinnamon vanilla, lavender, elderberry and others. In case you didn’t know, there is a big difference in taste between locally produced honey and the kind you buy in grocery stores.

“A lot of times in the big-box stores, you really don’t know what you’re buying,” Gonia says, noting that stores purchase honey from all around the world. “It’s important to buy domestic honey. It’s important to buy regional honey and local honey. Occasionally you can even buy neighborhood honey.”

Honey, which is made with pollen, nectar, water and soil from trees, is beneficial for health in two ways. Firstly, it’s a naturally occurring antiseptic, so if eaten on a regular basis, it cleanses you from the inside out. Gonia claims that rubbing honey on a cut will often quicken the healing faster than an ointment purchased at a drug store. Honey can also be good for allergies as it can strengthen the immune system.

“As you eat more honey it will help you over a period of time,” says Gonia, who notes that if you eat honey from beyond a couple of states away, it’s still good for you if it’s real honey that hasn’t been pasteurized and filtered. However, from an allergy standpoint, you won’t get much benefit in terms of immunities because you’re ingesting pollen that is different from pollen within the Ohio Valley.

“We know that honey has been beneficial for a long time,” Gonia says. “People have been harvesting it as far back as 3500 B.C. There are drawings on cave walls. It’s been traded as currency.”

Gonia is still doing his part to save the bees. “There have definitely been some gains and some pitfalls along the way,” Gonia says. “As a company we have evolved from hobbyist beekeepers to becoming a retail coffee shop selling honey.”

Gonia’s favorite aspect of working in this field is interacting with the community and teaching them about bees. For instance, did you know that one out of three foods you buy at the grocery store requires pollination?

“We love to sell coffee and honey, but really what we’re trying to do is educate people about the importance of honeybees,” he says. “Honeybees are the number one pollinator in the world, so if you remove them from the equation it’s difficult for us to survive on our food supply.”

They hope to continue honeybee education for one simple reason.

“Beekeeping is in our DNA,” Gonia says.

Honey Depot & Coffee House is located in Mount Washington at 435 North Bardstown Road, and in Jeffersontown at 10512 Watterson Trail.

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